“Permission-Giving”

Long time, no blog! Sorry! -- I have been using Facebook much, much more! But I had to share this...

As I have shared in worship in recent weeks, this year’s Annual Conference was the best I have ever attended, right up there with the year I was ordained! What made this year’s Annual Conference so special and inspiring was Bishop Goodpaster’s insistence on holy conferencing. Bishop Goodpaster became our bishop for the Western North Carolina Conference last September, and I got to meet him at a meeting of the Annual Conference Worship Committee last fall. When he spoke about his intentions for Annual Conference, we knew we were in for something very different! He spoke about Annual Conference being a time for worship, not just for meetings and sessions of boring report-giving. What a wonderful change of pace and emphasis for the conference! As a church, this is exactly what we should be about.

With all the concerns for the economy, decreased budgets, lower membership and diminished attendance, Annual Conference also became an occasion to celebrate the still moving, still blessing, still working Holy Spirit. We had ten worship services from diverse styles and groups, heard spirit-filled teaching and preaching in worship and Bible study, and we celebrated what the Holy Spirit would do in and through us as we trusted and depended on his guidance to move and shake the church on the way to perfection. How incredible it was! Our Bishop and the preaching at Annual Conference inspired me and countless others to see that the best lies ahead of us and that God hasn’t given up on us! During Saturday’s ordination service, I was moved to tears when the Bishop went off the order of worship when he sensed the Holly Spirit moving in the hearts of people in the congregation. With the District Superintendents behind him, he called us to prayer and called those in the congregation who were feeling God’s call to ministry to come forward. Two dozen people emerged from the crowd to make their way to the stage. All over Stuart Auditorium, the feeling was electric. I was overwhelmed.

Do we still expect the Holy Spirit to work? What a blessing to see our Bishop and leaders from our conference showing by example how to trust in the Spirit’s movement! I have always believed that if we do not move with the Spirit, he will find a way to work and bless, even if that comes by his moving around us to do it. I do not want to be in his way. I want to move with him and be used by him to reach people, to bring others to Jesus Christ, to release his powerful blessings in our midst. Our Bishop challenged us with a three year goal. By December 31, 2012: 300,000 members in the Western North Carolina Conference; 30,000 more people in worship; 3,000 mission teams sent in the name of Christ into the world; 300 resurrected churches (those that are stagnant or at plateau levels, refocused, re-energized, re-missioned for ministry in the world); and 30 new faith communities. We have much work to do, but I am excited about all of the possibilities. I hope you are too. We do not do it alone. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit, and I want to do my part to be on the move for the Spirit. Won’t you join me?

Laugh, live, and celebrate God’s love,
Oliver