The Commission on the General Conference has selected the
theme for the United Methodist Church’s 2012 General Conference. Drum roll,
please…and the winner is: “Make Disciples of Jesus Christ to Transform the
World.” (I hope the graphic didn’t give it away.)
Sound familiar? It should. The theme echoes the church’s central mission of the United Methodist Church to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
This is neither a coincidence, nor a product of a brainstorming meeting cut short. Instead, this clever alignment intentionally makes the conference more than a one-time event and more so a part of the ongoing ministry of the church.
“We sensed that people across the church are longing for clarity about our mission, and we believed that the theme of the General Conference should reinforce and celebrate that mission,” said Jim Harnish, a member of the commission and chair of the committee responsible for the theme and logo. “We hope that the Spirit of God will use this theme to unite and energize our people to fulfill this mission and enable us to set clear priorities for the use of our resources.”
Pretty clever, right? It gets better…
It turns out the logo is more than just a Clip Art graphic. The cross represents the presence of Jesus Christ at the center of the church's mission. The circles extending from the cross express energy and movement into ministry in the world and the bright sun and blue water representing Tampa, Fla. as the conference site. Also, the imperative verbs “make” and “transform” underscore the urgency of the mission and call for active response.
That’s good stuff.
The 2012 General Conference is scheduled for April 24-May 4 in Tampa, Fla., and the official conference website is expected to be up and running by early fall—so, mark your calendars and book your flights!
For a more detailed interpretation of the theme, click here.
Is the important stuff just boring?
I've been noticing for a while now that bloggers I follow (read: mostly Methobloggers) tend to have a good amount of fun with each other on lighthearted posts, a great deal of discussion on controversial posts, but very little dialogue on overtly spiritual posts. I've seen some really nasty debate over doctrinal nonessentials in one online community in particular. Yet, when somebody gets serious about matters of faith, comment boxes stay empty, or close to it. Andrew Conard has done a series of thoughtful posts on the Trinity this week, and has received a total of three comments.
It got my attention this morning, in particular, because of a post by one of my favorite yarn-spinners, UMPortal featured blogger Questing Parson. His story today involves an in-person gathering where the same thing happens -- obviously, it's not unique to the blogosphere. Do matters of the soul, of relationships laid bare, just plain scare us?
What is it about important stuff that keeps us quiet, noncommittal? We know better... don't we? Is it that we don't know how to respond, that we don't care to respond, a little bit of both? Or something else entirely?
Feb 22, 2008 9:44:42 AM | Commentary, Current Affairs, Faith and Culture, General Conference 2008, Tales of Ministry