FLUMC Lay Leader Update

June 3-5, 2022

This time next week our Annual Conference will fulfill its obligation to meet to ‘tend the business of the church’. We will come together as one body to worship, break bread, review agency and committee reports, approve budgets, confirm clergy appointments, and ordain new clergy. We will also vote on resolutions, confirm Lay Servant Ministers, hear more committee reports (yes, there are that many – we are Methodists you know. . .), listen to inspiring speakers, approve new church starts as well as church closures and churches that are requesting to disaffiliate from the UMC. We will acknowledge the pain and suffering in our communities and in the world, and we will reaffirm our calling to be the hands and feet of Christ to bring healing and wholeness to all. We will mourn the loss of the clergy who have passed since we last met and give thanks for the faithful service of those clergy who are retiring. And this year we acknowledge that this will likely be the last time we will gather in this setting with some of our dear friends and colleagues who are called to follow a different path towards perfection.

I hope you will join me in prayer for our Annual Conference, for the attendees who bear the responsibility of voting, for the staff and volunteers who work tirelessly to make the gathering possible, and for the work we will engage in so that all we do will bring honor and glory to our triune God. Pray for wisdom in decision making, grace in conversation and debate, mercy in moments of discernment, and for true humility in our love for one another.

As always, the Opening Session will continue our tradition of singing one of Charles Wesley’s greatest hymns, “And Are We Yet Alive” found in the UMC Hymnal #553. These words ring bittersweet this year and are as true today as when Charles wrote them in 1749. When the moment comes, I hope you will sing with your whole being whether you are in Branscomb Auditorium or at home:

1. And are we yet alive, and see each other’s face? 
Glory and thanks to Jesus give for his almighty grace! 

2. Preserved by power divine to full salvation here, 
again in Jesus; praise we join, and in his sight appear. 

3. What troubles have we seen, what mighty conflicts past, 
fightings without, and fears within, since we assembled last! 

4. Yet out of all the Lord hath brought us by his love; 
and still he doth his help afford, and hides our life above. 

5. Then let us make our boast of his redeeming power, 
which saves us to the uttermost, till we can sin no more. 

6. Let us take up the cross till we the crown obtain, 
and gladly reckon all things loss so we may Jesus gain.

I particularly love the last verse’s challenge. Friends, if we do nothing else, please may each of us commit to take up the cross and gladly reckon all things loss so we may Jesus gain!

If you would like to watch AC virtually go to: https://www.flumc.org/webcast-annual-conference-2022

Grace and peace,

Alice Williams - Co-Lay Leader of the Florida Conference