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General Conference 2004 |
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General Conference 2004 |
| Delegate Diary: A Call to Prayer Dawn Hand, the communications director of the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church and a lay delegate to 2004 General Conference, will offer her thoughts during the two weeks of General Conference in Pittsburgh. By Dawn Hand PITTSBURGH (UMNS) - Toward the conclusion of the May 5 evening session, I excused myself from the floor of General Conference for an "experiment." I dressed as a homeless person and sat outside the convention center at the corner of 10th Street and Penn Avenue with a cardboard sign that read "Pray 4 Me." As hundreds and hundreds of people streamed out of the center, I sat and called for people to pray for me and with me. I purposely did not wear my glasses, but I was still able to see people from all levels of the church pass me by. When I asked one person to pray with me, she said she would ... then crossed over to the other side of the street. I know people are weary and worn out after a long deliberation about the church and its ministries, but when a call to prayer is issued, we should respond. I do believe that when many people prepare themselves for a night of resting, they include that person in their prayers. When I was walking back to the hotel I passed a homeless man with his bedroll, and he was trying to make a cigarette out of several discarded butts he had found in the street. I asked him his story, and then I asked him if he'd like me to pray with him. He said, "Why? What good would that do?" and turned and walked away. As he did, I called and asked his name, and he said "John." That night I prayed for John. Igniting Ministry A couple of times I've risen to the microphone to talk about the Igniting Ministry media campaign. I do believe this is one of the greatest gifts to this church, and I applaud the conference for affirming that. Some were asking me about the amount that Igniting Ministry received, which was less than what was sought, but I don't see it as a cut. I see it as more than a 100 percent gain over what was allocated four years ago. I will continue to fight for more funding, but I am thankful that the General Conference sees the need to continue this ministry. Gambling One of the issues we've been discussing is gambling, which is an issue where I feel that the church is not consistent. I understand why the church needs to speak out against gambling, against the lottery and casinos. But our church is able to exist economically because of gambling. What I mean by that is that we pour millions and millions and millions of dollars into playing the stock market. That kind of gambling - in addition to enabling us to have some sort of economic gain - has also caused financial and economic strain on many of us as members and our institutions. While I'm not advocating that we change our stance on lotteries and casinos, I do want people to understand very clearly that this church gambles with people's finances every day of the year. That includes people who would never step into a casino or buy a lottery ticket. I understand my sisters and brothers who disagree with me and say I should look at our participation in the stock market as an investment. But I still maintain that any investment that does not guarantee 100 percent return is a gamble. Our youth John Howard, our 16-year-old Western North Carolina Conference delegate and one of the youngest delegates at 2004 General Conference, came out of his legislative committee with his head down, and he walked right past me with a dazed look in his eyes. I called him over and laid his head down on my shoulder. "The one thing I keep thinking," he told me, "is: Oh, Lord, make it stop." Despite John's committee experience, or maybe because of it, I've found our youth and young adult delegates to be quite astute. They're taking this whole process seriously. Even though they may be young in terms of years and experience in the church, I believe that they all grasp the essence of our work here. Our delegation has three youth among its 14 laity delegates, and I thank God that our conference elected such fine young people. I walked into the discipleship committee room to take a picture, and another of our high school-age delegates, Matthew Sink, was standing there speaking on the floor. He's also spoken to the entire body several times. The other day, a group of young delegates stopped me as I was going to lunch and asked me to join them. We talked about a lot of serious issues, including our legislative process. I keep saying that our young people are not the future of the church but are the church of today. |
