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By Lukonde Mulenga
Special to the UMConnection

Growing up in The United Methodist Church, I had always heard about annual conference – a yearly gathering of the pastors and the head honchos of the conference who spend about three days talking about the direction in which the conference is heading, arguing about how much money to spend and other things that would bore most people.

Despite all of this, I still was curious to see an annual conference for myself. So I attended annual conference with my father, an Elder in the church, for the first time this year.

When I first arrived at the hotel the conference was being held in, I was a bit intimidated. There were so many people around that I didn’t know and I’m not usually one for a lot of social interaction. However, I was forced to put myself out there because my father was rarely to be found because he was always so busy. It wasn’t so bad though because everyone was friendly and willing to hold a conversation for a couple of minutes.

My social awkwardness aside, the main point of this article is the conference. So let’s get to it.

The opening worship service (what I like to call the “opening ceremonies” just like the Olympics) was really unique and I quite enjoyed it. At 6:04 p.m., the start of the service, the lights were dimmed and a narrative of the creation story was played as two people slowly lit up the room by lighting candles. When the narrative was finished, music started to play in the room. With the sound of the symbol clash, the room was bright again and dancers from Emory Fellowship started to do their thing in the front of the room. Meanwhile, the Men’s Choir, also from Emory Fellowship, was singing songs which were powerful and energetic, the right way to start off the conference. 

After all of that excitement, Bishop Marcus Matthews preached his inaugural sermon, saying that “we are the proud recipients of [God’s] great glory” and that “we are loved just as we are.” His message was powerful, inspiring and just interesting to listen to.

To be honest, I didn’t go to as many sessions during annual conference that I would have liked to. During the bulk of the conference, I was helping out at two different booths – the UM Social booth and the GBOD booth. Heading the UM Social booth was fun because I was able to meet people and tell them about the new website the communications staff was heading.

However, I did attend the discussion of the resolutions which was the point of the conference I was waiting for. Even though we’re all United Methodists, it was so interesting to see people so adamant about their stance on the issues being presented. I couldn’t vote so I tried to keep a straight face when other people were talking but as an 18 year old, it was quite hard to keep the emotion off of my face.

Overall, the conference was a great experience to have. Would I do it again? Sure, why not? There were times as an 18 year old new to the conference I felt a bit out of place but it wasn’t anything so severe to keep me from coming back.

If I were to change anything, it would be the inclusion of the youth in the conference. Instead of always calling on adults to pray, it would’ve been nice seeing someone around my own age leading the prayer. Also, I wish youth were able to vote on the issues. As it stands right now, a person can only receive a vote if they’re elected by their church to be their representative. It would be nice if churches could elect a youth representative as well because as the future of the church, the youth should have a say in the issues of the conference. Other than that, everything was pretty great.

Oh yeah, one more thing – next year let’s have a dance. I know that even pastors like to get their groove on sometimes.