Jonathan LeMaster-Smith

While we have heard calls, rumors, and speculation about The United Methodist Church calling a special called General Conference, the Council of Bishops has withdrawn this proposal and replaced it with something that, I feel, is more innovative. The Council of Bishops will hold a Leadership Gathering in 2026.

This gathering, according to the Press Release (LINK TO PRESS RELEASE), will have the following purpose:

1) To maintain momentum regarding implementation of the various components of the regionalization legislation. This could include developing adaptive strategies to respond to ratification results as they become known.

2) To gather hope, vision, and imagination for the future of the UMC from across the connectional landscape.

3) To initiate preparations for the 2028 General Conference by identifying programmatic, financial and structural adaptations that may need to be considered in order to maintain momentum. This should include consultation/collaboration with the Commission on General Conference regarding the design of the General Conference.

This gathering will include all active bishops (those serving Episcopal Areas), three leaders from each episcopal area, and 50 key leaders from across the connection. Bishop Tracy Smith Malone, current President of the Council of Bishops, emphasized that this should be a means of furthering momentum in our denomination as we move further into a future filled with hope.

**My Thoughts Follow**

I do think this is something like a good idea. I think it offers something that is not legislative in nature. Instead of more more voting, space to collaborate, imagine, and innovate feels right. My hesitance is that bishops often pick the same folks in leadership over and over gain, and thus diversity in terms of Methodist expressions may not be at the forefront.

My proposal is that we are a denomination that is still heavily reliant on the order of the elder, which is a shrinking order. My hope is that we take very few elders. The bishops are all already elders. My call is that we bring deacons, Local Pastors, and lay people. I also suggest it be mostly people who are under 50, who serve on very few denominational and conference leaders and board members, and who are truly new voices in the denomination.

Along with this, it should not be people from the same type of churches. So often our larger churches, suburban and affluent urban churches, and dominant conference faces are the one’s selected. Always when we elect delegates, it feels this way. Instead, perhaps we focus on smaller churches, non-white churches (in the US context at least), rural and small urban churches, and even churches who are not happy with the current state of The UMC (related to several different things).

Finally, there need to be actionable items come out of this, whether it be legislative goals, denominational intentions, or next steps in contextual and incarnational work. This cannot be a self-congratulatory and solely aspirational event that we spend millions of dollars on. We need to come together, hopefully not in the United States, to do the hard work of blending heritage and theology in our diverse contexts to create a direction toward God’s Kingdom that looks and feels fresh. As much as we celebrate the moves of 2024, some of the responses coming out of various conferences feel like we are going to quickly return to stagnation, when what we really need is God to trouble the waters.