General Conference April 24 to May 4, 2012

     The time for General Conference is here to be held April 24 to May 4, 2012 in Tampa Florida. Tonight at Deerfield UMC we are hosting a Bible study to give information to the church on how to access information on General Conference. We are using the links from the Western NC UMC web page to click on the link for General Conference as our primary source of information to learn about how General Conference works, who attends, and what are some important pieces of legislation that will come to the floor. This meeting is extremely important to our church because what is decided at General Conference is the foundation for the new 2012 Book of Discipline that will govern the life of our work together for the next four years. I want to urge you to take the time to go to the conference web page and click on the General Conference link to learn about what is getting ready to take place.
     Here in our own District we are anticipating big changes to come with the restructuring. We will be welcoming our new District Superintendent Rev. Amy Coles when she takes on the new assignment at annual conference this year. Welcome Amy!  We offer a word of thanks to our outgoing D.S. Dr Fred Jordan for his faithfulness in serving our churches and we wish him well in the transition to come for him. The dates of annual conference have been moved to later this year. Please note the dates for annual conference this year will be June 20 to June 24. To get ready for annual conference, our church is asked to participate in a pre-conference briefing to be held on May 20th at Miller's Creek UMC at 2:00pm. The North Wilkesboro District will be de-commissioned and a new District will come online. We are going to be having a name change, along with some changes in the churches in our district. Our new name is going to be the Appalachian District. More details of the district lines and the restructuring changes can also be found at the conference website online. You can print out the new proposals to see exactly where the new lines fall for each district and which church aligns with what district, and also the new District Superintendents have been named. On the conference and general church front, much is on the line regarding our priorities and how we will be organized. Please take the time to read up and be informed about the coming changes. It is our prayer through General Conference and the changes to come here to our own conference and district, that the Lord will continue to be our guide through this process so that in the end, we can reach more people for Christ and remember that is why our church exists. Our prayers are with each church who is going through a time of pastoral change right now.  We pray God's hand will be on each new assignment that is being made. May the Lord hold the churches and the pastors and their families in the palm of his hand in this time of huge changes.