2007 Laity Session hears candidates Welcomes Shaun Bakker

BY JOHN A. LOVELACE
Special Correspondent

Ensconced in the colorful, comfortable sanctuary of First UMC, Richardson, North Texas Conference lay members paid close attention as 40-plus candidates presented themselves Sunday afternoon, June 3, for election as delegates to the 2008 United Methodist General Conference and the 2008 South Central Jurisdictional Conference.

It's a large field for 18 spots: Six to the 2008 General Conference in Fort Worth next April, six alternates to those 10-day sessions who automatically become delegates to the South Central Jurisdictional Conference in Dallas in July 2008, and three alternates for the Dallas meeting. Clergy members of conference are electing the same numbers of delegates.

The global General Conference, with up to 1,000 delegates apportioned according to regional church membership, meets every four years and is the church's primary legislative body. The five jurisdictional (geographical) conferences, limited to the United States, also meet every four years, typically three months following General Conference. Their primary function is to elect as many bishops as needed to fill vacancies and to assign supervisory locations to both holdover and new bishops.

Lay Leader Billy C. Ratliff allowed each would-be delegate a generous two minutes to make his or her "pitch." Most had submitted their nominations early enough to be included in an illustrated Voter's Guide distributed to the several hundred lay members and guests.

Because of delegate redistribution based on membership for the past four years, the North Texas Conference was apportioned six delegates to General Conference, down from eight four years ago.

With membership losses common throughout the church in the United States these past four years, overseas conferences will have 84 more delegates to the 2008 sessions in Fort Worth than they had four years ago.

The 40-plus North Texas candidates included several "tossing their hats into the ring" for the first time and others with church delegation experience dating back as much as 30 years. All pledged to invest necessary time and energy to the task.

From campaign rhetoric and other business in the sanctuary, most lay members and guests trekked to the host church's nearby Family Life Center for dinner.

The scheduled guest speaker, General Board of Global Ministries General Secretary Randy Day, ran afoul of airline schedules and was unable to attend. But one of his newest associate general secretaries, Shaun Bakker, who was attending North Texas sessions anyhow, filled in forcefully on short notice.

Ms. Bakker, who heads the storied multi-million-dollar second-mile Advance for Christ and His Church program dating to post-World WW II days, is no stranger to North Texas. Ten or so years ago she was the founding CEO of Project Transformation, initially a summer-only program that evolved under her leadership to a year-long nexus between young adults looking to possible career work in the church and needy children and families.

Ms. Bakker took the theme for her address on the church's new global emphasis on health that will be presented to the 2008 General Conference from a Charles Wesley hymn best known for its thunderous "O for a thousand tongues..." opening verse but including this: Jesus, the name that charms our fears, That bids our sorrows cease.