Claiming the Influence (at the risk of sounding as if she has too high of an opinion about herself...)

Is it de riguer to blog about a comment on your last blog entry? But then again, I never worry too much what is de riguer anyway.

Anyway, I was in cabinet today, during the two hour BAC experience (that is, the Business of the Annual Conference experience), going line by line through those fascinating questions for which we must have correct answers, which are printed and distributed at the clergy session. This was the time to correct spelling, get years right, figure out if we have part time local pastors (listed under 21 c, I think) with the right credentials (licensing school? M.Div work?). In some way I sort of got into this today.

And, like that prodigal who had wandered far, I came to myself today as I was sitting there looking at all of the names and years and questions and parts of questions. It was during a thought I was having regarding whether or not one of the certified candidates listed was certified in 2002 0r 2003 (could I really trust my memory at this point anyway?) when, looking at my laptop screen which was in front of me, an email came across that showed that Dogblogger (Amy) had put a new comment on my blog (see the comment from yesterday's entry)-She wrote that Tim Keel (who is at Mt. Sequoyah at the young adult thing) says he appreciates my influence? Me, the detail-oriented (at least for those moments immediately prior to receiving Dogblogger's comment) bureaucrat? So does Amy (appreciates my influence, that is)? And she hopes the entire UMC does? (okay, that last one might have been said with a smile, but somehow I think she might have meant it too). Gee whiz. And there I sat, eyes nearly glazing over after the detail and the data, having a bit of culture shock. It's that bi-lingual thing that is very disconcerting sometimes (United Method-ese/Emergent Conversation language) because I want so much these two languages to hear echos of each other and sense that by listening to each other, these two strains of Christian lingo might help the other come to itself.

I have put the reading and writing thing to the side since I sent off the info to Abingdon about the b-o-o-k. 'Tis time to get serious about the fact that I have a place and a passion, a charge to keep, a calling to fulfill. I am getting that feeling I have had so many years before in late May. Annual Conference marks a new beginning. 'Tis time to claim the influence I do have, to live it gratefully, to be a hopeful voice in the middle judicatory called superintendency, and realize that in many ways, I am a presiding elder, presiding over the present, asking persons to listen to our tradition's past, and asking persons to simply not be afraid to claim that from that past will come our future, and that maybe somehow mysteriously, we are also being asked to be willing to give up who we are, for who we might become.

Thanks, Amy. Tell 'em all "hi" for me.