In a few days several of us will participate in Annual Conference at Pheasant Run in St. Charles.  It is a time to reconnect with friends and colleagues from around the conference ... those we've met in other years, or worked on committees with, or had as our pastor or to whom we've been the pastoral leader in their community.   It is a time of celebration, legislation, worship .... and this, year, we'll be electing delegates to the General Conference, which occurs every four years and will convene in the spring of 2012.  In addition, at Annual Conference, we commission and ordain our new clergy (Choi will be commissioned and Elder on Friday night), celebrate the retirement of others, and honor the memory of both clergy and lay members of the conference who have passed on this year.  And .... we are reminded in many ways that we are United Methodists .... Wesleyan in formation and faith.

John Wesley used the metaphor of a house to describe his "religion of the heart" ... to describe the faith journey.  In his "Principles of a Methodist Farther Explained," John Wesley made the following bold declaration:  "Our main doctrines, which include all the rest, are three --- that of repentance of faith, and of holiness.  The first of these we account, as it were, the porch of religion; the next, the door; the third, religion itself."

And so, we come to a life of religious and spiritual practice through the porch ... understanding our "poverty of spirit" and confessing our brokenness.  Then we enter through the door of faith ... coming to understand ourselves as forgiven and welcomed by the grace of a loving and generous and good God.  And then we spend our lives living in the house of holiness ... refining our understanding of God and who we are through all the "means of grace" and "practices of mercy" ... participating in and serving in the life of the community ... the church ... by studying the scriptures, gathering for worship, deepening our prayer life, ministering to the poor and marginal in our world, working to make the world a place of justice and peace.

As I think about this metaphor, I'm reminded of how much focus we put on the porch and the door ... sometimes attending to the "curb appeal" of our faith practice as a community and neglecting the "heart" of the house, which is in opening ourselves to God's way with us through practices of personal and social holiness.  At Annual Conference we are reminded that it is a life long process and that faith is shaped and deepened as we live at the "heart" of who God is calling us to be as United Methodists and people of God.  Frequently that involves clearing out the clutter that distracts us from God.  Sometimes it means changing the pictures on the walls ... or even tearing off the old wallpaper and putting on a fresh coat of paint.  Other times it may involve moving the walls themselves ... or adding a room or a window or a door, to make room for new things (persons, practices, perspectives) coming into our lives through the grace of God.

And so, we go to Annual Conference as representatives of Kingswood ... "members" of the larger church called United Methodist ... and ask for your prayers that this conference is an expression of Wesley's vision of a church and community that is formed and transformed in the heart of God.

Blessings,

Rev. Margaret Gramley