This week, Wesleyans are meeting for their 11th General Conference.  We do this once every four year and because of action at today’s sessions, it will remain a four-year cycle.  It’s been interesting because, one doesn’t have to be there to know what’s going on.  Several who are “on the ground” in Orlando are giving updates.  This is the first time this has happened in history of General Conference.  I have live-blogged a FLAME event, but to bring live updates from the floor of the conference is something new.

It appears there are some interesting developments — maybe I’ll comment on them later.

For the most part elections of General Superintendents and General Officers are going as planned.  Almost all were incumbents.  However, this year the longest tenured GS in the history of The Wesleyan Church stepped down (retired.)  This left the door open for a new GS.  On the second ballot, we (meaning the General Conference) elected Dr. JoAnne Lyon to be our new General Superintendent.  So we have our first woman General Superintendent.  Dr. Lyon brings great experience from World Hope International and will bring us a global perspective.  Saturday night Dr. Earle Wilson stated this, “The Board of General Superintendents is calling you, the church, to a new day of evangelism and compassionate ministry, both personal and corporate. God has given the gospel to the Church as a sacred trust. It must not be kept as a private luxury, letting the world perish without it. The Church must not think of itself as a great theological seminary, but rather a place of simple testimony and revelation of Christ.” Dr. Lyon has been known for her emphasis on compassionate ministry.  It should be very interesting to see where this takes us as a denomination.

On a personal note, I’m happy to see that Dr. Kind was re-elected to his position of Director of Education and the Ministry.  Tomorrow there is more business and we’ll see what else happens.  Stay tuned…