One of the fortunate benefits I have had, this week, is watching the United Methodist Church’s General Conference feed from the comforts of my office. Twitter has been a great benefit in this, which will be a second blog post later in this day.

Part of the trend of General Conference, so far, has been a daily Twitter Cloud that shows what people are talking about on the social media forum. Each day has featured common words and phrases, such as #gc2012, #gcyp, committee, and Plan B. There have also been some unfortunate words used that highlight the high amount of distrust that exists within some circles in the denomination.

For the most part, one word, or person, has been missing from these illustrations. It has brought up discussions about the absence. That word – and person – who has been missing has been Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. I think this is telling and an important observation of General Conference, so far.

From afar, it appears that Jesus has been last on our hearts. What has been more important has been our ideas, our dreams, and our vision for the United Methodist Church. We seem to be forgetting that it must be Christ who gives us our agenda and desires.

As we enter this important day, my prayer for General Conference is an modification of something I posted yesterday on Facebook. That is that I pray we are not seeking God to bless our ideas and agendas, but that we desire Christ to be at the center of all we do and discern the Voice of the Lord and God’s direction for us as a denomination.