I am back from the Free Methodist Church in Canada‘s General Conference. We hold it once every three years in Toronto so if I am still a Free Methodist, I will be back in 2008. Here are my thoughts.
- First of all, a lot of you who are reading this are Free Methodists. I never knew as many of you read this. Thanks for coming up to me and telling me. If I ever plan to overthrough the Bishop, I will have to post those plans to another blog
- Speaking of the Bishop, I thought his talks were excellent. They were both passionate and prophetic and impacted all of us. Our visiting Bishop, Bishop Ildo from Brazil was amazing. While his first languae is Portugese, his passion came through in some excellent talks. He hit upon materialism in the church which was a great message that we all needed to hear.
- The hotel was gorgeous but I did have several customer service issues. The staff resolved them quickly which made me think it was more bad luck than incompetance. Problems do happen and the staff was quite understanding in fixing them. My only caveat that every Coke machine in the hotel was out of order. How does that happen? I assume it was the bottlers fault (for the record I did check every floor)
- The King’s Arm Pub in Markham has excellent steak sandwiches (and as Darren pointed out in the comments, a really drunk waitress when him and I were there)
- I can function well on three hours sleep for two nights. Three nights is not so good.
- On Sunday night I pilgrimed to Dundas to see Pernell Goodyear and the Freeway (or is that the FRWY) with Darryl and Charlene Dash. Darryl posted about part of the evening here. I understand that Darrly is a man of God and a wonderful pastor but he is lying! Those wings were hot. Really hot. Really, really hot. Either he is lying or just more of a man than I am. Yes I did spit Pepsi over the entire table (I was taking a drink of Pepsi and Pernell mentioned that he would like to give a prominent theologian with perfect hair a noogie and I couldn’t help myself). Also I may mentioned that my phone was set to vibrator and not just vibrate. Seeing the Freeway was cool. A lot of people have told me how cool Pernell and the Freeway are and they were one of the friendliest communities I have ever dropped in on. A side note. Charlene did advise me and Darryl not to have the foolish wings. Unfortunately I didn’t listen. Note to self. Listen to Charlene’s advise next time.
- There are a lot of resolutions at a General Conference. Many of them take a long time to pass.
- I wish the hotel had wifi.
- One of the things that Wendy and I have been learning that there are three parts of all of our lives. The past, present, and future. One of the things that have happened to a lot of us is that we lost a lot of our past through our excommunication and exile from family. Being at General Conference was good for me in that it is a tie to my past that seems very tenuous at times. That is good. I heard stories of my past this weekend that I had forgotten or never knew. That was good.
- Air Canada is either getting better or I am becoming more tolerant of how bad they are. Customer service on this flight was indifferent rather than the usual surly. It’s going in the right direction.
- The church almost passed a resolution that would have made it almost impossible for John Wesley to be a Free Methodist pastor.
- Darren and I survived another trip together.
- Will post pictures tonight.
I was honestly disappointed with the wings. I was expecting hotter.
It was a dream come true since I have always secretly envied your trips for spicy soup. I was wondering if I was man enough to step up to the bowl or if I would go running like Campea. Now I know I am good enough for Saskatoon’s spicy soup.
It was good to hang out. And yes, if I tell you something and Charlene tells you something else, ALWAYS listen to Charlene.
Actually, Coop, I think it was the King Edward’s Arms that had the good steak. And the sauced waitress.
As a Free Methodist currently employed in a Wesleyan church plant, I’d love to hear how the Canadian GC almost passed a resolution which would have barred its patriarch from ordination. Could you elaborate?
Also, if it matters, the hottest wings I’ve ever had are at Buffalo Wild Wings. They call them Blazin’. We use them as an initiation rite for all who join our staff lunches for the first time.