The Global Gathering impacted how the GA was conducted this year. The normal procedure is to have the annual business meeting spread over two days during the North American Convention. This year, however, in keeping with the global nature of the event, our own continent's business was set aside for its own day. And, that was a positive move.
There is no reason for the General Assembly to be long and drawn out, and hopefully this year's format change will reveal that it is possible to get it in done in 5-6 hours. In fact, it may be possible to shrink it even further if we can have reports available ahead of time so that they do not have to be laboriously read to us, and if we curtail all the "advertising" spots that are given to various national ministries.
GA attendance was definitely up this year, and reversed the downward slide we've been seeing over the years. Of course, the Global Gathering was part of the reason, but an even bigger one is that this was the meeting at which the new General Director would be ratified. Many came recognizing the significance of the decision we would be making.
Certainly a key theme to this year's General Assembly was the transition from Ronald Duncan to Jim Lyon. Ron's service to the church was appropriately celebrated, and was capped off by a reception just prior to lunch.
By the time we returned from lunch ballot results were already in, and it was announced that Jim Lyon had been "overwhelmingly" ratified (although an exact percentage was not provided). Jim was formally introduced and he gave a compelling speech, delivered in his rich, narrative style, declaring that we are a "masterpiece".
The delegates gathered for this momentous General Assembly seemed to be encouraged and hopeful for the Church of God. With all that had just happened over the past week there appeared to be new vitality and purpose for this movement. We were ready to leave Anderson to begin a new day.
And, then things almost began to unravel. Pastors' Fellowship introduced a resolution that caused some rankle and almost pushed us back into some of our less glorious days of the past. But, that's another topic, and I'll pick up on it in my next post.
