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The Meeting will be in Kansas City, (Overland/Park) Kansas, June 21-22- & 23

For details go to http://www.americanbaptists2013.com/

I believe it is Overland Park isn't it Ed? The pastor at FBC Overland Park is a former Associate Pastor at FBC Des Moines while I was there.

Wow Ed! That is a lot of driving. But I'm sure you'll enjoy the events.

One of the different things about the UMC is that national meetings are much more rare, only every four years. While there is a national focus, that focus doesn't include the whole denominational family getting together in convention style meetings. So I tend to see a more regional (Annual Conference) focus to being a United Methodist.

The one thing I do miss not being in the ABC any longer it getting together with longtime friends in the denomination.

Ed: Thanks again Tim, in that last sentence, you answered a question that has bugged me for a while. I have wondered why I do not have the same withdrawal symptoms, when we do not get to an ABC Biennial as I do if we miss a CBF annual. The answer is, It is the friends from so many places. At an ABC Biennial I feel pretty much like a stranger, in large part because most of the people I can call "friends" are from Ohio and Upstate New York and I see many of the NY people with some frequency and one of our Upstate NYS Interim Regional Executive Ministers was a former Associate Exe in Ohio, And our new Executive Minister Is from Ohio. But there are not nearly as many ABC'ers here on BL.C.

Whereas in CBF with so many who are former SBCers there are more folk that I have known when I lived in in GA, KY, AL, MS, AR, IN, OH & FL.. And Many of those from my college and Seminary Days, were from an even longer list of additional states. Also here we are active in BFNE and know CBF folk from Main, MA,CT,NY,PA, NJ,NY,NH & VT. And each year I meet some one who recognizes my name from the BL.C boards.

My time of the General Board meant that I did tend to know quite a few people at the Biennial meetings.

I find the of the differences in polity do make a difference as to where you make most of your connections. Another feature of the Conference system is that the majority of UMC pastors spend their entire career in one Conference. So they tend to know each other well because of years of connection. In the ABC my geographical moves tend to be larger. I see a lot of ABC pastors move from one Region to another when seeking a new church.

I've been to three Iowa Annual Conferences and will attend my fourth this year. So I am starting to get to know more pastors in the Conference. But it is a learning curve to be sure. The first couple of years I felt very much like I was on unfamiliar ground.

That may be a good lesson in that it might cause me to better understand how lay people feel when they change local churches, particularly when they often change to a church of a different denominational family.