A wise pastor told me I could see the best and the worst of the United Methodist Church as a General Conference delegate. I did. Anyone can become a delegate to General Conference, but most people don't know how to begin. I was relatively unknown by my annual conference, but I campaigned and was elected. Others can do the same, and should, especially evangelicals with a vision for growth and renewal of the UM Church.
There are three basic rules for campaigning to be a General Conference delegate: pray, learn the process, and be an aggressive Christian.
Pray. I began praying for renewal to come to the UM Church years ago, and I felt God encouraging me to get involved. The sense of God's empowerment proved to be vital; He saw me through disappointments with my insufficiencies and the frustrations which came from dealing with people who disagreed with me. Though painful at moments, the power of God through prayer kept me stable.
Learn The Process. Many people have been United Methodists long enough to know the basics about how the church operates, but a campaigner needs to know much more. I made a false start in 1984 because I knew too little about the details. Here are some things I learned in my first attempt:
1.Go first to friends whom you believe to be knowledgeable and evangelicals Explain your interest in being a delegate. Your objective is to find friends who also want to be delegates, who have similar opinions on the issues, and who are willing to have mutual support discussions. You want to do this without stirring up too much opposition from others. Be low-key.
2.Find allies in your conference who have been elected before to General or jurisdictional conference. Ask them for campaign ideas.
I developed friendships with several who had been delegates to both General and jurisdictional conferences. By getting to know them I met pastors who were evangelical, charismatic and willing to help. I accepted an assignment on a committee of the conference UM Men and expanded contacts with the conference leadership of that group.
I was active in boy scouts and was involved in leading a conference committee to promote scouting within the UM Church. That work gave me exposure to conference leadership.
3.Study the history of voting in the annual conference journals for past elections. Develop an understanding of the number of votes to be cast and how many it takes to win. (You don't have to get 100 percent of the votes.) Get a feeling for the number of ballots taken (the number of times that a vote is cast by the delegate). Do the ballots come morning, afternoon or evening? Does the number of people voting decrease at night? When is it easiest to get a majority and win?
4.Consult some of the official leaders, but get advice about whom to talk with. Consider talking to your district lay leader and the district presidents of United Methodist Women and United Methodist Men.
5.Learn some things about the lay life and work committees. Some annual conferences allow one-minute speeches by candidates at a meeting prior to annual conference. Some annual conferences recognize candidates at a district conference prior to annual conference. Much of this type of activity is a function of conference and district committees on lay life and work. It is vital to find out what, if anything, committees are doing about the election process for lay delegates.
6. Be selective in your communications. It seems odd that you can say too much to the wrong persons, but it's possible, just like in any other campaign. But don't worry if you make a mistake; God is a great redeemer.
Be An Aggressive Christian. I'm an accountant, a self-employed CPA running a small business. I'm not particularly aggressive. But I had to learn how to be self-promoting. Here are some tactics I used:
Write campaign letters. I mailed two letters to each annual conference lay delegate. (Many candidates mailed one letter, while other candidates thought even one letter too aggressive.)
My first letter, I was told, was the first the delegates received. It was an endorsement letter signed by my pastor and the chair of my local church's administrative board. I took church stationary to a local print shop and had the letter reproduced on church letterhead. I called the conference Council on Ministries and got the list of lay delegates. My wife and a retired neighbor helped address and stuff envelopes. We mailed them (in church envelopes-bulk church postage rate) and paid the cost of the postage.
The second letter was mailed so that the delegates received it just before annual conference. It was mailed from a smaller church in a rural county. (The first letter was mailed from my large, urban church.) This letter, printed with my picture on it, was a series of two- or three-sentence endorsements by friends. I listed their names, churches and positions so that it was obvious I was being endorsed by a variety of folks—men, women, laity, pastors and local church leaders from both large and small churches. In both letters I clearly stated my position on issues—particularly homosexual ordination and God language.
Campaign letters are not inappropriate for church-related campaigning; they are informative. Most candidates for bishop print expensive brochures and do extensive mailings. And although it is true that clergy who want to be elected as delegates to General Conference do not often send campaign letters, there are no written rules to prevent it. One pastor commented, "I wish the clergy circulated letters. I don't know enough people to have a feel for who we are electing!" Other pastors advised me, "Send a letter! Those things work! " and "Put a picture in the letter!"
Campaigning doesn't cost as much money as you may think. It cost me about $300 in a conference with about 800 delegates to annual conference. If your funds are limited ask your friends to help with your campaign costs.
Work with allies. When I went to annual conference I had agreed to encourage my friends to vote for 12 of my fellow campaigners. They had agreed to do the same for me. I found myself enthusiastically campaigning for these people even after I was elected on an early ballot.
Campaign at annual conference. On the morning annual conference began I arrived early at the registration area. My plan was to hand out copies of my second letter to those arriving at registration. I had wondered if I were being too aggressive, but others had their relatives handing out buttons and cards. My campaigning looked mild by comparison.
Write a position paper. As the balloting continued during the week, a fellow campaigner and I composed a position paper. We asked a number of the evangelical candidates if we could list them as supporting traditional positions on homosexual ordination, God language and church-growth objectives. We feel this helped several of them move up in the balloting as annual conference delegates began to understand something of the issues connected with the names.
Of the 12 of my fellow campaigners, three were elected delegates to General Conference. Eight others were elected delegates to jurisdictional conference, and four were elected to general boards and agencies of our church. (The four who made it to membership on the general boards and agencies were women and blacks. This illustrates the importance of inclusiveness among your allies. When an inclusive group of evangelical persons gets through the election process, the process will work to pull some of them on to other positions of influence.)
It is my prayer that greater numbers of evangelical, charismatic and renewal-minded people will get involved in the process of General and jurisdictional election. God has said that He will bless what we set our hands to doing. I believe He meant what He said and is powerful to perform His word.
Before you write, think about who will be reading your letter. If you are a layperson, the people who will elect you are mostly ordinary church members. Many are elderly, retired, and quite a few haven’t done much beyond the local church. Think about the electors as friendly, loving people. Show respect for their maturity and judgment
Make a list of the things you have done in the church, the different charges where you have been a member or pastor. Think about the special meetings, seminars or groups that you have attended at each conference level—charge, annual jurisdictional and General if any. The objective is to find reasons the voters can identify with you and respect your interest in leadership.
Organize your history in a logical way. I talked about my work with scouting, being church treasurer and a teacher. Do you have an item in your history that indicates you have a vision for General or jurisdictional leadership? I mentioned attendance at a Um Men’s convocation at Purdue University and my participation as a leader of a scouting workshop for a jurisdictional training event. I mentioned my being a certified lay speaker and my participation in a renewal group.
Don’t overlook the mundane! Boy scouting and the simply process of being a certified lay speaker seem mundane to some. Another candidate, a professor, had done some consulting work for the General Board of Global Ministries but little in the local church. Another had received recognition as a special education teacher in a public school system but had done little in annual conference leadership. We were all elected.
Don’t waste your space saying you are born again or spirit-filled, quoting a Bible verse or identifying yourself as evangelical. The voters will assume that all candidates are serious Christians, and you will run the risk of being considered a Pharisee if you indicate a superior piety or reflect a judgment on the piety of other candidates. Do state your position on issues that are of concern to those who are voting.
Get a good, readable printing of your letter. Use a picture. Don’t send anything of low quality. If it doesn’t look good, throw it away and start over. Use a local, quick-copy print shop. Avoid anything extravagant.
Use endorsements. List all United Methodist you know who may let you sue their names in your literature. Cal them, go see them, or mail them an example to get their permission. I called an inclusive list of people and told them what I wanted them to say about me. (Of course they had their own ideas as well.) My objective was to put together a piece that allowed a voter to identify with an activity in my background or the person who was endorsing me. I also used a list of names with the person’s church, town and position. No endorsement was longer than three sentences, and the variety of subjects covered gave the voter an image of a responsible leader who would represent their feelings on critical issues.
Joe W. Kilpatrick is a certified public accountant living in Atlanta, Georgia, and was a delegate to the 1988 General Conference.
This article was originally printed in Good News magazine (March/April 1990).