Key points:
- United Methodist organizers plan to make good on the original location of the COVID-delayed 2020 lawmaking assembly.
- In heading to Minneapolis, organizers also are hoping to reduce costs and address a $1.8 million budget deficit they inherited from earlier General Conference sessions.
- General Conference organizers are hoping to hold the gathering outside the U.S. as soon as 2032.
- They also are planning to be transparent in the status of delegates getting visas.
United Methodist General Conference organizers are hoping the second time is the charm for heading to Minneapolis.
During an online meeting, the Commission on the General Conference chose to hold the next session of The United Methodist Church’s top lawmaking assembly on May 8-18, 2028, in the Minneapolis Convention Center.
Organizers originally had set the 2020 General Conference to be in Minneapolis until the COVID pandemic forced the event’s postponement and eventual move of last year’s General Conference to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Now the current commission, elected at last year’s General Conference, hopes to make good on a plan that dates back to 2013 for the Minnesota city to host.
“There was a significant investment of time by the former host committee and members, planning, along with financial investments that required the commission to give strong consideration to naming Minneapolis for 2028,” the Rev. Aleze Fulbright, secretary of the General Conference, said in a statement. She, too, was elected last year to her role.
General Conference, which typically meets every four years, brings together elected delegates from around the globe to make decisions that affect some 10 million United Methodists, who live in more than 100 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.
In choosing Minneapolis, the commission also hopes to reduce costs and help make up for a $1.8 million budget deficit inherited from multiple earlier General Conference sessions.
Contributing to the deficit was the 2019 special General Conference in St. Louis. The costs of that gathering were not included in the denominational budget passed by the 2016 General Conference. Also, the previous commission needed to pay $974,000 to gain release from the previous Minneapolis contract.
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Even without the penalty, last year’s General Conference cost about $3.7 million more than the 2016 General Conference in Portland, Oregon — an increase of about 38%. Altogether, including the penalty, last year’s General Conference cost about $14.4 million.
During the May 9-10 online meeting, the Rev. Moses Kumar gave the current commission an overview of General Conference finances. Kumar serves as both General Conference treasurer and the top executive of the General Council on Finance and Administration.
He told the commission that he will join Fulbright and other General Conference organizers in asking GCFA, the denomination’s finance agency, to help cover the costs of the coming General Conference.
“We do not want to carry on the deficit that we have,” Kumar said. “We will go to GCFA once we have all of the expenses for 2028.”
The bulk of funding for General Conference as well as GCFA comes from the General Administration Fund, one of seven funds that support denomination-wide ministries. Annual conferences, church regions consisting of multiple congregations, support these funds through apportionments — shares of church giving they in turn ask from congregations. The General Administration Fund reserves cover the General Conference deficit, but reserves aren’t endless.
Putting on a typical General Conference costs between $10 and $12 million, said the Rev. Andy Call, commission chair and lead pastor of Christ of the Saviour United Methodist Church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. However, the overall 2025-2028 denominational budget, approved by last year’s General Conference, is significantly smaller than the one passed in 2016. The funding available to the current commission for the next General Conference is about $7.3 million in the denomination’s current budget.
“That’s obviously significant headwind for us,” Call said during the meeting. “That’s the quadrennial budget. It’s going to be very difficult for us to put on a General Conference and get to that number. So what we are doing is kind of working on two sides of that.”
The first part will be reducing costs, he said. One way the current commission saves money is by holding more of its planning meetings online.
The second part is increasing revenue to help defray the costs. General Conference organizers agreed to work with GCFA to bring more sponsors and vendors to General Conference. Sponsors will have displays at the gathering and perhaps underwrite some of the special celebrations included as part of General Conference.
GCFA staff will work to recruit the sponsors and work with the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, the denomination’s social witness arm, to ensure those sponsors are in line with the denomination’s Social Principles adopted by General Conferences.
GCFA will receive a 20% commission on the gross revenue that the agency secures for the event. General Conference organizers also will be responsible for paying two staff from GCFA to be onsite during the event to coordinate with sponsors and vendors.
But even with those costs included, GCFA staff are confident they can raise at least $600,000 to help cover the legislative assembly’s costs.
“Six hundred thousand is not our ceiling,” Fulbright told the commission. “There’s still a significant gap, and we’re not naive to that fact at all. And so where there’s cost-cutting opportunities, we will do that. And there may need to be another reason for an ask of GCFA, separate from what we need to do to satisfy the prior deficits.”
Bishop Lanette Plambeck, who leads the Minnesota and Dakotas conferences that will host General Conference, said United Methodists in her area are once again excited to help facilitate a successful gathering.
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“What was postponed in 2020 returns in promise and possibility,” she said in a statement. “In 2028, Minnesota will joyfully host the General Conference of The United Methodist Church. Rooted in Jesus, grounded in Wesleyan theology, inclusive of all, and engaged in the work of justice and reconciliation — we are ready to love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously as we welcome the world to a place where grace is lived and the future is shaped together.”
The General Conference commission knows many were hoping for the next assembly to be outside the United States and to be later in the year, so it did not overlap with the academic calendar.
Both of those goals proved infeasible in 2028. However, Call said, the commission is committed to exploring every possibility for going outside the U.S. in 2032. The hope is to secure a location that is welcoming to all and able to hold a gathering of 3,000 people, with minimal visa challenges.”
The commission plans to set the estimated total number of delegates for the 2028 General Conference at its next in-person meeting in November.
Under the denomination’s constitution, General Conference must have no less than 600 and no more than 1,000 delegates. Each of the more than 120 annual conferences around the globe elect a minimum of one lay and one clergy delegate. Conferences may be allotted more delegates based on a formula using their lay and clergy membership totals.
Delegate elections may start as early as next year. General Conference organizers also plan to publicly post the number of visas being received on the General Conference website.
The website, hosted by United Methodist Communications, also will provide regular updates as the commission’s work continues.
“We also look forward to honoring the work and the people of the Minnesota Annual Conference as we prepare to convene in 2028 in Minneapolis,” Call said in a statement. “Both the city and the church have changed significantly since 2020, and meeting there will provide an opportunity to celebrate the beautiful diversity of the church and bear witness to what God is doing in our midst.”
Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umnews.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
