In a few days, if all goes according to plan, I will be in St. Louis as a delegate to the special called session of the United Methodist General Conference. The essential and practical purpose of this session of the General Conference is to determine the United Methodist Church’s teaching and practice related to matters of human sexuality.

For the last several months, I have been engaged in a rhythm of reading, writing, and prayer in preparation for this important time of conferencing. My preparation has led me to a clearer understanding of the personal values that I carry to General Conference. By “values,” I simply mean those convictions and priorities held so deeply that they shape and, in many ways, guide my worldview, my decision-making, and my understanding of the church.

Here are some of the values that are most important to me as I travel to General Conference. I share them for no other reason but to be transparent (and accountable) in my ministry as a delegate.

Personal Value #1: Ever-Deepening Love for God

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus identifies the greatest commandment in this fashion: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind…”

The heart (“kardia”) calls to mind the physical essence of our being, the organ that is closest to the center of our physical sustenance. To love God with all of one’s heart is to practice a God-honoring stewardship over one’s physical being, caring well for hearts and bodies in a way that honors the One who made them.

The soul (“psuche,” from which we derive the word “psychology”) is the place of our deepest thoughts, feelings, passions, and emotions. To love God with all of one’s soul is to nurture one’s inner being, caring for emotional health and spiritual growth in a way that honors the One who desires nothing less than an intimate communion with souls.

The mind (“dianoia”) is a reference to the realm of our cognitive reflection and our rational analysis. To love God with all of one’s mind is to engage in vibrant intellectual development through the disciplines of reading, learning, and dialogue, caring for the formation of our minds in a manner that honors the One who desires to be known, not only through feelings, but also through thoughts.

This is my prayer: Ever-present God, whose very nature is love, awaken within me and within the entire General Conference a deep desire to love you with heart, soul, and mind, so that every portion of our conferencing will become a doxological rendering to you of our heartfelt praise and adoration.

Personal Value #2: Commitment to Personal and Communal Integrity

The word “integrity” is a derivative of a Latin word meaning “intact” or “whole.” According to Scripture, “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them” (Proverbs 11:3). The Hebrew word here for “integrity” calls to mind holistic innocence and an unbroken character. People of integrity, therefore, commit themselves to authenticity, wholeness, truthfulness, and attentiveness in their relationships, their administration, their self-care, their communication, and their personal conduct.

This is my prayer: God of wholeness, whose character is always trustworthy and whose grace rejoins our broken pieces, let the integrity of your beautiful heart find dynamic expression in the rhythms and interactions of the General Conference.

Personal Value #3: Subordination to the Revelation and Authority of Scripture, Prayerfully Interpreted and Wisely Applied

When the Psalmist declares that God’s “word” is nothing less than “a lamp to [our] feet and a light to [our] path” (Psalm 119:105), and that “the word of the Lord is right and true” (Psalm 33:4), he is giving expression to the conviction that God has definitively communicated to humankind in a manner that is both trustworthy and illuminating.

In the Christian tradition in general, and in the United Methodist denomination in particular, the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments have been embraced and elevated as the narrative of God’s revealed Word and are believed by the church to contain all that is necessary for salvation. Some of the church’s most critical work is the ongoing task of interpreting Biblical revelation through the hermeneutical lenses of tradition, reason, and experience, so that the Word might leap off of the printed page and into the various contexts of the contemporary world for the purpose of bringing a timeless Gospel to the ever-changing dynamics of history.

My prayer: Allow your Word, O God, to find its authoritative place in the hearts and lives of your people. Let your Scripture be breathed afresh in our midst, that it might be received as a tangible expression of your vast and glorious heart.

Personal Value #4: Attentive Listening to All Voices and Patient Exploration of All Perspectives

Instead of being governed by skepticism or, worse, cynicism, I long to be the kind of Christ-follower who recognizes all voices as being worthy to be heard and all perspectives—even the ones with which I may strongly disagree—as being beneficial to the collective discernment. In order to honor this personal value, I have no choice but to be vigilant in the naming and surrendering of my own biases and prejudices, so that I might be far more driven by a hunger for comprehensive discernment than I am by the desire to protect and validate my preconceived conclusions.

This is my prayer: Deliver me, O God, from the kind of sharp-edged presuppositions and selective listening that so frequently prevent the viewpoints of my sisters and brothers from reaching my deepest contemplation. Grant that I might bear all things, believe the best about all things, hope all things, and endure all things. (1 Corinthians 13:7).

Personal Value #5: Compassion for Those Who Are Wounded by the Pace, the Demands, and the Dynamics of Our Conferencing

Given that delegates gather in the name of the One who “consoles us in all our affliction” (2 Corinthians 1:4), it may seem a bit ironic to suggest that General Conference can cause woundedness. The truth of the matter, however, is that General Conference’s aggressive debates and divisive outcomes regularly leave vulnerable souls feeling bruised and mistreated. This reality makes it nothing less than urgent for delegates to pray their way into a growing spirit of sensitivity and compassion that infuses their engagement with one another.

This is my prayer: Soften my heart, Always-Tender God, that it might hurt with the hearts of my sisters and brothers when they are wounded.

Personal Value #6: Commitment to Biblical Holiness, Biblical Justice, and Biblical Hospitality

When Jesus teaches us to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), he is not setting us up for failure. Rather, I believe he is imparting to us the truth that it is possible to live a life that is so thoroughly subordinated to the transforming Lordship of Jesus that every part of that life—EVERY part—begins to reflect more deeply the sanctified condition into which the Holy Spirit is leading us. This is holiness—not a “try harder” kind of self-reliance, but a steady yielding to the new creation that Jesus is making out of our lives.

When the prophet Amos teaches us to “let justice roll down like waters” (Amos 5:24), he calls to mind a transformed world where marginalized souls are seen, heard, and valued and where shared priorities begin to reflect with greater vibrancy the things that God values most.

When the prophet Isaiah teaches us “to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood,” (Isaiah 58:7), he is envisioning a people who are governed by the impulse, not to reject and dismiss, but to welcome and engage, thereby incarnating the transformational ministry of Jesus.

This is my prayer: Usher me into a deeper journey of holiness, Most Holy One, that my presence will contribute to the collective holiness of our conferencing instead of diminishing it. Usher me into a more dynamic pursuit of justice, that my heart will be unsettled until all people are rightly treated and valued. Usher me into a more radical hospitality, that I will see your radiant visage in the countenance of every person I encounter at General Conference.

Personal Value #7: Prayer Without Ceasing

The teaching of Scripture is that “the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective” (James 5:16), meaning that prayer is God’s dynamic engagement with human hearts—an engagement through which God makes redemptive excursions into lives and circumstances. If I do not cling to prayer as a personal value, my contribution to General Conference will go only as far as my personal abilities, which is not very far.

This is my prayer: Let prayer become for me as natural as breathing, God, and every bit as urgent.

Personal Value #8: Willingness to Acknowledge the Possibility That My Personal Discernment Might Be Distorted and Significantly Misguided

Holding one’s convictions strongly produces a necessary confidence and commitment. Acknowledging that one’s convictions might be wrong, however, is what enables one to see those convictions as a window rather than a wall and an invitation rather than a weapon.

This is my prayer: Deepen and clarify my discernment, O God, and allow me to hold my convictions in a way that nurtures community instead of fracturing it. Make me ever mindful of the truth that your thoughts and ways are always higher than my thoughts and ways (Isaiah 55:8).

Personal Value #9: Agapic Love

The agapic love that 1 Corinthians 13 describes demands a relentless attentiveness to the personhood of another. It is the love that names and dismantles racism in all of its forms because it dares to see one’s race and ethnic heritage as gifts to be embraced rather than obstacles to be feared and manipulated. It is the love that purges the prejudices that would prevent us from being kind and respectful to the person who stands on the other side of a debate or who brings a contrasting viewpoint to a piece of legislation. It is the love that acknowledges the insufficiency of the glass through which we dimly see one another and yet foreshadows the realm where we will see one another with face-to-face completeness.

This is my prayer: God, whose heart is love: Let me love deeply, dynamically, and beautifully during my days at General Conference, so that your heart might find expression in the manner with which I relate to my sisters and brothers.

Personal Value #10: The Lordship of Jesus

I am much more abundantly prepared to approach the work of General Conference with hopefulness, encouragement, and right perspective when I hold in my heart this core conviction: that, irrespective of the actions of General Conference,

Jesus will always be Lord;

Jesus will not rest until all of creation’s threads are woven redemptively together into the beautiful tapestry that God is making out of human history; and,

Jesus will continue to call and equip his followers to be the kind of Church against which not even the gates of Hades shall prevail.

This is my prayer: Remind all of us in fresh and powerful ways, O God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that the Lordship of Jesus is wonderfully secure and that his justifying and sanctifying grace is sufficient to hold redemptive governance over all that transpires at General Conference and beyond.