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Spotlight on the Rev. Dr. L. Gregory Jones, Upper New York Annual Conference 2018 study leader
February 28, 2018 / By Shannon Hodson / .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
The Rev. Dr. L. Gregory Jones of Duke Divinity School will be the guest study leader and this year’s Annual Conference (AC2018), which will be held from May 30-June 2, at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena. Rev. Jones’ emphasis will be on living our call in the Wesleyan Way. 
Rev. Jones said, “There is a distinctive Wesleyan Way to living and thinking and feeling as Christians, and we can chart significant paths forward into the future by mining our own best insights. This Wesleyan Way involves holding things together that others put into opposition and involves us embodying a powerful vision of social innovation.” Rev. Jones will be drawing insights from the Wesleyan movement in England and will also provide modern-day examples of the Wesleyan Way in the United States and around the world.
Rev. Jones will be leading two study sessions. The titles of his first presentation is “The End is our Beginning” Rev. Jones said, “This presentation focuses on the importance of us being guided by a robust vision of the Reign of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit in conforming us to Christ while making all things new.”
The title of Rev. Jones’ second presentation is “Forming Christians for Social Innovation.” Rev. Jones said, “The second presentation will focus on friendships and practices that shape and form us to be people who bear witness to the Holy Spirit’s work.”
Rev. Jones’ presentations will certainly fit nicely into the AC2018 theme: “Together in Prayer: Boldly living our Call.” When asked about the theme, Rev. Jones said, “Prayer is at the heart of keeping us focused on the End (bearing witness to the Reign of God and testifying to the power of the Holy Spirit). We are to be discerning our calling in all we are and do, laity and clergy alike. And we need to do so boldly by imagining and embodying extraordinary social innovation in the world.”
You will leave AC2018 inspired with some imaginative examples and empowered with specific calls-to-action you can do in your home contexts after hearing Rev. Jones’ presentations.