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I was a little surprised and flustered when he asked me to deliver the thank you’s on Saturday morning at annual conference. But I shouldn’t have been. There’s rarely a meeting or event that passes when the bishop doesn’t feel compelled to thank the leaders that enable the ministry to unfold.

But standing at the podium, looking out at the hundreds of faces, I realized how very thankful I am to be able to participate in the life of the Baltimore-Washington Conference. The view from the stage, and from behind the camera, gives you a balcony perspective of the vast complex diversity of our conference, and a glimpse into the small and astoundingly beautiful details of God’s people.

This year, I was especially surprised when I turned around Wednesday and saw my Sunday School teacher from St. Paul’s UMC in Delaware, who taught me about God more than 35 years ago. Ken Horne is now the lay member to annual conference from Linden-Linthicum UMC in Clarksville.

He was the teacher who made Christ real in the lives of hundreds of youth. He was cool, but more important, hewas authentic; he loved and lived the Bible, and just seeing his face made me remember the simple and essential truth that I am a beloved child of God and the whole point of this life’s adventure is to live so God can use me.

It was a bright and special moment finding him at annual conference, but throughout the ballroom and around its periphery, thousands of stories like that one, of people making connections and reconnections of faith, are lived out at annual conference. That’s a cause for thanksgiving.

This year, I was also thankful for the holy conferencing that broke out Friday evening during the conversation on human sexuality. I know that we are meant to embrace the spiritual discipline of holy conferencing during all of our meeting time. But watching people who I know have reason to hold each other suspect hold each other in prayer, and really deeply listen to those they had never before really trusted, created a space where the Holy Spirit felt absolutely present and vibrant. Hope filled in the spaces between our divisions.

Hope also struck my heart when Sandy Ferguson, the director of connectional ministries, stood at the podium and cried, moved by the lives and message of the students from Connexions High School in Baltimore and by the potential United Methodists have to be partners and shape the lives of students throughout our area. I knew what was in her script, but in her tears, “Be Love” were the only words she could say.

For the fact that annual conference can sometimes be a place where tears and holy silence can be accepted and take precedence over the words, I give thanks.

I also give thanks for the earnest way people care about all the small stuff of annual conference. There must be a million details to be overseen and cared for, and most of these details, if they’re attended to correctly, are overlooked and taken for granted by participants. But I love how the conference staff sometimes loses sleep in the weeks prior to conference because they care so deeply that all goes well.

I am, of course, especially thankful to the Communications team for their ministry. Five months before the session is called to order they are using theirgifts in ministry to make sure information is shared. And at the session, after everyone’s attention shifts to rest and other things, they work to make sure the story is well told. Their gifts and abilities are remarkable and I thank God daily that I get to work with them and that God has brought them all to this ministry in this time of the church’s life.

There are a few things that I’m less than grateful for. I regret the cost of meals and lodging, the fact that not everyone takes the time to read and consider the materials they’re called to act upon, that many of our churches have not made a pledge to save the lives of children dying from malaria and that we don’t get to do something more mission-focused in our time together.

With his many expressions of thanks, Bishop Matthews may be creating a culture of gratitude in our conference.

He may be onto something. Neuroscientists are now reporting that daily expressions or acknowledgments of gratitude increase people’s sense of happiness and wellbeing. How might it change the church? I’m not certain.

But it does bring to mind Meister Eckhart, who once said, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” I have so many prayers for the Baltimore-Washington Conference; but today, in the aftermath of our 230th session, a simple and heart-felt thank you feels right. Thank you and amen.