COG 72nd General Assembly Wrap-Up
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Well I'm back in the office today for the first time after spending the past week in San Antonio, TX for the good old Church of God General Assembly. For you non-cog readers, the General Assembly is our denominations international convention that takes place every two (should have been four) years. For me the week shared both its pros and its cons...but overall, much to my surprise, I left rather encouraged about the direction that our church is heading as a whole, and the shift that seems taking place within our denomination.
There were several reasons that Joyce and I decided to make the trek out to San Antonio this time, one of the major reasons being our involvement with Teen Talent (which you can read more about in one of my previous posts here). Not only did we both judge several categories in the drama division, but our kids were also able to advance to the international level as well in one of the categories that they competed in at the state level. I must say that I was rather impressed with the caliber of competition as a whole this year...you could tell that all of the kids had worked extremely hard, and needless to say the bar was set rather high. However, our kids did an absolutely amazing job and received very high marks in one of the toughest and steepest categories of the whole competition...and we are all extremely proud of them and what they were able to accomplish. As a side note, it was awesome to see the response of Teen Talent being webcast for the very first time with an average of 7,000 international viewers per day.
Aside from Teen Talent I was able to attend several of the business sessions during the week, where the general council votes both on the leadership within our denomination as well as other things such as any changes within our bylaws and so on and so forth. Usually these meetings consist of the same old song and dance (a lot of talk and no action)...however, this year some very crucial items that were on the agenda were both addressed and passed. And while I do still feel like we have a heck of a long way to go, I think that some of the things that took place could be used as a catalyst to point us in the right direction. In fact, while my desire to even be affiliated with our denomination (or any other denomination for that matter) has wavered heavily at times, I left inspired enough to pursue the fulfillment of my credentialing within the COG, so that I can actually have a say in what goes down next time around.
With all that we had going on we had just a very minimal amount of down-time...but in that, we tried to split the time equally between our kids, my family and getting to take in what we could of the beautiful and very HOT city of San Antonio. While I did meet my quota of Mexican food for the rest of the year, we did get to eat at some great spots (such as Rio Rio, Casa Rio, Boudro's & Achiote), as well as get to take in some of the sites that this beautiful city has to offer. This city is home to several historic sites such as The Alamo and the historic River Walk, which is where we spent most of our time. And although we've visited San Antonio on several occasions, we did enjoy getting to go back to visit and see what all had changed since the last time that we had been there (which wasn't much at all).
I guess I can say that even though the travel aspect of this trip was an absolute bear (see previous post), and even though I missed my daughter like crazy (but got to talk to her and see her everyday thanks to iChat), that overall the trip was a good experience...it was good to see some much needed changes begin to take place within our denomination, it was good to see and spend time with friends and family, it was good to see our kids and the rest of the COG young people from across the world using the gifts and the talents that God has equipped them with...but most of all, it was just good to get back home! So until next time, adios.
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