The following is excerpted form the Session Summary of the 2011 Kansas East Annual Conference. I was back for a funeral and missed the opportunity to vote, but I think the possibility of a new conference encompassing all of Kansas and Nebraska will be beneficial to the churches and clergy involved, but it probably won’t involve any changes you’ll see on a daily or weekly basis.
The Kansas-Nebraska Transition Team has spent a year discussing the deep changes that are needed to make the United Methodist Church in Kansas & Nebraska relevant to today’s mission field. They believe that our conferences have been given a real opportunity to rethink how we organize for fulfilling the mission of the church. … The Transition Team reported that after much prayer and discussion, they concluded that the best choice is for the three conferences in Kansas and Nebraska to combine to form one conference because dealing with the structures of three conferences would get in the way of the missional work to be done.
… A “five-finger” vote was taken to gauge the depth of the support for the one-conference recommendation. The same vote was taken in the Kansas West and Nebraska annual conference sessions,
When the votes were counted, 86 Kansas East clergy and 106 laity (192 ballots, 44.2 percent) marked five fingers [indicating “I am in full support of becoming one conference”], 52 clergy and 92 laity (144 ballots, 33.2 percent) marked four fingers [meaning “I am supportive of becoming one conference, however, I have a few questions.”], 23 clergy and 33 laity (56 ballots, 12.9 percent) marked three fingers [indicating “I am supportive of becoming one conference, but I have many questions.”], 15 clergy and 15 laity (30 ballots, 6.9 percent) marked two fingers [meaning “I am opposed to becoming one conference, but I am not willing to halt the process.”] and 9 clergy and 3 laity (12 ballots, 2.8 percent) marked one finger [meaning “I am opposed to becoming one conference as it is currently presented.”]. The results in Kansas West and Nebraska also supported the one-conference recommendation, although the numbers were not as high as in Kansas East.