Meeting of the West Michigan Conference of The United Methodist Church

The Michigan Area Conference is one of 54

Annual Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main pu ...

s of The

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelic ...

in the United States. They are one of 10 members of the North Central Jurisdiction. The Michigan Area Annual Conference represents more than 830 local United Methodist churches with approximately 130,000 members in total. The Michigan Area Conference Center is located in

Lansing Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, makin ...

Mission

The mission of the conference is to, "Make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the world."

Districts

The Michigan Area Annual Conference is organized into Nine districts: Central Bay, East Winds, Greater Detroit, Greater Southwest, Heritage, Mid-Michigan, Midwest, Northern Waters And Northern Skies.

Michigan Area

The conference is led by Bishop David A. Bard, who was appointed in 2016. On June 10, 2015 it was announced that the voting members at the 2015 West Michigan Annual Conference had voted in favor of joining with the Detroit Annual Conference to create a "New Michigan Area Conference." Pastor Glenn M. Wagner of Grand Haven and Rev. Marsha Woolley of Northville were selected as co-chairs of the new conference. The final vote tally follows: 551 yes and 83 no. As stated in the approved legislative materials, the new conference shall be established no later than January 1, 2019. Michigan's General Conference Delegates are Anne Soles, John Wharton

Major Cities

Major Cities in the conference include:

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

, Traverse City, Michigan, Traverse City, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Michigan, Kalamazoo, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, Sault. Ste. Marie, Bay City, Michigan, Bay City,

, and Mackinaw City, Michigan, Mackinaw City.

Colleges/Universities affiliated with UMC

Adrian College Albion College

References

External links

Official website

District list

Bishop Kiessey profile
United Methodist Annual Conferences {{Methodist-stub