Thanks to @TheCircuit and @g-dean_brown1960 for becoming supporters of PlainSpoken! Also, thanks to @TexasfarmerJohn who has chosen to follow my work!

Covering General Conference for the last couple of days has been exhausting. Today's decision to adopt the Regionalization plan was somewhat expected, but the margin of its victory was a surprise to me. I am sad about the chosen direction of the UMC leadership, and how handily they have dominated this gathering. I knew that plans had been laid for some time before, but I also knew that previously laid plans had been thwarted. The absence of American conservative leadership after the controlled exodus made a big difference. African underrepresentation is likewise a large factor. Even so, denominational leadership has been effective in persuading a number of African delegates to vote with them. This has been the big question for a while: how much of the African delegation has been won over by western overtures. The answer: a lot.

There is still a good deal of coverage to be done, and many things can still happen. I hope to cover the majority of it. I need to get much better at navigating the different resources provided through the DCA, and I need to be able to integrate some voices that know more than me.

For obvious reasons, subscriber and viewer counts are going way up as I do this coverage. This morning's coverage was about 13% of the overall coverage the denomination as a whole is getting. That proportion is likely to grow over the weeks. Afterwards, I plan to do a series of interviews with people who have been large figures in United Methodism to respond to the decisions of the GC. Then there will be a prolonged period of continuing to cover Methodist doctrine and Global Methodist polity, leading up to the September Convening Conference to the GMC. I'll continue to do commentaries on developments in American Christianity and popular culture more broadly.

Reminders: I don't pocket any of the money you offer. This all goes to building up this ministry, such that Methodism might have a means to have large public conversations. I hope to eventually hire staff and create quality content that creates a renewed sense of Methodist doctrine, discipline, and spirit.

There are currently 31 active supporters, with another 41 members. If any of you know of someone who has benefited from this ministry who has not yet become a supporter, you might encourage them to become one. Let me know what hopes you have as you fund this ministry, as I want to please you all as much as possible.