Presented by: Rev. Tom Albin

Workshop description:

For the last three years the United Methodist Church has invested significant time, energy and money into the “Call to Action.” Now, the Interim Operations Team is working diligently to prepare the denomination for significant missional change and recommend to the 2012 General Conference new structures and priorities for the 21st century. This workshop is a call to prayer and participation. Together we will understand what is taking place, when the critical times for prayer and discernment are scheduled; and, how we can pray and participate in the transformation of The United Methodist Church. John Wesley taught the early Methodist people, “God does nothing apart from prayer.” If you want to see an outpouring of God race and power within the UMC, come join us in prayer!

Time: Saturday 9 to 11 a.m.

Bio: Rev. Tom Albin is the chair of the 2012 General Conference Prayer Support Team. He currently serves as the Dean of the Upper Room Ministries and Ecumenical Relations in Nashville, Tennessee. The eldest of four children raised on the family farm, Tom's elementary education was in a one-room schoolhouse on the Kansas prairie. He attended Ottawa University, Oral Roberts University, Fuller Theological Seminary and the University of Cambridge in England. Tom is grateful for circuit minister with three congregations who regularly invited people to give their lives to Christ. It was one ordinary Sunday morning when Tom was 11 years old that he responded to the invitation to become a disciple of Jesus Church. Since then, Tom has grown in his understanding and experience of God, serving churches as small as 50 and as large as 5,000 in his home conference of Oklahoma. In 1987 Tom joined the faculty of Boston University School of Theology and taught courses in American Church History, Wesley Studies, Evangelism and Church Growth. The following year he developed a program in Christian Spiritual Formation at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, where he taught until he joined the staff of The Upper Room Ministries in 1999.