When I first began this blog I asked Andrew Conard of Thoughts of Resurrection for his advice. He provided several helpful suggestions, one of which was to check out a post called Blogging 101 for Pastors by Church Communications Pro. This is a helpful series of blogs if you are thinking about starting your own, or even improving the one you’ve already got. One of the things that was highly recommended was making lists.
So, taking that advice, here are my Top 10 Highlights of this year’s Oklahoma Annual Conference:
10. One precious hour spent in Barnes and Noble.
9. Reconnecting with colleagues and friends.
8. Lots of great food.
7. The Africa University Choir
6. Gloria Jean Fenn’s election as an alternate lay delegate. (She is the wife of Phil Fenn, who was the first person to take the time to talk to me about my calling to ministry, and she is also very important to my wife.)
5. Lunch with Matt Judkins and Randy Shrauner.
4. Father/son time with my dad, who was one of the lay delegates representing New Haven UMC.
3. Hearing that, as a Conference, we raised over $77,000 to be divided between Africa University and Nothing But Nets.
2. Bishop Palmer’s sermon at the Commissioning service.
1. Finishing!
Kevin M. Watson 
I have attended 3 Oklahoma Annual Conferences and as a business person have always been impressed with the remarkable leadership skills of Bishop Hayes. His spiritual leadership is outstanding. He also demonstrates remarkable meeting management skills, patience and a wonderful ability to recognize others. We are very fortunate to have Bishop Hayes in Oklahoma!
matt w-
thank you for your comment. and thank you for the reminder. we are blessed to have Bishop Hayes as our Bishop. It has been neat to see how widely loved he is within this conference. and he can preach! I can’t wait for him to visit us in Lamont.
Kevin – Thanks for the plug and the top 10 list! Sounds like a great time of connecting with family and friends as well as the work of ministry and the annual conference.
andrew- no problem on the plug. Thanks for all the help you have given me. Conference was all in all a good time.