West Michigan Annual Conference
The West Michigan Conference is one of 59 Annual Conferences of The United Methodist Church in the United States. They are one of 11 members of the North Central Jurisdiction. The West Michigan Annual Conference represents more than 400 local United Methodist churches with approximately 65,000 members in total. The West Michigan Conference Center is located in Grand Rapids and the Episcopal Office is located in Lansing.
Mission
The mission of the conference is to, "Create Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the world."
Districts
The West Michigan Annual Conference is organized into six districts: Albion, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Heartland, Grand Rapids and Grand Traverse. Each district represents between 50 and 70 local churches.
Michigan Area
The conference is one of two in the "Michigan Area." Their sister annual conference is the Detroit Annual Conference. The Michigan Area is led by Bishop Deborah Lieder Kiesey who was assigned to the area in September 2012. She is assigned to the Michigan Area until 2016. The North Central Jurisdiction may extend her assignment until 2020.
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". The final vote tally was as 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.
Conference boundaries
The conference boundaries run north–south from the Indiana state border to the northern tip of the Lower Peninsula. In the opposite direction, they run approximately from US 127, which runs through the center of the state, to Lake Michigan. The major cities in the conference include Grand Rapids, Lansing, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Traverse City.