Is AI more like Grinding the Beans or Instant Coffee? (May 30, 2026)

Photo: The UMC Vision Statement

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Good morning friends and blessings on this Saturday morning.

Life has shifted to the summer. For me that is turning attention toward our Annual Conference meeting, which is June 19-21, at Lake Junaluska, with a few days of gatherings leading up to it. We are approximately fifteen hundred laity and clergy from the forty-counties of Western North Carolina, inclusive of Charlotte and Greensboro. I began attending this same conference in 1981 as a candidate for ministry, held in the same setting. I would then be ordained and accepted into conference membership in 1983. I would take my seat with everyone else, or escape for conversation under the oak trees that surround Stuart Auditorium.

And why was that important? There were some friends I only saw once a year at conference. It was and is something of a reunion. So I look forward to seeing people in three weeks.

We begin with worship and holy communion; our opening service is on June 19th, Juneteenth marks a date two years after the Emancipation Proclamation when blacks received the message that they were freed from slavery. That same day includes a land acknowledgement, with a word from a member of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians. Chief Junaluska was a leader of the indigenous people of western North Carolina, he fought alongside Andrew Jackson and was removed on the Trail of Tears (he would later return). The Memorial Service, where we remember clergy and spouses who have died this year, is held the next day, and it begins with Bagpipes in the Scots-Irish Highlander tradition. This also recalls those who escaped harsh economic conditions and religious persecution.

As I have proofed the worship services, praying for the diverse leaders who will lead us and imagining those who will make the journey to Junaluska, I thought of these three traditions that are present in our annual conference–the historic black church, native americans, and the people of appalachia. Annual Conference is a confluence of peoples who have come to United Methodism via different paths, and yes, have remained.

The diversity can be a beautiful thing and it can lead to understandable conflict. That is the struggle of conferencing and God is in the midst of those differences and that struggle. As I prepare, I marvel that a gathering like this seems to be one of the very few places where people with such different stories and backgrounds actually occupy the same space. One of my roles is to mediate, preside and honor truthful speech that at the same time does no harm.

Photo: WNC Annual Conference, with credit to Rev. Angela Burris for the visuals.

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This will be us, in three weekends. Even with unfinished preparations (two sermons among them), I am excited. See you soon, friends. And for those who read Grinding the Beans from our churches in Western North Carolina, what is one of your hopes for our gathering?

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I have adjusted back to eastern standard time as we are farther away from our Wesleyan Pilgrimage in England. I have had BBQ (Haywood Smokehouse) and Mexican (Poppas and Beer), both in Waynesville. I am grinding the beans, mixing Deep Time’s Costa Rica blend with some coffee from Kenya brought to me by a friend who traveled there. I hope you won’t judge me for mixing the two. It was and is quite good.

Photo: The Brisket at Haywood Smokehouse, Waynesville, NC. This did become two meals…

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I am watching the western finals of the NBA tournament. Pam insists there is some kind of conspiracy to take these series to seven games, with the first to win four. The home court advantage seems to be the decisive factor, but I will be watching tonight.

The Braves are 38-19, 8.5 games in first place in their division! The Rays are also first in their division, yet it is a much more competitive one. They are 34-19, a game and a half in front of the Yankees. It will be fun to see all of this unwind through the summer and into the fall.

We are watching Brokenwood Mysteries, season twelve, episode six (Acorn). No spoilers please. If you like British television, I highly recommend both Britbox and Acorn. In our household, I watch sports and Pam watches YouTube videos of house searches or creative projects. The only overlapping area of our Venn diagram is British television.

In Oxford, England, I pointed out the Randolph Hotel, which Colin Dexter would inhabit as he wrote the “Morse” detective novels. I stopped in for a drink. Our guide pointed out areas of that university town that are featured in Morse, the sequel “Lewis”, and the prequel, “Endeavor”.

There are eight seasons of Morse, nine seasons of Lewis, and eight seasons of Endeavor. These episodes are scattered across Britbox, Masterpiece Theater and Prime Video. The entire Morse cycle is superb, and if you are unfamiliar, I have just solved your summer quandary about what to watch.

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A profile of Hakeem Jeffries in the most recent New Yorker is a reflection on his limited influence and ability to effect policy, as minority leader. The question is whether he can lead his party to gain the majority status in the House of Representatives, which in the present moment would give the Democrats some degree of agency in governance. And since we are in essence a one-party system of government now in the U.S., there are no checks and balances around conflicts of interest, or authorization or war, or physical changes to the White House property, or the cost of living. One can lament or rant, or perhaps win an election and govern. That is the possibility posed by the article. It is worth reading.

I am loving “The Wisdom Years” by Margaret Silf. I am beginning to read Pope Leo’s Encyclical on AI, “Magnifica Humanitas”. It is 42,000 words, so I am breaking it down into smaller chunks. Divide and conquer. My goal is to finish it by summer’s end. I recommend reading David Streitfield’s “As A.I Fever Rises in Silicon Valley, Pope Leo Has a Few Words” (NYT, May 25), which sees technology as religion.

My provocative question: “What if AI is the opposite of Grinding the Beans, and is more like Instant Coffee?”

I continue to listen to the music of Jim Lauderdale, Buddy Miller and increasingly, Emmylou Harris. I love her first album, “Pieces of the Sky”, which I remember purchasing in college. I remember it being around $3.50. Yes, time passes.

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My hope for these reflections is that they give us (me) a way to slow down, to reflect, to appreciate life and to find some balance. Silf writes, “Education gives us knowledge. Experience gives us wisdom…but only if we reflect on it.”

Thank you for taking the time to grind the beans and, to reflect on the journey. Summer can give us the space for some of this. Mostly, thank you for your friendship and connection.