Bener Agtarap is the executive director of community engagement and church planting for the United Methodist Church.

These 19 people can help you understand the significance of this month’s United Methodist conference on human sexuality.

The Rev. Randy Wall is senior pastor of New Covenant United Methodist Church in Mount Holly, N.C. He’s also the chairman of United Methodist Rural Advocates, a group that advocates on behalf of rural and small-membership churches within the denomination.

The Rev. Althea Spencer-Miller is an assistant professor of New Testament at Drew University Theological School and a United Methodist pastor.

The Rev. Alex da Silva Souto is pastor of New Milford United Methodist Church in New Milford, Conn. He is one of the authors of the Simple Plan, a plan for the future of the United Methodist Church that would involve eliminating all restrictions on LGBTQ clergy and church members from the denomination’s guiding documents. […]

The Rev. Chris Ritter is the directing pastor of Geneseo First United Methodist Church in Geneseo, Ill. He served as a clergy delegate to General Conference in 2016 and the special session on sexuality.

The Rev. Rob Renfroe is pastor of discipleship at The Woodlands United Methodist Church in The Woodlands, Texas. He’s also president of Good News, an organization advocating for the denomination to keep its current policies on human sexuality.

The Rev. Maidstone Mulenga serves as director of communications for the United Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops.

Patricia L. Miller is executive director of the Confessing Movement within the United Methodist Church, a theologically conservative organization. She served on the Commission on a Way Forward, the group tasked with brainstorming potential resolutions to the decades-long debate over LGBTQ ordination and same-sex marriage.