A Pastor By Any Other Name

Earlier today, I entered a status update on Facebook: "[Attending] Paducah District Part-Time Local Pastor's Breakfast — at Massac United Methodist Church." And I ask the forgiveness of all for such an update.

A friend of mine sent me a message, "Doesn't it bother you to participate in an institutional caste system, which segregates people into laity, clergy, part-time local pastors, probationers ... yada, yada, yada?.. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. Jesus washed his disciples feet and said the last shall be first."

He's absolutely correct. How horrible of me to call some of the most faithful pastors in the world, "part-time, local pastors." I apologize.

The United Methodist Church has one of the strangest theologies (or lack of theology) where ordination and clergy are concerned. We have various levels/classifications of clergy that confuse everyone and confound any kind of theology of ordination. We have elders who are ordained to Word, Table, Service, and Order; and deacons, who are ordained to Word and service. But then we have provisional members who are commissioned (but not ordained). And then we have local pastors who are licensed (but not ordained). And then we have associate members who itinerate and have security of appointment (but are not ordained). And then we have supply pastors who are NOT licensed (nor are they ordained). In short - there are (at least) 26 different kinds of designations for clergy in the UMC. There isn't a denomination or communion in Christianity that comes anywhere close to that.

An Episcopalian priest, who is an acquaintance of mine, once asked me about all this. "How does someone who's not ordained preside at the sacraments and baptisms and weddings?" After I tried to explain it, I just got a stare and a "Huh?"
Amidst all these distinctions, however, I've found that the congregations they serve usually just call them "pastor." And congregations could care less about all the designations, which really have to do more with insurance, education levels, and denominational status and less about pastoral leadership, ability, and function. In fact, the church in the district I serve that has had more professions of faith than any other church in the district is a small church in a very rural area (NOT experiencing population growth). It is served by a part-time supply pastor who's been appointed there for several years and works a secular job during the week. When I asked him what he could ascribe his church's growth to, he said, "My wife and I got frustrated and wondered what God wanted us to do. So we fasted and prayed. I guess we got God's attention."

Amen.

The UMC has got to get a better theology of ordination. All of the distinctions we draw for elders, local pastors, commissioned pastors, supply pastors - they have nothing to do with theology, they have to do with secular distinctions of status. Anyone who pastors a church should be ordained, and before you say, "we've never done it that way," in fact we have: we used to ordain non-itinerating pastors (the ones we presently called "local pastors") as "local elders." In my opinion, it is very poor theology to allow pastors to preside over the sacraments without the benefit of ordination, and negligence to appoint someone to a church who cannot fulfill all of the functions a congregation needs of a pastor (by the way...theologically, what is a "license?"). After being a D.S. for two years, I've found it is just logistically impossible to have an elder present at all the churches for communion at any given time, and to ask churches to come to worship at another time is unrealistic and beyond inconvenient.

God certainly wants our best. But God also blesses our faithfulness - and our ordination to ministry doesn't start with a bishop's hand on our head - it starts at our baptism, which is for lay and clergy alike. My friend is right: the ground is level at the foot of the cross.

Pax,
Sky+

Firewalled Into Ineffectiveness and Impotence

I have been "on holiday" (as the Irish say) for the past week, but as I've begun to transition back to reality here in O'Hare airport I've gotten several emails and text messages regarding more work by the United Methodist Church's Judicial Council. First, the ruling that the General Conference's work regarding the reforming of the guaranteed pastoral appointment is now null and void; and more recently, the involuntary resignation of Bishop Bledsoe, decided upon by the South Central Jurisdiction based on their evaluation of his ineffectiveness, is also now "null and void." Both are citing church law and a lack of proper due process.

I am not enough of a jurist to say one thing or another about church law, and I am sure that the Judicial Council is acting within their purview and the letter of the law in their rulings. So blaming the judicial council for our woes is probably misplaced. However, their role in these recent events is making one thing abundantly clear: as a denomination, we have firewalled ourselves into impotency regarding transformation. It will be hard to live out our United Methodist mission of "making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world" when we cannot even transform ourselves. In short: we have painted ourselves into an ecclesial organizational corner!

Reinhold Niebuhr made the following observation about organizations: after a period of time, people become less passionate about their original mission and become more self-serving and self-protective. Self-preservation then kicks in and replaces the original purpose and mission.

Sound familiar? Methodism - a reform movement - needs reformed. We're right back where Wesley started. Father John wanted to do a 180°, but instead we have completed a 360°.

Of late and in particular, we have worked so hard to guarantee the protection of a free pulpit in United Methodism that we have made it virtually impossible to exit a pastor or a bishop. While there may have been good reasons in the past to have enacted this, can we defend it now, in light in diminishing resources and evaluative tools? It seems clear - and now with legal precedent - that once elders are ordained and received into full connection, they are virtually "firewalled" and untouchable, regardless of their effectiveness. While I don't know (or need to know) the specific reasons why Bishop Bledsoe was found ineffective, I seriously doubt it was a decision arrived at lightly and without cause. If a jurisdictional episcopacy committee cannot exit an ineffective bishop, I doubt that any other body will be able to exit a pastor. We have firewalled the system so it cannot be changed, and furthermore have now have established legal precedent for such in the eyes of our Judicial Council.

I fear this hastens certain disaster for the United Methodist Church unless change comes quickly. Continuing to have a judicial council rule against needed (and agreed upon) changes in structure will only frustrate everyone and waste precious time and resources that are now at a premium. Why is it so hard to admit that what we have is not working nor is adaptable for use in the 21st century? Are we so willing to preserve what we have at the cost of becoming a dead, lifeless sect? Before anyone says, "This is the way we've always done it," think again - a judicial council is a rather new innovation to Methodism, created by the ME South in 1934, because we wanted to be less "episcopal" and more "democratic" and remove questions of legality from our bishops (where did Jesus ever model democracy?!). If Father John Wesley or Bishop Asbury wanted to make a change, they just made it. We Americans aren't very good at absolute authority, but we presently have the opposite of it in the UMC - we have an episcopacy shackled to lead, but convenient to blame. It's a great system to play armchair quarterback in, but it doesn't make disciples. We're the Pharisees all over again - law is taking the place of faith.

There are some very hard decisions coming for the people called United Methodists, and they involve more than just pensions, health plans, and guaranteed appointments. Are clergy willing to sacrifice knowing that promises formerly made by some in the Church (many who are now dead) may not be able to be kept? Is the Gospel worth that? Are laity willing to step up and become partners in disciple-making, not employing their preacher to do it for them but rather being empowered by their baptism and faith? Will clergy and laity partner together to do ministry as a whole, rather than at variance with each other in role and deed? Will we be able to come together as a denomination, dissolve the present unworkable structure and adopt a new wineskin for a new wine? Or will we go the way of the Lutherans and Presbyterians and split into smaller factions? Will such smaller factions be able to sustain themselves? What would that mean for our brothers and sisters across the world (we are not just an American church)? I am certainly not trying to limit these questions to either/or - the problem is much more multi-faceted than that. But of this I am quite sure: the system will NOT self-correct!

A few years ago Lyle Schaller noted that we may need to do a denominational restart: dissolve the Constitution, the present Book of Discipline, and start from scratch. I think he's right. It will be painful. It will involve compromise and faithfulness. It will only be done in an atmosphere of prayer and trust. But I fear the alternative is to be a loose association of churches where only the strong in numbers and resources will survive. While that seems to be the antithesis of Methodism's method, it is a reality: at present, the UMC needs our larger churches and conferences more than they need the UMC. Unless we find a better way to govern ourselves, we will continue to get what the system is designed to produce - and it's not disciples.

A Lutheran friend of mine once told me: the main problem with you Methodists is that you've lost your Method. I fear he was right: we have a church that is faithful to a dying system rather than one that exists for the purpose of making disciples of Jesus Christ. Some say it's not about numbers - but to the one who has come to know Jesus and wants to make him known, those numbers mean a lot.

I know my blogs often sound like downers and criticisms. But I am convinced until we are brought face to face with the realities of our denomination, we can't lead with any sense of authority or urgency - and these are urgent times. We have to change - and change often means loss of power, loss of security, and loss of identity. However, those are all things that at our baptisms we said we would be willing to give up for the sake of Jesus Christ.

I don't know any greater joy than to be faithful to our Lord. I pray we can be less faithful to a failed system and more faithful to our Lord - whatever the price.

Pax,
Sky+

Repost: "Nurture and Cultivate Spiritual Disciplines and Patterns of Holiness"

Originally blogged on July 21, 2010


"Nurture and cultivate spiritual disciplines and patterns of holiness..." That's not from The Rule of St. Benedict. Nor is it from an objective of a spiritual growth retreat. It is ¶304.1 (b) of the Book of Discipline, the United Methodist's canon law, under the heading "Qualifications for Ordination."

In midst of the numerical decline of much of Protestantism, it seems that we are putting a great deal of emphasis on hospitality, worship, church programming, and communications - and we should be, because those are certainly areas that need shoring up. But when you talk to pastors about spirituality, spiritual direction, spiritual disciplines, etc., you often get a stare in return. I've even heard some say, "That's just too personal." I even heard this one once: "It's all about Jesus, preaching the Word, and getting into the Bible. That spirituality stuff is too Catholic." The smart ass in me considered quoting Scripture to this learned colleague about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, but I resisted. So I simply asked him, "If it's all about Jesus (and it is!), but we can't teach people to pray and be Christologically grouded and formed, who will?" His response was classic: "Well, people should get that at home."

The problem is, I heard that EXACT same thing said when I served on an advisory committee at the seminary I graduated from - by a colleague who should have known better. I had voiced my concern that while we were giving a good theological and historical education, we were doing very little, if any, spiritual formation. To which I was told, "That's not the job of the seminary. Pastors get that on their own." I was much younger at the time and so I kept my young mouth shut. Now I wish I had opened it a little.

But do seminaries engage their students in a conversation about the gravity of choices that they will face or prepare them to make those choices? Does the larger shape of theological education draw their attention to the formative character of the questions asked and answered by its professors? Does the shape of their preparation help them to grasp the difference between a vocation that demands a certain kind of performance from them and the vocation into which they have been called, which requires them to be the kind of people who are possessed by that "basic sense" of what is being asked of them? Are their professors prepared to shape souls as well as intellects? When they graduate, do students have the sense that they have already embarked on that vocation?

As a product of, and participant in, theological education for over three decades, I am inclined to think that the answer to these and other questions is, more often than not, "no." - Frederick W. Schmidt, "What Is Being Asked of You? Canonical Theism and Theological Education", from Canonical Theism, 2008, pp. 273-4.
Schmidt goes on to say that the blame can be place into three areas:

The quest for credibility from the larger academic community - which preferred historical discussions over faith and spiritual experience.

The adoption of the university model for graduate education - which drove professors to be more specialized in a few disciplines and led to religious vocational amnesia

The issues of praxis which diverted the theological task away from spiritual formation towards the importance of leadership, administrative prowness, psychological therapist, and social prophecy

In short, we're teaching pastors a lot about church administration, biblical form criticism, systematic theology (the Barth & Tillich show), social psychology (the Freud and Jung show), and philosophy of religion (the Schleiermacher and Schopenhauer show). I learned these things - and they are certainly important things.

But what about lectio divina? Patristics (the Early Church Fathers)? Prayer offices? Spiritual disciplines?  Spiritual discernment? Incarnational theology? Pneumatology (study of the Holy Spirit)? Sacramental theology? Discipleship and disciple-ing? Sanctification? I was very blessed by Don Saliers and Ted Hackett, mentors of mine, to develop an interest and passion for these things. But it was self-directed - it was not a mandatory part of the seminary curriculum for United Methodists (or any other Protestants), and to my knowledge it still is not. That leads me to believe we need to quit calling them "seminaries" and start calling them "schools of theology." Good information, but no anchor or undergirding of where these things fit in a life lived with Christ.

If we clergy cannot locate ourselves in our Christian quest and pilgrimage, we certainly cannot lead our churches to see where they are located in the Kingdom of God. We cannot lead with any sense of spiritual or theological authority (only that which is granted by the Book of Discipline!). We cannot tell the Christian story from a standpoint of faith - just from the standpoint as recorded by history.

Schmidt says, most importantly, those who teach present and future clergy must "remember that it is not enough to learn what it is that clergy do. They need to be in touch with what it is that clergy are meant to become. Their own relationship with God, their growth in faith, and the practice of spiritual disciplines are keys to that becoming and to the knowing that accompanies it. In turn, those same experiences are indispensable to the seminarians' own ability to make disciples of others." (p. 285)

If we pastors are mandated to "nurture and cultivate spiritual disciplines and patters of holiness" for our congregations (and we are), then we had better learn them ourselves. According to the Book of Discipline, it's not just "Catholic" - it's Methodist, too. I'm convinced it's Christian to the core.

Sounds like we better get on this. Soon.

Pax,
Sky+

Not Your Parents' D.S.

Recently passed legislation changed the job description of a district superintendent in the United Methodist Church for the next four years. New language is highlighted:

¶ 419. As an extension of the office of bishop, the district superintendent shall oversee the total ministry of the clergy (including clergy in extension ministry and ministry beyond the local church) and of the churches in the communities of the district in their missions of witness and service in the world. 

   1. The Church expects, as part of the superintendent ministry, that the superintendent will be the chief missional strategist of the district...working with persons across the Church to develop programs of ministry and mission which extend the witness of Christ into the world.

I've always believed that superintendents were largely managers in the denomination, basically functioning as suffragan bishops for a particular geographic area. But in many ways, this new Disciplinary language is reshaping the superintendency - and I think for the better, with more emphasis on mission and ministry and less upon administration. But like so many things in the United Methodist Church, it's a radical shift in thinking and doing. Some conferences (like North Carolina) are beginning to hire assistants to the district superintendent (mostly laity) to aid in the transition. My conference has had district lay resource leaders in place for a few years that serve as deployed conference staff in our districts (and they do a fantastic job!). So already, some conferences are transitioning and adapting to a new way of helping local churches be more vital and have more clarity in focus and mission.

I wrestled last winter and spring on how to handle charge conferences for 2012. Some church leaders believe that having individual charge conferences are outmoded and worthless. Others say that resorting to cluster charge conferences adds to the crisis of relevance and disconnect. After a lot of prayer and discernment, I resolved to do individual charge conferences, but to make them more of a dialogue and conference - in the spirit of John Wesley - where we talk about the things that matter: vision, mission, what was effective, what was not.

Having completed about half of them, I've learned quite a bit:

1. There is a lot of distrust out there. We superintendents have sometimes kept congregations in the dark and often made clergy the priority instead of the local church. In short - we haven't always been transparent.
2. Both clergy and laity are uncomfortable using language about mission, evangelism, and salvation. In the defense of clergy, it hasn't been a priority of seminaries who train clergy or boards of ministry who credential them. Superintendents really didn't mentor pastors very well - again, in their defense, it wasn't a priority: keeping "the machine running," making sure apportionments were paid, and getting appointments made were the priorities.
3. There are more than a few churches who are 1 or 2 funerals away from having to make very tough decisions about budgets and personnel - affecting not just the local church and district, but the annual conference and larger Connection as well.

But I've also learned something wonderful and encouraging: we have some wonderful, talented, gifted, and very generous laity in our churches! And despite the mistrust and misgivings of many, their faithfulness endures! I can't explain it otherwise in a local church which is, in essence, a voluntary organization. In our annual conference, the work of the district lay resource leader is becoming pivotal in short and long-range strategies, giving local churches a model for effective lay leadership. God is FAR from done with us! As our bishop, Bishop McAlilly continues to tell us: expect greater things!

I am slowly realizing that, like John Wesley, we district superintendents need to "submit to be more vile and proclaim the glad tidings of salvation." Being the "chief missional strategists" of the district, I think we can do no less - and Christ expects no less.

Pax,

Sky+

Silos among Silos

Silo Mentality: An attitude found in some organizations that occurs when several departments or groups do not want to share information or knowledge with other individuals in the same company. A silo mentality reduces efficiency and can be a contributing factor to a failing corporate culture. (definition from investopedia.com)

 I am not a fan of silo mentality, and in fairness, Jim Winkler (General Secretary of the General Board of Church & Society of the UMC) wrote an article a few months ago how some United Methodist's have used the word "silo" as code for a "good guy courageously standing up against the big, bad general agencies of the denomination." While I disagree with that characterization, I do agree with a statement he makes at the end of his article: "...let’s admit that The United Methodist Church doesn’t have silos only at the general church level. We have more than 40,000 silos sprinkled across Africa, Europe, the Philippines and the United States."

Yes. We do.

 If we boil these things down to a conference, district, and local church level, we find silos everywhere: at a conference level, we have board of ministry silos and cabinet silos. We tell each other that boards of ministry credential pastors, and cabinets appoint them, and the twain shall never meet, and do so (or rather, don't) under the guise of accountability and check-and-balance. Now that sounds good on paper (it's in the Book of Discipline!), and it's probably a good way to run government. We preachers learned in seminary or course of study that our church polity is set up like our government: we have an executive branch (bishops), a legislative branch (the General Conference), and a judicial branch (the Judicial Council). My question is this: is this the way to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world? I think if we were honest, we've been less about accountability and more about distrust. Hence, a silo mentality: you do your thing, and we'll do our thing, and not let the left hand know what the right hand is doing.

At a conference level, it goes beyond cabinets and boards of ministry: Connectional ministry teams/conference council offices, United Methodist Women & Men, conference camping ministries, conference trustees, campus ministries, conference agencies and committees. At the local church level: trustees, Sunday School classes, UMW circles, PPR committees, cemetery committees, finance committees... you get the idea. Again, if we are not careful, silo mentality will trump making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, every time. All of our structures look good on paper, but without prayer, sacrifice, and a servant-mentality, they lend themselves to become silos among silos.

What a negative image! And how obtuse of us to think that we are better by distancing ourselves from each other instead of working together! It's certainly not a biblical nor traditional model of life and servanthood in the Kingdom.

 Enough of the negative - what about the positive? What about the genius of Methodism - being connected! Being connected in Spirit, being connected in structure, being connected and united in purpose and being! We have one of the greatest methods of being Christ for the world and making disciples, but we superimpose our individualism and need to "protect our own turf" over our connection, and by doing so we get the results that logic would expect us to get: silos instead of tables. Fences instead of bridges. Fenced-in backyard decks instead of open front porches. When we're not set up to foster relationships and work with each other, we'll become insular and intolerant instead of the community-oriented and collaborative disciples Christ taught us to be.

 This year, the district I serve is doing individual charge conferences as opposed to cluster or a district-wide charge conference. What I am rediscovering is that the United Methodist Church is ignoring one of its greatest resources: the people who make up our churches, ordained by their baptisms and gifted by our Lord with talent and ability beyond our imaginations. We are a rich Church, and yet if we are not willing to be changed we will bankrupt ourselves into a structure that is not only lifeless, but unsustainable.

“Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward. 

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea." - Mark 9:38-42 (NIV)

We're all on the same team! Cabinets and boards of ministry, UMW's and Sunday School classes, trustees and youth fellowships, laity and clergy, General Boards and local churches. Whoever is not against us is for us, and we are a gifted and talented bunch: ordained by our baptisms, and sent forth to make disciples. That's not just a good idea, it's our mission and mandate.

Pax,
Sky+

How Long, O Lord...

Because it is October, and I haven't been paying attention to what's happening in baseball (my father's ashes are churning in his urn), I checked the league standings online. Man... the Cubs can't buy a game! It looks like the only thing they can give thanks about is the Astros.

I thought they had a chance in '08, and I rooted for them hard, only to be disappointed in the end. I blogged about it then, and I think the 13th Psalm is still in order - and for things other than baseball!

Keep praying for the Cubbies. They need it.

Pax,
Sky+

---

(Originally posted Monday, October 6, 2008)

I am not a die-hard Cubs fan, though I do have a preference for the National League. But it's hard not to root for the Cubs if they get into post-season.

All I can figure is that the Cubbies must be cursed. A great regular season... and then in the playoffs, they boot the ball out in the field, and have no bats at the plate.

I just don't know what else to say. I'll just let the psalmist lament for me:

1 How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me? 

2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

4 my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.

6 I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me. - Psalm 13

Please keep Cubs players and fans in your prayers. Their mourning will not be short.

Pax,
Sky+

Rerun: "Nurture and Cultivate Spiritual Disciplines and Patterns of Holiness"

Originally posted on Wednesday, July 21, 2010


"Nurture and cultivate spiritual disciplines and patterns of holiness..." That's not from The Rule of St. Benedict. Nor is it from an objective of a spiritual growth retreat. It is ¶304.1 (b) of the Book of Discipline, the United Methodist's canon law, under the heading "Qualifications for Ordination."

In midst of the numerical decline of much of Protestantism, it seems that we are putting a great deal of emphasis on hospitality, worship, church programming, and communications - and we should be, because those are certainly areas that need shoring up. But when you talk to pastors about spirituality, spiritual direction, spiritual disciplines, etc., you often get a stare in return. I've even heard some say, "That's just too personal." I even heard this one once: "It's all about Jesus, preaching the Word, and getting into the Bible. That spirituality stuff is too Catholic." The smart ass in me considered quoting Scripture to this learned colleague about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, but I resisted. So I simply asked him, "If it's all about Jesus (and it is!), but we can't teach people to pray and be Christologically grouded and formed, who will?" His response was classic: "Well, people should get that at home."

The problem is, I heard that EXACT same thing said when I served on an advisory committee at the seminary I graduated from - by a colleague who should have known better. I had voiced my concern that while we were giving a good theological and historical education, we were doing very little, if any, spiritual formation. To which I was told, "That's not the job of the seminary. Pastors get that on their own." I was much younger at the time and so I kept my young mouth shut. Now I wish I had opened it a little.

But do seminaries engage their students in a conversation about the gravity of choices that they will face or prepare them to make those choices? Does the larger shape of theological education draw their attention to the formative character of the questions asked and answered by its professors? Does the shape of their preparation help them to grasp the difference between a vocation that demands a certain kind of performance from them and the vocation into which they have been called, which requires them to be the kind of people who are possessed by that "basic sense" of what is being asked of them? Are their professors prepared to shape souls as well as intellects? When they graduate, do students have the sense that they have already embarked on that vocation?

As a product of, and participant in, theological education for over three decades, I am inclined to think that the answer to these and other questions is, more often than not, "no." - Frederick W. Schmidt, "What Is Being Asked of You? Canonical Theism and Theological Education", from Canonical Theism, 2008, pp. 273-4.

Schmidt goes on to say that the blame can be place into three areas:

• The quest for credibility from the larger academic community - which preferred historical discussions over faith and spiritual experience.
• The adoption of the university model for graduate education - which drove professors to be more specialized in a few disciplines and led to religious vocational amnesia
• The issues of praxis which diverted the theological task away from spiritual formation towards the importance of leadership, administrative prowness, psychological therapist, and social prophecy

In short, we're teaching pastors a lot about church administration, biblical form criticism, systematic theology (the Barth & Tillich show), social psychology (the Freud and Jung show), and philosophy of religion (the Schleiermacher and Schopenhauer show). I learned these things - and they are certainly important things.

But what about lectio divina? Patristics (the Early Church Fathers)? Prayer offices? Spiritual disciplines? Spiritual discernment? Incarnational theology? Pneumatology (study of the Holy Spirit)? Sacramental theology? Discipleship and disciple-ing? Sanctification? I was very blessed by Don Saliers and Ted Hackett, mentors of mine, to develop an interest and passion for these things. But it was self-directed - it was not a mandatory part of the seminary curriculum for United Methodists (or any other Protestants), and to my knowledge it still is not. That leads me to believe we need to quit calling them "seminaries" and start calling them "schools of theology." Good information, but no anchor or undergirding of where these things fit in a life lived with Christ.

If we clergy cannot locate ourselves in our Christian quest and pilgrimage, we certainly cannot lead our churches to see where they are located in the Kingdom of God. We cannot lead with any sense of spiritual or theological authority (only that which is granted by the Book of Discipline!). We cannot tell the Christian story from a standpoint of faith - just from the standpoint as recorded by history.

Schmidt says, most importantly, those who teach present and future clergy must "remember that it is not enough to learn what it is that clergy do. They need to be in touch with what it is that clergy are meant to become. Their own relationship with God, their growth in faith, and the practice of spiritual disciplines are keys to that becoming and to the knowing that accompanies it. In turn, those same experiences are indispensable to the seminarians' own ability to make disciples of others." (p. 285)

If we pastors are mandated to "nurture and cultivate spiritual disciplines and patters of holiness" for our congregations (and we are), then we had better learn them ourselves. According to the Book of Discipline, it's not just "Catholic" - it's Methodist, too. I'm convinced it's Christian to the core.

Sounds like we better get on this. Soon.

Pax,
Sky+

Rerun: Everything That We Know, All That We Love?

I wrote this in August of 2006... and quite frankly, forgot I wrote it. It's not half bad - and today, I needed this reminder about discipleship.

 Pax,

 Sky+

---

  Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: you are mine. When you pass through the water, I will be with you; in the rivers you shall not drown. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned; the flames shall not consume you. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your savior. - Isaiah 43:1-3

That's me at a much younger age... and wearing something different from a clerical collar and suit.

I rarely watch movies or television shows about firefighters; I was a firefighter and EMS responder for over 12 years, and I either get bothered about technical inaccuracies or too caught up in the emotions. But I watched a good movie the other night; Ladder 49. A little bit about the movie:

Under the watchful eye of his mentor Captain Mike Kennedy (John Travolta), probationary firefighter Jack Morrison (Joaquin Phoenix) matures into a seasoned veteran at a Baltimore fire station. Jack has reached a crossroads, however, as the sacrifices he's made have put him in harm's way innumerable times and significantly impacted his relationship with his wife and kids. Responding to the worst blaze in his career, he becomes trapped inside a 20-story building. And as he reflects on his life, now Assistant Chief Kennedy frantically coordinates the effort to save him.

I went into several burning buildings in my life, and I always prayed the words above from Isaiah each time. Contrary to what most people believe, firefighters are usually scared of fire – because they intimately know what it can do and how powerful it can be. I’ve never failed to be thankful that I was never seriously hurt. In all of those years I only had one close call.

Twelve years in the fire service also taught me a lot about camaraderie, teamwork, and brother/sisterhood. You put your trust into so many persons: the person on the nozzle with you, the pump operator supplying water, the rapid intervention team who will come in after you if something goes wrong, the officer in charge of the incident… the list goes on. Even weeks of training at the fire academy couldn't wholly prepare me for the real thing. I remember going into my first burning house with Jerry, a seasoned firefighter. The room next to us suddenly flashed, and I wanted to run, run, run. He put a hand on my back and said, “We’re okay. I’m not gonna let you get hurt.” And then he proceeded to teach me how to cool down a room, how to fog your nozzle stream, and how to think like the fire in order to find it and extinguish it. I learned the difference between acceptable risks and stupid risks. He helped make me a good firefighter. And I passed on the craft to others as I got older.

Most firefighter shows and movies end with a tragic death, and having officiated at three firefighter funerals myself, it’s the part I don’t want to see of the movie. The wail of bagpipes, the lineup of firefighters and engines from neighboring departments, honor guards, dress uniforms – all very impressive, and all very depressing to me.

But Ladder 49 was a little different. A funeral takes place in a large Catholic church. In his eulogy, Chief Kennedy concludes by asking the congregation to stand and give thanks for the life of the fallen firefighter. The congregation stands, and they clapped with thunderous applause. Firefighters saluted. They walked in formation behind a fire engine that served as a hearse for the coffin. It was respectful, and it was a celebration.

It begs the question: why does the fire service, law enforcement, and the military have the best funerals?

My hunch is that it has something to do with the way we approach Christian discipleship… or more accurately, how we don’t approach it. Churches often get a rap for being cold, unapproachable, or even downright unfriendly. Worse, it’s been said that the Church is one of the few institutions that shoots its wounded. While I might take exception with anyone saying these things to my face, the fact that they’re said means that the perception is there.

One of the tag lines for Ladder 49’s movie trailer is this: “Everything they know, all that they love, is what they risk every day.”

Man, that’s good. I wish someone had thought of it for the United Methodist Church before we adopted “Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors.”

The observation has often been made that many bars have better community life than some churches. I would place public service personnel even higher than that. Why is it that the Church abdicates to other organizations the very ideals and roles that it is supposed to excel and take a lead in? And why is everyone else taking risks while the Church plays it safe?

Kurt Vonnegut once said, “I can think of no more stirring symbol of man’s humanity to man than a fire engine.” I pray that one day, people will once again say that about the Church... and the Cross.

Inconvenient Truths

Sometimes, even the elephant in the room has his head in the sand.

It's a quote from a Star Trek movie (First Contact), admittedly with a gender bias, but it certainly applies: "Don't try to be a great man. Just be a man, and let history make its own judgment." I think if you're going to be an elder in the United Methodist Church, it is good advice - and if you are going to be a district superintendent (or "presiding elder," as one lay leader in Paducah calls me), you really need to be a man/woman and let God be the judge of what you do. That means saying and doing some tough things in the name of the Lord. What follows are some tough things that I think need saying in light of a church that is in desperate need of renewal. I think our laity are desperate for it.

1. Changing the stance on homosexuality in the United Methodist Church will not stop the loss of membership in the denomination. It's at best a red herring and at worst a lie to espouse otherwise. The Southern Baptist Church continues to lose membership; they are in their fifth year of decline, and they have a very decisive, very clear statement on their opposition to homosexuality. On the other side of the issue, the Episcopal Church also has a very decisive and clear statement on homosexuality, where they bless and celebrate same-sex unions as they do male-female marriages, even though doing so separated them from the Anglican Communion. Did it help them gain members? Their membership is now lower than it was in 1939.

The loss of membership in both denominations, as well as in the UMC, can reasonably point to one reason: failure to make disciples. We can blame society, we can blame the president and Congress, we can even blame MTV. But we can't blame our stances on homosexuality. The fact that I hold an orthodox view on this issue and agree with my denomination's stance doesn't let me off the hook for anything - that has nothing to do with a failure to make disciples in the name of Jesus Christ. And yes... that is what it says in Greek: μαθητεύω - to make a disciple  - it's a verb, aorist tense, imperative, plural, second person. And as Dallas Willard reminds us, we are more often guilty of the Great Omission: once we baptize folks, and/or they have been converted to follow Christ, we seem to forget the rest: "teaching them to do everything that [Jesus] commanded you." That's discipleship. We have failed at discipleship - we suck at it! -  and have for several generations.

2. The United Methodist Church has a 1970's polity set up for a 21st century church. That line is not original - I am stealing it from Bishop Scott Jones. And he might have stolen it from Lyle Schaller, who said in The Ice Cube is Melting that we should delete the Restrictive Rules so that our Constitution and Discipline could be more easily amended, thus allowing the living - rather than the dead - to write the Rule and rules to govern our Church. Before you holler too much that this is too much like a congregational system, consider Schaller's words that the heart of our covenant in the UMC isn't the covenant between individuals, but rather real estate (trust clause), the pastoral appointment system, and the paying of apportionments. If it were individuals keeping covenant, we wouldn't have folks (a) threatening to do same-sex marriages, (b) openly showing disdain for the authority of bishops, and/or (c) either threatening not to pay their apportionments or simply advocating not paying them.

3. As GC2012 clearly illustrated, we are a denomination united by our mistrust.  Look how our Book of Disciplines get thicker and thicker. Look how a committee (Higher Education and Ministry) significantly and with prayerful intent wrestled with and dealt with the issue of guaranteed appointments, realized that we are in a different season in the UMC, and came to a general consensus on the issue (I was in the room). Yet those wonderful folks were still met with distrust and flat out ugliness. On the GC floor, it was not the will of the body (whom I assume, perhaps incorrectly, is a praying body) to reconsider it. It passed. But now folks are gleefully looking for nooks, crannies, and outs to have it overturned, hoping that our United Methodist Supreme Court will rule in their favor. Folks say that ethnic minorities and women (and older clergy, and __________, ___________, and ___________) will suffer if the guaranteed appointment is overturned. That's just a plain lack of faith in God and in the people called Methodists, and a bit of an entitlement given that few in our pews have guaranteed jobs. I've heard that someone came up with a statistic that only 3% of our clergy are ineffective. Of course, I've also heard that in ancient times, before we had statistics, we simply had to rely on lies to support us when we didn't like the way an argument was going...

4. We want accountability... up to a point. The United States is becoming an increasingly anti-authoritarian, ruggedly-individualistic, entitlement-driven society. Generally, we don't like to be told what to do, we are selfish and self-absorbed, and we do not wish to be beholden to anyone. I certainly resemble some of these things myself. The problem with these things is that they are antithetical to a covenant community - which, at least on paper, is how the United Methodist Church is constructed. The problem is obvious: we cannot sustain a covenant community in such a reality, either financially or mechanically. Clergy increasingly itinerate only if it is convenient for their family, or only if they can keep the house that they own. Twenty-first century realities are that the clergy are no longer single men who can live out of a saddlebag with a prayerbook, Discipline, and Bible in it. The itinerancy is probably outdated and may even need to be ditched. However, along with that goes the guaranteed appointment (and who knows what will happen in the fall when the Judicial Council meets). We can't have our cake and eat it, too! With declining numbers and actuarial realities, we cannot possibly continue to support General Boards, clergy pensions and insurance, conference structures, missions, and the like. What that means is that demands cannot continue to be made on a system that is no longer sustainable. Of course, that means blame will have to be shifted, too. And related to this is...

5. We do not trust authority nor want authority... until we need someone to blame. It's certainly human nature, and certainly a part of the Church. In my own annual conference, the only 'argument' was over one budgetary item: Item 4. District Superintendents. A $23,800 line-item increase (i.e., raise) was requested by CF&A (not by the cabinet), in an overall budget that had been reduced by $223,174. A retiree moved that this line item resort back to the previous year's budget. A large membership church pastor also spoke against the raise and said that his staff were not taking any raises and that the cabinet needed to step up and show leadership in this area (again, we didn't ASK for a raise. I guess they wanted us to jump up and refuse it). A campus minister also spoke against the budget increase. As did a deacon. As did the retiree who initially made the motion and got up once more to make his point (I think we were already getting the idea!). It was interesting to me how the discussion centered on district superintendents instead of CF&A, and that the other $9,126,189 wasn't debated (there were budgeted reductions and increases in other areas that we not debated). Someone sent me a text message during debate and said that everyone was getting in their last say before guaranteed appointments go away - which got a chuckle and put it all into perspective for me. In the end, our action reduced the budget by 0.26%. After that, we worshiped and celebrated the pastoral appointments and the conference in general. We were reminded that our conference theme for the week was "Extravagant Generosity." That brought a smile too.

Now, I don't need (and certainly don't deserve) a raise; to quote a friend of mine, we don't deserve anything. One person came up to me and swore that he believed that the motion to decrease the budget wasn't personal. I overhead another person come up to the new D.S. and say, "We're not blaming you," (I'm still trying to reconcile those two statements). I certainly won't judge the motives of individuals and am content to let God deal with the spirit of others' as well as my own. But the fact of the matter is that the cabinet made some tough calls this year that were not well-received. Those tough calls are not going to go away; they're going to get harder. My prediction is that the superintendency (general or district) is going to be an even harder task as resources become more scarce. In this day and age, managing the UMC has become a nightmare, but that's what D.S.'s primarily do - manage. And a bishop's task - to manage AND lead - is a noble one. But today, it has become a near-impossible task. It is only possible by God's help.

6. Things are going to get harder before they get easier. So are sacrifices. Folks say, "What have you got to worry about - D.S.'s always get taken care of." The odds are high when a D.S. comes off the cabinet in the Memphis conference, s/he will go to an appointment that pays less, they will have to sell a house and possibly buy another and probably take a small financial hit (this is not a good market to sell a house in currently). In the last 10 years I only know of two superintendents who got "raises" after serving on the cabinet; there just aren't that many large membership churches in our conference. As I shared in an earlier blog, being a D.S. doesn't mean you have arrived; it is at best a 'side-step.' Plus, the bishop who appointed me on the cabinet reminded me in the last appointment letter I got, that I am not 'guaranteed' this level salary when I go off the cabinet. But I don't think I'll go hungry, either.

All of the above is my personal situation. On a much larger scale, diminishing congregations mean diminishing resources. Some say the death tsunami isn't real, but I'd say what I'm seeing in UMC's is real: if the people who are dying aren't replaced, we're in real trouble financially and resourcefully. Will we be able to sustain the number of clergy we have? I have no idea. Will I have a pension when I retire? I have no idea (it's a defined benefit only as long as conferences pay 100% into it - how long will THAT last?).

I think people will always be people hungry for the Word and faithful to God. Will some congregations  always be able to pay their pastor a full-time wage? Unless things change... highly doubtful.

7. A local issue: The Memphis and Tennessee Conferences will never merge voluntarily until they adjust (one way or another) medical benefits for retirees. It's not an easy issue. Do retirees in the Memphis Conference want to lose enhanced medical benefits? No. But if I were a member of the Tennessee Conference, would I want to inherit a potential benefit obligation of $24 million (an actuarial estimate)? Of course not. The solution isn't difficult, and Obamacare may solve it for us (and no, I'm not advocating Obamacare): strike the present medical benefits for retirees of the Memphis Conference. The Tennessee Conference, as well as 17 other conferences, do not offer such benefits. We'd be on an even playing field. No unfunded liabilities anywhere (you can look these up conference-by-conference by clicking here and going to page 19).

Is that fair, equitable, or just? That is a completely different question. But the real question should boil down to this: what is best for the Kingdom? What is best for the Church and the lay folks we serve? Clergy are to serve, not be served, per ordination vows. If merging our conferences is the best thing theologically and missionally, shouldn't we be doing it regardless of the costs? That should be the only issue that is important. Are we willing to take the microphone and address that issue?

Ed Stetzer, who is the President of Lifeway Research of the Southern Baptist Church, says that cultural decline is not a good excuse for denominational decline; indeed, the only way the church will grow and take discipleship seriously means change. He sadly added, "Denominations don't change until the pain of staying the same grows greater than the pain of changing." If he's right, we're in for a lot more pain.

The Good News is that God is God, and He still puts up with us. If the UMC doesn't survive, God will use another means to do Kingdom work. As we stand right now, I suspect we have come full circle to where John Wesley started - we have become what he sought to renew. But this could be a very exciting time for the people called Methodists: we could reclaim the spirit that birthed us into a world that desperately needs it. The question is: will we?

I still like my job. More to the point, I am still humbled that God would use me in this way. May God continue to humble all of us into doing whatever it takes to make disciples for Jesus Christ.

Pax,
Sky+

World War II and August, 1945

PFC William Howard McCracken
MIA, April 17, 1945
Monterumici Hill, Italy

My dad lost an older brother in World War II, Howard.  While I never met him, I nonetheless feel a void whenever I think about wars, Memorial and Veterans Days. My cousin, Linda Thomson, has done a lot of genealogical research of our family, including investigating all of the known records about how my uncle went missing near the end of the war in Italy.

I never talked to my father much about Howard, but I heard him give a United Methodist Men's devotional once about death and the need for closure - and how his family never had any closure about Howard. That was the extent of what I really knew about how he dealt with losing a brother and yet having no body to bury. Another uncle, Dewey, served in WW II as well, but remained stateside as an aircraft mechanic. My uncle Ed was the last to see Howard, taking him to a movie and then dropping him off at a train station for a late train ride to service.

As progressive as my father was about some things, he was never a pacifist. When I asked him about it once, he said, "You can't let innocent people get beaten up." And I think he's right. Which explains why he did not try to get out of being drafted when Korea came, and he served as a radio operator in the infantry. He was in Korea when the war (police action) ended... and came home. While I have never heard anyone say anything about it, I imagine his parents were thankful beyond measure.

Dad left us a lot of his writings over the years, and below is a poem he wrote about his memories about the bombs being dropped in Japan. Like most war veterans, Dad rarely talked about his experience of it. And while he was too young to have served in World War II, having lost a brother in it affected him and his family in ways I can't begin to imagine. However, this poem probably tells me more about what he thought about war than anything.

PFC Kenneth Don McCracken
Outside Communications Tent, Korea

AUGUST, 1945
By Dr. Don McCracken, as published in Songs from the North Fork

I forgot to do something yesterday.
I forgot to be thankful that I did not know that now we could destroy the world.
We have now demonstrated that [we] can destroy sizable chunks of it.
Cities lay in ruin yesterday; now the earth might lie in ruins.
The war is now over in Europe; soon it will be over in Asia.
But at what cost!
At the cost of power to destroy the earth.

I don’t want to die; I am only fifteen;
But I have seen people die; more than that, I have heard of millions dying.
Man’s inhumanity to man has been pushed to the limit;
Yet, many of us survive.

But, now the potential for destruction has magnified
When man wants to be inhumane, he can do it in mass fashion.
It might take a while for the bombs like that dropped on Hiroshima to destroy Everything;
But this is the first model, and models “improve,” don’t they?
And I fear “Improvement.”

Oh, once, a teacher talked about atomic power and the energy that held atoms together;
And what it would do if it could be unleashed,
But I thought that it was some abstract theory,
And folks say that what’s good in theory won’t work in practice.
But the folks are wrong; the theory works. I wish it didn’t.

I want to live, but it is more than that.
I want to be survived.
When other people died, others survived them; I want the same;
I will die happier if I know others still live.
For years, I have dreamed about the end of the war;
And now that it is over, my dream has changed to a nightmare.

I pray that, one day, we as a world may embrace the peace of Christ. War robs us of way too much.

Pax,
Sky+

Being a D.S. Doesn't Mean You've Arrived

I've written blogs here and here about being a "new" district superintendent. I don't think I can consider myself new after a year (and two months, twenty-six days, eight hours, and fifty minutes). I'm certainly not an old hand either, but I am convinced of this: being a D.S. doesn't mean you've "arrived." If anything, it tells me how ministry is a quest - and unlike a pilgrimage, one may never "arrive" in the journey of a quest, because it's destination is unknown. We have no idea where following Christ will take us.

While we Methodists don't use the term, being a D.S. is akin to being a suffragan or auxiliary bishop in the Catholic or Anglican traditions; you don't ordain or make rulings of canon/church law, but, because an episcopal area is so large it is impossible for one sole person to perform all the tasks of oversight, you perform the administrative and managerial work of the Church, and assist the bishop in the appointing and overseeing of pastors and churches.

At one time, D.S.'s were chosen based on seniority, who was "due", or where you were located on the infamous "salary sheet" that some clergy had obtained (but don't tell anyone where you got it!) that had been photocopied so many times as to be almost illegible. In a day where United Methodism is in so need of change, however, I think we are seeing a shift towards adaptive leadership, and bishops are giving new thought to who should be on a cabinet. While Bishop Will Willimon has often provoked ire among many, I think his new book Bishop is helping the UMC clarify the role of bishop and superintendent: Bishops need to be primarily leaders, D.S.'s need to be primarily managers. There is of course overlap; leadership and management are companions, and in these days in the Church, both need to be adaptive. How we used to do things has GOT to change, if we want different results. And that means the way D.S.'s are selected, necessarily, has changed. To quote Willimon:

Persons to be considered for the role of DS need not have been in their clergy careers the greatest preachers, the most learned teachers, or the most caring pastors. They must be leaders who have taken opportunities in their churches for risk-taking in order to produce change and managers who are willing to shoulder the responsibilities of supervision.

Later in the book, he raises the difficulty that few clergy have the experience of making tough decisions and making critical judgments about other people. However, in the UMC, if bishops and D.S.'s don't do this, no one else will. I suspect the best candidates for D.S. might be second-career folks who were previously in management where they evaluated others job-performance, hired and fired employees, and made decisions directly bearing on the life or death of a business. One of my colleagues on the cabinet is a former nurse who supervised other nurses and made life-or-death decisions every day. While I have been in ordained ministry longer than she has, I envy her supervisory and managerial experience. I suspect 20+ years as a college and high-school basketball and baseball official, learning good listening and game-management skills, has been as helpful as anything in dealing with pastors and congregations.

Several things keep me humble:

• The UMC, at least in the U.S., is dying.
• While I've been in ministry 25 years, most of the people I supervise and deal with are older than me (the median age of our denomination is between 55-59).
• I am the shepherd of 8900 laypeople and 60-some clergy. Not as large as some districts, or even as a few UMC churches, but large enough to make my insides quake.
• Assisting in making pastoral appointments is hard, given that the local church is (and should be) the priority, that pastors are less willing to fully itinerate, and that over the years we clergy (myself included) have not obtained the skill-sets we need for the 21st century Church.
• I used to be one who looked at D.S.'s with disdain, being anti-authority as most younger adults usually are. Now I'm the bureaucrat who probably can't preach his way out of a wet paper bag.
• The UMC, at least in the U.S., is dying.

The biggest humbler? Jesus Christ is Lord. And as the apostle Paul told us in 1 Timothy, the job of bishops/overseers is to take care and manage God's church. If it's dying, then I am failing.

So have I "arrived?" I can answer that one quickly and succinctly: hell no. At best, being a D.S. is a side-step, not a step up. And in a denomination that is dying, being a manager in it probably isn't the best thing to put on one's resume. 

My prayer is that I am being faithful, am always faithful, and that in making tough decisions and taking risks, I may also be the clay that God can mold and adapt for His will and purpose. 

Pax,

Sky+

180 Years for Broadway UMC Today

Broadway United Methodist celebrates heritage

BY REBECCA FELDHAUS rfeldhaus@paducahsun.com

Sunday is an important day for all Methodists, but Broadway United Methodist Church congregants have a special reason to rejoice.

The picturesque downtown church celebrates 180 years of faith and fellowship Sunday on the annual Methodist Heritage Sunday. Much of the heritage they’ll celebrate surrounds the history of collaboration at Broadway UMC, Sara Penry said. Penry, church historian and chairwoman of anniversary activities, has been with Broadway UMC since 1951. Along with a steadfast building and growing new membership, the church will honor members who have been with the church for 50 years or longer.

Penry recalls the ecumenical efforts over the years. Come Lent and Advent, Broadway UMC members are easily spotted with other downtown churchgoers of differing denominations, she said. Many of the churches originally located downtown have moved to more suburban areas. Twice congregants voted to stay in the original location, rather than following the relocation trend, Penry said.

As the oldest church in Paducah, founded in 1832, Broadway United Methodist Church is intrinsically linked to the history of the city itself, according to Penry. In 1929, lightning hit the church, and the pastor had to hold services in the McCracken County Courthouse. The pastor sat at the judge’s bench and the choir was in the jury box, she said.

Rev. Joe Beal has been senior pastor at Broadway UCM since June 2010. He came in as associate minister in April 2009, when Northside United Methodist Church merged with the downtown location. Beal has enjoyed his time at Broadway UMC largely in part to the community service opportunities. The church also has a strong musical heritage with a choir and hand bell group that continually gives strong performances.

As the church moves closer to its bicentennial, Beal’s hope is bolstered by the growing number of young couples bringing children to services. He hopes the church can continue to honor those with long-time commitments to Broadway United Methodist Church.

Call Rebecca Feldhaus, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270-575-8651.

Copyright 2012 The Paducah Sun. All rights reserved.
© paducahsun.com 2012

(Stained glass window dedicated in memory of Rodney Ritchie. Church staff say Ritchie sold his pet canary for $100 to make a contribution to the church building fund in 1895.)

Observations and a Few Random Thoughts

I covenanted with a few folks that while I was at General Conference I would only blog about where I saw God and where our prayers ought to be centered - and I think I kept my word. But having a few weeks to digest it all, here are some thoughts, in no particular order of importance or significance.

• As other bloggers have noted, we don't trust each other. When Plan UMC was presented, one delegate was so distrustful of its birthing that she asked for a "line up" so we could see their racial and gender makeup. I think that's when I knew we had quit looking at people's hearts and were looking at their outside appearance instead. The book was being judged by its cover.
• We don't trust bishops - and want to give them less empowerment than more. Yet when you look at what effective leadership has to be empowered to do, and what little power our bishops already have, they're doomed to fail. If we really don't want these folks to lead, we might do well to think about not having bishops and save a whole lot of money, get rid of jurisdictions, etc.
• Is this repairable, or do we need a "restart?" You can restart a local church... maybe we need to restart United Methodism! This was an option that Lyle Schaller posited in The Ice Cube Is Melting. At the next General Conference, on the first day: name the fact that we are more like an association of churches rather than a Connection, that some differences are irreconcilable, and pray and mourn over that. On the second day, vote on a proposal to dissolve the United Methodist Church that morning. If that passes, then create a new denominational structure. No restrictive rules. Keep the Articles of Religion. Avoid the firewalls that currently keep a 1970's structure in place (that wasn't working anyway) for a 21st century church. If that were to fail, my suggestion would be to adopt a "Plan I"... since it seems that we may be destined to do whatever "I" wants anyway.
• Some liberals/progressives are as bigoted as some conservatives.
• I officiated college and high school sports for some 28 years, but never witnessed as much venom as I saw on Twitter during GC2012, although #bishopoughstie was amusing. If young people and others who Twittered (Tweeted?) are accusing some of us older folks as intolerant, I wonder how they label themselves.
• We are dysfunctional beyond description. I don't know if we are receptive to intervention from the Holy Spirit or not.
• We are claiming to be a global church, but I think it has a serious American problem - we are narcissistic, self-absorbed, and arrogant. A friend of mine who isn't UM told me when he watched the streaming feed, it looked like C-SPAN.

On paper, I think we are the best Church in Christianity, and the method of Methodism is ingenious. But we have lost our method... and I think we lost it long before I was even born.

Most days I am hopeful, and I'm not tempted to despair just yet. But today, I am very sad.

Forgive us, Lord; we don't know what we're doing. But we're willing to listen. I hope.

Pax,

Sky+

Real Church

I am especially thankful to my annual conference for trusting me to be a reserve delegate to General Conference. I pray I have been faithful to that task. I know that I am as frustrated as anyone about the past two weeks.

Everyone has an opinion about what happened here in Tampa/General Conference. I have my own, too. Of course, opinions are like... opinions. Everyone has one. But I think this opinion is an especially good one:

The church exists in its most robust, most consequential form in local congregations. And it is through the witness and ministry of those congregations that new Christians are called to faith, baptized and formed as disciples of Jesus...

Evangelism and witness are Christian practices that faithful Christian men and women pursue in a local community. Worship happens in congregations. And redemptive love must always be given and received from one to another. That love comes first from Christ to the church, and it can then be shared person-to-person.

All this means that ministry is an inescapably intimate reality. As necessary as certain legislation might be from the “top down,” it can only serve in a secondary capacity to the calling upon Christians in their local situations—where life happens, and where salvation is received.

So the future of the church is still largely what it has always been. We—the pastors and laity of the United Methodist Church—must repent, recommit ourselves, and so reinvigorate the life of the church in our day. - Andrew Thompson, UM Reporter, May 5, 2012

To that, I can only say in my best Kentucky brogue: "Yup."

Almighty God,

Forgive us when we miss the "main thing."

Being and making disciples is what you call us to do, and

we are thankful that you trust us enough to that commission.

These past two weeks, we were more worried about our own "plans"

instead of yours.

Remind us that you are Our Father. And remind us it is "Thy will."

And forgive us, for we are a fallen, flawed, and self-absorbed people.

At the same time, remind us that you can redeem us even when

we are at our most screwed-up and most selfish states

of mind and soul, if we'll only confess, repent, and

do something about it.

Enable us to go home, preach the Gospel clearly, witness

our faith effectively, save the lost, all according to

YOUR plan and call to action.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Pax,

Sky+

Shall We Gather?

Shall we gather? At the shoreline?

Can you hear the voice of God?

Calling follow me, follow me,

follow me to the heart of eternity

where the reign of God is unending...

We sing this every morning as plenary sessions begin - very poignant words set to moving but soothing and inviting music.

It's more than mood music - it's an invitation. I daresay that everyone in this building is a Christian, but are we willing to go deeper than where we are today? To hear the voice of God and to know it might change us, disturb us, move us, and nudge us away from our will toward His will?

To say "yes" to someone who says, "Follow me" is a bold step of trust and faith. We don't know where all following Jesus will take us. To "the heart of eternity" sounds ominous! But the journey starts somewhere.

Shall we gather? Not just at General Conference - but each day?

Almighty God,

As we awake each morning, remind us that we are "us."

You create us with unique gifts, not to keep to ourselves

but to share with each other and the world.

Remind us that the Body of Christ is a body,

and we need each other.

Grant that we may be willing to gather and follow you

wherever you may take us:

trouble, hardship, persecution, hunger, nakedness,

danger, or sword.

And remind us that you are with us - all the way.

We love you - help us to love each other,

so that we may follow you and fish for your children.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Pax,

Sky+