Day With the Bishop

I spent most of yesterday with a group of new clergy and the Bishop of the Oklahoma Annual Conference, Bob Hayes. I can't say that I enjoyed myself. The thing about this meeting is that I continually struggle with the connectionalism of the United Methodist Church. I'm sure the Bishop and the cabinent saw this as a profitable time, but its not like I am building meaningful relationship. And on top if of all that, I see church ministry very differently than a lot of these people who are maintaining the organization. How do I network with people who have very little in common with me?

And yet at the exact same time, I love the connectionalism of the United Methodist Church. I love that every church will have a qualified pastor, maybe not effective, but qualified nonetheless. I love that if I ever really needed help, or just needed someone to cover for me, there is a DS or another pastor in town to help. I love the fact that I am accountable to someone, and everyone is accountable to each other. I love the fact that I cannot be fired from a church for upsetting people.

Yet, I don't seem to enjoy the connection...which leaves me thinking about what this relationship is really supposed to look like.

Sacrements and Deacons

I heard today that Deacons in the United Methodist Church have been given sacramental authority by the General Conference. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, the church has needed to respond to a changing understanding of the Deacon. Asbury, for instance, has deacons as associate pastors the same as elders. These deacons are even the leader of the worshiping congregation, but not the sacremental leader. Certain services at Asbury have had to bring in outside elder leadership. That doesn't make any sense. However, Asbury has also hired to additional elders so I think they have solved their problem.

The new understanding is that deacons can serve the sacraments in the absence of the elder with the consent of the Bishop in their appointed setting. Kind of confusing. Makes me wonder when that would ever be the case. Is this intended for agency work, because when else would an elder not be present in the life of the church?

This is a step in the right direction in getting the sacramental power outside of one order, however, I'm not sure it is defined clearly enough by the Discipline. Some people could manipulate that pretty easily and have a bunch of deacons and give them sacramental authority. However, most deacons understand that they have given up that authority to take that order because that order is not intended to lead the church through order or sacrament. It kind of makes me think it is just for agency work.

Confessions of a Young Elder

This came from a paper I wrote for my internship. With General Conference in full swing, I think it is appropriate to publish my grievances.

The United Methodist Church is overburdened in institutionalism. A quick look at the Book of Discipline will show the great institutionalism of the church. Many leaders I have come across are more concerned with the institution that they are concerned about the local churches that make up the institution or the actual people of the local churches that make up the institution. A district superintendent, for instance, told me of the process of making appointments. Three questions are asked with each appointment. First, is the appointment made for the good of the annual conference; second, is the appointment made for the good of the local church; third, is the appointment made for the good of the pastor. That is completely wrong. The annual conference question should be the last questions. The annual conference exists for the good of the church, not the church for the good of the annual conference. I wonder how I can spend my life supporting a church with such thinking.

One of the things I like about the United Methodist Church is the fact that we were founded based on the pragmatics of preaching the gospel, as opposed to a doctrinal system like so many other Protestant denominations. Early Methodist polity was simply about the best way to spread the good news. Now, we support a polity that hinders are spreading of the gospel. Why? Because we love our institution more than we love those who are Lord loves. Itinerancy, in our current form, does not help us in reaching new people, it simply helps us keep churches open that should otherwise close because they are not doing anything evangelistically and are not concerned about the gospel. I wonder how I can spend my life supporting a church with such thinking.

On to ordination. The ordination process is supremely concerned with supporting the institution. The reason the ordination process is so cumbersome is because the local church has given up her responsibility of raising up men and women who are called by God to invest their lives in vocational ministry. The local church has instead sent these men and women to seminaries far away from their local church and then asked the Board of Ordained Ministry to then evaluate them when they exit from their graduate theological training. The problem here is the zero investment of relationship. How is this living the gospel where there is no community investment? I was contacted rarely by my home conference, and never to care for me or offer me encouragement. The BOM is simply a way of forgoing the community of the redeemed that we call a church. The BOM is interested in finding men and women who can operate in a bureaucratic institution and then later on support that same institution. I wonder how I can spend my life supporting a church with such thinking.

Now that I have hashed out some of my grievances, I will move on to my anger. Much of my anger stems from a call I feel from God, and a lack of ability to carry that out with real integrity in this system. I see many clergy in the United Methodist Church with no creativity, and no zeal for Christ, and especially no zeal for preaching the life transforming message of salvation. I can’t believe they were always like this. I can’t believe they entered seminary with this cynicism and jaded outlook. Where did it come from? In my eyes and from my perspective, it looks like the church just beat the shit out of some of these pastors. I fear for my future when I see them. Never do I want to be in their shoes. If I stay in the connection long enough, then I imagine that I will feel like they feel.

In addition to the depressed pastors, I don’t see much willingness from conference leaders to engage young clergy, which infuriates me. The United Methodist Church is almost dead! If we would wake up and have a sense of desperation that finally welcomes the idea that we have no idea what we are doing as a denomination then maybe we can start to make some headway. We are not living in the 1960s when the church was a large institution with much sway. We are living in a society with no interest in the church. We are losing scores of young members because there is enough arrogance in the older generation that refuses to listen to the idea that maybe, just maybe, they don’t know what they are doing after all. The younger clergy, like myself, also might not know but we are willing to try. We haven’t been beat up yet, we have some optimism, some hope that Christ did in fact raise from the dead and in that we have hope that this message still has some power and can still transform a heart.