Note

I just read through my most recent posts on "The Big Ride," if you are willing to call last fall "recent." If you have stumbled upon this blog out of the blue you might be asking, what in the world happened? It turns out "The Big Ride" of General Conference was too much to blog about despite all my good intentions. Experiencing it and doing a good job at my job of being a delegate was enough, I had no time or space to share it with the world here. It was wonderful (despite the later actions of the Judicial Council that changed most of our work) and I can say already I hope to go to Portland to be a part of General Conference 2016 in some way.

For now I've started another "Big Ride" called a new appointment. I'm video blogging my first month (or so) in Newton, KS, USA. You can find those posts at www.seeingnewton.blogspot.com.

Thanks!

Dive In!

I’m sitting in Saint Louis, in a hotel lobby, drinking coffee and looking out at the Gateway Arch. I’m here for an event called “Exploration 2011” which is a two day conference for people 18-26 who are thinking about ministry as a vocation. It’s a good event. It’s an important event. It’s one of the best places to hear people in the UMC talk about “calling," or what it means to think that God has prepared you for a specific job and wants you to do that job (or task, or function, or mission, or whatever.) I like thinking about that. I like listening to 18 to 26 year olds who are sorting through all their life choices and their growing self-awareness and their deepening spirituality.  That’s not usually an easy or a quick task. Mostly what we are doing here is reminding young people to listen for God’s voice alongside, and perhaps above, the voice of their peers, the larger culture, and even their parents.

I have no official responsibilities at Exploration 2011, which is wonderful. And it also means I have a little time to think about another two day meeting I attended at the end of October for delegates to General and Jurisdictional conference from the South Central Jurisdiction. (Sorry the language is so convoluted). About 200 people were in OKC voluntarily to: #1 get a preliminary briefing on legislation coming to GC (and ask questions about that legislation). #2 (or maybe for some this was #1) to network.

I learned so very, very much in the few hours I spent in OKC. I am very grateful to the organizers of the meeting, I guess it was the first time they had publicized and prepared such a gathering so well. As a first time GC delegate the information I received and the people I met in October will help me be so much more prepared for GC in April. I did realize that I am starting in a conversation that other people have been having together for decades. There were moments it felt like swimming in very deep water.

I have a lot to sort through, both in terms of legislation and in thinking through the relational dynamics I witnessed and experienced. Good thing I have a blog. I suppose I could journal instead and keep all these thoughts to myself (and if no one reads, I will have kept them to myself.) But what fun would that be for you?

Anyway, eight blog posts spinning out of OKC to come in the next weeks (months? We are about to have Advent, after all).

Gathering of Women Delegates
Call to Action
Study of Ministry
Dinner with Legislative Committee
Finance and Administration
Pension and Health Benefits
Worldwide Nature of the Church
Episcopal Elections

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming

My hope is to sort through all the above before I get the big book of submitted legislation sometime in Jan or Feb. (What I heard in OKC was  only a fraction of the total of submitted petitions.) Wish me luck.

Can I ask you something?

Two instances in which I realize I don’t know much:

As we started our most recent delegation meeting Dixie Brewster, the first elected lay person and thus the head of our delegation for the year, asked everyone to share their history with General/Jurisdictional Conference. There was a lot of history in the room (I leave you to decide for yourself what that means). I believe our longest tenured delegate is Penny Schwab who said 2012 is to be her sixth General Conference. Rev. Mark Conard isn’t far behind her, I think this will be his fifth time on the delegation. Out of the 14 persons elected as delegates or alternates this year, (7 clergy and 7 laity), eight have been on the delegation before, which is a nice balance between experience and inexperience. However, there are four people on the General Conference delegation: Mark--5 time delegate, Penny--6 time delegate, Dixie--4 time delegate, and then there is me. Conclusion: I don’t know much. Action required: Ask a lot of questions.

These are Catholic Bishops,
ours don't dress so well

The purpose of the meeting was to make a decision on endorsements for the Episcopacy. In the United Methodist Church Bishops are elected by the Jurisdictional Conference. Unlike some denominations, UMC Bishops are not ordained to the Episcopacy, they remain Elders just like me, but they also do not ever leave the Episcopal office. It is a lifetime role. They have to retire at age 72 and then they are retired Bishops. No pointy hats for them but they do wear a special pin on their lapels and have their names printed in the front of the Book of Discipline, forever. Both of which don’t mean that much but still might be a comfort on a hard day.

Election means candidacy and candidacy means campaign. The first step in a campaign toward Bishop is to be endorsed by your own delegation. Certainly it hasn’t always been true but I don’t think in these modern times it happens much (ever?) that someone elected is not 1. A part of their conference delegation and 2. Endorsed for the Episcopacy by that delegation. I suppose it is parallel to the fact that the road to pastoral work always starts in a home church Staff Parish Relations Committee. If the people at home don’t see the Spirit gifting you for leadership, the Spirit might not be gifting you for leadership. (I say “might” because sometimes people can be really blind to the work of God. cf: the Bible).

Being endorsed requires an interview and a vote. I guess there is no rule about this (surprising for Methodists, right?) but we decided that any candidate endorsed by our delegation needed to receive 66% of our votes. Once that was settled the only thing left to figure out was how to tell if someone is called and equipped to be a Bishop.

Considering my paltry nine years as a local church pastor (Mark is in year 33 or 34) I have really only served under one Bishop, Scott Jones. Fritz Mutti was my Bishop for two years but I was an Associate at the time and didn’t really have a Bishop, I had a Senior Pastor. I certainly have ideas about the ways Bishop Jones is a good Bishop and the ways he is not a good Bishop. (which I will not put in this public space, thanks for asking). But should every Bishop have the same strengths Bishop Jones does? That’s an easy answer: No. I’m really thankful not every pastor has the same strengths I do.
That. Would. Not. Be. Pretty.
But even allowing for differing strengths and weaknesses how does one decide what qualities are needed in an Episcopal leader? Conclusion: I don’t know much. Action Required: Ask a lot of questions.

So I did. I asked questions of friends who had been on delegations in the past, I asked questions of other pastor friends. I asked questions of myself. I asked a whole lot of questions to our candidate, I asked questions of others on the delegation and then with fear and trembling I cast my vote. I’m typically a decisive person (some might say I’m opinionated. But you won’t. You will be kind and say I am decisive). But this was a decision where I was thankful my vote was one among 13, I trust the wisdom and process of our group.

A few days ago the official announcement was released that we have endorsed Rev Cheryl Jefferson Bell for the episcopacy in the South Central Jurisdiction. Read the full announcement here. Cheryl also ran in 2008 and was very close to being elected. I have already heard all kinds of speculation and prognostication about her “chances” this year. But the truth is even someone who has been to Jurisdictional Conference 10 times doesn’t know what will unfold any more than I do. What I do know is that as a delegation we support and confirm Cheryl's call to episcopal leadership. So I’m praying that God will continue to prepare her for the job and for the arduous journey it takes to get there.

We are having a shin-dig in Oklahoma City this Fri/Sat with delegates from all over the Jurisdiction. Delegate Party! Whoo Hoo! (I’ve been promised there will be ice cream). We will hear about some GC legislation and the Episcopal candidates will have a chance to “meet and greet” and “work the network” and “press the flesh” and whatever else you want to call it. So far we have been notified of these other endorsements:

Jeff Lust, Albuquerque District Superintendent, by the New Mexico Delegation

Gary Mueller, pastor at First UMC, Plano, TX, by the North Texas Delegation

David Wilson, Conference Superintendent, by the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Delegation

Chappell (Chap) Temple, pastor at Lakewood UMC, Houston, by the Texas Delegation

Robert (Bob) Farr, director of Congregational Excellence, by the Missouri Delegation

Mike McKee, pastor at First UMC, Hurst, TX by the Central Texas Delegation

Fred Wideman, pastor at Broadmoor UMC, Baton Rouge by the Lousiana Delegation

Eradio Valverde Jr, Corpus Christi Superintendent of Southwest Texas AC, by the Rio Grande Delegation

I have only ever heard of and met Bob Farr. I mean I googled them all immediately, of course, but still. Conclusion: I don’t know much. Action Required: I've got some questions to ask.

Opinions welcome

Since being elected as a General Conference delegate last May, a full 11 months before General Conference, I have been waiting for the work to start. Which it is beginning to but the past four months have been pretty quiet. I realize that people all over the denomination are working very hard to get ready for the party in Tampa but since I am a 1st time delegate they haven't really invited me to the pre-party.

Not that I'm feeling ignored. Far from it. In the first days after being elected I found my name on a GC delegate Twitter list and also added to a Facebook group for Young Adult delegates (in this case defined as under age 40, which is really stretching the definition of young adult. I guess no one wants to tell the 37 year olds they are no longer young.) Being added to those groups is about as far as the social media interaction has gone but it was a signal to me that some people really want to know who is going to General Conference. Why? So they can lobby.

There are currently 11.4 million members in the United Methodist Church world wide. Only 1000 of us will be able to vote on any given piece of legislation in Tampa next spring. You can imagine that some of those 11,399,000 other members of the UMC have ideas, even passionate ideas, about how we 1000 should vote.

So far I have received (I think) six communications that I would call "lobbying" related to GC. All six have been about...can you guess?...homosexuality. More specifically 4 or 5 out of the six have been requests to repeal or replace any discriminatory language in the Discipline related to gay and lesbian persons. I have received several letters (one hand written) an email, a phone call and a book. I take this to mean that the Reconciling Ministry Network is winning the communication race at the moment.

It's not really a surprise that this is the issue that has people energized the most and the earliest. We have been struggling with language related to sexuality in the Discipline since 1972. That was 4 years before I was born. And, I am sure, United Methodists were struggling with how to interpret scripture and live with gay people who love God long before that. No matter what happens, I don't anticipate that GC 2012 will be the final chapter in the debate.

I do find it interesting that none of the communications have asked me to support a specific piece of legislation or referred to a specific paragraph number in the Book of Discipline. They have been general instead, asking me to vote for "justice" or to "uphold biblical standards." I assume someone has submitted petitions on all sides of the issue but I guess the lobbyists felt they couldn't wait until the legislation is published.

I also find myself wondering what effect such lobbying has. Are there delegates elected last spring who are saying, "I don't really know how I feel about the ordination of gay and lesbian people." Or "I have been thinking I need to decide if UMC clergy should perform same-sex unions." These seem pretty entrenched opinions to me. I would guess the chance of an outcome different from the past lies more with who got elected to GC from around the world and less on changing the minds of already elected delegates. I could be wrong on this, some of those letters may have a deep effect.

I am sure there will be more letters/phone calls/emails to come on this issue. I wonder, will I be lobbied about anything else? Or do we only have this kind of political energy for issues of sexuality? We've got seven months to find out.

Tampa Bound

Four years ago I started this blog because I wanted to share about a big project, my first time cycling 100 miles in one day. I have ridden over 7000 miles since then and let this blog go very, very dormant.

Now in the fall of 2011, as I embark on another "big ride," I find myself wanting a place to share the experience. If you care to read about my reflections as a 1st time delegate to the United Methodist General Conference in April of 2012, read here. (subscribe, do the RSS thing or check back as you wish).

How these things start: An election



The "five finger" ballot moving us toward "Kanaska"

I went to Annual Conference last May with a lot of things on my mind. I was concerned about the test vote regarding possible conference realignment (Kansas East + Kansas West + Nebraska). I was nervous and excited about selling DVD's of the small group curriculum I have been working on for two years http://www.acrosscreation.org/ And I was curious to see how the elections for General and Jurisdictional Conference would turn out.

I was interested in serving on the delegation and had hope that I would be elected as an alternate to Jurisdictional Conference. I had never been a delegate before that that seemed like the place people start. I was almost elected as an alternate in 2008 but considering our delegation was half the size for 2012 (two GC clergy delegates, two JC clergy delegates, three alternates, same 7 slots for laity) I didn't know what would happen. 



KS West Delegation 2012



Long story short, I was elected as the second clergy delegate, meaning I am a voting member of General Conference 2012.  Who knew? If someone (or several someones) worked hard for me behind the scenes, they didn't bother to tell me about it. Which is a very Kansas-like way to operate but also perhaps a little odd. I'm not complaining, mind you. I'm thrilled. Not for the "honor" of it (though it is certainly an honor) I'm thrilled because I get to spend the next several months digging into our church polity and structure and then I get to be a part of the conversation that shapes that structure for the years ahead.

FYI: I anticipate actually talking about all that legislative stuff here. So if your eyes rolled at the last part of that previous paragraph, you might want to unsubscribe.

At the end of Annual Conference the elected delegates gathered to choose legislative committees. Thankfully Mark Conard, our 1st elected clergy person, 3 time delegate and revered elder statesmen, had given me a heads up so I could consider my choice. I selected "Ministry and Higher Education" because I also serve on the conference Board of Ordained Ministry and I care a great deal about our ordination process, creating a hospitable climate for young clergy, and clergy effectiveness. I'm sure I will have more to say about that in posts to come.

Since the end of May there has been only a little bit to do regarding GC. Until yesterday, that is, when we held our first delegation meeting. I could have stayed busy by reading some of the 31 Books of Discipline I have in my office, dating back to 1854. They were a gift several years ago from a relative who is a retired UM elder. I took them from him to be polite, but now that I will get to vote on what's in the 2012 version, I'm kind of glad to have them.

Up to my eyeballs in stuff for Annual Conference... +...trying to get ready to be gone to said AC and then to the ATL for memorial day...+...80 year old men testing the fire alarm system with matches without telling anyone at church...=...No time for the bloggy. I am sure you have been wondering.

Just one question that I have no where else to ask...

The space shuttle Atlantis took off Monday to go fix The Hubble telescope. News outlets made a big deal of the fact that Shuttle Endeavour was also on the launch pad ready to go up and rescue the Atlantis crew if their craft was damaged during liftoff (like a small piece of foam screwing up the heat shield panels or whatever it was that happened to Colombia.)

But what if Endeavour was damaged during lift off? What then?

Huh?

Huh?

Who would rescue them?

We only have so many shuttles and so many astronauts, or so I understand. (not counting the secret military shuttles, of course) Are you going volunteer to go up if the third or fourth shuttle is too damaged to return? Or do we say.."sorry no more shuttles. Take your chances and come home. Cross your fingers!"

Not a very good "fix" if you ask me.

Not that you did.

Or anyone would.

retinkin

Last Saturday I went to a training event regarding our new denominational media campaign "Rethink Church." As much as I dislike Saturday training events (though I was able to take my coffee into the Sanctuary, thanks to a gracious colleague) there were some stimulating moments in the day.

A new important part of the campaign is the idea that in the 8 year old slogan "Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors" the word "open" is no longer considered an adjective, instead we need to think of it as a verb. So we are "opening" hearts, minds and doors. Or you can think of it like a command: our task is to open hearts, minds and doors. While this revision is more exciting than the old concept for those inside the church, (and some of the videos to communicate this idea are actually GOOD) I do wonder how it sounds to those outside the church. Would it come off as patronizing? "hey! We want to open your heart and mind and front door!"


Oh wait. It might be our hearts and minds and doors that need to be opened. I guess that is closer to the truth. "Hey world! We are trying desperately to pry open our small hearts and tiny minds and locked doors so there is room for you!" Yes, that might be closer to the truth.


The other key revision of the campaign is the concept that churches have "ten thousand doors." Seems we have focused rather exclusively on worship being the one "door" for newcomers. It might be more effective, campaign creators say, for the first "door" into the church to be a small group or a service project or a special class or a Vacation Bible School or a block party. In those other settings relationships are formed that then become a bridge to participation in the worship life of the chruch.

I like this, because it helps us think fully about the entry points of our church, nothing is for "members-only," everything we do is a chance for hospitality.

The problem is (you knew there was going to be a problem, didn't you?) in how the "trainers" expressed this idea on Saturday. They asked, "Who has vital and passionate worship?" And they asked it in a way that showed they expected few hands to go up. They went on to say basically, "We know worship stinks at your church. So don't invite people to worship. That's boring. Invite them to something fun, like a bar-b-que or a work project. " The implication is that when they know you a little more they will be able to tolerate the boring worship like you do.

Anyone else think this is a little backwards? If worship isn't vital and passionate...FIX WORSHIP! And realize that while not everyone is going to feel comfortable stepping into the Sanctuary as their first contact with a church, most people are still going to use that as the primary entry point. Hence the need to FIX WORSHIP!

Realizing I have ten thousands doors to my church does not mean I should ignore or shut the biggest and most obvious door I have (namely 10:30 worship on Sunday morning.) It just means I need to make sure all available doors are unlocked, open and ready to welcome whomever wishes to walk through them. (Metaphorically speaking of course. This is the big city).

Enough rant. Best learning point of the day came from a line in the campaign's signature video:
"the smallest step through one of our doors is an act of courage."

That seems like truth to me.

reading the obituaries

I, like you who listen to the news, have been hearing continual updates about the health of American car companies, or ill-health, as it were. Chrysler might go into bankruptcy this afternoon. GM's deadline is a month away. Although I have, in my life, owned a GM ('77 Chevy Malibu), a Chrysler ('94 Jeep Cherokee) and a GM ('04 Pontiac Vibe). I think overall this intense pressue to change or die is a good thing. These companies have had a flawed business model for a long time and, it seems to me as a very uneducated outsider, have been ignoring it. They can ignore no longer. They will emerge, or not, from this crisis ready for business today and in the future. Necessary growing pains, that's what this looks like to me.

I really have little stake in the car companies, someone will keep making cars for me to buy. But the thought keeps occurring to me that the United Methodist Church is GM. We are a bloated and inflexible institution with too many stakeholders and too many reasons to keep the status quo instead of doing the hard work of change. I'm not saying anything new here. I, like you, can read the same analysis the denomination over. My question is...what will be our bankruptcy filing? What will be our recession? What will be the cataclysmic event that forces the change we cannot manage to create on our own? I don't know. Perhaps I should pray for that. For the United Methodist Church's bankruptcy filing. Would that be a heretical prayer?

Or maybe we are better understood as the newspaper industry. United Methodists are print newspapers who are struggling so mightily to figure out how to package our important content (the news) in a world of new media. People are not subscribing like they used to. Nor will they ever again to the same old delivery system. Our revenue model (print ads) is headed down a dead end road. Other people are innovating around us, but we are staring institutional death in the face. What will be our digital revolution?

This morning I was reading Paul Nixon's "I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church" which includes this paragraph about choosing to be a bold church over a mild church...

The milder the vision expressed [by a church], the more [their] energy is
diverted to fellowship, childcare, and building renovation, to entertainment
activities, parties and trips. The mild church is a religious Elk's Lodge except
for about an hour a week, when we sit quietly in a room decorated to my
grandmother's tastes and try to think (and even sing) nice thoughts about Jesus
and loving others, as our leaders run around down front in sixteenth century
costumes. Indeed there is a place in the world (and a market) for fraternal
organizations such as the Elks. But the Elks total membership is headed in the
same direction as the Episcopalians.

Or the United Methodists. He could have said, as the United Methodists. That paragraph stings, because it fairly accurately describes my work life.

This seems like a problem to me.

I do not want to be GM.

I do not want to be a print newspaper. (no offense to my many friends in the newspaper business).

I don't need to be the new "hotness" full of all things cutting edge either.

I just don't want to lead a dying church.

Overheard in the church office:

“Jim, what was that place down on south Washington...
that you took me to that one time…
when we was looking for…
something or another?”

The best part is the question got answered.

It’s a wonder we get anything done around here.

small and holy

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you must do big things to be important.

Tuesday: pre-martial counseling: We are working on getting to know one another because, like most young couples, these two don’t come to church.

“When did your parents get divorced?” I ask, and two minutes later the tears have started.

“I don’t even know why I’m crying,” she says. Because it still hurts, I think, but I only say, “The kleenexs are right in front of you, and crying is always okay in here.”

“It might be important to think some more about your parents' divorce as you prepare for your own marriage,” I say, “and if you can, find a way to talk about it with them because you experience the grief differently as an adult than when you were 14.”

She nods. And the quiet that follows shows we both know she has shared something deep.

Wednesday: evening prayer: I give my 5 minute, off-the-cuff meditation on the passage in Acts 4 where the church shared everything in common and people sold their private possessions so that there was no one in need.

After we feast at the table, a favorite 80-something approaches me and says, eyes pleadingly serious…”You don’t know how I’ve struggled with that scripture and others like it.”

I am surprised to her say she struggles with scripture at all. She is a doer. She wastes little time on theology talk or overt spirituality. She does, and does, and does. Her compassion and generosity are rarely equaled inside or outside the church but, she reveals to me, her spirit is never quite settled. Her eyes can always see more in need, her heart questions if she had taken too much for herself.

“Those are good questions,” I say, “they keep us from holding too tightly to our things.”

She nods. And the quiet that follows shows we both know she has shared something deep.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you must do big things to be important.