Survey Results: General Conference and Ordination

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a short survey asking people to prognosticate the future of the candidacy process within the United Methodist Church. Eleven responses were received - which is not as many as I had hoped - but I thank all who took the two seconds to vote.

The result was rather pessimistic in outlook:

• 1 vote for "do nothing"
• 6 votes for "refer to another study commission"
• 4 votes for "shorten the process"

I say this is a pessimistic result because I think referral to another study commission is the same thing as doing nothing. The net effect of delay until 2012 General Conference to enact legislative changes is doing nothing. And I think that's a sad outcome. From reading both the current study commission's report and the history of the decades of previous ministry studies, I am convinced that we need to do something now!

My own journey through the candidacy process is now six years and counting. While I am expectant of being approved for full elder membership in the conference next year, there are no guarantees. Seven years is an awfully long time, and there have been significant ups and downs through this process.

Eric Van Meter wrote a column for the United Methodist Reporter a couple of weeks ago. Actually, it was the latest installment of a series of occasional commentaries he's writing for them. In the columns, he imagines himself talking to a marriage counselor about his relationship with the church. Here's what he had to say about his experience with the candidacy process:

[S]o much of [the Board of Ordained Ministry's] encouragement seemed geared toward making me into someone I could not ever be, even if I wanted to (which I didn’t). I had not been nurtured in the United Methodist womb like many of them. I did not have emotional ties to structures or traditions or distinctive elements of polity or personality. All I had was the depth of my own experience with God and his people, which had been inextricably tied to the close-in relationships of a community that identified with the UMC. At the BOOM retreat, I began to understand that those relationships were not the priority of my denomination. Rather, they wanted me to remain largely unencumbered by emotional networks, lest my ties to people in one place limit my ability to serve wherever the Conference deemed appropriate. If I needed close friends and allies, I should look to my clergy peers. They were the ones who understood what ministry was really like, who could help me find the competence I needed to aspire to higher appointments.

“I just wanted the freedom to be myself,” I say. “I wanted to be the best me God could make, not the best imitation I could muster of someone else.”

Eric captures an emotion that I have felt several times: frustration that this process is often more about molding me to fit the system than a true mutual examination of my God-given gifts and graces for being in ministry.

As General Conference concludes this week, we will find out what will be done with the ordination process. And here's howI remain hopeful: God is bigger than any system; and God can both work the system and circumvent it when necessary to accomplish God's will. So I pray that I remain faithful to God's calling first, to serve faithfully where I am appointed second, and to work as a genuine participant in this struggle we call "holy conferencing" third.

Thanks again to all who participated in the poll

Caring for the Helpless

First published in The Daily Sentinel on Friday, April 25, 2008

Early Monday morning, our family was startled awake by barking dogs. Not barking in the distance, they were barking right below our house. My son came to my bedroom and said that he saw three big dogs attacking a cat from his bedroom window. The cat was black-and-white. We have a black-and-white cat.

I quickly threw on some pants and shoes and ran outside to investigate. What I saw made my heart leap to my throat. Three large dogs – each one easily standing three-feet tall at the shoulder – surrounded a small cat. The dogs were barking and growling as they circled the helpless feline. Each took turns at mauling the kitty. The cat laid motionless on the ground, not even trying to put up a defense.

I clapped my hands together and yelled at the dogs at the top of my voice as I rushed down the hill. Instantly, the aggressors lost their aggressiveness, and they scattered in three directions away from their victim.

I reached the cat and discovered it was not black-and-white; instead, it was gray-and-white. That was even worse. We also had a gray-and-white: Peter. He was our youngest kitty, brought home two years ago by my daughter after she discovered him wandering along Main Street as a helpless kitten.

At the time, we already had three other cats. I considered our household to be at kitty-capacity. The felines agreed with me. They hissed at the newcomer, arching their backs and ruffling their tails to let us and this bedraggled, eye-infected, flea-bitten varmint know that they wanted nothing to do with him.

The human contingent of the house thought otherwise. Instead of a grungy, ugly nuisance, they saw a beautiful, yet helpless creature who was struggling for life. I capitulated on two conditions: 1) I got naming rights for this cat, and 2) when my daughter was ready to get a home of her own, the cat was to go with her unless it had become completely attached to the other cats.

With slate gray and white fur, this little cat, when all curled up, looked to me like a fuzzy rock. So I decided to call him “Peter,” which is the Greek word for rock. It’s the name that Jesus gave to Simon in the New Testament. If the name worked for him, then it should work for this cat. And it did. Peter became a valued and loved member of our family. Even the other cats bonded with him (so much for sending him away with my daughter in a few more years).

But now, Peter is lying on his side - glassy-eyed and more pathetic than he had ever been as a kitten. He was panting and drooling, in shock. His fur was matted and soiled; he stank of urine, feces and dog saliva. Amazingly, I found little blood. “Oh, Peter!” I cried, “I am so sorry this happened to you!”

I called for my wife to come down with towels. We wrapped poor Peter carefully and brought him inside. As soon as the local vet clinic opened, we took him to be examined. As I write this, Peter is still there – internal injuries were much worse than external ones.

The irony of this experience is that Peter is the one cat in our family who really didn’t care to go outside. I’m not even sure why he was out that night. But there he was when other people’s pets transformed from loving companions (“Man’s best friend”) into vicious beasts – mauling one who was smaller and defenseless against their raging bullying.

It’s so easy to blame oneself for the harm inflicted on another. I blame myself for not ensuring Peter was in the house before going to bed. But when the harm isn’t so close – when it’s not your own beloved pet or family member – it’s even easier to ignore that the harm is happening at all. I realized that later this week listening to a report about violence in The Congo, Africa.

A nine-year-old girl was interviewed by reporters. She told about the night four armed men rushed into her family’s home demanding money and food. Her mother was in a chair, nursing her baby brother. Her father was sitting next to his wife. The family had no money and very little food. So the gunmen attacked like vicious dogs – killing the mother and her infant in ways that I will not detail here. The nine-year-old daughter tried to run away and one of the men slashed her leg with a machete – and left her there to bleed to death. Her four-year-old brother came in from the bedroom and was shot in the head. The father was taken outside, beaten and tied upside down to a tree. The men built a fire under the father’s head and left him to die from burns or smoke inhalation – whichever got to him first.

My heart returned to my throat as I heard that story. How could we be so cruel? What is it in human beings that can make us as savage as the dogs who attacked my poor cat? And what are we who hate this cruel behavior doing about it?

The Peter in the Bible tried violence in response to a bad situation. When Judas betrayed Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, leading Roman soldiers and Jewish Temple guards to arrest him, Peter responded by swinging his sword at one of the arrestors. He sliced off the man’s ear. In such a tense moment, the situation could have easily turned into a bloodbath. But Jesus stopped the violence with words:

"Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” (Matt 26:52)

All the violence in this world – humans against humans and animals against animals – is the byproduct of our fundamental condition: we are sinners. Will you join me in confessing our violent behaviors and repenting of them? Will you join me in putting away our swords and instead focus on caring for the helpless? If swords and weapons must be used, let us use them for defense rather than aggression – and let us pray that God will help us to see the difference!

Dancing and Mourning: A Time for Everything

First published Friday, April 18, 2008 in The Daily Sentinel

I just returned from my second trip to Texas in less than a month. I wrote about the first trip just a couple of weeks ago. This trip was for the same reason: another grandmother passed away.

I’ve been dealing with a lot of deaths, lately. Both of my wife’s grandmothers die within a month of one another; and a very dear person from my congregation also passed away just a couple of weeks ago.

Many in our area knew Lois. She was a kind-hearted lady with very weak lungs. Yet, her lack of breath never lead to a lack of life. Lois enjoyed life to the fullest, and gave God praise for every breath she took. She was born with weak lungs, and I am told that she wasn’t expected to live much beyond her 20s. Whatever doctors expected that, Lois greatly exceeded their expectations!

When Lois’ funeral was held, it was truly a celebration of life! Allow me to share a brief portion of what was said then:

I asked Lois’ husband Don what first caught his eye about Lois all those years ago. He was quiet for several moments, as if reliving that time. Finally, he turned to me and said, “She was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen!”

I got a chance to look at some of her pictures from back then, and Don was right!! Lois was a beautiful girl. But as I looked at a photo of Lois from 1957, I said to Don, “You know, I don’t think 50 years made a bit of difference – she looks just about the same today.”

Lois’s beauty didn’t come from her youth. It came from how she lived her faith; she was a testimony of God’s love and commitment for not just 20 years, or 50 years, but for almost 79 years!

The Apostle Paul claimed that life in the Spirit gives life to our mortal bodies, and Lois is proof of that. Her mortal body received life long after it should have died. Miracle upon miracle occurred in her. She went to the hospital so many times with blood chemistry imbalances, lung troubles, kidney troubles… yet God gave her strength and healing time and time again.

So what made this past week any different? Why did Lois finally succumb to the health problems that she had overcome so many times before?

The answer to this question is much harder, more difficult. But I think that Paul’s second letter to Timothy provides a clue. Paul wrote that letter late in his life. He was imprisoned for sharing his faith in Jesus Christ – his opponents accused him of treason against Caesar because Paul refused to proclaim Caesar as divine. Paul recognized that his work on earth was nearly done, and so he wrote this letter to Timothy – a young man whom he had mentored to become a leader in the church. Paul is charging Timothy a final time.

But these words can come from more than Paul to Timothy, imagine Lois saying this to us:

You know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, and sufferings I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. But as for you, continue in what you have learned. You have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. I give you this charge: Live according to God’s Word; know Jesus Christ personally, deeply, intimately. Be prepared in season and out of season. For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Not very long ago, Lois’ health started to rapidly decline. When I saw her on that last Monday, she was not able to talk; she couldn’t eat. I talked with Don and his daughter about being prepared to let her go. It was a hard conversation, but we prayed together and left it in God’s hands. I didn’t expect to get to talk with Lois again in this life.

But God had one more miracle for Lois Bell. Monday night, Don called me at home and said he’d been able to talk with Lois on the phone for 10-15 minutes! When I arrived at the hospital on Tuesday, Lois was awake and talking. She recognized me, and when I told her Don was on his way, she started to cry. At first, I thought she was upset because she didn’t want Don to see her that way. But then I realized that her tears were tears of relief. She was going to get to see him and talk to him, and hold his hand one more time.

All the rest of that day, Lois was able to say her goodbyes. It wasn’t easy, but it was precious. She understood what was happening to her, and she accepted it because she knew what was waiting for her on the other side.

My friends, we can learn so much from the example of Lois. How to live life to the fullest while on this earth, how to trust in Jesus Christ and know him as our Savior and God, and to give our lives back to God with joy when our time comes.

The writer of Ecclesiastes wrote that “there is a time for mourning and a time for dancing.” When it comes to Lois and my wife’s grandmothers, I find that I am doing BOTH at the same time! I mourn for myself – I truly miss them. Yet I dance for them – they have earned their reward and are with Jesus Christ forever more!

I pray that when your time comes to face death, that you will also be able to dance. If you aren’t sure if you will, then I invite you to talk to a pastor about it. And I especially invite you to talk to Jesus about it!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

First published April 11, 2008 in The Daily Sentinel.

My kids have never heard of Rodney Dangerfield. I made some sort of joke recently – the kind Rodney would have said – and they looked at me like I had just crawled out from the slime along the Ohio River after hitting flood stage. “Oh, c’mon!” I said, “can’t I get any respect around here?”

Those of us who can remember Rodney know that he built his entire comedy career around the idea of “I can’t get no respect.” I still laugh at the absurd ways he described the lack of respect that he received. He talked about going to see the doctor – his proctologist. “The doctor put a rubber glove on his hand then stuck his finger in my mouth!”

But aside from Rodney Dangerfield, there isn’t much humor in the increasing lack of respect demonstrated by so many in our society. My wife was driving home on I-77 from Parkersburg the other day when an ambulance with siren wailing and lights flashing appeared in her rear-view mirror. She pulled over to allow the ambulance to pass her. Ahead of her, two cars were driving side-by-side in both lanes. The ambulance came up behind the car in the left lane, and that driver refused to move over! I can only hope that if its one of my family members in an ambulance next time, other drivers will show more respect than that one did!

One can turn on the TV news and hear example after example of people refusing to respect other people, other people’s property, or other people’s needs. What does the war in Iraq ultimately boil down to? Respect. Each rival faction has little or no respect for the other factions, much less for the United States. Why do people commit fraud, break into homes or businesses, or spray graffiti on public buildings? Because they have no respect for others.

The respect problem is even in our schools (some may say “especially” in our schools). Students do not respect their teachers, and teachers do not respect their students. What is respectful about a teacher walking into the classroom and snidely saying something like, “OK, sluggards wake up and pay attention! Or is that too hard for you?” Of course, there is nothing respectful in a student responding to the teacher, “Forget you, dude!”

So where did we go wrong in passing down this idea of respect?

I really wish I knew the answer to that question! I grew up in a family that demonstrated respect and demanded respect, in return. Whenever I treated someone disrespectfully in the eyes of my parents (even if I didn’t think I’d been disrespectful), I was required to apologize and change my behavior. Once, I was kidding around with a cousin. We were going to play a game of chess, and I said, “Denny, I’m going to kick your b----”

My dad heard me say that. It was the one time in my life that my mouth was washed out with soap.

My upbringing is probably unusual in this day and age. And there may be some who would say that what my dad had me do was not very respectful itself. But let me tell you, I certainly was much more careful in what I said (especially when Dad was around!). I learned that words matter. And tone of voice matters. And context matters, too.

So how do we get respect back on track?

That’s a question that I will attempt to answer. It starts with me. And you. We show respect – even when someone does not show respect to us. Go back to the classroom example. The teacher walks into the room and shows respect to the students instead of disdain, indifference or hostility. The kids may not show it back, at first. But the teacher is persistent in respecting the students. Eventually, the example will stick. The key is patience.

If you have not seen “The Ron Clark Story”, then you may not know what I’m talking about. Ron Clark is a real teacher who went to teach in a middle school in Harlem, New York.

When Ron walks into the classroom, its in total disarray. The students are used to pushing their teachers hard enough that the teachers give up on them, but not Ron Clark. He toughs it out. Even when they graffiti the entire classroom. Even when they talk back to him. Even when they threaten him. Watch the movie, and you will see where respect begins.

You can also read your Bible: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:27-31)

Jesus is not telling his followers to be pushovers or wimps. He is telling us how to demonstrate a respect that takes the world by surprise. Surprise them enough, and they will start surprising you back in all kinds of good ways!

Take Rodney Dangerfield. At a memorial service on the one year anniversary of his death, written across the sky 2000 feet tall and three miles long was one word: RESPECT.

What will be written about you after you are gone? Start living today how you want to be remembered tomorrow.

Politics as (un)usual

First published in The Daily Sentinel, Friday, April 4, 2008

Be prepared for some heavy-handed political maneuvering. Accusations and counter-accusations may fly from both the right and the left. One side may accuse another other of losing touch with their basic human compassion. Meanwhile, that other side will point fingers back for not remaining truly loyal to their commitments. It may get very ugly before it’s over.

Think I’m talking about the Pennsylvania Democratic primaries? Nope. National conventions in August and September? Nada. General presidential election in November? Not even close. I am referring to the once-every-four-years gathering of United Methodist Church leaders from around the world for what we call the General Conference of The United Methodist Church. It’s happening down in Fort Worth, Texas at the end of April, but the politics are already going on.

Allow me to do a quick “UM 101” for all those who are not United Methodists (and maybe even for a few that are). The United Methodist Church is a world-wide church, with congregations not only in the United States but across Europe, Africa, and Asia, as well. They are organized into Annual Conferences, and the Annual Conferences elect delegates to represent them at General Conference – that quadrennial gathering referred to above. Here in Ohio, United Methodists are organized into two Annual Conferences – East Ohio and West Ohio – loosely based on geographic boundaries. I say “loosely” because Meigs County belongs to the West Ohio Conference even though its in the southeastern corner of the state.

United Methodists also have a document known as the “Book of Discipline.” This book is our covenant agreement as United Methodist Christians for how we are organized, how we conduct ministry, and what the processes are for joining the church, becoming pastors, and almost everything else that one could possibly imagine. It also contains the rules for what to do when things go wrong, with lots of definitions of what those wrong things include. Every four years during General Conference, what’s in the Book of Discipline can be completely altered, amended or deleted by vote of the delegates.

What if someone thinks something in the Discipline is wrong and wants to change it? And what if someone else thinks that the Discipline is just fine without change? And what if another person wants to change that something, but in a different way that the first person? It gets complicated.

Now multiply that “someone” by just short of 1000 – that’s the number of delegates at General Conference – and multiply the “something” by more than 1500 – that’s the number of suggested changes to the Discipline that they will have to deal with. Now it is more than complicated – it’s politics!!

I wish I could say that church politics is handled more gracefully than governmental politics. But everyone who’s been to a church meeting when there’s something controversial being decided knows the truth: church politics can be pretty mean. People can get so focused on what they think about the issue that they no longer listen to anyone else. And when convinced of being absolutely “right” about the issue, they can become harsh, condemning or condescending to anyone who doesn’t agree. So when two “rights” are diametrically opposed to one another, no one listens, everyone yells, and decisions are based on majority rule rather than prayerful consensus. We have “winners” and “losers”, but the truth is really that no one wins.

We cannot get away from politics. And I much prefer political fights to fist-fights or all-out war. And, yes, there are some things that really are more right than others – even when popular opinion says otherwise. God has declared some things to be right and others to be wrong. Consider the Ten Commandments, or Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. The Apostle Paul, in Romans 1, offers a list of wrongs that may be less well known, but is certainly to the point:

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all kinds of godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. They not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

Paul’s words are not pretty; but his words describe us! Yes, I include myself in that description. And if you are honest with yourself, you will admit to it, too. Even as Christians, we can fall into the trap of reverting to old behaviors and old ways of thinking that look like Paul’s list of wrongs, unless we remember to include God and follow God in all of our decision-making and actions.

What happens when we do put God first? Paul tells us what that looks like in Romans 12:

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Honor one another above yourselves. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

Wouldn’t it be nice if politics could be conducted the way Paul tells us to behave as Christians? Of course, in governmental politics; but especially in church politics! So that’s my prayer for our General Conference: that the delegates from all sides will depend on God first and put Romans 12 into practice, leaving behind the more common but wrong practices of Romans 1. Even if you aren’t United Methodist, would you join me in that prayer? And I’m happy to pray it for your church, too!