Form Follows Function - Worldwide Study Committee

Tomorrow I preach at 9:45 and 11:15, then head to Simpsonwood outside of Atlanta for the first meeting of the Worldwide UMC Study Committee. Many of you know how big an issue this is for me personally. I have written about our connectional polity for years with articles in "The Circuit Rider," "Quarterly Review," and the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women. I have worked for our eccelsiastical unity helping create The Connectional Table, and have worked with many others in presenting reasons why the proposed consitutional amendments to create a diocesan parochialism in the UMC is a terrible idea.

I agree that there must be cultural adaptations that honor diveristy, but if that occurs at the expense of connectionalism, count me out. The big question before the Study Committee is not, according to the agenda I received, the history of what got us to this point, or which side, liberal or conservative, wins the battle over human sexuality that is shaking all main-line denominations. The big question for me is what structure will help us make disciples for Jesus Christ. Form follows function!

As for sexuality issues and the global church, every 30 years there is some hot-button issue of one ilk or another. Maybe this one will never go away, but the issue of women's ordination and inclusion of people of color have at least been alleviated in offical church law if not in actual practice. As a matter of fact, all one has to do to put the brakes on the worldwide proposal as presented is to note United Methodist history's reaction to women's ordination. One of the reasons that the Korean Methodist Church went autonomous and left the UMC was over their rejection of women's ordination.

So, we will always have issues that divide us. How about us focusing on ways to stay united? I think that focus should be on Christ and offering Christ to a confused world. Therefore, we must have clarity about our mission. Is our mission to offend no one or please SOMEONE (Jesus)? Certainly the Gospel is for all people and the reconciliation of everyone to God, but let's not confuse how we do it with why we do it. If United Methodists lose connectionalism we have lost our distinctive vehicle for offering hope to the world. Our "why" of being reconcilers without boundaries of right and wrong, humanism without the need for atonement, will supercede our allegiance to Christ and will result in us offering false hope or no hope to anyone. Our real "why" behind how we structure ourselves better be bringing people to a real experience of Christ reagrdless of who they are. The best way to do that is not to give in to the relativism of national churches, but through a common connection to John Wesley's "Scripture Way of Salvation" lived out!

Conflict Training

This is a photo of me as a "Fighting Gamecock" USC fan, not of my leadership style! This week has been spent in a Lombard Mennonite Peace Center "Conflict Mediation" Seminar. Well, that's a mouthfull, but the training has been good. Conflict can even be good, "Iron sharpens iron," says the Psalmist, but it's tough work to look for the good in a stressful situation.

As a District Superintendent I spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with people who want me to "straighten out their preacher." Sometimes they might be right, but I know enough about Edwin Freidman and Murray Bowen (I hope) to not buy into their triangulation. I hope to be non-reactive and stay objective as I mediate. For me, that means cutting down on my facial expressions, no nods up or down, and mostly grunts and innocuous words that state that I have been listening adequately to both sides.

This is exhausting. But community is worth the effort. Scott Peck's book on peacemaking A Different Drummer has long been a favorite. He sums up life, church, work, and home, etc. as falling somewhere on a continuum between the following stages of community: pseudocommunity, chaos, emptiness, and real community. Some want to avoid conflict and stay in a fake community. To get to real community you have to dare to confront, speaking the truth in love through emptiness.

I hope to do better at listening to people, being objective, empowering people to come to the table and work through their differences. To do it, I've got to nail my feet to the floor, and maybe superglue my mouth shut. The main thing is to love, love, love; and listen, listen, listen. Every day is an adventure.

Church: Exercise Without Endorphins

Cindy and I had an adventure yesterday. We took her mom, who has been either bed-ridden or wheelchair-bound for the last 7 months, to a movie. She is improving and we're getting close to her last hurrah. She has surgery a week from Friday, and who knows if she'll make it in her condition.

Nevertheless, we had a great day, with a few tense moments. We took her to see the movie, "Julia & Julie" about Julie Powell cooking and blogging her way through Julia Child's Mastering French Cooking. It was a feel-good flick that was authentic and amazing. Meryl Streep deserves the "Best Actress" Oscar.

The tense moments in the adventure were timing (it's difficult to handle a wheelchair on a schedule, not to mention a frail 76-year-old), the thick traffic on Saturdays on Harbison Blvd. which is atrocious, and our sheer fatigue from long weeks at work. But we made it and it was worth it.

However, in the inimitable words of my dad, "They didn't have to rock me to sleep last night," meaning someone is so tired it's an effortless thing to just hit the pillow and count down from 10 and you're out. One cute thing happened as we grabbed a quck bite to eat on the way home though. The cashier mentioned how exhausted we looked (never a good sign). She asked if we had been doing yard work or something to tire us out. I said, "No, her mother in a wheel chair and a movie." Cindy spoke up and said, "Yeah, but tomorrow is Sunday. It's the day of rest." Then I said, "We'll go to church and have Sabbath." The the profound words from the cashier: "Depends on the church. Some churches will tire you out, too. It depends on what they're talking about."

How unfortunately true! Some churches will wear you out no matter what they're talking about, sometimes worse depending on the preacher's words. Rather than being energized, it can be deflating. We/I need to do something about that. May it not be so today! Church shouldn't be exercise without endorphins!

Palmetto Pride

My last post showed me doing sgraffito-carving on a leatherhard vase. I like to free hand palmetto and crescents - the symbols of South Carolina. Our state is infamous for too many things. Someone said about SC when the state seceded from the Union to start the Civil War: "What! They're too small to be a republic, and too large to be an insane asylum."

Well, I wonder sometimes. Our cigarette tax is one of the lowest in the country. Our legislature is often out-of-touch when it comes to medicaid and benefits to the poorest of the poor. Our unemployment rate is worse than anyone else's, but our tuition at our colleges is highest in the Southeast. Plus, don't get me started about our governor, lieutenant governor, or a Confederate flag flying in our faces in front of the Statehouse.

That flag alone is enough to make me sick. It is so hurtful to so many people. Our history is replete with innocent blood on that flag. That may be my history, but it's not my heritage. History is something you learn from, and heritage is something you pass on to your children. But we haven't learned, have we? How many of us would be offended if the German B.M.W. plant in Greer flew a Swatiska over its buildings? We all would!

We need to put the shine and lustre back on the Palmetto and Crescent. That's a symbol worth standing up for. It's up to me and you to do it. I have spent a few days before calling legislators. I need to do it more than that. Apathy gets us nowhere. It may be summer recess for our legislators so we might think it's no time to call them up. Actually, summer recess is the best time. They work for us! Pick up the phone!

Spinning Wheels and Fiery Furnances

I know that this story flies in the face of my theodicy and why people suffer, but it helps on a rough day, especially for a potter like me. God doesn’t cause the crud in our lives but God does use it for good, if I will wait and see. Here’s the story:

There was a couple who used to frequent crafts shops. They both loved pottery, and especially vases. They saw one in a shop that immediately caught their fancy. They asked the shopkeeper if they could pick it up and look it over more closely. As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the vase spoke, “You don’t understand.”

It said, “I have not always been a vase. There was a time when I was just a lump of white clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, “Let me alone,” but he only smiled, “Not yet!!”

“Then I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. “’Stop it!! I’m getting dizzy!’ I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, ‘Not yet.’

Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the peep hole, and I could read his lips as he shook his head, ‘Not yet.’

“Finally, the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. ‘Stop it, Stop it!!!’ I cried. He only nodded, ‘Not yet!’

Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, not like the first one. This one was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged, I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened and he took me out and placed me on the shelf.

An hour later he handed me a mirror and said, ‘Look at yourself.’ And I did. I said, ‘That’s not me; that couldn’t be me. It’s beautiful. I’m beautiful.’

“I want you to remember, then’ he said, ‘I know it hurts to be rolled and kneaded and patted, but if I just had left you alone, you’d have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have collapsed. I know it hurts and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn’t put you there, you would have crumbled. I know the fumes were bad when I poured the glaze over you, but if I hadn’t done that, you never would have hardened and been made strong. You would not have had any color in your life, and if I hadn’t put you back in the oven for a second time, you wouldn’t survive for long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first began with you.”

God is the potter and I'm the clay. If I believe that the the spinning wheel and fiery kiln will be worth it when it's all said and done. Lord, Give me patience!

In a Tizzy or Trusting

I just saw a sign riding down a Columbia street in front of a United Methodist Church. It said: "Sermon Waiting For God." There wasn't a colon between "Sermon" and "Waiting," and I found it either an intriguing title or an accidental conundrum. I hope every sermon that I preach or any preacher preaches, for that matter, is "Waiting for God."

It's a fact that I have preached more than a few where I didn't wait on God long enough and should have gone into the pulpit Quaker-style and waited for a Word from the Lord. But, oh no, I have usually thrown something together in my own strength or perceived ability, and then I wonder why God didn't show up. I didn't wait long enough.

The rhythms of life are all about waiting, pausing, taking a deep breath. As I write this, however, I know that sometime today I am going to get a phone call that was set up yesterday and is extremely important. Here's the deal. It was MUCH more important yesterday when it was set up. Part of me was very anxious, a bit angry, more than a little bit hurt, and flumoxed a lot. Here's the deal 15 hours later: Big deal, whup, whup!

If I trust the Lord who is as perennial as the tide and as solid as a mountain range, then what's up with worrying and freaking out? Two sayings come to mind that I must choose between: "Don't let worry kill you, let the Church help!" and "Worry is like being in a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere!" So let the church kill me, or be still. Two choices. I hope that I make the right one when the phone call comes.

Support Systems

I’m tired today – too many meetings, the usual District Superintendent quota of fires that have to be put out, and a sheer burden for our churches, and the world. For whatever reason, I’m really feeling it today. I have a support system: my family, the Cabinet, friends. I need reassurance that God is here, too.

What helped today was remembering Sir Christopher Wren. He rebuilt much of London after the Great Fire of 1666. Over fifty churches are a part of his architectural legacy. They include many graceful styles.

For instance, one of his most striking designs was of St. Paul’s Cathedral in downtown London, the church immortalized in WWII newsreels. There’s even a shot of its dome at the beginning of the new Harry Potter movie. Wren’s design of St. Paul’s established him as the world’s leading architect. Unfortunately, that fame led jealous rivals to criticize his work even more. When Christopher Wren designed St. Paul’s he created a massive dome supported by a single column. The uproar was predictable, “Surely this church will crumble! He must add additional supports.”

But Wren held firm. He was confident in his work, but it was one of the few battles that this genius would lose. Amid tremendous political intrigue, the prominent designer was forced to add two more columns to St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The controversy faded and was forgotten. Half a century later the dome needed repainting, so workmen assembled scaffolds. Were they ever surprised! The two added columns were never connected to the roof. Short by two feet, but close enough not to be detected from the floor, they served as a decoration or adornment for appearance only.

Wren had the last word. His ability and the completed project were both vindicated. Just one support was enough to bear all that weight. There is only One support that the rest of us need, too – Jesus. I hear the words in my ears, “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand…”

Summer Time

Remember the song "Time in a Bottle"? That's on my mind as I write today. I’m fairly convinced that the type of popular music that we like is linked to when we were juniors and seniors in high school. My personal favorites include Peter, Paul, and Mary, The Birds, Three Dog Night, The Rolling Stones, James Taylor, The Who, The Beatles, and, especially, The Moody Blues, who I repeatedly listened to as I read and reread The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Whenever I think of Middle Earth I can’t help but think of the mystical sounds of the Moody Blues.

Here I am squarely at middle-age, and life’s bookends are staring me in the face. I have enough time under my belt to retire, but that’s too far away to even ponder, much less desire. Being Columbia DS is an exhilarating challenge and last night’s Set-Up meeting has gotten me jacked up for another ministry-filled year! On the other hand, I’m missing summer and wondering how to get back to the beach, mountains, and any place of solitude. That’s my life, maybe yours, wondering about where I’ve come from, and rethinking, remembering. For instance, rethinking childhood and adolescence is an idyllic mixture of triumphs and wounds, from first love to broken bones, winning seasons to a Charlie Brownish dropping of the ball. It’s hard at whatever the age to keep one’s mind off the “befores and afters” of life.

But God is eternal and knows no time though time-bound for a short period through Jesus’ incarnation. For God, age is ageless. For God, time is always kairos not chronos. “Kairos” is one ancient Greek word for time. It defines time by the content of the moment. “Chronos” defines time in the manner that I am most accustomed. By its definition time is spatial, chronological, and linear. Chronological time views things as “fifteen minutes UNTIL something,” or “thirty minutes AFTER something.” Conversely, kairos time is more digital than spatial. It is defined by the God-moment, the experience rather than by what comes before or after.

In this regard our watches and clocks which display time in a spatial way, with spaces between seconds, minutes, and hours, are antithetical to a celebration of the “now.” Digital clocks and watches flash the exact hour and minute begging us to think in the present and live in the now without pressing us to think about before and after. God help us to live in the now! The past may have been great, and I am looking forward to better days ahead, but to live faithfully in this world is to do it as God does – giving my complete attention to whomever and whatever is before me right now. If our favorite music is defined by the content of certain life stages, may we dare give another listen to the sounds about us now? It might not be classical, swing band, country, rock and roll, the blues, or ballads that we need to listen to. There just might be enough God-presence in the sounds of a loved one’s sigh, the arthritic creaking of our own joints belying the hopeful maturity of the years, or the sweet-baby noises unintelligible yet profoundly clear in their message of love upon which we need to focus today. Focus we will, for time is of the essence! Think digital and live digital in God’s Time.

Carolina Moon Over the Marsh

It's got to be a full moon! Just as sure as the full moon makes the tides grow larger, I think they also pull all of our brains a little too far from our brain stem - craziness happens. I resemble that remark. The last 3 days have been 12+ hour days, everything pretty good stuff with the occasional trap or two. The tyranny of the urgent has about robbed me of the best of the last month, but I'm fighting it! A month ago I spent a glorious week by myself on top of Mt. Mitchell, reading novels and papers, getting spiritually ready for teaching at Emory. Then it was two weeks at Emory sleeping in the same sleeping bag I used on Mitchell, except this time I was on a sofa (The mattresses in the dorm were worse). The students were super! I love teaching. If I could teach more I would do it. If I ever happened to be elected to the episcopacy, the teaching office of bishop would be huge for me.

Then I dashed to a week of Cabinet Retreat with our Bishop and my colleagues at Palm key in the marshes near Bluffton, SC. It was wonderful and we did good work listening to the Spirit and visioning for the work of the Annual Conference. We went kayaking to build up our sense of community and it was great. Next was our scheduled week at the beach. The grandkids were great!!! Enoch loved the ocean. All I had to do was say, "Beach," and he started taking his clothes off. It was simply precious. The highlight was a huge rainbow over the ocean that my mind keeps remembering. In the midst of all the crud there's God's providence and promise!

It's good to be back in our own bed, and last Sunday began my transition back into the life of a D.S. I preached and observed the Eucharist with a wonderful church at 10 am then held a charge conference to certify a young adult as a candidate for ordained ministry at 12:30; then it was 2:30 that we had a very productive Native American Committee meeting; then it was on the road to do a pottery-sermon on the stages of grace at another church at 6. I made it home after cleaning up at 10:30.

The next day didn't start so good when I noticed our city-supplied trash can missing from the curb. A lady walking by said she saw several turned over on the otherside of the neighborhood. There it was with my clay as proof that it was ours turned over on someone's lawn. I cleaned it all up and drove my little car with the flashers blinking with my arm out the window pulling the trash bin. It had to have been a sight. I disinfected and came to work. Meetings, Cabinet Retreat minutes, calendar for the Cabinet, and getting ready for our annual set-up meeting tomorrow night has been interpersed with talking to a lot of people, catching up on situations and getting home late. I just finished the Cabinet calendar and tomorrow I tackle the rest of the minutes. In the hectic day tomorrow I do get to meet with a young adult who wants to know how to start in the ministry process. Thank God for the oases of connecting with people. One joy was being with one of our clergy families as they welcomed their new daughter into the world!

New birth, new opportunities - keep me going. I may physically feel like the waxing moon in my picture over the marsh, but better days are ahead!