Campus Ministry is Where the UMC Began!

As I begin Charge Conferences I have just come back from a Cabinet Meeting where we talked about the terrible situation we face in connectional giving in our annual conference. I know times are tough and money is tight, but I am very upset that all of our SC Campus Ministries were told 2 days before school started that they would not receive any program money for the rest of 2010 or 2011. My daughter, Narcie, is a Campus Minister and the UMC is the only denomination that was founded in a university. John Wesley was a campus minister. Right now, I know of at least 4 seminary students, future ministers, who have come out of SC’s campus ministries. Our future clergy are being sold short because of poor giving and that will show up in the kind of preacher some of you will get.

I’m upset on two levels. One is that Narcie has her first post-brain tumor op MRI this coming Tuesday and she already has enough stress on her than to have the ministry money plug pulled out. On the second level I am appalled at how this economy has made us more selfish than giving. Instead of pulling together in prayer, shared giving, common causes – I sense we’re in an “every man for himself” phase. That’s not good. We need each other now more than ever.

The late Paul Harvey reported that a woman called up the Butterball Turkey Company's consumer hot line and asked about the advisability of cooking a turkey that had been in her freezer for 23 years. The customer service representative told her that it might be okay to eat it if the freezer had maintained a below-zero temperature the entire time, but even so, the flavor would have deteriorated so much that it wouldn't be very tasty. Said the caller, "Oh, that's what we thought. We'll just donate it to the church." The church has received more than her share of “old turkeys.” Parsonages are too often filled with cast-off furniture from people who upgraded in their own homes. People aren’t tithing or even coming close. Churches have become self preserving silos and don’t give a rip about “the least of these.”

I recently saw the movie “Lost in Woonsocket” and would recommend it to anyone who is trying to figure out how to help those who are struggling, and the frustration that goes along with it. But, even if we fail sometimes, sometimes we succeed. Gone are the days of easy employment searches, and name-your-price job opportunities. Reaching the end of a job interview, the human resources person asked a young engineer fresh out of MIT, “And what starting salary were you looking for?” The engineer said, “In the neighborhood of $135,000 a year, depending on the benefits package.” The interviewer said, “Well, what would you say to a package of five-weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50 percent of salary, and a company car leased every two years -- say, a red Corvette?” The engineer sat straight up and said, “Wow! Are you kidding?” And the interviewer replied, “Yeah, but you started it.”

All kidding aside, what are we going to do about this economic melt-down – hunker down in selfishness or believe Jesus that we should give it all away? I say let’s get together and get real, helping everyone that we can. Here’s a thought, go to http://winthropwesley.com and make a donation to help campus ministry. Check out the sites for all the other campus ministries in SC and do your part. Find a way to donate time if you don’t have the money. I know that I’m trying to do my part and not just because two of my kids are ministers because of campus ministry. What are we going to do? Do it!

Pre-Game Jitters and Prayer

Should I pray about the Gamecocks’ game against the University of Southen Mississippi tonight? I’ve got the jitters. It’s 5 hours or more before the kick-off and I’m already dressed in my team colors, hat is on my head, and my “Beat Southern Miss” sticker is on my favorite Gamecock shirt. I’m going to pick up my brother at Bojangles and head to our parking spot and I’m a little freaked. Our mantra year after year is “Wait until next Year!” Well, this is next year. I’m going to pray, but I hope with some priority perspective.

The longest prayer I ever heard, and I mean ever, was at a high school football game. A pastor in that small town had evidently been saving up for his big chance to pray under the “Friday Night Lights.” He prayed for the football players, the referees, the coaches, the assistant coaches, the cheerleaders, the bands, the parents, the teachers, the school administrators, and the highway patrol officers who were directing traffic. No joke, he prayed so long and for so many people that the game started 20 minutes late!

Don’t get me wrong! I’m all for prayer, and “Sweet Hour of Prayer” is one of my favorite hymns. Nevertheless, prayer at sporting events bothers me, and it’s not just because I’m such a stickler about the separation of church and state. I think my problem stems from being a University of South Carolina Gamecock fan. I grew up going to all the games. I heard Dr. Lauren Brubaker of U.S.C.’s Religion Department pray at every game year after year. Here’s my problem as a U.S.C. fan. If you pray for the best team to win, that’s probably the other team. If you pray for nobody to get hurt, that might negate Carolina’s only hope of winning. Bottom line, I agree with Hall of Fame catcher, Yogi Berra. Once, when a batter stepped into the box and made the sign of the cross, Yogi said to him, “Let’s just leave God outta this, okay?”

Okay, I yield. I know prayer helps us in everything, but really… should we pray for our team to win? There’s an anonymous tongue-in-cheek story that puts this question in perspective: “Jesus Christ said he had never been to a football game. So we took him to one, my friends and I. It was a ferocious battle between the Protestant Punchers and the Catholic Crusaders. The Crusaders scored first. Jesus cheered wildly and threw his hat high up in the air. Then the Punchers scored. And Jesus cheered wildly and threw his hat high up in the air. This seemed to puzzle the man behind us. He tapped Jesus on the shoulder and asked, “Which side are you rooting for, my good man?” “Me?” replied Jesus, visibly excited by the game. “Oh, I’m not rooting for either side. I’m just enjoying the game.” The questioner turned to his neighbor and sneered, “Hmm, an atheist.”

Is God an atheist when it comes to sports? What harm is there in praying for good results about a game, a great round of golf, or a super outing on the lake? The answer is, “Nothing,” unless we take God’s apparent disregard or ambivalence to our request as indifference. God cares, for sure, about every facet of our lives, but maybe God has bigger fish to fry than who wins the game, and God expects us to be the cooks. Luke DeRoeck put it this way in a letter to the editor of Sports Illustrated, “To suggest that God really cares about the outcome of a sporting event is preposterous. Conservatively, 20 million people in the United States went to bed hungry on Super Bowl Sunday. A God who cares about the outcome of the Super Bowl is not a God I ever want to meet.”

Being a good sports fan is great. I know I love my team. Being a disciple, however, is more important than anything! That God is God and the Gamecocks are not will hopefully calm my pre-game jitters. We’ll see.

Mt. Mitchell at Midnight

I just got back from our Columbia District Clergy Retreat on top of Mt. Mitchell in Western North Carolina. It is the tallest peak east of the Rockies, 6,684 feet. It was 30 degrees cooler and the weather was absolutely perfect. I have been there so many times when we had lots of wet weather, or the wind was 50 mph. These past three days were perfect.

The sky was so clear that 4 of us hiked up to the summit in the dark. The Milky Way was hovering over us, and the Big Dipper seemed so close that you could reach out and touch it. The photo above is the four of us standing on top of the observatory at about midnight. It was awesome! One thing that hit me is that darkness helps you see what would normally be invisible. There are dark times in our lives: uncertainty, anxiety about health, finances, ministry, etc. God light shines best when we allow our eyes to adjust to the darkness and see the unseen yet real presence of God.

The whole retreat was helpful. New friends were made. We shared together our thoughts on Peter Steinke's book on being a courageous leader without reactivity in the face of anxiety. We ate Black Beans and Rice one night, Chicken Bog with Smoked Sausage; anyway it was GREAT. We did have a bear visit us last night but no injuries and no damage to our tents, just a little excitement.

Anyway, I've been taking groups of preachers up to the top of Mitch for 5 years now. Having a quiet place to go above the cell phone towers and the fray of the tyranny of the urgent is important. We ain't Superman and even he needed a Fortress of Solitude. This was ours for a few blissful days.

With Labor Day approaching and knowing that so many people are feeling stuck in jobs just for the benefits and not a calling, I certainly hope that those who feel like this are able to find a place where there can be responsive reflection and not anxious reactivity. Peace, Peace, Peace - In the dark, God's light still shines.

Appreciating Tired Legs

I preached my heart out this morning and I can feel it in my legs. Sounds weird, huh? Well, for me when I get into something, breaking a sweat with my mind or with my body, the effects of either go to my calves specifically – always has. When I was a kid running cows up and down the alleys at the stockyard I would go home and feel it in my legs. Restless Legs Syndrome wasn’t caused by lack of work, but by too much. Work wasn’t a stranger around our house when I was a youngster.

Many hours were spent tilling the garden, hoeing the flower beds, cutting the grass, feeding the cows, fixing fences, pumping gas at the Texaco station, or helping out at my grandfather’s country store. During Christmas break I operated a fireworks stand for two weeks, and in the summers I either worked in a peach packing shed or penned cows and hogs at my father’s stockyard which made for great sprinting ability when football practice started. My father’s philosophy was clear if he caught me sitting on the fence or lazing around in other ways: “Off and on!” he would yell. What he meant can be translated a number of ways, but the best way I can phrase it would be, “Quit resting on your laurels and get on your feet!” Hard work was a given.

When I was a kid I wasn’t that keen on work. Today, however, I would give practically anything to hear my Dad’s voice yell, “Off and On!” again. The value of a good work ethic is immeasurable. As much as I like time off and rest, there’s nothing like a good night’s sleep after a day of manual labor. Rest is all the more sweet thanks to the satisfaction of a good day’s work.

Certainly, I enjoyed some tasks more than others. One of my hardest lessons about work came from one of my uncles. He said that he would give me 50 cents for every bushel of butterbeans I shelled. I thought that sounded like a good deal until my fingers felt like they were going to fall off after shelling about one-fourth of what I was supposed to do. He wanted me to learn that money doesn’t come easily. He was right. There is no free ride in this world.

Work is a gift from God, to be sure, but we can’t enjoy this gift unless we put it to use. The best use that can turn any labor into a blessing is to “work for the Lord.” If I can work for the intrinsic reward of pleasing the Lord, then the extrinsic 50 cents doesn’t much matter. If whatever the menial task is done for Jesus’ sake then we can be content whatever our lot in life. That is, if we do it to the best of our ability. From this perspective, work can indeed be a gift from God. Famous artist, Emile Zola, put it this way: “The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.”

Perhaps you have heard or read the story of how work makes the difference between heaven and hell. There was a man who died and found himself in a beautiful place, surrounded by every conceivable comfort. A white-jacketed man came to him and said, “You may have anything you choose - any food - any pleasure - any kind of entertainment.” The man was delighted, and for days he sampled all the delicacies and experiences of which he had dreamed on Earth. But one day he grew bored with all of it, and calling the attendant to him, he said, “I’m tired of all this. I need something to do. What kind of work can you give me?” The attendant sadly shook his head and replied, “I’m sorry, sir. That’s the one thing we can’t do for you. There is no work here for you.” To which the man answered, “That’s a fine thing. I might as well be in hell.” The attendant said softly, “Where do you think you are?”

Non-Anxious Presence: A D.S.' Soup de Jour

This has been a day of what I call "Full-Moonitis." I don't think there's a full moon, but the way today has gone from calm to the tyranny of the urgent has been a real yo-yo. Just like the moon affects the tides, I sometimes think that it tugs on our amygdala's and we lose focus on what's real or imagined. Today was like that. As they say, "It ain't paranoia, if they're really after you."

I spent the entire day doing what District Superintendents do most days: conflict management, trying to remain calm in the freak-out problems that everyone presents to you as if theirs was the only problem that exists. Everybody has anxiety. To not have anxiety is humanly impossible, but what makes the difference between the good edgy anxiety that propels you to a creative solution and the flooding anxiety that makes you freeze up in a fetal position is whether you react to stuff when the ship hits the sand or whether you're responsive and thoughtful.

Thus, I spend a lot of my time saying, "That's interesting," or "Really?" instead of spouting off information or emotion. Calm demeanor, don't shake your head, don't smile too big or at all, unless you want folks to put words into your mouth and make out like you've agreed with their position. You have to differentiate, step aside, be a whole self and not perforated enough that their anxiety sucks you in. But, you have to remain connected, too. Here's where a handshake, a closing prayer, a verbal hug or whatever lets the other know you're still you, but you are in this thing with them, not for them. I only about lost it about 5 times today. Not bad for a fairly stressful day.

But, hey, I ain't Jesus. I can't solve all the problems, don't know all the answers. Heck, Even Jesus scribbled in the dirt and made the bystanders think for themselves. I never did like the funnel-in-the-head churches that tried to tell you all the right answers before you even asked the question. There's something wrong with that, promotes co-dependency if you ask me. I like the United Methodist way. We question everything except God's grace, and disagree on about everything but that. We call it conference. Yet, wouldn't it be wonderful if we conferenced with responsiveness instead of reactivity. Now that would be Holy Conferencing. I think I've actually seen it done. Well, anyway, I have about tongue-and-cheeked away my sarcastic cynicism. I feel more calm. You?

Carlee's Eulogy

The word "Eulogy" means "Good Word." A number of you have asked if I might share the eulogy I wrote for my brother, Carlee. As a person who often finds great comfort in the part of the Apostles' Creed that declares that "I believe in the Communion of Saints," then this eulogy is an ode to that belief. We are an Easter people and our resurrection hope is not in vain.

As we share the stories of people they remain alive in our hearts and actions. Holy Communion is called an "anamnesis," or to "remember." This morning I remember my brother and others, and I hope this spurs you to write down your thoughts and reflections about those who have gone before you. The remembrance of the past gives meaning and content for the present and future.

Take time today to think about the people you most admire and write their biography. It will be a "good word," a eulogy. Everyone needs to be remembered.

Carlee_Funeral[1]

Caught Between Time Zones, Cultures, & Grief

I am spent, tired and probably need to be in the Azores to have some semblance of biological normalcy. It took 17 hours in flight to get to East Africa, and 17 to get back in 5 days. I'm no "spring chicken" and I feel the weariness. I am also emotionally drained from preaching my brother Carlee's funeral yesterday. He was so special, and his devotion to family and our little historic hometown of Edgefield, SC was so complete. To capture him and our memories was both comforting and caused a degree of sadness. I miss him and those halcyon days of common joy. Nevertheless, he would want me to press on. That's what I'm going to do. I may head to the top of Mt. Mitchell, my quiet place and rest, read, and bask in its mystery for that is what I need in the summer of 2010 that has been so fraught withits own mysterious changes. I would be remiss if I did not at least offer to you my thoughts on the work of the Worldwide UMC Study Committee and our trip to Mozambique.

This is an email with some slight subsequent editing that I sent to Bishop Jones within hours of my return on Wednesday and in response to his offer of condolences about my brother and illiciting my thoughts on the interviews we conducted in Maputo, Mozambique.

"Scott/Bishop Jones, Thank you for your support and prayers for my family. Indeed, all of this with my brother and daughter have been unexpected and have been difficult. I want to express to you and the staff (especially Cynthia Dopke) my sincere thanks for rearranging my flights to get me home for his service tomorrow (Thursday). I'll be preaching the service and have been meeting with family all afternoon. I haven't crashed yet and there's more work to be done on his eulogy, so please understand the following thoughts as preliminary at best.

We had a very enlightening time of things in Maputo. I was able to peruse their 2008 version of their BOD (Book of Discipline)which was based on the 1988 version of the GC BOD. They simply have taken things out they feel are not relevant or offensive, and they have added as other Central Conferences have, "Special Advices," in the middle of their BOD. These seem to carry the weight of law, but they are different from the Social Principles, which in my opinion are not church law.


I went there thinking that perhaps we could have one common book of doctrine, discipline, and order; but I feel this is unlikely given their ability and willingness to wholesale pick and choose their preferences to adapt, leave out, and add new parts. For instance they still use the deacon to elder two-step ordination process. I am sensing that our study will need to go beyond the 2012 GC if we are to really rethink our church and do the adequate study, and we must not allow money or sexuality drive our ecclesiology unless we want to polarize everyone.There must also be some sense of proportionality in our relationships with churches outside the US to avoid colonialism.

A huge difference discussed at great length was the non-itineration of bishops and that they are elected at the CC level to serve in their own home episcopal area for a specific length of time. This is a dangerous thing in terms of politics in the episcopal areas when people serve among their peers and have preconceived notions that exist from Bishop to people and in reverse, and I remember as Aesop said it, "Familarity breeds contempt."

In final analysis I find it difficult to think we can have a common discipline unless it is VERY thin, and I don't think that is worth our efforts or good for the UMC. Another approach might be to see where the whole church can agree and allow very little, if any, adaptability. I think we must not rush into hurried decisions that will be misunderstood and fail. I would rather study longer and get it right, or simply accept the constitutional vote results on the worldwide nature of the UMC and the "no" votes on this issue that have occurred ever since the COSMOS report of the 60's all the way to this point as indicators that 1. We would rather live with the dysfunction as is, or 2. We really need to study this with seasoned ecclesiologists who have no agendas except to fulfill a commonly held mission of the Church and actually be a worldwide UMC. Anyway, that's where I am at this point and need to process it all much more. I'm truly sorry not to be there with you all. The group is in my prayers and I thank everyone for their's,

tim"

Cultural contextualization of the Gospel is not only appropriate, it is neccesary. St. Paul did a good job of this with the Athenians. However, in our UMC Connectional polity, one must discern with clarity what causes the UMC to be distinctive. What are the non-negotiables? I know Wesley said: "Let there be unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials, and in all things, charity." The daunting task in our indivualistic world is to figure which is which.

We cannot devolve into congregationalism and have pastors and churches act like individual silos, nor have annual conferences, or jusrisdictions/central conferences doing their own thing. That is NOT who we are. What we are is a corporate group of Jesus' followers who believe the saving work of Christ makes as much of a difference in this life as it does in the life to come. To quote John Wesley once again, and also use my brother Carlee's favorite expression, "Best of all, God is with us." The path to the future for me, the UMC, the world - is how is God with us? If we get that answered, then we will see a light into the future.