Had lunch a few months back with a good friend and we spent time reflecting on a new ministry opportunity he had been given. He talked about being at a high liturgy church previously and now being at a low liturgy church.

Then he said this:

I think liturgy is like Jazz. You have to learn the rules to break them.

Lifehack.org also has an article called “improvise like a jazz musician” where they say:

Learn the rules so you can break them: Mingus learned to play in the highly structured environment of a classical ensemble; later, he studied the big band compositions of Duke Ellington.  There’s nothing sloppy or naive about his compositions, even when they break all the rules — Mingus knew the rules well enough to know why they had to be broken.

Hmm. That quote and concept has stuck in my head for a few months now.

In seminary we learned the old liturgies, studied how to write our own prayers, figured out collects (you, who, do, through!), and learned the “why is this like this” of the liturgy. Then we go and adapt or implement our understanding of liturgy with our churches or contexts. And sometimes we run into road bumps along the way.

One of the articles we got the biggest pushback from commenters here at HackingChristianity.net was “Seeing Communion Again for the First Time” where I talked about going through the full communion liturgy with all the blood atonement language after 3 years of writing my own liturgy. It was shocking. But the experience (and the comments from my respected friends and at least one now-current DS) showed me how much jazz I had put in my own liturgy and pushed me to move the pendulum closer to historical creeds and litanies rather than striking it out on my own.

But I can’t shake the jazz from the liturgy. I can’t, with integrity, leave liturgy unchanging and, at the risk of offending my Duke friends, sacrosanct. Heck, as my friend John Meunier has explored, even the UMC doesn’t consider their rituals sacrosanct and allow for variety so long as it is “not repugnant to the Word of God.”

I’ve seen this quote by Mary Hunt before: “to sacramentalize is to pay attention. It is what a community does when it names and claims ordinary human experience as holy, connecting them with history and propelling them into the future.” How can we name and claim an experience when we are using language and imagery older than the people in the room? How can we make liturgy truly the “work of the people” when it isn’t work to copy and paste?

Don’t get me wrong: I love the old liturgy. I use hymns as liturgies, I use Book of Worship liturgies regularly. But if I want to present an emancipatory image of God, then I have to use language and concepts that reflect and critique my culture, not perpetuate a foreign culture. It is not emancipatory if it isn’t directly critiquing the context, and while the traditional words are often timeless, my job as liturgist is to know the liturgy, understand its role, and then pull off a jazz rift at just the right moment, which by the grace of God I do.

In short, if liturgy is the work of the people, then does the communion liturgy include the people in it?  When will the sabbath be made for humans, and not humans for the Sabbath?

Thoughts?

“What if the Church should be less concerned with creating saints than creating a world where we do not need saints? A world where people like Mother Theresa and MLK wold have nothing to do.”

~ Peter Rollins, Insurrection, page 142

In Batman Begins, a reboot of the Batman storyline, we learn that Bruce Wayne’s father Thomas was a philanthropist for the city of Gotham. He built a rail system so that the impoverished could work in the city and be able to travel. In the movie’s flashback to that fateful night when they died, Thomas Wayne explains this decision:

Thomas Wayne: “Gotham’s been good to our family, but the city’s been suffering. People less fortunate than us have been enduring very hard times. So we built a new, cheap, public transportation system to unite the city.”

Both of Bruce Wayne’s parents were killed before those less fortunate had enough time to be bettered by this project. In their memory, the philanthropists in Gotham were “galvanized” into building onto more of the city’s infrastructure and Gotham has “limped on ever since.” It is in this environment that Bruce takes a more direct approach to fighting crime and Batman emerges as a one-man fighting force who gets criminals off the streets and into hospitals…but there’s always more and more, it seems. Indeed, by the second movie, the police officers at a press conference say “things are worse than ever” and even the District Attorney says “the night is darkest before the dawn.” It seems that even though individuals battles are won by Batman, the war to make Gotham better is still ongoing.

In Peter Rollins’ book Insurrection, Rollins writes about this difference between Bruce Wayne and his father Thomas Wayne’s approaches to crime:

In order for Bruce Wayne to fund his high-tech covert military campaign against the criminals of Gotham, he must secretly siphon off vast sums of money from Wayne Industries…one must wonder whether it might not be much more effective if he took that money and spent it on developing a strong educational system within the city, setting up training programs for the unemployed, and helping small businesses develop…

A city without the infrastructure to provide good education and work opportunities simply feeds Joker’s evil schemes by sustaining the conditions that lead to a large underclass unable to find representation in the city. Batman’s archvillains would have a difficult time carrying out their crimes if they did not have an unlimited number of poor and desperate people to prey upon, people who turn to crime in order to survive and find identity. If Batman spent his time and money supporting a life-giving infrastructure, the crime wave in Gotham might be broken.

Insurrection page 141-142

Thus, to Rollins, if Bruce had followed in his father’s footsteps and recommitted himself and all that money to bettering the environment of Gotham, then it would be a better place. It’s similar to the approach against terrorism mapped out in Three Cups of Tea, where the journalist discovers that by educating women they know to not encourage their sons to not go into terrorism and thus they rob terrorists of their needed clientele. A rising tide lifts all boats.

Instead, like any partially-crazy traumatized child would do, Bruce Wayne sought revenge in the form of the Caped Crusader: which made for a much better comic book and movie series, I’ll admit, but perhaps not the best choice to be effective. So who made the right decision? Bruce Wayne or Thomas Wayne? Thomas’s approach obviously didn’t remove all the corruption and crime, even though it kept it from dissolving into anarchy (which was the preference of Batman Begins’ antagonist Ra’s Al Ghul). But it looks like from the teasers of The Dark Knight Rises that anarchy is on its way even against Bruce Wayne’s approach as Batman too.

Rollins concludes with this statement that I find meaning in today:

Bruce Wayne is able to look and feel like he is part of the solution when, in his overall material practices, he is really a part of the problem. It is one thing to beat up a criminal; it’s another to commit oneself to the difficult task of transforming society.

I wonder if we are making discipleship too easy. Being a disciple is easy. Going to church is easy. Reading the bible is easy. Praying is easy. Even implementing biblical principles into your private life is sorta easy. In the grand scheme of things, these are easy practices and sacrifices of time. Half of the United Methodist Church’s mission statement (“To Make Disciples of Jesus Christ…”) is easy.

The second half of that mission statement (“For the Transformation of the World.”) is hard. Speaking up for the oppressed is hard. Choosing to preach on controversial issues that will lose you members is hard. Finding another person to read the bible with is hard. Praying for one’s enemies is hard. Choosing to leave a church that offers you spiritual therapy for another one that galvanizes you is hard.

Obviously, being a Disciple necessarily means a combination of both private devotion and public action, so discipleship really isn’t easy. But it’s amazing how many churches are filled with Superheroes in both the pulpit and the pew who tackle spiritual problems one at a time and who create programs and structures that are dependent on them rather than creating a culture of call and service that can change the world around them. I’ve seen too many churches lose the wind from their sails when one super-layperson dies or becomes disgruntled, too many churches fall when one pastor falls short or suffers from indiscretions. Discipleship in a church context ought be more than reliance on a single person.

Perhaps the shift we need to make in discipleship is from being the heroes in our communities whom everyone relies on to being the ones who create the conditions for other heroes to emerge.

Don’t get me wrong: our world needs heroes these days, doesn’t it? In a world where a fear and hatred of enemies as wholly ‘other’ is encouraged; where a psychology of enmity rules; where polarization is lifted up; where a hostile imagination is inflamed; is it not up to us to call for a Hero to emerge? Is it not up to the dreamers, the idealists, people called by God to stoke a heroic imagination in the people, to create the conditions by which a hero might appear, where Jesus might return, where the Spirit might be moving, where love might conquer fear, where Jar-Jar may magically disappear from the Star Wars prequels (can I get an AMEN?)?

From an article on Heroism, is not this description of the heroic imagination a parallel to any ministry context?

“Those who engage their heroic imagination are making themselves aware of opportunities where they can help others in need, and may be more prepared to accept and transcend the consequences associated with the…decision [to help].”

Z.E. Franco, K. Blau, P.G. Zimbardo. “Heroism: A Conceptual Analysis and Differentiation
between Heroic Action and Altruism.” Review of General Psychology. April 11, 2011, page 9.

Perhaps we are called not to be Bruce Wayne but to be Thomas, to create the conditions for a hero to emerge in our contexts, to stoke a heroic imagination in our community that faces down oppression and stands with the marginalized. To tell the stories of liberation, sing songs of freedom, celebrate the Risen Christ triumphant in our midst.

Perhaps we are not called to be individuals with a perfectly crafted relationship with God, but communities seeking perfection in our relationships with each other.  Perhaps we can start with working on our relationships with each other rather than God. Perhaps when we focus on God’s creation rather than our individualistic relationship with God, we can push against the trends of our time towards individualism and modernity.

Will the pastors and lay leaders among us work to create a heroic imagination in your communities? Ones that endure, ones that create the conditions for change, ones that trust in the slow work of God, ones that transform the world? Or will you be content doing everything, getting all the credit for good works in your community, creating programs and churches that rise and fall with the beating of your own heart?

The choice is yours.

Thoughts?

Hello friends!

We’ve had enough of a response from laity and clergy to our call to read the recommended books for General Conference that we are a go! We’ve got 10 weeks until General Conference, so let’s try to get these knocked out during Lent.

Process

1. Buy/Borrow the Books
• Cokesbury’s list here [cheapest]
• Click each title below for Amazon Kindle versions [Cokebury's versions are Nook-only...unless you are a Hacking Christian...muhahaha])
2. On Thursdays during Lent, we’ll first post questions, have conversations with each other, musings, thoughts. It would be considered an ‘open thread’ for discussion.
3. On Tuesdays during Lent, we’ll have a synchblog where we write about the book and our musings on it. While individual bloggers do not have to link to each other, this blog will post a link to every blog that is participating (ie. that emails me a link or I happen to see it that day).
4. When Lent is over, we’ve done our penance and are bettered for it! Good preparation for General Conference and a Lenten Discipline all in one! What a deal!

Schedule

First Book: Focus by Lovett Weems.

• February 23 – Questions and Thoughts (open conversation)
• February 28 – Synchblog on Focus

Second Book: Back to Zero by Gil Rendle

• March 1 – Questions and Thoughts (open conversation)
• March 6 – Synchblog on Back to Zero

Third Book: Lord, I Love the Church and We Need Help by Virginia Bassford

• March 8 - Questions and Thoughts (open conversation)
• March 13 – Synchblog on Lord, I love the Church and We Need Help

Fourth Book: Jesus Insurgency by Rasmus/Escobedo-Frank

• March 15 - Questions and Thoughts (open conversation)
• March 20 – Synchblog on Jesus Insurgency

Fifth Book: The Recovery of a Contagious Methodist Movement by George Hunter

• March 22 - Questions and Thoughts (open conversation)
• March 27 – Synchblog on The Recovery of a Contagious Methodist Movement

Sign Up Below

You don’t have to sign up or comment, but it is helpful for me to know ahead of time whose blogs will likely be posting content. You also don’t have to participate in every book, and the open conversations will be kept up if you fall behind in reading. They are short books but participate at your leisure!

I hope you join me in this as we consider the adaptive challenge of the United Methodist Church and maybe come up with our own adaptive challenges for it to be in conversation with.

The adaptive challenge for The United Methodist Church is:

To redirect the flow of attention, energy, and resources to an intense concentration on fostering and sustaining an increase in the number of vital congregations effective in making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Thoughts, comments? Welcome to the discussion!

“Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.”

attributed to Sir Francis Drake -1577

During the first week of February, a group of Western Jurisdiction Bishops, clergy leaders, and laity on episcopal and jurisdictional committees gathered together to talk about the Call To Action with members of the ethnic caucus groups. They wrote a succinct letter that outlines their major difficulties in a helpful way. They must have been reading my blog posts because the letter they drafted contains a lot of language that I resonate with. I encourage you to read it.

Their key points in the letter deal with the agency restructure; specifically, the Board of Directors that would be the highest perpetual body in the United Methodist Church and which would be competency-based rather than representative-based. Here’s a quote:

We believe that the proposed competency-based board is too severe a swing of the pendulum in the direction of ease, and efficiency at the expense of diversity and inclusivity and threatens to deprive the church of the perspectives and voices of the many cultures represented by our geographies, theologies and ethnic identities. With few voices present at the table, ease and efficiency of work may be achievable, but whose voices will be left out?

Note that I also use pendulum and efficiency language a lot. Glad to have some fans of this blog in the Western Jurisdiction! Or just people that use everyday English words. Ha! [/narcissism]

Here’s the letter (PDF), dated February 6th, 2012. Essentially the letter expresses four concerns:

continue reading..

I spent a little of my ‘continuing education’ budget on the short books for the General Conference delegates. Which should I start with first? Is there a recommended order?

I asked GBHEM, Abingdon, and Cokesbury, to no avail. So, your suggestions?

Also…anyone interested in a book study? We can do it over twitter or blog conversation. Comment below if you are in.

The list is here

Before Reading: While umc.org and other outlets seem to deem this article as sensational because it challenges a Bishop’s words, the real conflict isn’t between the Bishop and I. We don’t know each other and surely we both want the other to succeed in effective ministries. Rather, the conflict is how to talk about issues in ways that address the critics (people who want to stop the Call to Action completely) and the champions (people like me who see the need and value but disagree over the particulars) in helpful ways. I stand by my words but hope you see it is a call for higher discourse, not a personal dispute. (this note added 2/15/2012)

===============

The stereotype is that bloggers must be sitting shirtless in their parent’s basements typing under a red haze of outrage, disconnected from reality, eating Cheetos. While that is true for some, I’ll admit to only one at this moment: the red haze of outrage. We’ll try to be as non-reactionary as possible from here on out.

Bishop Hopkins from East Ohio, who chairs the Connectional Table, has written a blog post on the new Vital Congregations website. While I respect the man and blessings on his ministry, every point that he’s made to “counter” the supposed claims about the Call To Action seems to spin the reality into something unrecognizable. The piece is entitled “Speak Now” and it sounds  like he’s asking for a response. You got it.

As a preacher, I recognize my role is occasionally to be a cheerleader and encourage regardless of the reality because I have a vision I believe in. I get it. However, to whitewash over these counterpoints without addressing the issues behind each may be a concise contribution, but not a helpful contribution to this debate at this late stage.

Let’s go point by point (the bold italic parts are Hopkins’ exact section headers from the blog post)

10.  The Call to Action is NOT being voted on at General Conference!

• Claim: Hopkins claims it has already begun and all the GC is voting on is to align the structure of the church to increase vital congregations.
• Reality: The express purpose of the CTA was “to conduct an assessment and offer recommendations leading to reordering the life of the Church for greater effectiveness and vitality in mission.” And the Interim Operations Team says that “the next steps for many of these recommendations will be legislative proposals for the 2012 General Conference to consider.” Thus the arc of the Call To Action necessitates GC action; ergo, the CTA is being voted on.
• Thoughts: Have we already affirmed the need for vital congregations? Yes. Are we doing church metrics? Yes. But with the bulk of the changes being legislative-based…well, I would call that “being voted on” as there’s no significant change without changes in our polity. We are not to make mid-stream changes in our polity like that, and the CTA team was created to analyze and propose, not initiate legislative change. To say it is not being voted on, it is inevitable, it has already begun, strikes me as incongruous with UM polity.

9.  The Call to Action is NOT a “top-down” initiative!

• Claim: “The most important changes will not result from legislative action but instead will require different actions and patterns of leadership by each one of us.”
• Reality: Legislative action is what will remove the guaranteed appointment so that Bishops can remove pastors whose church metrics are not on the up-and-up. Legislative action will change the boards from centers of ministry to dispersal units of money. Legislative action will remove the requirements that annual conferences have monitoring agencies (like Religion and Race and COSROW) that remind annual conferences of the values of diversity. It even creates not one but two church executive positions (Executive General Secretary over the board and the non-residential Bishop).
• Thoughts: As any corporate culture theorist would tell you, change that is legislated from the top (even in non-binding ways) creates changes at the bottom that the leadership can point to and say “see the culture is changing!” We call that leadership. So either the CTA is about better leadership (from the top-down) or it is about being better followers (which have no metric for accountability). So…which is it?

8.  The Call to Action is NOT about restructuring general agencies!

• Claim: “The proposed legislation to put most of the program general agencies on one board will align resources, unify staff work and provide holistic strategic planning to support a sustained focus on vital congregations.”
• Reality: OMGoodness, are you serious? The first bullet point of the CTA proposed legislation is, entitled, “General Agency Realignment.” The Pre-GC audio tapes are called “General Church Restructure” and received the biggest reactions. How on earth is it NOT about restructuring?
• Thoughts: I understand the Bishop’s expressed point: yes, the local church successes are to be lifted up and possibly emulated, though I wonder if we resonate differently. With a focus on vital congregations, yes, a large portion is focused on that. But a significant amount of money and resources is about to be redistributed and avenues to dispense that money to annual conferences is about to narrow, so to diminish it as “not about the general agencies” strikes me as really disingenuous.

7.  The Call to Action is NOT about giving more power to the Council of Bishops!

• Claim: “With fewer governance boards, resident bishops will have more time to work and be accountable for the fruits of the congregations in their annual conferences.”
• Reality: One of the recommendations is to remove Guaranteed Appointment so that clergy do not have to be appointed. Thus, it gives more power to the Bishops to not give them appointments. I would love someone to explain to me how this is not about more power to the Bishops.
• Thoughts: To say that the Council of Bishops will not get more power ignores the CTA recommendations about guaranteed appointment (the Bishop’s power of appointment) and the non-residential Bishop relocates the voice of the UMC from General Conference to the Bishops (the power of voice and position). Even the Good News movement agrees with me that the Bishops will get more power, and when that happens, you know it’s closer to reality.

6.  The Call to Action is NOT from a small “rump group”!

• Claim: ”General Conference delegates represent their fellow annual conference constituents. Bishops represent the whole church, their region, and their respective annual conference.”
• Reality: Ben Gosden pointed out  this section to me asking: ”Since when did General Conference become nothing more than a collection of geographical representatives and the bishops become the voice of the whole church? I do believe the good Bishop has it backwards.” I agree.
• Thoughts: In addition, the Connectional Table is diverse and well-proportioned and not a ‘rump group.’ However, the CTA will leave a small “rump group” leading the denomination in the form of the Board of Directors, unlike the Alternative Proposal that makes the group much bigger…than a rump, apparently!
• Disclaimer: I would love a definition of “rump group” so we are talking about the same thing…

5.  The Call to Action is NOT just about churches in the United States!

• Claim: “A unified general program board will provide easier access to agency services for every annual conference around the world.”
• Thoughts: Actually, the Bishop and I agree on this one. I haven’t seen many claims come across my radar that claim it is just about US-based changes. Changes to the General Boards, the power of Bishops, and money given specifically to young people worldwide and central conference legislation do involve the whole church and we should take seriously these implications not only in our backyards but around the world.

4.  The Call to Action is NOT to save money!

• Claim: “Although General Conference is responsible for the entire church, it actually makes decisions for less than 2% of our financial resources.”
• Reality: I really really need to see this one detailed out. General Conference is only about 2% of the financial resources? Doesn’t GC have some say over the entire pension program? All our properties are held by the UMC. If the GC voted to do away with all connectional entities, that would be a lot of money. I don’t get it…
• Thoughts: I’m not going to go into this one too much as the numbers just don’t add up for me. But we are talking about redistributing $60 million dollars…that is not a small amount. By saying that the General Conference is “no big deal” seems really contrary to our polity and the work that the delegates do for two weeks.

3.  The Call to Action will NOT reduce diversity within The United Methodist Church!

• Claim: “The Call to Action recommends that we have fewer people involved in governance and more in ministry without reducing our commitment to diversity and inclusiveness.   The fruits of a more aligned general church will result in more diversity at the grass roots level.”
• Reality: It is the claim of the Alternative Proposal that the CTA will be less diverse, by removing the boards and centralizing the authority of the church too much with a disproportional representation on the council. The Ethnic Caucuses have claimed the same thing: that the highest bodies of the church, as written, cannot be representational of ethnic diversity.
• Thoughts: It is one of my claims that by turning the Boards into grant-dispersing units that they will tend to favor proposals that match their own makeup. This mirrors the concerns above.

2.  The Call to Action does NOT replace our mission and Four Areas of Focus!

• Claim: “The same is true of our focus on developing leaders, starting new congregations, engaging in ministry with the poor and improving global health.”
• Reality: Our mission statement is a perfect marriage of inner-focus (make disciples) and outer-focus (transformation of the world). The four areas of focus are 3/4 inner-focus and 1/4 outer-focus. By contrast, the 16 drivers expressed in the CTA (page 12) are all inner-focus. The church metrics is 4/5  inner-focus with 1/5 outer-focus.
• Thoughts: As I wrote almost a year ago now, the Call To Action calls for a decade of navel-gazing, of inner-focus rather than a balance of both. I am fearful of an inward-facing church for the next decade that doesn’t give a metric for evaluating how we are transforming the world.

1. The Call to Action is NOT about changing someone else!

• Claim: “The Connectional Table and its staff are willing to step aside to make way for God’s new thing.”
• Reality: The Connectional Table gets to choose the next Board of Directors and nothing stops them from choosing themselves. While this legislation will undoubtedly be changed during General Conference, the statement above seems out-of-step with the actual legislation.
• Thoughts: I’m a bit confused about this point. Yes, we confess we have fallen short. Yes, we are proposing changes to make us better. That’s terrific. But where we differ is that these are important changes, legislatively and at the local level, and to say that the most important changes are in your backyard ignores the connectional ethos and spirit of the United Methodist Church.

Look, there’s a difference between being a critic and being a champion: critics tear down without putting up an alternative vision that the champions do. This blog post seems focused on the critics of the Call To Action who offer unsubstantial criticism. That’s fine. But it utterly ignores the reasonable voices and white-washes over us like we are champions of alternative proposals  that also contain Methodist values. It lumps all criticism together without recognizing that some of us are in this for the long haul. By God’s grace, I’ll be a clergyperson for 40 more years in the UMC: please don’t treat us with kid gloves.

Let’s be clear: The #CallToAction conversation will not be drowned out by declarations of inevitability or saying General Conference is no big deal. It’s been said again and again that the CTA was meant to start the conversation and the conversation is in full-swing. The facets of the Call to Action report that are voted on at General Conference are highly important, and to say otherwise is incongruous with the conversation. We can do better.

I welcome any official or unofficial responses to this post. Thanks for reading. Thoughts?

The Confessing Movement is an unofficial caucus within the United Methodist Church that seeks to maintain or revert the doctrine and practice of the UMC to traditional/orthodox perspectives.

One of the CM’s constant criticisms is of the seminaries (the academy) because all that pesky knowledge past the 17th century, interaction with other valid ways of believing, and varieties of theological tools seem to get in the way of doctrinal rigidity. Oddly enough.

Their attack line in the past few years has been to focus on the cost per graduating seminarian with the framework that some seminaries don’t graduate as many Methodist clergy as others and yet they get the same funding as the ones that graduate a lot. They seem to often take aim at the two UM seminaries who are closest to my heart: Boston University (BU), my alma mater, and Claremont (CST), the California seminary that does lots of interfaith work and indeed now is a multi-faith initiative.

Here’s one of the CM’s articles from 2011.

 In 2009 Boston School of Theology received $863,235 dollars from the Ministerial Education Fund (MEF). For this investment a grand total of seven students in 2008 received United Methodist ordination at the cost of $123,319 per student. The School of Theology at Claremont did a bit better; ten students from Claremont were in the newly ordained elders and deacons 2008 class in the various conferences. The church’s investment per Claremont ordained student totaled $84,967.

And now this week’s article from 2012:

Last year the United Methodist Church gave Claremont $869,000 in funding. During that year a total of eight United Methodist students graduated. Figure that cost per student! Just imagine what that $869,000 could have produced if it had been designated for seminary training in Africa!

So their basic point is that the UMC is investing over $100k per student who graduates from these two particular heathen seminaries. Why are we wasting so much money on them? The “good” Methodist seminaries (as if there is such a thing to the CM) churn out preachers more efficiently and the cost-per-graduate is half the above in some cases.

If I was a bit arrogant, I would say this:

• Both seminaries are in the American mission fields of United Methodism: BU in New England, CST in the Western Jurisdiction. Both of these annual conferences have had significant membership losses during the past few decades and are now practically considered to be mission fields due to their high numbers of non-Christians and, moreso, non-Methodists. Is there any wonder that less UMs go to these mission outposts than the other seminaries who have it easy and are reflecting their predominantly Christian culture? So do we abandon the mission posts to Satan (rhetorically or literally)? And how many Southern pastors are applying to move to these mission fields, anyway?

If I was rather arrogant, I would say this:

• Both seminaries train more religious specialists than pastors. I’m in the minority as a pastor in my class as most were going onto higher education or social services positions. Doesn’t it take more money and training to be a specialist? Ones who can be a Protest Chaplain with Occupy Wall Street and know how to use nonviolent rhetoric and action? Ones who can advocate with Interfaith Worker Justice and know how to reinforce workers self-worth to God and to each other? Ones who can create novel approaches to interfaith dialogue so they can share a common mission to serve others even as they keep their own values and identites. Ones who…you get my drift? Little wonder that it takes less money per student at some other seminaries: they train primarily pastors. Even though each individual pastor has obviously amazing gifts and graces and can customize their advanced classes, the approach is more broad than specialized. Just as it costs more to become a specialist surgeon than a family practice doctor, religious specialists cost more money but hopefully give back knowledge and practices that benefit the whole. Don’t mistake my meaning with this paragraph: It doesn’t make them better, but it does make them more expensive.

And if I was really arrogant, I would say this:

• Look, I’m worth $100,000 dollars. I could have taken my presumed gifts to other venues. I could have applied my computer skills and be earning $100k as a computer specialist. I could have applied my writing skills and be earning $100k a year from journalistic endeavors. I can pantomime as well. Instead I’m serving a church that I won’t even earn half those wages until I’m probably 40, much less $100k a year unless I go the mega-church route (doubtful). Some of my friends are powerful singers and writers and technical specialists but instead of going the way of fame and money, they became pastors, to our benefit. Are we worth it?
• Here’s the kicker: even if I paid a full tithe on my $100k a year, it would be far less than the amount I encourage my church to pay its full apportionment each year (which they do) as a pastor. And given that each clergyperson costs the denomination 2.1 million dollars if they have a 40 year tenure, my full personal tithe of that would be $210,000. Back to the church that contributed to my education. So really, I’m worth $100k and so are hundreds of seminarians like me. [restart humility]

Luckily, I’m not really that arrogant so I’m not going to say those things….oops.

Can we do better? Can we make the cost-per-student ratio better? Of course. I just fail to see how $100k per seminary student is not a good investment, even if other seminaries manage a smaller cost-per-student ratio. Are we seeking efficient graduations or effective graduates? My hope is the latter, and if so, then a variety of gifts, the many parts of the Body of Christ…some parts just cost more. And that’s okay.

Thoughts?

One of the recommendations from the Call To Action is the re-distribution of funds to young adults (those under 35 years old), $5million dollars of the first amount of money saved to go to them. That’s a great gesture and will certainly be put to good use. It makes me wonder, though, if the Call To Action values ministry to young adults rather than ministry with young adults. Are we included in the conversation or are we just being “ministered to?”

Young adult delegate Rachel Birkhahn-Rommelfanger from Northern Illinois and I took a look and here’s the disturbing numbers that we found.

The Connectional Table, which populated the Call To Action teams, has three young adult members on the team. That’s awesome and I’m glad they are involved in the highest perpetual body in the church alongside the Council of Bishops. So, excluding staff, three out of 49 members would make the Young Adult percentage on the Connectional Table as 6.12%. We’ll set that as a baseline.

So the Call To Action committee, which did the primary work of the Call to Action movement, has one young adult member on the team (Ben B.) with 15 other members. That’s pretty good,  not representative of the actual number of young adults, but still respectable under the small size of the team. That would make the Young Adult percentage on the Call To Action steering team at 6.25%.

Now’s the bad news. The Interim Operations Team, which crafted the majority of the Call to Action legislation, has zero young adult members out of 12. So for the actual crafting of the legislation, putting all the vision into play, the young adult input and decision-making ability is exactly zero.

So Young Adults are seen, heard, but not involved in the writing of the actual legislation for the Call To Action. Bummer.

Now the good news: You have a choice! The response to the CallToAction put together by the Alternative Structure team has four young-adult co-signers to the legislation, out of 13. Thus, 30% of the Alternative Structure co-signers are Young Adults. Even when you include the extended team that co-wrote it but didn’t co-sign the legislation, you gain one young adult and make it five out of 32, or 15.62%.

I think there’s little wonder then that the Alternative Structure appeals to me as a young adult:

• It has a cautionary approach to authority by removing the Board of Directors
• it includes a diversity of voices by reducing the number of boards but still including at least 30 people on them.
• it keep the Methodist values of accountability in our strong connectional structure

All of which (a suspicion of authority, an appreciation of diversity, and enforcement of accountability…not to mention rebelliousness to bad ideas) are certainly United Methodist values in general but are also hallmarks of my generation of young adults in particular.

Where are the Young Adult voices in the Call To Action? When it comes to putting pen onto paper, the Alternative Structure includes their voices at every level of theory to organizing to writing. The Call To Action legislation has young adult voices at a lower percentage at the theory and organizing levels, but not the actual writing of the legislation.

It may or may not matter. From our research and head-counting, there is only ONE young adult on the General Administration committee at General Conference, which is the committee that handles the bulk of the CTA legislation. Out of 54 members, that’s 1.85% which is far less than the representation on either the Connectional Table or the Call To Action committee. So while young adult delegates will get to participate on the floor, in the back-and-forth consideration of the two proposals their involvement will be limited.

• Consideration:  While I recognize this can be due to self-selection (both of the young adults from my annual conference delegation chose other committees), young adults are usually lower on the list and thus the General Administration committee would have been taken by other delegates beforehand.
• Consideration: the one young-adult is Rachel, and she’ll be louder and more articulate than half the committee, so it may even out.

Now we can go down the line and point out how many people are ethnic on each team, how many women, how many central conference people, how many hipster mac users, and that would cause some back-and-forth between which team is more representative of that particular group. But if the voices of young adults are most important to you, the Alternative Proposal includes them at every level and it shows in the values reflected in the proposal.

Thoughts?

Notes:

• Special thanks to Rachel and another good friend for helping with the facts and figures and inspiration.
• Full disclosure: I am one of the co-signers to the Alternative Proposal and include myself (I’m 32 years old) in the above numbers.

Matthew Paul Turner of Jesus Needs New PR has a rough story that just rips at my heart. A member of Mars Hill church was confronted about some of his actions by the MH leadership. And what follows is commonplace in rural fundamentalist Calvinistic churches…but I didn’t realize how intrinsic it was to the Neo-Calvinist resurgence.

Part 1 of the story is essentially this: A church member Andrew was engaged with another church member, cheated on her, the relationship ended and Andrew confessed his sin to his accountability group friend. After the church leadership got involved with many meetings, each time Andrew felt more and more ground under their feet. Andrew learned he was “under church discipline” and what that meant:

Something in his spirit told him not to trust them. Something caused him to believe that the men sitting in front of him were far less interested in restoring him than they were in having control, feeling powerful, throwing their spiritual weight around. Beating down a sinner like Andrew.

Andrew says that many of Mars Hill’s men feel beaten down. “Because that’s what happens there, especially when you question a pastor. You get beaten down. Until you submit.”

Andrew was offered a discipline statement to sign. Jesus Needs New PR has it on their blog post, but it entails (edits by MPT, CG = small accountability group):

Andrew will attend XXX’s CG and meet with XXX on a regular basis (define).
Andrew will not be involved in serving at MH.
Andrew will not pursue or date any woman inside or outside of MH.
Andrew will write out in detail his sexual and emotional attachment history withwomen and share it with XXX.
Andrew will write out in detail the chronology of events and sexual/emotional sinwith XXX and share it with XXX and Pastor X.
Andrew will write out a list of all people he has sinned against during this timeframe, either by sexual/emotional sin, lying or deceiving, share it with XXX and develop a plan to confess sin and ask for forgiveness.

So far, this is okay. I’ve done a behavior covenant before with a parishioner who needed it. That’s okay if a individual needs it and in your pastoral concern it would seem helpful. Fine.

Part 2 of the story gets REALLY scary: Andrew declined to sign it and told the pastoral leadership that he was leaving the church. The leadership wrote back that he would still be “under discipline” if he left and it would be “escalated.” Andrew had no idea what that would entail: Mars Hill posted on the church’s private social network an extensive letter about Andrew’s sins and how the church parishioners should act with Andrew in public in “permissible” and “impermissible” ways. For example:

What is not permissible? Refrain from associating with Andrew in social settings, such as eating a meal, attending a concert or movie together [Scripture references]. Such disassociation from Christian Community is designed by God to help him realize the seriousness of his sin and need for repentence (gospel shame – 2 Thess 3:14)

Read it all here. Amazing.

While others have written that this type of church discipline is closer to John Wesley than the UMC might be, I’m more interested in the term “gospel shame”

The term “gospel shame” is taken from 2 Thess 3:14 which says in the Common English Bible:

 Take note of anyone who doesn’t obey what we have said in this letter. Don’t associate with them so they will be ashamed of themselves.

But how often do the Church Discipline crafters go on to the next verse 15:

Don’t treat them like enemies, but warn them like you would do for a brother or sister.

As the New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary states:

On the one hand, the larger church has the authority to shame the erring ones because of the latter’s deviation from the writer’s word as given in the letter (v.  14). On the other hand, the parameters of the reform are clearly prescribed: The larger church must not regard the erring ones as enemies, but (as in 1 Thess 5:14) they must “warn” or “admonish” them as believers.

Maybe I’m from the University of Phoenix of religions, but I think that refraining from social contact, posting a warning to other churchgoers about a forsworn former member, always reminding him in every social interaction that he is “unrepentent” sure is treating the individual more like an enemy than a brother or sister.

So…Gospel shame? Is this the Gospel? I’m not sure. But I’m pretty sure it’s mainly shame, or the relying on psychological and sociological pressure to enforce biblical rigidity rather than relying on the Gospel and the love of Christ to transform hearts and minds.

I think this is a situation that reminds us all to examine our church disciplinary norms and procedures and see if we are treating the other with love or with rancor, with a twisting of Scripture to exert control.

As MPH closes his blog series with:

When I first read this letter, I was sitting in Starbucks, and I was shaking. Shaking because I was hurting for Andrew. And too, I was shaking because I was so angry that somebody (heck, a lot of somebodies–not just Mark) would use the words and messages of Jesus in such away.

And if this is how they plan to treat Andrew–as an “unbeliever”? How in the world do they treat people who really are non-Christian? (And not to mention the fact that Jesus hung out with Gentiles, tax-collectors, etc.)

Fine. If they don’t want Andrew to be a member of their church, take his name off the list! But this? I mean, seriously, did any of this letter, except for perhaps the “heavy heart”, infer that Mars Hill loves Andrew? Oh I know they think their actions represent love. But really, many of us have experienced firsthand that kind of “love,” and we know very well that it’s an abuse of the term.

I honestly wouldn’t wish this so-called “gospel shame” on Mark Driscoll, let alone somebody I know personally, somebody I’m called to love, somebody I am hoping to help restore.

And you know what’s sad? Many (not all) of Andrew’s friends (from Mars Hill) are “obeying” the advice in this letter. While every one of them has implied that they believe Mars Hill is completely out of line and blowing this out of proportion, they all end up using some variation of the words that Mars Hill told them to say.

Indeed. Thoughts?