I made comments a month or so ago about the Methodist General Conference. Those comments stand on their own (here, here, here, and here).
What I want to reflect on today, though, is the recent Judicial Council's decisions about questions raised on the votes taken at that General Conference.
I've lived through lots of ecclesial battles in my time: In the early 90s, the Baptists around me (and for whom I care deeply) fought over women in pastoral leadership and the innerancy of the Bible; in the mid 90s, the Methodists around me (for whom I care deeply) began fighting over homosexuality; in the early 00s, we Episcopalians started fighting again about homosexuality and ordination. So I've lived in these divisions for a long time. Therefore I have some thoughts on them and how Christians might reflect on them. Or, more importantly, what we might do about them.
The Judicial Council has upheld some of the constitutionality of the Traditional Plan as well as conditions around which congregations might separate from the denomination over good faith disagreements about homosexuality. One Bishop has made remarks about those decisions and how they impact the UMC. And just this morning I see that additional reactions have begun to flood around the Church.
All this still leaves me to wonder: Is all this fighting the best way to discern God's will? Might there be better ways for Christians to move forward on issues around biblical interpretation, pastoral leadership or human sexuality?
Once again -- as was true of the Baptists and the Episcopalians -- another branch of the Christian tree has found a way to mirror its surrounding culture. The vote and the Judicial Council's ruling both show just how divided The UMC is. That split shows, painfully, that the Church is no better place to heal division than anywhere else in our culture.
I'm a closet orthodox Wesleyan. I have grown up admiring John and Charles Wesley (as Anglican priests who led much-needed reformations in the Church). I wrote a master's thesis on the Wesleys' practical theology and the way that theology informed the Sunday Service -- and how both can bring revitalization to a local parish. Nearly two decades ago, I taught a well-received course on Methodist theology using Wesley's hymns in a continuing education event for Holston Conference clergy's Wesley Institute. And I still find it quite untraditional for Methodists to be making decisions this way.
Whatever happened to Wesley's practical, pastoral approach? I honestly think Wesley was on to something: If God is going to change us, it will happen around a shared table with sisters and brothers. Not in an adversarial relationship that involves voting and legal proceedings.
The Church has never been of one mind when it comes to pastoral leadership, biblical interpretation or human sexuality. Never. And that's not a bad thing. Because if I take Acts 15 as my model, there is room for sharing stories, worshiping side by side, and finding that the Spirit is moving folks in different directions of ministry -- for the common cause of the Kingdom!
What would happen if we Christians -- sisters and brothers of the same family -- actually needed one another?
Living in that tension is the key for the future. It's always been the key for the future. We Christians live in different cultural contexts, with different generational messages informed by various theological convictions. Unity doesn't require uniformity. If it did, the early Christians in Acts would have never been able to work together in the Spirit to accomplish all that God accomplished in and through and with them. So if we're allowing one or two or five particular biblical texts to serve as our mandate, maybe we ought to pray a bit more about where the Spirit is teaching us.
I feel the pain in my soul for generations to come after us. Real human beings have been wounded -- will continue to be wounded -- by the decisions affirmed yesterday. Those human beings include clergy and laity who quite faithfully disagree. But that disagreement, if it means disunity, is as Satanic as the disunity of the decisions. Hear me clearly here: Listen and look for what the Spirit does in congregations every Sunday. You'll see and hear transformations that create communities of hospitality and kindness. And you'll find very painful divisions healed by the One who knits us together in one fellowship.
But if the love of Jesus isn't our aim and our method, then we've lost our Church to the world. Whether liberal or conservative.
There is a way forward. That way requires that Methodists be very intentional in listening to the Spirit, and to one another in the Spirit. We should affirm the human image of God, and reflect that image to one another. We should also affirm the importance of covenantal marriage. Fidelity and faithfulness matter. Because Jesus matters.
Those are all countercultural, though. You can't get there by using the same tired arguments of worldly liberalism or conservativism.
That way also requires humility and repentance, then. We have done a lot of damage to one another in a myriad of ways. Too many people have left -- are leaving! -- The UMC because of the way in which we have treated one another. Just yesterday, Kendra and I were talking about our place in our local UMC congregation. She wants to leave. I say we stay. She wants to leave because of the way we have been treated by those who disagree with us on so many things. I want to stay for the same reason. We have allowed the larger culture to define who we are and whose we are. And that breaks my pastoral heart! But we cannot allow that larger culture to continue to work its satanic power.
If being a liberal or being a conservative about these issues -- pastoral leadership, human sexuality or biblical interpretation -- matters more than Jesus matters, humility and repentance are in order.
What failed, yet again with the Judicial Council's decision yesterday, was for pastors and bishops to step up and help us practice that repentance and develop that humility. If they cannot help us foster compassionate ways to live together and talk about these matters, The UMC is just another human institution filled with power-grabbing people. And it deserves to die.
Either we find a way to utilize our theological resources faithfully -- Scripture, Tradition, the Holy Spirit -- or we will allow other voices to dictate for us. Again, those resource probably won't ever require uniformity. But they will foster unity. How we engage in these dialogues at the congregational level will bring integrity to the Christian faith in the world's eyes. Our culture will stand up and take notice. Because that's the only way it's ever worked. Ever.
I believe God is raising up a whole new generation of kind and fresh thinkers, followers of Jesus who, a hundred years from now, will wonder what we were fighting for. And why we killed the SBC, UMC and EC. They want to act like the followers of Jesus. And they simply can no longer do that in these huge corporate structures we've created for ourselves called "mainline churches".
Theological issues will always only ever be resolved over time, not by committees or votes or judicial decisions. Pastoral issues like these require spiritual discernment within communities of Christians who are willing to dare the Spirit to work and teach. I say "dare" because they know that the only way forward is with compassion and empathy.
Listening. That's the spiritual posture of Christians. Not pronouncing. And if we want to listen to Jesus, we'll begin by listening to those most oppressed in our culture. There's no doubt, to my mind, that the heart of Jesus beats in those thousands of homeless youth who've been turned out of their homes because of their sexuality. Either we will listen to them, or we won't. And what we do in listening or refusing to listen will become our blessing or our damnation.
The beginning of that listening happens when we reflect the image of God to one another. When we see it and when it is seen in us.
What I want to reflect on today, though, is the recent Judicial Council's decisions about questions raised on the votes taken at that General Conference.
I've lived through lots of ecclesial battles in my time: In the early 90s, the Baptists around me (and for whom I care deeply) fought over women in pastoral leadership and the innerancy of the Bible; in the mid 90s, the Methodists around me (for whom I care deeply) began fighting over homosexuality; in the early 00s, we Episcopalians started fighting again about homosexuality and ordination. So I've lived in these divisions for a long time. Therefore I have some thoughts on them and how Christians might reflect on them. Or, more importantly, what we might do about them.
The Judicial Council has upheld some of the constitutionality of the Traditional Plan as well as conditions around which congregations might separate from the denomination over good faith disagreements about homosexuality. One Bishop has made remarks about those decisions and how they impact the UMC. And just this morning I see that additional reactions have begun to flood around the Church.
All this still leaves me to wonder: Is all this fighting the best way to discern God's will? Might there be better ways for Christians to move forward on issues around biblical interpretation, pastoral leadership or human sexuality?
Once again -- as was true of the Baptists and the Episcopalians -- another branch of the Christian tree has found a way to mirror its surrounding culture. The vote and the Judicial Council's ruling both show just how divided The UMC is. That split shows, painfully, that the Church is no better place to heal division than anywhere else in our culture.
I'm a closet orthodox Wesleyan. I have grown up admiring John and Charles Wesley (as Anglican priests who led much-needed reformations in the Church). I wrote a master's thesis on the Wesleys' practical theology and the way that theology informed the Sunday Service -- and how both can bring revitalization to a local parish. Nearly two decades ago, I taught a well-received course on Methodist theology using Wesley's hymns in a continuing education event for Holston Conference clergy's Wesley Institute. And I still find it quite untraditional for Methodists to be making decisions this way.
Whatever happened to Wesley's practical, pastoral approach? I honestly think Wesley was on to something: If God is going to change us, it will happen around a shared table with sisters and brothers. Not in an adversarial relationship that involves voting and legal proceedings.
The Church has never been of one mind when it comes to pastoral leadership, biblical interpretation or human sexuality. Never. And that's not a bad thing. Because if I take Acts 15 as my model, there is room for sharing stories, worshiping side by side, and finding that the Spirit is moving folks in different directions of ministry -- for the common cause of the Kingdom!
What would happen if we Christians -- sisters and brothers of the same family -- actually needed one another?
Living in that tension is the key for the future. It's always been the key for the future. We Christians live in different cultural contexts, with different generational messages informed by various theological convictions. Unity doesn't require uniformity. If it did, the early Christians in Acts would have never been able to work together in the Spirit to accomplish all that God accomplished in and through and with them. So if we're allowing one or two or five particular biblical texts to serve as our mandate, maybe we ought to pray a bit more about where the Spirit is teaching us.
I feel the pain in my soul for generations to come after us. Real human beings have been wounded -- will continue to be wounded -- by the decisions affirmed yesterday. Those human beings include clergy and laity who quite faithfully disagree. But that disagreement, if it means disunity, is as Satanic as the disunity of the decisions. Hear me clearly here: Listen and look for what the Spirit does in congregations every Sunday. You'll see and hear transformations that create communities of hospitality and kindness. And you'll find very painful divisions healed by the One who knits us together in one fellowship.
But if the love of Jesus isn't our aim and our method, then we've lost our Church to the world. Whether liberal or conservative.
There is a way forward. That way requires that Methodists be very intentional in listening to the Spirit, and to one another in the Spirit. We should affirm the human image of God, and reflect that image to one another. We should also affirm the importance of covenantal marriage. Fidelity and faithfulness matter. Because Jesus matters.
Those are all countercultural, though. You can't get there by using the same tired arguments of worldly liberalism or conservativism.
That way also requires humility and repentance, then. We have done a lot of damage to one another in a myriad of ways. Too many people have left -- are leaving! -- The UMC because of the way in which we have treated one another. Just yesterday, Kendra and I were talking about our place in our local UMC congregation. She wants to leave. I say we stay. She wants to leave because of the way we have been treated by those who disagree with us on so many things. I want to stay for the same reason. We have allowed the larger culture to define who we are and whose we are. And that breaks my pastoral heart! But we cannot allow that larger culture to continue to work its satanic power.
If being a liberal or being a conservative about these issues -- pastoral leadership, human sexuality or biblical interpretation -- matters more than Jesus matters, humility and repentance are in order.
What failed, yet again with the Judicial Council's decision yesterday, was for pastors and bishops to step up and help us practice that repentance and develop that humility. If they cannot help us foster compassionate ways to live together and talk about these matters, The UMC is just another human institution filled with power-grabbing people. And it deserves to die.
Either we find a way to utilize our theological resources faithfully -- Scripture, Tradition, the Holy Spirit -- or we will allow other voices to dictate for us. Again, those resource probably won't ever require uniformity. But they will foster unity. How we engage in these dialogues at the congregational level will bring integrity to the Christian faith in the world's eyes. Our culture will stand up and take notice. Because that's the only way it's ever worked. Ever.
I believe God is raising up a whole new generation of kind and fresh thinkers, followers of Jesus who, a hundred years from now, will wonder what we were fighting for. And why we killed the SBC, UMC and EC. They want to act like the followers of Jesus. And they simply can no longer do that in these huge corporate structures we've created for ourselves called "mainline churches".
Theological issues will always only ever be resolved over time, not by committees or votes or judicial decisions. Pastoral issues like these require spiritual discernment within communities of Christians who are willing to dare the Spirit to work and teach. I say "dare" because they know that the only way forward is with compassion and empathy.
Listening. That's the spiritual posture of Christians. Not pronouncing. And if we want to listen to Jesus, we'll begin by listening to those most oppressed in our culture. There's no doubt, to my mind, that the heart of Jesus beats in those thousands of homeless youth who've been turned out of their homes because of their sexuality. Either we will listen to them, or we won't. And what we do in listening or refusing to listen will become our blessing or our damnation.
The beginning of that listening happens when we reflect the image of God to one another. When we see it and when it is seen in us.