Playing inside the box

In the wake of the Judicial Council’s decision tossing out the General Conference’s attempt to get rid of guaranteed appointment, it appears that those who want to both remain within United Methodism and reinvigorate it are going to have to get more familiar with the Restrictive Rules in our Constitution. It was on the basis of these that guaranteed appointment was upheld.

In case you have not read your UMC Constitution recently, these are the Restrictive Rules.

Article I — The General Conference shall not revoke, alter, or change our Articles of Religion or establish any new standards or rules of doctrine contrary to our present existing and established standards of doctrine.

Article II — The General Conference shall not revoke, alter, or change our Confession of Faith.

Article III — The General Conference shall not change or alter any part or rule of our government so as to do away with episcopacy or destroy the plan of our itinerant general superintendency.

Article IV — The General Conference shall not do away with the privileges of our clergy of right to trial by a committee and of an appeal; neither shall it do away with the privileges of our members of right to trial before the church, or by a committee, and of an appeal.

Article V — The General Conference shall not revoke or change the General Rules of Our United Societies.

Article VI — The General Conference shall not appropriate the net income of the publishing houses, the book concerns, or the Chartered Fund to any purpose other than for the benefit of retired or disabled preachers, their spouses, widows, or widowers, and children or other beneficiaries of the ministerial pension system.

To change any of these rules requires a three-quarters majority vote of the General Conference and of the members of the annual conferences. This is an impossible hurdle to get over, I suspect.

I am not much of a systems thinker and certainly not an organizational genius, so I pray that someone who is can help us discern our way to be the church of Jesus Christ within the boundaries of these rules.

Security of appointment upheld

JUDICIAL COUNCIL OF THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

DECISION 1226

IN RE: Request from the General Conference for a Declaratory Decision as to the constitutionality of legislation Approved as Calendar Item 355 Regarding Guaranteed Appointments

DIGEST

Security of appointment has long been a part of the tradition of The United Methodist Church and its predecessor bodies. Abolishing security of appointment would destroy our historic plan for our itinerant superintendency. Fair process procedures, trials and appeals are integral parts of the privilege of our clergy of right to trial by a committee and of appeal and is an absolute right which cannot be eradicated by legislation. The amendments to ¶ 337, as contained in Calendar Item 355, are unconstitutional and violate the third and fourth restrictive rules of the Constitution. The original ¶ 337 of the Discipline is restored and maintained and the changes made thereto at 2012 General Conference are null, void and of no effect. The amendments to ¶ 321, as contained in Calendar Items 352, is also declared repugnant to the Constitution and hence, unconstitutional. The original ¶ 321 of the Discipline is restored and maintained, and the changes made thereto by the 2012 General Conference are null, void, and of no effect. Calendar Item 358, the new transitional leave ¶ 354, is declared unconstitutional, and Calendar Item 359, which removed the language of a transitional leave from ¶ 354 of the Discipline, is also declared unconstitutional. The current language for a transitional leave as provided for in ¶ 354 is restored and maintained.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

The final word from the IOT

Prodded by Jeremy Smith this  morning, I did take a casual read through the final report of the Call to Action Interim Operations Team. Most of it is familiar to anyone who has been following the Call to Action process. The team writes that the defeat of the Call to Action proposals at General Conference do not change the underlying issues, and it calls for continued action to place more focus on vital congregations, recruit young clergy, and use consistent metrics to hold all clergy accountable.

The report calls for a end to “self-interested independence” that runs rampant through the UMC. It also calls for greater accountability among bishops. These two calls strike me as quite interesting as they point the way that the “leaders” of our denomination could put actions behind their rhetoric on the Call to Action, and perhaps do something about the most often ignored finding of the Call to Action research: lack of trust within the connection.

The formal leadership in the denomination is in the hands of the bishops. Their charge is to uphold the teaching (the doctrine) of the UMC and be symbols of unity. In recent years, I have not seen a lot of evidence of either of these functions of the episcopacy taking center stage. The removal of Bishop Earl Bledsoe in North Texas may have been a sign of greater accountability for bishops, but that was not a case of the Council of Bishops holding one of its own accountable. The clergy and laity of the jurisdiction did that.

If bishops hold the formal leadership of our denomination, the pastors of megachurches are the informal — and perhaps de facto — leaders of the UMC. Here is what I hear people in the UMC say about megachurch pastors. They say the hallmark of megachurch pastors is the intentional efforts they make to gain and secure independence from the denomination. On matters of polity and doctrine, megachurches become a law unto themselves. While, their success is measured in the very metrics that the rest of the connection is asked to adopt, their mode of operation is to shake free as much as possible from the connection itself. Is it any wonder many clergy view such leaders with a mix of awe and suspicion?

What can we do in the face of such problems?

The IOT final report includes a well-worn reference to John Wesley:

John Wesley was not afraid to identify the loss of spiritual vitality and true effectiveness in the Church. He knew that only plain speaking about and commitment to address the hard problems of his day would change the situation. In a famous bit of prose he suggested that survival of the Church was not his worry: “I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid, lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case, unless they hold fast to both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out” (Thoughts Upon Methodism, London, August 4, 1786).

The quote by Wesley highlights what the Call to Action has left out from the beginning. Wesley’s concern was with the power of Methodism as a Holy Spirit infused movement of Christians. The Call to Action has fashioned a version of “discipline” that it desires to see adopted by the connection, but it has gone as far out of its way as possible to keep its hands off matters of doctrine and spirit.

And this is precisely why so many people have had so little enthusiasm for the cause. It appears to seek to save United Methodism by turning it into a connection of shopkeepers looking to increase the profit-and-loss statement for the next quarter. I have no doubt that the authors and advocates of the Call to Action do not believe this is what they are doing, but I would argue that a large segment of the UMC interprets it that way. I do not believe we will ever overcome the disconnect between leadership rhetoric and wider reception of the Call to Action so long as we overlook the importance of doctrine and spirit.

Methodism began because a group of college kids obsessed with holiness of heart and life discovered that such holiness was a gift of grace by faith in the saving work of Christ. They called it justification by faith and they preached it to everyone who would listen and to those who would not listen. Thrown out of pulpits, they preached it in the fields.

It was a movement grounded in spiritual disciplines and convinced that holy living included and required following the moral law of God. As it gathered people, it created new disciplines to help the people grow in grace. They held each other accountable in love for progress toward perfection in love. This was the growth that Wesley cultivated, growth in holiness. He would gut the membership of a society if he thought that was required to increase the holiness of the members who remained. This is what he meant by discipline.

In our 21st century context, we do cultivate independence, as the IOT report says. We cultivate independence from our own tradition and our vows of ordination. We cultivate independence from the doctrine of our own denomination. We cultivate independence from our own connection. Our solution, paradoxically, is to solve our decline by skipping over matters of doctrine and spirit and focusing solely on matters of discipline — but only for certain segments of the connection.

Much of what the Call to Action seeks to do is worthy, but the initiative has missed the words that it has quoted in its own support. If we seek not just the form of religion but its power, we need to grasp hold again of the doctrine, spirit, and discipline of our movement. One out of three will not do it, I fear.

Schnase on the failure of #GC2012

Bishop Robert Schnase’s episcopal address to the South Central Jurisdiction has been posted by the UM Reporter. You have to wade through some statistics at the top and it is not soaring oratory, but it is well worth the attention of the church.

When it came to speaking of General Conference, Schnase expressed strong disappointment.

 Let me share a few observations on behalf of the Bishops that we’ve shared with each other since the close of General Conference:

First, I don’t think we were overly invested in any specific organizational plan for change, but we were deeply invested in the hope for change.

Second, there’s a growing perception that the process of the General Conference itself doesn’t work.  We experienced paralysis as a conference, like a spider stuck in its own web.  As an example, the General Conference spent four hours over two days to debate the Standing Rules before eventually approving them exactly as they had been presented by the committee!

Third, we’re concerned about the tightening of “the hairball.”  Gordon McKenzie, author of Orbiting the Giant Hairball, uses the image of a hairball to describe the accruing of rules, requirements, mandates, and policies until they become so tightly bound that they paralyze creativity.  We were disappointed to see an increase of such rules and requirements at every level.   This fosters less flexibility, less contextual latitude, and reduced ability for leaders, conferences, committees, and local church churches to form their own responses.

Fourth, we are concerned about the deep divisions evident in the church, and the intensified focus on personal agendas.

Fifth, we have not begun to solve, or even understand, the complexities, implications, and opportunities of being a truly global church.

Sixth, we are concerned about the troubling and persistent tendency for the church to deny and ignore and avoid the critical challenges.  Adam Hamilton presented the challenges as revealed through the Towers-Watson Report.  He described the reality and urgency of our situation in the US church.  People can honestly disagree about how to respond to these challenges, but we cannot continue to avoid and deny them.  If we learn from the doctor that three cardiac arteries are nearly completely blocked, and if nothing is done, death is virtually assured, the challenge presents many options.  We can consider surgical options, and discuss how extensive and the effects that might follow.  We can consider medicine, and what sort and with what benefits and risks.  We can consider changes in behavior, including exercise, diet, smoking, stress, and weight control.   There are literally dozens of conversations and strategies to discuss and consider.  But we cannot walk away and act as if we do not know the truth and deny that the risks are real.

When he turns to talk about the important thing the bishops take away from General Conference, he begins to sound a bit like the voices in the Western Jurisdiction and elsewhere who decry the denomination’s stance on sexuality. Schnase, of course, was talking about the Call to Action rather than sex, but the conclusion that the general church is not a source for answers or leadership was similar.

We’re convinced as a College of Bishops that the stuckness of General Conference makes what we do in this Jurisdiction and in our Annual Conferences all the more important.   We need to continue to learn, to experiment, to innovate.  Change in the United Methodist Church is going to happen one person at a time, one congregation at a time, one conference at a time.   Change in the church is will happen horizontally as we learn from another, not vertically or from the top.

Compare Schnase’s address with the words of the Director of Communication for the Pacific-Northwest Annual Conference:

That said, the work of the jurisdictional conference could be of significant importance if its will is reflected by the actions of its college of bishops, annual conferences, appointive cabinets, boards of ordained ministry, clergy and lay people. While the General Conference does indeed speak for the denomination, these other groups are responsible for the action of the church. These groups have to decide how to live faithfully in a world where the ecclesial powers may be in conflict with a developing sense of God’s kin(g)dom that includes gay and lesbian people. These leaders will need to be the change agents — moving beyond hope to courageous action; willing to risk reputation for the mission field. They will also need to do so while remaining in dialogue with those within their annual conferences who have a different understanding of God’s vision for human sexuality.

Of course, the similarities should not be pressed too far. The bishop is talking about working within the doctrine and discipline of the church and the communication director is speaking of opposing both. But, even so, both share a conviction that General Conference is broken and therefore the jurisdictions, conferences, local churches, and individuals must take the lead in getting things done. In both cases, the sign of the dysfunction of the General Conference is that it did not do anything in the area of particular interest.

I’m not sure what to make of that other than to observe that it may confirm what the Book of Discipline itself says. Annual Conferences — not the General Conference — are the basic unit of the United Methodist Church, and local churches are the most important venue for making disciples of Jesus Christ.

‘What Happened to My Denomination?’

Sermon at the California-Nevada Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church by a retired elder.

(ht: UM Insight)

His sermon text appears to have been a combination of a Garrison Keillor song and the Lord’s Prayer.

Bishop Jones: Birth pangs of a new church

Bishop Scott Jones posted his General Conference wrap up a few days ago.

He remains convinced that the denomination is being transformed by the Call to Action and related initiatives, despite the set backs at General Conference. He lists several changes and challenges going forward. One in particular caught my eye:

We must develop a clear and widely accepted understanding of our mission statement. There are too many different and competing versions of what “making disciples of Jesus Christ” means.

To that, I say, “Amen.”

I don’t know if the other things the bishop advocates are good ideas or not. I’m not a bishop. I don’t have much information or experience with the organizational matters that are in play there. But I’ve been a United Methodist long enough to know that our “mission statement” has little to no influence on the way we go about being the church. It is not understood well enough to guide action. It is not clear enough to set boundaries. It is not concrete enough to create a shared identity and purpose.

If we do not toss out the mission statement itself and start afresh — and idea with some merit — then we need to engage in some intentional education. We need to be able to explain what we mean by “disciples” and “make” and “transformation.” We need to be able to articulate those terms in ways that guide what we do at all levels of the church.

And there is the rub.

An effective mission statement is effective precisely because it creates priorities. It allows us to stop doing things. It says, in a world of limited resources, we will focus here even if that means other things are left undone. And we seem to be an organization that does not like to abandon anything we currently do.

Getting buy-in around a specific meaning of our mission statement will not be easy. It will, indeed, be like giving birth.

United Methodist Confederation?

The General Conference delegation of the New England Annual Conference has issued a statement about the future of The United Methodist Church that reads to me like a call for an amicable split without the hassle of actually splitting. Perhaps another way to describe it might be an offer to replace our current polity with a confederation of independent conferences with little or no central authority, accountability, or identity.

The key paragraph is this one:

We in the New England delegation are convinced that all efforts to impose a common identity on the Church theologically, ecclesiologically or culturally are not only doomed to failure, but actually thwart the attempts of United Methodist Christians to follow faithfully in the ways of Jesus Christ.  We believe that the old Church with its old myths of a common identity imposed from the center has failed.  We further hold that any new structures that emerge in the years ahead must emphasize relationship among the wonderfully diverse parts of our communion rather than uniformity of practice across the connection.  Further, such plans must not only permit, but must encourage communities to freely meet the needs of people in their own contexts, resourced but not controlled by the support structures of the church.  Such structures include The Discipline, the episcopacy, the General Conference and the boards and agencies.  Each exists only to equip and serve the servants of God’s people.

If I read the last three sentences properly, the statement is calling for reducing the Book of Discipline, the episcopacy, and the General Conference itself to mere figure heads. They would be “resources” but have no control over the rather vaguely defined “communities” within the larger church.

Perhaps this is a weaker call that is appears. The effort in recent years to shake the Book of Discipline loose of its American-centric elements is both good and necessary. But the language here reads to me as going much farther. With its dismissal of even the idea of a common theology or ecclesiology, it sounds to me like a call to dissolve the UMC without actually doing away with the board of pensions or UMCOR.

There is, of course, ample room in the body of Christ for independent communities with no ties or bonds to larger structures and authority. We call these nondenominational churches. They do quite well, I am told.

As one who clings to the “old myths of a common identity” for the UMC, I find this call by the New Englanders rather odd.

Bishop Schol affirms loving, committed same-sex relationships

In the wake of General Conference, some United Methodist bishops are making their own declarations in opposition to the General Conference on matters of sexuality.

Baltimore-Washington area Bishop John Schol made these remarks in his episcopal address to the annual conference:

Today I also want to share with you some thoughts and feelings about the Scriptures and homosexuality. I do this in light of my recent experience at General Conference, the fact that this continues to be a sensitive and difficult issue for our denomination, and also from what I am hearing from non- and nominally religious young people.

The Bible has passages that speak clearly about homosexuality. General Conference has been consistent for the past 40 years in saying that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching and there is no indication that General Conference will change its position in the future. Some wonder if continual conversation about homosexuality just makes things worse for us.

I also understand those who are frustrated because the General Conference votes to keep the same policies and you refuse to accept the General Conference’s decision. I understand that there are those of you who are hurt by the policies of the church and that your humanity is turned into an issue rather than seeing you as a child of God.

I am convicted, however, by what I am hearing from non- and nominally religious people. They, by in large, do not understand our preoccupation with human sexuality. They even believe we “hate gays and lesbians.” They believe we hate people.

Our inability as a church to hold civil conversations and the reality that our debates communicate more hatred than love is a big problem. To us on the inside, our conversations appear important and clarifying. But to those we seek to reach, to those we want to welcome into a loving relationship with Jesus Christ, it appears that we are preoccupied with one group of people. We appear to be single-minded, and maybe even narrow-minded.

Frankly, I was disappointed that General Conference could not even agree to disagree. I think there is a Christ-like path that we, as The United Methodist Church, have failed to find. I feel that, as a denomination, we have not been Christ-like in our discussions about homosexuality.

Here in the Baltimore-Washington Conference we have done a lot better than the rest of the denomination. Our engagement on this issue as a conference two years ago, which provided open conversation that was not condemning but mutually respectful, was one the most Christ-like things we have done.

As our denomination has debated policy on homosexuality, I have not participated in the debate. Rather, I have worked to create space for healthy conversation. Because of our denomination’s inability to admit we disagree and because we are alienating those we seek to reach, I’ve decided to share with you my personal beliefs and how I intend to lead in light of our differences. I do this in the spirit that faithful Christians and good United Methodists will disagree on this and a number of people will disagree with my understanding. I am not trying to change anybody’s opinions or beliefs. I just want to let you know my personal thoughts and feelings, my own struggles and how I will lead when we disagree.

I am not a biblical literalist. I do not believe the earth is only 7,000 years old. I think some of the Bible’s teachings about the place and role of women, cultural and racial practices, polygamy, concubines, slavery, marriage and divorce reflect the context and thinking of the time in which Scripture was written and not the timeless truth of God.

Historically, and in some denominations still today, a literal interpretation of Scripture has prevented women from being ordained, people of different races from marrying each other, and divorced people from remarrying or serving in ministry. A strict reading of Scripture might cause some to suppose that women should not wear jewelry or cut their hair short and men should not wear long hair or have tattoos.

The Scriptures are the inspired Word of God for my salvation. Exegesis and hermeneutics, or in other words, knowing what Scripture meant in its original context and then interpreting it for today, is the work of every Christian.

Contrary to a literal biblical interpretation, I believe that sometimes couples become estranged beyond reconciliation, divorce happens and the divorced people can find Christ-like love with another partner. I believe that women and men are fully equal. I believe that menstruation is part of the normal cycle of a healthy body and that women are not unclean.

I also personally believe that gay and lesbian people are children of God, loved by God and saved through the love of Jesus Christ. I believe that gays and lesbians can live in loving committed relationships that reflect God’s grace-filled love.

I love the Bible. My entire life is centered in studying the Bible and living in faithful obedience to the God revealed in the Bible. It was Scripture that led me to a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Scripture brought me to my knees as a sinner, humbled me through repentance, lifted me in the utter conviction that I have been saved through the life, death and resurrection of Christ, and convicted me to join a long and continual discipleship adventure that continues to sanctify my heart.

I do not understand all of the mysteries of human sexuality. I believe that our sexuality is a gift from the Creator to be shared in loving committed relationships. I believe this is true whether we are heterosexual or homosexual.

Good people, faithful Christians, good United Methodists will disagree on this. I want you to know what I think and feel. I want to be open and honest with you rather than to appear not to have an opinion.

I want us not to condemn each other when we disagree. I want us to be able to be open and honest with one another and be willing to listen respectfully to one another. So let it begin with me.

As a bishop of the church, I recognize that I have a responsibility to uphold our Book of Discipline. I will fulfill my responsibilities as a bishop to uphold the Book of Discipline.

I also want our pastors to be pastoral to the needs of the people in their communities they serve. I recognize that this may create a conflict. We all need to do the best we can.

I am not asking anybody to change their beliefs or opinions. I want us to listen to each other and respect each other. And I want us to continue to study and learn.

Today I pledge to you that I will continue to study and discern and make corrections as the Holy Spirit and my study lead me. I also pledge to you that I will treat all people, every individual, as a child of God and as a gift from God. I pledge to be a bishop of the whole church and to lead by respecting all people.