Lessons in Mission – Part Two

In the previous post I ended by asking the question, “How did we miss the mark?” A simplistic answer would be, “Well, we do what we United Methodists know best – build something!” Herein lies the conundrum; we are more adept at going into the world and perpetuating the false materialistic values of our Western culture utilizing our well-honed construction techniques than engaging authentic ministry that affects the quality of life issues of those mired in generational poverty. So what do we do about it? We keep on doing what we know to do best – build.

Clearly, this is no longer a valid solution to the needs of the world (if it ever was) to be undertaken by the church. Don’t get me wrong – I love to build things. But I am coming to see the real danger associated by well-meaning and well executed undertakings of the church that fail because nobody adequately discerned if this was God’s will for we should be doing in His name.

Likewise, I question whether there was adequate discernment when the decision was made a few years ago to use walk-on football as a vehicle to boost enrollment at Lon Morris College. The resultant explosion of the student population generated a scramble for acquisition of near-campus housing, precipitating an even greater debt service for the already strapped institution. It was the impending foreclosure of this same housing which triggered the decision to file for bankruptcy earlier this week. Clearly, more (buildings and associated debt service) is not better, but that’s what we continue to pursue in the name of doing mission and ministry.

One definition for insanity is the continuation of doing the same thing over and over again, each time expecting a change in results. One thing that is not changing; we’re still closing churches. So my question is, when will the madness end? When will we turn from the ways of this world, seeking to apply secular solutions to spiritual and social justice issues? When will we begin seeking God’s before we go out in mission and ministry instead of simply walking in the natural and materialistic ways of man? 

Just as Jesus set the world on its ear with his counter-cultural teachings and ministry so too the church is called to stand apart from the ways of the world and follow in his footsteps. By acquiescing to the value system our dominant culture and its materialism there is little remaining to distinguish the church from that culture. There are a growing number those who are looking for an alternative to the disappointments they’ve discovered in the empty value system of our Western culture and are now seeking a spiritual experience. In the meantime, we’re still closing churches…

There is an incredible irony found in the Gospels: Jesus was a carpenter who built things with his hands. But in searching through the New Testament I have yet to find where he actually built anything here on earth except for the beginnings of the church. This was a church without buildings made entirely of people. And in everything he did he first discerned the will of the Father. This is the model he left for the church. To deviate from it is not just unchristian, but madness.

            

Lessons in Mission – Part One

While enroute from a mission trip in the Navajo Nation of Arizona this morning a colleague forwarded to me the news of Lon Morris College filing for bankruptcy. We both have a pseudo-interest in the future of this school since we have until this point dutifully attended our CoS classes there and apparently were in the last LLP class to graduate from the campus. This year’s LLP class (2012) was conducted in a single week at Lakeview and our CoS fall semester has been moved to 1st UMC, Jacksonville. These developments coupled with my experiences while on mission gave me valuable insight as to some of the causes of our decline in the UMC. The events precipitating the decline of Lon Morris are chronicled in the previous post so I won’t rehash that here but merely refer to it for comparison. 


 Our mission trip was well organized and executed, as one would expect from a people called Methodists. We enjoyed a wonderful teambuilding experience as we worked, fellowshipped, and broke bread together during the week. For all but one of our party, we were each returning to solidify kindred relationships formed on previous trips to the reservation. And, overall it was a good experience for both the missionaries and the Native American brethren we interfaced with. So, what’s the problem? 


 My son asked our client one day if he could work on one of the many derelict vehicles in his yard and maybe get it running for him, thinking that by doing so that might help his impoverished situation. He did, and in short order got it running and the client’s grown children took it for a drive. During the course of their excursion it stalled multiple times after the engine had warmed up and lost what little compression that it had. You see, the engine was in dire need of an overhaul. And while, yes, the vehicle ran and could technically be driven, its lack of reliability made it practically worthless if it lacked consistent power to reach its destination.


We really hadn’t  done the client any favors as the repairs required were far in excess of his financial resources. We had merely exposed another reality of the generational poverty in which he lives and gained some personal awareness in the process. It is from that new-found awareness that I write these words. We were there on the reservation to build an addition that would include the first two rooms equipped with indoor plumbing in our client’s home, in addition to plumbing the sink in the kitchen. This would enable them to wash and dry clothes without necessitating a trip to the Laundromat, bath and wash dishes inside and probably most important of all, eliminate that early morning hike to the outhouse. The work was completed ahead of schedule and with beautiful results. We celebrated our success and never ceased to praise the Lord in our endeavors. Speeches we made, thanks given, pictures taken, and hugs were given all around. And then we left. 


 By all measures this appears to have been a highly successful mission trip. There is just one glitch: our client does not have the financial reserves to have water connected to his home nor does he have electricity to operate a washer and 220 volt dryer. Yes, we added greatly to the square footage of his home, but is it useable space? Did we bless him in our endeavors or did we merely obligate him to meet yet another financial hurdle with the meager resources available to him? One thing that is glaringly obvious; by giving him more material resources that require paring his already limited family budget to utilize without addressing the systemic condition of generational poverty that he lives in was like getting that derelict vehicle running – we really didn’t do him any favors. 


 No matter how good we might have felt by our accomplishment we merely perpetuated our false secular consumerist values in a situation which required social justice action undertaken by the church. The paradox is that we were going forth in mission as the church. So, how did we miss the mark?

The Fate of Lon Morris

This posting is in response to the report on Lon Morris’ financial collapse found at: http://www.unitedmethodistreporter.com/2012/05/2737/
In the week prior to this report the Bishop’s office sent out an email requesting that pastors serving in the conference solicit donations from their churches to fund three weeks of payroll for yet unpaid employees of the school. Summer classes have been canceled and it remains to be seen if Lon Morris will reopen in the fall or COS will continue to be hosted there.

Throughout my life I’ve made a number of friends who attended Lon Morris College on a pastor’s scholarship and went on to Perkins to fulfill their educational requirements and ultimately become pastors themselves. Our home church in Houston garnered considerable renown in the 1950s as a “preacher mill” because we sent a dozen or so fresh high school graduates to Lon Morris each year. But while this may come as a shock to some in the church, it’s not the 1950s anymore.

 Lon Morris’ financial difficulties span many decades. The most notable school president, Cecil Peeples, was renown for finding money for bricks and mortar during an era when that seemed to be the main mission of the church. Not only was he successful in this regard but he possessed tenacity in length of service as well. Peeples was president at Lon Morris from 1935 until 1973 and continued in a supporting role for another 20 years. Unfortunately, none of Peeple’s successors have approached his length of tenure or level of success in mining the revenue streams constantly required to keep the school afloat.

 While enrollment more than doubled in recent years with the inclusion of a walk-on football program, the school lacked housing for the resulting population explosion that took place. As surrounding homes were purchased as a stop-gap measure while new student housing was being constructed the infrastructure of existing systems continued to fail as funds were diverted from the already shoe-string budget.

 The failure of Lon Morris mirrors similar situations facing many of our older, declining congregations still locked in the brick and mortar mentality of the 1950s. Rather than seeking man-made, institutional solutions for our church, including its educational facilities, we should be turning to God for discernment. Instead of launching a new program aimed at increasing our numbers and expecting God to bless it, shouldn’t we first seek His will for guidance and direction of His church? As the institutional church continues to crumble around us wouldn’t this be a good time to admit that we don’t have all the answers and willingly hand the matter over to the One who has?

Until we can do this the rest of the world will continue to see us as irrelevant, and rightly so.

Reflections From the First Year in Service

I celebrated my first year anniversary as a pastor on Sunday, April 1st. I look upon the fact that this occurred on April Fools Day with no small irony because during that year it seems like I made just about every gaffe and blunder possible while filling in a pulpit.

Additionally, the strain of maintaining a full-time job at the far end of another county from home and trying to pastor two churches in yet two other counties has left me feeling totally spent and absolutely broken on more than one occasion, but evidently not broken enough. Allow me to explain.

Having weathered two church closures as a lay person, I maintain a strong and protective vigilance of my charges to ensure their spiritual nurture and continued growth. Although these are part-time appointments I regard them as my primary full-time occupation because of the critical importance of their continuation and success.

I also rationalized that if for some reason my employer, a military contractor, closed their business it would have only a negligible impact in the spiritual lives of those involved compared to the closure of a church. So, it was obvious to me which one of my two jobs I owed my primary allegiance. In essence, I had placed the one I’m employed half-time over the one that I am paid fulltime.

Obviously, I had my priorities reversed, but for the best of reasons, I thought. The inevitable occurred and I found myself burned-out and at the end of my rope just before my annual licensing review with our District Committee of Ordained Ministry. Acknowledging the situation, I decided to present these facts to this body and let them decide whether my service should be continued under these circumstances.

Then a funny thing happened, I began to laugh. Realizing the folly of it all, that I had placed myself in a “no-win” situation and lacked the time and resources to maintain the impossible schedule that I had constructed suddenly became ironically humorous to me. With this insight, I began to see that the churches I was pouring all my time into, valiantly trying to nurture, grow, and protect, weren’t really mine to play mother hen to. They belong to God.

Not the first time, I suddenly realized that I was guilty of getting in God’s way. Once again, I found myself trying to fill shoes way too big for me and do something that wasn’t part of my calling in the first place. He also showed me something else – the ministry opportunities at my workplace. The myriad and scope of these opportunities far outweigh those of my churches even when combined. Perhaps I was wrong in my assessment of its spiritual impact…

God continues to show me new things since I finally relinquished my will and offered myself to to His service. But they are far different from any lessons I would have anticipated encountering while serving in ministry. Instead of being about growing the church, the lessons that I most frequently seem to encounter are about growing me. We serve an awesome God who never gives up trying to teach us His ways or stops loving us. Keep those lessons coming Lord. With your help I might actually do justice to this job(s) someday.

Better Ways To Measure Churches

Oct 4, 2011

Bishop Joe Pennel By Joe E. Pennel Jr.
Special Contributor

Numerical growth and institutional maintenance have captured the thinking of many who write about the vital signs of effective congregations. I must admit that when I was serving as a pastor and as a bishop I was caught up in the same swirl of understanding. I am now feeling that there should be a different standard of measurement for meaningful congregational life.

Instead of numerical growth and stabilizing the institution, we need to put strong determined effort into a deeper set of measurements such as growth in compassion, forgiveness, mercy, kindness and justice. These are the benchmarks that bear kingdom fruit. It is possible for a congregation to experience financial and numerical strength and not grow in the fruits of the spirit.

I recently served as interim pastor of a congregation. As I was leaving the office one day to make hospital calls, I met a lady on the parking lot of the church whom I did not know. After a rather casual greeting, she pointed to the church building and said, “Is there someone in there who can teach me how to pray?”

I was stumped by her question. She was pointing to a full service megachurch that offers day care, a weekday school, athletic leagues, mission trips, social services, worship, choirs, a vibrant youth ministry and Sunday school for all ages. At a deeper level, she was inquiring about learning how to practice the spiritual disciplines. I had no answer to her question. I gave her my card and requested that she give me a call so that we could have conversation. She never called and I never saw her again.

When I got back to my office I looked at the calendar of activities for the week and not one had anything to do with learning, experiencing or keeping the spiritual disciplines. How can believers grow in the fruits of the spirit if spiritual practice is neglected?

Since 1996 I have preached in over 400 congregations. In each of these I have looked at the “opportunities for the week” that are listed on the worship sheet. It has been rare for me to see any emphasis on how to pray, how to search the Scriptures, how to do spiritual reading, or how to practice deeds of mercy and kindness. Yet these are the disciplines that strengthen the inner life. These help us to be formed into a living, loving relationship with God.

If we pay attention to spiritual practices we will be more able to get in touch with the gifts of a particular congregation. I hold to the belief that God has gifted every congregation. It is not necessary to search frantically for new gifts. We, as pastors and lay leaders, need to build on the gifts that are already present in the congregation. Not all congregations are gifted in the same way but all are gifted in some way.
Wise leaders find ways to maximize the spiritual gifts that are already in the hearts of the people. This has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with the size or location of a congregation.

United Methodist people are searching for a meaningful relationship to the sacred, one that allows us to remain working, playing and loving; a path that enables us to experience the holy in the kitchen, in nature, in art, and in others. There is a gnawing hunger for doors to be opened to deeper levels of meaning and living. The church needs more and more congregations which truly believe that the inner life is more important than numerical and financial growth.

So, if we are focused on spiritual practices what would be the return? It would evoke harmony and genuine love toward the people around us, our families, spiritual associates, the poor and the marginalized. For others the return might be doing deeds of mercy and kindness in the community. For some it would result in a deepening of one’s commitment to meditation, prayer, cultivation of virtue and a more regular association with some who have the same desire.

I cannot prove it but I am of the opinion that congregations that focus on growing in compassion, forgiveness, mercy, kindness and justice have a stronger and more authentic commitment to social witness than those that are not so concerned. Such congregations are better able to organize themselves around the pain that is in the community where they happen to be located. Mr. Wesley taught us that real social concern grows out of vital piety. It is the latter that is missing from the church at all levels.

I am now 72 years old and I have been a pastor since 1959. As I look back over my years as a pastor I find myself wishing that I had organized my congregations around worship, searching the Scriptures, more Holy Communion, deeds of mercy and kindness, prayer, meditation and Christian fellowship. I now see that these are the most important means of Grace.

Retired Bishop Pennel is a professor at Vanderbilt Divinity School.

Same Calling/Divergent Paths

Much has transpired since the last posting to this blog on January 12th ("Methodism Deconstructed"). For starters, two people very dear to me, Pat and Hilda Baker, left the United Methodist Church to start a new one in Caldwell called "Area 3:16." Pat Baker was one of the CLMs who graduated in Class '10 and Hilda is the author of "Standing at the Cross Roads." Both are very devoted disciples of Christ and ardent supporters of Walk to Emmaus. Both lovingly give of their time at Cross Roads Retreat which hosts spiritual renewal programs for Christian groups and each Walk organized by the Brazos Valley Emmaus Community.

Hilda has the depth of faith that I've always wished that I could claim but never had enough conviction to fully embrace. She has always been one who has searched out God's will for her life, and once discovered, let nothing stand in the way of fully living that out. Maybe the one of the best examples of that is her influence on Pat - she was the instrument used to bring him to Christ. Today, as pastor of Area 3:16 Pat is no longer a mere follower of Christ but a spiritual shepherd ministering to others as well.

In contrast to Hilda's intense spiritual resolve and Pat's total surrender to His service, I spent 16 years pretty much hiding out from what I knew God's call to be for my life. With the exception of a brief foray to Lott and occasional service as pulpit supply around our district I never really surrendered my will. I found the oasis provided by my little country church in a town that time conveniently forgot to be the perfect spot for me to reside in comfortable denial of who I am in Christ and to Whom I am called to serve.

While the Bakers and I share pretty much identical viewpoints on how far the Methodist Church has strayed from its roots and the resultant tragedy of its decline, God was clearly moving me to a path separate from theirs. Like Pat, I too, felt the call to ministry but instead of doing a "new thing" I was led out of my oasis and into the mire of broken systems within our denomination – everything that I had purposely avoided for years.

Although God had been preparing me for pastoral ministry for 20 years, clichés like "culture shock" and "mind-blowing experiences" don't even scratch the surface of what was to happen after finally submitting my will to His. In saying "yes" to Him, He has propelled me to an accelerated spiritual-growth regimen that leaves me feeling like I am waking up in a new world everyday and I no longer recognize the man that I have become. So much of what was once familiar has been transformed to become something distinctly different as seen through new eyes. But the same cannot be said of our denomination.

It is still full of broken systems and apparently stuck in a spiraling decline, but that doesn't necessarily mean God isn't still at work in the midst of it all. God's glory has been revealed in the numerous mistakes of mankind and religious systems flawed by well-meaning human intervention through the ages. Indeed, it is through just such situations that we often seem to encounter Him. Now, instead of looking at the brokenness of the church I search with my new eyes for where God is working in the church. Regardless of what detractors might say, He is still here and very much at work in our midst. And, there is still much kingdom building to be done regardless of existing conditions in our denomination. In recognition of all this He has led me to a place where I can finally respond, "Here am I, Lord. Send me."

COMMENTARY: A Missional Future—The United Methodist Way

Mar 24, 2008

By Taylor Burton-Edwards
Special Contributor

At the November extended cabinet retreat at Lake Junaluska, Duke Divinity School professor Randy Maddox presented a paper on “The United Methodist Way.”

Much of what was presented was very good and very hopeful for a missional United Methodist future. I want to focus on the critical paper developed by a team that Dr. Maddox led. A copy of Dr. Maddox’s paper is available athttp://www.gbod.org/extendedcabinet/UMWay.pdf. It’s well worth the read.

I’ve even downloaded it into a file I call “basics,” where I store core documents for my life and ministry. I think it’s that essential, and I hope its insights about early Methodism can be widely felt.

Dr. Maddox says United Methodism today looks far more like the Church of England during the 18th century than it looks like Methodism, being “marked by much nominal commitment and spiritual lethargy.” Why has this happened? He suggests it’s partly because we traded our heritage of an accountable way of life for bragging rights about our peculiar polity and institutional strength.

I’d say it’s also because we became confused about what church was and could be, after we changed from a movement that sprang up alongside churches to becoming a church ourselves through John Wesley’s action and the General Conference’s affirmation in 1784.

Wesley was afraid this kind of thing could happen, Dr. Maddox reminds us. In the most-quoted line from his 1786 “Thoughts upon Methodism,” Wesley wrote:

“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 both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.”

Dr. Maddox says “doctrine, spirit and discipline” were the critical elements of early Methodism that made it the missional, incarnational, evangelical and transformational dynamo it was. As described in the General Rules, it was “centered in the work of the Holy Spirit,” “shaped by vital Christian doctrine” and grounded within “a rich set of Disciplines.”

He proposes that we try to help congregations recover these core principles and practices, beginning by highlighting where they are already taking place, such as Disciple Bible Study, Covenant Discipleship and Volunteers In Mission.

He also suggests a second step: a systematic analysis and “creative retrieval” of “those dimensions of the Methodist Way that have been lost over the years due to neglect or abuse.” This, he adds, will have to be carried out at all levels of denominational life; pastors, for instance, will need to retrieve their role as “practical theologians.”

Here’s the problem that I see with this proposed remedy: It won’t work. Indeed, it can’t work—at least not well. The politics and institutional realities of the church being what they are, the only things that can be generated by this kind of denominational analysis and attempts at retrieval will be a lot of work, a lot of bills (of the financial and legislative sort), even greater resistance because every stakeholder will want input, and almost no progress.

Attempting the second step could become a serious distraction that could precipitate a more rapid decline.

Here’s why: Think missional and think early Methodist. Our early Methodist missional DNA had no bias toward analysis and institutional process; it had a bias toward action. It did not try to reform the Church of England per se.

Let me say that again. Methodism was not a reform movement to rescue moribund Anglican congregations. It was a movement to make disciples who would live out every day what they professed on Sunday morning.

Trying to bring this new wine into the institutional mechanisms of the current denomination will result in either a busted wineskin and a wine-stained floor, or given enough institutional pressure/inertia, a deeply domesticated version of the original that won’t be recognizable as new wine at all.

This isn’t because institutions are inherently bad. The problem is that our current denominational and congregational institutions are simply not designed to make missional Christians, much less deploy much of what early Methodists were up to.

We are continuity structures and supply houses, not on-the-ground missiologists.

Some United Methodist institutions can and do provide support for those of us who try to live into Methodism. We have a lot of folks inside the General Board of Discipleship (GBOD) and other agencies who “get it”: that some of the best help we can provide is to ask really good questions that tease us into thinking and acting missionally rather than to offer ready-made fixes.

We’re not the enemy. We can be helpful in a variety of ways. But we’re not the answer.

You are.

If Wesley had waited around for the Church of England to engage in a massive self-study about how it could reclaim the core practices of Celtic Christianity in the missional and cultural contexts in which congregations found themselves, Methodism would never have taken root. Methodism was not generated by the institutions of the churches nor by the congregations. In fact, it was often opposed by them—and at times, with due cause!

The Church of England did not and could not have done what Methodism was doing. The institutional churches couldn’t take credit for Methodism, though they could and did benefit from the renewal of life happening in Methodists who happened to be part of their congregations and institutions.

Methodism was the peculiar work of God enacted by the people, most of whom were laity, alongside their existing denominational/congregational/institutional structures, without analytical studies, organizational realignments and bureaucratic authorization systems, but with deep clarity, passion and commitment.

These people were out to become holy, to live and serve as Christians, and to invite others to join them. If the institutions came along supportively at times, great. If not, they were still committed to stay Methodist and whatever else they were, to be present and fully engaged with both as much as they could.

The current institutional forms of the United Methodist Church can be helpful but are probably not generative of the renewal we need. The appendix of Dr. Maddox’s article gives indicators for what Methodist-friendly (my term) congregations look like and what bishops and others could do to provide leadership toward that end.

The take away: Let’s live the Methodist way! Let’s support institutions trying to do this, too. But let’s not get confused and think the latter is the same as the former.

When we begin to live this way, maybe someday the institutions—including congregations—will figure out how to relate more helpfully to the Methodist missional DNA. But let’s not expect them to do it for us.

The Rev. Burton-Edwards is director of worship resources for the GBOD. This commentary was excerpted from a post at emergingumc.blogspot.com.