seek and you shall find

Worth finding on the internet...No Depression selects Buddy Miller as artist of the decade (I concur)...A moving piece on Mother's Day by Tom Friedman in the Sunday New York Times...I am quoted in last week's Jewish Week (New York)...and have a brief commentary in the current United Methodist Reporter...An excellent blog, which I have not yet linked on this site, is one hosted by Adam Hamilton of the Church of The Resurrection (Seeing Gray)...and a perceptive piece on "The Church That Doesn't Exist" can be found in the current issue of Relevant magazine. And what does it mean that Jacob "wants to move the island"...(Lost)? If I weren't so lazy I would have provided links, but, hey, I have separated the wheat from the chaff. I only ask that you meet me half-way: type a couple of words into your favorite search engine and enjoy! You can do it...

take and read

The newest collection of essays by one of the foremost theologians of our era, a man of genuine Christian piety, with experience teaching in Africa, Europe and the U.S. If the way forward is going to be shaped by the Trinity, the Creeds, the Scriptures, and the church across space and time; if we are to avoid fragmenting into thousands of little pieces; if our chief end (purpose) is to "enjoy God and to glorify Him forever"; if the human search for truth, goodness and beauty is grounded in his/her creation in the image of God, which is love...if any or all of this matters, these essays are worth exploring.

re-entry: family, church and beyond

It has been nice to move back into the pleasures of life and work. May is a time of transition. Our Confirmation service was last Sunday, Disciple II class has its final meeting next week, we are beginning to plan for the fall, using Robert Schnase's Five Practices as our template; some of our leaders and staff have begun reading it. We host an interfaith dialogue in late May, two of our staff will be commissioned and ordained, respectively, at annual conference, we welcome a new director of music in early June, and will host a mission effort on a Sunday morning in late June in which we put together 10,000 meal packets (each with 5-7 meals) in cooperation with Stop Hunger Now. There are some follow-up ideas after having hosted Bishop Innis of Liberia; he is amazing.

For more on the Five Practices and Stop Hunger Now, respectively, visit here and here.


One of our daughters is home for the summer, searching soon (hopefully) for work (!). My wife and I have caught up with the episodes of Lost. I believe there are only two left. Who will make if off the island? And in what condition?

Sunday morning our family will be sitting in a sea of Carolina blue, watching our older daughter graduate from UNC-Chapel Hill, with her B.A. in Asian Studies (honors, phi beta kappa). Then we will go to a smaller departmental gathering and then to a lunch at her apartment. It won't be Pentecost in my own congregational setting, but God will be with us!

12 good things about general conference

I realize that my last three posts related to general conference (gc) reflect a fair measure of pessimism and even cynicism. I am by nature an optimistic and hopeful person, and there were some amazing people at gc. So, to strike a balance, and in order to move myself into a new place, a highly subjective listing of 12 good things about general conference, in no particular order. This will also bring closure to gc for me. It is time to move forward.

1. The speech of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia.
2. The leadership of Rev. Okoko of the Congo, who chaired my sub-committee in Global Ministries, and our translator, Mary Lou. And several of the participants in our sub-committee.
3. The report on Hurricane Katrina.
4. Higher Education Night, especially the combined college choir.
5. The funds raised for Nothing But Nets.
6. The Laity Address--basic, direct, to the point.
7. Shortening the length of the probationary process into ordained ministry, from three to two years.
8. A strong statement against torture, and a more balanced perspective on Israel and Palestine.
9. The Encounter With Christ in Latin America and the Carribean Dinner.
10. The humor within the close quarters of our delegation. We came up with a "Reality Show" cast populated with the ten persons who spoke most frequently. If you were there, you will have no trouble coming up with the names and home conferences.
11. Reconnecting with friends across jurisdictional lines, like Bob Hill (Boston), Phil Amerson (Chicago), Art McClanahan (Iowa), Doug Mills (NY), and David Mosser (Texas), and others, and getting to know people on the bus commute in each day, like Pat Day of Shreveport and Sheila Cumbest of Mississippi. A brief conversation with Adam Hamilton, and a consistent lunch bunch that processed it all. Dinner with Tom Butcher, who has a great vision for new churches in our denomination. Lunch with my own Bishop, Lawrence McCleskey, and also with Bishop Schnase. And seeing friends who will gather again at Junaluska in July for Jurisdictional Conference.
12. On a lighter note, the Fort Worth cuisine, especially at Billy Bob's, and a couple of walks along the Trinity River.

Some of this was the core stuff of gc, some was around the edges. It is an amazing experience, and it is, finally, the work of the people, offered, imperfectly but steadfastly to God.

general conference and the apostolic mission

I paint with a broad brush here, but Methodists have always been stronger at feeling and doing than thinking. I came to this realization at General Conference, where we would occasionally act on, ignore, or comtemplate studies of various subjects. At times, studies are floated for the purpose of avoiding action; this is not always bad---we have made terrible decisions "in the moment". Since we are so polarized at this meeting, it is worth noting that both left and right push issues to study groups when it in their interest to do so. I was pleased that we had some reflection on the place of the Trinity in relation to the proposed social creed; I participated on the floor on this, and was also pleased that it was finally described as a litany rather than a creed---I think this was more accurate. I also think it is good to continue to study the ordained ministry. We have an incoherent understanding of the practice of ordained ministry, and one thousand highly politicized and increasingly exhausted people are not best positioned to sort all of this out.

Since most of the Methodist blogosphere is dominated with questions of same-sex attraction and general conference, I would propose that anyone who was present in Fort Worth read Philip Jenkins' The Next Christendom (Oxford University Press). We can spend the next few years sorting out ways to organize ourselves in relation to Christians in the two-thirds world, for our own political or economic advantage, or we can join together in the mission of God with them, and/or we can learn something about the apostolic mission that is happening beyond our borders. Perhaps they can teach us to re-evangelize North American culture?

general conference: everything begins in mysticism and ends in politics

I came away from my first General Conference, four years ago, disillusioned. I entered into this one, admittedly, with low expectations. Two factors contributed to this very human posture on my part: the polarization of the culture and the church on key moral issues (gay/lesbian identity and practices and abortion), and the very method of General Conference itself.

A word about the latter first. We use Robert's Rules of Order, which is a very good process if you wish to divide people into winners and losers. In virtually every action taken at General Conference (hereafter GC), and there were thousands of them, there were winners and losers. Sometimes the vote was 52%-48% (as with a key vote on abortion); at another point it was 55%-45% (the confession that we are divided on the issue of homosexuality, the vote itself proving the point); on other matters 67%-33% (several consitutional amendments, which needed a two-thirds majority, passed by one-half of one percent). Robert's Rules of Order lends itself to the gifts of persons trained in the law, and indeed some of the more effective speakers were in fact attorneys (the more prominent being from New York and New Mexico, but there were others, and across regions). It does not lend itself to spiritual discernment, or to the practice of listening in general. Again and again I heard, around the edges, that there has to be a better way to do all of this. Indeed, a clergywoman proposed the exploration of this idea, but it was "defeated" by the house (I use the word intentionally, for this was in fact the case).

And so, a first tentative sense is that the outcome we arrived at was shaped by our method. If we use the same method again, in four years, we will arrive at the same destination.

The method does more, however, than divide us into winners and losers. It seems to create insiders and outsiders. The two most inflammatory areas of debate were human sexuality and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. And, of course, opposing political orientations are prone to create insiders and outsiders, through the use and abuse of power. No one, really, has the high ground here.

There are profound moral ambiguities surrounding homosexuality and abortion. The moral ambiguity on the gay/lesbian question has led the church to stay with the received interpretation of scripture and tradition; some see this as an injustice, others a matter of faith. The moral perplexity related to abortion has led some to call for hospitality toward the unborn, others choice in the life of the woman. At present, the United Methodist Church is much more sensitive to those who disagree with our position on the gay/lesbian question than the abortion question. If you were at the GC, or watching it on the web, this was obvious.

So we are divided, and we want to legislate where the will of God is to be found: among gays and lesbians and those who support them, or among those who in conscience read the scriptures and stand with the tradition? among the Palestians, unjustly treated, or among the Jews, victims of anti-semitism?

What if the radical grace of God, so prominent in the Wesley hymns, and in the gospels, were extended to gays and lesbians, and to the unborn, and to the Jews and the Greeks? Indeed, I think in most United Methodist congregations this is in fact the case. And why does such a question, which cuts across our preconceived political divides, seem so odd?

Beyond all of this, we said very little about the war, or immigration, or global warming, or the local church. We adopted a budget of $642 million. We did some new and different things related to ordained ministry, not all of them good, in my mind (I know, however, that it is not all about me), but some will help; I will comment on all of that at a later time. I left feeling like a great deal had been accomplished, not entirely happy with every vote that had been taken, seeking to live in peace, as much as was humanly possible, with all of those who were present, finally trusting the church again to the providence of God (this was Bishop Palmer's comment at the end of GC, I think). It all seemed rather surreal, a slowly shrinking church spending a day on constitutional amendments and a day and half on homosexuality, the gathered body obviously more African, more non-English speaking, all of us in denial about where we will be, in the U.S., in ten years (a vivid exception to this seems to me the work of Bishop Schnase). It also seemed odd, to me, that my favorite sermon of the ten days was preached by a Lutheran Bishop. And that we kept talking about three simple rules, and yet spent hours, ad infinitum, amending, bending and commenting on the rules that filled three very thick books.

There has to be a better way to do all of this.

I am very tired, so a better, more measured comment will appear here in a few days. In closing I recall the wisdom of the poet Charles Peguy:

"Everything begins in mysticism and ends in politics".

It is true.

ourselves in relation to each other: gc 2008

I asked to serve on the GBGM legislative committee. After a day of sorting out who the leaders of subcommittees would be, and what our process would be, we dove into the work. My subcommittee has focused on a number of subjects---the Israeli-Palestinian relationship, Fair trade practices, Global debt and the year of Jubilee, HIV in Global context, etc. I have spoken twice in favor of more explicit Christian language in the larger settings, and each time this has not carried the day. There is some legislation at the nexus between the IRD and the Women's division, and this is getting nowhere in our group. I have spoken in favor of more balanced language related to Israel and the Palestinians, and this has been incorporated in our subcommittee. We will see how it goes in the whole GBGM group and in the larger setting.

Beyond the legislative work, I have enjoyed having lunch with Bishop Schnase yesterday, and Bishop McCleskey today, and also dinner one evening with Tom Albin, a friend from the Upper Room, and Tom Butcher, who directs the Path One initiative (new churches). Tomorrow we get into the larger legislative processes, especially elections of university senate and judicial council members.

Most of what we are doing is all about ourselves, in relation to each other. This overwhelming reality transcends all of the political groupings, and unfortunately does not help the church in fulfilling its mission.