Young Clergy Crisis?

I just stumbled upon United Methodist Young Clergy, a project trying to detail the struggle young clergy (age 35 and younger) have within the denomination.

As I began reading some of the posts and blogs, I began to realize something: we young clergy (and I’ve got two-and-a-half years left to qualify) like to complain a lot. There were complaints about the ordination process, guaranteed appointments to serve churches, being ignored, feeling as if there is pressure for us to save the church, too much attention, not enough attention…

Please!

If we spent half as much time actually working as we do complaining, we might actually make a difference in the world for the Kingdom of God. I mean, let’s get real here. The ordination process is tough. Most things worth pursuing in life are tough, and as long as we treat ordination like a sacrament that forever changes the person being ordained (which we do), it will be a tough process. And it should be. Would you want your kids attending a church where anyone who happened to interview well could have the full faith and endorsement of the second largest denomination in the country, despite his or her lack of any real biblical understanding or the gifts or graces for ministry? Think of all the damage someone like that could cause!

Oh, wait, we already have a situation like that because our denomination is replete with incompetent clergy. Which is exactly why we don’t want to mess up the next generation of Methodists. Hence the lengthy ordination process. Could it be changed? Sure. Would it make things better? God knows. Should we sit back and complain about it to each other? God forbid! Rather, why don’t we actually work from within to change the system.

And in order to do that, we need to stop complaining so much!

If you are a part of the young clergy demographic, think about your church situation. When you sit down with your nominating committee to help select leaders for the coming year, do you immediately pick the people in your congregation who are constantly complaining that things ought to be different, or do you pick the ones that have a similar vision that you do?

Now I am not advocating we simply be good little clergy and always do what we’re told by the powers that be, but perhaps we can communicate a little better the issues we see. Instead of complaining so much, let’s get excited about evangelism. Instead of griping about the decline and fall of the United Methodist Church, let’s get people on board with our vision and potential for revitalization and church planting. Instead of pointing out (continually, ad nauseam) how we are discriminated against because of youth and inexperience, let’s admit we haven’t been around the block yet, find older clergy who have similar vision and passion as we do (they are out there), and seek to be discipled by them.

Let’s face it, those of us in the United Methodist Church have chosen this denomination for a reason. For some it is the theology. For some it is the stance on social justice issues. For some it is the security of a guaranteed appointment once ordained. For some it may be something else completely. Nevertheless, we all had ample opportunity to choose a different road, to choose a different church. We didn’t. We’re here. And we can make a difference, if we just stop griping and start working.

Christ the Lord Series

If you have not yet read any of Ann Rice’s Christ the Lord books (Out of Egypt and Road to Cana), you need to.  She has an uncanny way of capturing a compelling and realistic vision of what Jesus’ life was like.  It will make you think and it will make you pray.

Of course there have been people who have derrided these books because they contain material not found in the Bible. For example, in Out of Egypt Jesus brings to life some clay doves and accidentally kills a boy and brings him back from the dead.  She’s not claiming to be writing inspired Scripture, and those stories do not detract from the message that she is putting forward about Jesus, which you’ll have to read the books to get.

In Road to Cana, the main plot-moving device is Jesus’ attraction to a girl in Nazareth.  Now this is not The Last Temptation of Christ.  Jesus is adamant that he will not marry, despite all the protests of his family.  And yet he struggles with that conviction.  As far as I’m concerned, this feeds right into the theological statement that he was tempted in every way we are and yet without sin.

I whole-heartedly recommend these books if you want to take a fresh, and orthodox, view of Jesus.

Churches and Restaurants

Several years ago the Alban Institute published a book called Feeding the Flock: Restaurants and Churches worth standing in line for. Tonight I went to a restaurant that would be an interesting case study for that analogy.

First, there was a huge crowd. This is because this particular restaurant is heavily publicized in the community. It is also because there is a museum, gift shop, ice cream shoppe, mini golf, etc. attached to the restaurant. It is also set up to do catering, box lunches, conferences and wifi. The character and ambiance were great.

And I will never return to that restaurant again.

The food was terrible and the service was extremely lack-luster. Everything that a restaurant is actually supposed to have, this one was substandard on. People were not getting their drinks and one family had to wait over ten minutes for someone to walk into the back room to get a plastic fork for a child whose parents didn’t want him to have a metal one. When the manager finally came to see why the family was upset, it took her less than fifteen seconds to go find the plastic-ware and bring it back to them.

As churches, we can get so focused on the peripherals of ministry and church life that we can forget why we exist. We can have tons of programs and events for people, the best facilities, and all the amenities that one could ask for, but neglect the weightier aspects of our calling: to introduce people to Jesus Christ.

To be sure, ministries are necessary, and facilities can help bring people in, but I would hate to be known for the church that has everything and can’t serve people Jesus.

My Conference Runneth Over

Imagine this…the time we gained yesterday was eaten up and then some today as Conference went way, way over.

The culprit in all of this? We began talking about money today. Go figure.

Annual Conference Miracle

I am currently at the 169th session of the Memphis Annual Conference, and I have witnessed a miracle.

We are operating ahead of schedule.

This ranks right up there with feeding 5000 and walking on water, if you ask me. Even Bishop Wills is surprised at the turn of events.

I’ll keep you posted if this miraculous trend continues.

This just hit me

There I was, in the middle of a Church Council meeting, trying to explain the difference between intentionally focusing on visitors and guests and intentionally focusing on ourselves. I was on a role (my wife says I was beating a dead horse) about how we need to enter into the mindset of a first-time visitor when, out of the blue, I asked the fateful question:

“Haven’t any of you ever been church shopping?”

And it hit me by the blank stares I was getting from so many of them:

They hadn’t.

As a matter of fact, several of the people in that meeting have never, ever been out looking for a church. They were born and raised in this church. And some of the others, when they did move to town from another location, simply went to this church because they were Methodist and this was a Methodist church. All of the discussion of what people look for in a church was lost on these people because they had absolutely no experience, knowledge or background in what I was saying.

And I wonder how many other churches there are out there who have leaders and members who have similar backgrounds of never searching for a church home, and new clergy come in trying to explain to them why we need to change certain things to make a church more visitor-friendly, and the pastor might as well be speaking ancient Greek because the people have no frame of reference for the comments. I wonder how many pastors can avoid frustration if they realized this aspect of some of our congregations.

I wonder how my Council will respond to this meeting…

This is pretty good

Say it isn’t so!

Ok, apparently I’ve been in the dark about a lot of things in the world, blissfully ignorant, you might say.  Which is why this BBC article  caught me completely off guard.

Apparently, while I was busy watching Star Trek reruns, Mr. Sulu was debating where to get married to his partner, Brad Altman.  With California’s recent approval of same-sex marriage, the happy couple is excited that they can stay in California to be married.

All the more reason to realize, I guess, that you simply cannot judge who people are.  Hopefully I will not have to learn this lesson over and over again.

Graduation and Sanctification

I am preaching from the Lectionary now, and that was a huge step in relinquishing control for me, but I have been amazed at how the Scripture selections seem to tie into what is going on in the life of my congregation (coincidence or God-thing, you decide).  Take today for example.  First we have Trinity Sunday, and I was not impressed with the selections to highlight the life of the Trinity.  And here in beautiful downtown Mayfield, it was also Senior Sunday, recognizing our graduating high school seniors.  How in the world do these two go together?

Well, the selection from 2 Corinthians 13 had a wonderful phrase in it: Strive for full restoration (13.11 TNIV).  And the Gospel selection was the Great Commission from Matthew.  Lo and behold!  A connection.  Graduation is not the end of their journey, it is just the beginning!  They cannot rest on their past accomplishments; it is now time to enter the world and make a difference.  The same for the disciples on that mountain.  Now was not the time to rest assured that Jesus was right all along and they threw in their hats with the one who now has all authority in heaven and earth.  No!  Now they are to go out into the world and make more disciples and teach them to obey what they had been taught.

And what had they been taught?  To strive for full restoration–of themselves into the image of Christ.  No one is going to believe the disciples’ message if they do not see proof in the disciples’ lives.  So too, we are called to go and make disciples, all the while striving for full restoration within ourselves.  Being saved is only the beginning.  Now we have to go out and make a difference in the world.

And I would have NEVER thought of using those Scriptures for Senior Sunday!

Had to change the look

Once I tried to read this thing…the old theme was too difficult to read.  I think this one is a lot better.