Category Archives: Ministry

Thoughts from Oklahoma Annual Conference

01 Monday Jun 2009

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Annual Conference has occasionally been difficult for me to attend. I have sometimes been much too cynical and easily disillusioned. I have occasionally thought that we were like kids fascinated with the explosive power of fireworks when we are surrounded by dynamite.

This post, however, is not intended to be a lament. It is meant to be a testimony. Last week, I saw felt the Spirit of God at work throughout Annual Conference. I prayed during my drive to Annual Conference each morning. This was truly a means of grace for me. As a result, I arrived at Annual Conference each morning expecting to see God at work in some way during the day. Here are a few glimpses of where I saw God at work:

On Monday, I felt the privilege of being able to vote on those who would be commissioned and ordained at this Annual Conference. I was reminded of the blessing and responsibility that comes with being a member of the order of elders in ordained ministry in the United Methodist Church. I was also convicted by hearing the ordinands answer the same questions that I answered just last year. I was reminded that I made these same vows last year. And I was reminded that these vows are ongoing. We did not promise to do this until we were ordained. Rather, we took these vows as part of our entrance into ordained ministry with the expectation that we would uphold them as long as we are in this order. I found myself looking around and thinking about all the people at the clergy session who had previously made these vows, praying that we were all reminded of the promises we have made before God and one another.

(One slight suggestion: I love the questions about Christian perfection. We should not only keep them, but should take them more seriously. I think one way of more honestly answering these questions would be to respond “Yes, by the grace of God.” Rather than simply saying, “Yes.”)

On Tuesday I had dinner and a wonderful conversation with Brandon Blacksten. Brandon was in the youth group when I was working with the youth at McFarlin Memorial United Methodist Church when I was in college at the University of Oklahoma. He has just finished his first year of seminary at Vanderbilt and is a candidate for ordained ministry in the United Methodist Church. I will resist putting words in Brandon’s mouth, but I left our conversation refreshed and thankful for the interaction.

I was also very apprehensive about the debate about the proposed constitutional amendments. The actual discussion and debate, I thought, went very well. It seemed to me that people were trying to understand and love those who seemed to be on opposite sides of some of these issues. (I would also highly recommend the format that was used at our Annual Conference. We had round table discussions and spent about 15 minutes discussing the amendments – they were clustered into four groups. After the table discussions people were able to speak to the entire gathering for or against the amendments. We agreed to allow 3 one minute speeches in favor and 3 against each amendment. As I recall, only one amendment actually had three people speak for it and three against it – the amendment concerning membership that would affect paragraph 4 in the Book of Discipline. This format seemed to give everyone a chance to speak their mind, but also to avoid it becoming an unnecessarily polarizing and divisive occasion. The entire process took about two hours. I think this is as close as you could come to genuine Christian conference when there are 32 Constitutional Amendments under consideration. The folks who planned this discussion did a wonderful job.)

There were several other conversations that were means of grace to me. More than any Annual Conference I had previously been to, at this Annual Conference I was frequently part of conversations which challenged me, inspired me, gave me hope, and made me realize that there are many, many people in Oklahoma who I am thankful to be in ministry with.

If your Annual Conference is coming up and it is often a negative or neutral experience… I would encourage you to find a meaningful amount of time to pray each day. As obvious as this insight is, it had a profound impact on my Annual Conference experience. This does not mean that I have put my hope in the Annual Conference to save the United Methodist Church. But it does mean that I was reminded that God is still able to work within the United Methodist Church, just as God is still able to work without the United Methodist Church.

Great Post by Dan Dick

24 Tuesday Mar 2009

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Many of you may already be aware of Dan Dick’s re-publication of Stupid Christian Education. However, if you have not seen or read this piece, you really should. The post summarizes the results of surveys relating to Christian education in UM congregations.

Dick’s post is not an easy read, nor is it good news. Generally speaking, we are doing far too poor of a job with educating and forming Christians. If the mission of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, based on these results it would seem that we are frequently failing to make disciples.

A few further questions I had as I read this: How does this relate to the way we do theological (seminary) education as UMs? Is there any correlation between poor local church Christian education and the way that we approach seminary education? What do you think?

No Limit to God’s Saving Work in Christ

09 Monday Mar 2009

Posted by in Book Review, Ministry, Wesley

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Over the past week I have been reading a couple of books by Lester Ruth; A Little Heaven Below: Worship at Early Methodist Quarterly Meetingsand Early Methodist Life and SpiritualityI would recommend both books to people who want to understand better early American Methodism, particularly what its worship was like.

In Early Methodist Life and Spirituality I came across the following quote: “Methodists found totally unacceptable any suggestion that there was some limit – particularly a God-determined limit – to the scope of God’s saving work in Christ.” (70)

Do we still find any suggestion that there are limits to the scope of God’s saving work in Christ totally unacceptable? It seems to me that people are much too quick to accept the limitations of life in this world as unavoidable and inevitable. I have noticed a tendency to quickly move to extremes when discussing the expectations of the Christian life that seem to work as a sort of defense mechanism…. “If all Christians did that, then I guess there just wouldn’t be any Christians anymore.” (Or something to that effect.)

This appears to be an expression of a lamentable failure of imagination. Part of what Lester Ruth seems to be suggesting is that early American Methodists refused to allow any restraints on God’s ability to save through Christ. If there were going to be limits, they would have to be elsewhere. This belief that God could fully save through Christ was expressed in two key ways: universal atonement (all can find salvation in Christ) and Christian perfection or entire sanctification (all can be made perfect in love).

In my experience (albeit limited), most Methodists find the idea of entire sanctification quaint, or even absurd. Yet, I long to see the ways in which God’s Spirit would move in Methodism again if we were to cease being so quick to rationalize our tendency to sin and instead stubbornly, adamantly, and unapologetically refuse to accept any limits to the scope of God’s saving work in Christ. The United Methodist Church is, after all, filled with ordained ministers who have answer in the affirmative the historic questions “Are you going on to perfection?” and “Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?” This is not a work that we perform to merit God’s grace. On the contrary, the best answer to both of these questions is, “Yes, by the grace of God.”

Jesus on Fasting

04 Wednesday Mar 2009

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And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

– Matthew 6:16-18 (NRSV)

Several people in my life have been convinced of the importance of renewing the practice of fasting during this Lent. I think part of the conviction came from these verses. Jesus says “whenever you fast,” not if you fast. I am not sure I know anyone who really enjoys fasting (i.e. thinks it is fun to not eat). However, people who do fast typically experience that it is indeed a means of grace.

What has been your experience with fasting?

Conspicuous

25 Wednesday Feb 2009

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At noon today, my family attended the Ash Wednesday service at Perkins Chapel on the campus of SMU. It was a wonderful service. It was a time when I was reminded that all is not well, but that this is not the way things have to be. I was confronted with my sin, had ashes placed on my forehead in the shape of a cross, and was exhorted to repent and believe the gospel. I was confronted with my mortality and reminded of the promise of new life in Christ.

I find the Ash Wednesday service to be an important one for the Christian life for many reasons. One of the main feelings I have after the service is simply that of feeling conspicuous. Throughout the day I am aware that I have ashes on my forehead and I feel like people are looking at them, looking at me. I feel self-conscious and find that I am more aware of my actions. Now, I am not sure whether people are actually watching me any more closely than normal (they probably aren’t). But, nevertheless, I find that I give just a bit more thought to how what I am doing could be connected by others to the fact that I have a cross on my head.

Initially, this feeling is usually frustrating and annoying. I don’t want to feel self-conscious. I don’t even want to be thinking so much about myself… isn’t the point for me to become increasingly focused on God? Yet, I find grace here. I find that being conspicuous is a means of grace. When I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb and I want to hide (or go to the bathroom and wipe the ashes off of my face), I am reminded of what Christ has done for me. I am reminded of how often I don’t stick out and people have no idea that I am a follower of Christ.

United Methodists used to be folk who were known for their excitement about the Good News. They used to be conspicuous. Early Methodists were far more often accused of being fanatics or enthusiasts than they were accused of being luke warm. Today it often seems that we are best known for either being open or content – indeed, lukewarm.

Today I believe that God is asking me to allow Christ to be more conspicuous in my life. I believe that God wants to free me from the things that keep me from becoming a deeply committed Christian. I believe that God wants to enable me to love others willingly, even naturally. And today I have been reminded that God’s grace becomes more tangible to me as I faithfully practice the means of grace.

Father, during this season of Lent please pour your renewing and sanctifying grace into the lives of your people. Help us to receive this grace and do nothing to inhibit it. Send your Spirit to guide us and lead us closer to your Son Jesus Christ, who is the source of our hope and salvation. And may we be conspicuous in our love of you and in our love for our neighbor. May it be so. Amen.

The Trials of Itinerancy… in 1800

18 Wednesday Feb 2009

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For Methodist ministers who may have had occasion to complain about the quality of an appointment, take heart! It could always be worse.

In 1799 the salary for a full time itinerant minister was $64 a year. Apparently it was recognized that Methodist itinerants were slightly under-compensated, because the following year that was increased to $80 a year. (I don’t know what that would come out to when adjusted for inflation, but a Congregationalist minister at the same time averaged about $400 per year.)

And if you were to get into a “who has the worst appointment” contest, I am willing to guess that Henry Smith has you beat. In 1801 after preaching a funeral sermon in Ohio Smith records that “when bed-time came I was conducted to the room from which the corpse had been taken a few hours before, to sleep on the bedstead, perhaps the very bed, on which the young man had died, without the house having been scrubbed and properly aired.”

Another Smith, Thomas Smith, in New Jersey in 1807, found himself in the awkward situation of having to sleep in the same room with the body of a man who had died that morning… His hosts must have thought him quite rude when they discovered that he had decided to sleep outside next to a tree.

If nothing else, this seems to bring out a whole different idea of radical hospitality than Bishop Robert Schnase talks about in his Five Practicesbook!

(The information in this post is found in John H. Wigger’s essay “Fighting Bees: Methodist Itinerants and the Dynamics of Methodist Growth, 1770-1820”, 87-133 in Methodism and the Shaping of American Culture, eds., Nathan O. Hatch, and John H. Wigger, (Nashville: Kingswood, 2001))

Richard Foster’s Spiritual Formation Agenda and Methodism

04 Wednesday Feb 2009

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Check out Richard Foster’s article in Christianity Today about his three priorities for the next thirty years.

Foster believes that Celebration of Discipline(a classic) succeeded in reviving the conversation about the formation of the soul but was much less successful in making this incarnate in the experience of individual, congregational, and cultural life. Thus, Foster points to what he believes needs to happen in the next thirty years for this to come to life: Individual renewal, Congregational renewal, and Cultural renewal.

I was thrilled (though not surprised) to see that a major focus in his discussion of congregational renewal was on fellowship and communal formation. He explicitly refers to Philip Jacob Spener’s collegia pietatis and John Wesley’s society, class, band structure.

I think Foster is basically right on, many people seem to give lip service to the importance of spiritual formation – even communal formation, i.e., small group accountability – but there often seems to be a discrepancy between our words and our actions. The early Methodists understood the importance of communal structures for individual formation and accountability. May Methodists once again lead the way in showing how to “watch over one another in love” so that we are known not just for what we believe, but for what we do – for how we live.

Wesley Said It: the Necessity of Social Holiness

03 Tuesday Feb 2009

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Directly opposite to this is the gospel of Christ. Solitary religion is not to be found there. ‘Holy solitaries’ is a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than holy adulterers. The gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness but social holiness.

From: The Works of John Wesley, Jackson Edition, “Preface to 1739 Hymns and Sacred Poems”, vol. 14:321.

Too Respectable for Holiness?

29 Thursday Jan 2009

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The final chapter of Frank Baker’s From Wesley to Asbury: Studies in Early American Methodismpoints to several key emphases of early Methodism, pointing to ways in which the heritage of American Methodism can inform contemporary Methodism. (This book was first published in 1976. Still, I found much of what Dr. Baker had to say in this final chapter to continue to be relevant.) The particular characteristic that Baker discussed was piety. He argues that “the first characteristic of the brand of religion that John and Charles Wesley brought Georgia was piety” (184).

Baker cites the early American Methodist affirmation that ‘God’s design in raising up the preachers called ‘Methodists’ was ‘to reform the continent, and to spread scriptural holiness over these lands’ as evidence that in the late 1700s Methodists embraced holiness (or piety). However, when Baker looks a hundred years down the road, he finds that the emphasis has changed:

A century later the Methodists, both in Britain and America, became too respectable for holiness, especially when it was overemphasized and underillustrated by fanatics. It is good to know that after the passage of still another century Methodist theologians are once more exploring the important truths underlined in Wesley’s teaching on Christian perfection. So much for our thinking. But what about our Christian living? Do we not still place too much importance on respectability, rather than on warm piety? Let us remember that piety does not mean a particular set of supposedly religious actions, but lives completely integrated with God’s purposes, or (as Wesley once described it), ‘loving God with all our hearts, and serving him with all our strength.’ In that sense our Methodist forefathers – even John Wesley before his heart was strangely warmed – can furnish us with both a message and a challenge. (186)

I find this to be a jarring quote. One that asks deep questions to contemporary United Methodism – and all denominations that claim a share in the Wesleyan tradition. There seems to be a growing interest in “reclaiming Wesley” in United Methodism. I remember being surprised in my Methodist History and Doctrine class that people all over the theological spectrum in the class seemed to feel that Wesley was articulating something that they believed, but hadn’t been able to previously articulate. On the one hand, I rejoice at the renewed interest in Wesley. On the other hand, I am sometimes alarmed at how often I hear people on opposite sides of the same issue trying to claim the Wesleyan high ground.

Baker pierces this in a profound way. One of the things that people should be able to agree on about what Wesley believed, or what it means to be a standard bearer for the Wesleyan tradition, is the central importance of holiness of heart and life for the Christian life. I think most armchair Wesleyan theologians can articulate this. However, in brilliant Wesleyan fashion, Baker pushes us past what we think to what we live. The question, then, is not: Did the early Methodists believe in the importance of holiness? Rather, the question is: Are Methodists today becoming holy? Nevermind what we say – what about our lives. What are we becoming?

I believe it is the answer to this question that will determine the future of Methodism: Are our lives, both individually and corporately, being “completely integrated with God’s purposes”?

Initially, Baker’s words rang true for Methodism “out there,” for the Church that I love, but is sometimes desperately trying to finds its way again. But then it came home. What about me? I am working to become a Methodist/Wesleyan scholar. Because of the quality of the school I am attending and the wisdom and knowledge that is being imparted to me through the people I am working with, I am confident that I will be able to reasonably articulate, as Baker says, “some of the important truths underlined in Wesley’s teaching on Christian perfection.” But if that is where it ends I may be a scholar of the Wesleyan tradition, but I would not be Wesleyan. And more importantly, I would miss out on the fullness of the Christian life.

Wesley also reminds me that my growth in holiness comes by God’s grace. May God grant me, you, and all who seek to follow Christ, the ability to cooperate with God’s sanctifying grace. May we not merely be a people with a holy past, but may we become a holy people. May we respect the gospel and our Savior too much to refuse to be sanctified through and through. May it be so, for Jesus’ sake.

The Class Meeting and Itinerancy

26 Monday Jan 2009

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In continuing to read Norwood’s The Story of American MethodismI came across some interesting analysis of the decline of the class meeting. Norwood connects the decline of the class meeting with the decline of the circuit riding preacher. Norwood writes:

The high point of the class meeting coincides with the heyday of the circuit rider. Its decline dates from his dismounting. As long as the traveling preacher was on the go around his circuit and from appointment to appointment, the place of the class meeting was secure. The class leader was needed to perform those pastoral functions which are part of a balanced ministry. But when the preacher settled down in a parsonage as a stationed pastor, the class leader… became, at least so it seemed, an unnecessary wheel. Inadvertently, because of the settling down of the traveling preacher, Methodism lost one of its strongest supports, the active ministerial participation of the lay people. (132)

This is not portrayed by Norwood as a positive development. Norwood concludes the chapter musing that “Ever since, Methodists have been trying to decide whether they would be a great church or a holy people.” When I first read this, I thought: Are the two mutually exclusive? I guess it depends on your definition of a “great church.”

The important point, it seems to me, is not that we should work to return to a truly itinerant ministry. Instead, it is that there is something vital missing when the active ministerial participation of the lay people (to use Norwood’s phrase) is missing. I see the class meeting as a key to renewing, strengthening, and empowering a lively lay ministry.