Tag: Body of Christ

General Conference and the Call to Stop Giving

Another post in the series – Beyond Soundbites and Towards Holy Conferencing (A Series on the Actions of General Conference). This series includes the topics of Abortion, Clergy Qualifications, Marriage, Israel, Pronouns, and Disaffiliation.

It is a common reaction: “I don’t want my money going to something I can’t support.”  In response, I want to start with a perspective on giving in general, using my Annual Conference as an example. Several years ago, our Conference moved away from a traditional apportionment model to a Tithe Initiative, expecting each congregation to tithe. I love the model and witness that this provides.

The tithe represents first fruits, given to support the larger community.  The tithe reminds us that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves.  As we give in this way, we put our trust in the collective wisdom of the community.  We invest in the common good. We give up personal control.  And in turn we are blessed beyond measure. The countable funds overflow in abundance and our hearts are opened to the “immeasurable riches of God’s grace.” (Eph 2:7).   That’s the hope of this spiritual discipline.

Tithing is a way to acknowledge that we are “the Body of Christ and individually members of it.”  (I Cor 12:27).  With our first fruits, we build up the whole body with its many and diverse parts, gifts, perspectives, and contexts.  At this first level of giving, the goal is not personal engagement with all the ways the resources might be used; the goal is the expansion of ministry and growth in love – love that is patient and kind and serves with a humility that does not insist on its own way. (I Cor 13:4-8).  Our giving leads to this transformation within.  As a word of caution, withholding can lead to hardness of heart.

At this level of giving, we give beyond our “party,” be it political or theological.  We acknowledge that the word “party” is built on the word “part.”  We can make a loose connection with taxes and a commitment to the united work of the nation. To only give to support a “part,” or to stop giving because of a disagreement, is dangerous. It can become a disease that infects the whole, opening the way to the destructive spirits of fear, mistrust, division, and other spiritual cancers.

Biblically and positively, we are called to give in a way that illuminates the wideness of God’s mercy.  We put our trust in the living God who is at work for good among us, who is “above all and through all and in all.” (Eph 4:6).  The call is to clothe ourselves “with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, dealing with complaints with forgiveness, and to clothe ourselves, above all, with love which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” (Col 3:12-17).  We are to give in this spirit and to promote this witness (See II Cor 9:6-8).  If we only support those things within our narrow level of comfort, and seek to build that up, we miss out on the opportunity to practice this kind of love.

Giving in this way helps us to “grow up,” and keep from being “tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.”  As we give in this way, we build up the whole body, “joined and knit together,” with each part promoting “the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” (Eph 4:1-16).  We are called to give in support of this kind of growth.  With our first gifts, we are called to give into the community as a whole, and in support of all we share in common.  And practically speaking, it helps to realize that, on the whole, a very small percentage might go to that one thing that we don’t like.

As a spirit of schism and division moves among us, with the promotion of parts rather than the whole, one way to avoid the trickery and scheming that Paul talks about is to move beyond soundbites and towards holy conferencing.  That’s the title of this series.  I believe it is also a way to characterize the calling we have been given.  Soundbites on the actions of General Conference – on the topics of abortion, Israel, marriage, ordination, and more — are often meant to stir up more division.  Giving as God intends, in faith, is a way to grow up and to be blessed by the “immeasurable riches of God’s grace.” 

Beyond the tithe, we also promote offerings, where individuals give to specific projects or causes that are dear to them. This is a good thing.  There is room within the whole body for parts to be promoted and supported. However, from a larger perspective, we bring harm to the whole body when we place a priority on these gifts rather than seeing our offerings as over and above the giving of first fruits.  This creates stress on the whole, and can lead to an unhealthy competition between parts, driven by a spirit of scarcity rather than abundance. 

At General Conference, we did approve a 42% decrease in our connectional budget.  While there are many factors that lead to this reality, one is disaffiliation and schism within the larger body.   As we build again, there is a need to repair the fractures among us.  What would it look like if this was our focus, as opposed to giving energy to the continuing efforts to divide?  How can we “grow up,” and do a better job at being the people that God has called us to be?  How can we expand the table rather than shrink it down to our comfort zone? How can we glorify God rather than our own opinions?  To use an image from Wesley, to build a community around a “part,” rather than the whole, is not only to build our house on sand, but on the froth of the sea.

“Can You Imagine?” A Stay UMC Presentation

I’ve been the speaker at several meetings within the discernment process on disaffiliation. Here is a written version of a new presentation, inviting people into a vision of what the UMC is and can be. It is centered around questions that start with “Can you imagine…?  

“Can you imagine being a part of a church that is built around core doctrines that connect us to the holy catholic or universal church, while at the same time, invites us all to “think and let think” around concerns that do not strike at the foundations of our faith?”

There are 30,000+ United Methodist pastors in the US. We keep hearing about a handful of examples of those who have stood at the edges of theological interpretation in some way. The vast majority of us fall within a broad middle with a shared commitment to the historic orthodox faith of the church and have given our lives to sharing this faith. It is a lie – an official fallacy – to take isolated examples and to generalize those to include others. That is wrong. It does not build up the Body of Christ. And this is not to say that some of these perspectives are wrong; it is to say that they do not necessarily reflect the whole or that you must affirm them. That’s not who we are.

The United Methodist Church stands rooted in the historic and core doctrines of the holy catholic church, and in this rootedness, we honor the perspectives and interpretations that grow out of this shared faith. We “think and let think,” to use Wesley’s language, trusting that the Holy Spirit is at work among us to keep us centered as a whole and aligned to God’s will, while also trusting that sometimes this work of the Holy Spirit is a call to appreciate the spirit of those who are serving on the edges.  It might be that perspectives from the edges of doctrinal interpretation serve a valuable purpose. Such perspectives can help to keep us all humble and growing. And to be clear, such perspectives will always be found within the larger church. Disaffiliation will not stop that. In this light, perhaps what we need is more spiritual courage to honor those who think differently and to spend less energy trying to shut them out. The energy being put into excluding and dividing through this process is so spiritually damaging, in my opinion – to the church, to our witness, and to our own souls.    

“Can you imagine a church that makes room for all and invites all into a life of faithfulness and love?” 

As United Methodist Christians, we have a history of honoring diversity within the Body of Christ. We see this as a blessing. Since we are here to talk about disaffiliation over matters of human sexuality, and since this is the only legitimate reason for disaffiliation right now, I want to share my perspective, and ask you to discern if we can still be in communion together, even if you have a different perspective.  That is a key question. I start by saying that I do not understand matters of sexual orientation and identity. I believe we need to approach this topic with a lot more humility and less judgment.  I also believe that we need to focus more on the things that we can all affirm as a community of faith. We can affirm values that we know are life-giving for all – monogamy, faithfulness, commitment, and the virtues summed up with the word love. This is a perspective deeply rooted in scripture.

And when it comes to assessing who can be a leader in the church, I stand with those who want to focus on calling and character, rather than making blanket judgements around personal identity that would keep us from even considering one’s calling and character. Setting up double standards like this falls short of faithfulness, in my opinion. (And I’ve written more on this scriptural connection. If you want more see my post of Wesley and Human Sexuality, Parts 1 and 2).

I also want to say that disaffiliation will not bring an end to this debate.  I had a conversation recently with something committed to disaffiliation and joining the GMC. This person was in a church where the music director was gay. This person wanting to disaffiliate loved this music director and genuinely appreciated his giftedness and the spirit he brought to worship. I pointed out that, in the GMC, a gay person who wanted to live in a faithful relationship with another and grow in God’s love through that relationship, could not work in a church, even as a lay person. That would be grounds for dismissal.

That’s just one example. I also want to let you know that recently I had a Baptist pastor and then a Church of Christ pastor come to me and say that the same questions are surfacing in their congregations and they both said, in different ways, how much they admired the UMC because we could talk about it.  Being able to struggle through this together in love was seen as a good thing.

“Can you imagine a church that honors the call to hold one another in love, with patience, gentleness, and humility, being eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace?” (Ephesians 4:1-3).

The Apostle Paul begs us to live our lives in the light of this calling. We are called to a higher unity, represented by something more than uniformity of opinion. Our unity is to be rooted in a holy love that is patient and kind. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way, as the scripture says. That is a needed word for us in the midst of this discernment. In an environment or bubble where all think the same, there is less of an opportunity to practice these virtues. From a spiritual standpoint, we would miss out on a central need for us to be shaped in the image of Christ.

In a letter from the Council of Bishop around this tension, we read: “We cannot be a traditional church or a progressive church or a centrist church…Our churches must be more than echo chambers made in our own image arguing with each other while neglecting our central purpose.”

And, then we read, “Instead, we must be one people, rooted in scripture, centered in Christ, serving in love, and united in the essential [of our shared faith].” I love that and think that it is worthy of our commitment. Giving this witness would truly glorify God. And note – this is an official word from our leaders.

And to be clear, and in light of key scriptures like this, there will not be a time when any congregation will be “forced” to do something against what they believe is right. That is just not who we are.  Some of us are asking, however, that the church give the freedom to engage in ministry as we feel so led, when it comes to these matters, just as we give this freedom in so many ways.  We do want to be transparent about this hope.  

“Can you imagine a church where clergy and congregations covenant together to hold all property in trust for the purpose of serving a larger mission that is bigger than any of us?”  

There is this idea, deep in our culture, that we should own our own property and “control our own destiny.”  In response to this, I want to affirm our calling to be in covenant together to share the gospel as United Methodist congregations. I like knowing that I can go to any United Methodist Church and say, “That’s my church.” “I am a part of this community of faith.”  “We share in ministry together.” 

Together, we have built a global church that makes such a difference in the world. We can think of UMCOR, Global Ministries, United Methodist Women (now United Women in Faith), United Methodist Men, Africa University, Discipleship Ministries, World Class Seminaries, Colleges, Camps, Retreat Centers, and Hospitals just to name a few. Let’s build this witness rather than tear it down.   

To divorce yourself from this will raise more questions, not less. In one conversation like this, someone said, “But we would still be methodist, right? Just not United? I had to tell her that the church would have to decide at that point who you were and what you believed and what your policies would be and how you would secure pastoral leadership and so forth. Would you practice open communion? What liturgy and hymns would you use? The questions that will need to be answered will be endless. It is a good thing, in my opinion, to be rooted in the larger church where some direction can be given, where there is a foundation upon which to build, and one that gives you a lot of freedom to respond to your calling and community needs. You may not get that same freedom in another denomination. You may agree with a stance in one area, but what about the next one or when the next generation has a different view?  

“Can you imagine being a part of this Christ-led witness?”

I could go on… with thoughts about Scripture, Doctrine, General Conference, Seminaries…And I have written about many of these topics…But I want to end this formal part of the presentation by asking again: Can you imagine being a part of a church where we are one people, rooted in scripture, centered in Christ, serving in love, and united in the essentials of our shared faith.  Can we rise up to this higher calling and indeed give this good witness to the world – a witness of unity rather than divorce and division, a witness of understanding and care for one another rather than insisting on our own way? Can you imagine continuing to be a part of that kind of witness? You are invited to join the multitudes of us who want to make this light shine, believing that God is calling us into this work. Can you imagine?