New Year's Note

As the final hours of 2008 tick away, I have thought a lot about what the last year has seen in my life and my family's life. I have also been looking ahead, with both hope and anxiety, to what the new year holds.

But most of all, I have reflected on the goodness of God's creation and the blessings of living in a time when God is working for the redemption of all things. We live in a troubled world, and we experience troubles in our own lives, but we also know that "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).

My prayer for you, the readers of this blog, is that you would grow increasingly in love with God and your neighbor in 2009, and that you would experience the fullness of salvation through His grace.

Happy New Year.

CD Connection

Steve Manskar has sent out the first edition of the Covenant Discipleship Connection newsletter this week. The Connection replaces the old Covenant Discipleship Quarterly, which was the main publication of the Office of Accountable Discipleship at the General Board of Discipleship. Whereas the CDQ was a print-based quarterly, the Connection will be distributed via e-mail and will be published monthly.

If you have an interest in small group accountability in your own discipleship or (if you are a pastor) in your ministry, I'd encourage you to sign up to receive the Connection. It's free and you can register for it here. You can also continue to access the old issues of the CDQ at the main Covenant Discipleship website.

Covenant Discipleship itself is a contemporary expression of the early Methodist class meeting, and it seeks to nurture faith through mutual witness, support, and accountability. I have written a column on Covenant Discipleship, which you can find here.

Christ the Savior is born

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

- Isaiah 9:6-7 (NKJV)

Unfortunate, self-inflicted confusion

About the orders of ministry, that is.

If you have time, read this United Methodist News Service report along with this blog post. It explains the 2008 General Conference's decision to allow deacons, with their bishops' permission, to preside over the sacraments within the deacon's primary appointment.

Why is this a problem? Well, because historically deacons do not celebrate the sacraments. Whether they are "transitional" deacons meaning they are on their way to becoming elders (as in the UMC prior to 1996 and in many denominations today) or "permanent" deacons (as in both Roman Catholic and United Methodist practice in the present), the ministry of deacons has never been understood to encompass celebrating the sacraments.

Deacons have an important calling. As the Book of Discipline (2000) makes clear in Par.310, the deacon is called to servant ministry in the world, embodying "the interrelationship between worship in the gathered community and service to God in the world." Thus, you'll find deacons who are teachers, social workers, chaplains, youth ministers, music ministers, and activists.

Elders (or presbyters, priests, pastors, etc.) have a different calling. They are called as the shepherds of congregations of the faithful, leading them through teaching, preaching, guiding, and worshiping. And so it is to the elders of the church that the responsibility for celebrating the sacraments falls.

Note: this does not imply a superiority on the part of elders. Elders are not 'better' than deacons, just as the ordained clergy (elders and deacons) are not 'better' than laity. But all these categories have different callings as Christian disciples, callings which are derived from Scripture and the tradition of the church. And importantly for our purposes, they are callings that the UMC has spent a lot of time trying to reason through over the past few years.

It was the 1996 General Conference that separated the orders of ministry, defining the elder and the deacon as two distinct ordinations and phasing out the 'transitional' deacon. The GC made this move because it believed that it was faithfully Scriptural and that it provided for a more coherent account of the orders of ministry. Yet with the 2008 General Conference's decision to authorize bishops to allow deacons to celebrate sacraments in their primary appointments, it has begun to overturn what was developed 12 years prior.

From what I understand, the ostensible reason for the 2008 GC's action was to allow for the sacraments to be celebrated in areas where elders are not readily available. But does this mean that deacons will be serving as the pastoral leaders of congregations? That really makes no sense. If deacons are leading worship because they feel called to do so, then they should begin the process to be ordained as elders. And if there are still truly rural outposts out there without an elder for miles around, then surely our tradition has enough historical knowledge about how to circuit ride that we can get an elder to each local church on a regular basis.

I spoke with a young woman earlier this year who is a seminarian and (I believe) wants to be ordained a deacon. In arguing that deacons should be granted sacramental authority, she said something to the effect, "I have friends who are called to be deacons, but they also feel called to celebrate the sacraments."

The proper response to a statement like this is "No, actually your friends are mistaken. They cannot be called to be both deacons and celebrants. In the church's understanding, if they are called to preside at table, then they are called to the pastoral leadership of congregations. If, on the other hand, they are called to the servant leadership of a deacon, then our understanding of that does not include pastoral leadership."

Sacramental authority is not a commodity, to be claimed by those attracted to the stature it conveys and offered in a consumerist manner when and where one pleases. It is a means of grace, given to us by Christ and provided for our salvation. One of the chief reasons that the presbyteros exist at all is to safeguard the sacred mysteries, ensuring that they are taught faithfully and celebrated rightly. And when we go tinkering with the orders of ministry at each and every General Conference, we do violence to the ecclesial covenant God has given us and introduce unnecessary incoherence into our orders of ministry.

As they have always been, the bishops of the church are the last line of defense for orthodoxy. Let us hope each one of them declines to use the new authority that the General Conference recently offered them.

Sunday School = Christian Formation

A friend and colleague of mine in the Arkansas Conference was recently featured in the United Methodist Reporter for the creative ways his church is building its Sunday school program.

Blake Bradford, pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church in Russellville, Arkansas, has seen his church's worship attendance grow from 70 to 124 since 2005. Since the church started getting serious about finding ways to nurture Christian formation through a dynamic Sunday school ministry, the Sunday school attendance has climbed from 55 to 80.

The percentage increases for both worship and Sunday school are impressive, by anyone's calculation. How have Blake and his congregation done it?

As the story explains, it has involved getting around the idea that there is a single, sacrosanct "Sunday school hour" on Sunday morning. To accomodate the difficulties in people's schedules, Wesley UMC's Sunday schools now meet at different times on Sunday and throughout the week. One even meets in a tire shop owned by one of the church members.

I think this kind of creative, dynamic approach to Christian formation shows evangelism at its best. It shows that Blake's church is doing some real "out of the box" thinking and discerning the movement of the Holy Spirit in its midst. Thanks be to God for their witness!

Love for Lambuth University

Lambuth University is an excellent, small liberal arts college located in Jackson, Tennessee. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, and it provides the kind of rigorous undergraduate education in a Christian setting that should make the UMC proud.

A few months ago, it also became clear that Lambuth is in some significant financial trouble. That has resulted in the turnover of a number of senior staff positions, and there has been some upheaval on the Board of Trustees as well. Recently, Bishop Dick Wills and the Memphis Conference of the UMC has become more active in trying to put steps into place to safeguard Lambuth's future.

I'll admit up front that I am very biased when it comes to Lambuth. I worked there for most of three years as an associate chaplain (my first appointment in ministry). My wife is an alumna of Lambuth, and my mother-in-law is on the English faculty there. So my Lambuth roots run deep.

I write this post because I know there are some Lambuth alumni out there who check in from time to time. I want to suggest that, in this season of giving, those with a connection to ol' LU don't forget to include the university in your end-of-year charitable giving.

With the hiring of Dr. Jerry Israel, Lambuth has announced the beginnings of a restructuring plan that will allow it to move forward and get back on the path of financial sound footing. But LU needs our help!

If you are an alumnus - or if you are just someone who believes in church-related higher education - please consider giving to Lambuth. You can do so here online.

Good news for young clergy

A few weeks ago, I posted about the new findings of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership at Wesley Seminary about recent trends in the numbers of under-35 year old clergy in the United Methodist Church.

As you may be aware, the Lewis Center's original report, covering the years 1985 to 2005, showed a distressing downward trend in the numbers of young clergy in the church. But the updated findings show that the trend may be reversing, as both the absolute numbers of young clergy and the numbers of young clergy as a percentage of all UM elders has risen.

I recently spent some more time reading the report, and I contacted the director of the Lewis Center, Dr. Lovett Weems, for his thoughts on the new findings. I discuss my thoughts in my new column in the UM Reporter, "New stats offer hope for young UM clergy."

Dr. Weems is cautiously optimistic about what the Center has found. But he notes that he thinks various levels of the church are really doing a lot in nurturing a 'culture of call' that facilitates the ability of youth and young adults to hear the Holy Spirit's calling on their lives to ministry. He cites the work of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, the advocacy of individual annual conferences, and the proactive attitude of young clergy themselves in helping their brothers and sisters respond to the call.

All of this is encouraging news. And it is a great reminder to each of us that we have a responsibility to help raise up a new generation of leaders in the church. God is good!

How's this for a stocking stuffer?

In a move that almost defies belief, Planned Parenthood of Indiana is advertising in bold print on their website that they are offering gift certificates for the holiday season.

That's right, you can get your friend or loved one an abortion for Christmas.

WISH-TV 8 out of Indianapolis reports the organization's offer in this news story. An official with Planned Parenthood indicates that the gift certificates are for "preventative healthcare," which, of course, includes abortions. "We decided not to put restrictions on the gift certificates," the same official said. "So it's for whatever people feel they need the services for most."

There is a certain bitter irony here. Right at the time we are preparing to celebrate the coming of the Christ child into the world, Planned Parenthood is helping to make sure that lots of other children won't be coming at all.

Pater, dimitte illis non enim sciunt quid faciunt.

A story you need to know about

I've learned a remarkable story in the last few days by reading blog posts by Amy Forbus and some of the stories from the Dallas Morning News to which she has pointed me.

The story is about the Rev. Kathleen Baskin-Ball, a 50-year old Methodist pastor in Dallas who is dying of cancer. As Amy notes in this blog post, five years ago Kathleen gave birth to a child at the age of 45. Then, two years ago, a trip to the emergency room to see about some abdomina pain resulted in a cancer diagnosis. Tumors were found in her liver and chest cavity.

By all accounts (including this story in the Dallas Morning News), Kathleen is a charismatic pastor with many gifts - from powerful preaching, to growing churches, to demonstrating the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ through her own person. I am told that the consensus by many in the North Texas Conference is that she would have been elected bishop this year if she had been physically healthy enough.

But though Kathleen has battled the cancer with courage (almost never missing preaching and worship in the process), she has now entered hospice care. Amy went to visit her at home in Dallas, which she tells about in this post in the United Methodist Reporter's blog. In addition to Amy's testimony, this article in the DMN tells about the crowds of people who have gathered at Kathleen's house to say farewell, sing, pray, and even have their babies baptized by her. (If you want a sense of her impact on the lives of others, spend a few minutes scrolling through the comments at the end of the DMN news story.)

When I read such stories about fellow pastors, I am awed and humbled. I consider it a real honor to serve in the same order of elders as Kathleen Baskin-Ball, and I hope some day, in some way, to live up to the example she sets for the rest of us. It is an inspiration to serve in a church with a pastor whose life is so filled with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

Kathleen will pass through the veil soon, but that is only a step on the path that will lead to the resurrection of her body, cancer-free, and perfected in glory. I won't be able to meet Kathleen in person on this side of the eschaton, but when Christ returns to make all things new, I will seek her out and embrace her with the love of the Holy Spirit.

May God grant her peace in these days. Pray for her, her husband Bill, and her son Skyler, and her congregation.

Back to the beginning

Okay, so I've been a little obsessed with this project of archiving the entire corpus of my work with the United Methodist Reporter. But it has been fun, allowing me to go over old columns and book reviews that I wrote years ago and re-reading them so I could write little annotations when I add them to the blog's archive.

I couldn't locate my very first two columns on the Reporter's website, so I inquired with the good folks at UMR Communications and - voila! - they got both of them up in a jiffy. My second column was called, "Single with cheese: Are we listening?", and it looked at the nature of singles ministry in the church today. Most of the concepts of singles ministry that I have encountered are fairly outdated (and in fact, the term itself seems old-fashioned). So I wrote the column to suggest that we should view singles as they are rather than according to yesterday's labels. That's an important thing to note, and I think it impacts on the way we go about evangelism. (Not everybody lives in a family of four behind a white picket fence, after all).

It was this column that launched my writing for the Reporter - an initial offering entitled, "Get ready, Church: Here come Gen X'ers." As I went back and re-read it four years later, I was surprised at how many themes I mention in this first column that have remained consistent topics for me in the years since. The sense that 'now' is the time for Gen X'ers to step forward and lead, the sense of rootlessness and uncertainty that faces us in the postmodern world, and the challenges that the economy and technology pose, are all present there in the first column. Also present is an indication of my high ecclesiology - that is, my belief that the church, as the body of Christ, is the one place where we can really find a home. I believe that now as strongly as I ever have.

At any rate, those first two columns have been added to the blog archive now, and you can find them by clicking on the 'UM Reporter Columns' tab in the left-hand sidebar, clicking on the drop-down window to choosethe year, and selecting '2005.' We're still dealing with a couple of weird occasional glitches on the archive pages, but most everything is posted now.