You need to read this article

My colleague at the United Methodist Reporter, the Rev. Don Haynes, has written an extremely important column.

His latest in the Reporter, entitled, "Call for GC special session is reality check," offers a lucid and articulate view on the issues likely to face a specially-called session of the General Conference in the coming months.

One of Don's paragraphs that particularly struck me goes as follows: "Whether we have a special session of General Conference or not, this is the time for a painful reality check. We can no longer copy the corporate culture of the 20th century; connectionalism can no longer mean an obsolete, hierarchical flow chart."

In casting a critical eye at the United Methodist Church's present organization, Don suggests needed changes in everything from guaranteed appointments to the mission of the publishing house, and from the size & role of the general boards and agencies to the prevailing anxiety over the pension fund.

But he's also not making cheap shots. Don's commentary is realistic, and it is respectful to the institutional arrangements that served the Church so well in the last century. He's just not willing to let inertia dictate the Church's future course.

Don writes quite self-consciously as a member of the Church's older generation. But he offers a fresh critique that provides a ray of sunlight into our current discussions on the Church's top-heavy bureaucracy on every level from local church to annual conference to general board.

I'm not anti-institutional, and you shouldn't be either. The Church is an institution, and it is a Christ-created institution. We need the Church to be a strong institution in order to give us a community where faith can be formed and discipleship can be developed.

And that's why Don's article is so important. He's asking the right questions - questions that can help us move strongly into the future. Go read the article. You'll be glad you did.

A Voice for the Church

One of the strange things about being a columnist for the United Methodist Reporter is how little interaction I usually have with the staff and my fellow columnists. The Reporter is published by UMR Communications in Dallas, TX. I live in Durham, NC, and most of my interaction with the folks down in Dallas is via e-mail. That was why I mentioned how nice it was to get to see some of the Reporter staff at annual conference a few days ago in my last blog post.

So it was doubly nice last night when I got to have supper with the Rev. Don Haynes, who writes the Reporter's regular "Wesleyan Wisdom" column. Don is one of those Methodist preachers who retired years ago but has yet to stop working. He periodically serves as an interim pastor for churches who have gone through a mid-year move or retirement. And he also serves as the Director of United Methodist Studies at Hood Theological Seminary, which is affiliated with African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (but which counts more than 50% of its student body as United Methodist).

Don lives in Salisbury, NC, but he is in Durham this month to participate in the annual Summer Wesley Seminar, which is hosted by Duke Divinity School and draws scholars from all over the connection to do research in Wesleyan theology and Methodist history. He is working on the manuscript of a book on John Wesley and early Methodism that would be geared at a pastor and lay reading audience.

If you haven't read Don's column before, you should check it out. This recent one on 'Rethink Church' argues that the UMC's current efforts to think creatively about what it means to be the church must include a commitment to evangelism. As he mentioned to me last night, doing good works without doing them in the name of Jesus makes us nothing more than a humanitarian agency. And of course, doing them in the name of Jesus also means a whole host of other things that Don points to in his column - growing in communion with God, growing in mission to our neighbors, and growing in our connection within the body of Christ.

Don's writing is creative and lucid. He focuses a lot on the basic tenets of Wesleyan theology. So his column can be a great way to learn more about the background of Methodist doctrine. I'm grateful he is sharing his gifts with the church!