Putting my vocation into words

I was filling out a 'profile' statement this morning, and I found myself wanting to name my sense of calling in a few short sentences. For me, that calling is both to academic research & writing and practical ministry. And the substance of the calling is the same in both areas, even if it gets expressed in somewhat different ways given the different contexts of university classroom and local church.

Here's what I settled on:

My vocation is centered around exploring and reflecting on how the church can live into a more faithful way of being through disciplined participation in the means of grace. I try to embrace that vocation personally through reading and study, writing for both academic and church audiences, teaching and preaching in both university and church settings, and - perhaps most importantly - through the practical ministry to which I am dedicated as a presbyter in the church of Jesus Christ.

I am drawn to this vocation out of a strong belief that it can help the church live into its calling to be the people of God. That is, I believe most challenges that Christians face in the present era - from the need to embrace fully our identity as disciples of Jesus to the calling to renew the church in its witness and ministry - are dependent on our willingness to pattern our lives in those graced practices given to us by God for our sanctification in faith and the mutual upbuilding of our common life.

I have known of people who spend their entire working lives in occupations they dislike but feel compelled to pursue for one reason or another. In fact, that might describe the majority of the population. And so I'm doubly grateful to be able to approach each day's work as a labor of love, finding great joy and fulfillment in that which God is giving me to do.

Charge conference = brain meltdown

I got home last night around 10 pm, after a marathon 14-hour day of ministry. Not that it wasn't enjoyable - morning worship, afternoon home visitations, and evening bible study were all extraordinary experiences of the grace of God working in the life of his church. Heck, even the finance committee meeting that capped off the night was redemptive!

Sure, you may be asking, "Finance committee ... redemptive?" Well, yes, in a way. I serve in a small church where there is no paid staff (except me). And that means that the administrative structure of the church is carried forward by the laity. So when we sat down to hash out the coming year's budget, I got to experience - for the first time in my ministry, actually - what it is like for a group of God's people to set goals for themselves with no "professional" expertise. The intimacy and familial feel of such a meeting is powerful.

I've got to admit, I'm struggling just a little bit in our run-up to charge conference. My two previous appointments were as a campus minister and as an associate pastor in a large membership church. Campus minister? No worries - no charge conference. Associate pastor? We'll handle the tough stuff, thanks, just turn in your associate pastor's report. It was easy!

But all that changes when you find yourself in a ministry setting like the one I'm in now. There is quite a bit involved in 'getting your house in order' in preparation for the district superintendent's visit. And I'm starting to understand those early autumn sighs and worried looks from the student pastors I have known around Duke for the past two years. When you don't come from an administrative background, trying to juggle Lay Leadership, Finance, Trustees, P/PR, and the Church Council can be a pretty daunting task.

All of which is why I'm grateful for the saints at Mt. Carmel UMC. No pastor could ask for a more loving group of folks, who are understanding of a pastor who has some years of experience in the ministry but no years of experience preparing for charge conference. And I'm learning that grace can be found in unexpected places - even in a finance committee meeting!

A new chapter begins

Today was my first official day as the pastor of Mt. Carmel United Methodist Church in Henderson, NC. This wonderful little congregation was organized in 1857, and the church they built that year was the very church I preached in this morning. The patched-up hole where the pipe for the pot belly stove used to extend up to the chimney is still visible in the ceiling of the sanctuary. The original deed to the property still hangs on the wall next to the pulpit, listing the names of the 7 women and men who founded the church. (Interestingly, it was a part of the Granville Circuit of the Methodist Protestant Church back then, not the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. I would love to know more of the history of that.)

I have no doubt that the same loving spirit the folks showed Emily and me today was the spirit that has passed down from the original 7 members. They fed us at a 'Dinner on the Grounds' following worship until I thought they were going to have to roll me out to the car.

I went off lectionary this morning to preach on the renewal of the Covenant at Shechem in Joshua 24. The reason for that had to do with story and what it means as the primary constituting factor in our lives and our faith. What strikes me about this chapter is that, when Joshua prepared the people to renew their covenant with God, he didn't start off by telling them what an all-powerful and almighty God they had who would strike them down if they went astray. Such an approach would only cause Israel to cower in fear at the power of a distant and frightening deity.

Instead, Joshua retold them their story with this God, beginning with Abraham and going right down to that very day. Joshua reasoned with the people, reminding them that God had saved them from the Egyptians, led them through the Wilderness, and carried them into the Promised Land - where they were given cities that they did not build and vineyards that they did not plant. They were called to respond to this God in faithfulness because of their history with this God - the story of their lives and the lives of their ancestors sustained through good times and bad by this God. This is a kind of prophetic leadership that happens all over the Bible, from Moses in Deuteronomy to Stephen in Acts. Here, of course, it climaxes when Joshua utters the famous words, "Choose this day who you will serve ... But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

The passage from Joshua kept coming back to my mind after Emily and I went with the district superintendent up to Henderson to meet with the P/PR Committee at the church in June. When our D.S., Gray Southern, asked the members of the committee to talk to us a little bit about the church's life and hopes for the future, they came back and kept sharing bits of their story with us. It was a story of a people whose faith had sustained them for over 150 years, expressing a deep desire to live in covenant faithfulness with God here in the present. I don't know that there is anything more awe-inspiring on this earth than that.

So I went home, worked at the Duke Youth Academy during June, and thought about Joshua and Mt. Carmel. It seemed like they were giving me the answer the Israelites gave to Joshua - they were wanting to renew their faith and follow God. This is something Emily and I deeply want for our own lives as well, such that I felt like the desire of this prospective new congregation was the deepest desire of my own heart as well. As I meditated on what my first sermon would be, I kept connecting Joshua 24 with 1 Peter 2 in my mind, where we are told that whereas once we were no people, now we are God's people.

And why? Because God has written us into the story. We have been claimed, and we have been redeemed. The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, and we have all been incorporated as living stones into that great spiritual house that God is building. Thanks be to Jesus Christ for his indescribable gift.

So the sermon pretty much wrote itself. And preaching it before that congregation this morning, I was filled with a great joy.

For Emily and me, the story continues. The same is true for the congregation at Mt. Carmel. But at least for this present chapter, our stories will be written together. May God grant us all faith.

A new appointment

At church on Sunday, our pastor mentioned that it was Moving Day for pastors in the North Carolina Annual Conference. This is the season for "Moving Days" across the UM connection, and that means it is the season of appointment process uncertainties and the unique reality of being a Methodist preacher. "We work on one-year contracts," you'll often hear Methodist preachers say. And it's true that you never know when that call from the district superintendent is going to come, telling you that it's time to pack up your belongings and move to a new town.

We all actually live in a more transient culture than pretty much any previous generation in American history. People move with a lot more frequency than they used to, whether for work, school, or some other reason. So it's a little curious in some ways that Methodist clergy seem more wary than ever of the appointment system. They look at their fellow clergy in other denominations who can potentially have 20 or 25 year pastorates, and the prospect of moving every 4 or 5 years can seem downright unappealing. But then again, who lives in the same place for 20 or 25 years anymore?

This may be an unpopular stance to take, but I'm willing to speak up for the appointment system. In fact, I think it can teach us something about the nature of ministry that a "call system" cannot. In my Lent column last year, I wrote about the virtue of someone else telling you a Lenten discipline to take on, rather than choosing one yourself. The virtue in question is humility, and it is fundamental to learning the kind of love that Jesus wants to teach us. In a way, I think the appointment system in the UMC, which goes back to John Wesley himself, teaches pastors a similar humility. Accepting the appointive authority of the bishop is akin to saying, "Ok God, I accept that I may not know best how to serve the church. So I will accept the guidance of the Holy Spirit and my bishop in telling me where you need me most."

I don't claim that the appointment system is flawless. Mistakes happen every year, in every annual conference. But in the midst of our grumbling, we should realize that there's a whole lot that does work about it. And we Methodist pastors have the opportunity to learn something about servant leadership - through the very way we accept pastoral appointments - in a way that our fellow clergy in other denominations do not.

Along those same lines, I've also got some news to share. Emily and I were contacted a few weeks ago by Gray Southern, district superintendent of the Durham District in this annual conference. He asked if I would be willing to take an appointment in Henderson, NC, at Mt. Carmel United Methodist Church. It's a beautiful little country church that dates back to the 1850s, and Emily and I are excited about starting there in a few weeks (that's a picture of it in the photo at the top of the post). I'm committed to working at the Duke Youth Academy for Christian Formation in July, so our first Sunday at Mt. Carmel will be August 3rd.

I've experienced unexpected calls related to the appointment process before, and this was quite similar. I wasn't seeking out an appointment, and even though it is technically only quarter-time, it is going to take some time away that I could be spending on my doctoral program. But through prayer and conversation, Emily and I came to the conclusion that this is just one more example of the Holy Spirit working in our lives. The church is telling us where it needs us to serve. And I think the proper response is humble obedience to the call of the Spirit and the church.

Besides, now I'll be preaching again every week! Woo-hoo!

Leadership from the Ground Up

Jay Voorhees, pastor and Methoblogger, has a great commentary in the current United Methodist Reporter. He looks at styles of pastoral leadership, and he emphasizes the necessity of both empowering laity for ministry and modeling leadership by being willing to take on grunt work. Read his article here.

I think Jay makes some great observations in this piece. The pressure of ministry often causes pastors to want to focus on the things they are absolutely expected to do: preach, lead worship, visit the sick, lead committees, etc. But the top-down approach to ministry can cause a pastor to get detached from the basis of ministry, which is about relationships. Jay uses the example of mopping up after a church event. Let your church members see you being willing to do that, and it can make all sorts of impressions that a dozen great sermons won't.

I've read a critique lately of the UMC's decision to abandon the age-old metaphor of "representative ministry" in favor of the "servant-leader" metaphor. While I understand the worries, I think Jay's article shows why servant-leadership is such a powerful model. Ultimately, the church is a community of Jesus' friends. It is not heavenly filling station for getting your spiritual gas tank topped off each week. It is not some magical place where sacraments mediate grace that you can't get anywhere else. It is, instead, a place where grace is available precisely because of the community that is present. And the pastor should recognize that his place is within the community rather than above it.

The error of church programming

Programming.

That is the contemporary Church's answer to relevance. If we can just come up with relevant, interesting programming, the Church of today thinks, then we can bring people into the church.

This is a complex issue, but there are at least two problems with it:

1) An error of ends - The end that the addiction to church programming points toward is a larger, more "active" congregation. The hope is to bring in young singles and families, making the church look more like the megachurches that appear on TV. So the church adopts programming that is designed to do just that (and which is often published by the very churches that supposedly deserve emulation). This is an improper end, of course. The only end that any church should aim toward is the salvation of its members and those outside the church to whom it offers the gospel. Salvation is a holistic process and may involve certain kinds of programming. But the end must be salvation - through the church - and all ministry efforts should be geared toward that end.

2) An error of means - Programming may be a useful means, but the church has bought into it as the absolute key to "success." In actuality, programming should be third or fourth down the line. Participation in the church should be understood as a way of life, the primary arena for human activity by those who call themselves church members. And that way of life must begin with a Eucharistically-oriented worship. Small-group prayer and bible study should be second. (Holy Communion, Scripture, and prayer, after all, are Wesley's three primary means of grace.) After these, I would suggest that outward-oriented mission should be third. Only after these should programming be listed. Interesting or fun activities and studies are great as far as they go, but they should never take the place of a form of church life centered on worship, bible study, corporate prayer, and mission.

I write about this in my current column in the UM Reporter. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

Read any good books, lately?

A parishioner at my former church e-mailed me the other day to ask what books I would recommend for a group preparing to go on mission.

That got me thinking. What books are really good for mission groups in preparation for service either at home or abroad? Do you have any recommendations?

I could think of three off the top of my head that I have used...

1) Gracias!, a journal from Henri Nouwen of his time as a missionary in Peru and Bolivia. This book is as readable and soul-searching as anything Nouwen wrote. I have used it specifically for groups going to Peru, but it would be very good for any mission in a Latin American context.

2) Yours Are The Hands Of Christ, by James C. Howell. This book, written by a United Methodist pastor, can be read either as a guide to discipleship or to mission (or both). It is written with a combination of erudition and anecdote, which is fitting from an author who has a Ph.D. (which Howell does) and is also a great preacher (which I have heard that he is). I would recommend this book for mission groups as well as small groups or Sunday school classes that are seeking to better understand Christ's call to discipleship in the world.

3) Ending Hunger Now: A Challenge to Persons of Faith, by George McGovern, Bob Dole, and Donald E. Messer. This is an interesting recent book that tackles the issue of global hunger from a non-partisan, faith perspective. It is good to use in a church with a wide range of political viewpoints because of the way McGovern and Dole approach their task. They assert that ending global hunger - a problem that disproportionately affects women and children - is an issue that all people of faith can agree on. They also claim that hunger can realistically be eliminated by the year 2030. The key is to figure out how to join (churches, governments, NGOs) together to get it done. The book has some deficiencies, and at times the contributions of Dole and Messer do not seem to match up to that of McGovern. (That's particularly disappointing in the case of Messer, who is a United Methodist ethicist and is supposed to be providing the theological heft to the book.) Still, it is a great book to use in preparation for a mission in the developing world. A mission team I led to Peru last summer read it beforehand, together with a lot of mutual prayer and joint physical preparation. The Holy Spirit really used this text to galvanize our attitude toward a children's feeding ministry in the location we were heading. It helped set the whole tone for our mission effort (as well as for continuing efforts after we returned).

I'd like to hear what books others are reading for mission and discipleship in the church.