Seeing Gray

I recently received the following letter from a young United Methodist pastor who was raising questions related to some of the views expressed in my new book, Seeing Gray. I don’t usually have time to respond to each person who writes, but I felt the exchange between us might be helpful to a broader audience. I don’t know the pastor but I’m told that, like me, he migrated form a Pentecostal background to the United Methodist Church. I could easily envision having asked the same questions he’s asking twenty years ago. What follows is his letter and my somewhat lengthy response.

Continued

In Luke 4 and 5 we see Jesus’ public ministry expanding. Crowds begin to follow him. Multitudes come to hear him. The sick come out in droves to be healed by him. He gives himself to all of these people. He touches, heals and blesses them. But this will take its toll on him. And even Jesus must stop, from time to time, to be renewed. Luke 5:16 tells us one of the keys to Jesus’ ministry, “As often as possible Jesus withdrew to out-of-the-way places for prayer.” (The Message - others have “quiet places” or “lonely places.”)

When was the last time you withdrew to an out-of-the-way place to pray?

Today I had a chance to do that. I spent several hours this afternoon at the Overland Park Arboretum (179th and Antioch). This is one of Kansas City’s best kept secrets. It has miles of walking trails through dense woods, across creeks, through lush landscaped flower gardens and past beautiful babbling brooks. I sat by one of the waterfalls and prayed, read scripture and listened for an hour and a half.

I then went for an hour and a half walk through the woods, along several different trails. I put on my iPod and listened to one of my favorite CD’s - Jars of Clay’s “Redemption Songs.” I found myself singing along with the music, praying worshiping God. At times I felt nearly overwhelmed by God’s presence. I stopped in a forest glade and turned off the music to listen to the birds singing to one another. I couldn’t help help but break out in song singing to the birds, “All creatures of our God and King, lift up your voice and sing…”

Part of my aim today was simply to go to an out-of-the-way place to pray so that my own soul might be renewed. Part of my aim was also to listen for God’s voice as I begin my annual task of developing the sermon plan for the next 24 months.

Over the next month I will invite our staff, our leaders and our congregation to share with me their thoughts and reflections on what our congregation most needs by way of sermons to deepen their faith, to bring healing and help for their lives and to be equipped to live for Christ. At the end of June I’ll spend a week in Colorado praying, reading and meditating on the scriptures before outlining possible sermon series for the next two years.

Today I found my soul renewed. New ideas for sermons and ministries began to flow as I walked, worshiped and prayed. I am convinced that every one of us needs to do this, regardless of your profession. Years ago LaVon encouraged me to take the first of these silent retreats saying, “If Jesus needed to do this, who do you think you are that you would not need to do the same?” She was right.

Why not plan to take off early from work some afternoon in the next few weeks to find an out-of-the-way place to walk, pray, read and listen for God’s voice? Take comfortable shoes, your pocket New Testament and a notepad. It will do your soul good!

I began blogging in late December as a kind of experiment. My hope was that this would be a forum where people would contribute to rich discourse on a variety of subjects, and where Christians who identify with the ideas of Seeing Gray would pursue what Wesley called, “Christian conferencing.” I was hoping this blog would be a resource for people who had found themselves unable to fully connect with the Christianity they heard and saw on the right and the left. I hoped to provide resources and a safe place to dialog and discuss questions and ideas.

We’ve had a good readership of the blog so far, about 2,000 unique visits per week, sometimes more. We’ve had some rich discourse. I’ve been grateful for all who have contributed to the discussion. I’ve also been okay with the criticisms of sermons - I’ve felt this was actually good for the soul (mine, at least) - a great source of humility! I’ve been okay with the occasional personal jab - again, good for the soul.

But here’s where I’ve become concerned: A handful of people occasionally seem to take over the blog. Sometimes as their own personal soapbox, sometimes in tit for tat arguments with each other, and sometimes in ways that were uncharitable.

I know this is how many blogs work. But my sense is that there are a lot of places you can do this on the web without me hosting it.

I’m reminded of some small groups I’ve led where one or two people do all of the talking, and occasionally go at it or converse in ways that lack the spirit of Christ. When I lead a small group like that I am able to gently ask the dominant voices to let others speak, and then engage the quiet folks in the conversation. And when an inappropriate comment comes up I can raise questions of it. But I don’t have time to do that here on the blog. Most of my blogging time is late at night.

My hope was the kind of discussion we would have here would not require this kind of moderation. So, after talking with several colleagues and staff members, I’ve decided to delete the 40 comments that came through in the last couple of days and suspend comments on this blog for now. I’ll reconsider this later. I appreciate some of the comments that came up over the last couple of days, and I appreciate the passion each of you bring to the table.

I’ll keep posting, but for now, the comments are off. Thanks for understanding. Stay tuned - another post later this week.

In the light of the cyclone that has hit Myanmar, and the tragic loss of life, General Conference seems somehow less important that it did last Friday. Before reading my final post about General Conference I would invite you to pause to pray for the people of Myanmar who have lost loved ones. Pray for their comfort and healing and for guidance for their leaders and the nations of the world for how they and we can best help the people there. I am also praying for something good to come from this tragedy for the people of Myanmar. Continued

Much of the day yesterday at General Conference was focused on petitions related to human sexuality and specifically on the church’s policies related to homosexuals. Throughout the conference demonstrators and sympathetic delegates demonstrated and rallied, asking the church to change its current prohibition against “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” being ordained, serving as pastors, and prohibitions against United Methodist pastors officiating at homosexual marriages.

The General Conference voted on various pieces of legislation related to this issue. Some called for liberalization of our rules, and others for making them more restrictive. The debate was civil, but at times gut wrenching. Delegates who are homosexual, or who have children who are homosexual spoke of their faith, experience and pain that results from the church’s current stance. Other delegates spoke of their conviction that God’s will regarding this issue is clear, that God’s design for human sexuality is heterosexual sexual intimacy within the bonds of marriage.

The result of most of the votes on the various petitions were approximately 65% in favor of retaining our current policies and 35% wishing to liberalize our policies. The African delegates, an increasing number of the delegates to our General Conference, are overwhelmingly in favor of the current policies. Apart from their presence, I estimate that the U.S. delegates are probably divided 55% to 45% in favor of the current policies. The U.S. church is deeply divided on this issue. Continued

I was so proud this morning as our choir and orchestra led worship at General Conference and then later performed in concert at General Conference.  They represented you well and were inspiring!  I’ve had so many here at the conference comment on what a blessing they were.  I felt like a proud father.

This afternoon was one of the most inspiring moments at General Conference to date as the president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, addressed the Conference.  President Johnson-Sirleaf is the first female head of state in modern Africa.  Her election two years ago marked the beginning of a turn-around in Liberia that is bringing hope to a country that has known its share of struggle and internal strife.  At one point she had been imprisoned, then driven into exile.  Her election to the presidency has been a beacon of hope, particularly to women, across Africa.

President Johnson-Sirleaf was invited to speak to the General Conference  in recognition that nearly 40% of our membership is from Africa; because the United Methodist Church is making a significant investment in mission and ministry in Africa; and because President Johnson-Sirleaf is a United Methodist who attended the College of West Africa - a Methodist high school in Liberia, prior to attending college and graduate school in the U.S.  She is a very active United Methodist laywoman and her faith has played a key role in shaping her life and her leadership.

She spoke of the hope that is unfolding in sub-Saharan Africa.  Her focus is on alleviating poverty, educating young people and strengthening democracy.  It was a joy to watch, after she spoke, the children of the East African Children’s Choir, dancing for the president.  I found myself moved to tears, knowing a little of the pain and the tragedies that have been experienced in Africa, and yet seeing such hope among these children, and in the words and expression of this courageous president.  It was an inspiring afternoon.

East Africa Children’s Choir

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf

Monday night a proposal was brought forward to begin the process for developing a new hymnal for the United Methodist Church. Every 30 years, give or take a few, a new hymnal has been produced for our denomination. New hymns are included, some unsung old hymns are left out, language is updated, new liturgies and worship services are written. And, over a period of four to eight years, most of the churches in the denomination buy the new hymnal. It’s been 24 years since the last hymnal was introduced, and it takes about six years to get the next one to print, so if we start now we’ll have it out by 2014.

Sounds like a pretty simple proposal, right? Except for those pesky youth and young adults at General Conference. They start raising questions on the floor of the Conference about why we would need a new hymnal. They note that they don’t use hymnals in their worship - they use video screens. They say that by the time the new hymnals come out with the “new” hymns, those new hymns will already be outdated. They wonder if a new “book” is really what’s needed to revitalize worship - or is it something else that’s really needed? And what about the 40% of United Methodists who now live in Africa and other countries - this hymnal will be useless to them.

I was sitting next to the president of the United Methodist Publishing House during this vote. He’s a great guy. The vote to pursue a new hymnal passes 57% to 43% - and I suggest that this will be the last General Conference that ever votes to produce an old fashioned hymnal and this hymnal. He agrees, but hopes that there will be new ways of providing hymnals in the future.

I agree, and this gets me thinking about what the next hymnal could be. The next hymnal will come in a book form for those who have yet to embrace the 21st century. And there will be hundreds of thousands of copies of it sold. But the real “new” hymnal will not be a book at all. It will be a website, like iTunes (”iHymns”?) that will sell hymn rights on line for 99 cents per hymn. These will be downloadable pre-designed graphic files with the words to the songs to show on video screens, chord charts, orchestration and accompaniment scores for a variety of instruments. You’ll be able to listen to each hymn or praise song and download mp3 files to be played on keyboards and organs for those churches that cannot afford their own musicians (both of our organs can play mp3 files like this already). On the site you’ll be able to read the story behind each hymn, search for hymns by theme and scripture reference, and even find suggested worship “sets” depending upon the style and size of the church and the theme for the weekend. New hymns and contemporary songs will constantly be being uploaded on the site.

Wow, the more I think about this new hymnal, the more excited I get! Fortunately, for the Publishing House, it will be awhile before all 34,000 of our churches are ready for this new kind of hymnal. So they’ll get one more good run of hymnals before this market completely dries up (though don’t expect the same quantity of sales as we had in 1984!). I’m just old fashioned enough to occasionally enjoy opening up the hymnal - the old kind - and singing the words from the page. We’ll probably buy those new hymnals one last time, but we’ll really use the iHymns site when it is up and running!

What do you think? What ideas do you have for the new kind of hymnal? I’d love to pass on your thoughts to the Board of Discipleship and the United Methodist Publishing House.

The legislative committees began making their reports to the full General Conference today. This will continue through Friday morning. The most far reaching action taken today was the approval of a study that will bring to the 2012 General Conference a proposal to decentralize our denominational structure, giving greater freedom for the United Methodist Church of each nation or region around the world to order itself in ways that are most helpful for the needs of its people. Among other items approved today was the formation of a standing committee to study doctrine, the official recognition of shared communion between the United Methodist Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, and the approval of a new hymnal (more on that in my next post!).

This evening has been devoted to approving proposals that have financial implications for the church. This process provides accountability for how the money is spent that we and all other United Methodist Churches contribute to the denomination. This includes our funds devoted to support missionaries, money used to fund seminaries, our humanitarian assistance, provisions for the cost of bishops and denominational staff, and a host of other ministries and programs of the church. About 3 cents of every dollar you give to the church supports our national and international ministries through the denomination (we give far more than this to missions, but this is our official giving through the denominational “apportionment”).

I came to appreciate today the transparency and accountability that goes into determining how funds are expended in our denomination. Each budget is first reviewed by the denomination’s General Council on Finance and Administration. It is then reviewed and debated by a legislative subcommittee here at General Conference. From there it is debated and voted upon by the full legislative committee. It is then presented to all 900 delegates of the General Conference for their debate and approval. Later there is a financial audit to ensure the funds were used appropriately.

Tomorrow morning (Tuesday) the Church of the Resurrection choir and orchestra will be performing and leading us in worship at 8:00 a.m. and then performing in concert at 12:30 p.m. I am so excited and proud to have them here!

You can watch our choir and orchestra live on line, and also watch any of the debate, by going going to this website: http://www.umc.org/site/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.3989537/k.3B6D/Live_Streaming_Coverage_of_General_Conference.htm

I’m going to offer another post in a moment related to the debate about the proposal to commission a new hymnal for the United Methodist Church. You might find this debate interesting and indicative of a changing world.