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UMCOR is in contact with our Caribbean partners as well as those on the East Coast of the U.S. to stay aprised of damage and needs. Current need is funding for response: Text “Response” to 80888 to donate $10 now or Donate Online to Advance #901670, which will also cover needs in the Caribbean region. Be sure to choose “Hurricanes 2012” from the drop-down menu.

For up-to-date Hurricane response information check the Creative Ministries site at www.umocm.com/disaster or contact our Disaster Response staff person, Dan Steska.

United Methodist Communications has partnered with United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) to create a bulletin insert for churches in your annual conferences. Two files are attached (full color and grayscale). Please share as needed.

Color (pdf)
Black and White (pdf)

But the lyrics had been modified to welcome church-goers to their “sweet home Saint Paul’s,” which was host for Sunday morning services in a brand-new worship center for the first time since the building at 2423 W. 26th Saint was destroyed in the May 22,
2011, tornado.

“It’s definitely a celebration,” said Denise Steele, a 10-year member of the church, as she left the service. “It’s definitely a ‘welcome home’ for all of us.” Lead pastor Aaron Brown
echoed those sentiments. “It’s coming home,” he said during a brief tour of the new worship center on Friday. “I imagine it’s like folks who’ve had their home destroyed. It’s just a sign of hope, a sign of rebirth.”

Just a building
It’s a rebirth that, like much of Joplin, has its roots in the destruction caused by the 2011 tornado.

One person was in the church building on May 22, cutting strawberries in the kitchen. She
was unhurt; the tornado ripped apart the worship center and

heavily damaged much of the rest of the building, which includes a gymnasium, offices, classrooms and a children’s area.

Later that evening, Brown worked his way through the devastated neighborhood to the church. “‘It’s just a building,’ that’s exactly what I said,” he said of his arrival to the ruined worship center. “It’s just stuff. The church is not a building. The church is people on a mission doing their best to follow Jesus.”

Brown said the less damaged part of the building became a triage center that night as residents from the neighborhood were transported there to get their cuts stitched and their broken bones set. The tables that had been used for children’s crafts during Sunday school earlier that day were being used as makeshift stretchers and surgical props for injured survivors, he said.

The congregation, which averages between 800 and 1,000 people each Sunday, held worship services at The Bridge in southeast Joplin on the Sunday after the tornado and then moved to Ozark Christian College for the following five months. Since last October, church members have held their services inside their repaired and remodeled gymnasium,
even as the reconstruction of their worship center continued just a few feet to the south.

Steele, of Carl Junction, said seeing the ruined building had been “devastating,” but in worshiping with her church family elsewhere, she never felt displaced. “We knew it wasn’t the end” of Saint Paul’s, she said.

Cleanup and rebuilding

Other churches and volunteers from the community turned out to help clean up debris and salvage items from the rubble. Members of Saint Paul’s, meanwhile, also rallied, working after the tornado with groups such as Joplin Area Habitat for Humanity and Restore
Joplin and logging about 10,000 volunteer hours per month, Brown
said.

“Our mission is to love God, love others and serve the world,” he said. “They (church members) just knew they needed to work through their small groups to start connecting people. They just did what they always do: They go out and serve the world.”
The congregation also had to work through the loss of six of their own: Glenn and Lorie
Holland, who had just celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary at Walt Disney World; Will Norton, who had just graduated from Joplin High School; Judy Smith, who had owned the Second Hand Rose Consignment Store; Nancy Douthitt, who had owned Douthitt Grocery Store until 1987; and Wendy Istas, who was involved with the Stained Glass Theatre.
Brown said his congregation has supported the victims’ families  and friends since the tornado and taken special care to recognize the lives lost at various points during the past 15 months, including the one-year anniversary.

A time for everything

Today, the new 650-seat worship center is similar in design to the former, with the addition of a balcony, Brown said. The lobby just outside is slightly larger. In addition to volunteers forming a “brigade of vacuum cleaners, Swiffers and dust rags” over the past few days to spruce up the church, construction crews on Friday were working to put the finishing touches on the building.

At the front of the worship center is the metal cross and waterlogged Bible that were dug out of the former building. The Bible, still stuck with small pieces of shingle and insulation, is open to the page as it was found in the rubble: Ecclesiastes 3, which talks about “a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”
Ryan Meier, of Webb City, said he, his wife and two young children knew they had found a home at Saint Paul’s when they first visited the church about four years ago. The devastation of the building by the tornado was difficult to see but not impossible to mend, he said after Sunday’s 10 a.m. service.

“Basically there was a hole in my heart for the church, but we believed that we were strong enough to overcome that,” he said. “Coming back and worshiping in
this section of the building does feel like coming home, in a way.
I mean, I had tears coming to my eyes.”

The youth are descending on Joplin for four weeks. They are staying primarily at Byers Avenue UMC, but some are also staying at First UMC and Christ Community UMC.

St. Stephen in Troy, Wellsville/ Almond and Open Hearts joined together to make the trip down to Joplin. Mark Spence, pastor at Wellsville, has been on several mission trips like this, but this was his first as pastor. His youth had been building access ramps, staining decks, roofing and interior work.

“There’s definitely a lot of need here everywhere we go,” he said.

The days begin early, and involve jobs ranging from painting and debris clean-up to finish carpentry work. The job assignments come from the Missouri Conference VIM office, Americorps or Rebuild Joplin. Americorps has been working with as many as 1,000 volunteers a week this summer in Joplin.

“It’s very much a cooperative effort,” said Missouri Conference Youth Director Beverly Boehmer. She has had youth teams working at 20 different sites all over Joplin. Some of the projects involve rehabbing houses that were not damaged by the tornado.

“Some people who lost their homes in the tornado have had to move into other houses in Joplin that weren’t in the path of the tornado, but are in bad condition due to lack of maintenance,” Boehmer said. “We’re helping get those houses in better condition.”

Kate Fox, a volunteer youth worker from Salem in Ladue, has been moved by the plight of Joplin. “It’s been amazing to hear first-hand the stories from people who experienced and survived the tornado,” she said. “We’ve prayed with them, and they’ve expressed such hope and gratitude. It gives us some perspectives on our own lives.”

Abby Addleman was in Joplin with her youth group from Centenary UMC in Cape Girardeau. She had been to Joplin last fall with other volunteer teams. She was impressed with how the town has been cleaned up. “Last fall there was still stuff everywhere,” she said.

Alex Gentle was part of Addleman’s group. It was his first time in Joplin.

“After having seen all of the pictures from Joplin, I expected things here to look worse than they are,” he said. “They’ve made great progress. There is still a lot of work to do, though.”

Eric Peters, a youth from Salem-in-Ladue on his fourth mission trip, agreed. “I’ve seen pictures of the rubble, so it’s great to see everything being rebuilt now,” he said as he worked to frame in a new window on a house. “Joplin is going to be a new town with a bright future.”

This was the first mission trip for Mitch Elliot from Salem-in- Ladue. He spent the week scraping and then painting a house. “It’s been fun,” he said. “I’ve been able to spend a lot more time with my friends than I normally would at home.”

Missy Nance, Joplin Volunteers In Mission Coordinator for the Missouri Conference, said she is booked with teams through the second week of August, and things start getting back to normal after that. “I do have teams scheduled for every month except November and December,” she said. “Some have already scheduled for the summer of 2013.”

An Americorp representative expressed that as summer begins to wind down, there is a need for smaller teams of skilled workers. There were also Missouri Conference youth work camps in Colorado and Oklahoma, bringing the total number of participants (youth plus adult sponsors) to about 1,200.

I want to express my deep appreciation for the delegation that represented the Missouri Conference laity and clergy during Jurisdictional Conference.  Their positive spirit, clarity of purpose, and focus on the mission of the church fostered an atmosphere of collaboration and discernment during the election of bishops as well as during the periods marked by difficult issues and hard decisions.  My gratitude to Cody Collier and Brian Hammons for their conscientious leadership of the team.

I’m particularly proud of Rev. Bob Farr, and for his offering of his leadership for the Episcopacy.  Three fine leaders were elected to the Episcopacy.  It’s easy to imagine Bob among them bringing his excellent gifts, passions, and insights, but that did not happen.  He represented the Missouri Conference well, and he did it with energy, clarity of purpose, good-humor, and graciousness.  We gladly welcome him home as we work together on the next steps in our journey as a conference as we seek to lead congregations to lead people to active faith in Jesus Christ.

I’m also deeply grateful for the fine work and wise leadership of Cody Collier and Larry Fagan who represented the Missouri Conference on the Jurisdictional Episcopacy Committee.  This year more than most, their service on this committee has demanded immense amounts of time, work, and prayer, and I give God thanks for their love of the church and for their unwavering commitment to Christ.

I’ll be taking some time for rest and renewal during the weeks to come, and then I look forward to our renewed work together as we organize our new leadership teams in the fall as we take on the task given us in Christ, the work of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Yours in Christ,

Robert Schnase

By Bishop Robert Schnase

Coming mid-May

Buy it from Cokesbury

Bishop Schnase’s 30-day Remember the Future series inspired you as we counted down to General Conference. Now as Annual Conference season draws close, share the insights in a paperback volume perfect for reading together as leadership teams, boards and covenant groups to understand more clearly the “why” of congregational ministry and the internal resistances and external challenges to the mission of the church.

Explore together how congregations can change to become more fruitful for the purposes of Christ. Remember the Future:  Praying for the Church and Change prepares leaders of congregations and conferences for courageous new conversations with readings that draw us toward renewed vision, cultivate hope and keep us attentive to the mission of Christ.

____________________________

“Bishop Schnase helps us to embrace change with faith, vision, hope and grace. I intend to make wide use of this book in my ministry with congregational leaders.”

— Gregory V. Palmer, Resident Bishop, Illinois Episcopal Area

“The biggest issue facing local churches, annual conferences and the national church is whether we love Jesus enough to change. We must remember the changes our ancestors made and make similar changes to remain faithful in the future. Robert Schnase has given us significant help on that journey.”

— Scott Jones, Resident Bishop, Kansas Episcopal Area

As I listened to some of our most creative leaders, I felt a more profound hope than I have in a long time. There’s a growing consensus of vision and future that I find compelling.

We see a new church, a church that is clear about its mission and confident about its future, a church that is relevant, reaching out, inviting, alive, agile, and resilient. We see a church that is hopeful, passionate, nimble, called of God, outward-focused, courageous.

Where do we see this new church? It is not yet, and it is not everywhere; nevertheless, there are a thousand signs of its emerging.

We see signs of this new church in those congregations that are thriving, those pockets of excellence that have managed to buck the trends to reach younger generations, to extend the ministry of Christ into unexpected places.

During recent months I’ve preached in rural congregations led by local pastors and lay ministers that have doubled in attendance, started outreach ministries that change lives, and welcomed new people even from areas with declining population. I’ve celebrated the merger of urban churches in creative ways we wouldn’t have thought possible five years ago, combining the excellent and passionate work of growing congregations with strategic facilities to reach neighborhoods afresh. I’ve shouted with joy at the success of new congregational starts in African American and Hispanic neighborhoods. I’ve been humbled by the courage and vision of several long-established congregations who have opened themselves to deep and risky transformation. Many congregations are reappraising their mission, making hard choices, and realigning their resources toward more vigorous, fruitful, outward-focused ministry. I’m moved by the number of pastors who voluntarily join continual learning communities, delving more deeply into the dynamics of congregations and the theology of mission, and learning skills to reach new people.

Are these changes affecting every congregation? No. And yet every conference has congregations that are thriving, pastors willing to teach others, and laypersons with the passion to learn, change, and initiate ministry. We see a new church, with signs evident in church starts, unexpected mergers, experiments with second sites, transformed congregations, gifted young people entering ministry, creative initiatives, and risk-taking outreach.

And we see a new church shaping annual conferences, a serious refocusing after decades of restructuring committees and reshuffling staff. Through much experimentation, several annual conferences have truly realigned resources toward their mission. They lead congregations to lead people to active faith in Jesus Christ because they know that congregations do not exist to serve conferences, but conferences exist to cultivate ministries in congregations and communities. Many conferences take excellence, fruitfulness, and accountability seriously in bold new ways. They radically streamline operations, reevaluate the role of superintendents, focus the appointment system on the mission field, and rethink standards for ministry with attention to fruitfulness. I’m profoundly hopeful when I see conferences redirect the flow of energy, attention, and resources toward increasing the number of fruitful congregations. We can learn from them.

And we see a new church emerging at the general church. Several general agencies are unilaterally reducing their size and streamlining their operations. Ideas now abound about merging, consolidating, cooperating, removing redundancies, reducing costs, and most important, focusing on the mission of Christ particularly through congregations.             Conversations taking place now would not have been possible a few years ago. Suggestions about a unified governance structure that focuses outwardly on the mission, forces future-oriented thinking, reconnects the local church to the general ministries, and increases accountability—these plans give me hope.

And there is a new spirit in the Council of Bishops. The unanimous adoption of the Call to Action with its sustained focus on congregational vitality, the willingness of the Council to confront some of the internal issues that have hampered it, the openness to evaluation, and the development of learning communities within the Council—these give me hope as well.

The Call to Action invites United Methodists to sustained attention to congregational vitality, a focus on leadership development, realigning boards to support our mission, and reworking the Council of Bishops. These are significant undertakings, and I wrestle with my own impatience on how we shall achieve them.

And yet there are many signs of hope. Picture a heat map, where clusters of fruitful ministry activity are lighted against a dark background with the most fruitful and vital ministries shining brightest. The heat map of The United Methodist Church would allow us to see bright spots in unexpected places, concentrations of vital ministry and congregations that are thriving. Some are in urban areas, some in suburbs, and some in the most isolated rural counties. Africa is aglow with congregational vitality and mission partnerships, but also the map draws our attention to an exceptional campus ministry in one area and to a courageous witness for the homeless in another. A flourishing traditional church lights up near a dynamic merger. Some conferences and seminaries and foundations and agencies glow bright as they risk genuine innovation to realign with the mission. Lights here and there, bright spots appear in places we never expected.

Some Call to Action recommendations stretch us uncomfortably, and some don’t go far enough. There are thousands of details to argue over if we choose to do so. Or we can look at the big picture, the change in culture and process that redirects the flow toward vital congregations.

We see a new church, and there are signs of it here and there in congregations, conferences, agencies, and at the Council. Something is happening in our church. The Spirit that blows where it will is creating openings for conversation and for a way forward with faithfulness. The way things have been is not the way they will be. And this gives me hope.

Where do you see signs of a new church, of a burgeoning of life through fruitful ministry?

What initiatives and ministries in your congregation, your conference, or the general church give you hope?

Pray through 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 in Eugene Peterson’s The Message for fresh insight from a familiar passage

Read Bishop Schnase’s series “Remember the Future: 30 Days of Preparation” here on the Five Practices website or at www.ministrymatters.com/30days

so touch his mom and dad that they will take a small, unexpected step toward faith.

Somewhere out there is an elderly woman who feels as if everyone has forgotten her. Her world has shrunk to her small apartment, the weekly trips to the grocery store, and the visits to the doctor’s office. Her television has become her best friend. She doesn’t know it,

but right now a nearby congregation has awakened to the calling of God to invite people like her to a weekly lunch and to a chance to serve others. Soon she’ll use her long-neglected skills to knit baby blankets that will wrap medical supplies bound for Central America, and this taste of community will save her life and give her a rebirth she never imagined possible.

Somewhere out there in a rural Philippine village, a young couple strive to cope with the unexpected loss of their daughter in a flood that washed away their home. They don’t realize it now, but even as they grieve neighbors are holding them in prayer and asking God for the best way to surround them with the love of Christ. They cannot imagine now how the stories of faith, the songs of worship, and the embrace of strangers will move them step by step toward a sense of life they thought they would never see again.

Somewhere out there is a teacher who thinks no one else cares about the children she has given her life to serving. Her schoolroom is rundown, and there’s less money now than ever before to provide the resources she needs to do her job. She has no idea that a congregation is preparing for a new ministry that will change her circumstances. Six months from now she will weep with joy as strangers repaint and refurbish her classroom. She cannot imagine

that droves of people will step forward to volunteer to tutor, to read stories, and to coach basketball. She has no inkling of the effect this will have on her and on her students, and how this will open the door by which she rediscovers her own faith in Christ.

Somewhere out there is a young man whose inability to cope with the basic mechanisms of daily living has caused him to lose his job, to stop taking his medication, and to slip through the cracks of every social, community, and family network. He kept falling until now he sleeps on the streets, carries cardboard for bedding, and digs through trash for dinner. He has no idea that a congregation is gearing up to offer a soup kitchen, and that this ministry will change his life. He cannot imagine that as he is served a meal, someone will engage him in conversation, treat him as human, listen to his story, learn his name, and reconnect him to his family and to the social networks that will allow him to live again a basic life with dignity. He has no idea that God, working through people desiring to follow Christ, will restore him to a life he barely remembers.

Somewhere out there in an African village a young girl and her little sister read stories together in bed, both of them safely protected by a mosquito net bought by the youth of a rural church in the American Midwest. No one can see it now, but she will grow up to become a doctor, relieving the suffering of thousands. She will live a full life that never would have been possible without a simple net and many generous young hearts across the globe.

When United Methodists work toward starting congregations and strengthening congregations and leading congregations, these are not merely attempts at institutional survival. Learning to deepen our life in Christ through congregations and to extend the outreach of Christ through faith communities are not merely submitting to worldly, corporate models of growth and success. Forming congregations are a means by which we cooperate with the Holy Spirit in fulfilling the purposes of Christ. Through people changed by belonging to the body of Christ, God transforms the world. God uses congregations to fulfill the mission revealed to us in Christ;  increasing the number of vital congregations deserves our best and highest insights, efforts, resources, and attention.

Somewhere out there, somewhere in Texas or California or New Jersey or Norway or Mozambique, somewhere in a town like yours or a neighborhood near you is a person who has no idea of the change that is coming his way or the grace that will transform her life, a person unknowingly prepared by the Spirit of God to receive the embrace of Christ that people will offer when they come alive with purpose and fulfill the mission of Christ.

Somewhere out there is a person God plans to use you to reach. Somewhere out there is a person God will use to change your life as you reach them. Somewhere out there is a person for whom Christ died, and for whom your church was built, and for whom God has uniquely prepared you to reach.

*Today’s post is adapted from the devotional book The Balancing Act by Robert Schnase (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2009). Used by permission.

Who are the “somewhere out there” people you and your congregation are reaching?

Has your congregation ever helped start a congregation? How do you, your church, and your conference work to strengthen the ministry of Christ through congregations?

Who are you uniquely qualified and perfectly situated to touch with the grace and ministry of Christ whom no one else can possibly reach?

For further exploration, contemplate I John 3:17-19 from The Message.What does it mean to  suggest that our inaction makes God’s love disappear?

Read Bishop Schnase’s series “Remember the Future: 30 Days of Preparation” here on the Five Practices website or at www.ministrymatters.com/30days

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside by thee,

exalted for thee or brought low by thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things

to thy pleasure and disposal.*

Like many United Methodist leaders, I have prayed Wesley’s Covenant prayer hundreds of times, sometimes in gatherings and many times quietly on my own. The prayer always has the power to unsettle me and provoke me to deeper reflection about my own motives. Repeating the prayer strengthens me while also making me more attentive to my spiritual vulnerabilities. It restrains my propensity to use the language of God’s will to describe and defend what is merely most convenient and desirable for me. It curbs my natural tendency to justify my own views and desired outcomes and forces me to wrestle with what submission to God in Christ truly means for my ministry. Several phrases penetrate the veneers I hide behind to preserve my pride and ambition. It’s a powerful prayer, but be careful where it leads you!

The line that disturbs me the most is, “let me be employed by thee, or laid aside by thee.” This forces me to face the truth that while God works through me to achieve certain good things in the world, God also works around me to achieve many other good things. Sometimes I’m not the right person. Sometimes I don’t have the right gifts, the right strategies, the right voice, or the right ideas for this particular moment and context of ministry. My ways, my experiences, my passions, my certitudes and biases and approaches may not be the ones for this particular time and for a particular work God needs accomplished.

Sometimes my conference, my staff, my congregation, my friends, my seminary, my board, or my committee is the one that is ripe and ready for the task, and other times mine is the one that must be set aside so that God’s good purpose can be fulfilled in another way by someone else. There are challenges that are not mine to resolve and strategies that are not mine to develop. The institutions where I have found my place and the methods I have developed are sometimes those that need to be set aside because the season for which they served is past or because another voice and another approach are needed to reach a generation I cannot.

General Conference delegates will deliberate on several significant organizational initiatives that involve reducing the size of governing boards, unifying numerous functions under a fewer number of agencies, and streamlining the general church structure. Those who are most at home with the existing activities and arrangements are likely to most keenly experience the impact of such changes as personal setbacks. Even those who know that change is necessary will consider such suggestions strategic mistakes and ill-advised tampering. They will feel the losses far more acutely than they will see the opportunities. Most of the people voting, in addition to the bishops on the platform and the agency staff members in the audience, have been the beneficiaries of the systems that have brought us to this point, and so they naturally grieve the losses that come with transitions. And yet the models, behaviors, and attitudes that we need to let go of are the models, behaviors, and attitudes that got us this far. This requires a spiritual maturity that surpasses mere organizational strategy.

How do I pray for the fulfillment of God’s purposes when sometimes fulfilling them leaves me on the sidelines or redirects my path from what I had expected? How do I develop the humility to be laid aside graciously, and even joyfully? God has work for me to do as long as I have breath, but sometimes it is not the work I expected. Praying deeply the Covenant Prayer requires discernment, a countercultural spirituality and a counterintuitive openness to God. It requires saying with Jesus that we have come “not to be served, but to serve” (Mark 10:45 NRSV). It requires accepting the emotional impact of truly believing that “those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39 NRSV). It prompts us to think about what it means to no longer be our own, but God’s, and causes us to meditate on what it means to yield and step aside with humility.

* The United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989), 607. Used by permission.[B.A.D.1]

When was a time you experienced God working around you rather than through you? How did it feel? How did you handle any negative feelings of uselessness or abandonment, and how did you come to find a renewed sense of purpose in serving in other ways?

Have you ever voluntarily stepped down or stepped back or stepped aside so that a ministry could move in new directions? Where did the spiritual discernment come from to help you do this?

For deeper consideration, meditate on Matthew 20:20-28.

For resources about the loss and grief that comes with change in organizations, check out Managing Transitions by William Bridges or Leadership on the Line by Ronald A. Heifetz and Martin Linsky.

Read Bishop Schnase’s series “Remember the Future: 30 Days of Preparation” here on the Five Practices website or at www.ministrymatters.com/30days

Criticizing political ads is convenient and popular. It’s easy to blame politicians, their strategists, and the media. Why have ads become so vicious and distorted? Evidently, negative ads work. Those who receive these ads are willing to avoid the hard work of learning about complex issues. We are happy to nod our heads based on 30-second soundbites rather than delve deeper, to think beyond our self-interest to the good of the nation and world. We’re willing to be seduced and deceived by oversimplification.

The same tendencies can shape our church life, including a propensity to oversimplify ideas, vilify opponents, and protect our own prerogatives.

“Most people, given the choice between having a better world, or a better place within the world as it is, would choose the latter.” We might restate this observation, attributed to 20th-century Methodist preacher, Ralph Sockman, for church leadership: Most people, given the choice between having a better denomination, or a better place within the denomination as it is, would choose the latter.” We can even change denomination to conference or to congregation!

I don’t think people always pursue their own self-interest above the good of the whole organization. In a more nuanced way, we vote based on behaviors and assumptions with which we are familiar, find comfortable, and want to hold onto without carefully testing whether the behaviors we defend are best in the current context or whether the assumptions are still valid for the mission of the church today. We have trouble letting go

One can discern a rhythm at General Conference. Those present move from moments of profound communion to times when they feel palpable mistrust. On the one hand, we use organic models for community to describe and celebrate our relationship with one another—body of Christ, members, communion, bread, family, sisters, brothers. Our singing and praying and preaching unify us in Christ. On the other hand, we use adversarial strategies for deciding business, experiencing conference as a cauldron of competing self-interests, regional alliances, and caucus agendas. Primary connection for many delegates comes through the mutual support they find in affinity groups based on theology, board affiliation, race, gender, or cause. Rather than a gathering to listen, learn, discern, and decide together on goals for the church, General Conference seems a collection of people elected to win advantage in their effort to represent an idea, protect a project, or pursue an agenda with little regard for competing claims. Some groups depend upon the cohesive quality of fear to mobilize response. Delegates find it difficult to moderate conflict when they are motivated to win at any cost.

This places upon delegates a great responsibility to foster the unifying elements of our life together in Christ. General Conference does better at reminding United Methodists of our common history than at binding them to a common future.

An intensely political organization that aspires to communion requires intentionality in how the members pursue passions with humility and accept limits to their will with grace. Can a diverse body of people have a process that is fair, prayerful, and civil, and yet focuses on the mission of the church? Can conference foster such an atmosphere when it means some desires of nearly every member go unfulfilled?

Paul writes about the need to moderate divisive or self-serving motives while remaining passionate for the purposes of Christ. He reminds us to be ardent in spirit, to hold fast, and to seek what is good and acceptable and perfect. On the other hand, he instructs us to love one another with mutual affection, to let love be genuine, to live in harmony, and to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think (see Romans 12). Balance passion and courage with humility and confession. We are one body in Christ, members of one another, and yet we have gifts and perspectives that differ. None of us sees the whole truth.

Paul was not inviting us to deny hard realities; rather, he was asking us to deal with hard realities with integrity, faithfulness, and graciousness. There’s nothing distinctly Christian about being gracious; but if we are distinctly Christian, then graciousness, truth, and fairness characterize our interests, involvements, and behaviors.

In another place, Paul writes:

“It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless . . .; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; . . . ugly parodies of community. . . .

. . . If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.

But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.” (Galatians 5:19–23 The Message)

The phrase that jumps out is “the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival.” In Christ, we can do better. None of us has ever belonged to any organization or community where we have not at some point disagreed with others or with the decision of the majority. The unity of the church is a hard and unending task entrusted to all who follow Christ. More than a political strategy, this is a spiritual necessity, a calling of God through Christ. Thinking alike is not mandatory, but living as one in the body of Christ is essential.

How do you remain passionately engaged with those who view things differently from you in your own congregation? At conference?

In your spiritual life, how do you balance the ardent spirit that propels you to action with a sense of humility and community?

To move deeper, meditate on Romans 12:1-2.

Read Bishop Schnase’s series “Remember the Future: 30 Days of Preparation” here on the Five Practices website or at www.ministrymatters.com/30days