Cringing as I hit the 'Publish Now' button...

Oh, my. Two months until General Conference, and here we go.

Dean Snyder, pastor of Foundry UMC in Washington, D.C., is challenging the spirit, and possibly the letter, of church law as laid forth in the United Methodist Book of Discipline. Need I type the "h" word?

The news broke late last week, and really hit the Methodist blogosphere over the weekend. Of course, we will be mentioning it in our next print edition, which is sure to generate some angry letters (you may have heard of our "Shoot the Messenger" series: stories that anger people by their mere existence, even without any kind of opinion rendered by our publication).

So, dare I share my perspective?

My primary angle has very little to do with the central issue. My concern is over all the good work we could be doing instead of bickering over the same thing over and over again, with someone inevitably bringing up the idea of splitting the church over this issue. Because exactly how would that work at the local church level, anyway?

By North Texas standards, my congregation is small -- our worship attendance hovers around 200. Yet, my local church includes at least one member of the ACLU, many members of each major political party, at least one biblical literalist and at least one member who still has a problem with the ordination of women -- despite the fact that in our congregation's 16-year history, the only member to discern a call to ordained ministry and follow through with it is female. Yet these people worship together each week, do mission work together and routinely support each other in their faith journeys.

So, how would a schism affect churches like mine? I'm afraid it wouldn't be so much a split as it would be a shattering, sending us in hundreds of different directions. I can't emphasize how much I want to avoid that scenario.

There's no item in our "Guidelines for Holy Conferencing" that includes the phrase, "Will everyone just shut up and get along?" So I guess we're going to have to keep listening to and struggling with one another. I don't have to like what's happening, but I do have to love my community of faith and the One who binds us together.

Even if it is difficult.

To quote my favorite t-shirt sold at LarkNews.com: "Jesus Loves You! Then again, he loves everybody."

Comments

[gavin]

nice t-shirt

[Mike Wright-Chapman]

Thanks, Amy! I appreciate your sharing these important thoughts. I'm praying for everybody and especially the delegates and the folks you represent.

Love the t-shirt! Someone should sell them at General Conference -- buttons work well at GC as you know!

Rev. Mike Wright-Chapman
North Texas Conference staff