One of the craziest phenomena I have noticed this annual conference season is the tremendous difference between the way the Susquehanna Annual Conference and the New England Annual Conferences are handling disaffiliation of local congregations. For the uninitiated, disaffiliation is the process that allows churches in the United Methodist church to leave the United Methodist … [Read more...] about Disparity in Disaffiliation
Boundaries
In desiring to respond to an open letter to centrists, I am not sure I qualify as a centrist. In some contexts I would appear conservative, in others progressive. Yet, I feel a need to respond to the Reverend Stephen Rankin’s “An Open Letter to Adam Hamilton and Other Centrists: Where Lie the Boundaries?” I really disliked his commentary “It is time to separate.” The more I … [Read more...] about Boundaries
More Love, Less Schism
Schism begets schism. When I was in policy debate in high school, an opposing team once argued that we should not be talking about a potentially dangerous situation, because the more we talked about it, the more likely it was to occur. After hearing their contention, I was incensed. The argument was so generic it could be used against almost any case. I also wondered how … [Read more...] about More Love, Less Schism
Fear
If I had a big furry hat like Stephen Colbert and could make decrees, I would declare that fear could no longer be used in argumentation in the life of the church. At two different annual conferences I attended this year, the speeches against constitutional amendment two centered on the fear of an unknown future where the word gender might be more fluid than a binary … [Read more...] about Fear
Perspective
One of the more hurtful experiences in my ministry was when a United Methodist pastor, a predecessor at the churches I serve, did a funeral for a member of my church. The act itself was not very hurtful, but the pastor's response to me calling out the inappropriateness of it was. I wrote a letter explaining why I thought it was wrong and how it violated the Book of … [Read more...] about Perspective