Off to Alabama

I know I haven’t written much for the past week as I’ve been busily trying to prepare for this trip.

And now I go…

Alaska Missionary Conference 2008 — Report

This is my “official” communications report I had to turn in to UMNewscope….

The Alaska United Methodist Conference held it’s annual conference in Anchorage on May 30th through June 1st 2008. There are 28 United Methodist Churches spread out over The Last Frontier, with ministries to several outlying areas. When we gather as a Conference, it is a family affair. We know each other. We understand our various struggles and triumphs. And we love praising God together in the few times we are able to come together during the course of the year. The following is a “Top Ten List” of what occurred in our 2008 annual conference session.

1. We started by singing “And Are We Yet Alive.” That’s how we United Methodists (even those of us up here) know we’ve begun!
2. We increased membership on our program and administrative committees to reflect an increase in clergy to our conference (from clergy couples) and a desire for more lay participation.
3. We changed our name from “The Alaska Missionary Conference” to “The Alaska United Methodist Conference” (AUMC). While we remain a missionary conference in the United Methodist Church, the change reflects that we are learning how to do mission in the 21st Century. We have learned from our Native sisters and brothers that the word “missionary” can be offensive because of the sometimes disturbing history of Christian missionary activity in Alaska. Out of deference to our Native friends, we changed our name. Our official status remains the same.
4. We conducted a “Hoopla” for Nothing But Nets — netting over $600.
5. We celebrated “Good Gnus Money.” This is a program for grants up to $2000 to use as seed money for new ministry projects. We want to encourage our local churches and members to dream of potential new ministries in their settings. And, yes, the program material has several “gnus” on it.
6. We said goodbye to Bishop Ed Paup who will become General Secretary of the General Board of Global Ministries after 12 years with our conference. We also said goodbye to our Conference Superintendent, Rev. Rachel Lieder Simeon, who will become the Associate General Secretary for Administration of UMCOR after 15 years in Alaska.
7. There was “holy conferencing.” One of the very unique things about the Alaska United Methodist Conference, is that we are small enough to spend a lot of time together–at meals, in worship, in small groups, and merely being with each other. If God is moving in a particular way, we have the freedom to move right along with God. And our conference leadership has been attentive to that in our gatherings.
8. We shared a report from General Conference, lifting up the high points, the holy points, and the points of disagreement. It was shared that the AUMC has a challenge making its distinctive voice heard in the larger church. While our state is large in size, our church is small in numbers. There were changes that will make it more difficult to express our missional needs, particularly on General Boards and Agencies. Nevertheless, we believe we have something to say to the larger church.
9. We adopted a Missional Priority for 2008-2009: “Native Ministry in Alaska.” We hope to identify Native Communities (some of which are very isolated) and their needs for expanding mission. We pray that we will be able to raise up lay leaders and ministerial leaders in these communities.
10. The AUMC was a 2007 recipient of a mission offering taken by the Virginia Annual Conference of the UMC. This year, that offering will fund “Giving Voice.” “Giving Voice” is an ecumenical gathering of Native Elders representing several regions and tribes. While this started as a gathering to give a place at a table for elders to share concerns and religious experiences, it has grown into discussions on addressing and exploring solutions for common problems. By being part of this process, the AUMC is learning how best to address the needs of native communities, some of which we’ve never worked with before.

Harder than it seems

When life gets busy, it’s harder to blog. I don’t know how the people who do this all the time manage to keep going.

My goal was to average one post a day for year.

I have a long way to go.

Risk Taking Missions

Bishop Robert Schnase, a name even harder to say than “Doepken,” talks about the importance of “Risk-taking mission and service” in his book, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations.  We head out on a mission trip to Alabama on Friday.

Risk-Taking Mission and Service includes the projects, the efforts, and work people do to make a positive difference in the lives of others for the purposes of Christ, whether or not they will ever be part of the community of faith.  Some churches practice Risk-Taking Mission and Service by sending work teams to Mozambique, Russia, Mexico, or Honduras, or they assist closer to home in clean up and reconstruction after hurricanes or tornadoes.  Other churches focus on projects within their own community, such as after-school programs for at-risk children, food banks and soup kitchens, and ministries or witness aimed at forming public policy.  Others get involved in ministries to senior adults in retirement centers, regular services for the incarcerated, and efforts to challenge and change unjust or inhumane systems that affect the poor.

Risk-Taking Mission and Service is one of the fundamental activities of church life that is so critical to practice it in some form results in a deterioration of the church’s vitality and ability to make disciples of Jesus Christ.  When churches turn inward, using all resources for their own survival and caring only for their own people, then spiritual vitality wanes….

The word mission turns church service outward.  Mission reminds congregations that Christ’s compassion, grace, mercy, and love extend to the entire world, and these fruits are cultivated not only within the walls of the church or among the people of the Body of Christ who are regularly seen and already known.  Mission refers to the positive difference made in the lives of people beyond the inner circle of the church.  Mission spreads the faith by exemplifying the compassion, mercy, and justice of Christ in the world.  (pp. 83-85)

Am I really “The Prodigal?”

Barack Obama just secured the most delegates for the Democratic Nomination for President.  Hillary Clinton hasn’t thrown in the towel as of yet.  But, Barack, the media is saying, will be the nominee.  Either one winning would have been historical.

This got me reading tonight and thinking about Obama’s life.  This is an excerpt from an article tonight.  It’s from Michael Powell in the New York Times from tomorrow’s edition.  A link is here:

One of the curiosities about Mr. Obama is his professed lack of interest in the writers who pore over that life, trying to deconstruct his fractured family and geography. He claims not to read profiles that pile high in his plane.

“It just encourages the narcissism that is already a congenital defect for a politician,” he says. “I find these essays more revealing about the author than about me.”

The same might be said of Mr. Obama’s autobiography, which is less a straightforward chronicle than a carefully framed coming-of-age narrative. He describes himself as a young man adrift, although few friends recall thinking him so lost. And he just might have overstated his youthful experimentation with marijuana.

I had read about this before, after his last book came out, about how he pictures himself “adrift,” concerned that he was going to end up becoming a crack addict, or something like that.  Yet, those around him never really thought things were that bad for him.  I don’t think people believed he made it up to sell books, but it seemed like his self-perception was different than what those around him perceived.

When I read the story of the Prodigal Son, I immediately am drawn to the Elder Brother — the one that stayed by the Father, doing all the responsible things that were expected, and yet feeling bitter when generosity is shown to the “black sheep” of the family, the younger son.  I, more or less, have been like that…responsible, played by the rules, obedient.  I never had a profound period of theological wandering.  I was raised in the church and stayed in the church.  And, I think most people who know me best would say that’s me.

And yet, there is some insecurity, some needing to find a grace I can’t seem to find on my own, some real sense of lostness in my life, there is some sense of wandering away — maybe if I never left home.  I remember a counselor I worked with at a Summer Camp for a week or less.  He had been through a rough patch and had gotten addicted to drugs and once, when high, he chewed on broken glass or something horrible and needed a whole lot of stitches to fix his tongue.  He would show his now-healed tongue to the kids as some graphic warning to not fall as far away from God as he had…and that if they did our God would welcome them back.  My wandering, my distant country, is, perhaps, more subtle.  Just like the Elder Son’s.  And yet the elder son still stands in need of the prodigal grace of the Father.

So, even if (like Obama) I may be overstating far off country, I do have times that I become acutely aware of just how far I’ve moved away from God’s will for my life.  Perhaps, in fancying myself The Prodigal Son, I remind myself of the grace and mercy that God offers me and that he longs for me to return.  When it comes down to it, aren’t we all The Prodigal Son?

When God Ran — Lyrics by Phillips, Craig, & Dean

(We sang this several times when we used to have a contemporary worship service. Good lyrics as pertaining tot The Prodigal Son)

Almighty God, the great I am
Immovable rock, omnipotent, powerful, awesome Lord
Victorious warrior, commanding King of Kings
Mighty conqueror, and the only time
the only time I ever saw Him run

CHORUS:
Was when He ran to me, He took me in His arms
Held my head to His chest, said “My son’s come home again”
Lifted my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice He said,
“Son do you know I still love you?”
He caught me by surprise when God ran

The day I left home I knew I’d broken His heart
And I wondered then if things could ever be the same
Then one night I remembered His love for me
And down that dusty road ahead I could see
It was the only time – it was the only time I ever saw Him run

And then He ran to me, He took me in His arms
Held my head to His chest, said “My son’s come home again”
Lifted my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice He said,
“Son do you know I still love you?”
He caught me by surprise as He brought me to my knees
When God ran – I saw Him run to me

BRIDGE:
I was so ashamed, all alone and so far away
But now I know He’s been waiting for this day

I saw Him run to me, He took me in His arms
Held my head to His chest, said “My son’s come home again”
Lifted my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice I felt His love for me again

He ran to me, He took me in His arms
Held my head to His chest, said “My son’s come home again”
Lifted my face, wiped the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice He said, “Son”, He called me Son
He said, “Son do you know I still love you?”
He ran to me and then I ran to Him
When God ran

Why I Am a United Methodist

Actually, there was a four-week sermon series I gave with that title before heading off to General Conference in Fort Worth.  I think it was pretty good.  The four reasons I gave were:

1. The United Methodist Church is where I found true Christian Community.  I talked about Sunday School and youth group and shared some of the high points of Christian community that I’ve found in the church.  And I talked about some of the low points.
2. The United Methodist Church taught me about the bigness of God’s Grace.  Prevenient grace.  A grace so amazingly big that it’s given to me without even waiting for a response.  The grace is prior to my response.  For someone who deals with some pride issues, this understanding of grace takes it all out of my hands and puts it in God’s hands.
3. The United Methodist Church taught me about practical divinity.  We believe that faith should be put into practice in the world.  Faith without works is dead.  Got to talk about some of the great ways the larger church is involved in mission around the world.
4. The United Methodist Church taught me about worship.  Here I shared some of the memorable worship experiences I’ve been a part of, even in my present congregation.  And I also shared about some of the challenges of conducting worship in a small congregation.

That’s kind of the long answer for why I am a United Methodist.  The shorter answer (and no less relevant) is that, when we moved from Massachusetts to New York in the mid 1970s, the United Methodist Church seemed more friendly than the Presbyterian one.  If the Presbyterian Church in Yorktown Heights, NY has seemed a little more friendly on the Sunday we showed up, perhaps this would be a very different story that you’d find on this blog.

Back from Annual Conference

Yesterday was the last day (of three) of Annual Conference for the Alaska United Methodist Conference. I really wasn’t able to think about blogging much at that time. Very busy driving into Anchorage each day. I’ll post some updates a bit later.

How to Drink Coffee

I’m finishing up a book by F. Belton Joyner, Jr. It’s called The Unofficial United Methodist Handbook for Pastors. It’s funny. It’s light. It’s relevant. For instance, he has the following chapter on “How to Drink Coffee.”

Understand the implicit goal involved. The purpose of drinking coffee is not to drink coffee but rather to visit with a parishioner. If you like good coffee or need the caffeine, consider patronizing a place that specializes in coffee. If you don’t like coffee, you can still accept the invitation to share a cup of coffee with a parishioner, because the goal is the relationship.

He has a section (it’s not long, believe me) on correct posture when sitting or standing — trying to express through body language that you’re comfortable and are willing to stay around a while so the parishioner can share.

He writes, “Church coffee is generally weak, so you can drink it all day and still remain calm.”

And he closes with the following:

Obey the time-tested rules of etiquette. In the case of a home visit that involves coffee, it is customary for hosts to apologize for what they are serving you. They might say, “Sorry that I don’t have very much to offer” or “Sorry that these cookies didn’t turn out just right.” This is not a sign that the fare is of poor quality–rather, it’s an invitation for you to compliment the host.

Now, I admit that I like to drink coffee socially. And, I’ll drink it at church functions if it’s served. However, I have found that you can kill two birds with one stone if you meet with your parishioner at a coffee shop. Then you know the coffee and treat will probably be good. And, in this part of the country, coffee shops are an institution. It’s where people go to meet.

Critique of Red-Letter Christians

I read through a critique of “Red-Letter Christians” (RLCs) by Stan Guthrie of Christianity Today.  The article is called “When Red is Blue.” While a lot of the article tries to paint RLC’s into a Democratic or politically liberal corner, I think the main criticism one can make is spelled out in his first couple of paragraphs:

Though I own several Bibles with the words of Christ printed in red, I’ve always found the concept a bit iffy. After all, we evangelicals believe in the plenary, or full, inspiration of Scripture, don’t we? Setting off Jesus’ sayings this way seems to imply that they are more holy than what is printed in ordinary black ink. Sure, Christians understand that Jesus the incarnate Word fulfills the written Word. But if all Scripture is God-breathed, then in principle Jesus’ inscripturated statements are no more God’s Word to us than are those from Peter, Paul, and Mary—or Ezekiel.

That’s why I felt a bit queasy when I heard about a group calling itself “Red-Letter Christians.” In the book Letters to a Young Evangelical, Tony Campolo says RLCs have an “intense desire to be faithful to the words of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament.” That’s a worthy start, of course—but only that.

I, too, believe all of Scripture is God-breathed.  But I also we must look at all of Scripture through the lens of Christ.   Does what Jesus said and did have more bearing than Paul’s words about women and head-coverings?  Don’t we interpret the Old Testament in light of the sacrifice of Christ?  I see “the binding of Isaac” as just one example of this:

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.

Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.  On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.  He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,  Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.  Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.  But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”

For Christians, how can we not interpret this passage christologically?   Christ becomes the light by which we read the Scriptures, the lens through which we interpret the Scriptures.  And, for instance, when we read about the wars of Old Testament, we need to see it, knowing about Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and his words about forgiveness.

I’m not going to say that I’m a red-letter Christian, but I do think this is helpful as I look at my own understanding of Biblical interpretation.