Bishop Mike Lowry

Monday morning I had the privilege of attending a TMF (Texas Methodist Foundation) Board learning session which focused on ministry with “Generation Y” (young adults).  With leadership provided by a young clergy couple from Church of the Resurrection and a follow on panel of four young adults (including Ben Lake, a lay member of 1st Georgetown), we engaged in nonjudgmental cross generational learning.  Among many insights is the repeated importance of going where young people are and engaging them on their turf.  To use the language of my age, this is a far cry from invitational evangelism.  It is an emphatic call to risk-taking evangelism through open engagement.

A repeated insight from Gil Rendle that I continue to “chew” on is that each new generation reacts & responds as a corrective to what it perceives as the problems/excesses/failures of the previous generation.  Thus, all generations struggle to some degree with the generations on either side of them.  There is much for all of us to learn here!

Yesterday Jolynn & I traveled to Tampa for Council of Bishops (COB) and General Conference.  We will be here for almost 3 weeks.  The Council will engage both in preparation for General Conference and in ongoing mission & ministry.  The first item on the agenda is a report from the Unity Task Force (of which I am a part).  In an age and culture known for its divisions, we who claim the title Christian must be known for our grace and good will.  Or, in the old liturgical words, “let us be together what Christ has been for us.”

I covet your prayers for the Church, the bishops and our General Conference.

P.S. I commend to you the reading of Bishop Robert Schnase’s most recent Ministry Matters blog #24 “A Healthy Urgency.” I strongly urge you to read the entire blog (!) – especially the last 4 paragraphs.

Currently I am in Monterrey, Mexico.  The Central Texas Conference has an ongoing covenantal relationship with the Eastern Conference of the Methodist Church of Mexico (an affiliated church).  I will blog about our learnings on returning.

In the meantime, I have been collecting some insights worth reflection in my reading, which I pass to you.  They are episodic but interesting (at least to me).

In a recent research article in Background Data for Mission (put out by the General Board of Global Ministries, http://new.gbgm-umc.org/), Rev. John Southwick, the author, writes lifting up the outstanding ministry of some non-UM churches:  “Some might question why this newsletter, and last month’s, did not feature United Methodist Churches.  There are certainly many of them doing wonderful ministry.  Those highlighted here happen to be those I have personally encountered within a short time prior to writing.  Of more importance, these churches are doing remarkable ministry in places where others have not fared so well.  Seattle and New York are among the least churched cities in the US and yet these ministries have not only done well, they have gone over the top.  The two churches noted last month, City Church in Seattle and Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York, along with Redeemer Presbyterian, are reaching more people, younger people, and more diverse people.  They are doing it with excellent music, strong preaching, an emphasis on evangelism, a love for their context, and a driving sense of vision and purpose.  All churches can strive to improve in these areas and may be pleasantly impressed with the results.”

Catch the emphasis near the close.  It is critically important and bears repeating.  “They are doing it with excellent music, strong preaching, an emphasis on evangelism, a love for their context, and a driving sense of vision and purpose.”

On another subject, many have reported on the United Methodist Church having a positive image among Americans in general.  The following quote is worth reflection.  “(United) Methodists are well liked — and there is great opportunity if (United) Methodist churches will seize the opportunity that this positive perception provides,” said Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research. “If they will show and share the gospel with their neighbors and plant evangelistic churches – they can turn a good reputation into a gospel opportunity.”  I have heard Ed Stetzer speak.  He is graciously ecumenical and often on target.  His writings are worth a look: www.edstetzer.com.

I have written in a previous blog that as a Cabinet we went to a Healthy Church Initiative (HCI) workshop.  As we continue to live in the “Exodus Project” we are consciously seeking to invest prayer, time, energy and learning to energize and equip local church to “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”  In conjunction with HCI, I am reading Bob Farr’s new book Renovate or Die.  I commend it to you for its practical helpfulness.

In Renovate or Die, Bishop Robert Schnase writes the eleventh chapter  entitled, “Overview: Changing the Conference Culture.”  He writes: “A church consultant began a teaching session with the provocative statement, ‘God doesn’t care whether your congregation thrives or declines, lives or dies.’  God cares about whether the transforming truth of Jesus Christ changes people, and changes the world through them, and God will gladly use our congregations for that purpose or work around our congregations for that purpose.”  Bishop Schnase goes on to comment, “Congregations are not ends in themselves.  Local churches are particular expressions of the body of Christ existing to further the mission that we see revealed in the life, death, and resurrection” (Bob Farr, Renovate or Die, p. 104).

I think God does care whether our churches thrive or decline, live or die.  But I take the basic point as true.  My way of putting it is that churches are not to be the object of our love.  They are an instrument of God’s love.  Outwardly focused churches driven by the winds of the Holy Spirit thrive as they engage in the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  Churches that inwardly focus solely to take care of each other die.  The church doesn’t have a mission.  The church is a mission post of the advancing kingdom of God. It is an instrument of God’s redemptive mission to this world.

Monday afternoon (May 2, 2011) at the Council of Bishops (COB), we heard Professor Dana Robert of Boston School of Theology address the historic leadership role of the office of bishop from the 3^rd paragraph of the Nicene Creed.  “We believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church.” Dr. Robert posed the following questions to the bishops gathered:

1.  “What does it mean for United Methodist bishops to represent the ‘oneness’ of the church?
2.  What does it mean for United Methodist bishops to represent the ‘catholicity’ of the church?
3.  In changing from a Christendom to a missional context, how should the role of the bishop evolve?
4.  What are the most important spiritual qualities necessary to be a bishop today?”

Even more pointedly Dr. Robert framed the questions from a historic perspective with the telling comment, we are “caught in transition from a Christendom mentality to a missional reality.”

This discussion may sound somewhat dry and technical, yet it directs our attention bluntly to the 3^rd point of the Call to Action to “reform the Council of Bishops” focusing on the active bishops assuming responsibility and public accountability for a new missional culture with measureable fruitfulness.  I have often said that, in my experience clergy, understand that Christendom is over but haven’t yet really engaged in a new missional reality (i.e. are still operating out of a Christendom modality).

 Like much of the church, the COB is wrestling with the painful change from an old mentality to a new reality.  One thing is clear.  God is calling us to a new world.  Like the Exodus of old the Lord is going before us.

 I ask you to keep in your prayers two special areas of concern that we have lifted up in COB – the victims of the tornados in Alabama and the people of the Ivory Coast recovering from a civil war.  I also ask for continued prayers for those recovering from the Possum Kingdom Fires.

A good friend of mine, Bishop Paul Leeland, says, “When the caravan is moving, the dogs are barking.”

As we have wrestled with appointments and are going through transition at the Conference office, I am reminded of Bishop Leeland’s pointed phrase.  It is one thing to know intellectually that Christendom is over, that we live in a post-denominational world.  Of this much we are clear.  Yet the struggle of wanting to operate as if that is not the case is still present.  Pastors walk a delicate balance of guiding and challenging their churches to serve Christ in new ways in a new age and yet still minister to those who signed on in the old order.  It is not easy. 

Recently I visited with a layman who has, by any measurement I know, an excellent pastor and yet wants him/her moved because they have introduced too much change.  I think I can get in touch with the fears this man expresses.  Yet I know, if these changes don’t take place, if the church does not engage in new ministry reaching out to a new generation, it will die.  Jesus has it right.  “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” (Mark 8:35)

The dogs are barking and the caravan is moving.  It is both glorious and tough at the same time.

In the last two weeks, I have attended to different Episcopal (judicatory) ecumenical events. Texas Conference of Churches held a retreat at Concordia University in Austin. This past Monday and Tuesday, I was in Atlanta for a quadrennial meeting of Pan Methodist bishops (African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, African Union Methodist Protestant Church, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Union American Methodist Episcopal Church and United Methodist Church).

I see value in meeting with leaders across the denominational spectrum. Relationship building leads to shared ministry. We have much in common – beginning with a shared post-Christendom culture.

What has left me puzzled is our reluctance to talk about Christian unity. Even seemingly tame references to unity evoke hasty qualifications that people want to speak of unity in ministry not in ecclesiastical union. I wonder why. Jesus said in John 17:20-21, “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” I believe God intends us to be as a larger Christian movement. Methodists came into being to reform the church. When that is accomplished, we should go out of existence (Mission accomplished!). When we worshipped and visited together, I learned again what I already knew. In the Pan Methodist context, the other Pan Methodists denominations came into being because of the white Methodist racism. We still have much to repent of. I was blessed by the graciousness of my new found friends and colleagues.

Reinhold Neibuhr once said that “nothing worth doing is accomplished in our life time.” I do not expect true unity in my life time. But we should engage in the effort. With Jesus, our prayer should continue to be “…As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21).

As I begin this Year of Our Lord 2010 (A.D.), I offer a new blog. I’ve entitled it This Focused Center based on The Message (a paraphrased translation of the Bible by Eugene Peterson) version of II Corinthians 5:14-15. “Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.”

My subtitle is Reflections on Christ and His Church. As I wrote in my Wilderness Way #28 column, I hope to share what I am reading and wrestling with. Together I hope and pray that we can live out of the focused center of life with Christ. Truly he came for all and he came to include us “in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.”
I offer this blog out of a conviction that we need to turn and return to a deeply Trinitarian expression of the Christian faith. More explicitly, it appears to me that much of contemporary mainline theological/cultural reflection appears to have a vague sense of God, a passing acquaintance with Jesus as Lord, and little conception of the work of the Holy Spirit. I want to invite us to be focused as explicitly Christian; that is to say, living out of the focused center of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior – crucified and risen for all!

Three quotes I ran into in my reading last fall stick with me. First, somewhere Philip Yancey wrote: “How would telling people to be nice to one another get a man crucified? What government would execute Mister Rogers or Captain Kangaroo?” I think was C. S. Lewis who said about Christ as our focused center: “Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.” In meanderings through Willie the Shake (William Shakespeare that is) there is a line from Henry V which clings to my soul. ““This is a stem / Of that victorious stock, and let us fear / The native mightiness and fate of him.” I may have the quotes wrong but they ring of truth for me. We are called to live from this Focused Center. I will try to write ever 3 days or so. You are invited to share a comment or thought.

Given the hectic-ness of my schedule I will only be able to reply spasmodically. Together as we wrestle and reflect on the truth of life and the truth of Christ and the truth of the Great God three in One – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I pray we can live the resurrection life, “a far better life than people every lived on their own.”