Prayers For General Conference 2019

I am praying fiercely for our denomination as the special session of General Conference begins a week from today. 

What am I praying for?

I’m praying that the Holy Spirit guides us to a place none of us can imagine;

I’m praying that the church that helped me experience God’s love for me, that steeped me in our Wesleyan tradition of personal piety and social holiness, that I in turn devoted my life to in service, continues to wrap our children in that same love and nurture, so that they may grow up confident in this Love that will never let them go;

I’m praying that what we know to be true in every congregation throughout the Mountain Sky Conference—that our pews are filled with people who disagree with one another yet are united in mutual love and mission—will be the foundation for our denomination’s future;

I’m praying that we in the church will not judge people without knowing them, but instead will listen to their experiences of God’s love and their commitment to Christ;

I’m praying the church stops seeking to limit love in the lives of LGBTQ persons. Celibacy is a gift, not a penance, and it is God who reminds us that it “is not good for the Human One to be alone”;

I’m praying that in a world broken by divisions and hostilities, we as members of the Body of Christ can provide a healing witness to the world that diversity doesn’t have to lead to division and unity is not the same thing as uniformity;

Each of us are United Methodist because we have found something life-giving in our grace-filled theology. May we not seek to expel anyone or leave ourselves because there are people we don’t agree with, for our scriptures teach us that God keeps widening the circle of fellowship. Personally, my greatest growth as a follower of Christ came not from those who look and think like me, but from those whose experiences and beliefs were not like mine. I give thanks to God for United Methodism’s “big tent theology” that has offered me these relationships that have helped me grow. 

One of my favorite spiritual writers, Roman Catholic Carlo Carreto, wrote eloquently of how much he loved his church at the same time it angered and disappointed him. As he pondered leaving he concluded:

“Where would I go?

Would I establish another?

I would not be able to establish it without the same faults,

for they are the same faults I carry in me.

And if I did establish another,

it would be my Church,

not the Church of Christ.

And I am old enough to know

that I am no better than anyone else.”

I ask you and your congregation to pray in the coming days for our church, that we might be led by God’s Holy Spirit. 

Here Am I, Send Me!

I love Isaiah 6: 1-8. It is the call of the prophet of Isaiah, “Whom shall we send and who will go for us?” Isaiah doubts his worthiness, even though he has seen the Lord, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Yet, he experiences a cleansing of the guilt of sin he has been carrying, and is able to respond, “Here am I, send me.”

God calls the most unlikely people to carry God’s message of saving love into the world. Isaiah felt unworthy, Moses was a murderer, Sarah laughed at what God had promised. Jesus picks unlikely ones as well: fishermen, tax collectors, a woman at the well…not the people you would automatically assume would be chosen for such sacred tasks.

God continues to ask, “Whom shall we send, and who will go for us?” Our task is to help one another hear and respond to God’s call. God has a particular task for each one of us: some are called to teach Sunday School and train up a new generation in the ways of Jesus. Others are called to create mission pathways so people can bring Good News in tangible ways to communities in crisis. Some are called to administrative work, to help the church use its resources to further its ministry. What has God called you to do? How have you responded, “Here am I, send me!”

I was blessed as a child to have someone recognize something in me that I wasn’t able to see in myself. One day when I was 11 years old, Ken White asked me if I ever thought about becoming a minister. His question rocked my world and forever changed my walk with Jesus. Through that simple question, God’s call for my life was given the space to grow.

Each church should be nurturing future leaders. How is yours doing it? Do you see the fruits of the Spirit in a young person’s life, just waiting to be encouraged to develop? Have you offered a spiritual nudge and asked, “Is God calling you to ordained ministry?” Are you staying alert and looking at those who might seem like unlikely candidates for such work? The teen who is always hanging out in the background of church activities, who seems to have no where else to go? The addict who has found sobriety whose joy at a new lease on life is contagious? The single mom with several children of her own yet still has the emotional bandwidth to be a mom to all the kids in the neighborhood?

When was the last time your church sent someone into ministry? If you are not nurturing the next generation of ministers, how will your church have the spiritual leadership to continue to be a living witness of God’s generous grace in the future?

May you and your congregation allow God to speak through you, “Whom shall we send, and who will go for us?” as you encourage deeper discipleship in one another, and may someone—may many people--respond, “Here I am, send me.”

Be Like The Shepherds

Today I prayed for you, dear Ones of the Mountain Sky Conference, as we journeyed through Bethlehem. You were on my mind all day as we touched the place where Jesus was born and also stood underneath an Israeli security tower next to the Separation Wall. 

But it was as we visited the Shepherds Field that my prayers for you, for us, for our church, burned in my heart. While the lectionary is pushing us towards Lent, I am in Bethlehem, where every day is Christmas.

I kept thinking of those shepherds, out in their fields (THESE fields!) when their routine night of sheep tending was interrupted: God’s glory shone around them and an angel stood before them. This unexpected disturbance frightened them, but the angel told them not to be afraid, for the angel was bringing good news: “A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2)

The angel left them and instead of simply returning to their task of shepherding, they left for Bethlehem to see if what the angel said was true. Sure enough, they found Mary, Joseph and Jesus just as they had been told, and the shepherds told everyone the angel’s message. 

Mountain Sky Pilgrims in a cave in Shepherds Field

I am thinking about what happens when God breaks into our lives, how very disruptive the encounter is: shepherds left their fields, fishermen dropped their nets, Paul was even blinded for a bit. There is a great disturbance as what we think we know is challenged by this new thing God is doing in our lives and world.

“Do not be afraid.”

God invites us to a new life, a new way of seeing the world, a new spirit, a new perspective and it is very disruptive. We cling to the known and sure. To let go of what we know is frightening. Yet, the angel speaks to us as well, “Do not be afraid.”

Being in Bethlehem, I am reminded that every day really is Christmas. God desires to break into our hearts and offer Good News. Just as the shepherds had to leave what they knew and understood their lives and world to be, God invited them to participate in the ushering in of something so longed for yet too good to be true: God-Is-With-Us. Nothing can ever be the same again.

Do we let the Good News become the stale news? Do we become too comfortable with what is and not open ourselves to what God seeks to give birth to in our lives and communities? Are we too busy becoming mired in our routines that we fail to allow God to interrupt us and lead us into new ways that bring us Life?

Do not be afraid.

May you and your congregation have hearts open to God’s Good News. May you be willing to drop what you are doing (and perhaps have always been doing) so Christ can be born into our lives and world, again and again and again. May you have a shepherd’s willing spirit, even in the face of something fearful, to trust enough to follow the angel’s invitation.

May you not be afraid.