Ring Out!

 This weekend I am in Orlando at Exploration 2024, a gathering for young adults to explore how God may be calling them into a vocation in the church. I love helping people explore their call—I believe each one of us was created to contribute something unique to the whole of our life together. Our task (and it can take our entire lives) is to figure out what it is and live it.

It’s kind of like playing in a bell choir.

Unlike a vocal choir, where often all the vocal sections (bass, tenor, alto, soprano) sing the same phrase with counterpoint notes, a bell choir member has but 2-4 notes (well, we altos also often have only 2-4 notes, but at least we sing them throughout the song!). Which means that as the song with bells is performed, a bell ringer must be prepared to come in at the right time with the right bell. I have seen some bell ringers ring just one bell through an entire piece, but the song would not be complete if they did not play their part at the right time. If they played the wrong bell, or came in early or late, or even refrained from playing, the musical piece would be changed.

While in other musical groups, people play individual instruments, all the bells together make the musical instrument. We all are the instrument together.  If someone misses their cue, or misses a performance, the instrument will not be able to perform due to missing notes.

Each of us carries a note we must play if the Song of Life is to be complete. To not be aware we are carrying the note, to not play the note at all, or to play it wrong results in the Song of Life devolving from being a Divine Love Song to a cacophony of dissonant and disconnected notes.

Scripture put it this way:

“Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (I Corinthians 12: 4-7)

You are needed in this world. If you don’t bring your whole self, with your unique gift, to our life together, the vibrations that reverberate in our souls is diminished. The beauty of life fades. The sweet goodness of life is lessened.

Live so aware of yourself and others that you will know the right cue—of when and how to let your life ring out in joy and delight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHgpuWPg1OE

I Will Go, Lord, Where you Lead Me

 This is an anxious season for pastors. I confess from February to the beginning of June, whenever my phone rang I would break out in a cold sweat, and if I noticed it was my DS, I definitely sent it to voicemail. “Why?” you might ask. Because it is appointment season!

We who have said yes to answering a call to ordained ministry in The United Methodist Church agreed to become itinerant preachers, going where God and the Bishop feel our gifts best match the needs of the church. We are not solo practitioners but are a part of a connection of both clergy and churches. This web of connection seeks to multiply effective ministry by deploying clergy across the conference so we can, together, provide a strong and vital witness of God’s love.

This is the season where I, along with the district superintendents, pastors, and Staff Parish Relations Committees, do discerning work. Each pastor has to ask themselves: Am I being fruitful and faithful in my current ministry? Am I growing spiritually? Am I deepening my leadership skills? Do I have the skills this church needs? If I don’t, am I willing/able to learn them?

As bishop and cabinet, we look at every church and every pastor. We look not only at individual churches but clusters of churches as well so that entire regions can have the kinds of pastors needed for support. Data is reviewed, church statements read, and prayers are lifted. Spouse’s and children’s needs are considered, as is community support if a pastor is single.

Itineracy is a proud part of our history, one of the reasons why Methodism spread across this country so effectively. Unmarried circuit riders traveled a circuit of several churches over the course of 5-6 weeks, preaching and teaching and equipping laity for the work of ministry. It wasn’t an easy life back then…prior to 1847, more than half of circuit riders died before they were 30! And it isn’t an easy one now.

 Every time your pastor sings “I will go, Lord, where you lead me,” they are reaffirming their commitment to the itineracy. They are saying they are giving their full selves to serve not in the place they want for themselves, but in the place communal discernment believes is best for the whole as each pastor’s appointment impacts every other pastor’s appointment.

I invite you to be in prayer for the pastors in your life, for the churches throughout our conference, for the district superintendents, and for me as we all, together, seek to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, which always leads us to places we hadn’t expected to go, to be in relationship with people who are new to us, to do things we never thought we would.

Called to a Life of Love

I love the story of Jesus' first calls to the disciples. His cousin John the Baptist has been imprisoned for critiquing Herod’s behavior. In this charged political climate, Jesus begins his ministry, recruiting those who are willing to let go of all they are doing to follow him. Nets were dropped, tools put down, schedules abandoned as Jesus’ call took hold of the disciples’ lives, and they could do no other but follow him.

In hindsight, the easy part was the initial call—“Come, follow me.” The disciples left the familiar and ran to Jesus, hungry for direction and meaning. But we get to see the whole story: when the demands of faith seemed too great, the risks of faith too frightening, the disciples shrank in fear.

In fact, being a disciple of Jesus was (and is!) a pretty high-risk venture. It meant leaving oneself open to a great deal of loss: the loss of friends and family, the loss of home and possessions, the loss of job and status. And by the world’s standards, the gains weren’t very pretty. Since Jesus, from his very birth, was considered a political subversive, the disciples risked a great deal to follow him. And when Jesus was arrested and crucified and the going got real tough, the disciples scattered in fear.

God wouldn’t leave them alone but kept beckoning to them. They discovered that their commitment was greater than their fear, so that they were able to live out their call of preaching, teaching, and healing in Jesus’ name.

Living out God’s claim on our life is a scary venture. It calls us into a future that is unknown. It puts us in relationships with people we might not otherwise choose to be in relationship with. It opens us to experiences that we would rather avoid.

Too often we try to put guard rails on faith. We try to stifle where the Spirit calls us. We pull ourselves back from the very places God would have us go. This is not only to our own detriment but also to the world, which God has called us to engage with hearts on fire for compassion, for healing, for justice.

During our Civil Rights Pilgrimage in Montgomery, I read one person’s words that challenged me: “We committed ourselves so completely to the vision of civil rights that the risk of dying was secondary.” I confess reading that while standing in the epicenter of the civil rights movement, learning about how costly the civil rights movement was to those who participated in it, felt like a punch to the gut. How committed am I to my faith, to this life of Love that Jesus calls me to? Am I willing to live it so completely that the risk of death is a secondary thought?

The Love Jesus calls us to live is a demanding Love. This Love isn’t content with the status quo. It demands that structures and systems get shaken up so that people can not merely survive but thrive. It insists on recognizing all persons as possessing the image of God. It always moves us to the margins of any group, any community, to build the center of community (and ministry!) there.

“And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.” Many of us belted this song out with gusto when we were young. Is the fire of that faith still burning? Where is Love leading you and your church today as you follow Jesus?