On the Eve of a New Year

As we stand poised in this liminal space between 2024 and 2025, I have been thinking about how January gets its name from the Roman god Janus, the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, and doorways. I stand in the doorway, reflecting back on all that 2024 held and looking forward to the possibilities of the new year.

For me, “weary” sums up 2024. The year included retirement, an international move, and the end of the anti-LGBTQ+ language in The United Methodist Book of Discipline. Any one of these would be momentous and exhausting. Together, they cast a surreal light that made me often stop and wonder, “Can this really be happening?”

When Robin and I decided to move to Nova Scotia in retirement, we chose to replace our little cottage in Pugwash, NS with a larger home. We do not recommend building a new home a whole country away! Not being physically present meant that miscommunication was easy and meeting deadlines was not! The promised finish date of May turned to June, turned to July, turned to August, turned to September. Anticipating moving issues related to customs, we shipped our belongings up in May. After eight years of serving an area of 430,000 square miles, living out of a suitcase for a couple of months was nothing new!

I never could imagine myself retired. Despite the ups and downs of ministry, I have loved every second of service. Every appointment has blessed me in countless ways and I am so incredibly grateful for all the people I have encountered, who hold a precious place in my heart.

The hard part of being a United Methodist pastor is saying goodbye to the people you have served and come to love. Having to say goodbye to the people of the Mountain Sky Conference pained me deeply. We had weathered so much together—my election and consecration, attacks and undermining by the Right, the creation of a new conference, COVID, and disaffiliations. Yet, we also dreamed big and found joy together grounded in our deep commitment to mission and ministry.

The biggest impact on my life and ministry was the tectonic plate shift The United Methodist Church experienced at General Conference, where the delegates removed all the anti-LGBTQ+ language from our Book of Discipline. I had my call to ministry before that language entered our shared United Methodist lexicon. Even when it changed and I came out, I knew deep within me that I was called specifically to ordained ministry within The United Methodist Church. Boards of Ordained Ministries, District Superintendents, Bishops, and the churches I served affirmed that call over and over again. However, for more than forty years, I woke up each morning worried and wondering if this would be the day I would lose my ordination. That stress, experienced on a daily basis, was exhausting and stressful, impacting my spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being.

I find myself wondering: what was lost due to the church’s stance and what could have been if it hadn’t been there. What would I have done differently in my ministry? How might my life have turned out?

But living with “what ifs” dilutes reality and clouds the eyes of being able to see the gifts of what has been. So now I find myself looking forward to a new year, a new community, and new season of life.

Standing at the threshold of 2025, I recommit to living into a prayer I prayed in the parking lot of every church I visited in the Mountain Sky Conference: 

“Give me an undefended heart, and may I be generous in love.” 

I will continue to listen to the Spirit’s still, small voice that has always nudged me forward when the path wasn’t clear. I will invest in community in ways I couldn’t as an itinerant United Methodist preacher. I will be present to family. I will be a better friend.

As 2024 concludes, I carry a weariness deep within my bones. But through that weariness is a stubborn seed of joy that is bursting forth even now.

Thank you for being part of my journey in 2024. Holding you and all of us in prayer as we cross into 2025.

Happy New Appointment Year!

 Today is the first Sunday of the new appointment year. For those who are receiving new appointments, it is a day of anxiety: will this new relationship between pastor and parishioners be fruitful? Will it help us all grow in our discipleship? Will it foster ministries that extend beyond the walls of the church to those in the community who are most in need? Will it hone our prophetic voices and witness, as we seek a more just world for us all, in particular for the most vulnerable in our midst?

I am praying for you!

The appointment year is so uniquely United Methodist. While we plan for the long haul, we also know that at the end of June, we who are pastors may be passing the baton to someone who will be following us. For parishioners, it can be a time of grief as a beloved pastor moves on to another church in need of their gifts. If you are continuing with the same pastor/appointment, I pray that you will do some introspection: where have we been most faithful together? Where do we need to forgive each other? What do we need from each other to grow in faithfulness? Are we helping one another engage in ministries in the community that are life-giving and life-transforming? If not, why not?

I am praying for you as well!

When I came to the Mountain Sky Conference eight years ago, I was so struck by how missional our churches were: nearly every church had an outreach ministry that made an impact on the lives of others—whether in the community in which the church was, or even in other continents through mission trips and missional giving. I was and continue to be moved by this sign of vitality in our churches.

Your church is needed to be a beacon of hope as you share the love God has for all people. In these
highly divisive days, how you live together, honoring the differences that exist between your neighbors in the pews, can be a witness that diversity is a sign of a wildly creative God and adds contour to community.

I am praying for us all through these days of transition. May the Holy Spirit continue to draw us more deeply into God’s grace, and lead us all into Beloved Community.

Yes, Jesus Loves Me

 “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so…”

This is the very first song nearly every child learns in a Christian Sunday School. Sunday School teachers and members of the church are vessels of this love through their care and instruction. In this supportive environment, children grow in faith as they grow into their God-created selves.

But in too many churches, once young people begin to question their sexual orientation or gender identity, the message they receive is that God’s love is now conditional. This causes deep spiritual harm. Someone who doesn’t have a nurturing environment to grow into the person God created them to be lives a stunted life, never living into their full potential.

Church ought to be the place where every child of God will find a loving and accepting home to be who they are.

The United Methodist Church made huge changes to be that loving place through General Conference actions.

There are some United Methodists who are going to think we went too far by removing the language that declared homosexuality as “incompatible with Christian teaching”, allowing clergy to preside over same-gender weddings (if they choose to do so) and allowing LGBTQ clergy. I hope you will enter into a time of wondering: why would these pass overwhelmingly by delegates from around the world (the ban against LGBTQ clergy only had 51 no votes out the entire body)? What scriptures would prompt people to adopt these positions? How do these statements help us “do no harm; do good; and stay in love with God?”

We humans see the image of God as through a mirror dimly (I Corinthians 13: 12). God is so much bigger than our limited comprehension. The God who created the world in all its diverse flourishings has imprinted on each human God’s own image. The more we encounter and enter into relationship with each other, the deeper we look into each other’s eyes, the clearer God’s image emerges. We gain a bigger picture of who God is, particularly when we include those who don’t look like us, think like us, or love like us.

There are people of all ages in your community who are looking for a grace-filled community that allows them to ask questions, to be able to take tentative and shaky steps to explore who God made them to be, to find themselves in a community who will cheer them on when they do so.

Will you and your church be that community?

Let me tell you: there is amazing joy waiting for you if you are willing to do so. For wherever there is new life, whenever someone says yes to being their full God-created self, when someone is finally able to proclaim out loud to God “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made” the angels sing and the saints dance.

I pray that our United Methodist Churches will be such loving places. May no child of God ever think they are beyond God’s love. May they be able to sing throughout their life:

“Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so”

 

Where Love and Joy Dance

 How apt that this past week’s lectionary was from I John 4, a beautiful passage on love—the love God has for us and the love we ought to have for one another.

Love is the bedrock of the Christian life.

And love is what I am experiencing in Charlotte at General Conference.

For years, General Conference has felt more like a battleground than an experience of Christian conferencing. Voices were silenced. Lives were demeaned. Hope was dashed, over and over again.  

But something is happening in Charlotte. At first there was a timidity of spirit, but then an open-heartedness to one another grew and even in the midst of differences, joy has bubbled up in contagious ways. Truly, the Holy Spirit is in this place.

What’s changed?

One of the best lines I ever heard in a church meeting was when a group was moving through a difficult topic but slowly aligning in consensus. Someone disagreed with the direction and said, “I just need to be a devil’s advocate and say…” Someone else said, “The church is the last place that needs an advocate of the devil.”

Differences of opinion and diverse voices are so vital for healthy conferencing. But those who just seek to disrupt, divide, and disorder do little to build up the Body of Christ.

Continue to pray for the delegates, who are working hard to respond to the Spirit’s leading, who are listening intently to one another,  and who are helping us realize the future of our beloved denomination.

And may this gracious spirit pervade our local churches, so that all who walk through our doors will find a place of welcome, where love and joy dance together down the aisles.

The Ones Who Aren't Here

 I and so many others are frantically preparing for General Conference, that once-every-four-years United Methodist meeting that we had to postpone due to COVID. At this meeting, delegates determine church policy for the next four years which will order our shared life and ministry.

I love my friendships across The United Methodist Church. There is an orientation to life and faith that we share as United Methodists that has fostered deep and lasting friendships for me. But oddly, as I sit in prayer for the upcoming meetings, it is not the faces of my friends that rise up within me nor the issues the delegates will tackle. Instead, the names and faces of those who have left the denomination are the ones that swirl with the Spirit in the space of my prayers.

Even though we held deep differences—in particular about the role of lgbtq+ people in the life and ministry of the church (and even though their beliefs have been soul wounding to so many of us) I can’t help feeling the void their departure has left.

This is in part because I do believe in the power of our sacraments. It is through baptism and communion that we come to experience God’s generous grace. The bread is broken, but we are together made whole. The water we place on our forehead to remember our baptism reminds us that God loves us and claims us, but not we alone! Through these experiences, we are united with others, whether we like it or not. They are our kin in Christ and we are theirs.

Because of this experience, I can’t “other” another. I can’t dismiss them. I can’t pretend they don’t exist. I can’t wish for a church without them in it.

The Church’s witness is lessened when we are unable to live gracefully among ourselves. Our diversity ought to be revered as a blessing that opens us more fully to the image of God that is imprinted on humanity. It isn’t easy work. It is hard. Really hard. We have to be willing to be changed by our encounter with another. But this is what leads us all to a holier and more whole place.

I look forward to the ways the Holy Spirit will show up at General Conference, and the people we will be at the end of our time together. But today, I am sitting and reflecting on the ones who won’t be there.

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

LOVING THROUGH DISAGREEMENT

Thank you for your comments on last week’s reflection on reformation in The United Methodist Church. The many posts and emails I received in response to the reflection revealed a love of our church and a deep hunger for it to be all it can be amid a fracturing time. Where there is brokenness, there is a need for healing—there must be a time for rest and recovery as that which is broken is reformed. With the help of the Holy Spirit, the people called United Methodist will be a church of reformation as the broken pieces are stitched together in new and beautiful ways.

Can we sit in the rest and healing part for a moment?

My hunch is that you—like me—are sick and tired of the half-truths, mistruths, and just plain lies that have been said about our beloved church. I regularly get emails from folks across the connection saying that their church is considering disaffiliation because they were told I don’t believe in the divinity of Christ and that I use Tarot cards to make decisions in my annual conference. Both are false! And I give thanks for those folks who took it upon themselves to do a little research and seek out the facts.

I do have critiques about our church. There are things I wish were different. Some decisions pain me deeply. But disagreement is a part of living in community. I have yet to belong to a community that was free from dissenting voices. What matters is how we enter into the disagreements as we embrace a mutual desire to make our shared life better.

One thing I recognized early on as a pastor was that our appointment system makes it much too easy to leave a church (or for a church to request a new pastor) when the going gets rough. What I learned was that this doesn’t bring resolution, it simply delays an honest engagement of the disagreements. When all parties stay close, leaning in together, keeping aware of their commonalities instead of their differences, it helps move through the disagreement. We learn so much together! When we truly seek to move through our differences and stay united, we are all brought through the conflict to a whole (and holy) place of mutuality and trust. And it is from that place that great things can happen as we seek to serve as disciples of Christ!

(Image by Gerd Altmann)

I believe that God works even in the discord, for “in all things God works for good.” May we stay open-hearted to those with whom we disagree, for the Body of Christ is a diverse one and we need each other in order to know God as fully as we can. May love be the guide in all we do, in every ministry we undertake, in every decision we ponder; a love that enlarges our world, our views, our understandings, because this love requires us to take into account not only ourselves and those close to us, but even those we see as “other” and “strange” yet still possess the image of God.

May love undergird our life in Christ’s church as we seek to be faithful stewards of it.

How Lovely Are The Messengers…

 One of my favorite choral pieces is Felix Mendelssohn’s “How Lovely Are the Messengers”. We sang it often in my high school choir. If you haven’t heard this beautiful anthem, listen to it here: 

https://youtu.be/dR4QE0k72dw

I realize this piece, which references Romans 10: 15, 18, helped form my understanding of evangelism:

“How lovely are the messengers that preach us the gospel of peace. To all the nations is gone forth the sound of their words, throughout all the lands their glad tidings.”

As I reflect on my own journey of faith, those who shared the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with me, who taught me about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, who helped me experience God’s generous grace, were (and are) truly lovely. Their faith gave them a contagious joy. They did not hide their light under a bushel but rather held it high to light the way for others.  Through them, I heard Jesus’ warm invitation to follow him. Because of their witness, I have spent my life trying to live more fully into his Way. 

These lovely messengers never spoke poorly of another. They never denigrated another’s faith. They never built themselves up by tearing someone else down. 

Instead, they kept loving people. They may have had enemies but I only heard them call people “friends”. They saw the best (meaning, they saw the God-potential) in everyone they met. And they encouraged us all to grow into it. 

This is the kind of invitational, evangelical faith I hope every United Methodist church will embody. May the life-saving, life-transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ be lived out in the lives of each church member so vividly that it will be irresistible to others. May this gospel of peace shape how we extend our ministries into the world. May we all be worthy of this description:

How lovely are the messengers that preach us the gospel of peace.

The Commitments We Make

This week, MSC clergy gathered in Estes Park for study, worship, renewal and rest. It was a rich time filled with brave conversations, laughter, tears, prayers, and singing. It was a vital time of reconnecting as a body and remembering our calls.

Of course, on the forefront of everyone’s mind is the future of The United Methodist Church. Will there be a United Methodist denomination after May 2020’s General Conference?  Who will we be? How do we walk through these uncertain, anxious days still focused on the ministry to which God has called us?

It is critical that we remember our mission. As United Methodists, it is to “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” As we became the Mountain Sky Conference, we understood this contextually in our region to mean “The Mountain Sky Conference of the UMC will live in God’s grace and abundance as we lead a re-energized peaceful and compassionate movement to claim the life-changing love of Jesus Christ for ALL people.”

We aren’t there yet. We have made some important changes to our life together (like putting more resources out of the Denver Office and into our districts) but we still have a long way to go. As Wesley reminds us, “We are moving on to perfection”! We live together in grace as we seek to live into God’s future.

I know it is not easy living into these uncertain days. The cabinet and I have been in prayer together about our conference and what is needed for this moment. We also spent time with a consultant, Ben Kiker, who helped us focus our work together. It is in our desire to serve you better that we make these commitments.

As bishop and cabinet, we will serve you by committing ourselves to the following:

• Grounded Spiritually: We will be Spirit-led not ego driven, grace-filled, courageous, Always moving towards beloved community

• Authentic: Truthful, Integrity, Humility, Unity

• Inclusive: Expansive as we draw the circle wide, Generous gratefulness for our difference, Seek the whole

• Compassionate: Gentle as a dove, Undefended, Tenaciously tender

• Strategic intent: Visionary, Attentive to vision, Courageous, Wise as a serpent

That is our commitment to YOU. If you experience us as not living out these commitments, hold us accountable! Let us know! And together, let’s be expansive in the grace we offer each other as we seek to renew these commitments.

What commitments do you make to our MSC family during these anxious days? What can we count on from you as a part of this family? How will you live out your ministry, seeking to follow Jesus through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in all you do in your church and beyond? How will you show love and offer grace as we walk in the light of God?

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” (I Peter 4:8-10 NIV)

From Death To Life

It has been two weeks since the vote at General Conference. I watched in the days after as churches and pastors in the Mountain Sky Conference received flowers and casseroles from mainline denominational neighbors. A friend from San Francisco sent Robin and me flowers. A neighbor came to the door (we had only met once) with a plate of cookies. She could not control her sobbing as she passed them to us.

This seemed so familiar, but how? Then it hit me:

This is what we do for each other when there is a death.

Grief hung heavy over The United Methodist connection following General Conference. I had the privilege of serving communion at St. Andrew United Methodist Church the Sunday after GC. The entire youth choir lined up to take communion with me. Some had tears in their eyes. Others were sobbing. Many fell into my arms, yearning for comfort.

What, exactly, died on February 26, 2019?

While the headlines read that the UMC has doubled-down on its anti-LGBTQ stance, the harm of the vote extended far beyond LGBTQ United Methodists to include their families, their friends, their mentors, and so many others. It has cracked the connection not only between conferences, but also our United Methodist-related institutions, who now wonder how they can remain a part of a denomination that has firmly institutionalized discrimination. But even more, it has caused The United Methodist Church to reject essentials that make United Methodists methodists:

OUR THEOLOGICAL TASK: The Book of Discipline reminds us that the theological task of United Methodism is critical and constructive, contextual and incarnational, and essentially practical. It includes “the testing, renewal, elaboration, and application of our doctrinal perspective in carrying out our calling ‘to spread scriptural holiness over these lands.’” But by a slim majority, the ability for United Methodists to engage the theological task across our various cultural contexts was restricted and thereby our ability to spread scriptural holiness has been hampered.

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION: Wesley drew from his Anglican tradition a method for theological reflection (Scripture, Tradition, Reason), but added a fourth, Experience. While we first turn to scripture for a foundation for theology, it is held in conversation with the other three. However, at General Conference, this methodology (which has enabled us to live with the wide spectrum of theological perspectives and honor each as faithful) has been rejected to a biblical literalism that is far from our Wesleyan roots.

GRACE: Perhaps what has distinguished us from other religious traditions has been the Wesleyan focus on grace: prevenient grace, justifying grace, and sanctifying grace. As I used to tell my United Methodist Doctrine students, we really are about grace, grace, and more grace. This grace has enabled us to experience the wideness of God’s love, which leads us deeper down the path of holiness. This grace has been reflected in how we conduct ourselves in community, in particular when we disagree or have experienced brokenness: how can grace help us build up not only our individual relationships, but mend the places broken by sin? However, GC 2019 replaced grace with rigid rules and punitive punishments. Instead of seeking restorative justice grounded in an understanding of God’s grace, GC 2019 has banished the centrality of grace from the way we order our common life together.

This is why the decision at General Conference is creating such backlash and dissent—it is no longer a Progressive-Traditionalist disagreement about the role of LGBTQ people in the life and ministry of the church. It is a struggle for the very ethos of Methodism itself that crosses the theological spectrum found in our church.

This is the season of Lent. How appropriate that we take this journey with Jesus at this time. In Lent, we confront the reality of mortality and death. Yet, we also know that death is never our end. God will roll away the stone. New life will be offered. Resurrection is within reach.

I am not sure what will spring forth from this death, but I know that God is not through with us yet. May we be open to what God has in store for us, for “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)

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. 

The Life of the Party

Over the summer, I happened upon a town that closed off its Main Street for a town party. Antique firetrucks were on display and non-profits had tables to share information on their work. There were also lots of food and drink booths, live bands, and a small play area for children. Spirits were high and smiles were everywhere.

As I walked the length of Main Street, I passed a United Methodist Church. People were picnicking on the lawn and resting from all the activity on the street. However, except for the sign in the middle of the lawn, there was no United Methodist presence at the town party. There was not a table selling desserts or water. There was no one to greet the picnickers. The church was shut tight against the happy throng outside its doors.

Several days later I met someone who attends the church. I had mentioned that I was surprised that the church community wasn’t visible at the town party. “You mean that drunken crowd? Why would we be there?” was the response, “Not only that, our security cameras caught someone going to the bathroom in our bushes! Can you believe that?”

Matthew 5:14 reminds us: “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.” Too many churches are casting a dim light in their communities. Instead of active engagement, bringing the church directly where people are gathering, there is a “they’ll come to us” mentality that is far from what Jesus and the early church intended. There is a sea of humanity right outside the doors of every single church in the Mountain Sky Conference. Do we keep our doors shut tight to keep others out? Or are we willing to go into the highways and byways of humanity, bringing the love of God in life-saving and life-changing ways?

When there is a town party, is your church in the middle of it, bringing the Life to the party? When someone has a need (sometimes as mundane as needing a place to go to the bathroom) do your neighbors find your doors unlocked and a loving community waiting for them with arms wide open?

As we begin a new program year in the church, it becomes so easy to turn inward and make sure our ministries are scheduled and staffed for us. But that’s not why we exist. We exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. We are here to share the Good News in compelling ways, equip people to share God’s love, and send them out into the world so that broken, lonely people will find a Word of healing and hope and a Beloved Community that continues to grow and change with each new member.

I am praying that this year, we in the Mountain Sky Conference will be on fire with the Holy Spirit, so that every church across this conference will be seen as a vital, life-giving presence in its town.

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

I write this from Chicago, on the eve of the start of the Council of Bishops meeting. As many of you know, this is the meeting where we will receive the report from the Commission on the Way Forward and discern and deliberate on what will be presented to the Special Session of General Conference 2019.

There is so much anxiety and fear within our denomination right now. What will the church look like in February 2019—will there still be a United Methodist Church, or will we be an Untied Methodist Church? Will we reconcile with one another and our differences, to find a way to include all persons in the life and ministry of our church--regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity--or will we allow differences to divide us and the body of Christ? Fear of the future causes many to press the pause button, waiting “to see what will happen.”

Within our Mountain Sky Area there is fear and anxiety as well as we consider a new way of being an annual conference. Since 2011, there have been task forces and committees and discussions and studies about how we in the Mountain Sky Area can be the Mountain Sky Conference. But change is never easy. There is never a “right time” to implement change. Even we who have agreed to follow Jesus sometimes shrink back from that which we are called out of fear of the unknown.

When I look over my own life and ministry, I realize that there are times when my fear has left me frozen in my tracks instead of heading into the future God invites me to. The demands of change were just too much for me and I shrank back from the path. However, those times when I pushed through my fear led me to experiences, growth, and blessings beyond my wildest imagination.

In these days of anxiety and fear, may we sink into God’s love. In I John 4: 18 we are reminded: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” When you find anxiety clinging to your soul, when fear leaves you frozen, remember to open up to God, who is love. This love will help diminish your fear and free your feet to go where God leads.

Can Anything Good Come Out of ____________?

In John 1:43-51, Jesus has begun to gather his disciples. After Jesus invites Phillip to join him, Phillip excitedly tells Nathaniel: “We’ve found the one Moses and the prophets told us about! Jesus of Nazareth!” Nathaniel scoffs, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”--because Nazareth is considered the other side of the tracks, the wrong side of town. For Nathaniel, who believes the lies he’s been told about the place, certainly Nazareth can’t be a place where a savior could be from?

Phillip doesn’t let him wallow in what John Wesley called, his “popular prejudices.” He tells him to put what he’s been told aside and see for himself. It is in his personal encounter with Jesus that his prejudices fall and he sees Jesus for who he truly is.

This weekend, may we put down the lies we have been told about others. May we drop our prejudices and biases and allow the truth of another’s life to shine the light of God’s love into our own life. This weekend is “Human Relations Sunday” in The United Methodist Church. It is always held the Sunday before Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. In these days when falsehoods are being fostered and prejudices are promoted, may we bear testimony to the world of an alternative vision that the Gospel provides and that King lived out in word and deed:

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

May we challenge the falsehoods that diminish and deny the dignity and humanity of others. May we commit ourselves to inviting others to “Come and see” the love of God that dwells in the lives of those around us.

Thoughts On Power and Privilege Post-Charlottesville

Much has been written about white supremacy and white nationalism since this weekend’s deadly violence that erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia, and rightly so. We must condemn this evil that is seeking to fray the beautiful tapestry of American society. The hatred and racism that sustain these movements are literally life-threatening and must be confronted and dismantled.

But it is all too easy to point fingers and not do the hard work of personal soul searching, to be honest about the “every day racism” we whites participate in and benefit from. As a white woman, I have to confront my privilege, and the fact that my walk in the world is much easier because of my race than persons of color. Every day, I must confess my racism. Racism is so deeply embedded in our culture and entangles all of us in its web of inequity. I have to consciously reject it every day and the main way I do that is through the power of empathy, listening deeply to how those of color have a much different experience of the world than I do. I must understand that doors that open up automatically for me because of my whiteness open with difficulty—if at all—for persons of color. My race affords me places of safety not granted to those of other races.

I am not frightened of police officers. I don’t worry that by putting on a hoodie, I will be perceived as dangerous. I have never given my nieces and nephews “the talk” about how they should behave if ever stopped by a police officer. I have never been followed in a store by the owner because he or she automatically assumes that I am a suspect for shoplifting simply because of the color of my skin. I have never had to look very far—in books, movies, television, or church meetings—to see people who look like me. In white America, the color of my skin grants me power and privilege.

Racism isn’t an inconvenient social construct.  It is a deadly way to control others.

Racism permeates all corners of American society. Even the church is not immune from its cancerous presence. My own denomination’s history reveals a theology once held that supported the outrageous belief that owning another person and treating them less than human was in line with Christian values. Racism fueled segregation in the church through the creation of an all-black non-geographic jurisdiction in order to preserve (white) “unity”.

If we are to effectively oppose and defuse the movements of white supremacy and nationalism, the starting point must be with our own collusion with racism. Until we do this hard work, we will keep in place the social fuel that will allow these movements to flourish.

My white friends, we can no longer remain silent. We can no longer pretend we live in a post-racial society. We can no longer deny the privilege we possess. We can no longer believe that racism no longer exists.

With eyes wide open, may we dismantle the sin of racism, in our own lives and in the systems and institutions of which we are a part. May Love guide our work, focus our anger and fear, and lead us all into the promise of Beloved Community.