Piercing Words from a Bishop

Okay, two days after I was romping around Sikeston in running shorts, we have snow on the ground here in Southeast Missouri...

Two things about this post...First, in a February post I raised the issue of the Church's need to abandon that which prevents Jesus followers from fulfilling the command to make disciples and to reach the least, the last, and the lost. This post relates to that original question. Second, I am a part of the particular branch of the Christian tree which is United Methodism. I love my roots and I love my connection, but we who are United Methodists face a real crossroads in our history. We are structured for maintenance more than we are streamlined for whatever we need to become, so that we may offer Christ in a new millennium. The following words come from someone who is now one of our bishops (leaders). The "Wesley" to whom he refers is John Wesley, an 18th century priest in the Church of England who is regarded as the father of the awakening and renewal movement commonly known as "Methodism." THE BOOK OF DISCIPLINE is our denomination's guidebook of doctrines, official positions on issues, and procedures. I'll let these words stand on their own for now, and possibly comment on them in later posts.

"When Methodism fails to stress Wesley's conviction of the powerful, even prevenient, grace of God as the source of all possibility of new life, Methodism degenerates into insufferable, sentimental moralism in which the Christian life is depicted as simply another helpful means of making nice people even nicer. Discipleship is not a sanctimonious Twelve Step program. A holy person is a testimonial not to the innate possibility within people, but rather to the insistent, transforming love of God in Jesus Christ despite our sin. The laborious, legalistic, minutely detailed procedures and mandates in our current United Methodist Book of Discipline are testimonial not only to a church with too little trust, but also to a church where we attempt to do through moralistic law that which only the transforming love of Christ can do." (William Willimon, "Suddenly a Light From Heaven," in Conversion in the Wesleyan Tradition, Kenneth J. Collins and John H. Tyson, editors. Abingdon Press, Nashville, 2001. Page 250. Italics his.)

Your thoughts? I'll see you around the next bend in the river. We may be in the rapids now...

Confused by Jesus or Us?

It's a balmy day in southeast Missouri where I live. We've got blustery winds, mostly sunny skies, and temperatures in the seventies. If I don't get on a river and/or get to fishing soon, I might break something. (Of course, they say we could be getting snow by Tuesday.)

Again, "Swimmin'Upstream" (whoever this is...I can't access his/her profile), raises the right issues. People in the public as a whole are often confused and even put-off by denominational structures, complicated rituals, and the incongruity between that which Christians profess and how they live. I remember some spoken lyrics in a song by Casting Crowns which I heard recently. Speaking to professing Christians, a child's voice says, "People aren't confused by Jesus; they're confused by us!" A recent article in REV magazine backs this up in sobering fashion. For years Christians have been told that about 40% of the American population is in worship weekly. The writer of the article points at that this is on the basis of self-reporting. In fact, when the actual faith practices of people are tracked, the figure is dramatically lower. While spiritual hunger is at an all time high in our culture, confidence in organized churches is at a low ebb. This is true for virtually all Christian expressions - Roman Catholic, mainline Protestant, and "evangelical." (I'll go into this article in more detail in my next post.)

This is sobering. We who are connected to organized churches can respond in several ways. We can practice denial, which apparently we've been doing for a while. We can get angry and defensive. We can blame clergy, or laypersons, or society, or all of the above. We can collapse in despair and give up. Or we can see this as an opportunity; a God-given chance to realign ourselves with God who is made known in and through Jesus, regardless of the effect on the organizations and practices on which we've become dependent.

Is it possible that we who say we want others to meet Jesus are a part of a significant barrier to that meeting taking place? What do you think? I'll see you around the next bend in the river.