What’s Going On?

April 24, 2009

So, been quiet on here for a good bit.  Some updates:

1. The church I serve in is undergoing another full pastoral swap this June.  For those keeping score at home, this means I will be working with my fifth ordained elder in under 3 years.  The change is happening in part because of a change in staffing, as we are moving from two pastors to one pastor.  The higher ups thinking seems to be it is easier to move both the current pastors and send in someone new.  So, that all is going down right now and has spawned some serious thinking about the flaws of the current United Methodist Church “sent” pastors model and how I would change it.  Watch for a post about that soon.

2. I’d be honest is I didn’t say I was starting to question my long term loyalty to the United Methodist Church.  After witnessing what I have seen in my last two churches, along with some experiences that my friends are going through, being a faithful part of the “system” is much harder.  All along I have generally defined myself in these theological terms in order: Follower of Jesus, evangelical, Wesleyan and then United Methodist.  With some of the brokenness in the Methodist church, it is harder and harder not to discount what is happening in determining where I serve.

3. Learning more and more about myself and how I relate to folks.  This week marked some serious tension in a staff situation at the church.  It frustrated the crud out of me because in some part, I think I am being seen as the bad guy for intitating a conversation that several other people agree with me on.  And the default mode at the church is to not talk about and work through major issues, but instead to ignore it and hope it goes away; or maybe even more accurately, ignore it until they go away.  That kind of long term dysfunction makes me deeply sad, as it hurts hearts and lives way worse than being honest, open and dealing with it directly.  You may not want to pull the band-aid off but sometimes you have to clean the wound.

I guess those are some of my thoughts this week.  We are heading into the 30 Hour Famine this weekend; our crowd is way down but  I am still very excited about it.  We are also playing host to some folks from Georgia too, so that is going to be a cool added element.  I do know, I am ready for summer and the two very capable interns we hired to come partner alongside me.  Lots of work to do heading into the summer and preparing for next year.

Posted in General Stuff