Forrest Gump Was Right – About the UMC

March 9, 2013

2:48 PM

Illustration Courtesy of Amy Geary Holmes

Baptism 1-24

When Jesus consented to be baptized by John, he was sanctified for his own earthly ministry as well as blessing the sacrament for his followers. All Christians become servant ministers by virtue of their baptism, not because of extended church training.

This message is for all my good friends and colleagues in Lay Speaking Ministries (and those who love and respect them) across The United Methodist Church: If you think you're still a Lay Speaker, you're wrong.

With the publication of the new United Methodist Book of Discipline, all of us longtime Lay Speakers have been demoted to something called Lay Servants. This means that all of us who have given years, even decades, of our lives in time, effort and money have been tossed aside like so many used tissues, thanks to the efforts of the Association of Annual Conference Directors of Lay Speaking Ministries. ACDLSM, for reasons not well communicated (at least in our annual conference), crafted the legislation adopted by the 2012 General Conference that stripped us Lay Speakers of our office in the church.

Were you consulted before this action? No, me neither.

The legislation was the brainchild of the conference LSM directors association who decided that by watering down Lay Speaking to something called Lay Servant, The United Methodist Church could better teach the tenets of discipleship – how to follow Jesus Christ – that weren't being taught in local congregations.

Then, in the utter chaos and debacle that was the 2012 General Conference, nobody – not even me, I'm sorry to say – thought to check the legislation to see what would happen to current local-church and certified lay speakers if the proposal were adopted.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? That we mess around with the structure and the form without taking adequate stock of the current reality and what might happen if the "next great idea" is implemented? Once again, we're off on an adventure in "missing the point."

I fully and freely confess that I don't come to this issue objectively. Here's why:

I have been a Lay Speaker since 1993 and a Certified Lay Speaker since 1994. I've taken every class offered in GBOD's Lay Speaking Ministries curriculum over the past 20 years. I took Methodist History and Polity from a bishop during LSM's 200th anniversary celebration at St. Simons Island. I studied preaching with Dr. Alyce McKenzie of Perkins School of Theology. I was taught how to teach adults by Dr. Sherry Nash, a retired education professor in the North Texas Annual Conference. I've been an accredited conference instructor in both Basic LSM and in training teachers of adults. I've been a district coordinator of Lay Speaking Ministries. My last course for LSM certification in 2011 was one of the toughest I've ever had -- Lay Pastoral Care Giving, a course usually reserved for licensed local pastors in Advanced Course of Study School.

As if those credentials weren't sufficient, I've been fortunate enough to live in the same city with Perkins School of Theology, where I've frequently enrolled in its annual theological schools for laity. I've studied Old Testament with Dr. John Holbert, spiritual direction with Dr. Fred Schmidt, patristics with Dr. Billy Abraham, and the future of Christianity with Dr. Diana Butler Bass.

In short, I have more study hours, credited and uncredited, than most clergy with earned doctorates. I did all of this because I believed, and still believe, that I was called by God through my baptism to be the best lay Christian I could be. I have been passionate for the ministry of the laity, and I know that I am not the only "former" Certified Lay Speaker who has so believed and so worked these past two decades, because we have encouraged and supported one another -- often across conference lines.

Yet now, according to the new Book of Discipline, we longtime practitioners are no longer fit to be Certified Lay Speakers unless we take 60 more hours – yes, six-zero, six times 10 – of new curriculum determined by the General Board of Discipleship and the Association of Annual Conference Directors of Lay Speaking – excuse me, Lay Servant – Ministries.

Does this make sense to you? Me, neither.

Believe me, I understand the sense of urgency about teaching discipleship. I know I've been fortunate enough to live and serve in an annual conference where LSM training has been emphasized through the vision and diligence of previous conference directors. I've had conversations with directors from other annual conferences who haven't been able to mobilize the kind of teaching resources we've had in North Texas, and who were anxious for something that would help them improve the amount and quality of their training.

But friends, the new "Lay Servant Ministries" isn't it. Not only is this not it, "Lay Servant Ministries" in its basic course, which I've seen, is so watered down that it's hardly different from any good class for new church members. Furthermore, the new requirements put the office of Certified Lay Speaker so far out of reach that few will attempt it, let alone complete it in many annual conferences that lack strong training programs.

My final critique of this utterly deplorable situation is theological: The premise of "Lay Servant Ministries" assumes that it's necessary to give Christian discipleship a fancy name and a set-apart curriculum in order to make sure that it's taught. My rebuttal: All Christians are lay servants by virtue of their baptism. United Methodist baptismal doctrine contained in the theological statement, By Water and the Spirit, stresses the universality of servant ministry by the followers of Jesus Christ. There was no need to gut an existing ministry to create a new program that encompasses something that can already be taught in United Methodist congregations simply by using the baptismal study!

I confess I came late to the realization of what the 2012 General Conference had done to Lay Speaking Ministries. With everything else that has been going on with United Methodism and with my own studies for spiritual direction certification, my focus was turned outward, away from Lay Speaking. I did express my displeasure with the proposed legislation to some leaders during General Conference. I could have sworn there was a clause in the proposal to "grandmother in" all the existing Lay Speakers, but I was wrong. And now it's too late.

Forrest Gump was right: Stupid is as stupid does. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm feeling pretty stupid for staying in a denomination that can so insult and degrade the faithful ministries of hundreds of laypeople by stripping away their standing without so much as a by-your-leave.

CORRECTIONS: Thanks to The Rev. Taylor Burton-Edwards, worship director at the General Board of Discipleship, who provided the following corrections and amplifications:

1. The name ["Lay Servant"] came from several annual conferences that had already adopted this as a better description, in their view, of the ministries they had. This was an initiative of ACDLSM not GBOD staff.

2. ACDLSM does not need GBOD support for its legislation. It is an independent entity that makes its own decisions. It chose to ask for GBOD support as well... which was a risk on their part. When GBOD receives legislation it becomes GBODs and may be changed by GBOD in ways other groups may not prefer. In this case, the Board chose to support the ACDLSM legislation as presented.

3. Sandy's role [lay ministries director Sandy Ziegler Jackson] was more editorial than anything else... to help them put their legislation into a form consistent with the style and content of the BoD. (Editor: These references have been removed).

4. Lay Speaker is now a defined track in the LSM program. As I understand it, current Lay Speakers who had carried out this role (primarily preaching and worship planning and leadership) may still do so. [Editor's note: That's not what has been communicated in many conferences, according to other sources]. Future Lay Speakers in this track will complete a curriculum designed to support the ministries focused in this area.

Comments (5)

Comment Feed

Lay Speakers vs. Lay Servants

Cynthia, I'm sure that most of these changes came from within the organization that had supported the Lay Speaker ministries. At the same time, the idea of "Lay Speaker" narrowed what could be a legitimate lay ministry in the church to the idea of those who could conduct services and preach. That, in my experience, created some pathologies that were not healthy or helpful.

In my last church, I had two women who met me at Annual Conference and the first words out of their mouths were that they were Certified Lay Speakers. (When time for renewals came up, it turned out one had only had the basic class, the other had the basic class and one advanced class, and nothing in the intervening five years.) What it really boiled down to, was that they wanted the glory of being up front. The first, our volunteer choir director (which was a legitimate lay ministry in and of itself) really was a wannabe minister, without the education or training, and who, with the second, wanted to take over control of the church.

The second was the Lay Leader, who previously had been the church secretary, had resigned that job to care for the health of her mother, and openly said, after her mother died, that she was "too depressed" to come back and be secretary again. (She'd had the job for 12 years, her mother for 34 years before that.) She got to feeling better and wanted the job back again---even though we'd hired another for the job. She did her best to undermine both the Secretary and me, in a fight for control of the ongoing ministries of the church. She'd come into the office, after hours, and use the office computer (I had to give her a designated site on the computer that did not have access to all of our databases) and spend hours upon hours making up posters for the programs she would put on, on her own without any agreement from the church board. She would make flyers for the bulletin, without letting me or anyone else know. We'd have the bulletins made up and whatever was authorized to be an insert, already in, and left for the ushers on Friday before we left. She'd come into the office, print off her flyers, and add them into the bulletins before Sunday.

They would, without telling me or anyone, come at the start of the service and put on skits, to promote their projects, and it always was a surprise. They thought they were being wonderful lay speakers, and were upset that I wouldn't let them preach if I were away. I felt under constant attack from these two "certified lay speakers."

Frankly, if we had had "lay servant ministries" programs, we might have been able to steer the in ways that could have let them have the time before the congregation they wanted, in productive and helpful ways. But because we only had "certified lay speakers," they could only see one way for their "ministries" to be exercised, and honored.

I hope you can understand that it is not a denegration of all you have done to say I'm glad that this change was made.

Tom Griffith more than 11 years ago

Lay Servant/Lay Speaker

Toi be a little more accurate -- name change legislatioin has been before prior General Conferences. Our conference greeted the name change enthusiastically because it finally clearly broaded the role of the Lay Servant in the local church and community. It also removed a barrier that made it sound like being in the training only meant speaking. No one has been de-certified. I have been a Certified Lay Speaker since 1981 and am still sertified as a Lay Servant. If one feels a call to speak, then there is a training path to respond to that call. It would seem that rather than perching one's self hgh in order to cast a cynical view that is not factually correct, this wonderful movemetn within the denomination would have been better served with a piece that checked to see how the name change is being received and implemented across the various conferences. Uncovering the joy of being a Lay Servant may not have attracted so much attention but then most of us are thrilled to be those Lay Servants and go about our ministries without a lot of fanfare.

Roger L. Curless more than 11 years ago

Grace?

I'm all about constructive criticism, but this is dripping with cynicism and lacking in grace--characteristics I find on this blog too often.

Karl Kroger more than 11 years ago

Lay Speaking/Servant Ministries

I knew the name had changed. I did not know that our already-approved local church and certified lay speakers were invalidated. I did not know that there is a brand-new curriculum. I have no intention of informing my local church's lay speakers of these changes. I will wait to see what information our district and conference provide about this; so far, I have seen nothing except notice of an upcoming basic course. I had assumed it was simply the pre-GC course; it now seems I am wrong.

Jeanne Devine more than 11 years ago

Captain and Shakespeare were right...

Well, isn't this interesting! After training some 40 lay speakers over the course of my career, now they get to ride off into the sunset. I have seen the greatest returns in the LS program as far as local church leadership development. My inclination is to continue training them, giving them the title and making up my own darned certificates ("a rose by any other name.."). Thank you Cynthia for an excellent article about all the confusion, posturing, and "failure to communicate."

Pamela Nelson-Munson more than 11 years ago