Covenant and Order vs. Liberty and Chaos

December 23, 2013

11:11 AM

Photo Courtesy of Sky McCracken

Your Way My Way

Somewhere beyond your way and my way is God's way.

A few days ago Bishop Ken Carter wrote a most excellent blog, "Serving as a Denominational Bishop in a Post-Denominational Culture." In it he writes:

[W]hile I have promised to seek the unity of the church, the energy in our denomination and many others is often in the polarities. It is at the extremes, where advocacy groups communicate and organize with clarity, even in opposition to each other.

And upholding the necessity of a disciplined life for the sake of the whole church? How am I to do that in a culture where individual desires and discernment are valued while institutional deliberation is often considered suspect, questioned or even sabotaged?

He also quotes leadership guru Edwin Friedman about the positions of those who would disrupt leadership versus those who are in leadership - hence the title of this article. How do we navigate these things?

If you don't think this will affect the local church anywhere in the Paducah District, I would advise you to think again. We are slowly becoming a hot item in the news; the Washington Post picked up Bishop Johnson's press release HERE. And you should be aware that intentional efforts are being made to disrupt the UMC at the local, conference, and General Conference level through LovePrevails, in which people are being urged disrupt gatherings, as well as divest their prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness from the UMC. On the other extreme, the IRD and Good News are also launching their strategies which are also less covenant-oriented and more of the "by any means necessary" modus operandi.

Pastors are going to be put in the middle. More than ever.

When I get a phone call asking why a pastor can't rebaptize a church member, or why their former pastor won't come back to do a wedding or funeral, or why a lay person can't preside at a communion service, I point to the UMC's doctrine, polity, and covenant. It is not always an easy conversation, particularly with those who are marginally Christian. Being in a heavily Calvinist area as we are, many don't understand why we don't rebaptize, or celebrate infant dedications, or why we use a specific liturgy for Eucharist and Baptism. Add our present reality of living in a time and culture where an individual's thoughts and opinions trump an institution's, and the reality that the UMC is a global Church and not just an American one, people have a hard time understanding congregational covenants, clergy covenants, and a Book of Discipline.

People like the Book of Discipline and our covenant... when it suits their needs. When we disagree with it, we don't like it. Yet the nature of covenant is not to be selective, but to be faithful to it. Even when we disagree with it. Should we disagree, we fight to change it. Sometimes we win those fights. Sometimes we lose. That's when our trust in God is tested. When we decide to pick and choose, the covenant falls apart. There is no glue left.

The matter of same-gender marriage is one all people do not agree upon. Some believe the UMC's stance on the matter is discriminatory. Others believe that it is faithful. Those who strive to have it changed are convinced it is a civil rights matter. Those who adhere to the present stance believe it is an ecclesial matter about how God's will and Word is lived out.

There is no easy fix for this. Neither side will be able to compromise without feeling like they are compromising on basic matters of faith and understandings of Church doctrine. Unfortunately, name calling has begun - on both sides - fueled by hate and mirroring our political parties in their open disdain for each other. I've been called anti-gay, a homophobe, and a redneck for keeping my covenant with the church. And I know that those who would like to change our church's stance have been called similar, derisive names.

This is not Christian covenant behavior; this is mirroring our political system in the U.S. We are supposed to be modeling for them, not the other way around, about a more excellent way. It has NO place in the Church, regardless of what "side" one takes.

My advice? Do some serious soul searching. Pray. Discern. Listen. My hunch is that the next General Conference won't change this issue by a vote: our UMC is still composed of a majority of people who take a traditional/orthodox approach to this matter, and the face of the UMC is reflected more and more in the Global South - which is even more traditional in its beliefs about marriage.

Soul searching may lead us to these kinds of questions: "Is the United Methodist Church the best place for me to live out my faith? Can I live in covenant with others who took the same membership and ordination vows? Can I still honor them even if I disagree with some of them?" Those are important questions before us. We must also ask, "Is 'by any means necessary' an appropriate behavior within a covenant community?"

One of my best friends disagrees with me, and he believes the Church is clearly wrong on this matter. Yet we not only continue to be best friends, we continue to live in the UMC covenant together. I'm sure some folks - on both sides - would give him grief about his stance; some because he's not in your face enough, others because he doesn't believe "rightly" Yet, as Reinhold Neibuhr reminds us, Christians must learn to live in the tension of having and not having the truth. That keeps us, just like Jesus on Calvary, in the middle. It's messy.

The reality is, when you invite Jesus to show up somewhere, it's going to be messy. Anyone might show up! He asks us to live in the tension of "let the children come to me" and "go and sin no more." In a covenant community, our personal opinions are trumped by the covenant community we choose to live in. Until we choose to be autonomous congregations (or conferences, or jurisdictions), we have to agree to a covenant and honor it. If we want personal liberty to rule, we need to quit being a connectional and covenant church - and we have several models to choose from already.

What do we want? That is one question. But the better question is, What does God want, and how do we get there the way GOD wants?

The Rev. Sky McCracken is superintendent of the Paducah, Ky., District of the Memphis Annual Conference. He blogs at Kyrie Eleison.

Comments (4)

Comment Feed

no i won't back down

That's the name of a great Tom Petty song. "You can stand me up at the gates of hell but I won't back down." Brother, you seem to be suggesting that those who just can't accept anti gay rules, which are based on tradition, not reason, experience or Scripture (according to a consensus of Bible scholars) should stop doing civil disobedience. I can only say-forget about it. That's not gonna happen. MLK caused quite a fuss in the South but he stayed the course with civil disobedience until the US Congress changed the rules. Nothing else had worked. Likewise, the African Southern voting bloc in the UMC won't listen to science, experience or contemporary theologians or scholars, so they are being bypassed by the forces of justice. When enough people say, enough, we will change, by hook or by crook so fasten your seatbelt because it's going to be a bumpy ride.

jeff more than 11 years ago

Question about DSs

Do pastors who become DSs become advocates for unthinking obedience to authority or do people who are advocates for unthinking obedience to authority become DSs? :)

Dean Snyder more than 11 years ago

it's a Conundrum, Dean

No doubt some are one or the other, some are both, and some are neither. However, in any organization, the people who get promoted are those who buy into the system. No way a John the Baptist or Nikolai Tesla ever rose through the ranks.

George Nixon Shuler more than 11 years ago

Answer about DSs

Dean:

I don't believe we've met. The Lord be with you.

While I am sure it is a natural thing to say (and sometimes sport among UM clergy) disparaging things about bishops and superintendents, I actually gave being a United Methodist pastor a lot of thought long before I was appointed a superintendent - because I knew that I would always have to find the balance between critical thought and obedience to authority. Such is the nature of a covenant community and, in the case of the UMC, larger denomination.

I live in an area that, like much of the rest of the US, is increasingly secularized. I also live in an area where Calvinism and Southern Baptists and Churches of Christ are very prominent. Believer's baptism and a lack of recognition of women's ordination run rampant in this area, and pastors in this area fight a constant battle on these and other issues. Were it not for the covenant and organizational structure of the UMC, and the nature of where our authority is placed, many of these pastors and laypersons in them would be hung out to dry. I am often asked why a pastor cannot "rebaptize" their child, or why they "have" to accept a female pastor. Because of the authority of the UMC and the authority of the office I hold, I can support our UMC's stance, as well as pastors and congregations who are faithful and teach within a UM ethos.

I can appreciate that sometimes bishops and DS's can seem like mindless and unthinking bureaucrats. But I can assure you that most of us not only think (sometimes in the middle of the night), but we also pray for God's wisdom and guidance, every day.

Pax,

Sky+

Sky McCracken more than 11 years ago