If You're Willing, There Is Another Way

Commentary

by

Holston Annual Conference | December 11, 2024

My favorite passage of scripture comes from Ezekiel’s vision of the valley filled with dry bones. In this story God takes him on a walk through the valley and then asks, “Human one, can these bones live again?” Ezekiel responds, “Lord God, only you know.” (Ezekiel 37:3).

Ezekiel’s response of “only you know” has always resonated with me during difficult seasons of ministry. As a United Methodist, I’ve had many “only you know” moments in recent years. It’s no secret that our church is navigating a period of deep conflict and widespread apathy, leaving many of us feeling exhausted and uncertain about the future of our churches. If God were to ask us today, “Can these bones live again?” our most honest answer would echo the exasperated response Ezekiel gave so long ago: “Lord God, only you know.”

I’ve often heard that ministry requires the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, along with plenty of energy and optimism. Yet, when bad news surrounds us and decline seems certain, these elements feel scarce, leaving us questioning if they can ever be revived. After experiencing a “dry bones” season of ministry, I was hopeful that a new appointment would be a help in reviving these elements in me. 

At my first staff meeting as the associate pastor at Reynolds Memorial United Methodist Church in Bristol, Virginia, I was handed a rotating preaching schedule, told I would spend my Mondays working at a homeless day shelter, and that I would be the leader for a combined youth group of five churches. Every new appointment comes with its own set of expectations, but I didn’t expect to wear so many hats! Honestly, I didn’t think Reynolds had this many hats to choose from.

I assumed that being appointed to Reynolds meant that I would serve a church with a generous reputation of offering scholarships and grants, and that I’d have a hand in guiding a medium-size, two-service congregation. I looked forward to occasionally opening the treasury to support others in their ministry. And if that didn’t revive my dry bones, at least I’d be within walking distance of Blackbird Bakery! I am now five months into serving with many hats in many places and in hindsight I am glad that my short-sighted assumptions about Reynolds and my role here were wrong.

Reynolds along with four other churches in Bristol make up the Bristol Parish, better known as the HUB. Together with a team of clergy, interns, and laity each of us wear many hats to lead five churches in numerous Bible studies, spiritual formation groups, and ongoing local and international mission projects. The five pastors on our staff collectively share the responsibility of overseeing adult, children’s and youth programs, for our weekly combined Sunday evening service for the entire HUB.

On my first night at Sunday evening HUB church there were nearly 90 people in the fellowship hall of a church that on a typical Sunday morning barely has 15. Yet, in that room, there was a diversity -- young and old, Black, White, and Hispanic, homeless and wealthy -- spanning racial, political, and socioeconomic spectrums I had never thought possible in my previous experience of church.

Of the churches gathered nearly all are small on Sunday mornings and individually their Vital Signs show that they are still very much in decline. But as a worried pastor in a worried world trying to “kick start the dirt bike” again and revive my belief that God still breathes life into those with dry bones, I hold onto the hope that God chooses to use the church – and even its Ezekiel-like burnouts – to speak the words necessary to do it. I feel like I am witnessing him do it here among these five churches.

Friends, I know that you are worried about the future and exhausted from the past. And it’s hard to move on from the strife we’ve endured to remain “United.”  But we would be wise to remember that our hope for renewal lies in the willingness of our churches, laity, and clergy to creatively use the connectional strength that we have worked so hard to save.

The Rev. Clayton Farmer is pastor at Reynolds Memorial United Methodist Church in Bristol, Virginia. This post is republished from The Call, the news journal of the Holston Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.