Adam Hamilton: Itinerant General Superintendent?

If that title doesn’t grab people from the methoblog front page, I’m not sure what will. Adam Hamilton, senior pastor of Church of the Resurrection (a UMC of 12,000+ members where I am currently interning) made the following announcement on his blog yesterday:

At the end of May I started a project that will not be completed for six or seven years. Over the next six or seven years we hope to provide a leadership, preaching and evangelism training program for all 16,000 United Methodist clergy and at least one layperson from all 32,000+ United Methodist churches. The program consists of three 90 minute sessions: Essentials of Leadership, Improving Preaching and Worship, and Evangelism and Outreach in the United Methodist Tradition.

We’re providing this training exclusively through the sessions of annual conference so that every pastor and a lay member of every annual conference must attend. There are sixty-six annual conferences in the United States and they are all held in late May through mid June, which will require speaking at 8 to 10 a year – two to three a week. To my knowledge this has not been done since the time of Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke – the first two General Superintendents of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America in the late 1700’s.

We’re challenging every United Methodist Church to have a written mission statement that is short but compelling and consistent with our denomination’s mission statement. We’re challenging pastors and church leaders to develop several specific and measurable goals to strengthen their churches in the following year. We’re challenging pastors to develop a preaching plan, to offer sermons that will connect with unchurched people, and to develop follow-up strategies for new visitors. And we’re encouraging lay and clergy leaders to honestly evaluate their strengths and weaknesses in the area of leadership and to focus on at least two areas they will work to improve.

Ambitious, I don’t envy his travel schedule… and gutsy. Generally people don’t tend to offer their services to annual conferences. I’m pretty sure that most people wait to be asked to speak, and then they are often given a direction to go by the bishop or sessions committee. Additionally, it takes a certain amount of audacity to compare yourself by implication to Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke. I say this at some risk, you understand, as Adam is my boss’s boss’s boss currently, although I have had one or two occasions to tell him what to do on the delegation. I also got to drive his Mustang once, but that’s another story. I’ve found Adam to be very humble, so I don’t accuse him of of arrogance, but the comparison that he makes is striking.

What he is proposing is in one sense, episcopal. “The purpose of superintending is to equip the Church in its disciple-making ministry. Those who superintend carry primary responsibility for ordering the life of the Church. It is their task to enable the gather Church to worship and to evangelize faithfully.” (para 401 Discipline 2004). Now, he isn’t really superintending strictly speaking, he doesn’t consult on appointments or supervise clergy, but he is assuming a teaching role that really hasn’t been seen except in bishops (think Robert Schnase or Will Willimon) or seminary professors (think Lovett Weems), and on a scale that, as Adam said, hasn’t been seen since Coke or Asbury.

By offering and ultimately probably doing a training session at most conferences in the country, he will fill a void in our current episcopal leadership. The “general” part of “general superintendent” was greatly diminished as bishops were forced to locate and assigned several and eventually one to two annual conferences to oversee. Additionally, general agencies took over some of the general instructional function of the episcopacy as they ballooned in the late 19th and early 20th century. Also, the administrative responsibilities of the bishop within an annual conference have increased greatly and further diminished their opportunity to offer leadership and training to the whole church.

It is hard to classify what Adam is proposing. Before I stray too far, I recognize that he is ultimately appointed to The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, KS and doing a fine job of it. In the role he is carving out for himself and COR as resource and teacher for the United Methodist Church and in this specific role though he is like a general evangelist, but for annual conferences, a function that is very much indeed like what Asbury and Coke did in the late 18th and early 19th century.

What does everyone think? Incredible asset to the mainline church? Picking up the slack? Remarkably presumptuous?

-Luke

Back from Nashville, binding of Isaac, and small group care

Well, I got back late last night from a two-day jaunt to Nashville where I was on a hiring team to interview candidates for chief administrative officer of the General Board of Discipleship. Those kind of meetings are always interesting, although this one would have been more interesting if I had more of a finance background. There was a lot of nodding about things that I didn’t completely understand. A couple people who respect affirmed my thinking about future Ph.D work and teaching (something I’m considering along with pastoral ministry), so that will be something I will keep thinking about. I hung out with a friend of mine who was also at the meeting and we both complained way too much about the General Church, young people in ministry, ordination process, and the like. Sometimes it is nice to get things off my chest with people who can understand, but in this case I think we agreed with each other so much that I just internalized it, such that I’m more than a little disenchanted with the connectional church at the moment. That kind of thing usually passes though.

I’m preaching this Sunday in Louisburg, KS, so I’m starting to prepare my sermon. The text is Genesis 22:1-14. My title is “Unconditional Faith in an Unpredictable God.” The scripture is difficult this week. It is the binding of Isaac, where God commands Abraham to take his son Isaac up Mt. Moriah, prepare an altar, and sacrifice him as a burnt offering. When Abraham is raising his knife, God stops Abraham and a ram is provided for the sacrifice. This a tough one to preach. Almost everyone has trouble with a God who tells somebody to kill their son. We want to think about it from Abraham’s, Isaac’s, or even Sarah’s perspective. We want to search for some way to explain that away or dismiss it. How do you take the text seriously and not get sidetracked by those issues? That is going to be the trick. I hope to be able to bring those who hear past their distress or disgust at the story and into a struggle with the idea that we worship a God who is wild and unpredictable, who asks for all that we have and are, who upsets and unsettles our lives. I’ve fiddled with the idea of using a teddy bear (a god who we turn to when we need God) and a book (a god who fits into neat theological systems) as illustrations of ways that we try to construct a predictable god of our own understanding and deny God’s power. I may post it after I preach it. I would like to post a perfect manuscript, but I usually don’t have one of those. I tend to have one that gets marked up and changed in the hours before I preach it.

My new project at work is developing resources to help members of small groups at COR to care for each other. It should be an interesting one. I will be putting together one page summaries or pamphlets to help leaders of the 200+ small groups here to care for their members. There will be resources on divorce, death, hospitalization, birth, etc. It will help remind the leaders of training that they receive, direct them to resources within the church for the individual in need of care, and help them to help the small group to care for the individual, or obtain the healing that they need.

Peace,

Luke

moving forward and pastoral care

I feel like I’ve accomplished a good bit today, although I’ve avoided doing much work on my message for staff chapel tomorrow. I’m on the team for staff chapel this much and the theme for the month is summer blockbusters. We made the interesting decision to choose movies for which there are sequels/remakes coming out this summer and then finding clips in them to use in a short message and discussion time. I’m using The Mummy and am talking about social responsibility. I’m still working on it, but will draw on a few scriptures including Adam shifting responsibility in the garden, Jesus saying “the last shall be first” and perhaps the Great Requirement (Micah 6:8).

Things are starting to move. There are projects I’m excited about, plans for some neat experiences, and a pile of books to read. I think it will end up being a good summer despite some early frustrations. One of the things I did today as I avoided working on that message was read about half of Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner’s A Primer on Pastoral Care. It was pretty straightforward for the most part in terms of practical basics: representing God/Christ in difficult situations, practicing/creating and atmosphere of tolerance/respect/validation, prayer, song, sacraments, touch as ways through which God’s presence is manifest (if she were a Methodist she would have called them means of grace) and understanding pastoral care as coming alongside someone and helping illuminate the possible steps, among other things. One thing that Stevenson-Moessner emphasized that I hadn’t though much about is the importance of a biblical self-understanding of pastoral care. She emphasized the classic Good Shepherd model, but also drew on Ruth helping Naomi, Micah, and Matthew 25 (sheep feeding hungry, clothe naked, etc.) She strongly emphasized finding a scriptural model that resonates with you to form your understanding of offering care. She introduces this in chapter 3 and tells the reader in chapter 4 (where I stopped, incidentally) to find one before they continue on. I guess that means I need to search the scriptures. I’m not sure I believe that somebody needs to have a specific scripture in mind when they are offering care or thinking about how the care for others, but it is important to study the scriptures and be shaped by stories of care.

Tonight is the “visitor’s night” worship service for the Kansas East Conference Institute youth camp. Baldwin City was the site of one of the Epworth League Institutes of the Methodist Episcopal Church, so youth camp has been happening there for over ninety years. Pretty cool.

Peace,

Luke

update, summer internship at COR, reflections

Since two weeks at GC couldn’t make me blog regularly, perhaps a summer will. I’m interning this summer at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, KS. I started about three weeks ago, but between Student Forum and Annual Conference it really got going last week. I have a nifty little badge that says: “Luke Wetzel, Congregational Care Intern,” as well as desk, computer, phone, and e-mail address, and just recently business cards, a stapler, tape, and scissors. I’m interning in the congregational care department working with Rev. Andrew Conard, and doing hospital visits, observing counseling, helping with some smaller worship services, tasks on Sunday morning, and projects in the area of pastoral care. I’ll be doing some reflecting here this summer on what I’m experiencing.

The last six weeks since GC have been busy. I came back to Atlanta from Fort Worth and spent a little more than a week finishing my final exams. Then I got to relax a little in Atlanta and spend a couple days with my girlfriend up in North Carolina. We went visited the Biltmore Estate and had a relaxing time walking around the property, touring through the house and looking at flowers. Then I drove back to Kansas, started working for a couple days and went to Washington DC for a long Labor Day weekend for the United Methodist Student Forum. This was a gathering of UM college students from all around the country. It was a fair event, I feel like it tries to be too many things, a leadership training event, legislative gathering, and social justice movement/rally, each to the detriment of the other. The best thing about the event was the people. I got to spend time with some new friends who I met at General Conference and with old and new friends from Kansas. Not too long after that was Annual Conference which was a whirlwind. I preached the opening worship service/memorial service and that went pretty well. It was well-received, to my relief. The best part was hearing afterwards all the different ways that God worked through my preaching to give people what they needed to hear. The second best part was that I got it over on the first night, because I had to coordinate and help give presentations about General Conference for the next two days. We had four 15-minute time slots alloted to us and we went well over time on all but one. The conference secretary and chair of sessions and rules (she is on the delegation) are both saints for putting up with us. Now I’m working and looking towards a trip to Nashville on Sunday to be part of a hiring team for the General Board of Discipleship, preaching in Louisburg next Sunday, Jurisdictional Conference in July, and a trip to Italy in August to see my girlfriend who is studying abroad this semester.

This morning I sat in on a counseling session with a person who came to the church seeking a pastor to talk with. He moved here two years ago with his wife and three kids from the northeast. He had been unable to find a job, his wife had cheated on him, ands she filed for a divorce. He was looking towards moving back to the northeast where his parents and siblings are, and more importantly where he knew he could get a job. What he wanted more than anything was to keep his family together and stay near his children, but it just didn’t seem possible. He felt belittled by his wife and her family, and useless for his lack of a job. The most powerful part of the session was when Andrew told the man how much God loved him. The man was visibly affected by this and I was moved as I thought about the power of God’s love. He grew up nominally Catholic and his wife was the one who brought him into a Protestant Church which got him thinking more about God and reading the bible. One of the most challenging parts was watching him struggle with the question of how his wife could both be a Christian and be deceitful and belittling. Despite all that was going wrong in his life, his faith didn’t seem to be shaken much. It was certainly being tested, but he was still confident that God was with him. What he seemed to need was reassurance that was the case and some help clarifying his options and priorities.

I’m also working through lists of prayer requests, praying for each one and making notes for follow-up (phone-call, note, etc.). There is so much brokenness in the world, individual lives that are really a mess. I think I’ll understand really soon the importance of robust personal spiritual practice to be able to reflect light into the dark places and run dry spiritually. I’ve recognized my own tendency with hospital visits to not pause and pray before I enter the room that God will give comfort through me and help me to know their need so that I can help meet it. It would be easy for me to charge in without the proper intentionality. Care isn’t something that we do so much as something that God does through us.