Revelation – When You Least Expect It

I’ve shared this story many times, but it is absolutely my favorite Advent/Christmas story.  So here is goes again. Someday it’s also going to be in my book of lessons learned from the adults with intellectual disabilities who attend Camp Rainbow Connection (CRC). Those have been some of my greatest lessons about God’s unconditional love over the last 14 years.

In 2001, my second summer as the Director of CRC, we celebrated “Christmas Love” as the theme of the two camp sessions.  Each day during Bible class, the staff focused on a portion of the story of the birth of Jesus.  Activities, Bible passages, and drama each day moved toward acting out the full story on the last day of class.  On that morning, each camper was given a part to play.  As the characters were being helped into their costumes, everyone realized that Kevin didn’t have a part.  Now, Kevin is a large man: probably a little over 6’ tall and around 300 lbs.  Kevin immediately responded, “I can be Baby Jesus!”  Use your imagination here to visualize a really large Baby Jesus in the manger. 

The leaders of the class dressed Kevin in a purple robe.  They showed him the place where he was to go sit when it was time for Jesus to arrive in the story.  The classroom had been set up with two chairs on one side with space between them.  When Mary and Joseph arrived at the stable, they would take their place in the chairs.  When it was time for Jesus to be born, Kevin would sit on the floor between the two chairs.

As Mary and Joseph came through the door into the classroom, Kevin plopped himself down right between the chairs.  One by one, most of the leaders went over to Kevin, telling him that it wasn’t time for Jesus yet.  He needed to move until the time was right.  Mary and Joseph walked across the room as if they were traveling to Bethlehem and took their places.  Kevin as still there  -  hadn’t budged and wasn’t going to.  He just continued to sit quietly…waiting…and leaders kept telling him Jesus wasn’t in the story yet, he should get up.  Finally, Kevin looked up at the last person that told him that and made the announcement:  “I know!  I’m in the womb.”

What we thought was stubbornness…what we thought was wanting to “steal the show” from the other characters…what we thought was a failure to understand the story…was actually a great revelation (that came with much laughter).  Kevin not only knew the details of the story of Jesus’ birth, but he knew how important it was to quietly wait for the Christ child to arrive. He knew our hearts, minds, and bodies needed to be ready to receive this amazing gift.

I’ve never thought of Advent or Christmas in the same way since that day in the summer of 2001. Can you honestly say you’re willing to wait and discern God’s call for you and your church, or are you caught up in the drive to act and maybe take over the show yourself? My prayer is that we can all put on our purple robes, sit quietly and listen until God’s plan is ready to emerge.

Impossible! No Way! Won’t Happen!

The characters in the familiar stories that make up our journey through Advent teach us about facing the impossible.  First, there’s Elizabeth conceiving and giving birth a child in her old age. Why, it is so impossible the news left her husband, old Zechariah, speechless. Impossible! No way! Won’t happen!

Then there is the story of the angel’s announcement to Mary that she was to give birth to the Christ child. It is truly a story of impossibilities – of “no way” – of “it won’t happen.”

·        A pregnant virgin having a child and remaining a virgin. Impossible! No way! Won’t happen!

·        Joseph following through on the marriage when he discovers she is pregnant. Impossible! No way! Won’t happen!

·        Avoiding death when the family and neighbors hear the news. Impossible! No way! Won’t happen!

So I ask you: What are the impossibilities in your world? What are the things that make you say: Impossible! No way! Won’t happen! This Advent season in particular, we're caught, suspended between fear and hope, on the edge of a new day but facing formidable challenges: violence, unrest in many countries, poverty, economic crises, harm to the earth...so many problems, and many of them mirrored in our own personal lives in broken relationships, ill health, money worries, troubled consciences.

Yet the angel said, “Nothing is impossible with God!”

Whether in Temple or dusty little village, with elderly parents-to-be surprised by joy or a young maiden facing an unexpected and dangerous pregnancy, the stories of Advent speak of trust in God at work in the lives of ordinary people in very surprising ways. 

When the impossible hits – and when the impossible thing has impacted our lives, broken our hearts and shattered our dreams, the message comes to us again, "...nothing shall be impossible with God."

Impossible things confront us, and we are frightened, angered, depressed or any number of other emotions that can leave us crushed and hurting. However, if – and this is important, if we stop and listen for the still small voice within, we hear the good news that nothing shall be impossible with God. It's really all about God and what God is doing in our lives and our world – not about us.

Trusting that all things are possible with God requires a leap of faith. Are you ready to jump?

Have I Got News for You!

The Rev. Dr. Bill Self, former pastor of Johns Creek Baptist Church in Alpharetta, GA, has written that his favorite Christmas story is about the young boy who was given a very important role in the church Christmas play. He was to be the angel and announce the birth of Jesus. For weeks he rehearsed the line that had been given to him, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy."

Any time the family was together and the boy was there, they would dress him up in his costume and he would rehearse his part. They were certain that he would grow up to become an actor because of his dramatic ability.

The great night came for the Christmas pageant and everybody was in place. Family members and visitors had come from far and near. There was great excitement. The spotlight hit the young boy and as he stood center stage, his brain froze. Every grandparent, aunt, uncle and neighbor came to the edge of their seats, wanting to say the line for him. Still, his brain was frozen; he couldn't say it. So, finally, in a heroic moment he filled his lungs with breath and blurted out the words, "Have I got news for you!"

I can relate.  I was 10 or so, in the fifth grade, during the time when you could still have religious Christmas pageants in public schools.  I was chosen to be Mary.  I have no memory of where the costume came from, other than thinking one of the local churches had loaned it to the school.  I do remember that I had gotten a true 70's style rain jacket from one of our neighbors around the same time:  sheer nylon outside over big gold and orange flowers so that you could see the flowers through the outside weatherproof material.  I loved that jacket!  So much so that, when we left home, I had to wear it to the play over my costume.  Nobody told me until the play was done that I had forgotten to take the jacket off.  To that point, I knew I had to have been the best Mary ever, only to find out that I had given her a new 1970s interpretation.  I was soooooo embarrassed:  Mary, the mother of Jesus, in gold and orange flowered dress.

No matter how long we have been preparing or how many years we have been practicing, we sometimes still find it hard to believe that we are capable of being God’s witnesses of healing, hope, and restoration in this world that is so splintered in anger and strife. We get tongue-tied, embarrassed, anxious, forget the right costume...the list could go on and on.  As we come to this time of Advent, the time of watching, waiting, and rejoicing, to a time in which we can behold God’s deepest love and mercy, may our hearts and spirits be opened to the great news that God is indeed with us in all times and all places. 

May we be faithful witnesses in our proclamation and in our service.

A Letter to Baby Brooks

Dear Great Nephew Baby Brooks (who is expected into this world right around Christmas):

Today is a day that will not be forgotten in the life of The United Methodist Church.  This has been the faith tradition of the Ensley side of your family for more than 9 decades.  Your Great Great Grandfather Ralph led the Methodist Church in Fieldale in hymns that praised God for all of creation at a time when people of what was considered the "wrong" ethnic background were being slaughtered around the world.  Your Great Grandfather Gene risked his life in World War II to fight for those who at that time in history were deemed "unworthy of life."  Depending on which historical accounts you read, that group of people included those of Jewish heritage, Polish ancestry, Chinese labors, people with disabilities and mental illness, homosexuals, and many other "labels."  He came home to continue singing about a God who loves all people unconditionally.  Your Great Grandmother still worships in that same church in Fieldale which now has members who are people of color, something that was unthinkable when your Great Great Granddaddy Ralph was leading the choir.

Your Grandfather Ralph served during the Vietnam Conflict.  In his inaugural address, President John F. Kennedy pledged to "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty."  Your Grandfather voluntarily joined that cause.  As your grandfather was coming home, I was about to become the first Ensley to go to integrated schools after the long struggle for civil rights in our country.  Even now, your dad is serving to ensure a level of freedom and dignity for all people around the globe.

While I know my political views don't always agree with the rest of the family's, I continue to sing of a God who came into this world as a human to try to teach me how to love and respect those who walk along side me.  I firmly believe in the teachings of our United Methodist tradition that I must live out my faith in all the actions I take in my walk along this earth. In doing that, I can't exclude anyone.

So that brings us to today.  By the time you are old enough to read history books, you probably won't find any information about the impact that events of this day will have on The United Methodist Church. Yet, today will be a turning point in our denomination as a retired Bishop, the son of sharecropper parents (like your Great Grandmother) who spent three days and nights in jail with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. following a civil rights protest, blessed the marriage of two people who are deeply in love with one another.

This will be a turning point for our church.  What I pray, Baby Brooks, more than anything is that you will be able to find strong, vital United Methodist Churches all around you as you grow up and that someday you will be proud to say your family was a part of helping The UMC live into being followers of Jesus Christ who have open doors, open minds, and open hearts to truly understand the mystery of God's love for all people.

With all my love,
Aunt Martha

A Lesson from Dr. Seuss

I was sitting here wondering how I got to this place.  How did the little child in the white choir robe with the big red bow under her chin singing on the steps in the sanctuary at Fieldale UMC in the Danville District get to Nashville to serve as a director for the General Board of Discipleship?  When did I move from drawing really sad looking pictures on the blackboard as a teenager attempting to illustrate Sunday School lessons to younger children to trying to bring about lay leadership excellence? How could I have ever imagined when I told my advisor in college that I wanted to major in religion that I'd end up working for the denomination? Can't say that vocational path was considered as a 20-year old! For some reason this afternoon, all this pondering is reminding me of a quote from the world's greatest theologian, Dr. Seuss:  "You're on your own.  And you know what you know.  And you are the one who'll decide where to go."

We never know where God will lead us, what opportunities will present themselves or what roadblocks there may be along the way.  But, we do have to be the ones to decide where to go.  We can keep our focus inward, thinking only of our own best interests (or those of our local church).  We can limit the questions we ask and the people we build relationships with, or we can put our faith in God's unfailing grace, exploring all the possibilities for what lies ahead.  I may not know how I got to this place, but one thing is for sure:  that little girl singing on the steps was encouraged by many, many people to explore who God is and what church is really all about.  

During this Pastor's Appreciation Month, she has to give thanks for the clergy who recognized her gifts and nurtured them over the years. That little girl (and now middle aged woman) even has to be grateful for the ones who have made her angry, for each has pushed her to new understandings of what it means to be the church. More importantly, in this month of celebration of the ministry of the laity, she has to remember and celebrate all those laity who took the vows we repeat at every baptism seriously - to help one another learn what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.  I still may not know exactly what "lay leadership excellence" is, but I know the first step toward it is taking seriously our commitment to live every moment of each day as ministers of the Good News in our relationships, homes, churches, work settings, and community. It has to start there...and then we'll decide where to go.

A Life-or-Death Battle

Wayne Calloway, former Chairman of Pepsico, Inc., is quoted as saying, "I'll bet most of the companies that are in life-or-death battles got into that kind of trouble because they didn't pay enough attention to developing their leaders."  Whether its Pepsi or the local church, we do get into trouble if we don't give direct attention to how we identify, train, deploy, and support potential new leaders. Yet, I've been challenged this week to reflect on how I try to encourage churches to make this a priority. 

 I'm supposed to do the first of several leadership workshops on the role of the Nominations and Leadership Development Committee this Sunday.  Each year, I'm asked to lead this workshop in various districts.  People come and respond positively.  I feel like I'm giving them the tools they need. Yet, every year when Charge Conference time rolls around, I still hear people talk about trying to fill a slate of nominations so that the reports are filled out correctly and turned in on time.  We received one of those calls last week in our household. That same day, I visited a church where the lack of emerging leaders was a huge topic in our conversation, only to hear someone in the group say they only focused on leaders right before Charge Conference.  Just the day before I had been in a meeting where those gathered began to talk about how long some people in their local churches had served in the same leadership positions and the lack of gender and age diversity in important leadership roles.  It's times like this when I want to throw all my resources into the recycling bin and say, "God, I've tried long enough, and it's not making a bit of difference."  We are in a life-or-death battle, but in many cases, we're not doing much from a leadership standpoint about it.

Leadership directs the work of God in the faith community.  Thus, identifying and nurturing leaders is a huge task that cannot be done intentionally and well in 6 weeks prior to charge conference. We have to move away from thinking of leadership as just filling a required spot or attending meetings.  The first step toward a different view of leadership begins with asking how serving in leadership roles can help people grow spiritually. Ongoing leadership development provides special opportunities to grow in our knowledge, ministry skills, attitudes, and values as well as exploring options for service.  Our goal should always be to help those who are offering their service to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ and to experience the joy of serving, NOT to merely fill positions.  We are in a life-or-death battle. What are we going to do about it?

The Beauty Shop

“There's a reason why forty, fifty, and sixty don't look the way they used to, and it's not because of feminism, or better living through exercise. It's because of hair dye. In the 1950's only 7 percent of American women dyed their hair; today there are parts of Manhattan and Los Angeles where there are no gray-haired women at all.” ― Nora Ephron

Last Friday night, I was five years old again, sitting in my Aunt Bea's beauty shop, trying to entertain myself while my mother and grandmother got their hair done.  That shop was the center of community for the women who gathered there weekly: a place to share joys and concerns about family and friends near and far, to support one another, to learn about adventures (and misadventures) in the world outside the doors.  I remember the smells of the permanent wave lotion and hair dyes.  I can clearly see the carefully set pin curls.  If I'm quiet, I can hear the clicking of the shears.  And I can taste the SunDrop cola straight from the refrigerated case with the bottle cap opener on the front.

Last Friday night, I was in a very similar beauty shop with my Mom.  Getting her hair done in that familiar place was a welcome treat after having just returned to her apartment from her stay in rehab following a fall. More important than the hair style was the community of friends gathered there with her.  Community at its finest -- where she was brought up to date on everything that had happened in the two months she had been gone. Yet things weren't the same.  People had moved.  Tragedies had occurred. The world outside the beauty shop was different.

Isn't church in many ways just the same as the beauty shop?  I can walk into some churches and be five again.  I can smell the old pages of the hymnals, sometimes from those little brown Cokesbury hymnals in the pew racks.  I can see the faded pictures on the walls, many times the same pictures that were there in the 1960s. If I listen carefully, I can hear leadership conversations which haven't really changed...focusing on maintenance rather than dealing honestly with changing realities.  And I can taste the time honored recipes of favorite potluck meals.

I want a church that recognizes the importance of this type of history and values the traditions of the faith, but doesn't live there.  I want a church that authentically addresses the challenges to my faith that come with the realities of September 2013.  I want to be in community with people who love and follow the Jesus that teaches us to meet the needs of the immigrant and the homeless, the searching teenager and the elder adapting to increased dependence on others, the person who prefers pin curls and the one who steps out into the world with bright pink, spiked hair. In order to be that church, we have to change our conversations.  Are you asking the right questions and preparing for things to change as a result of new expectations?  If not, we’re all five years old again and I'm still playing with the beauty shop equipment I got for Christmas.

As you can see from the picture below, I was really into the beauty shop thing....

As We Walk Toward Charge Conference

I love to sing and was truly blessed to grow up in a family that loved church music.  I jokingly tell people that by the time I was a teenager, I had been to more weddings, funerals, and revivals than most folks ever attend in their lifetimes.  Over the years, I have experienced many sung versions of The Lord’s Prayer.  However, I have never heard one as a beautiful as on the closing day of the August session of Camp Rainbow Connection (CRC) this year.

Like all communities, the CRC family is as diverse in its gifts as humanly possible – especially when it comes to singing.  I giggled when I received a picture taken during one of the music classes this year where a staff member was seated between two of our campers who love to sing but haven’t recognized the power of their voices.  The staff member has her fingers in her ears but a smile on her face while the campers were both singing away.  The person who took the picture captioned it as “The Loud Seat.” 

On Friday morning as the campers were sharing what they learned in Bible Class, one of the staff members without prior planning led the campers in singing the traditional version of The Lord’s Prayer.  The passage of scripture where Jesus teaches us to pray this way was the focus of the Bible Class on Thursday. Each of the four groups of campers had sung the prayer once during class.  This was the only opportunity for all 60 campers to sing it together.  Now, this is a group where some read and others do not, where some are verbal and others are not, where some have been a part of a church all their lives and where others only hear the stories of Jesus for one week a year at camp.  It is a group where you can usually pick out the voices of certain individuals and expect that you will never hear sounds from others.  It is a group where you know that only God will ever fully understand the words that are offered by some campers.

I stood in the doorway and watched as the song leader used full body motions to show the pitch changes.  The campers carefully followed her every move. Other staff clearly and succinctly offered the words. There was no musical accompaniment. Yet, it was the most amazing version of The Lord’s Prayer I have ever experienced.  There was not one voice that overshadowed another. The words were strong and powerful. Every gift and every talent was used in its own unique way.  The song was absolutely perfect! It sounded like the most well trained, long prepared choir was offering this gift to God. How truly blessed I was to experience that moment.

What might happen if the members of your church were using their gifts and skills this faithfully and effectively in the community? Discovering our gifts and fulfilling God’s call upon our lives is a lifelong process - a component of our discipleship.  Helping others to recognize, develop, and use their unique gifts transforms lives and multiplies the work of the kingdom - a component of our work as lay leaders. As we enter this year’s cycle of Charge Conferences, think about the leadership development process at your church.  Oh, how our churches and the world would be transformed if our goal was not merely to fill leadership positions but to help each person identify and use their gifts in service as part of their call from God to fully live as disciples of Jesus Christ!  

Walking Partners

In the training that I provide for local church Lay Leaders, I begin with what should be a simple equation:

The Congregational Ministry =

Ministry of the Laity + Skills and Experience of Professional Clergy

This is the heart of the Partners in Ministry program that our Virginia Conference Board of Laity has emphasized for many years.  One of the major assumptions of the Partners in Ministry program is that to be effective, clergy and laity need to work as a team with a shared vision for the church.  Both must take 100% of the responsibility for the outcomes – positive or negative.  In order to be effective, we must recognize and utilize the personal gifts and graces of each person.  Together, we must strengthen our own spiritual foundations and improve our skills for leading the church forward.

I must admit that lately I’ve struggled mightily with the clergy/lay divide.  This honestly has been a challenge for me since I started working on the Connectional Ministries staff so it’s nothing new.  In the recent weeks, however, I have found myself in situations where the differences are more profound than ever.  Sometimes I think it comes from being the definite minority in a level of denominational work that is dominated by clergy.  Other times it seems due to the lingering challenges of gender or racial/ethnic differences.  Many times the divide is felt more strongly because of perceived status within a denomination comprised of many, many levels and divisions.  No matter what the true cause of this clergy/lay divide, I firmly believe that we are called to be equal partners in making disciples of Jesus Christ; we must work together if we are to accomplish our mission. I hold deep in my heart and soul our United Methodist belief that we are all called to be ministers - called through our baptism to be disciples in all areas of our lives and examples of Christ’s love to the world. 

Jim Nibbelink of Milford, Ohio, delivered the Laity Address at the 2000 General Conference of The United Methodist Church.  One of his opening statements was that tradition “is impeding the ability of congregations to engage in active ministry.” This “tradition,” as he continued, has created separate tasks for clergy and lay members instead of bringing us together as partners. "The time has long passed, if it was truly ever here, when one leader could chart the course, make decisions, call the tune and carry the load," he said. "Dictates from the pulpit or pew must pass away, and a renewed, cooperative spirit must be encouraged to take root."  (You can find the summary of Mr. Nibbelink’s address at: http://archives.umc.org/interior.asp?mid=694 ) 

Thirteen years have passed since this address at General Conference, but I still struggle as many of you may with the great divide.  As laity, we must identify new ways to be bridge builders if our congregations are truly to become more vital and fruitful. It’s our baptismal calling.

"Will You Go With Me?"

Reposted from June 24, 2013

Those gathered at the Virginia Annual Conference watched and celebrated the licensing, commissioning, and ordination of 65 individuals on Saturday night. Among them were two former interns who served in my office.  I could not have been prouder unless I was the mother of these two amazing young women!

The paths our journeys take are so very varied - by generation, by the mentors who impact our lives, by environment, by our choices.  Thirty-one years ago I approached the pastor at my home church about the call to ministry I was feeling.  But thirty-one years ago we weren't awaiting Supreme Court decisions on the process colleges and universities use to assure diversity.  We certainly were not waiting on decisions around marriage equity.  Most churches weren't even ready for a woman in the pulpit, much less consideration of greater inclusiveness.  The lecture I received the day I sat to talk with my pastor was filled with the things "I would not" want or experience if I entered the ordained ministry: "I would not" marry, "I would not" want to subject a husband or family to the United Methodist itinerant system, "I would not" be received well by local churches, "I would not" be happy.  At 21 years of age, I felt that this male pastor had spoken for the church as a whole.  Eventually, I realized that he spoke only for himself.  But the harm had been done.  I continue to question the call I have to church service even into middle age.  I have never taken the walk at the end of the Service for the Ordering of Ministry when the Bishop extends the invitation for all those to come forward who are feeling a call to ministry. 

But last Saturday night, I experienced that walk in a different way.  Accessibility is one of my responsibilities for our Annual Conference sessions.  I was sitting at the table for computer assisted note taking for those who have difficulty hearing the spoken word clearly.  (What we do is similar to closed captioning on television and film.)  I was at the table at the end of the service with a friend who sang in the choir with us for a while at my local church. She had been typing when Bishop Cho extended the invitation.  As the closing hymn began, she bowed in prayer.  She was visibly shaking when she lifted her head. Putting my arm around her shoulder, I asked if she was feeling a call to ministry.  A few seconds and a little conversation followed until I asked if she wanted to go forward.  What came next surprised me: "Will you go with me?"

Thirty-one years...fourteen Annual Conference sessions as a Connectional Ministries staff person...and I finally take the walk...not for myself, but in support of another young woman wanting to commit her life to serve God and God's people. I may not have gone to the Bishop on my own journey, but was given the most awesome privilege of walking along side another.

The ways we each individually respond to God's call upon our lives are unique and varied, yet one thing is absolutely clear.  We are all as the 'laos" - the whole people of God - called by our baptisms to be ministers. The structure of the church sets some apart for specific work, but we are all called to offer our gifts and talents to the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

How seriously do you take that call upon your life? What will be your response when God asks "Will you go with me?"

Change...

“Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.”   - Eckhart Tolle

Change - just the thought of it at times makes us all uneasy.  Change to the structure, traditions, and our comfortable ways of doing things in the church can make us even more anxious. Why is that?  The world is constantly changing.  Our bodies are changing moment to moment.  Why is it so hard for us as leaders in the church to change?

If you have followed the first 4 posts on this blog, you will realize that the URL has changed.  The type may not be the same.  A few of the words are different.  Why?  Change....

In switching to a different e-mail platform, the first blog by the same name went AWOL.  So I start again.  I've missed  few great opportunities over the last few weeks to talk about lay leadership in the church, but I'll make up for it.

Change...takes time....can be frustrating....does not go according to my plans....but yes, amazingly (and thankfully) creates space for something new to emerge.

Lessons from the Magnolia Tree

There was a magnolia tree in the back yard of the house next door to the one in which I grew up.  My mother has a picture of her holding me on the day I was baptized in April 1961 with one of the neighbors under that magnolia – fairly small at that time, but so was I! All of the important issues – where acts of faith and witness were needed – first came into my life in the community around the magnolia tree.  It was faith taken from the pews of the church and put into action. Faith called upon in times of illness, war, hunger, disaster, personal challenges, and so much more.  Faith which made celebrations more joyful and loss easier to bear.

No matter what time of the year, you could look out the windows on the side of our house and see signs of life in the magnolia tree – from the birds that roosted there to the evergreen leaves. The smell of those large sweet scented flowers filled the air around our house when they were in bloom and when they were not blooming, you could see those hairy flower bulbs which are borne at the tips of the twigs and know that they would blossom again.

There are many stories I could tell of how our community around that tree cared for one another.  But each one centers on strong faith put into action – sort of like the trunk of the magnolia tree – standing firm, deeply rooted in the teachings of Jesus and an ever-present faith in God.  A faith that has been passed on from generation to generation.  But without the outstreched branches that tree couldn’t show life – there would be no evergreen leaves or flowers, no birds singing.  Faith cannot stand by itself.  Like the branches of the magnolia, it is when the faith reaches out in service to others that it blossoms.  Remember that the magnolia flower is at the very tip of the twigs on the branches.

The lessons I learned from around the magnolia tree were about an active, living faith.  For as James wrote, “You do well when you really fulfill the royal law found in scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself” (James 2:8 CEB). It is the type of faith that John Wesley described when he said, “Faith hath not its being from works, (for it is before them,) but its perfection.” 

That faith from around the magnolia tree showed its beautiful blossoms mightily over the last few days as my mother fell, had surgery to repair her broken hip, and is now settling into rehab.  Connections from the community around that tree and every place the branches are now reaching showered us with prayer, visits, calls, and messages.  I have experienced our United Methodist connection, in particular, at its finest from messages saying mom was lifted in prayer in churches across the Virginia Conference on Sunday to United Methodists around the globe letting us know of their concern and thoughts. And for mom, how blessed can you be when your first bite of nourishment in more than 24 hours comes by way of your pastor bringing the gifts of the Eucharist.  Thank you all for your expressions of care and concern…and for reminding us of what it truly means to be love your neighbor as yourself.

“Beat It” or “Change It”

I put off tweeting as long as I could, and I must admit that I’m still a novice at all these new electronic means of communicating (…I mean social networking…) with one another. Yet, this week, I’ve caught the hashtag bug.  First it was the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference because I was curious as to why everybody was tweeting about trees. I learned a lot from the tweets of those attending as they have compared the vitality of churches to the life of trees:  the health of the roots, impact of the environment on the trees, and the animals, birds, and insects that live in them.  Took me a day or two before realizing the theme of the Annual Conference session was “Cultivating the Tree of Life.” But the conversation that has really made me catch the bug is #80schurchmusic.  Maybe it’s a Younger Boomer thing that we can entertain ourselves by changing the titles of pop/rock music hits from the 1980s to reflect church life.  Every denomination and tradition has been made the subject of an altered song title: “Harper Valley PCA,” “I Wish They All Could Be Southern Baptist Girls”, “Papa Don't Preach Pentecostalism,” “Walk Like an Episcopalian,” and "She Blinded Me with Scientology" just to list a few.

But the conversation has also gotten personal with titles like these:

• “Everybody Wants to Rule the Church”
• “(Finance Committee Meets…) All Night Long”
• “Sweet Dreams (of getting out by noon)”
• “I Still Haven't Found the Committee I'm Looking For”
• “Time After Time (aka How Many Times Is the Preacher Going to Use That Same Illustration?)”

All this conversation from around the world, laughing together at our church experience in different places and across various traditions…then all of the sudden pops up "Church Is a Battlefield"? Ouch! People see us acting as the song titles describe, and then we wonder why new people don’t come and young people don’t want to stay in church.

In the midst of more titles comes a tweet that reads: “Once again, the church is 35 years behind the culture.” I can attempt to learn to tweet and blog and use my smart phone the best I can, but I see church newsletters all the time that haven’t changed in format since the first one was produced on the original mimeograph machine. Who is that attracting? How is the church changing to meet the demands of new lifestyle, communication, and networking technologies? How much longer can we avoid reality by telling ourselves it is okay not to change just because we’re comfortable where we are (aka “we’ve never done it that way before”)?

In May of 1983 when I graduated from college, Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” was the number one pop song in the country.  Maybe I should add that song to the Twitter conversation as “Change It.”  Today’s culture is certainly different from the world I experienced as a young adult in the 1980s.  And it is certainly not the 1950s anymore when most of our churches were filled with children and everyone in the community seemed to adhere to Christian values. But is your church different today?  Are you…mentoring new leaders and supporting them in leadership roles? …envisioning new ministries to reach diverse people and emerging community needs? Utilizing the gifts, graces, and passions of members and attendees?...exploring the multitude of ways to nurture current disciples and make new ones? If not, start singing “Change It.”

During the same period this year, the top pop song was Pink’s “Just Give Me a Reason.”  It was on my playlist as I walked this morning.  How will people in 30 years change that title to reflect their church experience?  I hope it’s not “Just Give Me a Reason (…to even go to church).”  The future is in our thumbs…I mean hands. 

Traveling the Intergenerational Path Home

I traveled with the young adult intern in our office this summer to speak at an end-of-the-unofficial-church-year dinner this week.  Everything was wonderfully traditional and comfortable in every sense of being Methodist:  great people, food, singing, and prayer all in the cozy basement fellowship hall.   When the hymnals were passed out, my intern made the statement that they looked like the “Methodist Hymnal” in the pew racks at his home church, but they were much older.  Since I’m always curious about the variety of hymnals we have in our pew racks – from the original “Cokesbury” to none, I questioned him with “Do you have the ‘Methodist Hymnal’ or the ‘United Methodist Hymnal’?”  He responded back with a statement that led to a little history lesson about how we became “United” on our way back home.

I’m in that unique category of having been baptized into the Methodist Church and confirmed as a member of The United Methodist Church.  I don’t remember much about that historic union of the Methodists and Evangelical United Brethren except for replacing the hymnal.  You can see where my interest was at the time – singing, not church polity.  Believe me, I could belt out “When We All Get to Heaven” which was our first song the other night, but it was totally unfamiliar to the young adult sitting beside me.

It was the spring of 1972 when I became a member of The UMC.  Some of what was happening then seems strangely familiar to events around our world today….

·         In early 1972, OPEC as the history books state, began to “assert power and raise prices in response to the falling US dollar.”  Gas was at its highest price ever - about $.35/gallon. That would have gotten me about a tenth of a gallon when I filled up my tank yesterday. 

·         Hewlett Packard introduced the first scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) for $395.  Now, just what will that 16 GB iPad Mini do for $329 if I go buy it this afternoon?

·         Hank Aaron received Major League Baseball’s highest contract – signing for $200,000 a year.  None of you Yankee fans can respond, but is A-Rod who has been in the news again this week for his off the field actions and isn’t even playing right now really worth $27,500,000 this year?

·         North Vietnamese troops entered South Vietnam. The news tonight will probably mention the Korean Peninsula, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Syria.

·         The USA, USSR, and 70 other nations agreed to ban biological weapons. I just got 7,730,000 results when I googled “biological weapons.”  And in 1972, who would have imagined I would be using “googled” as a verb.

Sadly, our world is facing the same turmoil in many ways today that it did in 1972.  Sadder still: many of the leaders in our churches are trying to lead in the same way, under the same organizational structures, with the same tools that we had in 1972.  But the world has changed.

I am extremely grateful for all those who gave leadership to The Methodist and the Evangelical United Brethren Churches when a new denomination was birthed at the General Conference in Dallas on April 23, 1968 with the words, “Lord the Church, we are united in Thee, in Thy Church, and now The United Methodist Church.”  I am even more grateful to all those lay and clergy leaders in our local churches who realize there is much to learn about how we become vital congregations in today’s world, how we support the disciples in our midst and how we nurture those who will decide to become followers of Jesus Christ because of what they see in us.  I want us all to become the leaders who can sing “When We All Get to Heaven” with our hearts warmed by the memories of great times of growth and prosperity in our churches but recognize that we have much to learn about the songs that will touch new believers.

Whether you call it authentic, adaptive, or transformative leadership, we need leaders who are mission-driven (…to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world), willing to take risks and ask hard questions, committed to mentoring new leaders, and always open to new possibilities. Travis Bradberry, one of the authors of the book, Leadership 2.0, states that:  “The moment leaders think they have nothing more to learn and have no obligation to help develop those they lead is the moment they ensure they’ll never know their true potential.” (11/09/2012 article for Forbes Magazine:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2012/11/09/leadership-2-0-are-you-an-adaptive-leader/ )

May the Holy Spirit equip us to know our true potential – as individuals, as church leaders, as world-changing disciples.

FYI: If you need a musical reminder of adaptive leadership, you might like to view the YouTube video of pianist Anthony Burger playing “When We All Get to Heaven” in a variety of different styles. Burger died at age 44 in February, 2006. Who knows….if Burger was still with us, he might even add a hip-hop or electronic style to the options.  Are we willing to stretch our styles?   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUzfaOIr7rE

Walking Martha Home

My early morning walk today was filled with reflections on events of the last week.  In the midst of all the thoughts swirling in my head, there was a constant call to write about my experiences.  There was a persistent question of whether my life lessons could impact the direction of lay leadership in the Virginia Conference of The United Methodist Church. There was also a flashback to a quote I retweeted two weeks ago from Todd Adkins (@Todd Adkins):  “Sometimes God puts young leaders around you who need to hear your past so it doesn’t become their future.”  Then there came the realization that in my presentations about developing intentional Older Adult Ministries I emphasize that we all feel the need to leave a legacy – to add dimension to the lives of those we journey with throughout our lives – and since I’m in my midlife season now, I need to spend more time living what I “preach.” 

 

As my walk ended and I came to the lamppost at my sidewalk, I snapped the picture in the banner: the blooming clematis vine wrapped around a garden flag and an old brick. The climbing vine breaking forth with new life and stretching in every direction possible, unconcerned about how I tried to tie it off and make it conform to my expectations.  The garden flag that grabbed my heart immediately when I saw it at a local produce stand because of the goofy blue bird in its center: a bird so wacky looking that I just had to have it in my yard to prompt me daily to enjoy life.  The brick that reminds me of my life story, taken from the pile of rubble after the demolition of a 90 year old building in my hometown which was destroyed by fire last year.

 

Joyce’s Drug Store filled part of that building for many, many years.  It was across the street from the primary school I attended.  When I was young, that store is where I would meet my mother after school, have a drink or ice cream and possibly buy a comic book, before we walked home.  Sometimes I’d have to wait a little while in the safety of the drug store before she arrived.  In 1968, the school system was finally integrated, and one day that year when my mom was very late coming to the drug store, a new male friend who was in my second grade class decided to walk me home.  The house I grew up in was on the edge of the road that divided the black and white sides of our little village.  Ronnie lived on one side; I lived on the other. At age 7, we were too young to know the turmoil we might be creating.  As we rounded the curve toward my house, I remember seeing my mother on the front porch but can’t recall the look on her face.  I do remember Ronnie’s words:  “I’m walking Martha home, Mrs. Ensley.”  I realize now that my journey of authentic leadership began that day. 

 

What was swirling in my head this morning that brought all this back and led to starting this blog?

·       We invited a group of friends to our house last Friday night.  As the early arrivals gathered at the kitchen table and began to share a meal, the conversation turned negative when they realized that one of the guests was an immigrant to the United States from the Middle East and of Muslim faith.  I couldn’t tolerate the conversation so I walked into another room. For a week now have tried to deal with my troubled heart for not speaking out and addressing what was being said.  How can I claim to be the advocate for justice that I believe Jesus calls me to be when I didn’t voice my displeasure that this conversation was happening in my own house? 

·       The extreme introvert that I am, I have been in recovery for two days after talking for almost 1 ½ hours straight each way between Virginia Beach and Glen Allen on Wednesday as two of us “old” directors on the Connectional Ministries staff traveled to Licensing School with three of the interns in our office this summer.  These young adults are struggling with questions of faith and church life that it took me into my forties to even think about: How do we live authentic Christian lives? How can we exclude people when Jesus called us to love everyone? How do we move the church forward without fear?  It pains me to my core to see the hurt and questioning in their eyes.  How do I as a lay leader in The United Methodist Church encourage holy conversation and action that will transform the lives of people of all ages and let them see that we truly live what we say we believe? 

·       I had to make a very difficult phone call yesterday to share the decision of a board for which I serve as chair.  The call had the potential to change the professional relationship that I have had with the individual for 13 years.  Upon sharing an update of the conversation with the other members of the board, I sensed a new round of great mistrust and anger.   How do I lead in ways that build trust, allowing all the voices to be heard, yet keeps the focus on God’s call for our individual and corporate ministries above our own desires?

 

In “Discovering Your Authentic Leadership,” a February 2007 article for the Harvard Business Review, authors Bill George, Peter Sims, Andrew N. McLean, and Diana Mayer describe a process of research interviews conducted with 125 leaders identified for their success.   The interviews were based upon one question:  “How can people become and remain authentic leaders?”  In analyzing the results, the research team found that the leaders did not identify specific essential leadership characteristics or traits.  It was their life stories that formed the foundation of their success.

 

“Consciously and subconsciously, they were constantly testing themselves through real-world experiences and reframing their life stories to understand who they were at their core. In doing so, they discovered the purpose of their leadership and learned that being authentic made them more effective.”  (On-line article:  http://hbr.org/2007/02/discovering-your-authentic-leadership/ar/1 )

 

Robin Sharma, author of The Saint, The Surfer and The CEO: A Remarkable Story About Living Your Heart’s Desires (2003: Hay House, Inc.; Carlsbad, CA), states that authentic leadership “is all about being the person you know in your heart you have always been destined to be.”  (You can find an on-line summary article of the “Ten Things Authentic Leaders Do” at:  http://leadership.uoregon.edu/resources/exercises_tips/leadership_reflections/10_things_authentic_leaders_do )

 

So, my journey of authentic Christian leadership which began the day Ronnie walked me home will now continue with this blog.  By the way, we all knew by the time we became teenagers that Ronnie was gay.  By the early 1980s, he had died from complications of AIDS.  His life continues to impact my life story.

 

My prayer is that this blog will impact the lives of those who are on this journey with me to be the best United Methodist lay leaders we can be.