Our Bishop Robert Schnase will begin March 26 to post a daily blog called 30 Days of Preparation. Cokesbury, the United Methodist Publishing House, is promoting it with the phrase, "Remember the Future." Bishop Schnase admits this is a strange combination of words. But if we stop to think, we know immediately what he means. He wants to make sure we consider the future as we make difficult decisions. Why else would we make decisions at all? To preserve. I'm an existentialist more than a conservative, but even more, I think, I am a futurist. Always have been. Read my bio on this blog. I've always had this preponderance for looking twenty years into the future. As I look back on over thirty years of ministry and predicting, I've been right more than I've been wrong. Like Bishop Schnase, I've always been an avid reader. I appreciate that he reads not only church leadership books, but substantive history and biography and political science and economic analysis, even novels which deeply affect the thinking of our culture. From such breadth we are able to see the 'signs of the times,' as Jesus did, I think. Jesus was more in the line of the prophets than the priests. Priests preserve. Prophets predict. Prophets also pronounce judgment on the present and the way it is likely to affect the future.
Of course we are prone to make decisions in the present largely based on what we have learned in the past. What else do we have? Bishop Schnase refers to two books he feels are most helpful for our spiritual preparation. Perhaps they are books which he is thinking of right now, in the present. What I know about my Bishop (based on the past!) is that he will bring multiple resources into his meditations. He always does it well, in my opinion. I hope Bishop Schnase's spiritual meditations will help us see where he thinks United Methodists are headed if we stay on the course we have been following. He has always been quick to quote Deming, the business analyst, who says a system will get what it is designed to produce. With Bishop Schnase, I hope we will design a new system which can produce something other than decline in numbers, financial resources, and little ministry fruitfulness.
I have to admit I don't carry with me the 'hope' for that happening, as he defines it. I work for it, every day. That's my job. And I think I am relatively successful. I don't expect to be removed from my pulpit, or any pulpit, for clergy incompetence. Though 58, I am not a 'burned out pastor.' I wake up every morning and put my hand to the plow, without looking back. That's a Jesus quote. But I also 'remember' that Elijah the prophet called Elisha to 'leave the plow behind.' They even burned the oxen, lest Elisha try to move into the future facing backwards. As I learn from what I have read, and see the signs of the times, I really don't expect much future from The United Methodist Church. I expect it will die, likely within the next 20-30 years. While we have wonderful folks in my own congregation, most are over 80. Every time one dies I know the fiscal consequence. We are adding new people, but they have lower incomes reflecting the changing character of our neighborhood. It is right to include them. But it does not tend toward better fiscal stability. I will pray and work hard in 'hope' that this church does not die. But I expect this church will die. All churches do eventually. And that's alright. I am not with the general church executives fighting to preserve their agencies, or even the Bishops fighting to preserve conferences. The past will pass.
I see instead a new form of the church emerging. New forms have historically emerged as old forms have died. Whatever we decide at General Conference, I 'hope' the focus will not be on preserving an institution. Just because we have built a great one (and I believe we have!) does not justify it's perpetual continuance. I see United Methodists merging with The United Church of Christ, the United Presbyterians, The Progressive Baptists, The Disciples of Christ, perhaps even The Anglican Church in America, to become a United Church of America. The Canadians did it a long time ago. I will not likely be in it myself. I will either be dead, or a Roman Catholic layman. Who knows? I am 'remembering the future' and I expect it will be very different from the present. With Philip Jenkins I believe the churches of the southern hemisphere will continue to grow, and will exist in forms very different from our own.
Of course, we may have no world at all. If we Christians can't find collegiality with people of other faiths more effectively- very, very soon- to influence governments and corporations to work more sacrificially and urgently to preserve the natural environment, none of us will be alive a hundred years from now. On this issue I am an ultra-conservative. Isn't it strange, that the people who turn a blind eye and obliterate the environment- who refuse to see the signs of the times- label themselves conservative? And that the rest of us let them have the label? This issue is far more important that the way United Methodists are organized, or whether or not UMC clergy have guaranteed appointment. A system will arrrive at what it is designed to accomplish. My observation is that we liberal United Methodists are very good at crafting well-worded pronouncements to print in our Book of Resolutions, but not so good at doing much to actually change things. If we can't get this gear shifted- get organized to really change the world- of course the UMC will die. My guess is cockroaches will survive humanity, to start over. They are designed well for survival, better than the UMC will ever be. Is this a 'hopeless' analysis? I'll let you judge. I don't think so. I think I might just have a broader definition of hope.
I encourage you to sign up online for Bishop Schase's meditations.
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