The Question We've Yet to Answer

Never waste a good crisis. 

This past week I participated in an event in which over four hundred clergy from the Central Texas Conference and the North Texas Conference met together. It was the first, but not the last, gathering of clergy from a new episcopal area served by our newly appointed bishop, Bishop Rueben Saenz, Jr. The gathering had a spiritual, relational focus rather than the institutional-business focus of most conference meetings. We reaffirmed our call by celebrating our baptism. We celebrated our oneness with table conversations and the celebration of holy communion. We focused on the future, moving beyond the conflict and division of the past. The spirit of the gathering was uplifting, hopeful. I was grateful to be a part of this initial gathering of the two conferences.

As we move forward into the future God has for us, a question is lodged in the back of my mind, haunting me: What have we learned from the conflict and splintering over the LGBTQ+ issues?

It seems to me we as United Methodists haven’t answered this question.

Perhaps we haven’t answered the question because we don’t know who needs to answer it – the Council of Bishops, General Conference, our conferences, conference leadership, our churches, our clergy, our laity?

I fear we haven’t answered the question because we want to put all of this behind us as quickly as possible and go back to the way things were. Of course, we can never go back to the way things were. Like the pandemic, the conflict and splintering have created a new normal. We don’t yet know what that new normal will look like. How we deal with this crisis, what we learn from the conflict and splintering will determine, at least in part, what the new normal looks like.

Perhaps we haven’t answered the question because our human inclination is to blame. It is easy to blame this conflict and division on those churches and pastors who left The UMC. Blaming the other is what generally happens in most divorces. Blaming the other blinds us to our contribution to the situation.

Perhaps we haven’t answered the question because we don’t know how to answer it. Answering it requires too much work. It raises difficult questions. It calls us to think differently, from a different perspective, on a deeper level.

Every crisis is an opportunity for self-evaluation, learning, adjustment, and change.

Thankfully, based on what I heard at the joint clergy meeting this past week, some of us are using the crisis to reclaim our identity as United Methodist Christians. We are revisiting and reaffirming our grace-based theology with its life-transforming power along with the Wesleyan heritage from which it comes. In addition, we are clarifying and reaffirming our purpose of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The conflict distracted us from this work Christ gave us to do. Identifying and reclaiming our identity and our purpose are essential if we are to move forward into the future God wants for us.

In my mind, the crisis calls us to address other unrecognized issues that contributed to the conflict and splintering:

·       how to read, interpret, understand, and use the Bible;

·       how to think theologically, with the mind of Christ;

·       how to discern the will of God and guidance of the Spirit;

·       knowing the nature of the kingdom of God as found in the teachings of Jesus and its implications for our church;

·       understanding our grace-based theology and how to live out its implications;

·       clarifying what the nature of the Christian life is, that is, how is our Christian faith expressed (hint: love, the fruit of the Spirit);

·       how spiritual growth transforms our hearts and minds (an interior focus), resulting in a change in how we relate to others (the external focus, behavior);

·       how to view and deal with diversity – the other;

·       how to deal with, manage, and resolve conflict.

These issues are the ones I see. I know there are others. We need resources to address these issues and strategies to do so.

Beyond these theological issues, the crisis offers us the opportunity to address structural issues in our church:

·       the hierarchal nature of our church with its top-heavy administrative structure;

·       the costs of that administrative structure;

·       the life-long role of bishops and its implications;

·       the lack of accountability for how a bishop uses the power of the office;

·       the role of the conference in empowering local congregations to do ministry;

·       the way we deal with conflict in congregations; (In my opinion, our default “move the pastor” approach leaves the problem unaddressed and unresolved and to be repeated, resulting in unhealthy, toxic congregations.)

·       the itineracy, especially addressing the (unintended) career-advancement mentality it fosters and the frequency of pastoral changes.

Addressing these issues calls for thinking that sees beyond the default company-maintenance, company-survival, the-way-we-have-always-done-it thinking of institutional life. It calls for thinking that is future-oriented, not tradition bound. It calls for purpose-shaped thinking and functioning.

Every crisis is an opportunity for self-evaluation, learning, adjustment, and change. Sadly, many of us (most of us?) don’t take advantage of the opportunities crises bring. As a result, we don’t learn. We don’t change. In the end, we repeat the crisis.

No wonder the question “what have we learned?” haunts my mind. I don’t want to go through this kind of thing again.

Never waste a good crisis.

I pray we are not wasting this crisis and missing the opportunities it offers.