Priorities
Flipping through the wonderful new handbook from United Methodist Communications, I was impressed again by how much ministry our church does with so many people in so many places. The handbook does a great job of putting into words and images the scope of ministry (and structure!) in which our denomination engages. (I’m even in the background of the picture featuring worship in Cote d’Ivoire, at the bottom of p 13!)
As I pondered our “Four Areas of Focus,” prominently located at the front of the handbook, I once again wondered why they always make me uncomfortable. I believe we need to be growing ethical, engaged, and excellent leaders (both lay and clergy); clearing space for new communities of faith to thrive and resourcing existing ones; enacting good news to the poor; and ensuring health and wholeness worldwide. None of these are bad–in fact, they make me humbled to be part of such a wide-ranging and deeply concerned connection.
Only when I contrasted these four areas with the priority of the British Methodist church did I find the source of my unease. Here’s their only priority:
To proclaim and affirm its conviction of God’s love in Christ, for us and for all the world; and renew confidence in God’s presence and action in the world and in the Church
After that, a number of other familiar-sounding “ways towards realising this priority” begin to spill out, but notice the difference: we talk about 4 areas of focus that deal with what we do–British Methodists have 1 priority: to proclaim God’s love in Christ and renew confidence in God. Adopted in 2004, I arrived in Great Britain a year later to discover this priority was on the lips, hearts, and minds of everyone at every level of the church…not to mention my class membership ticket.
In the words of one of my favorite theologians–Ron Weasley–we need to sort out our priorities. What ought to be our first priority? God, the holy and blessed Trinity, just as Jesus answered the question about the first commandment. The second is like it, and here we might well talk about our four areas, but they only make sense in the context of a God who participates in & enables a love that fills heart, soul, mind, and strength.
What would it look like if we made our first priority developing confidence in God? If we could have Gospel action to go with our Gospel words, if all our membership could speak about God with confidence, and point to faith communities where we acted Christ-like? Call me naive, but it seems to me that the first priority enables all the rest.
Dan Dick states with annoying regularity (here, for instance) that attracting new members won’t help us much if we can’t figure out what to do with the 8 million we already have here. What can we do with each and every one of those? Develop confidence in God…and then put that to work.
Brother, I really struggle with this also. We seem to be grasping for straws, at times extremely desperate. We need to reclaim the power of the resurrected Christ that lives in us and calls us to share that love with others. I pray that we are able to do just that!
Amen. Too often our rhetoric is anthropocentric and rarely theocentric. I think you and I have covered this ground before, but thanks for bringing this to our attention once again. Maybe one day we’ll make Jesus our vision. Imagine the possibilities.
So proud that you are my husband!
Josh,
Our priority as a Church is our mission: to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Not the same as the BMC, but still, I think, a good mission that is clearly biblical in nature. These Four Areas of Focus flow (at least, theoritically) from our mission. This is stated on p. 4 of the handbook, though not as clearly as it could have been. I am left wondering, as I think you are as well, if we are not missing some steps here – such as teaching and proclaiming God’s love and grace.
John, I agree with you that our mission statement could function the same as the priority does for our British brothers and sisters. But what grounds our disciple-crafting and world-transforming mission?
After a conversation at church today, I wonder how my youth directors convince their youth that prayer, Bible study, giving to God’s work is important when their parents are happy to just come to church on a Sunday and not let God touch the rest of their lives? When we namecheck God at the top of the agenda, but in most aspects of our business God is rarely named, much less consulted with…including in the handbook. I’m concerned that the only places I see mention of God’s character, action, or call are in the first few pages or in the section headings. A far cry from things like catechisms or articles of religion which connect every question and answer to the Biblical narrative….
Very true. The nature and character of God should be the grounding for our work together, and implicitly it is (it is God who calls us to make disciples and transform the world), but we should definitely be more explicit in making that connection. I fear that too often we make church and discipleship more about what benefits us or what we can do, rather than about who God is in the world.
Amen! May you and others continue to raise this issue with “annoying regularity.”