Hoping in Hampton
Some thoughts, prayers, and even actions as I head to Hampton for a conference bringing together United Methodist Clergy and Church Members from across Virginia
It is often difficult to encapsulate the entire emotional toll that comes with being a pastor. Even when the church is not at opposite ends of an argument that is threatening to tear it apart from within. Even at its best times, the church doesn’t always view care and wellness as something important in the life of the church.
Our Place Might Be In Heaven, BUT…
I don’t think I have ever heard the statement said, but I have heard sentiments that align with this statement:
“Our place is in heaven, what is the point of caring for ourselves or even this place?”1
In the past decade as a pastor, I often see a good amount of apathy when it comes to truly caring for ourselves, this earth, and even to an extent other people. Almost everything we do is labeled in the vain of:
appealing to our “Heavenly Father” (intentional gendered language for God used).
ensuring (basically locking down) our salvation.
and “Winning souls for Christ.”
Sometimes all of this can seem very noble, and even justified when we read scripture our way. However, this can lead to not just an unhealthy church, but unhealthy leadership. People are lauded for basically working themselves to the point of death…or at the very least serious illness. We are praised for the number of baptisms, professions of faith, or “souls we have won.” Very little care is often given to the world around us, and when ideas like climate change are raised as an idea, nothing is made of it because there is a sense that this world is temporary.
Now, right off the bat, you may be thinking that this is turning into a “negative” piece. However, let me turn things around for you:
It remains the nature of the church to be hopeful. Whenever I gather with others who, by virtue of their role or calling, are in privileged conversations about how the church is living into the global mission of the church. Whether at the local church, state-wide, national, or even global scale, there should be more care given to what it means to ensure that we have the right tools and resources to truly live in the mission of the church.
The Church and It’s Mission
This mission of the church is not about “winning souls,” it is not about working ourselves to death, and it is not about engaging in practices that harm others or the world around us.
The mission of the church is about taking part in the transformational work God is doing across creation. For the United Methodist Church (the denominational expression I am ordained in), we name the mission of the church writing,
“The mission of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”2
Notice there is no notion of heaven, there is not necessarily even a message about salvation. All of that is assured by our faith.
Now don’t hear what I’m not saying, these are important but not the sole reason behind our mission on Earth. However, what is present, in this understanding of mission, is what we see as our calling on earth. This concept of a lived, social holiness in our faith is one of living out the grace and love that God gives to us. We cannot do this if we spend all of our time wishing we were somewhere else (namely heaven).
John writes in Revelation 21:
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals.’”3
Do we ever give enough credence to the idea that while the “first earth” passes away, the holy city (this idealistic nature of heaven), is brought down to earth?
This does not mean a destruction of the earth we have, but a promise that in God’s time, the newness that is experienced through God’s love will transcend the worst of what is left here. In God’s workings of grace on this earth, through the working of God’s disciples, this nature and understanding of God’s Kin-dom is made real here on earth. The more we open to God’s presence on earth the more that the broken and corrupted nature of earth dies away, and the newness and glory of heaven becomes a present reality.
2024 Virginia Annual Conference
All of this is in my mind as today, at 10:30 AM the Bishop of the Virginia Annual Conference, Sue Haupert-Johnson, will call to order the Virginia Annual Conference. This is a gathering of pastors and church members from across the Commonwealth to have conversations about how we are living into the mission of the church.
Before us, this year is a radically different church than even was had when we gathered last June (yea, we get together yearly and just nerd out haha).
Since then the global body of the United Methodist Church has met and has made historic changes. Ones that have changed how people who identify as LGBTQIA+ are in relationship with the church (notice how I said the church and not God: LGBTQIA+ persons have always had a relationship with God, but the church has prevented them from living fully into it). The global church is moving in a direction that could make changes to its global structure, and it has even seen celebrations in areas around cultural, racial, and even gender diversity. However, there is a question that might still be on our minds:
What does this all mean as we go forward? What is the next level of care that must occur within the church?
HEALING
The problem is this healing must be multi-faceted because we have, for so long, neglected this work at many levels in this denomination.
Not only have we not cared for creation, but when we have started to make strides in the area of creation care, we have not created space for healing and reconciliation.
Not only has the church perpetuated racial discrimination, but when it makes strides towards a more racially equitable church it does not heal and reconcile those relationships that have been fractured.
Even the latest example of making strides in LGBTQIA+ inclusion has not allowed true space for healing amongst these relationships at this point.
There are examples of moments of healing and moments of reconciliation, but if we had truly done this work well, we would not continue to deal with these issues over and over again, year after year. We have forgotten that the mission of faith is care.
Care for God, care for ourselves, care for others… care for God and all the things God has offered to us.
As I experience proceedings in Hampton for this year’s Annual Conference, I am so hopeful that we can begin to see healing. That we can begin to gather around expressions of care for ourselves and others.
I grieve that the church tears itself apart because it cannot reconcile differences within itself or even amongst the greater society. It thinks of everything as one thing or another everything HAS to be binary. However, in doing so we often miss the very work of God that has been playing out over the history of time. We have limited the true power of the Spirit by creating such a rigid structure that when there is the slightest bit of wind that causes us to view something differently, instead of this structure swaying as a sign of sturdiness, its rigidity causes it to crumble.
Healing is the swaying of the church.
It is recognizing that we have not cared as we should have. We have not loved God or their creation as we should. We have hurt ourselves and in doing so often harm others. We have been taught that if it isn’t right it is wrong, so that when we approach something we have been told is “wrong” we neglect the Spirit’s movement to more holistically include the depths of God’s creation as we interact with our creator.
I am hoping that the church can examine their inward spirits, and see the work the church can do when we get out of the way and let the Spirit be our guide.
I close with the sentiment from the story of Pentecost in Acts 2, a manner of the “Church” receiving the Spirit, and what it means for their response. If you read Acts 2, you will read about the variety of languages and dialects that were heard in the rushing of wind and great proclamation. In that moment there is a collective understanding of the witness of the resurrection of Christ, and it is in diversity that the message shines forth.
It is in the fullness that the church CAN be that we live into the fullness of creation that birthed us. I am hopeful that the church can come to the place where it sees what it needs to do to care for itself. To care for those within their midst. To care for those who are a part of the broader community we are called to be in ministry with.
To care for God and all of God’s creation!
Again I think if push comes to shove, no sane Christian would admit to this sort of thought process.
United Methodist Book of Discipline, Para. 120
Revelation 21:1-3a, New Revised Standard Version