Transitions
I. A look at this change in pastors
A. Subtitle – Why do United Methodists seem to torture themselves every few years by changing pastors?
II. History lesson
A. Methodism goes back to a renewal movement in the Church of England in the 1700’s
1. Footnote: Church of England is also known as the Anglican or Episcopal Church today
B. Regular class/society meetings to promote the vital piety/sanctification/holiness of the members
C. Came to US through John and Charles Wesley
D. Anglican priests and missionaries to Georgia – decidedly unspectacular work
E. In US, class meetings were led by lay preachers
1. Class members were urged to participate in the sacraments in their local Anglican church
2. The lay preachers were not ordained, so were not to administer the sacraments
3. As Methodist clergy were ordained, they administered the sacraments to members over a wide geographic area. Travelling preachers
4. Became the source for monthly or less frequent communion in Methodist churches – corresponding to visits from the clergy.
5. We will honor that prohibition today. I am a lay speaker, in a sense a direct descendant of those lay preachers.
6. I see roots to this in the Old Testament. Then, and even today, the head of the household is called to be a priest to his family. But this is not the same as the work of the Levites, who ministered in the temple.
a) There were certain tasks that not everyone could do. They were to be done by Levites.
b) From the Levites, specifically from the descendants of Aaron (Moses’ brother), were those called to be priests for all of the people.
c) These were the ones who presented the offerings in the tabernacle and later the temple. Anyone else who approached the tabernacle was to be put to death.
d) Numbers 3:1-10
F. From those first class meetings, and from the teachings of John Wesley, come several emphases that together make Methodists unique
1. There’s the concept of Balance – keeping two opposing forces in check, without letting one overwhelm the other
a) Faith vs. Works
(1) Galatians 3 – 5 speaks of grace. Listen to Gal. 3:1-5 as Paul questions the practice of works without faith
(2) The letter of James is a counterpoint, written to those who were counting on faith alone. James 1:22 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
b) Personal Assurance vs. Social witness
(1) Personal salvation without witness to and involvement in the transformation of society reduces God to a domesticated deity whose principal concern is personal happiness.
(2) God does not bless us merely for our own use. He is not our own private “pocket God.” Pokemon
(3) Social witness and transformation without personal assurance becomes mere “do-good-ism.”
(4) Can be the fast track to disillusionment. We can begin to worship the works rather than the One for whom we do the work.
(5) Those who know and accept their identity as sons and daughters of the living God become the leaven and the salt. They know that all does not depend upon them but that through the faithfulness of God’s people, God’s power transforms the world.
(6) Personal salvation is known and shared in a community of faith.
c) Knowledge vs. Vital Piety
(1) Piety – devotion, service, adoration, faithfulness, adherence, observance
(2) Piety without knowledge becomes superficial emotionalism and easy prey to heresy.
(3) Knowledge without piety removes God and elevates the human mind to supremacy.
(4) Wesley seminary in Washington DC. Library and chapel face each other so that when you leave one, you are faced with the other.
d) Nurture vs. Mission
(1) Isaiah’s call – read earlier. God ministered to Isaiah at his point of need. He was already a religious man. But the reason for his nurture was to send him out in mission.
(2) An emphasis on nurture without a commitment to global mission reduces the church to a spiritual spa that caters to the personal interest of its members.
(3) An emphasis on mission without being a nurturing community reduces the church to a social service agency that ignores the deep spiritual needs of persons and the transcendent dimensions of God’s activity.
(4) I see this balance in our process of adoption.
(a) Cheryl and I have a need to be nurtured by being parents. Yet infertility frustrated that need. We needed to be nurtured in that area. So God is blessing us by bringing a child born to another into our family. But we are not blessed simply to build ourselves up. We are blessed so that we may bless this child whose birth mother and father were unable to care for him. We are blessed to be a blessing to others.
2. There’s also the Wesleyan quadrilateral – the four-sided method for thinking about God. Our theological guidelines
a) Scripture – the grounding of faith. The Bible is our principal testimony to God’s revealing of Himself to us through Christ.
(1) We take is as the final authority in matters of faith.
(2) Danger of bibliolatry – worshipping the Bible rather than God.
(3) It is not a source for historical facts, nor for scientific insight, though it does contain them and has been repeatedly shown to be in harmony with other historical and scientific sources.
b) Tradition – We can know of God through history
(1) The Exodus, giving of the law on Sinai, captivity in Assyria and Babylon and the return from captivity, the Incarnation in Jesus, Pentecost. All of these are key events in the church tradition.
(2) We learn by study of tradition what the early church had to learn by experience.
(3) Earlier noted our connection to the Church of England. That church came from Roman Catholicism.
(4) Danger of traditionalism – doing it the way we’ve always done it simply because we’ve always done it that way. We don’t break from tradition lightly, but we are not afraid to break from it when necessary.
c) Reason – critical thought.
(1) Wesley said, “To renounce reason is to renounce religion. For irrational religion is false religion.”
(2) Mark 12:30 “Love the Lord your God with … all your mind.” Jesus.
(3) Danger of rationalism – trying to “prove” God. There must ultimately be faith.
d) Experience – the personal side of our faith
(1) Our own experience of new life in Christ.
(2) Our life experiences influence how we perceive God, how we come to know God’s grace, and how we express God’s grace in everyday living.
(3) Experience is diverse. No one set of experiences is “correct.” Oppressed see a Liberator. Sorrowing see a Comforter. Women see a dimension of God that can be lost when only men interpret scripture and tradition.
(4) Danger of “enthusiasm” – seeking out feelings alone. Looking for the next spiritual “high.” Our religion is a “heart” religion, but it does not depend on feelings.
3. All of these (Balance, quadrilateral) so that we my do personal theology. So that we may think for ourselves.
a) We apply what we think about God to the way we live.
b) Our lives show our theology lived out
c) We are a “theology practicum.” - the supervised practical application of previously studied theory
d) Most of the New Testament is the early church’s theology done in specific situations.
e) Look at Gospel story – Nicodemus
(1) Experience – that of a Pharisee. Well educated, respected in the community more for his self-righteous conduct than for his caring attitude. He must have felt some tug to talk to this Jesus. But fear of what others would think drove him to seeking out Jesus at night, under the cover of darkness.
(2) Tradition – a long oral tradition of additional laws meant to keep from breaking God’s law. Don Brockus’ example of another fence around God’s law to keep from breaking it. Fell into making their own laws equal to God’s. They believed that God’s grace was extended only to those who kept the law.
(3) Reason – Jesus’ statement in v. 3 that you must be born again flew in the face of all reason that Nicodemus knew. How can a man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again? Nicodemus is trying to apply the physical to spiritual things. Jesus appeals to his sense of reason by saying that flesh gives birth to flesh, but spirit gives birth to spirit. Your flesh has been born and nurtured into a grown man, but now your spirit must be born and nurtured into maturity.
(4) Scripture – In spite of his extensive knowledge of scriptures, Nicodemus is unable to separate the physical from the spiritual. His traditions about the scripture kept him from seeing that the Messiah would come to save all of the world, not just the righteous, or the Jew, or the keeper of the law. Jesus had to teach him a correct interpretation of the scriptures, an interpretation that included God’s love and not His justice alone.
f) As a homework assignment, try looking at this story from a balance perspective. Balancing faith against works, personal assurance against social witness, knowledge against piety, nurture against mission. Try to see where Nicodemus had gotten out of balance.
III. So what does all of this have to do with changing pastors? A couple of thoughts.
A. Periodically changing pastors helps us as individuals and as a congregation keep our balance.
1. Pastors, like us, are human and prone to slipping out of balance in one or more of these areas.
a) Faith ministries – “name it and claim it” types
b) Constant workers to cure social problems of the day
c) Teachers who don’t show how to apply our knowledge in our everyday living.
d) Those intent on building new ministries, with no support for those converted.
2. Congregations can do the same things as a body
B. In our thinking – parts of the quadrilateral can be ignored, over-emphasized, or seen from new perspectives. A new pastor:
1. Can bring differing interpretations to the scriptures
2. Can get us in touch with forgotten parts of our traditions
3. Can reason from new points of view
4. Brings his own unique experiences to share with us.
C. We can fall into the trap of having more respect for the pastor or leader rather than for God.
1. It’s not the man who stands in the pulpit that is important. It is the man who hung on that cross. He is the one that we worship. It is His Spirit that lives within us.
D. The founders of our heritage knew of these tendencies, and put the concept of an itinerant clergy into our book of discipline
1. Footnote: Discipline is the organizational document of our denomination. The first Discipline was published in 1785. Changes to it are considered every 4 years at our General Conference. This year, 2000, is a General Conference year. The conference was held just a few weeks ago in Cleveland.
2. Discipline, para. 430: Clergy shall be appointed by the bishop… Appointments are to be made with consideration of the gifts and evidence of God’s grace of those appointed … and with faithfulness to the commitment to an open itinerancy.
E. Does this knowledge make the transition from one pastor to another any easier? Probably not.
1. We still develop bonds of friendship and fellowship with our pastor. And we should. It is only with this kind of open relationship that we can effectively minister to each other and to the community.
2. It’s never easy when a long-term relationship is changed in such a fundamental way.
3. The next couple of weeks will be mixed with joy and sadness.
a) We send one man and his family off to a new place with our blessings for a vibrant and successful ministry. Yet there’s a sadness in our hearts because we know that we will miss the day-to-day fellowship with them.
b) We receive another minister and family with hope for a continuation of some things and for revitalization of others. Yet we are anxious about the changes that are to come.
F. In the days to come, let’s enjoy the celebration of ministry. Open your heart to the two men whom we are celebrating. Take in the experience. Let it affect you – let it make you a more effective minister in your sphere of influence. Above all, let it strengthen your connection to God.
