{"id":22835,"date":"2019-05-09T16:53:44","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T23:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=22835"},"modified":"2019-05-09T16:53:44","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T23:53:44","slug":"if-only-faith-were-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/if-only-faith-were-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"If only faith were enough…"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a privilege to personally know – and to have interacted with – this week\u2019s author, Diane Zemke.\u00a0 Diane writes a pragmatic text which is a helpful guide to not just the pastor, but also to lay leaders invested in congregational change.\u00a0 Having been a member of the United Methodist Church my entire life, a guidebook on navigating change is a welcome addition to my library and should be added to every United Methodists collection.\u00a0 Why is a guidebook on change so important in the life of a United Methodist?\u00a0 The United Methodist Church organizational structure is designed around change \u2013 frequent pastor changes, sequential organizational lay leadership changes, and (until the recent no vote on \u201cA Way Forward\u201d which proposed inclusivity to the LGBTQ+ population) progressive social changes.\u00a0 United Methodism was progressive in its efforts to advance the rights of women and African Americans to pastor.\u00a0 Even though the UMC is made up of members of diverse thought (conservative, moderate, and progressive) the denomination historically navigated inclusion efforts for oppressed and marginalized people successfully.\u00a0 \u201cThese two advancements made United Methodism the most inclusive denomination in America\u2014it still is the largest denomination affirming women\u2019s ordination. And all of Methodism, especially Methodism globally, has benefitted from these two acts of inclusion.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

As the founder of Methodism, \u201cJohn Wesley believed that itinerant preachers who moved from place to place were more effective than those who settled in, grew comfortable, and wore out what they had to say,\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 United Methodist pastors are sent\/appointed by their bishop to a church for an unspecified period of time.\u00a0 Sometimes this period of appointment is one short year, and sometimes it extends upwards of twenty years (a unique and rare timeframe in the UMC). Official \u201cappointments\u201d are typically for one year at a time, though the pastor may be moved any time based on need.\u00a0 The UMC aims to match the gifts and graces of the particular pastor with the ministry needs of a particular congregation or ministry setting.<\/p>\n

Having shed light on the context of United Methodism, would it surprise you if I told you I have a lot of life experience connected to congregational change (notice I didn\u2019t add a descriptor\/adjective for the type of life experience)?\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure if it\u2019s my expectation that Christian congregations will interact at a higher spiritual, ethical and behavioral level than the secular population or that they are truly worse behaved? \u00a0Perhaps the answer to my question lies somewhere in the middle\u2026and it\u2019s important to clarify that my experiences are from the perspective of the lay leader.\u00a0 I\u2019m employed in the secular world but have always held a leadership position in my church \u2013 PPR Chair, Administrative Council Chair, lay leader, Sunday school teacher, Youth Leader, Shepherd\u2019s Fund Director, et al. \u00a0I also want to clarify that no matter the scenario, I have always supported the pastor\u2019s leadership, spiritual maturity, and teaching.\u00a0 This is especially important in light of the United Methodist philosophy that the \u201cchurch is the pastor\u201d \u2013 the pastor reports to the congregation and most congregations take the liberty of each individual (especially those with \u201cvoice\u201d) supervising the pastor to meet their own agenda.\u00a0 Congregations are responsible for supervising and evaluating pastors and the church is responsible for discipleship both within, and outside of, the church walls.\u00a0 While there have been some legitimate pastoral dispositional concerns in my twenty six years of lay leadership, the majority of change conflict comes from the congregation being challenged to think, pray, organize, and implement a \u201cchange\u201d outside of their personal and spiritual comfort zone.\u00a0 And then watch out \u2013 holy hell breaks loose (or in LGP8 Mike\u2019s terms\u2026spiritual warfare).\u00a0 It has been a rare occasion when I have disagreed with a pastor\u2019s teaching or challenge to make change \u2013 but what I can assess is that in each scenario there may have been a better way forward to address congregational adaptation, dissent, grief, and commitment.\u00a0 Zemke herself is wise in her acknowledgement that successful (or SMART) congregational change requires a wise approach (not just leadership and vision).\u00a0 Zemke provides the following parameters:\u00a0 \u201cwise leaders develop a specific discipline of listening to dissent\u201d; \u201cwise leaders realize the need for negotiation\u201d; \u201cwise leaders work to tell the truth about all of the dissent in the Bible and Christian history\u201d; \u201cwise leaders make room for dissidents at the idea table and decision-making table\u201d, \u201cand wise leaders become adept at managing conflict and decision-making.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 In my heart I have always wanted to believe that personal faith and infusion of the Holy Spirit organically develops these characteristics in leaders \u2013 but sadly that is just not the case.\u00a0 And then there\u2019s the culture \u2013 which is unique to each congregation and unpredictable and ambiguous to the outsider.\u00a0 Which is exactly why I will advocate that pastors and lay leaders need advanced training in leadership, conflict, cultural humility, and social theory.\u00a0 Let\u2019s face it, if faith were enough, the world would be a much better place and churches and congregations would be healthy. \u00a0Kudos to Diane Zemke who has encouraged and empowered me to stay the course for congregational change.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> http:\/\/hackingchristianity.net\/2018\/07\/whats-going-on-in-the-united-methodist-church-in-1000-words.html<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> https:\/\/www.umnews.org\/en\/news\/why-do-united-methodist-pastors-change-churches<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Diane Zemke. Being SMART about Congregational Change<\/em>. (2014)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is a privilege to personally know – and to have interacted with – this week\u2019s author, Diane Zemke.\u00a0 Diane writes a pragmatic text which is a helpful guide to not just the pastor, but also to lay leaders invested in congregational change.\u00a0 Having been a member of the United Methodist Church my entire life, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1525],"class_list":["post-22835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-diane-zemke","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22836,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22835\/revisions\/22836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}