A Call to Auction

Let’s just put it out there to the highest bidder. We obviously don’t know what to do with it. The new Call to Action report came out saying what we already know and offering the same old tired suggestions for “widespread reform.” What a short memory we have. We studied our church in the 80s and recommended the same thing (remember Vital Congregations/Faithful Disciples?). We studied in the 90s and recommended the same thing. I studied in the 00s (Vital Signs) and saw the same things (though made some different recommendations). Now we’re in the 10s and we’re devoting tons of time and money to finding out, wait for it, THE SAME THINGS.

Part of what is so sad about all this is that the insidious church growth, professionalism, service industry mentality that got us into this mess in the first place is at the heart of the solutions we seek for the future. The thinking is that if we do the wrong things better, it will all work out fine. Good luck with that. Making more of what we don’t do well is no solution. Getting more people to connect with a dysfunctional system won’t fix the system, it will simply mess up the people.

I have the same problem with what I am reading in the Call to Action report that I have with the Rethink Church marketing campaign — they are driven by institutional preservation, not missional transformation. Reducing the number of agencies, realigning structures, refocusing message — these are symptoms, not root causes. This isn’t a political campaign or the roll-out of a revamped “product” or the “positioning of a brand.” Until we grow up and adopt a more systemic approach we will merely get a whole lot more of what we’ve already got.

Our short term future is going to be a continued loss of members. The main decision we have to make is this: do we lose those with a heart for Jesus Christ and a desire to become Christian disciples by pandering to the less engaged and try to attract more warm bodies (hopefully will warm wallets), or do we raise the bar, get serious about transformative discipleship at the risk of losing the Sunday pew-sitters and the Christian consumers and the “what-have-you-done-for-me-lately, what-will-you-do-for-me-next” pay-as-you-go, spiritual but not religious crowd?

Harsh? You betcha. I am tired of being sold-out. We have a church of one million highly motivated, giving, loving, serving, sacrificing Christian men and women propping up a dinosaur of an additional 6.5 million people along for the ride. We do not have the courage to challenge people with a “are you serious about this or not” message, because the 6.5 million hold assets we want and need and we cannot risk losing more money. Well, discipleship isn’t that simple. We cannot have our cake and eat it, too. Discipleship has costs. If we don’t want to pay them, that’s fine, but let’s stop looking for “disciple-lite” alternatives. Watering down the Christian faith is not the answer.

Don’t get me wrong. We need A Call to Action. We need to Rethink Church. But we also need Common Sense and Historic Perspective. We need to Wake Up. We need to stop hiring outsiders to tell us who we ought to be and what we ought to be doing. We need to rally the community of believers called United Methodist and answer some simple questions: who are we — really? why are we here – why do we exist as a church? what is our witness — what are we trying to do as the body of Christ? what is our impact — what difference are we making in the world and in the kingdom of God? Out of this discussion we can begin to discern what our witness needs to be, what impact we want to make, and what the future of The United Methodist Church can be.

I say this with deep respect for the people I know who are involved in all the processes of research and discernment in the church. I think many of the people involved have nothing but the best interest of the church at heart. But I think we are missing something. I hear the public statements, then I have the hallway conversations, and we’re not all on the same page. The “been here before, done this before, nothing changed” attitude is pervasive. I pray that from all this chaos a new order emerges. I think there are enough people who are going to fight and fight hard for the reformation and renewal of The United Methodist Church. I’m one of them, and I am in regular contact with hundreds of others who share my concerns (and hundreds of others who think I am full of holy hooey…). I’m concerned by the latest reports, as I have been for the better part of the past three decades, when essentially the exact same report was released each and every time. May we find the wisdom to break this cycle.

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54 responses to “A Call to Auction”

Todd Anderson

October 29, 2010

I haven’t digested the entire report.
Sure there is “retreaded” theory in it.
But — the positive is that a problem(s) — or the problem(s) — are at least ADMITTED.

Now — the proof of how sincere we ALL are about not having Fr. John’s greatest fear realized — is WHAT WE ARE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT !!

Pax

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Heather

October 29, 2010

It’s refreshing to read your post on this topic. A lot of blogs I have read gripe about The UMC, but few show such love and true concern over the denomination. A lot are quick to blame the agencies and forget responsiblity lies with us all. (Perhaps they are part of the 6.5 million.)

I heard Rev. Mike Slaughter talk about Ginghamsburg when he first got there. It’s stuck with me. The gist was that when he arrived at his 30 member church he grew the congregation to 15. Must have been scary for a pastor, but in order for Ginghamsburg to be where it is today, the church needed to lose some people. As you said, “Do we lose those with a heart for Jesus Christ and a desire to become Christian disciples by pandering to the less engaged and try to attract more warm bodies (hopefully will warm wallets), or do we raise the bar, get serious about transformative discipleship at the risk of losing the Sunday pew-sitters and the Christian consumers and the “what-have-you-done-for-me-lately, what-will-you-do-for-me-next” pay-as-you-go, spiritual but not religious crowd?”

I love the questions you ask of the people of The United Methodist Church. Who are we? Why do we exist, etc?

Questions to ponder as General Conference approaches.

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larry

October 29, 2010

Dan, my note will be clumsy, but I recall how you described the UMC core process several months ago and thinking about the power in pursuing the “integrated whole” of its 5 aspects. I have also listened to the power indicated by the present official leadership of the UMC. The two do not seem to be in alignment; the Call to Action does not seem to help this perceived mis-alignment. Were I a consultant in the area of organizational behavior, I would ask our officials leaders to demonstrate how they support this core process at the local church level. For a while,I am not sure that I would expect much more than that from our leaders. With gratitude for your postings and those who comment,larry

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Taylor Burton-Edwards

October 29, 2010

Without commenting on the contents of the report, I can comment on the process.

The Council of Bishops created the Call to Action Committee to come back to them and to the Connectional Table with recommendations for action– actions to begin BEFORE General Conference.

It was not the remit of the Call to Action Committee to craft legislation. Nor did they have authority to act themselves. They were sent to study and bring recommendations for others to enact– and that is what they have done.

The actions they have commended are actually rubber hits road kinds of things, some of which can and in fact must be implemented immediately without General Conference action but not without the cooperation and effort of the Council of Bishops and the Connectional Table.

Here are two immediately actionable items.

1) Dashboards everywhere. The bishops with their cabinets and boards of ordained ministry can, now, if they choose, implement a process of clergy evaluation for effectiveness based on the metrics commended in the Call to Action report and already being used in several Annual Conferences, most notably in North Alabama, where the weekly reporting of stats related to worship attendance, giving, professing members received, and a few others is already a primary measure used by the cabinet to determine clergy effectiveness (and move ineffective pastors, based on these metrics, into other careers) deployment and salaries. Annual Conferences do not have to act to approve such a process. The bishops could simply all agree to do this, get their cabinets and Boards of Ordained Ministry on board, and make it happen as soon as technically feasible.

2) Downsized agencies and radical budget revisions. One of the key recommendations is to
keep reducing general agency size, and ultimately restructure them in ways that far more directly support the work of the local congregations. The General Secretaries will be at this Council of Bishops meeting next week. They will also be present as the Connection Table meets in two weeks. The CTA report asks that the downsizing begin as of January 1, 2011. The General Secretaries at that meeting could simply agree to do that– and it would begin to happen.

For the budget process piece, more than General Secretary buy-in is needed, though. That’s the work of the Connectional Table with GCFA. The CTA report comes to the Connectional Table two weeks after it leaves the Bishops and GSes. What could happen then– and immediately– is work on yet another model for budget beginning in 2012– one that looks not only as downsized general agencies, but substantially restructured ones– a restructuring that WOULD require General Conference action and so the development of legislation. So Connectional Table would then have a lot of new work to accomplish and very fast (2012 budget and legislative deadlines are very soon!)– not only developing a budget for the existing downsized agencies, but also developing a budget that would support restructured general agency work should the legislation to engage the restructuring be passed by General Conference– whether in 2012 or 2016.

So… actually quite a lot could happen, and I think likely will happen. What exactly that is will depend on the outcome of meetings of Bishops, General Secretaries and the Connectional Table in the next three weeks.

Let’s keep all these folks who are going to make significant decisions in the next few weeks in our prayers.

Peace in Christ,

Taylor Burton-Edwards

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1. jesusfrk
  
  October 29, 2010
  
  I agree with Dan that measuring clergy rather than laity with Dashboards reflects a “service industry mentality.” The consulting firm who helped develop these recommendations, Towers Watson, on their website makes this affirmation, “Fears about talent shortages eased in the wake of the global recession and delayed retirements…With cost pressures prompting cutbacks in rewards, organizations need to understand the value proposition for their key talent segments, and how to create a work experience and deal that attracts, retains and engages the right people — at a cost the organization can afford.”
  The problem with outsiders recommending “prompt exits” for clergy is that it’s not biblical — see the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree. What this outsider consulting firm does not see to understand is that the employees of our organization are volunteers! For some reason, they think the laity – members of the body – are the consumers or customers.
  For my full response to the Report read my blog at http://ozanna15.wordpress.com/
  
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2. Todd Anderson
  
  October 29, 2010
  
  N Alabama is cutting edge.
  Of course — look who’s the Bp. there……. (duh)
  
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3. Brad S
  
  October 30, 2010
  
  Someone mentioned this earlier, but it sounds like we are moving to a “No Child Left Behind” form of clergy evaluation. Those with the lowest “stats” will find themselves being sent out the door. I know this is an extremely pessimistic way of looking at things, but it seems the pieces are falling into place.
  
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All Hail The Pastor

October 29, 2010

Amen. Every few years the UMC puts out a “document” that is full of analysis and very short on rubber meets the road action points. Notice that the CALL TO ACTION report turns the action points over to the Council of Bishops! Good luck there, Methodists!

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Which baby do you catch? « John Meunier

October 29, 2010

[…] Dick says the United Methodist Church has a choice. Our short term future is going to be a continued loss of […]

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Dave Whitman

October 28, 2010

Dan, I believe it is so very important that you keep writing from your perspective. I see a strength in your perspective that many others don’t have. You have worked within the denominational level, on an Annual Conference level, and on a local church level. There is a tone of finality with the “A Call to Action” report that needs a counterbalance to say the very least. Thanks for your willingness to speak up.

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