this afternoon i attended a “listening seminar” at st. andrew umc in plano. the point of the seminar, or so i thought, was to communicate findings about the future of annual conferences within the south-central jurisdiction of the united methodist church, changes mandated by the denomination’s general conference in 2004. i was wrong. the listening seminar was designed for our bishops to listen to our feedback on these issues, then they would share that feedback with the other bishops.
we began with a summary of a report generated by the lewis center for church leadership out of wesley seminary in d.c. the report lists all kinds of stats and data about the preferences by clergy and layfolk across the jurisdiction. the college of bishops and the jurisdiction will consider this, combined with these feedback sessions, in determining the future alignments of conferences and roles of bishops. general conference mandated that this jurisdiction eliminate one episcopal position by 2012– go from 11 bishops to 10.
guided by some discussion questions, we broke into small groups for an hour. we talked about what we would like to see in a bishop: more time with people than the office; less administrative duties; strong leadership; ability to use technology effectively; understanding marketing and crafting of a message to the unchurched; etc. toward the end of the discussion, someone said one of the great united methodist cliches (we didn’t invent it, but we’ve perfected it): “we need to think outside of the box.” a few moments later i responded: “we need to prepare ourselves for the possibility that there is no box to think outside of.”
for years, in a good-hearted effort to reverse the steady tide of membership losses, we have searched in vain for models that will save us. contemporary worship and video will attract young people. then we went away from that and explored more contemplative experiences. slick marketing ads (and many not-so-slick ones) and mailers will draw people in. our large churches offer workshops on what they’ve done to be successful, so we flock to ginghamsburg or montgomery or leawood and vigorously take notes. now we’re trying a new effort, a more holistic approach to reaching out.
don’t get me wrong. i welcome every single one of these ideas and goals. we should lean on those who have been successful and who are more than eager to share. i spent a week with adam hamilton a couple of summers ago and found him remarkably humble and approachable. i have used lots of his ideas many, many times with varying degrees of success. but as i heard these good people talk about thinking “outside of the box” (another group shared that they too had had the same discussion), i began to wonder if we are looking for solutions and answers in the wrong places. there may be no box. there may be no pre-packaged, it’s worked there so it’ll work here, statistics say this is what your target audience needs, what you need is inside this box, or outside of it. it seems to me the more we take this discussion further and further away from the local churches the more generalized and ineffective it will become.
i am reminded of a scene in the matrix where neo is still frustrated by his inability to dodge bullets or fight super fast or do anything else the other cool guys in the dark glasses can do. he goes to see the oracle to learn more about his surroundings and encounters a young boy who teaches him a valuable lesson.
“do not try to bend the spoon. you must learn the truth. there is no spoon.” once neo concentrates on the spoon and realizes it is not really there, he can bend it. and soon he’s not only dodging bullets– he’s flying.
i have no idea if reducing the number of our bishops in this area by one will make lasting changes to our denomination. these new emphases may spark renewed interest and passion and result in more discipleship of folk and more transformation of the world. i wonder what would happen to our united methodist churches if we stopped looking for a box to get out of– realized there may be no box to begin with– would we learn to fly too?