The search for discipline

My current column in the UM Reporter - which you can read here - arose out of the confluence of a number of things going on in my life. The most immediate was the Duke Youth Academy and a documentary I previewed so we could show it to our students. That film, Philip Groning's Into Great Silence, chronicles the Carthusian monastic community at the Grande Chartreuse monastery in the French Alps. Groning wrote to the monks back in the mid-1980s to see if they would allow him to visit them and film their lives. They told him they would get back to him, which they did ... 16 years later. They allowed Groning to stay with them for around 6 months, but he had to come alone, he had to agree not to use artificial lighting, and he had to agree not to use any narrative voice-overs in the editing of the film. The actual speaking in the film is extremely limited, confined to the chanting of worship and a couple of other scenes.

The Carthusians, founded in the late 11th century, are known as one of the most austere of Catholic religious orders. Among their other vows, they take a vow of silence, so that except for one afternoon per week, their only speaking comes in the form of chanted prayers. The rigorous lifestyle they lead of prayer, study, worship, and work is not designed to be a mass movement, and currently there are less than 500 Carthusian monks and nuns in the whole of the Catholic Church.

Watching this documentary was deeply affecting for me. Like most folks, I will never begin to approach to intensity of Carthusian spirituality in my own daily discipleship. But I have begun to start to try and develop greater disciplines in my life, from diet and exercise to Bible study and prayer. A lot of this has included not just adopting new practices, but also trying to stop engaging in old, unhelpful ones. Some of this stuff, like TV watching, obsessive e-mail checking, and the tendency not to eat or pray very mindfully, may sound like small potatoes. But it all has to do with my daily habits, and I think rearranging them to lose some bad ones and gain some positive ones can have a big long-term impact on the kind of disciple I will be. I'm not lacking in God's grace; it's just a matter of how I am responding to it.

The documentary and its connections with my own spiritual struggles made me reflect a lot on the good of discipline. That, in turn, made me think about a third angle on all of this, which is the cultural predicament in which Gen X'ers and Millennials find themselves. This is just not a very conducive world for developing healthy spiritual disciplines. We eat on the run, work too much, and spend much of our days in the virtual world of digital media. And yet, you hear all the time about people of our generation craving for a more grounded, disciplined life. It is as if we feel like our houses are built on shifting sand, and all the while our deepest desire is to be planted firmly on the rock.

So I wrote my column, both for me and for us.

And by the way, if you get a chance, pick up a copy of Into Great Silence. It is remarkable.

A new chapter begins

Today was my first official day as the pastor of Mt. Carmel United Methodist Church in Henderson, NC. This wonderful little congregation was organized in 1857, and the church they built that year was the very church I preached in this morning. The patched-up hole where the pipe for the pot belly stove used to extend up to the chimney is still visible in the ceiling of the sanctuary. The original deed to the property still hangs on the wall next to the pulpit, listing the names of the 7 women and men who founded the church. (Interestingly, it was a part of the Granville Circuit of the Methodist Protestant Church back then, not the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. I would love to know more of the history of that.)

I have no doubt that the same loving spirit the folks showed Emily and me today was the spirit that has passed down from the original 7 members. They fed us at a 'Dinner on the Grounds' following worship until I thought they were going to have to roll me out to the car.

I went off lectionary this morning to preach on the renewal of the Covenant at Shechem in Joshua 24. The reason for that had to do with story and what it means as the primary constituting factor in our lives and our faith. What strikes me about this chapter is that, when Joshua prepared the people to renew their covenant with God, he didn't start off by telling them what an all-powerful and almighty God they had who would strike them down if they went astray. Such an approach would only cause Israel to cower in fear at the power of a distant and frightening deity.

Instead, Joshua retold them their story with this God, beginning with Abraham and going right down to that very day. Joshua reasoned with the people, reminding them that God had saved them from the Egyptians, led them through the Wilderness, and carried them into the Promised Land - where they were given cities that they did not build and vineyards that they did not plant. They were called to respond to this God in faithfulness because of their history with this God - the story of their lives and the lives of their ancestors sustained through good times and bad by this God. This is a kind of prophetic leadership that happens all over the Bible, from Moses in Deuteronomy to Stephen in Acts. Here, of course, it climaxes when Joshua utters the famous words, "Choose this day who you will serve ... But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

The passage from Joshua kept coming back to my mind after Emily and I went with the district superintendent up to Henderson to meet with the P/PR Committee at the church in June. When our D.S., Gray Southern, asked the members of the committee to talk to us a little bit about the church's life and hopes for the future, they came back and kept sharing bits of their story with us. It was a story of a people whose faith had sustained them for over 150 years, expressing a deep desire to live in covenant faithfulness with God here in the present. I don't know that there is anything more awe-inspiring on this earth than that.

So I went home, worked at the Duke Youth Academy during June, and thought about Joshua and Mt. Carmel. It seemed like they were giving me the answer the Israelites gave to Joshua - they were wanting to renew their faith and follow God. This is something Emily and I deeply want for our own lives as well, such that I felt like the desire of this prospective new congregation was the deepest desire of my own heart as well. As I meditated on what my first sermon would be, I kept connecting Joshua 24 with 1 Peter 2 in my mind, where we are told that whereas once we were no people, now we are God's people.

And why? Because God has written us into the story. We have been claimed, and we have been redeemed. The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, and we have all been incorporated as living stones into that great spiritual house that God is building. Thanks be to Jesus Christ for his indescribable gift.

So the sermon pretty much wrote itself. And preaching it before that congregation this morning, I was filled with a great joy.

For Emily and me, the story continues. The same is true for the congregation at Mt. Carmel. But at least for this present chapter, our stories will be written together. May God grant us all faith.

A new look at Youth Ministry

A few days ago, I wrote a post on the Duke Youth Academy for Christian Formation, which took place on the campus of Duke University in July. DYA draws kids from all over the country (and this year, Haiti as well) so that they can experience two weeks of intentional Christian community and theological study. Many of the kids who attend are already discerning a calling to some form of ministry. The focus of DYA is on the practices of the Christian life in the areas of Scripture, Baptism, Holy Communion, and the Prayerful Patterning of Time.

DYA faculty director Fred Edie takes those four essential elements of the Christian life and examines them in relation to youth ministry in his new book, Book, Bath, Table, and Time: Christian Worship as Source and Resource for Youth Ministry. I read this book in preparation for my own work as a Ministry Coordinator at DYA this year, and I've got to tell you, it's one of the best practical theology-oriented books that I've read in years. I just published a review of Dr. Edie's book, which you can find here if you'd like to read it.

Dr. Edie's work takes dead aim at a lot of the market-driven, highly individualistic, experience-heavy approaches to youth ministry that are so fashionable today. (I had never thought about how problematic youth ski trips could be; the first few pages of the book offer a devastating critique of them.) He suggests that teen fashion bibles like Revolve are exactly where the market approach to youth formation is going, and he wants the church to step in and say, "Wait!" Dr. Edie calls on the church to realize that it already has the resources it needs to form youth into mature Christians, and these resources are found exactly in those sacred gifts that the Holy Spirit is constantly offering the church: its book (Scripture), bath (Baptism), table (the Lord's Supper), and time (a form of life patterned by worship and prayer).

Don't be mistaken. This is not a book that's going to offer you the 10 Hottest New Ideas in Youth Ministry. But it's going to do something much better. It's going to engage you in thinking about how we form (or fail to form) our youth in truly theological ways. It's going to help you realize how new the oldest practices of the church can be, exactly because we haven't been using them with our very own children and youth. And it's going to suggest that it is really possible to integrate youth ministry into the full life of the church, instead of treating it like some odd appendage on the body of Christ that no one is sure what to do with.

This is a great book not just for youth ministers, but for pastors as well. Dr. Edie is an engaging, witty, and theologically insightful writer. Check it out.

"Restoring Methodism" ...

... That's the title of a book written in 2006 by Jim and Molly Scott. Actually, the full title is Restoring Methodism: 10 Decisions for United Methodist Churches in America. The book is an attempt to help Methodist churches grapple with the realities of the denomination's situation at present and start to think about a way forward that would allow for the renewal of the church as a whole.

The Scotts are clergy members of the Arkansas Annual Conference who have had a long and diverse career in ministry. Since moving back to the state and settling in Eureka Springs, they have devoted themselves to study and writing, as well as in the training of pastors and congregations, on how the United Methodist Church might better embody the doctrine, discipline, and spirit that drove the movement back in Wesley's day.

I read the Scotts' book recently for their interest in the class meeting and its role (in the past and, potentially, in the present) as a central feature of Methodism. I think one of the best parts of their project in Restoring Methodism is in the way they clearly distinguished the renewal of the church-as-institution and the renewal of the church-as-Holy-Spirit-led-movement. All their interest is in the latter.

For instance, they write, "The purpose [of the church's restoration] is not to save an institution but rather to use all the gifts and graces given to us to fulfill our love and obedience in the Kingdom of God. It is the salvation of people that is at stake here. It is people experiencing the justifying grace of Jesus Christ that forgives and frees us from sin. It continues with the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in us" (p.30).

Likewise, the Scotts are not interested in latching on to John Wesley as some mythic, founder-figure who defines the church simply because of a compelling life story. Rather, they write, "It is not that Wesley himself changes us; it is that he continually points away from himself to the Trinity - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; to basic Christianity; to the early Church. Wesley is not the answer, but he takes us to the answers" (p.xiii).

Those statements are a pretty good summary of why I study Wesley and early Methodism. The answers they provide are not contained within themselves; they rather come from where they point us. They demonstrate a form of disciplined holy living that can still help us respond to the Spirit's call in our own day.

[If you'd like to check out more about the ministry of Jim and Molly Scott, you can visit their Christian Connexion website.]

Arkansas lottery: a bad bet

The people of my home state of Arkansas will go to the ballot box later this year to vote on whether or not to institute a statewide lottery. Currently, every state that touches Arkansas has either a statewide lottery or casino gambling or both. Though Arkansas does have gambling at its horse track and dog track (in Hot Springs and West Memphis, respectively), it has so far resisted the temptation to expand gambling into a statewide business.

I've always been proud of that.

But those who would profit from gambling force Arkansans to say 'no' again and again, because they are so determined to foist widespread gambling upon the state. As a current North Carolina resident, I am ineligible to vote against the lottery this time around. But that can't stop me from advocating against it. I stand behind people here in the gas station and grocery store all the time here in North Carolina who are spending large amounts of money on lottery tickets. They are almost uniformly poor, and they are putting their hope for a better tomorrow in the little scratch-off cards and Powerball tickets that make them even poorer, $1 at a time.

As I have sent e-mails to friends and family back home to encourage them to vote against the lottery, several have asked me to provide more information. To that end, I am dedicating this post to the anti-lottery cause.

Check out this website of the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. It will give you a lot of good information about the proposed lottery measure, including a downloadable newsletter, "Gambling on our Future: Why a State-Sponsored Lottery is Still a Bad Bet for Education & Families in Arkansas," detailing the negative societal effects that the lottery will have (and debunking the overly-optimistic projections about state revenue from the lottery proponents).

The AACF offers these reasons why we should say 'no' to the lottery:

-- Lotteries function as regressive taxes that disproportionately hurt the economic security of low-income families.

-- If the state had a lottery, it would only get to keep 30 percent of the revenue from ticket sales. The rest would go toward prizes, advertising, and administration.

-- Lotteries are unstable sources of tax revenue that can decline from year to year. Overall, any positive effect on state budgets tend to fade over time.

-- Lotteries and other forms of gambling often lead to negative social and economic consequences for children and theri families - costs which often must be borne by the state.

-- Researchers have found that Georgia's "Hope Scholarship" lottery, often cited as a model for lotteries in other states, is disproportionately funded by low-income households, while higher-income, more-educated households disproportionately benefit from the scholarships.

-- A lottery would do little to improve access to higher education among the lowest-income citizens and would prey upon those who stand to lose the most from state-sponsored gambling.

-- If increasing access to higher education is indeed important to Arkansas' future economic success, then the state should commit to finding a stable, reliable and fair source of funding for it.

I would also strongly encourage you to read this remarkable op-ed article by Edward Ugel that appeared in the New York Times last year. Mr. Ugel is a former insider in the lottery business, and he comments on the Illinois state government's quixotic attempts to make the lottery really pay for the state's citizens. In the process, he offers a depressing window into the adverse impact that lotteries have, ironically, on lottery winners. Commenting that "nobody is immune to lottery fever," Mr. Ugel writes, "I got out of the lottery industry because it and I had had enough of each other. It's a legitimate business, but it is an unseemly one - no one who spends any real time in it comes out smelling like a rose, myself included."

I ask this to all Arkansans: Is this the kind of corrosive societal influence to which you really want to expose your children?

Finally, if you want the Church's teaching on gambling, including lotteries intended to fund public education, here it is from Paragraph 163G of The United Methodist Book of Discipline:

"Gambling is a menace to society, deadly to the best interests of moral, social, economic, and spiritual life and destructive of good government. As an act of faith and concern, Christians should abstain from gambling and should strive to minister to those victimized by the practice. Where gambling has become addictive, the Church will encourage such individuals to receive therapeutic assistance so that the individual's energies may be redirected into positive and constructive ends. The Church should promote standards and personal lifestyles that would make unneccesary and undesirable the resort to commercial gambling - including public lotteries - as a recreation, as an escape, or as a means of producing public revenue or funds for support of charities or government."

If you are a resident of the state of Arkansas, please vote 'no' to the lottery measure and encourage others to do the same.

Should we go on mission?

A few weeks ago, I wrote this column in the United Methodist Reporter about my recent mission experience in Peru. I had wanted to put down in words my views on the importance of short-term missions for sometime, and the column gave me the chance to start to do that. There's a whole lot more than I couldn't fit in a 700 word article, but it was at least a start.

A couple of days ago over breakfast here at the Duke Youth Academy, I got into a conversation with fellow DYA staffer Lanecia Rouse over whether short-term missions to foreign countries can be justified. We had heard Dr. Amy Laura Hall give a plenary lecture to the DYA students earlier in the week, where she suggested that we would be better off focusing our efforts on being in ministry with our local communities. Lanecia is a youth minister at a large church in Nashville, TN, and she was reflecting on whether she should be taking her kids on foreign missions.

I admit it is a complex issue. There is a not-so-good history of mission work from Europe and the United States that saw peoples in the Developing World as inferior and pursued missions in a highly condescending manner. That missional legacy is a black mark on the church, and we should be ashamed for the attitudes of our ancestors. Some think that this negative legacy represents a conclusive case against foreign missions in the present (and that all missional activity between the Global North and the Global South will inevitably take on colonial overtones).

The other potential argument against foreign missions has to do with costs and the allocation of resources. This recent article in the Washington Post chronicles blunders commonly made by American missionary groups, from poor use of resources, to engaging in construction projects that are unnecessary or wrong-headed, to cultural ignorance of host communities. By this line of thinking, short-term groups do more harm than good when they go to engage in ministries that are best undertaken by churches already present in local cultures.

These are tough challenges that anyone who wants to go on a short-term mission trip needs to face. I think the key to understanding the importance of such missional ventures is in forming long-term, sustained relationships between sister churches that are constantly renewed through short-term trips. I have tried to go about my relationship with the Methodist Church of Peru in just this way.

I would be curious to hear your thoughts about the pros and cons of the short-term approach to missions. Should they be avoided? Or can they be justified? What are some of the important arguments on each side?

Learning to die

Eric Van Meter concludes his remarkable series of 'imaginatve therapy sessions' in the current issue of the UM Reporter. His articles have all been based on the idea that he has a dysfunctional relationship with his church - the UMC. The same spiritual fire and theological depth that drew him to find his pastoral home as a United Methodist minister is sometimes hard to see in the regular machinary of the church's bureaucracy. Systems, processes, and the inertia of old habits get ingrained into a denomination's culture in such a way that they are hard to root out.

Out of step with the gospel? Who cares. This is the way we've always done things.

In this last installment, Eric's therapy sessions conclude with the realization that Jesus' call on him (and on the church) is a call to die. We can soft pedal the idea of death as a "death to the world" or a "death to the old self" but the reality of the gospel's call is that we are buried with Christ through our baptism, so that we might have the hope of being raised with him through resurrection (Romans 6). And this means pursuing God's call on our lives with reckless abandon, including a faithfulness unto real, actual death if that is what is required of us.

All of this means that we can't try to save the United Methodist Church.

As Eric rightly points out, trying to "restore the church" is a wrong-headed mission. It's not the institution of the UMC that Jesus wants to preserve. The UMC can be a faithful ecclesial community insofar as it is reflective of the church Jesus does want to preserve. But the right response to Jesus' call is not in trying to prop up a structure that has only dubious claims to faithfulness in the first place. It is rather to live the kind of lives befitting of Jesus' disciples, in the community he has established.

That may kill us. And it certainly may kill the United Methodist Church. But it won't kill the Church, which has been built upon a rock and will endure until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

I'm a Wesleyan, by the way. And it's worth pointing out that Wesley would never want us to focus on him in some kind of fetishizing way, nor would he want us to try to restore the UMC-as-institution to some former glory when we were The Largest Church in America (the memory of which haunts our every move). He would rather want us to practice what he called "primitive Christianity", which is a form of disciplined, faithful living that embodies the gospel and witnesses to the watching world.