An Appreciation of My Congregation

Today's post is by UM & Global blogmaster Dr. David W. Scott, Mission Theologian at the General Board of Global Ministries. The opinions and analysis expressed here are Dr. Scott's own and do not reflect in any way the official position of Global Ministries.

In my last post, I wrote that in order for our congregations to continue to reach new people, we need to be able to talk about what goes right in them, not just what goes wrong. As a practice of that, I want to share an appreciation of some of the many things that go right at my congregation, Decorah First United Methodist Church, even amidst a decline in members and worship attendance.

My wife once described a church she served as “the type of Methodists who like to drink coffee and do good.” I think Decorah FUMC has a lot of that type of United Methodist, though I would add sing and learn to the list of things that the congregation likes to do. So, I will talk about singing, drinking coffee, learning, and doing good, or if you prefer church words, worship, fellowship, discipleship, and mission, as I have experienced them at Decorah FUMC and as I have come to know them as Methodist practices.

Singing
One of my distinct impressions of Decorah FUMC growing up was the singing. Not only was there a good choir, but the congregation would sing in four-part harmony during the hymns, singing “lustily and with good courage,” as John Wesley instructed. Even now, a much smaller choir continues to offer anthems as an important part of the service, and you can hear the voices of those around you during the hymns.

As I have come to learn more about Methodism and other Christian traditions, I have learned that Decorah FUMC’s emphasis on singing is perhaps to some extent an influence from our Lutheran neighbors, with their strong choral traditions, but also something intrinsic to Methodism. For a tradition co-founded by Charles Wesley and claiming some of the other top hymn writers of all time (Fannie Crosby, Charles Tindley, etc.), singing comes naturally.

But it wasn’t just that we sang, it was the joy expressed in the singing that stuck with me. The church I grew up in was generally a joyful church. They made plausible Psalm 122:1, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD!’” There is less joy and more weariness in the church these days, but the old joy still pops up every now and then.

This joyfulness taught me something important about Methodism and about faith. It taught me that church should be a blessing and not just an obligation. And it taught me the importance of emotion in experiencing one’s faith. Methodism has always been a tradition that combines head and heart, and growing up around joyful Christians helped me internalize that.

Drinking Coffee
After the singing (and the rest of worship) is over, most folks at Decorah FUMC head downstairs. The church is part of that large group of US Protestant churches that believe that coffee time is the third sacrament. Of course, despite what my children might tell you, the real point of coffee time is not the treats or the coffee (organic and fair trade though it may be), but the opportunity to sit around a table and talk with other congregants.

Every church has its cliques and its social customs that feel foreign to outsiders, and I expect Decorah FUMC is no different than others in that regard. But I have experienced their fellowship to be open, warm, and meaningful.

I remember as a kid watching my parents interact with their friends at coffee time and learning from those models of Christian adulthood. Then as a teenager, I remember the thrill of sitting at a table without my parents and talking to other adults who treated me seriously and with respect and affection. It was an important step in forming my own identity. Now, I appreciate the chance to talk with people I wouldn’t otherwise during the week – people with different ages, abilities, and life histories than me. Each of these experiences of fellowship fits with the larger Methodist emphasis that religion must be a communal experience. One cannot be a solitary Christian.

Learning
Decorah FUMC has always scheduled Sunday school for after coffee time. Those faith formation options for children and adults have ebbed and flowed over the years, and they are not always confined to Sunday mornings. Church members have formed a long-running book club, and there are a variety of occasional presentations on a wide range of topics related to the practice of faith in the world. This is perhaps not surprising for a congregation with an overrepresentation of teachers.

As I’ve come to know more about Methodism throughout the world, this also strikes me as representative of Methodism as a tradition broadly: the emphasis on learning and education. This expresses itself in various ways, from starting Sunday schools to starting universities, but Methodists care about education.

I’m currently in the middle of teaching a short Sunday school session on mission at my church, and it’s reminded me of another thing I appreciate about Decorah FUMC. It’s a church that’s interested in learning and, as part of that, willing to talk about faith and how to live out one’s faith in the world. Most of the people at Decorah FUMC do not subscribe to a privatized faith that is only something internal. They are interested in talking with other church members about how to better understand and live out their faith.

While the church has not had (to my knowledge) a formal “discipleship system” or “Wesleyan accountability groups,” but this is the work of discipleship, overflowing into in the lives of the congregants. This, too, is very Wesleyan: an emphasis on discipleship that impacts people’s everyday practice of their faiths.

Doing Good
It is this fourth category, doing good, where Decorah FUMC perhaps shines the brightest. The congregation has always been and remains civic-minded, willing to volunteer, generous, and serious about mission.

Decorah FUMC did not and does not have the town’s wealthiest or the most prominent college professors on its rolls. Instead, it has had a lot of teachers, small business owners, nurses, and a smattering of other professionals. In other words, the congregation has had a lot of the civically oriented middle class among its members.

These are the sorts of people who volunteer for things and serve on committees and generally help keep the gears of the local community turning. They helped launch the local Habitat for Humanity organization, serve on the library board, help keep the food pantry running, and the like. Not all of this happens through the church, but it is still a form of local mission.

As I have learned more about Methodism, this strikes me as quite frequently Methodism’s place in the religious ecology of communities. It may begin among the “upwardly mobile poor,” but in many places, Methodism comes to be characterized by people who care about the common good, the health of the community, and who have enough to contribute to that common good without necessarily having a lot left over. Sometimes those contributions to the community are organized through the church; sometimes church members make them on their own.

As part of caring about its community, Decorah FUMC has long been a generous congregation. My first experience of church committee work was serving on the mission committee in high school and being impressed by the number of organizations in the community that the church helped support. Now, I am the treasurer of the local food pantry, and I know that the tradition of generosity continues in the church.

Nor is it just money that the congregation gives. It is generous about the use of its space, too, hosting everything from AA meetings to preparations for the community Thanksgiving meal to holiday celebrations for students from the local college to concerts to community forums on various topics.

Yet Decorah FUMC has never believed that mission is just about giving money or letting others use their space. Instead, over the past several decades, the church has subscribed to a notion of mission that has emphasized personal relationships. I know that this practice of personal relationships in mission has impacted how I understand mission and how I have taught others about mission.

I remember the United Methodist Congolese student at the local college that the congregation helped support during and beyond her studies. I think of the church’s commitment to the Ulster Project, which sought to foster reconciliation between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland by forming relationships among youth from the two groups. I remember how the church showed up for families impacted by the immigration raid in nearby Postville, IA, the largest such raid in the nation’s history. First and foremost, I think of the congregation’s now 25-year-long commitment to a sister congregation relationship with a congregation in Central America.

It is this commitment to mission, this dedication to putting faith into action for the sake of others, that strikes me as most characteristic of Methodism. Methodism is a missional movement, as its proponents have repeatedly emphasized throughout the years. I am grateful to have been molded into that tradition of Methodism by Decorah FUMC and further grateful that I am now able to share that understanding back with them and with others throughout the world.

Recommended Reading: Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies Papers

This past August was the 14th meeting of the Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies. The theme for the 2018 meeting was "“THY GRACE RESTORE, THY WORK REVIVE”: Revival, Reform, and Revolution in Global Methodism." The meeting brought together scholars of Methodism from around the world, though especially from the British Isles and North America.

Papers from that Institute meeting are now available online.

Papers are grouped into eleven working groups, as follows:
1. Biblical Studies (Hebrew Bible / Old Testament)
2. Biblical Studies (New Testament)
3. Ecumenical Studies
4. Interreligious Studies
5. Methodist History
6. Mission and Evangelism
7. Practical Theology
8. Theological Education
9. Theology and Ethics
10. Wesley Studies
11. Worship and Spirituality

Just over 125 papers are included in the collection. This collection is sure to be a rich resource for those interested in learning more of the current state of academic conversations about various facets of Methodism.

Worship as basis for United Methodist unity

This is the fourth in a series of posts on unity in the United Methodist Church. This series of blog posts originally appeared on David W. Scott’s personal blog, Posts from the Frontier. The posts have been lightly edited and are being republished here.

This week’s possibility for source of unity of United Methodism is worship, especially singing in worship. Whereas I’ve pointed out problems with the three previous sources of unity I’ve examined (theology, history, and polity), I would like to suggest that worship is a potentially promising source of United Methodist unity (though not without its own problems as well).

Singing in worship is also more distinctively United Methodist than the other three areas I’ve looked at. Of course, I’m not saying that only United Methodists sing. Obviously, other denominations have fine traditions of singing, especially the Churches of Christ/Disciples of Christ/Christian Churches, with their well-developed tradition of unaccompanied part singing. Nevertheless, while not uniquely Methodist, I would like to suggest that singing is distinctively Methodist.

Methodists have long been known as “a singing people”, and I believe that designation remains apt today. Charles Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism, was also one of the most prolific hymn writers ever. His brother John also composed and translated hymns. In America, hymn-singing was an important part of the tradition of camp meetings, religious worship and revival services common in the nineteenth century. The current United Methodist Hymnal (UMH) is the most successful hymnal ever published. While certainly not all Methodists can sing or like singing, the denomination was and is a tuneful one as a whole.

Of course, worship is not an entirely uncomplicated source of unity. Even if everyone agrees that Methodists should be singing together, there remains the question of what to sing, and here there have been and are some significant disagreements.

There are, of course, the famous worship wars of the past couple of decades between those who like the old, traditional hymns and those who prefer contemporary worship songs. There’s the question of the adequate inclusion of black gospel and spiritual songs in denominational hymnals, not to mention the issue of Spanish-language songs and songs from other ethnic groups and other countries around the world.

It’s also often the case, as the supervisory committee for the UMH found, that the list of best-loved hymns and the list of most-hated hymns have some overlap. People take issue with hymns for a variety of theological, musical, and personal-preference reasons. In addition, there’s the question of revisions to the words of hymns. Thus, while United Methodism may be united in agreement over the importance of singing our faith, there is disagreement over what exactly to sing.

The question then becomes whether we are able to overcome some of that disagreement on how to worship and what to sing and still sing together for the sake of having our voices in harmony. Can we still lift every voice and sing together, even when the owners of some of those voices dislike what’s being sung? Are we willing to sing a few songs we don’t like (or don’t know) along with some that we love, so that everyone can sing together and everyone can find something they like? Or will every song that’s not on our own personal list sound discordant to us? These are important questions for us to consider as a denomination.

I would like to believe that despite the potential for disagreement over particular songs, singing does still have to potential to unite us as a denomination. Not only is singing a shared value, but the act of singing embodies that unity toward which we should strive as a denomination.

Furthermore, singing together is a fundamental component of worship, which is one of the primary functions of the church. Thus, if we can sing together, we’ve gone a long way towards being able to worship together in unity and thus toward being the church. While none of us individually may have a thousand tongues, collectively we as a denomination have several million tongues to sing our great Redeemer’s praise. Let us strive to use them in chorus.

Recommended readings on Methodism in Cuba

United Methodist News Service has recently posted a series of well-done articles about Methodism in Cuba. The Methodist in Cuba is historically related to, but autonomous from, The United Methodist Church. The articles give a sense of the opportunities and challenges faced by this growing branch of the world Methodist movement. The eight total articles provide a depth of information about Methodism outside the US not often available to those without first-hand experience.

Series Home Page

Cuban Methodists are Packing the Pews on the history and growth of Methodism in Cuba

Providing a Home for the Elderly on a church-run home for retired pastors and spouses

Going Digital at Havana Seminary on technology use at the Methodist seminary

Cuban Worship: Music, Prayer and Passion on worship styles in the Methodist Church in Cuba

"Lord, I'm Here", a biographical piece on a Cuban missionary

Building a Church Growth Strategy in Cuba on cell group evangelism

Solidarity and Service in Cuba on social services provided by the Methodist Church in Cuba

For Methodists in Cuba, "These Are the Good Times", profiling a young clergy couple and detailing the increase in US-Methodist ties

Slideshow: Singing the Spirit in Cuba including pictures from the series set to Cuban music

Flikr stream of pictures from the Methodist Church in Cuba

Recommended readings on opening worship

General Conference's opening worship stressed the racial and cultural diversity within the UMC as a global denomination. These three articles all emphasize some aspect of that:

Youngsook Kang for UMNS
Christy Thomas for The United Methodist Reporter
Barbara Dunlap-Berg for UMNS

You can see photos of the opening worship here.
If you have an hour and a half, you can watch the whole worship service here.

Opening worship demonstrated not only the denomination's global nature but its struggles with debates about sexuality, as this article about Rev. Vicki Flippin's (non-)participation highlights.

What is world communion?

Today's post is by UM & Global blogmaster Dr. David W. Scott, Assistant Professor of Religion and Pieper Chair of Servant Leadership at Ripon College.

This Sunday is World Communion Sunday in The United Methodist Church. This begs the question: What does the UMC mean when it talks about "world communion"?  We will look at three different answers in this post.

On the most practical level, World Communion Sunday is one of the six Sundays of the year that the UMC has designated as denomination-wide Special Sundays, where special offerings are collected to serve specific ministry purposes in the church.  The offerings from World Communion Sunday are split.  Half goes to scholarships for ethnic minorities in the United States; half goes to the Central Conferences outside the United States to be used for educational purposes.  This happens through three programs: the World Communion Leadership Development Program, the Ethnic Minority Scholarship Program, and the Ethnic In-Service Training Program.

On a second level, one might think about the "communion" mentioned as the sacrament of communion.  Since World Communion Sunday is on the first Sunday of the month, many United Methodist churches will be celebrating communion this Sunday.  World Communion Sunday thus becomes a chance to think about how people all over the world are celebrating communion on the same day.  This sacrament unites us on levels of both practice and theology.

This leads us to a final notion of world communion: "communion" as being joined together, as the etymology of the word would suggest.  On World Communion Sunday, we celebrate how the church around the world is joined together as one.  In the UMC, we are joined together by denominational structures and organizational and financial considerations.  We are also joined together in a spiritual sense, though.  As Jesus prayed in his petition to God for unity among his followers, "As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us." (John 17:21)  We Christians are all united because we are all part of Jesus and God the Father through Jesus.  Therefore, we are connected to one another.  We might also think of the body analogy in 1 Corinthians 12 here.

The 1 Corinthians 12 passage reminds us of a corollary of this interpretation of world communion: we are joined to people who are different from us.  Perhaps that difference is, as this blog frequently highlights, a difference of culture and nationality.  Perhaps that difference is, as much of the rest of UMC blogosphere has been talking about, a difference of theology or views on sexuality.  That difference can take other forms as well.  The bottom line, though, is that if we're connected to Jesus, that also means we're connected to fellow Christians, even fellow Christians that we may not agree with or like or want to be connected to.  Yet this too is a sign of grace - that God's love, God's fellowship, God's communion is greater than we are, that the Spirit overflows our boundaries and runs into the entire world, bringing the good news with it.

Grace, hope and mission - Lisa Beth White on Grace Upon Grace: A World Transformed by Grace

Today's post is the latest in a series of posts that are re-examining the mission document of The United Methodist Church, Grace Upon Grace (Nashville: Graded Press, 1990). Various United Methodist mission professors and practitioners are re-examining this theological statement and how it can inform our corporate life in The United Methodist Church today. This piece is written by Lisa Beth White, doctoral student at Boston University School of Theology. Rev. White is commenting on the tenth section of the document, "A World Transformed By Grace." Use the "Grace Upon Grace" tag to identify other posts in this series.

Don Messer issues a strong challenge to the United Methodist Church in his blog post on “A World Transformed by Grace”.  He asks whether Grace Upon Grace is “simply a lovely treatise on theology or does United Methodism actually seek to practice what it preaches when it declares ‘inclusiveness of all people’ is to be characteristic of the missional church?’” 

As this response to Dr. Messer’s post is written, headlines in the United States are full of the chaos in Ferguson, Missouri, following the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18 year old, shot several times by Darren Wilson, a white police officer.  Hope of a world transformed by grace seems dim indeed in light of Michael Brown’s death and other news of international conflict and innocent lives taken because of ideological and religious differences.  How are we, United Methodists, able to proclaim hope in the Gospel and live out the audacious form of mission – obeying Christ and loving our neighbors – in such chaotic times?

One way forward is found in the title of the original document – grace upon grace.  Paragraph 61 states that “grace received is motive of mission”.  The United Methodist Church is called by this document to participate in God’s ongoing mission in the world – God’s continual offering of grace to all persons through the mercy and love of Jesus Christ.  “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” (John 1:16, NRSV).  Because we have received the grace of Jesus Christ, we are called to live as his disciples, offering grace to all.  It requires both humility and confidence to participate in the mission of obeying Christ and loving our neighbors.

Grace received as our motive of mission is evidenced in the United Methodist liturgy for communion.  With both humility and confidence we recognize that we are recipients of God’s grace and pray for our participation in God’s mission to the world.  First we confess our sins, and we receive God’s pardon.  Then we remember God’s gracious activity in the life, death and resurrection of Christ.  Finally, we pray that through the elements God would make us “for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.”  We invoke the Holy Spirit, that as a church we would be “one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world.”  This prayer makes clear our sinfulness and states our humble need for God.  It is only through God’s grace that we are able to have the confidence to participate in mission.  As our nation still struggles to overcome the sin of separating ourselves from those who are other – those whose skin is a different color, those whose native language is different than ours, those whose sexuality or gender are different than ours, those who vote differently than we do, those who have different access to education or economic opportunities – the sacrament of communion calls us to remember that grace transforms our divisions into unity in Christ.  Although we retain our diversity, as the body of Christ our walls of division are overcome.

Our witness as a denomination is challenged by the divisions and disagreements present in our polity.  Dr. Messer asserts that our current disagreement over LGBT inclusion “imperils our missional outreach to the world.”  In fact, I have witnessed denominational discussions that have begun with a focus on mission – proclaimed as what the United Methodist Church does well – that quickly erode into arguments about whether and/or how the denomination should split.  Our motive for mission should empower us to be able to resist principalities and powers, to love one another across limits of country, color, clan, creed, class or culture (paragraph 62).  And yet we so quickly forget our motive for mission – grace received in humility that gives us the confidence of the children of God – and vie instead to be right or to retain power and privilege.

Far from being simply a lovely treatise on theology of mission, Grace Upon Grace challenges the United Methodist Church to live out its identity in Christ, being one with Christ, one with each other and one in ministry to all the world, regardless of race, nationality, language, sexual orientation, gender, creed or class.  We are to be “the daughters and sons of God, holding up in prayer the well-being of all” (Paragraph 62).  Through participation in the sacrament of communion, United Methodists can find renewal in the grace of Jesus Christ.  Through the sacrament we can confess our pride and sinfulness, and be made whole with the church to be the body of Christ for the world. 

United Methodist mission is clearly grounded in the grace of Jesus Christ and is not our own mission.  Left to ourselves, we remain sinful human beings.  Transformed through the grace of Christ, we are made able to participate in the ongoing mission of God to usher in a new kingdom, a world transformed by grace.  The world so desperately cries out for justice and reconciliation.  Our news headlines daily proclaim war, inequality, pollution, climate change, disease, and a thousand other ills.  Only through the grace of Christ are we able to boldly proclaim hope in this context.

Dr. Messer concludes with a prayer that United Methodists will “continue to experience the grace of God’s inclusive love in Jesus Christ and seek in every way to witness by word and deed to that marvelous gift.”  One answer to this prayer is found in the sacrament of communion.  May the United Methodist Church find the humility and confidence found in the prayer of Great Thanksgiving and the courage to be made truly one in Christ and audaciously proclaim and live out God’s inclusive grace.

Your contributions needed for World Methodist Youth & Young Adult worship e-book project on human rights

The World Methodist Council's Youth and Young Adults branch has issued a call for youth and young adults (ages 35 and under) to contribute prayers to an upcoming e-book entitled "weWorship."  The theme for the book is "Our Faith and Human Rights."  The WMC is looking for prayers of approximately 300-word prayers that express the connection between you or your youth/young adult group to human rights in your context. 

To some, it may initially seem confusing to have a worship resource focused on human rights.  Human rights may seem to be much more the stuff of social justice educational campaigns or political lobbying, not praise bands or Taize services.  Yet combining human rights and worship shows the true Wesleyan spirit of this project.  John Wesley understood that concern for social justice and personal piety were not separate things, but intricately linked things in the Christian life.  Our worship of God should lead us to serve others, and our service of others should draw us closer to God.  Worship of God thus motivates us in our pursuit of justice and gives us strength for the journey.  Without a personal and active connection to God, our work for human rights and other forms of social justice devolves into mere politics.  Worship is necessary to keep our efforts within their proper transcendent frame.  Thus, writing prayers about human rights to use in a worship resource should make complete sense from a Wesleyan perspective.

Not only does this project well-reflect Wesleyan understandings of faith, I hope it will also appeal to young United Methodists (including many of those in the UMC social media/blog world).  My sense is that many young United Methodists care deeply about human rights as an important matter of faith.  I hope, then, that this call will be of interest to some of this blog's readers, and that it will encourage them to continue to develop a faith that sustains engagement with important justice issues such as human rights.

Prayers can be e-mailed (along with a selfie and a 150-word explanation of who and where you are) to youthya@worldmethodistcouncil.org or lolliedubes@gmail.com.  Entries should be submitted by the end of September.

Plan now: World-Wide Methodist Songfest in May

On Tuesday, I mentioned one upcoming global Methodist event: the Game Changers Summit hosted by UMCom in September.  Today, as we're now officially into 2014, I'd like to mention another global Methodist event coming up this year: the World-Wide Methodist Songfest on May 24.  This collection of locally-organized events was initiated by the World Methodist Council and the New Room in Bristol to commemorate the 275th anniversary of John Wesley's Aldersgate experience.

What is this event?
It's a world-wide songfest, or a global hymn sing, in which Methodists (and not just United Methodists) from around the world will all hold local hymn-sings to celebrate the 275th anniversary of John Wesley's Aldersgate experience, the moment when John Wesley found his heart "strangely warmed" and experienced assurance of the forgiveness of his sins in Christ.  The idea is to gather together to sing hymns and Methodist songs for forty-five minutes, any hymns and Methodist songs the local organizers may deem appropriate, and then cap it off by singing, "O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing" at the exact time of Wesley's experience.

Who is this event aimed at?
All Methodists everywhere.  It doesn't get much more broadly Methodist than singing hymns.

When and where will the songfest be?
The event will happen on Saturday, May 24th at 8:00pm/20:00 local time and culminate with singing "O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing" at 8:45pm/20:45 local time.  The songfest/hymn sing will be happening in local Methodist congregations.

How can I participate?
You can contact your local Methodist congregation to see if they are planning to participate.  If not, consider leading the organizing efforts.  The time and day are set; you would only need to arrange music leaders and publicity.  While you can contact the World Methodist Council or the New Room, Bristol to notify them of your participation, that is not necessary.

Plan Now: World Communion Sunday is this Sunday!

This coming Sunday is World Communion Sunday.  While this program is interdenominational in nature, United Methodists have long been active participants in this effort to promote the oneness of the body of Christ around the world.

There are many ways in which a congregation can celebrate World Communion Sunday.  One way is to incorporate some of the music and liturgy ideas included in this extensive list of worship resources for World Communion Sunday compiled by the General Board of Global Ministries and this list compiled by the General Board of Discipleship.  Worship using elements of traditions other than one's own can not only be a refreshing change of pace for a congregation, it can remind us of the breadth of cultures included in God's people.

Another important way in which congregations can participate in World Communion Sunday is to contribute toward the World Communion Sunday special offering.  This offering goes to support World Communion Scholarships, the Ethnic Scholarship Program and the Ethnic In-Service Training Program.  These important programs help develop leaders for congregations around the world, as can be seen in this story about one such leader in the United States and Mexico.

In keeping with the spirit of this blog, another possible way to celebrate World Communion Sunday is to reflect on or discuss as a group what it means to be in communion with others around the world, both other United Methodists and other Christians in general.  Look through the archives of this blog to get ideas or starting points for such discussions.  Such conversations can help us think about how to take the principles of unity we celebrate in worship and practice them in our common life together.