Dan's Marinations

Not too long ago someone joined our church and we returned to the liturgy for new members which reminds us that the church of Christ is open to "people of all ages, nations, and races."  This simple statement recalls Paul's admonition that in Christ there is "neither male nor female, free nor slave, Jew nor Greek."  We know (or should know)  that these circumstances of birth matter not in the Kingdom.  The trouble is, that in our daily lives churches do a rather poor job living out this part of our liturgy.  Unfortunately, we  segregate ourselves  far too often  in the church, walling off ourselves from others.  This essentially makes the church all about me and people just like me. A couple of months ago I read a blog post on a United Methodist outlet by a college student who was looking forward to being a delegate to our General Conference held last month.  In this post he argued passionately that the future of the church was its you...

Now for true confessions.  I frequently, when typing out "United Methodist Church," actually type "Untied Methodist Church."  In light of our most recent General Conference, this silly typo must surely be considered Freudian in some way.  Those ten days in Tampa showed that the denomination I love may at times be more untied than united.  With the exception of altering guaranteed appointments, when it was all said and done this General Conference actually made very few lasting changes.  Sometimes it's not entirely bad when a governing body makes no changes, since potential changes may actually be worse than the status quo. The trouble for us as a church is that the status quo isn't looking so good.  Our membership rolls and worship attendance have shrunk steeply in the 44 years since the merger that created the United Methodist Church.  A large percentage of our churches fail to take in a single new member by profession of faith in a year's time. ...

As Paul would have put it, "in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye" part of the framework of our system of clergy was abolished by the 2012 General Conference.  The conference ended the long tradition of guaranteed appointments for ordained Elders without even floor debate on the issue.  The proposal to end guaranteed appointments for Elders came as part of a larger body of legislation that comprised the United Methodist Call to Action.  The Call to Action initiative is a response to the precipitous forty-year long decline in membership. In addition to the ending the guaranteed appointments, the initiative also called for a significant restructuring of denomination's commissions and agencies, and the creation of a so-called "set-aside" bishop who would not have episcopal residency, but would effectively act as a CEO for the church. Admittedly, I cannot approach this objectively because I have a stake in it.  With that disclaimer, yesterday's decision ...

It's long-standing tradition that when someone dies, friends will bring food over to the family of the deceased.  We find something of this even in Shakespeare's Hamlet from five hundred years ago, when Hamlet observed, "how coldly do the funeral meats furnish forth the wedding feast."  I have observed this carried out countless times in my life, both in my ministry and personally.  As most of us know these meals are sometimes very somber morose affairs, but may occasionally be quite rollicking. My own personal introduction to this practice came in childhood lo these many moons ago.  Being the generous and thoughtful person that she was and still is, my mother always carried food over to the home when someone we knew had died.  It became her custom to make a delicious casserole with meat, pasta noodles, and cheese, etc.  In fact, she made this so frequently for funerals that when the rest of the family saw her making it we asked who had died.  The ca...

I ran ten miles this morning, and it really seemed fairly easy except for being unusually warm for early January.  This was the last longish run of training for the Charleston Marathon next weekend.  Those who've run a marathon will appreciate how good this last semi-long run feels.  Today, it didn't matter how I felt, or how fast or slow I ran.  Today's run was simply cover the distance, get from point A to point B without hurting something in the process. What lies behind the run today made it so seemingly easy to do and relatively unimportant.  In the previous four months I've run nearly 500 miles, including a half marathon in Spartanburg,  three fifteen mile runs, an eighteen mile run, and three twenty mile runs.  I've run after dark in the evening, before the sun has come up, in the rain, when there's frost on the pumpkin, and when it's been so warm that I've shed my shirt before I've finished.  No, I'm not in the best shape of my life, bu...

Now there's something you would not expect to hear a Christian minister to say.  This very true statement obviously requires explanation.  It began in early October when a hospital I visited had the Christmas portions of Messiah  playing through their piped in background music.  Even if it's really early, at least it's glorious music I thought.  The displays of ornaments, artificial trees, lights, etc. in Lowe's in late October I could almost grasp because folks may want to begin buying that stuff early to avoid too much holiday rush. A couple of things pushed me over the edge, however.  Hearing "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" on the week before Thanksgiving as I scrolled through the radio stations in the car began it.  A beautiful warm November day over a week before the turkeys hide to avoid becoming dinner, and I have to hear snowy Christmas songs?  Churches too often buy into this by cranking up "Joy to the World," and "O Come All Ye Fait...

I've heard people from time to time tell others something like this, "you ought to come to our church we really need you."  Many of the people that I've heard say this are faithful Christians and church members.  I also respect that they say this from the best of intentions.  In one instance, I know that it refers to a church that does desperately need new members.  However, "we need you," is one of the worst slogans for evangelism I can imagine. From a practical standpoint, "please join our church, we need you," is more likely to drive someone off than it is to induce them to join.  This sort of phrase invests all sorts of hope that this person or family will somehow fix a church that is broken, will somehow save a church that is dying.  I doubt that anyone that a church would actually want to have will join if he or she is going to be looked at as some sort of savior/hero figure.  The person who would like to join understanding that he or she w...