Paying Attention to the Unnoticed

Below is the email I sent to each bishop, active and retired, around the world.  I addressed each personally, using first names for the few that know me from face-to-face contacts over the years.   

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Dear Bishop Sano,

 

Two thoughts on the meaning of incarnating God's love in the midst of the climate crisis and our declining membership:

 

One, what if we divided up our districts as United Methodists and established parish lines out to the next UM church in all directions. We would not use those lines as restrictive to define our pastoral "kingdoms" but as defining for whom we were responsible.  I'm not sure who are the unnoticed in your area, but in the United States we have at least one group: those who might be a potential mass shooter.  

In all of the hundreds of cases of the past two decades in the US, especially since the assault weapons ban was allowed to expire, no mass murderer or his family has been reported to have a pastor or church involved in their lives.

I do not think that John Wesley had that in mind when he admonished his preachers to visit from house to house.  But I would not be surprised if he was concerned that unstable or otherwise vulnerable people were going unnoticed and therefore unserved by church.

The Jehovah's Witnesses who actually do visit house to house do not go beyond trying to encourage people to join their association. I know. I've mentioned to them when they visit me that they are doing a unique thing and could be bearers of lists of resources counties and communities offer. They turn glassy-eyed when I ask them about that.

So, my fellow UM pastors, what do you think? Can we carry on a "red flag" ministry that just might save a ton of lives?  Whether or not we can get an assault weapons ban, maybe we can stop a mass shooting before it happens by paying attention to these unnoticed folks.

 

Two, to get a glimpse of what incarnating God's love looks like, let me share a little story.  A young mother and her 6-year-old son were out shopping and stopped to get something to eat.  The waitress took the mother's order of a shrimp salad and iced tea and turned to the little boy.  "He'll have a hamburger and a glass of milk," the mother said.  The waitress did not turn away from the boy. "Sir, what will you have?"  The mother started to repeat what she'd ordered for him but the waitress gently raised her hand, looking at the boy.  The boy glanced at his mother, saw her pause, and he turned back to the waitress.  "May I have a toasted cheese sandwich and chocolate milk?"  The waitress smiled, nodded her head, glanced at the mother to be sure the order was okay with her, turned and went to get their lunch.  The boy turned back to his mother and said, "She thinks I'm real!"

 

In my years of ministry, when someone made me feel real, I caught a glimpse of God's paying attention to me, a glimpse of God's love.  

Who are the unnoticed where you are?  If you can't think of any, as a starting point look at with whom Jesus spent his time.  Once we have established who we need to serve, then we have to find the strategies, means, and support systems to help us reach out in God's name, especially among the unnoticed.

 

In the covenant of the clergy,

 

     Jerry

 

Rev. Jerry Eckert, retired, Wisconsin Annual Conference

 

PS  Have you read the book LEADERSHIP THE WESLEYAN WAY by Aaron Perry and Bryan Easley?  An African colleague identified it as a book he keeps on his desk.

Something worth considering

Dear Bishop,

As the globe warms, you and your episcopal colleagues are seeking strategies which can rebuild our Church. That process will take you out of your comfort zone. But let me assure you, the history of our denomination world-wide will show there are few strategies that have not already been tried. Uncomfortable as the best ideas will be, they have already borne fruit, even if laid aside in many places in recent years.

I have some suggestions that I hope will supplement what you and your colleagues from all over the world are considering. These suggestions were time tested and effective during the decades that led up to the golden era of the Methodist Church in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. Bishops from other parts of the world will have good ideas to offer from their area's best period.

Let me begin with the encouragement of two church leaders: One, Rev. Willliam James, put it right out there when clergy complained about having churches that were too small or were struggling: "Stop bellyaching," he said, "and build the church you want where you are."Two, what Dr. James urged was also said a little differently in the midwestern U. S. A superintendent who appointed a pastor to a circuit in the 1880s gave a terse bit of advice which guided that pastor's ministry until 1959. Before his death, the pastor with the help of a writer wrote a book with the title being that advice: DIG OR DIE, BROTHER HYDE (by Harriet Harmon Dexter - still available).

What were the techniques these men used? Here is my summary:

One, bishops must model by their actions how important it is to engage their clergy in one-on-one time together. Like our fathers in the faith,*bishops need desperately to spend the early months of their episcopacy getting to know every pastor in their area. No ifs, ands, or buts. It may take more than a year. Impossible? Then maybe the conferences are too big and need to split. You do not have to be boss of everyone and everything! 

Two, bishops must appoint the most experienced pastors available to model this visitation approach to being a DS. Have them visit every pastor in their district during their first month in office and no less than once a year thereafter.

Three, if they are willing to do it themselves, the bishops and superintendents can ask each pastor to visit every church member and constituent in the first month or so of their appointment. This is where church growth happens, where God's love is incarnated locally.

These are not rigid rules but seriously held goals to get everyone out of the office and eyeball to eyeball with those for whom they are directly responsible. These goals are serious enough to require delegating most remaining tasks to others or dropping those tasks altogether.

Four, keep records in conference statistics showing the number of visits. Conferencesmust celebrate, honor, and acknowledgeat all three levelsthose who do visitation. 

The visits (and it may take more than one visit per person) are to get acquainted, learn the "lay of the land" (who makes the major decisions and how), assess needs as perceived by the individuals being visited, and assess skills (what is the individual good at, experienced with, or is curious about. I used such a list in my visitation and have it in my book on ministry [YOUR FIRST CHURCH - self-published]).

Rapport and trust grow if the visitors are able to give attention and assimilate the information obtained. After that, brief one-on-one moments between the visitor and the visited in other settings may be enough to facilitate any agenda on concerns coming out of the contacts. 

Yes, masks and social distancing may be necessary for now. Modern technology can offer help in visiting and assessing. Once the eye-ball to eye-ball contacts have achieved their purposes, having activities like potlucks, training sessions, rallies, and normal meetings can build on the relationships established during the visits. 

Five, the Church needs to modify its goal of "making disciples." That is only an intermediary step to making apostles. When I was serving churches, most people came to church to be re-assured they were on the right track with their Christianity and the mission work that they were doing in their day-to-day encounters at home, work, and community. They took their being apostles seriously even if they did not use that terminology. And they could because they worshipped God who did not leave them on their own.

Other things like funerals, weddings, baptisms, pet deaths, hospitalizations, losing jobs, and other pastoral care events become normal exchanges between people who know each other and modify sermons to be pastoral as well as encouraging or instructional.

If you take these suggestions seriously, a whole bunch of stuff can happen. The Council of Bishops could shift back to being a support group. Even the most controlling of bishops would have to change their approach or would quit. The pastors looking for a comfy zone might end up leaving. People who were discovered in the visitation would fill in behind them.

Other techniques like class meetings, house churches, quarterly conferences, and circuit riders might make sense again in some places if not universally.

Six, maybe best of all, by exchanging histories, ideas, and experiences with your colleagues you get the benefit of the best thinking in the world on how they are surviving and how they are growing.

The suggestions related to visitation are valid for evangelicals as well as for moderates and liberals. Even our varied theologies may be situational (see my PS below about situational leadership styles). UMs are believers in sanctification and going on to perfection. If our mission statement turns from just making students to producing church members mature in mission wherever they are or are called to be, that could change the direction of our Church (get it back on course, to my way of thinking).

I hope these ideas add to your own best thinking that is going on with your colleagues.

In the collegiality of the clergy,

  Jerry

Rev. Jerry Eckert,Retired, Wisconsin Annual Conference

PS A very small but remarkable publication on leadership styles ought to be among your desktop books. It is Ken Blanchard's LEADERSHIP AND THE ONE MINUTE MANAGER. There are many ways to lead and they shift according to the situations you encounter. The book helped me understand why I was so pleased to sometimes be called "coach." Leading is more multi-faceted that just giving direction and delegating.

*As I understand it, John Wesley is estimated to have traveled 1.25 million miles over nearly all of the British Isles visiting lay speakers and classes. Francis Asbury may have traveled 2.5 million miles on horseback along the American eastern seaboard and western frontier doing the same.