Friday, November 17, 2006

A Tale of Two Meetings


Sometimes life sets contrasts right next to each other. It is helpful. We can easily forget that we live in one world -- and that there is another world where things are going on at the exact same time that are the exact opposite. I can easily forget that. I can think that the little world around me is the only one I live in. I can sink into despair when I think of myself as an island. But when I am reminded of the larger world we live in, by seeing another dimension or aspect of the world that I hadn't noticed before. Well then - that despair is tempered with a bit of hope -- and even, dare I say it, happiness.

On Wednesday evening we had our Charge Conference at the church. It is our once a year business meeting. The leadership for 2007 is elected. My salary is voted on. We receive reports from the Finance Committee and from those with responsibility for our building and grounds. It's fairly perfunctory. The lay leader and the pastors often give reports on what might be called "the state of the church." The District Superintendent attends these meetings -- and, in fact, presides at them. The District Superintendent, for non-United Methodist readers, is a "supervisor" of sorts over 50-80 churches in a defined geographical area. Ah -- I digress.

Both Mary, our lay leader, and Rachel one of the other pastors, gave fine reports on the state of the church. I spoke briefly about what I thought some of the highlights of the past year have been. I tried to speak honestly about what we are still learning and challenged by. But I also wanted to take the opportunity to voice my concern about what I see happening in the coming union of the two Indiana United Methodist conferences into one. There are people working on this union and I have seen their reports -- and I'm pretty disappointed. That's saying it mildly. The reports I have seen fail, from my perspective, on three accounts: 1) they do not reflect any theological grounding/thought; 2) they lack imagination and creativity; and 3) they don't seem to have any understanding of how organizations really work. I expressed my concern about that. Our District Superintendent interrupted to say that he is serving on one of the "discernment groups" but that he honestly doesn't have any "emotional investment" in it because he's sixty-one years old and by the time he retires it will be all said and done...and for the most part he agrees with what I'm saying -- but there's not much to be done about it (he seemed to say with a shrug of his shoulders). What a stunning view of leadership in our denomination. It was appalling.

I tell you that story, so that I can tell you this one. On Thursday morning I was in my study and I saw our intern, Greg, come in to the office. I stopped by his room and chatted with him. The night before he and our other intern Carla had pulled together a meal about a block and a half away from the church at a place called Unleavened Bread at 30th and Central. The restaurant was closed -- but the proprietor, Eleayse had opened it up for this "meeting." Greg and Carla had called together people who she knew had a love for cooking. They invited them to each bring a dish to share and there was no other agenda. Just a group of people who love cooking to share their food and get to know one another. I asked Greg how it went. His face brightened up immediately. This is what he told me. People came in he said and he told me the names of those who had come. Eleayse had pulled some tables around so they could sit together and eat and talk with each other. They begin to eat and then -- Greg said -- it exploded -- recipes were flying around the room, they were talking about techniques and ingredients and the energy was contagious. He said that they set another time to gather again and that this time the theme would be "international foods." Greg and Carla had been a little nervous about this gathering. Would people expect an agenda? Would people want something to come from this? But I had hoped and believed that if you bring people together who care about similar things, even if it doesn't go anywhere from there -- you'll have a delightful meal together.

This is one of the real ministries of our church -- to witness to the Spirit of God alive in people. To bring together people across all kinds of boundaries -- but who share a sense of calling and commitment. And out of that, as we say at Broadway -- "have conversations and have faith." Greg and Carla brought people together -- and I don't know what will happen long term out of it - but something was born out of that time on Wednesday night.

And it was in stunning contrast to a meeting where a tired church bureaucrat told us of his lack of care for what he was doing. I wonder if what we are doing at Broadway can help seed a renewed sense of setting people, like our D.S., free from his misery and inviting him into discussions and commitments that he truly cares about. How can we multiply the effect of that dinner - and reduce the effect of the first meeting?

Let this be our revolution...

4 Comments:

Blogger Chad said...

Mike,
Ah....you came back to blogging with a bang. What a great blog! We do need to talk about the things that really do matter and what we deeply care about. This is what we hope for on saturday with the homeless guys from lighthouse. What do they care about? How are they gifted and how can they share that gift with each other so they can better their lives on the streets and find home, jobs, health care, education, and freedom. We'll ultimately see what happens, but we know that whatever comes of this at least must begin with the gathering of the people. Sounds like Greg and Carla figured this out. Hope we can do the same.
Peace.
Chad

1:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was at that meeting. It was tasty and fun. I'm dying for someone to teach me to make a decent pie crust. As we sat around talking about food memories and our interest in trying new things, I thought about how unlikely it would be for this group to get together otherwise, but how good it was for people who are coming from some pretty different places to talk about their faith and passions together. The table is such a good place to do that.

11:18 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, and I love the tiny table picture.

11:19 AM  
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