Overfed and Underactive

About seven years ago, I went to a youth ministry conference with a friend. While I was there, I purchased a book call An Unstoppable Force by Erwin McManus. When I read the book, it really changed the lens in which I view some of the questions I have about the church, leadership, and my role as a pastor. For the past six months, our staff at Avenue has been reading various books in order to help us rethink church- since that is our new United Methodist slogan (hopefully it will be more than that). Each staff person has recommended a book. As you may have guessed, An Unstoppable Force was my contribution.

For our staff meeting this week, we read the first 30 pages or so and set aside some time to discuss some of Erwin's thoughts. There was one thought that really has stuck with me this week. McManus said that in some of our churches, the problem is not undernourished Christians- its that we have overfed Christians who do not exercise (practice) their faith. This really made me pause for reflection. He cites that about 60% of the US population is considered obese. While undernourishment is certainly a health problem, so is overnourishment. They both lead to sickness and even death. Our problem with obesity in America is often an issue of a lack of physical activity (and poor diet habits- we consume too much of some things like sugar and carbs and do not have a healthy balanced diet.)

In our churches and our world, there are certainly people who are starving for the Gospel. They are starving for an encounter with God. Yet our churches are also full of people who consume everything they can spiritually and fail to put their faith into action. They fail to exercise their faith. Whatever they consume in church, bible study, small group, etc. becomes spiritual fat rather then lean spiritual muscle that is useful for building up God's Kingdom.

How are you exercising spiritually? Do you just show up to church on Sunday morning to consume and let it go to your "spiritual hips?" Or have you develped a plan that keeps your spiritually fit? Are you putting your faith into practice or just sitting on the sidelines?

God, help us to exercise our faith this week. To do more than just consume. Let us be an active part of Your body. Let us be Your hands and Feet to a world that is in need of You. Amen.

5,000!

Someone who views this blog next will be visitor number 5000 in the last year. That's pretty exciting! Thanks to everyone who reads what I write. Thanks to those of you who enter into dialogue with the post. It makes it worth writing when is births dialogue. There will be new post coming- hopefully one later this week. Thanks again for all your support!

Young Clergy and the United Methodist Church

I've been meaning to write this post for about a week, but seminary just started back up and I've been watching Abbie all week since our daycare is closed. So here we go...

I followed a link from the United Methodist Young Clergy page to a study done by the Lewis Center at Wesley Theological Seminary regarding the number of young clergy (under 35) in the United Methodist Church. (You can find the report here) The statistics are rather disheartening as someone who is in the ordination process in the UMC. This particular study tracked Elders (and those commissioned yet in their probationary/provisional period) under 35 and gave a break down of each conference. Let me give you some of the statistics from the report- with some thoughts afterwards.

According to the report...

• 5.21% of Elders are under the age of 35. This is a decrease of almost 10% since 1985 (15.06%).
• As of 2008, there were 910 Elders under 35. In 1985, that number was 3219.
• In 2007, there were 40,100,000 young adults age 25-24, with only 876 Elders in that same age range...a ration of 1 Elder for every 45,000 Young Adult.
• In 2006, there were 26,083 Pastoral charges and 881 Elders under 35. A ratio of 1 Elder under 35 for every 30 churches.
• In my conference (Peninsula-Delaware), as of 2008 there were 2 Elders under the age of 35, comprising of 1.08% of our ordained/commissioned clergy. (I believe that number went up to 4 for 2009)

The report list some other denominations statistics for ordained clergy under 35 and the Methodist Church is not alone in this. Only two denominations report that more than 10% of their ordained clergy is under 35 (Church of the Nazerene, Reformed Judaism).

Linked to this issue, I believe, is our feeble attempt at reaching out to college age/young adults in meaningful ways and inviting them to be apart of the Kingdom of God. I've heard it said that a pastor can generally connect with people 10-15 years older and younger than themselves. That could be true as the average age of our ordained Elders is 52- many may have difficulty connecting culturally, relationally with those younger than 35.

So what can we do?

1. More Young Clergy: To this I will say yes, and no. On the yes side- The United Methodist Church (and the Christian Church as a whole) needs more young clergy to help effectively share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world around them. People need to hear this Gospel from their peers- and most importantly, see it lived out from someone their age that they can relate too. Having more young clergy in pulpits and in leadership can be inviting to a young adult who is exploring his/her faith.
   
   Certainly seminary takes time to go through- but the entire length of the ordination process is too long. I started at 26 and will be lucky to be ordained by the time I am 35. Many young pastors are burnt out on the process and by their poor placements in charges that are not willing to allow creativity and passion to be evident.
   
2. On the "no" side of this answer- it takes much more than having younger clergy to reach a world who are thirsting for the living waters of Christ. I have heard (in my annual conference and on blogs/websites) that more young clergy is the way to solve our lack of young adults persuing their faith in the church. It's brought up like a cure-all. This is false thinking. As a denominational level, I feel that we are very much stuck in the 1980's or 1990's in our thinking (maybe in earlier than that). We have failed to keep up with the cultural changes that have taken place.
   
   Since our newest slogan is ReThink Church- we must be willing to really rethink how we go about our ministries. I fear that this is just a catching tagline that the UM marketing department has developed rather than the heart of our leaders in our General and Annual Conferences. In my own conference, I have seen very little dialouge on what it means to rethink church as clergy.
   
   If we were able to Rethink Church; If we were able to live Church as a verb- people (including Young Adults) would be attracted. It happened in Acts when the Holy Spirit came upon those gathered in the Upper Room. They lived life differently and people noticed and wanted to join in because of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. If that was the case today- we would see more people of all ages seeking to live out their faith, and in turn, have more people (of all ages) desiring to serve God through (but not limited to) ordained ministry.

I pray for myself and my brothers and sisters who are pursuing ordination that we would not lose our passion. That we would have the strength and courage to rock the boat, to go against the flow, and to seek to allow God to work through us in ways that we could never imagine.

On Vick and Grace

If you log onto the NFL Shops website and click on their best sellers list for jerseys, there you will find Michael Vick's #7 for the Philadelphia Eagles. If I heard correctly on Mike and Mike on ESPN Radio, Vick has the fourth best selling jersey in the NFL so far. No Eagle, including Donovan McNabb, even appears in the top 25. This comes shortly after Vick's reinstatement into the NFL following jail time for running a dog fighting ring.

I live about 90 minutes south of Philadelphia, go to seminary in Philadelphia, and have in-laws who live just outside the city in New Jersey. Even though I am not a Philadelphia fan, I am certainly around the culture a little on a weekly basis. I am not surprised that fans have re-embraced Michael Vick. On one level, Philly fans are never happy with what they got. The first bad game for McNabb, the sports talk radio shows will be abuzz with cries for Vick to start. They also see Vick's tremendous talent. He has the ability to transform the game with his legs as much as his arm. He can be an incredible weapon for a creative football team (unfortunately, Andy Reid is not that creative when it comes to coaching).

On another level, this whole scenario speaks a little about grace. Prior to Vick being reinstated by Commissioner Roger Godell and signing with the Eagles, the question everyone was asking was whether or not Vick deserved a second chance. From what I watched, read, and saw on sports channel was that Vick did deserve a second chance. Certainly there were those who did not think so (Think PETA and dog lovers everwhere), but overall people were willing to extend grace to Michael Vick.

I wonder if deep down, we give someone like Michael Vick another chance just because he might help our team win the Super Bowl, or because we know that we are in need of grace as well. We may not run a dog fighting ring, or run somebody over while driving under the influence of alchohol (see Donte Stallworth), but each of us is flawed. We each miss the mark of God's standard of holiness (Romans 3:23). Even though we deserve the punishment for our sin, we can give thanks to God for Jesus Christ who came to save us from our sin. Jesus came to extend grace to you and me.

I hope that Michael Vick does well and receives the grace that he has been offered to do some good in the world. I hope that you and I will also receive the grace that has been offered through Jesus Christ and in turn extend that grace to those around.