The World is Our Parish

From its beginnings, the Methodist movement was a movement of the people. The rapid spread of Methodism—especially in the American colonies—was due primarily to a theology of grace that was shared with all the people and especially those on the margins.

Francis Asbury once expressed concern that when we erect church buildings we are in danger of forgetting our original passion to share the good news outside the walls of the church—a passion that made our United Methodist Church what it is today.

It is from these roots—and the foundational belief that the world is our parish—that our system of itinerancy has grown.

As clergy, we have covenanted to be sent where the people are. Itinerancy allows the church to best match the gifts and graces of our clergy with the needs of the people we are called to serve.

And even though the world has changed, and the ways we work with itinerancy have changed, our need to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the world has not.

 

Throughout Bishop Kiesey’s ministry, she has had the privilege of serving on a wide range of committees and boards, including the Board of Trustees for Iowa Wesleyan College, Morningside College, and Dakota Wesleyan University. After serving eight years in the Dakotas Area, she was assigned to the Michigan Area in July 2012.

Passing the Baton in the Changeover Zone

 

History tells sad stories of good churches that are calcified as monuments to former pastors.

–Colin Hansen

 

When is the right time to begin thinking about pastoral transition? From day one, when a pastor first begins her or his tenure as the pastor of a local church! While the life of a local church may well be seen in terms of a long marathon, the pastoral leadership—regardless of how long any one pastor serves a particular church—is best seen as a relay race, in which the current pastor prepares to pass the baton on to a successor in that crucial segment of time and space called the changeover zone. That is why Bruce Miller says, “Pastoring a church is not getting a trophy to keep; it is getting a baton to pass.”
Biblical history is a testimony to leaders of God’s people moving through changeover zones, passing their batons to successors. Whether it was Elijah passing the mantel to Elisha or Moses giving way to Joshua, wise leaders know their leadership won’t last forever, nor should it. Belief that ministry is a journey into God’s future compels us to pass the baton in a way that makes possible even more success under the leadership of the successor.

When Jesus handed off the baton to Peter, it was with an ultimately victorious church in mind. When pastors—from day one—begin to pray for and prepare their successor, it does not lead (as supervisors sometimes fear) to shortsightedness, or lack of total commitment. Rather, it leads to a cultural mindset that, as the pastor, one of my main jobs is to prepare the church to do even greater ministry when my successor arrives.

Pastoral leadership is a relay race. In The United Methodist Church, bishops, and cabinets invest long hours and a lot of emotional energy to match a church and its mission field’s needs with the right pastor. They pray about, agonize over, and deliberate on how to successfully make appointments. Ironically, the time demands and myriad duties of district superintendents allow them far less time to make the appointment successful.

We wrote our book, The Changeover Zone, to help streamline and provide some tools to improve the transition process—to pass the baton in a smooth, seamless transition that allows the successor to get off to a running start. We took our experience from working with dozens of transition situations and distilled them into best practices for pastors, supervisors, and churches to help create a culture and common language to plan and execute a successful transition. There are many pitfalls and mistakes that can derail a new pastor from getting off to a running start, but there are many techniques and strategies that can help churches go beyond “surviving it” to actually accelerate growth during the transition.

Each role plays an important part—supervisors, judicatory leaders, exiting founder, new pastor, and the church—in the execution of carefully thought-out, prepared-for, practiced roles coming together. Perhaps you are that new pastor, or the exiting founder. Perhaps you are in a supervisory role, or are a member of the church going through its first pastoral change. Whatever part you may be playing in the transition, understand that this is a momentous—and often fragile—time in a congregation’s life; help everyone navigate through the imminent changes and changeovers that ensure your church gets it right.

 

Excerpt adapted from The Changeover Zone: Successful Pastoral Transitions
Copyright 2016 by Abingdon Press All rights reserved.

In addition to coaching, consulting, and conducting workshops in more than thirty annual conferences of The United Methodist Church, Jim Ozier has served on the Appointive Cabinet of the North Texas Conference for seven years. Jim (Griffith) has worked with hundreds of churches and a multitude of tribal judicatories and independent churches and nondenominational churches for over twenty years. Their book, The Changeover Zone, provides insights and strategies to help churches prepare for smoother pastor transitions.

 

Retiring With Grace

Grace is at the heart of the Gospel. It should be at the heart of retirement as well. But unfortunately, that is not always the case. Despite our best intentions, the closer we get to actually retiring, the greater the struggle can be. For some, this is so much so that they continue postponing their retirement, with some ending up working longer than they should have and/or until their health breaks. This is unfortunate and unnecessary.

Grace and Gratitude in Unusual Places

“Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than they are? Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? Notice how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t wear themselves out with work, and they don’t spin cloth. But I say to you that even Solomon in all of his splendor wasn’t dressed like one of these. If God dresses grass in the field so beautifully, even though it’s alive today and tomorrow it’s thrown into the furnace, won’t God do much more for you, you people of weak faith? Therefore, don’t worry and say, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’ Gentiles long for all these things. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. –Matthew 6:25-33 (CEB)

When I go to the gym for my daily workout, I am confronted by a deck of televisions; luckily, they are closed-captioned so everyone can listen to whatever they want and read the screen, if they choose. My favorite stationary bike is in front of one that is always set to one of those home networks, where in fifty-five minutes or less, people miraculously find a new house, renovate three-thousand square feet for a pittance, or flip a condemned property for a ridiculous price. The worst thing, however, is the way I think these shows intend to make the viewer feel: Your house isn’t enough—your home doesn’t have the right paint color, you need a marble bathroom, your closets aren’t walk-ins. . . . the list goes on.

On first blush, watching these shows—albeit for the amount of time it takes me to burn a few hundred calories—made me come home, look around, and think, What if . . .?

Planting More Than Churches

Even though Earth Day 2015 was a few weeks ago, it may not be too early to start thinking about how your congregation can honor our planet on April 22, 2016. Many churches have found that planting—not a new church, but literally digging into the soil—is the way to show their church’s commitment to year-round sustainability while reaching out to those who need help the most.

Green thumbs optional

“Gardening was an unlikely calling for me, since I have no gardening skills,” laughs Sarah McGinley, member of Franklin First United Methodist Church (Franklin, Tennessee) and lead volunteer of the church’s Giving Garden ministry. Shovels and spades began turning the garden’s soil in 2009 and since then, McGinley’s thumb has turned a vibrant shade of green.

“The garden is my passion,” she beams. “It has provided an amazing opportunity for all church members young and old to gather together as the body of Christ and plant a garden, harvest the garden’s produce, and then share that produce with many who might otherwise not have access to fresh vegetables.” In 2014, Franklin First UMC gave away approximately forty thousand pounds of produce.

The Giving Garden does more than provide much-needed produce to the community’s disabled and disadvantaged. “The garden allows us to go beyond our own walls to build relationships with other church congregations, with the DUI court where offenders can put in their community service hours, where kids can visit on school trips, and where special needs adults can volunteer,” says McGinley.

More than beautification

The Garden Ministry at First United Methodist Church Richardson (Richardson, Texas) began approximately seven years ago. The garden was an idea that originated with the church’s Landscape Committee as a grounds beautification project; since that time, however, the mission has evolved to include vegetable gardens with the produce going to a local food bank.

“In 2014, we donated close to 1,100 pounds of organic produce,” says Donna Morrell, one of the Garden Ministry’s fifteen-member volunteer team. “The recipients of our produce come from a variety of countries . . . we strive to provide the types of foods that they will be familiar with, and know how to prepare.”

FUMCR volunteers have found that their garden gives both adults and children the chance for a hands-on gardening experience. “Many Saturday mornings are spent giving garden tours to members of the community,” explains Morrell. “A group of Daisy Scouts earned their gardening badges in our garden; they released ladybugs, planted Sunflower seeds, and helped weed a garden bed.”

Fruits of forgiveness

Perhaps no garden embodies the spirit of giving (and forgiving) like the Anathoth Community Garden and Farm in Cedar Grove, North Carolina.

Shortly after Grace Hackney became the pastor of Cedar Grove United Methodist Church, she happened to introduce herself to Valee Taylor at the post office and invited him to visit her church. Cedar Grove was an extremely racially divided community; the idea that a female pastor of a white congregation would invite an African-American man to attend one of their services was beyond novel, and left an impression on Valee.

In June 2004, Bill King, also African-American, had been senselessly shot and killed while closing his bait and tackle store one evening; no one was charged with the crime. The incident accelerated the community’s fear, anger, and distrust.

Valee remembered meeting the Reverend Hackney and went to her church to discuss what could be done to bring the town together. They organized a prayer vigil in the parking lot of King’s store and every one Cedar Grove’s one hundred residents attended, including Valee’s mother, Scenobia Taylor.

Scenobia had inherited her father’s land when he passed away and after the prayer vigil, she had a dream. In it, God told her to donate five acres of the land. She didn’t understand how, but she felt as though God would use the land to help heal the wounds of the community.

Valee Taylor, Scenobia Taylor , Reverend Hackney and the Cedar Grove United Methodist Church took that small plot of land and made it into what it is today: Anathoth Community Garden and Farm, which now includes over a hundred acres and provides a constant, living reminder of how to give and forgive. A quote from the church’s website might sum it up best: “When an improbably tiny seed can produce, in just three short months, an astounding five pounds of Cherokee Purple tomatoes, we can see a reflection of grace itself.”

To Plant or to Plant

As it turns out, church planting means different things to different people. Mention “planting” to First Franklin’s McGinley and she’s likely to hand you a rake or a spade. ”Through our garden, I dream that hearts will be transformed to serve as Christ served,” she says, “inspiring others in our community to join us in the harvest and in the work of building relationships with each other so that we are not bound by these walls, but are truly a community.”

FUMCR’s Morrell breaks it down even more. “Jesus told his disciples to ‘feed my sheep,’” she says. “When we send fresh produce to the food bank, we are following the directive that he gave the first disciples.”