You know those couples that find a way to get into arguments about things of little consequence? You listen to them fight and the whole time thinking "who cares"? Well I am part of an institution that loves these fights.
The latest instance of this is over church membership. There is an amendment to the Methodist "constitution" that would allow anyone to be a member of the Methodist church (of course,the issue is not this black and white but that is not the point).
Here is why I am thinking "who cares" through this whole thing. Membership in the UMC means absolutely nothing! Seriously. I attend a church with over 7,000 on the membership roles. This number would be lower if the UMC didn't make it so dadgum difficult to take people off the membership roles (you basically have to be dead or asked to be taken off, there is almost no other way without the church jumping through some significant hoops). So, we have over 7,000 on our membership roles but only about 3,700 in attendance despite the fact that part of the membership vows are to be in attendance. Also, the amount of people regularly giving to the church falls well below the 7,000 despite the fact that supporting the church with gifts is part of the membership vows (and for those of you that define this as serving in the church, the level of involvement there is not 7,000 either). I can't know for sure but I am guessing that we don't have 7,000 regularly praying for our church, again despite the fact that it is part of the membership vows. VOWS, you know those things you say at your wedding. Should carry more weight than they do. I am not a legalist, but what does membership mean? I stand on my case that it means nothing.
On the other hand, we have "non-members" that I know are fulfilling the membership vows. Some might ask, "Well, why don't they just join then?" And I would ask, "Why should they if it doesn't mean anything to anyone else?"
So, my question is, "Why are we fighting this battle?" Why aren't we spending our time asking ourselves, "Why isn't our membership living up to their vows?" and "How can we challenge and help our membership to do so?"
And, instead of spending so much time making it easier for people to get on our membership rolls, why don't we spend some time making it easier for churches to take people off membership rolls? That would at least give those rolls a shot at integrity and meaning.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Thursday, May 07, 2009
I'm Quitting Morality . . .
That's right, I am quitting morality! Truth is, I have been trying to quit for about 10 years now.
Sometime around my graduation from college I began to realize that almost all of my life choices had been self-serving. There are many people that graduate from college and begin to realize this (and there are many that never learn this lesson), but most of them are repenting from their partying, drinking, casual sex, and living for the moment. I, on the other hand, made it through college without a drink or drunkenness (which is easy because I think beer is nasty!) and without falling into the trap of sex before marriage. My decisions were based on a list of rules for right living. I knew that if I broke these rules that I would just be creating trouble for myself. My morality was primarily self-serving.
During the season immediately following graduation I decided to make a change. I decided I would quit morality. This didn't mean that I began consuming massive amounts of beer in order to get drunk, nor did it mean that I began racking up numbers of sexual encounters. What it did mean is that I traded the selfish motivation of my morality for a selfless motivation. I quit morality in favor of worship.
For the past 10 years I have been trying to live the everyday life and make the everyday decisions motivated by the opportunity to bring glory to God. I have learned that I don't have to earn God's favor or his forgiveness, that has been freely given. And, because of that, I have been freed to make my life decisions motivated by His glory and not my own. Every decision is an opportunity to bring glory to God or to rob him of his glory in favor of my own. At times this is a heavy weight to carry, but the joy I find in bringing him glory as I follow his way of life is more satisfying than anything else!
Sometime around my graduation from college I began to realize that almost all of my life choices had been self-serving. There are many people that graduate from college and begin to realize this (and there are many that never learn this lesson), but most of them are repenting from their partying, drinking, casual sex, and living for the moment. I, on the other hand, made it through college without a drink or drunkenness (which is easy because I think beer is nasty!) and without falling into the trap of sex before marriage. My decisions were based on a list of rules for right living. I knew that if I broke these rules that I would just be creating trouble for myself. My morality was primarily self-serving.
During the season immediately following graduation I decided to make a change. I decided I would quit morality. This didn't mean that I began consuming massive amounts of beer in order to get drunk, nor did it mean that I began racking up numbers of sexual encounters. What it did mean is that I traded the selfish motivation of my morality for a selfless motivation. I quit morality in favor of worship.
For the past 10 years I have been trying to live the everyday life and make the everyday decisions motivated by the opportunity to bring glory to God. I have learned that I don't have to earn God's favor or his forgiveness, that has been freely given. And, because of that, I have been freed to make my life decisions motivated by His glory and not my own. Every decision is an opportunity to bring glory to God or to rob him of his glory in favor of my own. At times this is a heavy weight to carry, but the joy I find in bringing him glory as I follow his way of life is more satisfying than anything else!