I WONDER AS I WANDER . . . EPIPHANY: Season for Recognition and Moving Outward

In early January, the extended Area cabinet, including district superintendents, conference minister and director of connectional ministries, communications staff persons, and lay leader from one of the conferences, gathered to consider where and how God is leading us in these next months before the current conferences move into the new conferences.   We were moving towards Epiphany, the time when we celebrate the Christ child’s recognition by the visitors from the East, a time when we give thanks for those Wise Ones who moved out by a different way, carrying with them the hope they had received from the visit with that infant in whom they had recognized God’s very presence.


We considered, as we worshiped together and sought God’s guidance, where were the bright stars among us that were lighting the way to the Christ, and to the future.  We reflected on those pastors and congregations and communities where new moving outward of the gospel message was happening, or where we were seeing the potential for that to happen.  As part of that prayerful consideration, we identified characteristics of those “star-bright” situations.  Those included:

  • Ability (or potential ) to think missionally instead of just institutionally
  • Ability (or potential )to act adaptively as well as technically
  • Have gifts for looking outside of self to the broader mission field
  • Have a sense of deep calling to be in mission
  • Have energy to pursue that sense of mission
  • Strongly supportive of the United Methodist Church
  • Have a relationship with God that forms you and helps you see God in others
  • Ability to live in uncertainty about the future with flexibility

  As you look at those characteristics, how do you, how does your congregation, exemplify them, live them out?  Are you Wise Ones carrying the light of Christ into the community in new ways?  Are you passionate about how your worship is inviting of others, and overflows with the joy and love of Christ?  Is there an eagerness to share that light not only in the community surrounding you, with all sorts and conditions of people?  


  There are a number of settings that give us hope and joy.  For them we give thanks to God, and express appreciation and encouragement for the future.  Unfortunately we also heard of those places where congregations are struggling, or have focused more on survival for the sake of those within the current body of believers rather than adapting and reaching out to new people, or have faced challenges with buildings that no longer meet 21st century needs or communities that have been declining in population.


  That time leading to Epiphany also included seeing an interview from “theooze.tv.”  Spencer Burke talked with Phyllis Tickle, scholar and author of The Great Emergence: How the Church Is Changing and Why.  Tickle suggested that mainline denominations have approximately 18 months of “open window” in which to shift the ways in which they function.  Part of that shift means welcoming and encouraging “emergent Christianity” alongside the traditional forms.  If we cannot encourage the new, even fund the new, while keeping traditional forms for those who desire it, the future is dim.  Tickle does not see these shifts as “terrible,” but exciting, as part of God’s ongoing transforming of the church, a transformation that has been happening across the centuries of Christian history.


  In these waning days of Epiphany – a season of focusing on mission and outreach, and as we move towards Lent – a season of focusing on what it means to follow Jesus on the way of discipleship, I ask each congregation to consider:  

  • In what ways does your congregation/your leadership exemplify these characteristics?
  • What is God’s desire for you in relation to these characteristics, as you look to the future?
  • What is your desire in response to that?

Take time in your council meetings, or in a forum, to prayerfully consider these questions.


I invite you to respond to this article.  You may e-mail your response to me or to your district superintendent.  Share your feedback with us.  Share your stories of how God is working within and among you.


It is the commitment of the cabinet to encourage and support pastors and congregations that are stepping out, re-imaging their roles and life together, in ways that communicate the gospel of Christ to this generation.

 

Send your responses to:

 

By: Bishop Susan Hassinger On 1/13/2010