{"id":334,"date":"2012-04-24T11:54:30","date_gmt":"2012-04-24T18:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/gc2012\/?p=334"},"modified":"2012-04-24T11:54:30","modified_gmt":"2012-04-24T18:54:30","slug":"coke-or-cola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/coke-or-cola\/","title":{"rendered":"Coke or Cola?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit: “Pepsi or Coca-Cola” by Flickr User by\u00a0Roadsidepictures<\/a>,\u00a0Creative Commons<\/em><\/p>\n

I had the pleasure of attending the 2008 General Conference in Fort Worth, TX as part of a seminary class.\u00a0 I remember going out to eat one evening and the waiter asking me what I wanted to drink.\u00a0 My standard response is always Dr. Pepper.\u00a0 But I have learned over the years that when you ask for Dr. Pepper you might get Mr. Pibb, and believe me Mr. Pibb is no substitute for Dr. Pepper.\u00a0 So I asked \u201cDo you have Dr. Pepper or is it Mr. Pibb?\u201d\u00a0 The waiter looked at me and said \u201cSon, in Texas we serve Dr. Pepper.\u201d\u00a0 While Dr. Pepper is a specific brand, Mr. Pibb is generic version of Dr. Pepper.\u00a0 For some people the difference doesn\u2019t matter, if a restaurant doesn\u2019t have Dr. Pepper, Mr. Pibb will do.\u00a0 The same could be said for Coke and cola.<\/p>\n

Some people can go to a restaurant and ask for a Coke and have the waiter say \u201cWe only have Pepsi,\u201d which prompts them to say “whatever.” \u00a0They don\u2019t care if they get Coke or Pepsi, cola is cola to them.\u00a0 But then there are those people that would rather drink water then to allow Pepsi to pass their lips. For these people, Coke is not just in option, it IS cola and Pepsi is something different altogether.<\/p>\n

As the 2012 General Conference begins this week, delegates and the church as a whole will discuss a variety of issues, probably most importantly the future of The United Methodist Church.\u00a0 There are many petitions and recommendations to change the church, from administrative structures to shifting understandings of Scripture and God.\u00a0 I think one of the biggest struggles for The United Methodist Church is that we must decide if we are Coke or cola people.<\/p>\n

From my viewpoint as a United Methodist pastor, we as a denomination can\u2019t decide if we are Coke or cola.\u00a0 We say that there is a \u201cMethodist\u201d way, but as a whole we can\u2019t agree what that way is.\u00a0 We can\u2019t agree on itinerancy, appointments, structure, who can and cannot be ordained, and even what worship should look like.\u00a0 As a friend recently tweeted \u201cWorship in UM churches is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.\u201d\u00a0 But at the same time we want to lift up what makes us unique, which includes itinerancy and appointments.<\/p>\n

I must admit, that for me, at times the difference between The United Methodist Church and other denominations does matter and I want to serve and live in The United Methodist Church.\u00a0 But at other times I understand the beauty of The United Methodist Church is that each individual church is able to decide the best way to live out their mission and ministry for their community in their own way.<\/p>\n

The thing is we can\u2019t have it both ways.\u00a0 We need to decide what we are and truly live into that.\u00a0 As a pastor and lifelong Methodist, I will commit myself to live in the church God has called me to lead.\u00a0 But the church needs to decide who and what they are.\u00a0 This General Conference has the ability to go a long way toward defining if The United Methodist Church is Coke or cola. The question isn\u2019t about what we decide but whether or not as a denomination we will live into the decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit: “Pepsi or Coca-Cola” by Flickr User by\u00a0Roadsidepictures,\u00a0Creative Commons I had the pleasure of attending the 2008 General Conference in Fort Worth, TX as part of a seminary class.\u00a0 I remember going out to eat one evening and the waiter asking me what I wanted to drink.\u00a0 My standard response is always Dr. Pepper.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-conversation"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/soda.jpg?fit=640%2C428&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-5o","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions\/342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}