{"id":66,"date":"2012-04-13T10:46:08","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T17:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/gc2012\/?p=66"},"modified":"2012-04-13T11:58:55","modified_gmt":"2012-04-13T18:58:55","slug":"no-large-southern-church-left-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/no-large-southern-church-left-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"No Large Southern Church Left Behind"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post by the Rev. Jeremy Smith originally appeared on his blog, hackingchristianity.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

In Virginia Bassford\u2019s book (which is recommended reading for General Conference) she states:<\/p>\n

Hegemony\u2026is the perspective of the dominant culture, race, or group, as if it were the only perspective\u2013everyone else needs to get on board<\/strong>. Hegemony is blind to the notion that we\u2013you and I, perhaps most especially when we are divergent\u2013are in this together. We each have distinctive points of view. Together, we can have a wide-angle outlook [that we need].<\/p>\n

V. Bassford\u00a0Lord, I love the Church and We Need Help<\/em>, page 35.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One of the newest developments in the\u00a0Call To Action conversation<\/a>\u00a0is that the pastors of the largest churchessent an open letter to General Conference delegates<\/a>. It\u2019s nice. It talks about the death tsunami and the coming doom and gloom of the UMC, the inefficiency of the General Boards, and the graying of the clergy. It asserts a need for organizational change so that the church can be focused on nurturing vital congregations. All boilerplate CTA stuff but worded in a way that even my skeptical young clergy friends are signing it.<\/p>\n

But as I was reading Bassford\u2019s book, that quote jumped out at me as I read the original signatories to this open letter, purportedly the pastors of the largest churches in the UMC.\u00a0\u201cHegemony\u201d \u00a0means a dominant group that thinks alike.<\/strong>\u00a0Now, each of these churches has grown and they meet regularly to learn from each other how to continue growing, so they clearly think of their churches in similar ways (at least on a spectrum, they would be together). And that\u2019s fine,\u00a0we want our churches to grow<\/em>\u00a0and it is great to learn from leaders that have grown their churches effectively. I don\u2019t mind this hegemony group.<\/p>\n

But as I read the signatories, I began to wonder if there was a\u00a0regional hegemony as well in the Call To Action<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

When we\u00a0map the 87 clergy originators<\/a>\u00a0of this petition on Google Maps), we get a disturbing trend as far as how many signatories are from one area of the country. (here\u2019s a map of the jurisdictional breakdown<\/a>\u00a0[or\u00a0PDF here<\/a>]):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n