{"id":968,"date":"2012-05-01T17:42:22","date_gmt":"2012-05-02T00:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/gc2012\/?p=968"},"modified":"2015-04-21T21:57:55","modified_gmt":"2015-04-22T04:57:55","slug":"church-a-demonstration-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/church-a-demonstration-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Church: A demonstration community?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overhead in General Conference 2012 plenary:
\nDelegates consider legislation at the 2012 United Methodist General Conference in Tampa, Fla.<\/em>
\nA UMNS photo by Mike DuBose, digitally altered by Jesse N. Love<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Business as Usual<\/strong> | By Joan Holms<\/em><\/p>\n

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to attend the first week of General Conference this year.\u00a0 I was there, along with Kristina Gonzalez, as an observer on behalf of the Western Jurisdiction Inter-Ethnic Coordinating Committee.\u00a0 We were tasked with working toward diverse representation in leadership, particularly where the church restructure plan was involved.\u00a0 While there I experienced the best of The United Methodist Church.\u00a0 I saw our sisters and brothers from around the world coming together to share their passion for God and the church.\u00a0 I experienced worship that informed and inspired.\u00a0 I saw United Methodists with hearts open to one another, despite cultural difference and language barriers, and working to see that all voices are heard, included and invited to the table.<\/p>\n

Sad to say, I also experienced the worst of the church.\u00a0 I saw many who believe the church ought to operate no differently than the world outside our doors.\u00a0 I sat, amazed, as some of my sisters and brothers utilized manipulative strategies to ensure their voices prevailed and others were silenced.\u00a0 In particular, as the sub-committee which considered the legislation for restructuring the church was first formed, racial ethnic persons from the United States had no representation.\u00a0 It was only after much debate that three racial ethnic delegates from the US were added to this original group of 15 (for a total of 18) to take on this important work.\u00a0 When the subcommittee had completed its work and brought a proposal back to the full committee, about half of the sub-committee members found ways to derail the process, undoing the work of those who had labored honestly to create the most just and inclusive plan they could come up with given the limited time they were allowed.\u00a0 Most shocking to me was the way they effectively worked to \u201crun out the clock\u201d by asking irrelevant questions so that the committee would not have time to consider other options.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine how demoralizing that must have felt for delegates who were sincerely attempting to do good work, especially those who were attending their first General Conference.<\/p>\n

This experience reminded me of a sermon I once heard.\u00a0 The preacher spoke of demonstration farms on which new techniques are perfected.\u00a0 As farmers in the community are passing by, they can see for themselves how well (or not so well) the technique is working.\u00a0 Hopefully, they will discover that this new way of farming is something they want to incorporate into their work.<\/p>\n

The preacher suggested that we ought to think of the church as a \u201cdemonstration community\u201d.\u00a0 As we go about the business of being church, those who are \u201cpassing by\u201d can see how well (or not so well) the community is doing.\u00a0 Ideally, those outside the church will discover that there is something different about this community we call \u201cchurch\u201d and they will want to join us.\u00a0 Hopefully, they will discover that \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d is not the order of the day.<\/p>\n

Sadly, there are many at General Conference for whom business as usual is the default position and I find this deeply troubling.\u00a0 I am saddened to know that there so many leaders in the church who think that \u201cwinning\u201d (in the name of God) at any cost is OK.\u00a0 I\u2019m not naive, but can\u2019t help but wish that it was otherwise.\u00a0 I am saddened as I reflect on the ways in which we continue to hurt one another and still claim to be doing the work of God\u2019s Kingdom.<\/p>\n

As for the church as a \u201cdemonstration community?\u201d Just as the unsuccessful experiment doesn\u2019t cause farmers to give up on innovation, unsuccessful interactions at General Conference do not cause the church to give up on being a loving and inclusive community.\u00a0 The good news? God doesn\u2019t give up either.\u00a0 God continues to energize and empower those who would move us toward greater inclusiveness.\u00a0 I believe voices which have been silent for generations are being heard and will continue to be heard in greater and greater numbers.<\/p>\n

The world is passing by.\u00a0 I pray they will find a United Methodist Church that states that God\u2019s love encompasses all God\u2019s children \u2013 and then perhaps we can all act as if we believe it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Joan Holms also serves as the chair for the Commission on Ethnic Ministries for the PNWUMC.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Overhead in General Conference 2012 plenary: Delegates consider legislation at the 2012 United Methodist General Conference in Tampa, Fla. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose, digitally altered by Jesse N. Love   Business as Usual | By Joan Holms I am grateful to have had the opportunity to attend the first week of General Conference […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":969,"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":[6,37],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-conversation","8":"category-laity"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Plenary_business.jpg?fit=600%2C306&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-fC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968","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\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=968"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11575,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968\/revisions\/11575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}