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Commentary
GEN-X RISING: What GC 2008 can and can’t do Andrew C. Thompson, Apr 28, 2008
Andrew C. Thompson
By Andrew C. Thompson UMR Columnist
General Conference offers quite a bit of excitement when it rolls around once every four years. There’s something for everyone: a chance to think about ourselves as a truly global Church, to debate constructive proposals designed to strengthen the church’s witness, and, of course, always a little bit of culture-war controversy.
There is always the tendency to pin our hopes for the church on what the General Conference can accomplish while it is in session. But that’s a tall order, and it might be helpful for us to look realistically at what the conference can and cannot do for the church.
Perhaps the greatest thing the General Conference can accomplish is simply offering a unified witness to Jesus Christ as Lord on behalf of the nearly 14 million members of the UMC worldwide. Beyond that, it is certainly possible for the General Conference to better equip the church for ministry through structural changes and the allocation of resources.
But there is also a whole lot that the General Conference can’t do. Deep down, the church already knows that. In fact, we’ve put it in the Book of Discipline.
The Discipline states the mission of the United Methodist Church: “The mission of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ.”
There’s a whole lot wrapped up in those 12 little words. Among other things, our mission statement implies who we believe God is, what God has called us to be and what God has called us to do.
But the Book of Discipline doesn’t stop there. It goes on to say, “Local churches provide the most significant arena through which disciple-making occurs.”
And that gives us the how: We make disciples best in our local churches, not in General Conference.
That may seem like an obvious statement at first. But it’s not.
Take the ongoing conversations around the ordination process. There is a lot of frustration over the length and complexity of the process, particularly on the part of the young clergy who experience it. Proposals before the General Conference would simplify and streamline that process, something that would prove very helpful.
To many people in the church, those seem like sensible and needed steps. But the tendency will be to think that tinkering with steps in the ordination process will release the floodgates and bless the church with hundreds of new young clergy.
That won’t happen, and it isn’t fair to expect such a result out of the General Conference’s action. Whatever is decided in Fort Worth on this or any other issue, the best the church can hope for is that General Conference provides an arena more conducive to ministry.
And it will still be up to individuals and local churches to put that ministry into action.
Practically all ministry efforts work that way. For ministry to happen in any kind of significant way, faithful Christians have to listen for the call of the Holy Spirit and respond intentionally. In our need for young clergy, that means building effective youth programs, valuing the presence and participation of young people, and nurturing a culture within the church that makes it possible for those young people to answer the call when it comes.
It means offering affordable seminary education and continuing to minister to seminarians while they are away from their home conferences. It means finding and recruiting clergy mentors who will take young people under their wings and be there for questions, support and advocacy.
Replace the category of “need for young clergy” with any other form of ministry—evangelism, missions, pastoral care, social justice—and the basic requirements are the same. Ministry requires people who will give their lives to Jesus so that the gospel can be nurtured in parts of the church and spread in all parts of the world.
General Conference can do a lot, but it can’t do that. It takes local churches, and the people who fill them.
Andrew C. Thompson
