in the continuing saga on the recent actions by my church’s conference level clergy leadership i cant help reading

• emily has posted some of her reactions and thoughts about termination
• josh, in a much easier to read version, shares the same thoughts as me in the breakdown of leadership in the church
• david has a stemmed thought from josh’s posting

i can’t help either of thinking. warning, i have been introduced to this site on what stuff white people like.. and it has got me wondering and typing like a white person.

i get upset with the romanticism of urban mission, a snippet of my thoughts.

now i might sound heretical in this, but when i hear "at-risk" i think
low income, ethnic youth, from a housing project.. from here-say
conversations, i believe this is the concept of the bishop as well. the
problem, "at-risk" kids come in all ways & we are throwing away two
effective sustainable ministries for a heart-string romanticized view
of the mission field. my youth at hfumc
might not need food on their table, but they have a poverty out of
their affluence that is equally damaging to the shaping of identity
& self-concept. if this vision is such a heartstring then just hire
a new staff person, part time, or maybe petition some of the affluent
churches who have missions or evangelism people to collaborate for the
purposes of educating the conference.

this said, it isn’t just me that is finding out white people feel inclined to move back into the urban environment as part of their coolness. the good white Christian reasons for moving into these area done out of good hearts and a good minds of what is needed in the folks in that area. us white folks are experts on all cultures so we know what is needed. we have become white aware and thus we can get out there and save lives. our black friends have illumined our white selves with all that is needed. maybe i am just over thinking this whole thing, or maybe i just want my white person resolution.

i should just stop now and go watch my white person news, grab something to drink, and hope for a white person sporting event to come on.

so i woke this morning wondering how the clergy leadership of our church can be held accountable for the breech of trust in making decisions without any discernment or consultation with the laity. then i recalled this scene

update: jay has just posted a recent update from the bishop, which is good news and makes my prior statements seem ever more accurate in that our leadership jumped onto a vision that was not discerned through the traditional methodist church processes. yes they are slow, but they are faithful to the communities and inaccuracies of information and hurt feelings are avoided when done properly.

it is late and i have a huge headache, but i can’t sleep so i am hoping this will calm my brain. today has been a crazy day. since i woke this morning i have been emailing, facebook, myspace, on the phone, or talking face to face with people about the recent actions by our ccom leadership. it has been a day try and explain an unexplainable to people that i care deeply for. the culmination came in tears while talking to one of our conference youth who called needing to make sense of it all. it broke my heart to hear "everyone is getting taken away from me" and then rattled off a list of youth leaders (beth included in that list) and a pastor that have significant meaning in her life. all i could say, "i am sorry, but i am here  for you." that hurts and is unnecessary.

some of the voices out there wanting to be heard.

• johnathan, one of our ccym members who blogs posted some of his letter to the bishop
• natalie shared her letter
• jay has his conversation with the bishop & a point of clarification (i followed you bro)
• jason remembered some conversations a group of us were having last week, in light of our recent situation. though i forgot the quote i too remembered the crux of our conversation. the part i remember most was david dark breaking down "administer" having the root word "minister" and the "admin" is action of being a conduit of God’s ministry..
• steve shares empathy and thoughts
• one of our ex-ccym’ers shares a facebook note (this might not be readable due to facebook constraints)
• the petition has a pretty good number of folks which is cool

i have some emails that i would like to share, but i need to get permissions before so & it is late and those normal people are asleep now and not answering emails. maybe tomorrow

what i am asking now? pray for us, i am worried that our leadership is chasing a romanticism of evangelism/mission that is not the calling for all churches. in jay’s conversation with the bishop jay paraphrased with this: emphasis mine

The ultimate goal is not to marginalize ministries with youth and
children, but to direct more resources toward ensuring that youth and
children become faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. The vision is
especially directed at reaching at-risk kids in a more effective
manner, providing resources that help churches to reach out in new ways.

now i might sound heretical in this, but when i hear "at-risk" i think low income, ethnic youth, from a housing project.. from here-say conversations, i believe this is the concept of the bishop as well. the problem, "at-risk" kids come in all ways & we are throwing away two effective sustainable ministries for a heart-string romanticized view of the mission field. my youth at hfumc might not need food on their table, but they have a poverty out of their affluence that is equally damaging to the shaping of identity & self-concept. if this vision is such a heartstring then just hire a new staff person, part time, or maybe petition some of the affluent churches who have missions or evangelism people to collaborate for the purposes of educating the conference. that sounds like a pretty good idea, but "oh wait!" i wasn’t invited to the table to talk to share that idea…

so now i am asking people to send stories to bishop wills & loyd mabry about the evangelism and discipleship that the youth ministries & children’s ministries has done for them. it needs to be claimed that transformation happens even if we are not doing the sexy stuff in ministry. a story, i think, that is perfect is not even a youth, it’s my friend doug.

doug’s wife went to a methodist church, she was befriended by the youth minister at that church. the youth minister invited over to the house met doug who didn’t have a care in the world for God or a religion. the youth minister began a relationship with this couple and invited doug to come and play around at one of the entrance type events. doug loved being with the youth, he learn of Christ alongside the youth. eventually doug got serious about his relationship with Christ, accepting Christ beginning studies, asking questions, working with the youth passionately. eventually the church made him a youth leader with part time pay. he got involved in the youth ministry institute a thorough training program for youth leaders in our conference and deepened conference relationships & covenant relationships with other fellow youth workers (myself included). he’s so charged up about his vocation in youth leadership he is now enrolled at martin methodist getting his undergrad degree (still keeping full time job and working with the youth at his church)…

that is what i call making disciples, which, if i remember correctly has something to do with the mission of the church. there are many stories of that sort, but they are not fancy, people don’t write books about middle aged white man who met some crazy kids and he found Christ and has taken his role as Christian seriously.

i fear that we romanticize and let our heartstrings be tugged to the point we are forgoing stable, sustainable and life changing ministries for the sake of change to meet another need in the body. to me, that doesn’t seem like vision, that seems like agenda…

thanks for listening to my late night ramble.

update: jay has had a conversation with our bishop and got permission to blog about it. so if you have already read this stuff or will do, i suggest checking out what word jay has heard. my update, i still haven’t received an email or phone call.

in following up the events of recent with our conference & the recent "restructuring" moves. i wrote this letter this morning to the bishop & loyd mabry our director of connectional ministries for the conference. i will update with whatever reply i receive. probably not my best letter, but it will do.

Dear Loyd & Bishop Wills,

I am sending this note as your standing Tennessee Conference Youth Coordinator and CCYM member.

I
have been sitting and waiting hoping to be given some "official"
communication as to the change and restructuring of the conference
program staff. Beth is a friend of mine, we have worked together as
Director of Youth Ministries & Youth Coordinator for almost 7 years
now, not to mention our time before that. As a friend I am upset for
her. I know that the church is not just Beth and things will go on, at
what capacity is what I am burdened with.

What upsets me more is than anything is the lack of communication
in these moves. No CCYM member was informed or consulted at any point
prior and I know that I have not been given any official communication
as to the change. There was no phone call, no email, no listserv,
letterhead mail or txt message (though I would have personally deemed
those two insufficient, but it would have been something). I have since
fielded emails, phone calls, and text messages asking Me what is going
on. I have no answer to give. I cannot comfort by saying it is "okay."
All I can say is that FRESH will go on as it will be my last event as
Conference Youth Coordinator because you, Loyd, said that I had to
rotate off.

I know that others have called or emailed and gotten a stock
statement of "if you got the impression the conference doesn’t care
about youth ministries then you are misinformed" or something to that
effect. But the fact of this matter, there is no information being
communicated at any level, so there is no way for people to be informed
to be "mis-informed."

Is there a plan at all? Who will be overseeing Day at Nashville
Sounds, Conference Mission Trip, Nashville Shores, Summer Sizzler in
the short term? If I remember correctly we stated a few years ago that
a staff person has to be at events that involve youth & children
and event type situations. For example a staff person has stayed at
Cedar Crest during camp weeks, Beth has been present at all conference
events. So we are in danger of breaking our own policy.

There is more I could go on about, but consider this my plea for
some communication as to the plan or idea behind these actions and
where they will lead the conference. If we do not have any
communication than people have nothing else to work with than
"misinformation" and that fault falls on the administration of the
conference.

shalom
-gavin