General Conference - What are the Signals in the Noise?

In case you are interested in the General Conference of the UMC happening in May 2016, you may have caught onto the fact that everyone has an opinion on every matter under the sun. In the middle of all this noise, one might wonder what are signals in all this noise? 

I have been charged with the task of trying to cultivate a collection of articles, recordings, videos, blogs, etc. You can see those articles by following the link at the top of the page "General Conference 2016"

While this project is still young and I am not doing as well as one might be able to do if they were professional tech communicators, I hope this site will be helpful for those that are interested to know what is happening at the GC2016 that is going to have an impact on the local church here in the central Texas area.

ORDER, DISORDER, AND REORDER AND #UMCGC (PT. 1)

Richard Rohr speaks about the spiritual life in a number of ways that are both accessible and refreshing. At the school he founded, he speaks about there are three boxes: Order, Disorder and Reorder. He goes on to say that conservatives tend to (but not always) get stuck in the Order box. There is a desire to make life as ordered as possible. So we set up rules, accountability, authorities, consequences (punitive if need be) all in the effort to create order. When you read the legislation being considered by the UMC at the May General Conference, there is a much legislation about keeping or expanding order.

For instance, in the March/April publication of the conservative magazine Good News, Thomas Lambrecht (UMC clergy person and VP or Good News) wrote the following (emphasis added): "We do not see the disagreement over marriage and sexuality as a major threat to the future of United Methodism. After all, we have survived with it for 40 years. Instead, the major cause for potential schism is the intentional disobedience and defiance of our denominational policies and requirement." (source)

With all the chatter and concern about LGBTQ issues and the church, the vice president of one of the most influential conservative publications in the UMC says the real threat is the current and potential future disorder that is happening. Rev. Lambrecht goes on to outline no less than nine pieces of legislation that Good News promotes all of which attempt to create greater Order in the UMC system.

This is the great work of our conservative sisters and brothers. It is the work of trying to order the life of the Church with agreed upon rules. I akin this work to that of trying to get children to play the game of soccer. You have to lay out the rules so that some sense of order may take shape. Otherwise you will have kids running out of bounds, using their hands to pick up the ball, kicking the referee in the shin, and nothing that looks like soccer. 

The concern among many is that the UMC is falling out of order. For some this is not a good thing, while for others, the disorder is a welcomed and good thing. To be clear, not all disorder is chaos. Take a look at this picture:

Ursus Wehrli - The Art of Clean Up

While they are both salads, one is more ordered than the other. The one that is disordered is not in chaos (that might be a fruit smoothie). It is however, non-linear and interconnected. It is messier and to some it may look like like chaos, however the fact of the matter is the salad on the right and the salad on the left are both salads. They just approach the nature of salad differently. 

So let us have some grace when it comes to dealing with our conservative brothers and sisters who may value order more than the more liberal voices who (according to Rohr) tend to get stuck in the "disorder". A forthcoming post will attempt to connect disorder and the UMC General Conference. 

KIVA + UMC = UMC Connection

His name is Jonathan Bell and he works at Church of the Resurrection (CoRO. The past several years Mr. Bell has been working to create a microlending platform. Specifically leveraging the UMC inter-connectivity, the local relationships the UMC has in developing areas, the brand identity of the cross and flame (as well as CoR), Mr. Bell and his team have created a working prototype called the "UMC Connection" umcmicrofinance.org.

This working prototype has not only proven itself to be successful, Mr. Bell and his team are raising capital ($150,000) to build a new platform, hire staff and expand. 

So if you are a person who believes in the work of microfinance and what it has and can do to transform lives or if you are a person new to microfinance and have been waiting for a more established organization like the UMC to get in the game, I hope you would consider creating a profile on umcmicrofinance.org and make a $25 loan to someone who is just on the cusp of transformation.

I was made aware of this project by Rev. Dawne Phillips of the Central Texas Conference. She asked if I would be willing to do a little more research into this project and share any recommendations. In an effort to promote this project that I believe in, I created this five page summary report. If you are interested to read more about the specifics (average loan, default rates, field partners, etc.) feel free to download, read and share.