The future of the reconciling ministries network
It’s a Saturday afternoon and I’m spending it at a meeting in the basement of First United Methodist Church of Tacoma. It’s not just any meeting. It’s a gathering of the Reconciling Ministries Network [read more on the RMN here] leaders of our Pacific Northwest Conference of the United Methodist Church.
I’m the youngest person by far at 32. I’m also the only person of color. Around the table are men and women: some straight, some gay but all with a deep desire to see the church move forward on this issue of full inclusion of homosexuals in the United Methodist Church. They come with flyers and articles and news to share, reports about what’s happening in their local congregations, strides and setbacks.
It’s a few weeks after General Conference 2012, the United Methodist Church’s global gathering of the United Methodist Church’s leaders, and the emotions and hurts are still raw. Around the table I hear sadness and lament, I hear joy because now they feel more empowered and I hear calls to action. I hear deep, deep hurt caused by a hypocrisy by a church that says, “open hearts, open minds, open doors” but with clauses and exceptions.
The people sitting around the table with me are full of energy, they are full of love, they are full of hope. But they are tired. I can see it in their faces and hear it in their voices. Yet here they are. Here we are, talking about ecclesiastic obedience to the Gospel. How do we proclaim love in the full living of our lives? A call that those who serve the church have responded.
As I gaze on the faces of these men and women–80% of whom are in their mid-60s, I wonder who will be next in line. Who will lead? Who will sit at their feet and learn so that this conversation might be carried forward? When will my brothers and sisters of color join in this movement?
If you’re reading this, answer.
Word. I’ve found there is great desire to be part of the movement, on the part of young adults and (who might also be) people of color. But there’s a communication problem.
Veterans of the Reconciling movement continue to set the agenda, the meeting times, etc. The meetings aren’t always organized in ways that sustain energy and generate creativity. And so on..
On the other end, younger folk might not see this as an urgent issue to organize around and advocate for because frankly, they’re not all that used to organizing and mobilizing in general. Also, for many of them, they’ve already decided that God’s love is for all, making Reconciling events basically irrelevant.
Just a few reflections..
That’s a great point, Sha and something the current leaders need to hear [and they sort of recognize that already] regarding perspective: some young people think we’re already there [love all] and the older ones who have been there say we are not there yet.
How different is the makeup of this room from the makeup of the Church as a whole? My own experiences are Baptist, and down South, but white and mid-60s sounds like the dominant population of most of the churches I’ve been to.
I’d ask, kind of building on Shalom’s point, whether most young people haven’t just given up on the church’s relationship to LGBT folk – I think it was Rachel Held Evans who did a couple of pieces on this recently, but the gist was that for a big majority young people, the first thing that comes to mind when they think “Christian” is “anti-gay”, and that’s not something they feel like they have the power to change.
You’re right, Mike. It’s not much different at all, especially in our mainline denominations. I think it’s a combination of young people having grown up in a culture where being gay wasn’t a new thing, or at least something that was necessarily made an issue. Yet those same young people are still connected to churches that haven’t been able to move toward full inclusion of gay Christians in the life and leadership of the Church and are confronted with a mismatch of the reality they see every day and the [United Methodist] church’s tagline of ‘open hearts, open minds, open doors.’
It’s unfortunate that for some, ‘Christian’ and “anti-gay” have gone hand in hand.
I have a brother in law, in his early 40′s, who thinks that acceptance of gays is a non-issue, because it is for him. In his circles, nobody questions the sexuality or gender identification of another; he’s a massage therapist by trade and a computer geek by avocation.
He’s wrong – it will be an issue as long as there are hateful people making it an issue and trying to maintain the status quo. It will be an issue in the UMC until the language of the Discipline is changed. It will be an issue until parents stop turning their backs on their children who “come out.” It will be an issue as long as LGBTQ persons are bullied, beaten or killed for being who they are.
It is getting better. My children and their peers have completely incorporated full acceptance into their reality.
It will be wonderful when the UMC’s “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors” really does mean everyone, in every church. I am surrounded by ordained persons and candidates for ordination who believe this. They struggle with the promise to uphold the Discipline even while it contains exclusive language. We pray for change. We become involved in the conversation. We act according to our ability and we invite others into the conversation.
One day, the incongruity will be corrected. I pray for that day.