Possibilities and Pitfalls in San Jose

And a touch of insomnia

The night before I left for Costa Rica I knew wouldn’t sleep much. I had an early flight, and I can never sleep before a big trip. This trip seems especially big. The Convening Conference of the Global Methodist Church is now upon us. I’m a delegate and I’ve submitted legislation. Ideas, concerns, worries, and hopes tumbled around my head like socks in the dryer.

I’m no good without sleep. Just ask anyone who knows me. I’m like a walking puddle of toxic waste. I was beginning to get desperate—so desperate, in fact, that I started counting sheep. (Seriously.) They were fat, two-dimensional creatures that looked like they belonged on a flannelgraph. Each sheep cleared the fence by at least ten feet. I began to wonder why my sheep looked and behaved this way. I didn’t think sheep could jump that high, but what do I know about sheep? Anyway, I still couldn’t sleep.

Downtown San Jose, Bernal Saborio, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Common

People have asked me time and again if I’m excited to go to Costa Rica. My answer is always some variation of, “Yes, but….” So much could go right, but what we will become is yet to be seen. Will we be able to break our old habits of mind as we come to this conference? Will we lay down our swords but keep switchblades in our back pockets? Will we continue to fight old and outdated battles? I hope not. I pray for a Spirit of peace and unity to guide our work.

A few other particular concerns weigh on me. Some fall into the category of “fighting the last battle.” The frustrations traditionalists felt over progressive theological education could result in an under-emphasis on theological education in the GMC. Frustrations over bishops could result in an ineffective episcopacy. Frustrations over a large bureaucracy in our former denomination could result in an inadequate infrastructure in our new one. None of these will be healthy for us in the long run.

We could also err in becoming what I call “crypto-Baptists.” I’m not taking a shot at Baptists here. If people want to be Baptists I’ll cheer them on and celebrate they’ve found a fitting church home. But Methodists aren’t Baptists. We don’t affirm the autonomy of the local church. We’re sacramental. We’re explicitly creedal. We affirm entire sanctification. And unlike many (though not all) Baptists, we affirm women in ministry. If I wanted to be a Baptist, I’d be one, and if there are current Global Methodists who want to become Baptists, I’d encourage them to do so. Baptists are great, but Methodists are something different.

I’m hopeful we’ll make good decisions in most or all of these areas. I’m even optimistic. Yet I feel the weight of these decisions. It’s important to bear in mind that we aren’t doing this work for ourselves. We won’t live to see the full flowering of this denomination. We’re creating the GMC for the generations who will come after us. What legacy will we leave them? How can we best empower our descendants to share the Good News of Jesus Christ and spread scriptural holiness across the globe? What gifts can we give them? What decisions can we make now so that future generations won’t have to clean up our messes?

I believe God will be with us as we meet together in Costa Rica, and that is more important than any planning or legislation our finite minds can muster. If God is for us, who can be against us? And yet the consequences of human actions are real, and as we make decisions, we must consistently examine our hearts. Are we listening to and for God? What motivates our actions? Are we prideful? Are we fearful? Are we driven by a desire for control? Are we allowing God to guide us in these decisions?

If we are humble, if we are yielded to the will of God, I believe he will create through us something even greater than we can imagine. God’s work is always better than our work. His ways are always better than our ways. It is no easy thing, though, to be yielded to God, to be obedient, to come before him in humility and with open hands. It takes discipline to exercise patience and to submit to his timing. I struggle with all of these. I’m sure others do, as well. Jesus never said the work of the church would be easy. The alternative, however, is to create a new vehicle for our old agendas. None of us wants that.

And yes, we will make mistakes. None of us is the infallible interpreter of God’s will. Neither is our gathered body infallible. Yet God will work in and through our weakness toward the fulfillment of the Great Commission if we don’t crowd him out. Philip Yancey once wrote, “God goes where he’s wanted.” My prayer, then, is this:

Come, Holy Spirit. Move among us as we call upon the name of Jesus. Purify our hearts as we gather. Give us wisdom and show us your will:

For the salvation of the lost

For the care of the poor

For the generations that will come after us

For the glory of your name

That every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.

Please pray for us. We are frail men and women, finite, limited in our vision, fallen and redeemed, utterly dependent upon the grace of God. I ask that you pray the Holy Spirit will guide us, form us, even chasten us as we gather. For our mortal souls, for this new church, for the world itself, Jesus Christ is the only hope. In all things, may his will be done.