Hi Laura,
Thank you for dreaming with me about the future of United Methodism. You’re right, Lent is the perfect time to begin having this conversation. I’m reminded that “Lent” comes from the word lencten which refers to the lengthening days of Springtime. This season reminds us, in so many ways, that we are a Jesus People. And Jesus People were born not in the twilight, but, rather, in the growing light of Easter morning. So let’s continue discerning together - you, me, Dear Reader, and God’s Holy Spirit - a Jesus-shaped future for The United Methodist Church (UMC).
As we begin, I’d like for us to think about framing our dreams between two river banks. Specifically: re-meandering and creating a Rule of Life.
First, a little context.
Throughout history, people have dug channels, built aqueducts, and straightened rivers to direct water for purposes such as: creating energy, irrigating crops, reducing flooding, and transporting goods, services, and clean water. This was often done with efficiency and productivity, safety and profit in mind.
Over time, however, folks began to recognize the ecological impact some of these “more efficient” waterways had on the well-being of the environment. Water now moved too fast for sediment and fruitful soil to build up around, what used to be, river bends. Biodiversity was significantly reduced. In some instances, flooding increased. There were other unintended consequences, as well. Marshlands, nature’s filtration system, were lost. River quality diminished. And, esthetically, the land lost what made it beautiful.1 While there were many benefits caused by re-directing waterways, problems were also created. In response, especially in the past few decades, there have been emerging efforts across Europe and the United States to “re-meander” rivers, helping them bend and flow freely, re-wilding them once again.
Laura, I believe this to be an allegory for the Church, especially The United Methodist Church.
Throughout our UMC existence, the denomination and local churches have tried with - many good intentions - to become “more efficient” and “fruitful” and “open” and “missional” and “younger” and “more progressive” and “more ‘orthodox’” and “add whatever word du jour you want here.” While many of those emphases and re-directions have been fruitful - after all, folks like you and I are here because of the UMC - they have also created some unintended and undesirable consequences. It doesn’t take a missiologist, theologian, biblical scholar, or an ecologist to see that the quality of our “rivers” (read: churches) has diminished. Some of the beauty has been lost. Even our ‘filtration systems’ have become broken insofar as much of the ‘world’ remains in the Church, unfiltered and unlike Jesus.
So, as we have this conversation and as we dream new dreams, I suggest we meander through them, re-wilding the United Methodist movement along the way. Let’s dream 100-year dreams rather than 4-year, quadrennium mission statements. Let’s “invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias. Say that [our] crop is the forest that [we] did not plant, that [we] will not live to harvest.”2
I guess what I’m saying is, let’s re-meander the Church. Let’s look backward and draw from the deep wells of Methodism and the rest of Christian Tradition. Let’s introduce a few new quirks. Let’s re-imagine what “health” and “vitality” and “fruitfulness” look like. Not only for our sake. Not foremost to save the institution. But for the well-being of our communities, world, and those yet to come. Let’s do it for Jesus.
And now to the, perhaps, more constructive part: It’s time to start viewing United Methodism not only as a denomination, but also as a Rule of Life.
Laura, you and I both love the Lectio365 devotional app (available for FREE on both Apple and Android platforms. Dear Reader, we HIGHLY recommend this resource to you!). Every day, Lectio365 offers a morning and evening reflection set within the Church calendar year and roots itself within six core practices: prayer and mission, justice and creativity, hospitality and learning. These practices are ways they live out their guiding principles, or Rule of Life: to be true to Christ, kind to people, and take the Gospel to the nations.3
As you and I have been sharing about what in our tradition captivates and compels us, I’ve been realizing we are talking about United Methodism less as a “traditional” church and more as a way to live, a Rule of Life if you will. One of the best, most simple definitions I’ve found for it is precisely that, “a commitment to living your life in a particular way.” John Wesley and the earliest Methodists weren’t only building churches, schools, and hospitals; they were living out a particular way of following Jesus.
They weren’t the first ones to do this, of course. Jesus-followers have been doing so for a long time, in different places, in different ways, and with different emphases. Early church desert mothers and fathers had rules of life that led them to live in very particular ways. So too did St. Benedict of the 6th century, whose now-famous Rule of Life is still being followed today by Benedictine monks and nuns and others throughout the world. New monastic communities are popping up around the world as more and more people are desiring a deeper, fuller, and more life-encompassing, world-transforming faith.4
Understood in the light of our own tradition’s founders and the even deeper wells of Church history, United Methodism is better understood not only as an institution that does good works or local church buildings in which to worship and fellowship, but also as a commitment to living out our faith in Jesus in a particular way.
This is the sort of re-meandering we want to be about. We want to follow Jesus more particularly, with United Methodist expressions that are deeply transformative and require our full and best selves.
So what is a United Methodist Rule of Life? What practices should we commit our lives to living?
Honestly, I don’t know the answer to those questions yet.
And, after many, many drafts of this letter, I am becoming [a bit more] ok with that.
Because we are re-meandering, after all. We are endeavoring to re-wild United Methodism. As much as I’d like to have a clear Rule of Life, three core principles and six rhythmic practices…I just don’t. At least not yet.
What we do have, however, are some particular emphases within our tradition that you and I have experienced to be life-giving. So let’s start with those and build off them as we go. Laura, you began to lay them out in your first letter. Let me attempt to offer them as I conclude mine.
Here are 5 Emphases for Following Jesus as a United Methodist:
GRACE - our theology of grace and belief in the Open Table
HOLINESS - our desire for personal and social holiness
CONNECTION - our conviction, rooted in the Triune God, that life is better lived in community with others
WHOLEHEARTEDNESS - loving God with our full and best selves, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength
SERVICE - we recognize that the Very Good Life God desires for all of creation is one lived in service to the well-being of others
There you have it! I look forward to hearing your thoughts and to hearing from Dear Reader in the comment sections or, should they prefer, more personally through emails and messages. I am genuinely interested in discovering together a United Methodist Rule of Life and identifying accompanying practices that will help guide us closer to Jesus.
Until next time…let’s keep dreaming,
Jared
If you’re interested in reading more about re-meandering rivers, here are some helpful resources:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/rec.13575
https://www.bae.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/sr_guidebook.pdf
https://www.deq.nc.gov/mitigation-services/document-management-library/projects/johnsonsite197mp2006/open
https://anr.vermont.gov/node/1026
From Wendell Berry’s beautiful poem, Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, found here: https://cales.arizona.edu/~steidl/Liberation.html
https://www.24-7prayer.com/podcast/order-of-the-mustard-seed-oms/#:~:text=with%20OMS%20Members&text=It%20is%20an%20ecumenical%20religious,the%20Gospel%20to%20the%20nations.