God's Vision
A recent posting on a United Methodist blog lamented all that is wrong with The United Methodist Church. The writers claimed they saw little or no hope for the future. All the efforts to bring about transformation were doomed to failure.
The next day I received my assigned reading for a growth group in which all the active bishops in this jurisdiction participate. The reading was a brief paper written by Dr. Roy Shilling, former President of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. Dr. Shilling described the situation at Southwestern when he accepted the position as president of the University. It was a litany of gloom and despair. The buildings were in need of renovation, the Board of Trustees adopted a budget without the financial resources to support the budget. The student enrollment was far below expectations. Many candidates for the position would have rejected the opportunity to serve as president of this institution. Others would have justified their lack of success because of the insurmountable difficulties the university faced. Dr. Shilling adopted a different approach. He began to articulate a vision of what Southwestern could become. He began searching for the “right people” to move the university forward. He saw what could be instead of what was.
The story of Abraham and Sarah is a story of faith. God comes to Abraham and Sarah and promises them a child. This seems like an impossible dream. Abraham is old and so is Sarah. They are beyond the childbearing age. God must be kidding. They cannot have children and their descendants certainly could not become a great nation. The point I see in this story is that Abraham, and most of us, are blinded from the vision of God by seeing only what we can accomplish rather than what God can accomplish in and through us.
I believe the best years for the congregations of this conference are not behind us, but rather, our best years are in front of us. God wants to use the United Methodist Church to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. We have the right theology, the right understanding of grace and righteousness, the right balance between social transformation and personal salvation, and the flexible structure to respond to a changing society. Every community needs a transformed United Methodist Church that is vital, alive, and fruitful. God stands ready to give that gift. We need new United Methodist Churches to reach new people, more people, more diverse people, and younger people. We need to receive the vision God has for the United Methodist Church.
Certainly, we can wring our hands, describe all that is wrong about our church, explain why we are failing to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission, and slowly die as we excuse ourselves of responsibility. We can take a different path, a path less traveled. We can begin to grasp the vision God places before us and move toward that vision. The way will not be easy. We will need to place the right people in the right places. We will need to make some tough decisions that many will not appreciate, but decisions that always move us closer to becoming what God intends and expects. We will need to look for the positive advancements instead of dwelling on our past failures. We can see this vision become a reality because this is not our work. This is the very work of God to reconcile the world unto himself.
Grace & Peace,
