RESOURCING THE CHURCH FOR ECUMENICAL MINISTRy A ...

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your mind? I certainly think of picketing, organizing advocacy networks, writing letters to decisionmakers and media, making phone calls, holding town halls perhaps, and so on. I wonder if we couldn’t use more of our God-given creativity to increase our menu of options. For instance, the congregation I serve is full of business leaders. (At board meetings I sometimes think we have too many of them!) What are ways we can include and encourage business leaders to be advocates and people of justice in their work lives? Too often those with resources are preached at or scolded. We perpetuate the “money is bad” fiction. I just accepted an invitation to speak on a panel this fall about how businesses can create positive social change. Over the last couple weeks, during my discussions about the panel with the organizers, at least two of their impressions have become clear: First, they perceive religious leaders as ignorant about the realities of social dilemmas, including poverty; second, they perceive us as those who talk a good game about social change, but rarely act to actually change anything at all—in society or in our churches. Whether or not we agree with these perceptions is secondary so as long the perceptions exist. And it certainly seems to be the case, from my view, that the most productive social change work right now is led by social entrepreneurs and philanthropists. Often they are doing the systemic change we are talking about. Now is the time for us to connect more deeply. I’ll just touch on this one: I’m not sure that Christian unity and church unity mean the same thing. In fact, I would argue that many people of faith—Christian and other faiths—are uniting precisely around issues of justice and prophetic witness. Many times this work happens independent of ecclesial structures. Are those structures slowing ecumenical progress? To ask it another way, is the unity and renewal of the church essential for its witness? Or, can the witness progress just fine, thank you very much, without being hampered by concerns of unity in any formalized sense? Who or what benefits from a more united church? When Jesus was asked about finding God’s kingdom, he suggested taking some action or changing some behavior. Never is it recorded that he said, “Form the right set of doctrines.” How, if at all, does this speak to us about unity and witness? I wonder if another communication hurdle we face is due to the difficulty of measuring effectiveness in Wilson • Christian Unity and Prophetic Witness 36 church life. Whether it’s the seminarians to whom I referred earlier, or congregational clergy, or judicatory leaders, or laity, I think part of our problem stems from the difficulty of proving that resources used on matters of furthering unity or witness are producing desired results. They might respond with that old joke about the man who went to his boss and said, “Boss, when’s that pay raise of mine going to be made effective?” Boss said, “As soon as you are.” Measuring things in the church is not easy, is it? Maybe that’s why we fall back on counting noses and nickels. At least those are two things we can count: what’s the attendance; what’s the offering? Surely we can brainstorm ways to prove the value of unity and witness. They perceive us as those who talk a good game about social change, but rarely act to actually change anything at all—in society or in our churches. I want to conclude with a problem I have. You don’t have enough time for many of my problems, so I’ll just name one. I’ll call it the “Mark” problem. Mark sang at the church I serve last fall. Mark’s special music was just after my message in the worship celebration, so he had no choice but to listen to the message! The following Thursday, Mark stopped by church just as I finished a class I teach about forgiveness. We didn’t have an appointment scheduled, so my assistant buzzed me to see how I wanted her to handle it. I decided to meet with Mark, so he came to my office and we talked. For the first 30 minutes, there was nothing terribly remarkable in our conversation. He asked some questions about our order of worship, about why we celebrate the Eucharist every week and about how we mix genres of music. Then he said, in what I first thought was his parting statement, “Well, I just wanted to stop by and say I thought your sermon was kind of, okay.” I laughed and said that’s what all of us preachers strive for: “Kind of okay” sermons! Immediately Mark launched into conversation with new vigor. He said that for him a “kind of okay” sermon was good. He said he never felt comfortable in a church, and that the only reason he sang in churches was to earn extra money with generally pretty minimal expectations. We talked about the openness of our congregation
and denomination. To my surprise, the next Sunday Mark was in the congregation. The rest of the fall and all winter, he attended regularly, only missing our worship on the Sundays he sang somewhere else. Those weeks he would listen to the celebrations online or on CD. Does authentic witness sometimes mean going it alone? How do I determine those times? Last spring, Mark learned that he is HIV+. I didn’t realize he shared this with anyone until his name was mentioned by a colleague during a local ministerial association meeting. Looks between four or five ministers present were exchanged. I faced a dilemma: Do I pretend like I didn’t notice the looks and see how the conversation develops, if at all, or do I ask what the looks were intended to mean and possibly disrupt the otherwise docile fellowship? I decide to ask. The conversation that followed was difficult and uncomfortable and, ultimately, has 37 alienated some of my local colleagues from me— which I truly regret. At the same time, I am tired of tolerating the intolerance of the intolerant! I can almost tolerate the intolerant, but tolerating their intolerance feels like more than I can or at least want to do. Here’s the issue, though: Maybe that’s just my problem. Maybe, for the sake of the gospel, I must tolerate even the intolerance of the intolerant—suck it up and deal with it because there are bigger issues at stake here. On the other hand, is there a time or place when my desire for authentic witness overtakes my desire for unity? Does authentic witness sometimes mean going it alone? How do I determine those times? One of my favorite passages from the Talmud says, “If people of learning participate in public affairs, they give stability to the land. But if they sit at home and say to themselves, ‘What have the affairs of society to do with me?’ they bring about the destruction of the world.” I’m glad that we’re not sitting at home. I look forward to our discussions. Wilson • Christian Unity and Prophetic Witness
Page 1 and 2: Call to Unity Resourcing the Church
Page 3 and 4: Call to Unity Resourcing the Church
Page 5 and 6: Celebrating 100 Years as a Movement
Page 7 and 8: spiritual foundation of prayer. Rob
Page 9 and 10: challenges that we will explore in
Page 11 and 12: Local and Universal We don’t talk
Page 13 and 14: Understanding the Lord’s Supper f
Page 15 and 16: “Christians cannot partake at the
Page 17 and 18: himself, excluding and excommunicat
Page 19 and 20: Being a Multicultural and Inclusive
Page 21 and 22: than our own cultural and tradition
Page 23 and 24: To help stimulate discussion of the
Page 25 and 26: approved a resolution in 1927 to ex
Page 27 and 28: of time and capacity. Who on earth
Page 29 and 30: ogists would call this the bonding
Page 31 and 32: nations. This yoked relationship ha
Page 33 and 34: Christian Unity, Prophetic Witness,
Page 35 and 36: persons remains particularly releva
Page 37 and 38: 1. Thanks to Mandy Burton, Kristel
Page 39: leaders proclaim themselves experts
Page 43 and 44: necessary. You can live without an
Page 45 and 46: Rev. Andy Mangum serves as Senior M
Page 47 and 48: a pluralistic context, Christians w
Page 49 and 50: egarded segregation as acceptable,
Page 51 and 52: Sermon Winds of Unity John 3:1-10 D
Page 53 and 54: Dr. Sharon E. Watkins is the Genera
Page 55 and 56: in Christ Jesus? What if we would e
Page 57 and 58: • The challenge and opportunities
Page 59 and 60: prayer for Christian unity. It is m
Page 61 and 62: Rev. Dr. Thomas F. Best, a pastor o
Page 63 and 64: I believe that the Second Joe A. an

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