The United Methodist Church is in a crisis by all accounts. During the upcoming General Conference in May, the legislative body of the UMC will be presented with a number of proposals for altering the structure of the church as a way of dealing with the conflict over the presenting issues of gay marriage and the ordination of coupled gay clergy. Even if none of the proposals are passed some traditional and progressive clergy, churches, and maybe even a whole jurisdiction will seek to separate from the UMC. This is a difficult time for all those who love the UMC. Yet, it is also a time of great opportunity for all the theological branches of the UMC.
This is the first in a series of posts in which I will identify core commitments that I believe will be essential to the future of Methodism. I will not be speaking of any particular branch or denomination that may remain or emerge from the decisions of the General Conference. The church in the West is facing a new reality, which we have been slow to face. As a large part of Methodism goes through a time of great change, it would be a missed opportunity to not align the remaining and emerging institutions to the current missional reality. I see at least four commitments that will carry the people called Methodists into a new era of faithfulness to the missio Dei: the mobilization of laity, intentional discipleship, multiplication culture, and commitment to formative institutions. In this first post, I will offer some thoughts on the mobilization of laity.
Laity have performed significant roles in Methodism from the very beginning of the movement. Those familiar with early Methodism know about the famed circuit riders trained and sent by John Wesley. The very nature of this system of traveling preachers made lay leadership essential to local congregations that were only periodically visited by clergy. Earlier still, laity were trained to be class leaders and other similar roles in the Methodist Societies. An increasing number of laity still lead churches in the United Methodist Church today as Certified Lay Ministers. Beyond these often highlighted roles, lay persons serve in all sorts of ways in the various ministries of local churches as in all denominations. Yet, the church in the West is still in decline.
A significant part of my current position is supporting and resourcing lay ministry within the Indiana Conference. I have the privilege of seeing the great work our laity do in the local church and at the district and conference level. I also am aware of common areas in which laity are in need of maturity and support. The truth is a minority of lay people are consistently active in ministry and even fewer are engaged in missional ministry to those outside the church community. Any number of reasons for the lack of ministry engagement can be identified, but they all really boil down to discipleship and leadership development in the local church. My next post will focus specifically on intentional discipleship, so here I will address a more specific aspect of discipleship; identifying, cultivating, and deploying spiritual gifting.
Most often when people think of spiritual gifts they are referring to those listed on sometimes excruciatingly long spiritual gift assessments (I am familiar with one that describes over 160 “spiritual gifts”) that identifies which spiritual gifts a person possesses. Some of these gifts are dubiously described as spiritual in nature. I am becoming increasingly convinced that the spiritual gifting laity need to be introduced to is the five-fold ministry of apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, and teacher (APEST) identified in Ephesians 4:11.
Alan Hirsch is probably the current premier writer on the five-fold ministry. Hirsch’s book 5Q: Reactivating the Original Intelligence and Capacity of the Body of Christ, gives a convincing treatment on the need to recommit to all of these functions of and callings in the church. Jesus perfectly embodies these five callings during his ministry and gives them to the church so that she can continue that ministry. If this is correct, then living into APEST is a necessity of discipleship: “Similarly, the fivefold must feature in individual discipleship because discipleship is essentially formation in Christ. To become a mature Christlike person then, would mean engaging all the elements of the fivefold latent in our living relationship with Jesus.” (pg. 86)
I see APEST as a much more empowering and resonant starting place for discussing spiritual gifting than the gifts that are typically discussed. Though we are called to embody elements of all the APEST giftings, we will each have those that we are most gifted in. In my estimation, helping lay people to identify and live into their APEST gifting will give clarity and stability to the discernment of their calling. Such discernment will allow lay people to go beyond matching experience or skills to current ministry needs to exploring new and creative ways of living into a deep-seated calling. This, of course, would be a core function of leadership development as well.
Leadership development is one of the most common areas of growth I encounter in local churches. A vast number of local church leadership are determined by those willing to do a job rather than because someone is gifted for the role. On one hand, those that occupy leadership positions in this way should be commended for their willingness to serve. On the other hand, we all know this is not the best way to build leadership or ministry teams.
I empathize with clergy who struggle to fill leadership positions and recruit volunteers for ministry because there seems to be a small pool of those willing. At the same, equipping laity for ministry is a fundamental responsibility of our clergy. Doing it well will free clergy to live into their specific calling as laity lead and serve the ministry of the church.
I recently spoke with a pastor who has developed a discipling/leadership program that runs for 24 weeks of two semesters. The program includes a comprehensive study of Scripture, and practical experience in leading devotions, bible study, small groups, and one-on-one discipleship. The final step is to create a plan to engage in ministry or discipling inside or outside the church. Does a leadership development process need to be this extensive? Maybe not, but I know the program has made a huge impact on a friend of mine. The structure of leadership development can vary greatly, but the general components of engaging Scripture, personal discipleship, gift discernment, learning by doing, and releasing for ministry are hard to argue with. The fact that this church has planted two churches with graduates of the program now successfully pastoring those churches is also hard to argue with.
To bring this post to a close I will note that as local churches in the future Methodism disciple laity to live into APEST callings given by Jesus and develop leaders for ministry, lay people will need to be released from the local church to further the Kingdom of God. It will not do to only prepare laity for ministry within their home congregation. There are so many waiting to find what they are searching for in Jesus. In preparing people for the missional reality we are in, the future Methodism will need to be just as (or more) concerned about sending mature leaders out to reach new people in new places than gathering into the existing faith community. I will explore this more in the coming post on a multiplication culture.
Though there is plenty to do to meet the current missional reality, I believe the future of Methodism is bright as we follow the leading of the Spirit. I pray you have been blessed in some way by the sharing of my thoughts. The next post will be on intentional discipleship; a concept that has occupied much of my time over the past couple years.