T-Baby had that feeling often. You could see it in his face; especially when Mrs. Parker at Yazoo City High School said, “Please close your books and take out a sheet of paper.” That was the time T-Baby remembered he was supposed to study for a test. As usual, he had NOT!
I had the same feeling yesterday when I arrived at Wesley United Methodist Church for our four-church “cluster” charge conference. (For non-Methodists, a charge conference is the annual business meeting of the local church.) Normally, the District Superintendent presides over 50 or more of these meetings a year, an enormous investment in time and resources. This year, we decided to better utilize our resources, and conduct four charge conferences at a time. The problem was our DS has been appointed to First UMC in La Jolla, and her interim replacement has not yet arrived.
Consequently, the elders were instructed to become “presiding elders” for a couple hours, assuming the duties normally performed by our superintendent. Remember how I boasted last week about officially becoming an elder in full connection with the California-Pacific Conference? Well duty called sooner than I expected!
Dr. Emma Moore-Kochlas made the last seven charge conferences at Christ UMC easy for me. She knew the Book of Discipline like the back of her hand. All I had to do was get some reports ready with the help of our church leaders and follow her agenda.
Realizing my predicament, I wished I had paid closer attention while Emma performed her duties flawlessly. I also wished I had read the Book of Discipline before arriving at Wesley UMC; refreshing my memory of the policies of our church. But, as T-Baby knew too well, wishes are useless when you get caught like a deer in the headlights.
I had one last hope. Maybe I would preside over my own church charge conference. If I messed up, my church leaders would forgive me. Unlike USC at Notre Dame last Saturday, this was NOT my lucky day. Or was it? I was assigned to preside over Wesley UMC’s charge conference.
What a blessing! What a wonderful church! My spirit soared as I heard my neighboring congregation share reports of her marvelous ministries. Wesley UMC has three ethnic congregations: 500 Vietnamese members, a new Cambodian congregation, and an Anglo congregation. Their senior pastor, Bau Dang, proudly presented five candidates for ministry. What a gift to United Methodism and the church universal.
I fumbled through the agenda, and with the help of Pastor Dang and others, managed to recover from a few missed points of order. Wesley’s members forgave my mistakes. After an hour or more, the conference ended, and I realized what a great privilege I had just experienced.
As I left Wesley and started home amid the first rainfall of the season, I make a few mental notes.
I need to be a better neighbor to my three sister churches (Trinity, Normal Heights, and Wesley). It is too easy to live in a form of ecclesiastical isolation. Not only do we ministers need to fellowship more, but so do our congregations.
We are not in competition. We need to celebrate the victories and successes of our sister congregations. Let me say it again. We are NOT in competition.
God is blessing our congregations in similar and diverse ways. Many of the stories I heard sounded very familiar to circumstances at Christ Church. But many stories were unique, indicating how God is able to use each congregation and each member in ways no one else can be used.
And finally: Read The Book of Discipline, and stay current, because you never know when Mrs. Parker will say, “Please close your books…”
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