CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter—An Open-Door Christian in a Closed-Door Church [Su, 4-30-23]
My friend, Bob, wrote to me. Mostly about a granddaughter. He knows how I feel about granddaughters. He knows I pray for his as well as mine.
He noted that his UMC had voted to leave the denomination. By one vote. He was opposed to leaving.
Bob and I were classmates and friends from the time we were ten years old. We worked the night shift in a factory together. Bob didn’t go to college. He continued to work factory jobs. But he remained in our home town, so we were able to stay in touch over the years. We’ve shared a lot of hopes and concerns. He’s outlived two wives. He worries about his granddaughter. We’ve wept tears together.
Make no mistake; we have differences. Bob is very conservative. But he is kind. And thoughtful. “As Christians” he said, “we need to stay together and work out our problems together. It’s easy to solve a problem by just walking away from it, but is the easy way the way of Christ?”
It reminds me that someone has said that Christ promised his followers only two things: You shall always be in trouble. I shall always be with you.
Bob lives in a town of 2500 people. It was 3500 when we were in high school. We were both Methodists, but I went to the little open-country Forsythe Church, three miles outside of town, near the farm where I grew up. I thought of the town church as my auxiliary home church, though. I played on their Church League baseball team, since Forsythe was too small to have a team. I had many friends who were members there. The preachers there, especially Wilbur Teasley and Bob Miller, encouraged me as I inched my way toward the ministry.
It saddens me that the open-door church that mentored me and encouraged me has decided to close its doors.
The UMC was the last open-door church in town. The Presbyterians gave up years ago. There has never been an Episcopal or Lutheran or Disciples or UCC congregation there. There are several other churches, but they are closed-door churches. Their doors are locked from the inside, intent on keeping the wrong people out. An open-door church is there to let everybody in.
Now an open-door Christian has no church in that town. Bob lives in an open-door desert. He will have to drive thirty miles to attend an open-door church, one that will accept his granddaughter. That is the plight of many open-door Methodists now, as their churches vote to leave so that they can be closed-door churches.
Except Bob will keep going to his old church. He’ll keep the doors open in his heart and mind, even if the official doors are closed.
I’ll continue to pray for him as he makes his witness. I’ll always be proud that he is my friend.
John Robert McFarland
Of the about 400 churches in the Rio-Texas Conference, it looks like about 30 have decided to disaffiliate and another 40 are thinking about it. Our bishop, Robert Snazey has called a session of Annual Conference this Saturday, before the regular session the first of June. The reason is to determine who the lay and clergy delegates will be member of the Conference and who ain't. I don't plan to attend. I am going to Bella Vista, Arkansas to help celebrate my brother Jim's 90th birthday (Same age as Willie Nelson and Carol Burnet). As you know, I left the church, in practice, in about 2010. I am still a United Methodist Elder on the Conference roles. But, my heart and soul now lie in a foreign land. How do you sing the Lord's song out here? "Jesus loves me, this I know..." It is nice to sing, but it needs accompaniment.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been to Conference in about 25 years, I guess, mostly because I lived far away geographically. I care what happens in the church, but I don't really have a handle to change things one way or another. Also, I don't have to live with the decisions that are made now, and I think it's more appropriate for decisions to be made by those who have to live with them.
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