Showing posts with label Bob Black. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bob Black. Show all posts
Sunday, November 04, 2012
The Wesleyan Church Today (Black and Drury)
Now, the last chapter of Bob Black and Keith Drury's, The Story of the Wesleyan Church. I'll be deciding this week what book to work through next. I think it's probably going to be Will Willimon's Bishop.
So far it's been:
Chaps 1-2 About Wesley and the origins of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in abolitionism
Chaps 3-4 About its activist early days that were low church, pro-women (and anti- some other things)
Chaps 5-6 The post-Civil War let down, when the best and brightest returned to the Methodists
Chaps 7-8 Birth of Pilgrim Holiness Church
Chapter 9 Multiple Ministries
Chapters 10-11 Roaring Holiness 20s
Chapters 12-13 Institutional Solidification (30s/40s)
Chapters 14-15 Prelude to Merger
Chapters 16-17 The Wesleyan Merger
Chapter 18 The Decade of Evangelism (1970s)
Chapter 19 The Decade of Church Growth (1980s)
Chapter 20 End of the Century Wesleyan (1990s)
___________________
Most of this chapter is "state of the question" Wesleyan, but it starts with some features of the early 2000s. For example, there was John Maxwell's Leadership Development Journey (LDJ) that started out the decade. The engagement of the church with issues of social justice is also highlighted. "Since 2000 Wesleyans have produced strong and convicting position statements on domestic violence, human trafficking, global poverty, and immigration" (271).
Joanne Lyon became the first woman general superintendent in the history of the denomination and, as we now know, is currently the only general superintendent of the church. This correlates to the first "go forward" item Black and Drury mention: women in ministry. After some lost ground on this issue, it feels like the church has turned a corner.
This leads to an aside here. In many respects, The Wesleyan Church remains in danger of simply sliding off into pop fundamentalism and even forgetting that there are some important differences between the Wesleyan tradition and some of the most powerful forces within mainstream evangelicalism. If the Wesleyan tradition abandons concern for social justice, it is ceasing to that extent to be Wesleyan. The same goes for items like women in ministry.
Another "go forward" item is church planting. In its most innovative forms, church planting has clearly been a major focus of Wesleyan energies, maybe the biggest focus right now. The rise of "venue planting" is a remarkable phenomenon right now, simply brilliant. Churches like 12Stone, New Hope, and Seacoast have used this tool in planting in brilliant ways. And, if I may, I lead the Book of Common Prayer service mentioned on page 275, which Keith Drury attends :-)
The founding of Wesley Seminary is mentioned on p. 278, now led by Wayne Schmidt. Wayne has led us to worlds unknown, with the possibility of online cohorts based at 12Stone and Bogota being discussed. He launched us into strategic phase two a couple years ago, and a vibrant faculty are perhaps about to lead the curriculum into phase 2 as well--both very exciting!
The book ends with the hope that, when it's time, the Boomers will hand off the baton of the church to the next generation when it's time. Great book! Congratulations to Bob Black and Keith Drury for the best Wesleyan history ever written...
Monday, October 22, 2012
Decade of Church Growth (1980s): Black and Drury
Only one chapter again today from Bob Black and Keith Drury's, The Story of the Wesleyan Church. So far it's been:
Chaps 1-2 About Wesley and the origins of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in abolitionism
Chaps 3-4 About its activist early days that were low church, pro-women (and anti- some other things)
Chaps 5-6 The post-Civil War let down, when the best and brightest returned to the Methodists
Chaps 7-8 Birth of Pilgrim Holiness Church
Chapter 9 Multiple Ministries
Chapters 10-11 Roaring Holiness 20s
Chapters 12-13 Institutional Solidification (30s/40s)
Chapters 14-15 Prelude to Merger
Chapters 16-17 The Wesleyan Merger
Chapter 18 The Decade of Evangelism (1970s)
___________
A few things of note happened to the Wesleyan Church in the 80s. One was the move of its HQ back to Indianapolis. This was to go closer to the city and closer to the airport. If we were going to be engaged with the world, we would need to be able to get there.
There were also some changes to our core documents, our Articles of Religion and our membership commitments. A paragraph on God the Father was added. The most major change was on divorce.
Previously, adultery was the only thing mentioned as a valid basis for divorce. This was expanded to include any sexual sin such as incest or bestiality. The word porneia in Matthew 5 and 19 is usually taken to mean sexual immorality of any kind. More controversial was what divorce did to membership. Previously, the "guilty party" in a divorce lost membership and was not allowed to remarry. Now, membership was not involved with the issue.
The WC launched missions in Europe in the 80s, when Ken and Marilyn Blake went to Munich, Germany, where I was last year at this time. Since then we have a number of small works scattered here and there in Europe. On the whole, these efforts have not yielded much fruit, a sobering reality and one that deserves serious reflection. As we are poised to have a church in Cuba after over half a century, I hope significant reflection is going into the question of contextualization.
But the biggest feature of the 80s was probably the growth of large churches in the WC and the beginning of serious church planting by those churches. Kentwood Community Church, where Wayne Schmidt pastored, has to be a model for how to grow in a way that isn't gimmick or shallow but discipled growth with depth. Although he is now the head of Wesley Seminary at IWU, under his leadership Kentwood went on not only to have "children" churches, but grandchildren and great grandchildren.
John Maxwell led the church in the charge to grow and even set up a Round Table for the pastors of the largest churches in the denomination. They were all following the lead of Bill Hybels at Willow Creek Community Church. Of course not all the church was as gungho as others. Some of these pastors were seen as a bit arrogant and even shallow--numbers for numbers sake.
The large church of the present day is hopefully a little less "attractional" and moving well beyond the seeker sensitive model. The shift from attractional to missional is a shift from a self-centered church that competes with other churches for people and builds off of "transfer growth" to a church that is centered on what God is doing and wants to do in a community.
The attractional church also tends to be a homogeneous church, a church that only draws people who look like itself. Usually this ends up being white middle class families. Wayne Schmidt at Kentwood was a pioneer of reaching out to its diverse community with the aim of looking like the same multicultural mix of people around it.
Finally, Willow Creek has acknowledged in the last ten years that its almost exclusively seeker sensitive approach, which only aims at the entry level person, was ultimately a failure. It is now acknowledged everywhere that a church needs to be leading its congregation into deeper and deeper faith, primarily through small groups. A large church thus must have its people meeting in smaller discipleship groups to be a fully functional church.
In fact, you might think of the healthy megachurch as a collection of smaller church communities within a larger whole.
Chaps 1-2 About Wesley and the origins of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in abolitionism
Chaps 3-4 About its activist early days that were low church, pro-women (and anti- some other things)
Chaps 5-6 The post-Civil War let down, when the best and brightest returned to the Methodists
Chaps 7-8 Birth of Pilgrim Holiness Church
Chapter 9 Multiple Ministries
Chapters 10-11 Roaring Holiness 20s
Chapters 12-13 Institutional Solidification (30s/40s)
Chapters 14-15 Prelude to Merger
Chapters 16-17 The Wesleyan Merger
Chapter 18 The Decade of Evangelism (1970s)
___________
A few things of note happened to the Wesleyan Church in the 80s. One was the move of its HQ back to Indianapolis. This was to go closer to the city and closer to the airport. If we were going to be engaged with the world, we would need to be able to get there.
There were also some changes to our core documents, our Articles of Religion and our membership commitments. A paragraph on God the Father was added. The most major change was on divorce.
Previously, adultery was the only thing mentioned as a valid basis for divorce. This was expanded to include any sexual sin such as incest or bestiality. The word porneia in Matthew 5 and 19 is usually taken to mean sexual immorality of any kind. More controversial was what divorce did to membership. Previously, the "guilty party" in a divorce lost membership and was not allowed to remarry. Now, membership was not involved with the issue.
The WC launched missions in Europe in the 80s, when Ken and Marilyn Blake went to Munich, Germany, where I was last year at this time. Since then we have a number of small works scattered here and there in Europe. On the whole, these efforts have not yielded much fruit, a sobering reality and one that deserves serious reflection. As we are poised to have a church in Cuba after over half a century, I hope significant reflection is going into the question of contextualization.
But the biggest feature of the 80s was probably the growth of large churches in the WC and the beginning of serious church planting by those churches. Kentwood Community Church, where Wayne Schmidt pastored, has to be a model for how to grow in a way that isn't gimmick or shallow but discipled growth with depth. Although he is now the head of Wesley Seminary at IWU, under his leadership Kentwood went on not only to have "children" churches, but grandchildren and great grandchildren.
John Maxwell led the church in the charge to grow and even set up a Round Table for the pastors of the largest churches in the denomination. They were all following the lead of Bill Hybels at Willow Creek Community Church. Of course not all the church was as gungho as others. Some of these pastors were seen as a bit arrogant and even shallow--numbers for numbers sake.
The large church of the present day is hopefully a little less "attractional" and moving well beyond the seeker sensitive model. The shift from attractional to missional is a shift from a self-centered church that competes with other churches for people and builds off of "transfer growth" to a church that is centered on what God is doing and wants to do in a community.
The attractional church also tends to be a homogeneous church, a church that only draws people who look like itself. Usually this ends up being white middle class families. Wayne Schmidt at Kentwood was a pioneer of reaching out to its diverse community with the aim of looking like the same multicultural mix of people around it.
Finally, Willow Creek has acknowledged in the last ten years that its almost exclusively seeker sensitive approach, which only aims at the entry level person, was ultimately a failure. It is now acknowledged everywhere that a church needs to be leading its congregation into deeper and deeper faith, primarily through small groups. A large church thus must have its people meeting in smaller discipleship groups to be a fully functional church.
In fact, you might think of the healthy megachurch as a collection of smaller church communities within a larger whole.
Monday, October 08, 2012
Wesleyan Merger: Black and Drury
I reach chapters 16-17 today from Bob Black and Keith Drury's, The Story of the Wesleyan Church. So far it's been:
Chaps 1-2 About Wesley and the origins of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in abolitionism
Chaps 3-4 About its activist early days that were low church, pro-women (and anti- some other things)
Chaps 5-6 The post-Civil War let down, when the best and brightest returned to the Methodists
Chaps 7-8 Birth of Pilgrim Holiness Church
Chapter 9 Multiple Ministries
Chapters 10-11 Roaring Holiness 20s
Chapters 12-13 Institutional Solidification (30s/40s)
Chapters 14-15 Prelude to Merger
Now chapters 16 and 17 on the merger of the Wesleyan Methodist and Pilgrim Holiness Churches:
__________________
Chapter 16
I was very impressed with the emphasis on parity in the merger. How hard it is for people not to want to come out ahead, but the spirit of the merger was genuinely one of equality. Two general superintendents from each denomination, very similar numbers of general officials. We now reach my childhood and people I at least met in my first decade or so of life. (My parents, for example, got the idea of Kenneth as a name from J. D. Abbott's son. Having grown up in Florida, I came across many of the old leaders of both churches at Brooksville winter camp meeting)
The new denomination took equal ministerial and lay representation from the WMs, as well as some of the older wording of faith statements, some of which go back to the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Anglican Church. I'm glad the Pilgrims lost over dispensational language in relation to the end times. I'm glad the Pilgrims won over a more centralized local church board, as opposed to the scattered boards of the WMs.
Chapter 17
The most painful part of merger beyond question was the closing (although called merging) of three, later four Pilgrim Bible colleges. I think they probably made the right decisions, but having close connections with Frankfort, I know how hard it was (My Dad didn't vote to close Frankfort, but he was on its college board at the time).
This chapter has a lot of interesting details about how merger worked its way out on the local level. It is interesting in Indiana, for example, sometimes to find Wesleyan churches right down the street from each other. One of them usually was originally Wesleyan Methodist and the other Pilgrim.
One of the more disappointing aspects of this period--although maybe it was all for the good--is the failure to merge with the Free Methodists. The two sticking points were initially the FM statement on Scripture, which did not say anything about inerrancy--and the percentage of college board of trustees who had to be members of the church. The FM church was actually willing to change its statement on Scripture, and the Wesleyan Church later went with percentages more like the FMs anyway.
With regard to language of inerrancy, the debate went along merger lines. The WMs had put inerrancy language in their discipline in 1955 at the urging of Stephen Paine, then president of Houghton and strong participant in the neo-evangelical movement of the fifties. The Pilgrims didn't have a statement of that sort in their Manual but didn't oppose it in the merger. After all, who wants to argue that the Bible is errant?
But it is fascinating in the FM merger discussions that Roy Nicholson, the old WM general emeritus, was the one that argued the term was essential for merger. Meanwhile J. R. Mitchell, a Pilgrim, didn't think it should be a sticking point. (I wish I had known this during my Asbury days so I could have picked his brain) It remains a mid-twentieth century artifact in our Discipline that I suspect most Wesleyan scholars consider more problematic than helpful.
But the most fascinating part of this story by far is something Black and Drury omitted. I suspect that those at the 1976 General Conference actually thought that they had voted to merge with the Free Methodists. I was there. My father was a delegate. My family had reservations about the merger (I obviously would have supported it in retrospect). At nine years old, I remember leaving Wichita thinking we had merged (and thinking it probably wasn't a good thing ;-).
But the motion on the floor was not a motion to adopt the recommendation of the merger committee, as I suspect almost everyone thought. It was a motion to receive the report of the committee. Perhaps in a clever parliamentary move, the General Conference gave a hearty thanks to the committee and, by implication, shelved the recommendation until this day.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Book Review: Story of Wesleyan Church
Read the first two chapters of Bob Black and Keith Drury's new The Story of the Wesleyan Church. I am not disappointed, and I had high expectations. These are good writers. History should be interesting but so often is not (most of the earlier versions of this history are torturous). Black and Drury have done a great job.
The first chapter was amazing to me. I glaze over at the beginning chapters of most American histories with their tales of Native American migrations and distant figures of no direct impact on my life. This book begins in medias res, with a dramatization of the founding of the new denomination in 1968, followed by a flashback to Wesley at the end of the chapter. Brilliant!
There is so much mediocrity, all around, everywhere. This is excellence!
Chapter 2 deals with the origins of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in the abolitionist movement. I continue to process what I think of the abolitionist movement. I'm obviously on board with their values. But I also think some of the abolitionists were extremists. Gladly, I don't get that impression of the founders of the WM church. For example, Luther Lee only joined the movement after Elijah Lovejoy was murdered by a mob.
I am sympathetic with the early attempts of the Methodists (and the Congress) to do away with slavery gradually. But I am also sympathetic with those who finally gave up on gradualism and decided more decisive action needed to happen. I admire Orange Scott for taking a stand in the way he did and hope I would have done the same.
A couple of applications. One is that civil disobedience is no disgrace. Sometimes I feel that Wesleyans today can't tell the difference between US law and God's law, as if breaking the speed limit was like bearing false witness. Getting arrested for protesting against discrimination fits well with our heritage.
The second is a warning. Standing against sin, as it is often preached today, is not the same spirit as standing against slavery. Those who stood against slavery were standing up for people. It's not the same as protesting against liberalism or homosexuality.
So my take away so far:
The first chapter was amazing to me. I glaze over at the beginning chapters of most American histories with their tales of Native American migrations and distant figures of no direct impact on my life. This book begins in medias res, with a dramatization of the founding of the new denomination in 1968, followed by a flashback to Wesley at the end of the chapter. Brilliant!
There is so much mediocrity, all around, everywhere. This is excellence!
Chapter 2 deals with the origins of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in the abolitionist movement. I continue to process what I think of the abolitionist movement. I'm obviously on board with their values. But I also think some of the abolitionists were extremists. Gladly, I don't get that impression of the founders of the WM church. For example, Luther Lee only joined the movement after Elijah Lovejoy was murdered by a mob.
I am sympathetic with the early attempts of the Methodists (and the Congress) to do away with slavery gradually. But I am also sympathetic with those who finally gave up on gradualism and decided more decisive action needed to happen. I admire Orange Scott for taking a stand in the way he did and hope I would have done the same.
A couple of applications. One is that civil disobedience is no disgrace. Sometimes I feel that Wesleyans today can't tell the difference between US law and God's law, as if breaking the speed limit was like bearing false witness. Getting arrested for protesting against discrimination fits well with our heritage.
The second is a warning. Standing against sin, as it is often preached today, is not the same spirit as standing against slavery. Those who stood against slavery were standing up for people. It's not the same as protesting against liberalism or homosexuality.
So my take away so far:
- I'm proud that we stood for unity, merger, and coming together in 1968.
- I'm proud of Wesley and Asbury's innovation to accomplish the mission, working around the respectable rules of society.
- I'm proud of their optimism about what God wanted to do in people's lives, assuring them that they are right with God, delivering them from the power of evil over them.
- I'm proud of the abolitionist heritage.
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