For two da
ys in July, Kay and I were observers at the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference held at Lake Junaluska, NC. Four hundred and forty clergy and lay persons from around the Southeast gathered there with the main business item being the election of five new bishops.
Kay and I felt we were unelected, self-appointed representatives for the United Methodist people of Cheraw who so fondly remember Tim McClendon’s ministry here in Cheraw. (He served Pleasant Grove and Mt. Olivet at the beginning of his ministry and First UMC from 1993 until 1997.)
I had arranged in advance to write a reflection for the SC United Methodist Advocate. Here’s what can be found in the August edition:
Jurisdictional conferences, like all United Methodist business meetings (or “conferences” as we have called them for almost three centuries) are political activities. I’m not using the word “political” here in a negative way. To say that they are political is to say that they are gatherings of people who are deciding how to govern themselves and who will govern them.
Our conferences are by definition political.
At the same time, as Christians with a common Wesleyan heritage, our delegates make some attempts (some fairly casual and some very intensive) at discerning and following the will of God. Lately, more and more of our meetings, even some Church Councils, use “holy conferencing” which is a focused attempt to bring God into the equation.
This year’s SEJ followed a consistent pattern for 29 ballots. Listen to instructions on how to vote; be led in prayer by some pre-arranged person; open your eyes; cast your ballots. Sounds pretty good, right? But as the balloting went along I began to wonder if it was enough.
I have been a big fan of Tim McClendon’s for a long time. It’s not that he and I see eye-to-eye on every issue. But I have been and still am convinced that he would make an excellent bishop.
So when I joined those bishops and delegates in prayer at Lake Junaluska, I often fervently prayed something like, “Lord, help these people to see the light. Tell them to elect Tim!”
It was bitter disappointment for me and many others when Young Jing Cho, a Korean-born Virginian, was elected to the fifth and final opening. Like some others, I shed some tears. I wanted to pound the seat in front of me. I should admit that I entertained some unfair thoughts about those misled, uninformed delegates who refused to vote for Tim.
My thoughts went something like this: “Certainly, they had not sought out God’s will! Certainly, they were led by some selfish motivation!”
But now I must say: Shame on me for being so sure of myself. And shame on me for having any disappointment that a Korean-American had finally become a bishop here in the Southeast.
Most of us have faced disappointing situations and become quite certain that others have forsaken God and we are the only folk who are still faithful. Consider biblical figures such as the depressed prophet Elijah on the mountain top in First Kings 19 and the angry prophet Jonah under the bean bush in Jonah 4. Then take note that both of those men of God were proven to be wrong about God’s work in the world!
I think that whenever we feel that we alone have it right, we should probably humble up and listen up. We might be right. But we might be very, very wrong.
Folks like me may never know if our fervor for Tim’s election was misplaced. For the time being we should be asking what the Spirit might be up to in Tim McClendon’s life and in the life of South Carolina United Methodism and the UMC as a whole. God may have other plans, and we just haven’t seen them yet. God may be working slowly and silently behind the curtain to paint a totally different picture.
God may be working through our politics after all! Time will tell. Time will tell. And who knows what the Spirit might be trying to do in our own lives as well.
Paul Wood