Energizing and Equipping Local Churches
in Making Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World
The Wilderness Way #7
Published: 2/6/2009
When I was a new pastor, an older veteran (who would later go on to be a district superintendent) explained appointment making to me this way. He said, “They (meaning the bishop and the Cabinet) take the declension sheet and operate like a barber shop. They start at the top, fill an appointment and say “Next!”
He talked in terms of a career ladder and the system taking care of you if you paid your apportionments in full. Such a way of operating is “Egypt” thinking. It may have worked in the time of static Christian culture (though that is doubtful). It certainly doesn’t work today.
We need a wilderness way of making appointments. Recently, three of us (myself, Dr. Georgia Adamson and Rev. Don Scott) attended a Texas Methodist Foundation-sponsored training event on appointment making based on work by Bishop Janice Huie and Dr. Richard Burnham (superintendent in the Texas Annual Conference) entitled From Reactive to Responsive: Appointment-Making In a Season of Transformation. Dr. Gil Rendle led the stimulating event, which challenged us to think differently about how we make appointments in the wilderness.
Central Texas is unique. We cannot just adapt someone else’s system. We can, however learn from others’ experimentation and work on our own version of wilderness way appointments. In Robert E. Quinn’s phrase from Deep Change, we are building the bridge while we walk on it. Tentatively, learning as we go, we’ve adopted the following guidelines:
Our clients in appointment making are —
1. God — the Kingdom of God
2. The Mission Field
3. The Local Church Ministry
4. Clergy
In That Order!
Rather than move in a linear fashion down the declension sheet, we are going to examine what churches are missional, strategic, high potential, face critical needs, are new church starts, are facing hospice situations, etc. We will work on pastoral leadership from a similar perspective.
We will work on a number of appointments in a concurrent, non-linear fashion and be governed less by the declension sheet. Will this work perfectly from the start? Absolutely not! We are learning as we go. In wilderness, we have to learn new ways of being and doing if we want to survive. A peace-and-pay-strategy is the way of death. Trusting in God to guide us in the wilderness is a scary new way of moving forward.
As we look to the immediate future, we have a number of “clear openings” (i.e. places that are or will for certain require a new appointment). In that regard, I have received letters requesting retirement from Dr. Doyle R. Allen, executive director of Mission Ministries and assistant to the bishop, and Dr. J. Allen Goss, executive director of Church Growth & Development. With these two servants, our conference has been blessed with their combined 76 years in ministry. Dr. Clifton Howard, superintendent of the Waco District, will reach the maximum eight-year superintendency as defined by The Book of Discipline and must leave the superintendency. I have extended Rev. Connally Dugger as superintendent of the Mid-Cities District for an additional year.
The “clear openings,” places that are or will require a new appointment, include:
1. Executive Director, Mission Ministries
2. Executive Director, Church Growth & Development
3. Waco District Superintendent
4. Evant/Purmela United Methodist Churches
5. Wesley United Methodist Church, Waco
6. Cross Plains United Methodist Church
7. Italy United Methodist Church
If you are interested in these openings (especially for the churches), please contact your district superintendent no later than Friday, Feb. 6. We are not going to be interviewing people. I have already been in months of prayer and consideration about the Cabinet and Extended Cabinet openings. We do want to operate with more transparency and invite people to provide input. As we learn a wilderness way, the bishop makes appointments with advice of the Cabinet.
Where will this lead us? I’m not sure. I do invite us to relax and pray for leadership. This is a time to trust God and follow the Spirit’s leading. We don’t have careers as clergy. We have a calling from God. The churches are not our churches. They belong to Christ. They make up “the body of Christ.” (I Corinthians 12:27) God is in charge; we are not, and this is a good thing.