As I write this blog, I am sitting in a hotel room in Nashville, Tennessee, Wednesday October 29th. We have just finished the annual fall meeting of the United Methodist Publishing House Board. (Cokesbury & Abingdon Press are two of the better known divisions.) I have been privileged to serve on this Board for the past 10 years (four as a representative from the Southwest Texas Conference and six as a bishop representing the Council of Bishops (COB).
During those 10 years, we have lived through (and are continuing to live in!) a revolution in the publishing business. The advent of new technology spearheaded by Amazon has transformed the publishing enterprise beyond previous recognition. And yet, Amazon just posted the biggest loss in its history. With the superb leadership of President and Publisher Neil Alexander we are sailing through storm tossed seas, battered but still afloat, and slicing through the waves. (It is worth noting in this same time period, Borders has declared bankruptcy; Barnes & Noble is losing money and cutting back; Nazarene Press is closing; Augsburg (Lutheran) is in turmoil fighting a lawsuit for failure to honor its pension commitments.
We had a good meeting as we planned future strategy and made strategic decisions. GROW, our children's curriculum, is outstanding. So too is the new adult Covenant Bible Study series. UNDER WRAPS: The Gift We Never Expected, a new advent study, looks outstanding. Revival: Faith as Wesley Lived It is exciting in possibilities.
As I reflect on our time and work together, an old song by Bob Dylan comes back from my college days. "The times they are a changin'”
Tonight, I will join a special gathering put together by the Path 1 ("New Places for New People" focus area) staff of the Discipling Ministries (which used to be known as The Board of Discipleship). The event is a gathering of seminary professors of evangelism and new church start practitioners. The hope is for an intensive interaction between the theology and practice of new church development. One of the key areas of focus is on why "Wesleyan church planting matters."
I will be offering an opening "theological reflection/devotion" (that is the actual title of my assignment) entitled "The Challenge of Why." Central Texas Conference members have heard a precursor of this extended work offered in a series of sermons at the 2012 Annual Conference. Simply put, the challenge of "why" is to answer the question of "why bother being Christian or worship God by going to church."
One shudders in recalling the casual comment of a church staff member to her pastor, "We're Methodists; we can believe whatever we want, can't we?" No, we can't! Answering the "why" question necessitates recovery of a core orthodoxy at the heart of our teaching and preaching. It is central to any faithful future for the Methodist movement in North America.
Thursday night I fly home and a brief part of Friday morning will be spent in the office. We'll drive to Oklahoma City Friday afternoon so I can take part in a rehearsal for Saturday's Connectional Table Webcast event of a panel discussion of the bishops who wrote Finding Our Way.
The Council meeting starts Sunday afternoon with a traditional Memorial Service. I hope to offer reflections on our gathering during the week. In my devotional time I am reminded again of a song we sang at Taize, In The Lord I'll be Ever Thankful.
In the Lord I'll be ever thankful,
In The Lord I will rejoice!
Look to God, do not be afraid.
Lift up your voices, The Lord is near,
Lift up your voices, The Lord is near.