| A Pastoral Letter from the Board of Elders of Metropolitan Community Churches Dear Friends and Colleagues in Ministry O holy city, seen of John,
where Christ, the Lamb, doth reign,
within whose foursquare walls shall come
no night, nor need, nor pain,
and where the tears are wiped from eyes
that shall not weep again! These were the opening words of the Board of Elders meeting, which we sang to convene our group on Monday morning, January 15, 2007, at the Bishop Mason Retreat Center in Flower Mound, Texas (U.S.A.). As we joined our voices in song and as we allowed the inspirational words of this great hymn of the social gospel to focus us, we looked around the room and heard not only a new sound, but saw new possibilities as the group was joined by two new Elders, Glenna Shepherd and Ken Martin. The hymn text's author, Walter Russell Bowie, had in mind both the Heavenly City dreamed in Revelation 7 and 21, but also the very real human need which he saw daily at the corner of 10th and Broadway in New York City, where he was the Rector of Grace Church. His awareness of the enormity of the task, as well as the promise of the future and the tension in which we live, could well have led him to subtitle the hymn "Unfinished World, Unfinished Calling": Hark, how from men whose lives are held
more cheap than merchandise;
from women struggling sore for bread,
from little children's cries,
there swells the sobbing human plaint
that bids thy walls arise!
O shame to us who rest content
while lust and greed for gain
in street and shop and tenement
wring gold from human pain,
and bitter lips in blind despair cry,
"Christ hath died in vain!" For a variety of reasons it had been some time since we had a full complement of Elders in the room, each prepared to launch into the work of their regions and with an equal commitment to work together toward evoking not only our best work from ourselves but from the communities we serve as well. From the moment we made music together we felt like a real "Dream Team" and optimism ran high, and we hope that optimism will instill hope in you as you read this summary, because hopeful is how we feel.
We began our work by checking in around our greatest challenges (material resources) and our fondest hopes for the year to come, of which there was no shortage of dreams. Lillie Brock risked sharing that she hoped to complete her graduate theological education one day, and it prompted us collectively to commit to each achieving the next appropriate professional degree in theological education. Several of us will be enrolling together in the D.Min program at Episcopal Divinity School (www.eds.edu), others in the M.Div. or certificate programs in 2008. We hope it will engender a denomination renewed commitment to ongoing professional development. The words of church growth expert John Maxwell rang in our ears, "Grow yourself, and your church will grow." We invite others to join us on this journey in 2008.
Connie Meadows has worked tirelessly to provide the most accurate set of statistics in regard to church attendance, membership and offerings that we may ever have had. We vowed to embrace the truth of what the numbers are showing us; the more detail we shared, the more we learned. We acknowledged somewhat painfully that we clergy have sometimes let our desire for success inflate our numbers -- "minister math" or "evangelistically speaking" we sometimes joke when we describe the 102 people gathered for Easter Sunrise Service as "just short of 200." Accurate metrics are nothing to be afraid of -- truthful metrics will help set us free to evaluate the real challenges we face. MCC, like many churches, appears to be simultaneously growing and shrinking. The flat lining of numbers in recent years doesn't always tell us where and why we are successful, and where and why we may not have kept pace with the needs of our communities.
Being a church that is principally committed to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) liberation still has a lot of vitality in some places; in other places, the successful assimilation of LGBT people into church and society means that we must re-discover the "queer edge" if we hope to reach younger people. In other places, economic challenges may supersede or at least demand equal attention as LGBT liberation issues. Cindi Love challenged us to recruit and retain and disciple an achievable 500 people under the age of 20 in the next few years if we expect be around in a generation. Don Eastman, unquestionably the church growth advocate and statesman in our movement challenged us to continue to mine the best of business literature as well as spiritual literature as we build strong, sustainable churches. Don, who had introduced many MCC leaders to "Good to Great" by Jim Collins, led us through a critical discussion of the same author's recent monograph intended specifically to bridge the business paradigm to the non-profit sector, specifically to churches. If you want to study what we studied this week under Don’s tutelage, get not only the original "Good to Great" but also "Good to Great and the Social Sectors." Any group of clergy and lay leaders could profitably study this text together as you determine your next ministry steps.
Without a doubt, Darlene Garner and Diane Fisher have the most challenging regional and portfolio assignments. To say that Darlene, in addition to the English-speaking churches in Region 6 is responsible for Central and Latin America does not do justice to the geographic and cultural breadth of her responsibility. She inspired us with descriptions of the solid accomplishments, particularly in regard to leadership development in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking nations in her care, and how the cultivation if highly qualified indigenous leadership in these areas will lead to an MCC of equal size to current denominational membership. Diane Fisher has the same challenge: North American churches in change and transition as well as a rapidly changing Eastern Europe, where the liberation values of the European Union are encountering resistance in Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Islamic cultures where these ideas are viewed with some suspicion. What does it mean to indigenize MCC in these places? Are we broad enough to encompass expressions of church that are unprecedented?
Glenna Shepherd and Ken Martin also face exciting challenges in serving their new regions. Both Region One and Region Four should be comforted to know that we feel you have the resources of two highly accomplished and highly committed people and our collective enthusiasm for what is about unfold in their partnership with you couldn't be bolder.
Several Elders also work future-oriented portfolios, and were able to share their hopes for the upcoming year. Arlene Ackerman's passion for Church Planting is unparalleled; when the story is told of the great expansion of MCC in the first decade of the 21st century, the work that comes through this program will be prove to be vitally responsible. Lillie Brock and Jim Mitulski's passion the intentional Interim Pastor program has led to a new level of denominational resourcing for congregations in transition. Jim's work with seminaries and fundraising for scholarships means that perhaps a generation from now, maybe longer, MCC seminarians will have their educations subsidized to the same extent that other denominations invest in their future leadership. Lillie's expertise in providing resources is equipping our churches to an unprecedented degree, and the upcoming year holds even greater promise for what Lillie and her team will deliver.
Moderator Nancy Wilson's vision that we will be known as the Human Rights Church assures us of a vision that can unite us, that will enable us to build meaningful coalitions with other groups of similar values, and that will ensure the vision that gathered a "gay church out of the ferment of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950's and 60's, and the women's movement of the 1960's, will continue to have vision and a promise well into this century. We aren't nearly done and we hope you feel this too. Out productive meetings with the Board of Administration signaled a new level of partnership. We know that Board of Administration is committed to raising the resources for us to accomplish together in the next generation what we have done so prophetically in our first 39 years.
Here's what your Board of Elders did during our week in Dallas: We gathered, we prayed, we studied, we listened, we dreamed, and we committed ourselves fully to the vision described in the closing verses of O Holy City Seen of John, and we invite you to do the same: Give us, O God, the strength to build
the city that hath stood
too long a dream, whose laws are love,
whose ways are neighborhood,
and where the sun that shineth is
God's grace for human good.
Already in the mind of God
that city riseth fair:
lo, how its splendor challenges
the souls that greatly dare--
yea, bids us seize the whole of life
and build its glory there. We hope to see you in Scottsdale, Arizona (U.S.A.) for the General Conference of Metropolitan Community Churches this July!
Ever in the Spirit of Christ, The Board of Elders
Metropolitan Community Churches
Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson, Moderator
Rev. Elder Don Eastman, Vice Moderator
Rev. Elder Ken Martin, Region 1
Rev. Elder Jim Mitulski, Region 2
Rev. Elder Arlene Ackerman, Region 3
Rev. Elder Glenna Shepherd, Region 4
Rev. Elder Diane Fisher, Region 5
Rev. Elder Darlene Garner, Region 6
Rev. Elder Lillie Brock, Region 7
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