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I know the plans I have in mind for you, declares the Lord; they are plans for peace, not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope.  When you call me and come and pray to me, I will listen to you.  When you search for me, yes, search for me with all your heart, you will find me.  I will be present for you, declares the Lord, and I will end your captivity.

                                                                                                                        Jeremiah 29:11-14

Have you ever played a game where you asked for a do-over?  Maybe you weren’t quite ready and asked to start over.  Maybe the game barely got started, and you were already “out”. Or, maybe you and your friends decided to start the entire game over just cause it would be more fun now that everyone knew the rules.

I remember teaching my girls to hit a baseball.  I would give them multiple chances to hit the ball.  Little sister would get extra help and not have to follow the same rules as big sister, because she needed more “do-overs”; she wasn’t as mature or as strong. Most of the time, I tried to be a patient father with my children.  And, if I could be so patient with my children, imagine how much more patient God must be with God’s children.

Life is not a “once, and done” affair – we get multiple do-overs; God constantly says, “try again”.  Each of us constantly fail in our attempts to be the person God is calling us to be.  But, God continually says, “Do not be afraid, you can have a do-over”.  And even with the one failure none of us can avoid, death, God says, “Don’t worry, I became human so you could get a do-over from death”.

The passage from Jeremiah reminds us that we get as many do-overs as we need to get it right.  The reality is, we will never get it right…that’s why we need God, that’s why there is divine grace.  We have to ask God for a do-over, and we have to mean it.  When we want to be the person God wants us to be more than anything else, and we ask God to help us, God shows up and says…”watch this, your life is going to be awesome…I can’t wait to show you what I have in store for you.”

So, don’t worry if you haven’t figured out your life yet…you have all the time you need.  Not sure of a major, it’s okay…you’ll figure it out.  Broken relationship…God says, it’s okay, you will heal.  Don’t have a job…no worries…you find something, and then something else, and then something else.  I’m 67 and I haven’t figured out how to be the person God intends me to be.  But, I do know you have to keep working on it.  You have to actively seek God for God to show up. And, you have to ask for a do-over, and really mean it.

I love the fact that life is a continuous series of new beginnings, that everyday is a brand new day where God whispers in our ear “Do Over!”

Instructions for living a life:

Pay attention.

Be astonished.

Tell about it.

From Mary Oliver’s “Sometimes”

            It’s been four weeks since I showed up on your doorstep, church.  Not enough time to have memorized each name and face (though that’s coming along) nor to have mastered some of the trickier locks around the building, but more than enough time, certainly, to have noticed a fewthings.

A room full of hotel-sized soaps and shampoos, for example, just waiting to be handed out to shower-room guests. A tiny herd of delighted toddlers frolicking in the nursery downstairs mid-week. A plaque commemorating a whopping 150 years of ministry in Walla Walla.

All of these things tell me a little about what kind of church we have here, but the thing I’ve noticed most of all is the sheer number of gifted people in the pews. Pioneer seems to have servant leaders coming out of its ears, not to mention artists, poets, chefs, prophets, and ministers of every kind. Now, I’m not trying to flatter you here, but I do find the abundance astonishing. And I wanted to tell you about it, even though you probably already know.

Of course, as Jesus says (in one of his more troubling parables): “To those who have received much, much will be required” (Luke 12:48). So I’d like to extend what we might call the Mary Oliver Challenge, a challenge to Pay Attention, Be Astonished, and Tell About It.

Walla Walla, like every place, needs people to pay attention to what God is doing in its midst — too many have stopped looking. Our neighbors need someone to pay attention to them, and to point out what God might be up to in their lives.

Our community also needs those who have eyes to see and ears to hear to practice wonder — to remind us how to be astonished, by God, by his creation, and by one another.

And our world needs folks to tell about it. To share the Good News in word and deed because the world is hungry for liberation, for joy, and for love.

We follow Mary Oliver’s instructions for living every week in worship, as we sing, pray, listen, and preach….but you know the work doesn’t end there. Let’s be thinking about how we, as church and as individual Christians, might stretch our attention spans, deepen our sense of wonder, and strengthen our prophetic voices. And let’s be praying for new ways to share that abundance of attention, wonder, and Good News that we’ve cultivated with the world beyond these walls.

Yours in wonder,

Liv

Some of the best conversations are when we share meals together. There is something about sitting around a table and sharing food with other people that tends to engage individuals and create space for everyone to share their thoughts. Grace seems to abound at the table and we seem to share our ideas and thoughts with the ability to hear others. Maybe it has to do with the rules of etiquette and hospitality.

Beginning on February 10, followed by March 10 and April 7, Pioneer Church will gather after worship to share a potluck meal. Over the course of three sessions, Pastors Juli and Liv, along with members of the church council, will facilitate difficult conversations around the issue of human sexuality.  We will talk about church history, that of the larger United Methodist Church and our own history at Pioneer concerning human sexuality.  We will talk about science, about Scripture, about real people. We will attempt to apply John Wesley’s quadrilateral of scriptural authority, experience, tradition, and reason as these pertain to human sexuality and the church.

Why should we care about human sexuality? And particularly, why should we have to address this topic in church of all places? If you care about this church and the people here, you should care about the issue of human sexuality.  If you care about the future of the greater Methodist church, you will want to learn about legislation being considered at the Special Session of General Conference, February 23-26, 2019. And, we are expecting you care about what all this could mean for your faith journey.

There are dozens of pieces of legislation to be considered in St. Louis during GC 2019. All of the proposals being put forward boil down to two basic schools of thought.  First, the Traditional Plan, and variations on that theme, would seek to enforce existing rules in the Book of Discipline concerning ordination of gays, lesbians, transgender, or queer candidates. The language “…homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching” would remain and clergy, conferences and bishops would be penalized or rebuked for not following the policies.

On the other hand, there are proposals that seek a middle way. Many of these ideas remove the “offensive language” from the Book of Discipline and allow individual conferences to decide about ordination and local churches whether they would accept a gay or lesbian pastor and same sex weddings. There are also proposals that would allow a clergy person to follow their own conscience about the issues. The plan endorsed by the majority of bishops as well as the Committee on the Way Forward is called the One Church Plan and has such provisions for “agreeing to disagree.”

We encourage you to come and learn, share your opinions, be open to other ideas, and decide where you stand.  These table talks are not designed to change your mind as much as for you to understand the issues and what they might mean for our congregation.  We hope you will join us.  And, bring some food to share at the table of grace.

By Rev. Debbie Sperry

Over the last few months, United Methodists have been hearing about the work of the Commission on the Way Forward with, now, anticipation is growing for the special called General Conference in February of 2019. For some of us this upcoming meeting has been interesting, for others it’s been painful, for others frustrating, and for still others, it hasn’t even come across our screen.

This letter will cover the basics of what’s happened with links if you’re interested in learning or reading more.

As always, as your pastor, I’m happy to meet and talk about anything that concerns or interests you.

First, a few definitions:

The Council of Bishops: All of the active and retired Bishops from across the global United Methodist connection function together as the executive branch for the denomination. The Council of Bishops will regularly respond to national and global issues. Specifically, the General Conference of 2016 asked the Council to lead the church when it came to a stalemate relating to LGBT inclusion. As a body, the bishops do not hold power to make legislative decisions.

General Conference: The quadrennial meeting of The United Methodist Church including clergy and laity from each annual conference. The number of delegates is decided much like the House of Representatives (more people = more representatives). The Pacific Northwest Conference is allocated two out of the 864 that will be seated. The General Conference is the ONLY body of the UMC that can change our polity (The Book of Discipline). In essence, they serve as the legislative branch of the UMC.

Annual Conference: The body and annual meeting of churches in a particular state/region/”conference”. Our Annual Conference is The Pacific Northwest (PNW) and includes Washington and the panhandle of Idaho (with a couple of extra churches in Montana and Canada). Our annual conference meets in June to assign, commission and ordain leaders to service, set a budget, decide policy, and response to issues that specifically relate to missions and ministry in our conference.

The Commission on the Way Forward: A group of 32 United Methodists, commissioned by the Council of Bishops, including 2 bishops, clergy, and laity, charged with creating options for how the UMC might move forward on issues that relate to LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual/allied) inclusion, marriage, and ordination. The commission has met various times since the 2016 General Conference and this year submitted a report which included three plans for moving forward.

The Council of Bishops reviewed the recommendations and will allow all three recommendations from the Commission on the Way Forward (COWF) to come to the special called General Conference in 2019, with their recommendation being for the “One Church Plan.”

In essence, the “One Church Plan” would delete the exclusionary language currently in The Book of Discipline and allow each local church to make their own decision about how they will respond/include LGBT congregants and requests for marriage. So, Church Amight openly advertise that the LGBT community is welcome. Church B might encourage and ask for an openly gay pastor, as well as advertise their support of gay marriage, including in their facilities. Church C might not say anything one way or the other. And Church D might be open in their stance that they do not support lesbian or gay relationships, while still relating to each individual as a child of God.

Also under the plan, each Annual Conference would have more autonomy in setting standards for the ordination of qualified candidates with regard to their orientation.

The second option presented by the Commission on the Way Forward is called the “Connectional Conference Plan” (formerly named: Multi-branch model).  This choice would form “three overlapping ‘Connectional Conferences’ defined by rules concerning same sex marriage” and would “replace today’s five Jurisdictional Conferences.”  These would be three separate legal entities (501c3) yet all part of the UMC.

The third option presented is called the “Traditionalist Plan.” This choice would keep the current policy and practice of the UMC for the whole denomination, while adding more enforcement. For some, this means not much would change. One emphasis that has been seen under this model is that those who are “noncompliant” with current policy (“self-avowed and practicing” clergy, allowing for ordination of gay clergy, or performing weddings for LGBT couples) would be pursued in their defiance and charges would be brought (within the church’s legal system) against those pastors, clergy, and laity.

**For a summary of the three plans by a member of the Commission, please click here.

In addition to their recommendation, the Council of Bishops referred all three proposals to the Judicial Council (like the Supreme Court of the UMC) to check for the constitutionality of the plans. The Judicial Council ruled that  the “One Church Plan” was “largely constitutional” while the Traditionalist Plan “must be fixed before it can pass muster” with 9 of its 17 petitions having some issue (versus 3 minor changes to the One Church Plan). The Judicial Council did not rule on the Connectional Conference Plan as it includes constitutional changes. For more detailed information, click here.

Ultimately, the decision from the Council of Bishops is only a recommendation. It will be the General Conference who will decide which, if any, of these recommendations and, hence, changes to make to The Book of Discipline. As with all decisions relating to our polity, no decision is forever though certainly some of these recommendations have greater policy implications, as well as potential impact for our shared life within the church. Our church laws are subject to change at every General Conference, assuming proper procedure, presentation, and voting on proposed changes.

What does all of this mean for us as a local church? Well, for some it is significant as it is deeply personal and we have much invested in the outcome of these votes. For others, it will likely mean business as usual—attending our ministries and participating in missions—until something more is required of us as a congregation.

For any of the three recommendations from the Commission on the Way Forward, ultimately, it seems each church will need to clearly identify their stance on these issues and how we intend to be in ministry with the LGBT community.

To do that effectively, we will need to create a stronger culture of conversation, respect and engagement on all types of issues where we may disagree, and become more clear about our mission and vision as a church.

In the meantime, Bishop Elaine Stanovsky has invited us to read “The Road is Made by Walking” and be in dialogue with one another about how we live into the future together.  For more information on this invitation, the book, or the blog being co-authored by clergy and laity in the conference, click here.

For today, I would encourage you to pray for our church and our denomination as we seek God’s will to be in ministry to all persons and reflect the love of God in how we live our faith.

Rev. Debbie Sperry serves as pastor to Moscow First United Methodist Church in Moscow, Idaho.