Last Sunday evening, I attended a banquet in my city attended by several hundred Muslims. It was the 6th annual gathering (report, fund-raiser, inspiration, maybe not too different than our upcoming District Council) of the Council on American Islamic Relations, Cleveland Chapter. One of the guest speakers, Imam Johari Abdul Malik, in his talk entitled Persevering in Difficult Times observed (and I paraphrase and summarize) that as individuals, Muslim people are intelligent, disciplined, moral, financially conservative then generous with the excess. I would agree with him based on the friends and neighbors I know who are Muslim and the gracious people with whom the 3 of us shared a table that evening. The Imam went on to relate that other organizations are stronger only because they have more institutional strength than the sum of their individual members. (He had my attention.) He then encouraged his listeners to unite and bring their individual strength together.As I often do, I came away saying “search me, O God, and see… in me” (Psalm 129:34 from the Bible). I asked my Lord Christ Jesus what He wanted me to do as a result of what I heard. I was challenged to not only continue praying for our upcoming election of a new District Superintendent in our organization, but to be less concerned about the one man who gets elected, and more concerned about the 428 of us who don’t get elected.
It is good to discuss the qualities we want in our next leader. But what if 100% of ordained ministers in our organization in Ohio committed to these qualities over the next four years:
1) Lovingly care for and mentor our staff members and younger pastors in our circle; foster mentoring relationships for ourselves
2) Participate in a monthly peer group of colleagues for prayer, growth, accountability and personal health
3) Voluntarily stay current on our personal dues/tithe so no resources or resolutions are needed to collect them
4) Be a positive participant in our section and district (whether by elected position, influence, or just seeing the need)
5) Initiate hosting our district’s missionaries and aggressively lead our churches (and by personal example) in supporting missions
6) Stay current on reports (if required) and quickly ask for help when needed so problems don’t compound
7) Pray regularly for our district leaders and show them grace as people with feet of clay.
After all, isn’t that what we long for from our own congregations? Maybe then, the District Superintendent could focus all of his energy and attention (with all of our help) on the “duties” described for him in our bylaws, Article III, Section 1. Paragraph a. (again I’ll paraphrase) which is to promote and coordinate efforts toward worshipping God, encouraging God’s followers and giving people around the world a chance to personally know The Lord Christ Jesus.
You can read this same article on Donna's blog at...
http://www.dbarrett.blogspot.com/
2 comments:
Reading Donna's comments with interest, I wanted to reply regarding the overall question of choosing a Supt.
The fact that we use a nominating process suggests that there would indeed be numerous qualifying candidates. The ministerial body fasts and prays over the process indicating that we take the voting seriously. However, wouldn't it serve us well to suspend Robert's rules for 60 minutes after the final nominating ballot has reduced the list to 3-4 names and ask each candidate to answer several questions publically?
Our own churches wouldn't choose a pastor without an interview.
Certainly there are many of us who do not know the candidates well enough. What do you think Doc?
Anonymous,
I'm not sure who you mean by "Doc," as there are at least 3 of us on this blog- Drs. David Welle and Rick Serbin, as well as myself. I'll take a stab at it.
1- I agree that there are qualifying candidates to be had; whether they are numerous, given what we need just now, is a matter of perspective.
2- I indeed hope that we are taking this voting seriously-- we are choosing a leader, one who will potentially lead for many years to come. Again, I'm praying for a David rather than a Saul.
3- While generally I am not in favor of suspending Robert's Rules, I do think some kind of q/a would be helpful. I'm not sure how this would be moderated, nor would I want it to devolve into campaigning, but we would benefit from some venue that could give us a view into the mind, heart, and ecclesiastical, cultural, and doctrinal values of a nominee.
4- You are certainly correct in saying that churches would not choose a pastor without an interview. The fact that many of us don't know potential candidates well enough (I hear this often) is not going to go away; as we grow, it will only get worse; all the more reason for something to address our current knowledge vacuum.
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