Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Lean and Mean or Deep and Wide?

Lean and Mean or Deep and Wide?

Last updated on: January 11, 2019 at 3:05 pm by Christy Thomas

Lean and Mean or Deep and Wide? 2019-01-11T15:05:13-05:00 Christy Thomas

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

deep and wide: that's the church at its best I’m sitting on an airplane to NYC to begin my Sabbatical, which will include much thinking and writing about the nature of healthy church culture.

I am both pastor and gardener. The first by occupation, the second by avocation. I love both venues. I also often say that there is no place like the church, and the garden, to break my heart.

In the garden, weather, insects, weeds, and pestilence often combine to destroy hours, weeks, months of hard work. In the church, we break hearts routinely by our breaking of covenant with God and with each other.

Covenant is so different from contracts. Less legally binding and far, far more morally binding, we who operate in covenant connection intentionally make ourselves vulnerable enough to be hurt.

God, who has offered full access into that Holy Heart, must also experience great grief by those who said we wanted to participate in the kingdom of heaven living in communion with God and then choose to break that promise. Basic rule: passionate, pure and powerful love of God and of others, in just the same way we love ourselves.

Because that is the underlying rule, expectations of behavior in this God-breathed place are surely different than in the places ruled by contract. The practice of loving God and others must be learned slowly, much as an artist or musician learns their skills. First, we master the basics, and then once those basics are thoroughly integrated, glorious creativity has room to flourish.

Corporations, run by contracts, have reason to run lean and mean. Profit is the bottom line, and profit does not lend itself to love of God and others being the first rule of behavior. But the church should not be lean and mean, it should be deep and wide, where it reflects compassion, kindness, sacrificial love, nurture to growth, and holds itself together by the divine and human acts of forgiveness and reconciliation.

When the church takes its playing rules from the corporation, and makes “lean and mean” rather than “deep and wide” the primary structuring rule, it has lost both the heart of God and moral authority.

I chose The United Methodist Church because I found both its theology and its practice deep and wide. People of all stripes were welcome and the theological tent spread over a huge spectrum of Christian thought and scholarship. I also chose it because it is E, giving both clergy and churches a larger structure in which to operate and thrive. Having spent much of my life in the stand-alone church, I know too well the weaknesses of that system, the tendency to cultism, and the awful church splits that take place routinely because there is no larger system to help with crises and clergy issues.

This is the best system around. Period.

Yes, it has problems. Yes, we do have a bloated and inefficient bureaucracy. Yes, it is slow and sloggy to make changes. Yes, we’re losing members and very much need renewal from within. Yes, we are aging and MUST listen to the voices of the young and passionate to find again the strong prophetic call to righteousness and sacrifice that have been lost while we skated on the history of an easier past.

Yes, the system needs work, cleaning up, clearing out and renewal of vision, voice and structure.

Renewals always lead to the breaking of old structures and no longer useful restrictions. It must. The old wineskins have burst now. They will no longer suffice.

The clergy have been and are going to take the hits here. That is OK. We were called to this profession because we did want to follow Jesus with our entire beings. And Jesus did land at the cross. We have no right to ask for a nicer fate. Others might, we can’t.

But the creation of what is now a class of clergy elite (Bishops and their hand-selected “yes-men/women” cabinets and favored big church pastors) and the demonization of the rest of the clergy (they can’t possibly be effective since they don’t have growing churches which keep raising their apportionment giving) is seriously non-biblical and almost a full buy-in of corporation ethics. Those ethics have no place in a God-breathed, kingdom-of-heaven-based, organization.

I continue to weep with sadness, but I will also continue to serve with sacrifice God, who has loved me first and receives my love in response to that. Does that mean I will stay as clergy with a “missional” appointment? Only time and the whims of the Bishop will tell. Goodness knows I’ve been outspoken enough to cause myself some problems in a system where I am on the outside of the power circles.

Am I an effective clergy person? Yes, and I even have the metrics to support that statement. But I am not effective because I have the metrics. I am effective because I chose to live from my call, being fully employed to the work of the Lord, preaching, teaching, mentoring, nurturing, leading, offering the Sacraments with grace and gratefulness, and doing all to the glory of God.

Photo credit: ukgardenphotos on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-NC-ND

General Conference 2012

kingdom of god

UMC

Previous Post

May 2, 2012

One Thoughtless Move

Next Post

May 3, 2012 The Streets of NYC and Thoughts on General Conference

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category " obedience abortion accommodation accountability administration adolescence Advent advice an ordinary death anxiety apology apportionments Ash Wednesday ask thoughtfulpastor baptism betrayal Bible bondage calling certainty change character charity children Christianity Christmas church church as garden clergy clergy credentials closure comfort compassion competition compromise Confirmation conservation conservative conspiracy theories consumer conversion coronavirua corruption courage covenant cultural context death Deconstruction discipleship discord divorce doctrine doing good drugs dysfunctional Easter Easter; Resurrection education election entertainment envy escape evaluation evil exclusive church exercise faith faithfulness family fasting fear feast featured film review finances first world problem food forgiveness fundamentalist garden gay marriage General Conference generosity giving thanks GLBT glory good government grace guilt habit happy harmony hateful acts healing health health care heaven hell hello/goodbye heresy hidden agenda holiness homelessness homosexuality humility hymn hypocrisy Imago Dei In training inclusive church indulgence injustice innocents insurance intolerance itinerancy joy Justice kindness Kingdom of Heave kingdom of heaven language laughter laundry lawsuit leadership Lent LGBTQ liberal life Little Things Matter longform meandering thoughts memories mercy metaphor metrics miracle misfortunes morality Mormon Muslim mystery worship natural disasters New Category Name nutrients older adults oppression pain Paleo paperwork partnered pastor peace pension pharmaceutical placebo politics poverty prayer privilege public schools questions quiet racism rain reason reconciliation religion repentance requirements rescue respect rest resurrection retirement Sabbath sacrament sacred salvation same-sex marriage sanctuary schism schooling science SCOTUS secrecy separation of church and state sexism sexuality short cuts silence sin sleep soil spiritual journey stillness suffering surgery sustainable church teacher technology thank you theology therapy thinking tolerance TOS trust truth Uncategorized welcome Why Easter? wisdom women worship

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 December 2025 October 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 March 2025 February 2025 December 2024 November 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 April 2024 March 2024 January 2024 December 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 October 2022 September 2022 July 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 October 2021 July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 January 2020 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 July 2007 March 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz