Holy Conferencing

Monday was our first day of dialogue with the Methodist pastors of El Salvador. There are 10 Methodist Church in El Salvador, and the majority of the pastors did travel from their homes to be here with us for the time of holy conferencing. (Yes, I think that this is an example of holy conferencing, distinct from what we do an annual conference...)

We are working at the Methodist Church ¨La Providencia¨(Providence) on long tables that span the entire length of the sanctuary. In the large group, I am primarily translating from Spanish to English, and Norma is from English to Spanish. Pastor Juan, who is the president of the Methodist pastors group, gave us a presentation on the history and issues of the Methodist Church in El Salvador, which put us in context for our dialogue. It is such a young church, with such opportunity and challenges all at the same time. Four of the 10 churches are pastored by women, which is a good percentage, even though it is VERY difficult for female pastors here. They struggle in a culture where it is unacceptable from both the Catholic church and the other Evangelical churches to be a woman and a pastor at the same time.

We spent most of the afternoon talking about baptism, first in small groups and then in the large group all together. It is such an amazing opportunity to be a part of this conversation.

None of the pastors here are ordained. They are in the work of developing an ordination process that is suitable for their context, and they are very clear that this is such an important task that it must be carried out with care, great wisdom, and fervent prayer. Most of the pastors do not have formal theological training. Currently, they have a Course of Study school twice a year, and professors from Clairmont Seminary come to teach, which is both a blessing and a challenge, because their courses are not contextual, but are from the North American, U.S. context.

So, it is rather amazing to sit around and discuss things like baptism...what is baptism, why do we baptize infants, what happens in the act of baptism. Wow. I can see why John Wesley said that conferencing, gathering with other Christians like this, is a means of grace, a way in which God shows us grace. It truly is a grace filled experience to gather and share with our brothers and sisters on such a deep level.

The Methodist Family

I am here with a group of pastors, so you know that we are going to spend a lot of time in the church.

Yesterday on Sunday, we attended two worship services in San Salvador, the capital city of El Salvador. It is a two hour drive from where we are staying, plus the flat tire that we had on the way there. We went first to the Methodist Church Vida Nueva (New Life). One of the greatest things about this church was the worship team, which consisted of about 10 young people, all under the age of 17, led by the music minister, who is 30. The drum player was a 15 year old girl, the keyboard player a 15 year old girl, and they were all phenomenal. They lead the worship at this church, and there is indeed a spirit of new life in this place. After worship I spent some time with a couple of 13 year olds, who were telling me about their church, their faith, and how they love to lead worship at the church.

The second church we attended was celebrating their 11th anniversary. The Methodist Church is 16 years old in El Salvador, founded in 1994. There was also lively music and worship at this church, and I enjoyed the opportunity to sing songs of praise to God that I don´t often get to sing anymore in my US context. Again I say, there is something about Latin American that makes me feel at home, that feels right. The most profound part of this service for me, however, was the prayer of the pastor at the end of the service. He asked for everyone to put their arms around the person standing beside them, and then he prayed a powerful word about our connection, how we are blessed to gather as Methodists from the US, Colombia, and El Salvador, how we are one body, one people and we together bless the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and serve him. I felt so connected to this Methodist family from many different contexts and places but gathered to sing glory and honor to God. The pastor prayed for us, for our churches, and for the world that belongs to God and is beloved by God. It was powerful.

We were all pretty worn out by the time we got in the car at 6:30 for our two hours drive home. But as I sat in the car and we drove home in the dark, I sat with my eyes closed and enjoyed the time to pray and meditate on how good God is and how thankful I am. It was really nice to have that time of stillness, of rest, of prayer and reflection, and I wonder that I don´t spend this amount of time at home like this. But then again, who has time to spend two hours in prayer and reflection...maybe I should. Maybe we all should. Maybe we are all way to busy to enjoy God´s goodness the way that we were created to, and too busy to enjoy God the way that we were created to?

Home in Latin America

Many of you know that I am currently in El Salvador with a group of United Methodist pastors from Virginia. I was hoping to be able to blog fairly often, but well, as with many plans, it is not quite possible. For this moment, I do have a computer with internet, and so I hope to share a bit of the journey so far.

On friday I flew from Baltimore to Guatemala City, Guatemala. For the past two weeks, several pastors have been in Guatemala studying Spanish and staying with host families. I am part of a crew of bilingual pastors who are joining the team for the El Salvador leg of the journey. Arriving in Guatemala gave me a strange sensation of arriving home. I lived in Guatemala for four months in 2001, and even though a lot has changed in the last nine years, the feeling has not. As we drove away from the airport, I could feel myself relax. It is such a different rhythm than the US, and I can´t explain it, but I feel more grounded in real life when I am here, and in Latin America.

Saturday we drove to Ahuacapan, El Salvador where we are staying for the week with host families and participating in dialogues with the Methodist pastors and a few lay people of El Salvador. We are also joined by a Methodist pastor from Colombia, so we are quite the multicultural group. This is fun, particularly since I only knew one of the VA pastors before I came, so there is always someone to talkwith and learn about.

I am staying with another pastor in the home of Maria, her daughter Brenda, and Brenda´s son Diego, who is six. We have been welcomed with open arms and experienced tremendous hospitality. Diego in particular is excited to have us around, and he likes to show us his dinosaurs, his cars, or the birds singing outside. He doesn´t like to leave the house when we are there.

It´s amazing to know that you have family wherever you go, and that is what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ and a member of the Church (big C). We are received here as brothers and sisters, and it is a testimony to our connection that we can be a family so quickly. We have received grace upon grace from our hosts and the family of God in El Salvador. What a blessing it is to receive such grace!

A taillight or a headlight?

I have been pondering this week about what would've happened if John Wesley and Martin Luther King, Jr. had met.

Granted, they lived in different centuries and different countries. But as I have been reading Rev. Dr. King this week after reading so much Wesley last week, I wonder if anyone has ever looked closely at their writings and work together. (If you are reading this and know of anything related, please let me know!)

Rev. Dr. King gives me that same feeling of heartburn that I blogged about last Friday. His words make me shake my head and respond out loud. I've had a tough time trying to pick small tidbits to share daily with my bible study group, because I feel like entire paragraphs and pages are necessary and soul shaking. And I've written about three blog drafts in the last week that I have then saved instead of posting, because I can't seem to express this feeling I have when I read Rev. Dr. King's work.

I think that my favorite document by Rev. Dr. King is the Letter from Birmingham City Jail. One reason I love it is because he speaks so explicitly to the church, to people who claim to follow Jesus Christ. It seems that the life of discipleship is the heart of much of King's work, but this letter writes it plainly, sharp and simple as an arrow.

This is the passage I highlighted today for my bible study group, and it is such a great text to have soaking in our heads on Sunday:

"In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churches stand on the sideline and merely mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard so many ministers say, “Those are social issues with which the gospel has no real concern” and I have watched so many churches commit themselves to a completely otherworldly religion which made a strange distinction between body and soul, the sacred and the secular.

So here we are moving toward the exit of the twentieth century with a religious community largely adjusted to the status quo, standing as a taillight behind other community agencies rather than a headlight leading men to higher levels of justice."

-Letter from Birmingham City Jail

Have we learned anything since Rev. Dr. King wrote these painfully true words? Are we spouting the same old "pious irrelevancies" while people are struggling and dying in front of our eyes? Is the church today a taillight or a headlight?

Heartburn: A Side Effect of Methodism

No, I'm not just referring to the abundance of food in a Methodist gathering and the sluggish way you might feel when you waddle home afterwards.

I'm talking about the burning deep down in my heart that I get when I read, well, just about anything of John Wesley's.

I have been reading a good deal of John Wesley here recently, catching up on a some books that I have owned for a few years but haven't read. This inspired me to term our Wednesday worship services in the month of August "Wesley Wednesdays" because the burn that I felt as I read some of Wesley's work could not help but get expressed in the sermons that I preached. A combination of John Wesley's sermons and the book of James...that's enough to light you on fire!

I have also recently been working on the Bible study that I am designing for my ordination application. I have chosen, between the options of Mark and Job, to teach from Mark and to focus on the Way of Discipleship. As I have been working on this, praying about it and immersing myself in preparation, I had a thought that felt particularly inspired. Since we are talking about discipleship, what if we also heard from folks who lived their discipleship in powerful ways over the years, not just disciples from the biblical witness but those who have lived the faith since then?

I looked at my outline, nine weeks worth of Markan texts teaching about and calling forth discipleship, and started brainstorming about nine disciples whose life embodied or embodies this radical kingdom lifestyle. I will say, shaking my head, that I never cease to be amazed at the way that God works, and how beautifully everything comes together for God's glory!

So everyday, I am emailing the Bible study group with quotes from the weekly disciple. The week's quotes are particularly focused on the texts that we will discuss at the end of the week and they all express discipleship in the person's context.

Week one, of course (you all knew this was coming!) is John Wesley.

And we are back where we are started: heartburn. This week I have been combing through his sermons, journal entries, and notes about him to pull out tidbits and quotes for my class, none of whom have studied or read much of Wesley's works.

I get drawn in to this work and find it hard to stop. I read his sermons and shake my head, reading parts out loud and saying things like, "preach!" or "well." I just can't help myself. The Spirit of God continues to move in his words even today, over 300 years later. My heart burns within me as I read the challenging words that he spoke to people in his sermons and then instructed his lay preachers to preach as they rode their circuits.

It wasn't an easy word then, and it isn't an easy word now. I was reminded today as I read through his journal entries in May 1738 how often he was asked never to come back after he preached in a church, especially in well established, significant churches. Over and over again he writes about how he preached in such and such church and then was asked never to return. So the next day, he did the same thing. And then the next day. And then the next. The establishment wasn't too crazy about him. And this is particularly interesting because for his whole life and ministry he worked against the notion of starting a new church. He had no desire to split from the Church of England, but rather, he called people to faithful discipleship within the church, even while he was eventually willing to preach in fields and marketplaces to people who the established church did not reach.

I could go on and on, but perhaps I will save the rest of my heartburn for another blog.

And stay tuned for nine weeks worth of interacting with a few of the men and women who have inspired me and many others over the centuries in the way of discipleship.