Hope

What a blessing it was to enjoy a meeting of the young clergy of the United Methodist Church in the state of SC! While our numbers could have been a little better, we have begun a conversation that will hopefully continue into the future, maybe even when we are no longer considered ‘young clergy’.

Several really important issues were raised. We openly discussed how we will be able to support one another in the years to come. I will never forget one professor at Duke say, “Today you are colleagues, when you graduate you will become competitors.” While I hated to hear it, I must admit that given the state of the church, it was sadly true. I realized today, however, that it doesn’t have to be that way. It would be easy for me to distrust or to even view another young clergyperson as my competition, especially when I don’t know that person. But, when we meet each other, when we really get to know each other in a personal way, the divisiveness disappears. When I know another’s spouse and their children, we I see how effective and faithful they are, it will go a long way in the future to allowing me to celebrate their success and accomplishments. With God’s help, jealousy will never come between me and my peers.

One issue evolved around the system of authority and power that is in place. On the one hand, we need to be a voice that calls for change. We need to say, “Times are different and we need to look at things differently”. But on the other hand, we discussed how we needed to take the right steps to become more involved in the system. We need to take the initiative and not wait around for ‘our time to come’ or to be asked to be on a committee or part of a group. Instead, we need to push a little. We need to make ourselves available, to try and gain the trust of our older colleagues more quickly than they are willing to give that trust. Navigating this will require a healthy balance.

We also discussed how we need to be more vocal at all our conference events that involve youth. We need to offer them an opportunity to respond positively if they are feeling a call to ministry. We need to become unofficial mentors to those young people, so they can see that ministry is a calling and not simply the burden that many make it out to be. Serving God is a beautiful thing, no matter where that service is found, i.e. church, on campus, camping and retreats, etc. We need to get dialed in at our seminaries and divinity schools, to provide support to our students who will be joining us in a few years.

None of this will be easy. We diagnosed a lot of things that we need to do in the future, even a few things that we have little control over. In the end, I left this first meeting feeling like a really profound and deep conversation about the future of ministry in SC had truly begun. May God bless our journey into a world of transformation and change. With God’s help, we can be hopeful in the time that is now and in the time to come.

Brad