Where is the Help?
By Bill Kemp

Recent events in our General Church remind me of that line from Fiddler on the Roof when the village rabbi is asked if there is a proper blessing for the Czar who persecutes the Jews. The rabbi replies, “May God bless and keep the Czar... far away from us!”

The blessing expresses the attitude often found in small town and rural congregations that dot the American landscape when the subject of how the General Church helps the local church is raised. Laity, especially those attending churches with less than 100 in worship, are often quick to point out that the Annual Conference hasn’t done much for their church lately. Some see this neglect as a blessing. Clergy by in large, except for those on the upper rungs of the salary ladder, express apathy or worse towards those General Church offices located in far away Nashville and New York.  The word on the town and country street is, “The less they do for us the better.” This starkly contrasts the way those who work beyond the local church feel about their job. I constantly hear these servants of all churches say, “I’m here to help.” Those with rural or small church portfolios work tirelessly to keep the dialogue flowing between those above and Methodism’s great majority, the two thirds of our congregations who are rural and/or small.

Now, to make a bad situation worse, Julia Kuhn Wallace, the sole employee of the General Board of Discipleship charged with relating to the small membership church has been downsized, while over at the Board of Global Ministries, the position relating to Town and Country programming is in jeopardy following Carol Thompson’s retirement. We enter into the New Year with out a voice calling the church to be born again in every place. I see these terminal events, not as isolated political decisions, but as the first fruits of two greater trends that will shape our church for good or ill in the future.

First, the local church no longer looks to its denominational offices or publishing houses for resources. Small membership churches tend to look at what their neighbors are doing when they need help, rather than calling the 800 number listed in the conference journal. When they want to buy something, even the AARP card-carrying members of my rural churches went on-line rather than opening the Cokesbury catalogue. This means that they trust self-published curriculum for church school, non-denominational programs such as Natural Church Development for organizational guidance, and the myriad of chicken soup and purpose-driven life spin offs for spiritual support, rather than what our employees produce. They do this, not because they have bad taste, but because they are a part of contemporary culture (rural does not mean back-water anymore).  For what its worth, the congregations who have made this shift, I think, are more likely to be vital and connected to their context than those who stick to denominational sources for their help.

Second, those people who represent the local church at General Conference, as well as, those who rise to work in our agencies and conference offices, are predominantly large church folk. While the small and medium sized churches train the majority of our leadership, the election process for delegates, as well as, the type of administrative jobs offered, as well as the attitude described above, insures that only those who currently working in larger churches will be promoted. Lately this prejudice has been justified by the myth that only larger churches are bringing in new members and its related myth, that the culture is favoring bigger, box-store-like-willowcreekesque churches. We will probably wake up too late to the fact that today’s people seek for intimate community in the midst of their social context. The town and country congregation has great potential in this market. I would say that the Wesleyan admonition to “spread scriptural holiness across the land,” suggests an opposing wisdom: the United Methodist church is strongest when it helps each church to relate to its context, regardless of its size or location. 

So where is the help and what can the general church/annual conference do to minister in today’s world? We could start by granting the 20,000 plus small membership churches some form of reserved seating in our political process. What if in 2012, those annual conferences which are predominantly rural, sought to insure that the majority of their delegates would be members of or serving churches with less than 125 in weekly attendance? What if a place was reserved for Town and Country concerns at each general church gathering? 

Further, a key factor in the rent between rural/small membership churches and our denominational leaders is our failure to fully recognize every pastoral leader. To be lean and agile and in mission to its ministry area, the small membership church cannot afford to wish for a full elder to serve as their pastor. It was Methodism’s pragmatic use of local pastors, larger parishes, and part-time clergy that enabled our church to seep into the nooks and crannies of the American landscape. Today we must return to a more functional understanding of the pastoral role and make a significant investment in the new Certified Lay Minister program. In receiving the 2012 Study on Ministry we must be prepared to grant greater authority and positional power to those who lack a seminary degree and yet serve the local church faithfully and effectively.

Finally, there are a few brave district superintendents who are using their office to actually do district programming and are intentionally seeking resources for their small and rural churches. While everyone else in the denomination is turning out the lights, these people are providing fresh hope. They should be funded, even if it means stealing from more glamorous priorities and reorganizing the annual conference around regional field offices. In general, we need to become wise, like many local churches are wise, and look to our neighbors for the help.