Of the Connection and Connections

For anyone who does not know a lot about the way Methodists do things, we are a connectional church as opposed to a congregational church.  Congregational churches carry on most of their business in a church-by-church basis.  That means that they secure their pastors through their own local process.  They self-determine their resources.  They may pool their finances for certain ministries, but this is truly on a volunteer basis.

United Methodist churches are connectional, in that bishops and district superintendents deploy pastors.  United Methodist churches contribute a set percentage of their budgets to collective ministries in the local, regional, national and global levels.  Methodists also support a number of hospitals, educational institutions and local ministries of various kinds by collectively funding those endeavors.

United Methodist ministers work with what is essentially a one-year contract.  Each year the pastor confers with bureaucrats and with their local congregation to decide whether they will remain in a certain ministry setting for another year or whether they will be deployed to a different location.  So, it is the nature of the beast that a pastor establishes relationships and then moves on and leaves those things behind.

It happens that certain parishioners come to mean a lot to the pastor, and then the pastor goes to another field of service, leaving those layfolk to the care of another minister.  Much less discussed are the connections that pastors make with other United Methodist pastors.  Preachers establish relationships through lunch- or coffee groups.  They may gather regularly for study sessions.  There are clergy who find a great deal of support in occasional (or regular) contact with neighboring pastors.  So, when this time of year comes around (moving day in our conference is June 23 this year), a pastor may stay in place but have some or all of a colleague group go away.  So, the irony is that a person who is part of a fairly large group can stay in place and yet find themselves on an island.

Now, the connection – and mission and ministry – doesn’t grind to a halt because of the wants of a particular local pastor.  But this is one of those years when a large number of my local fellow clergy are moving on to other flocks.  Their new congregations will enjoy them a lot.  But I’ll miss them.