"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free"

 Okay, the words from the Statue of Liberty sound like they could also be religious words from a prophet or preacher.  They could be words from our church.

They are inviting words but they are also instill an image of hope and transformation - as if your current condition means nothing to the possibility of who you could be here as one of us.

Annual Conferences in The United Methodist Church will be voting on an amendment to paragraph 4 of the 2008 Book of Discipline dealing with the language of invitation. 

As amended the new paragraph would read:

Inclusiveness of the Church — The United Methodist Church is a part of the church universal, which is one Body in Christ.  The United Methodist Church acknowledges that all persons are of sacred worth and that we are in ministry to all.  All persons shall be eligible to attend its worship services, participate in its programs, receive the sacraments, and upon baptism be admitted as baptized members.  All persons, upon taking vows declaring the Christian faith and relationship in Jesus Christ, shall be eligible to become professing members in any local church in the connection. In the United Methodist Church no conference or other organizational unit of the Church shall be structured so as to exclude any member or any constituent body.

This changed paragraph is not all that different from the current language.  The amendment deletes the following categories from being excluded:

  "...race, color, national origin, status or economic condition"

and allows the simpler wording of "all" knowing that when you start listing categories, someone else's group or identity could be listed as well.

The "shall" language is already present in our current wording.

I've given my theological rationale in a video on Youtube but was asked by some for the actual wording of the amendment.

My duty as the pastor is to explain what people are stating when they take the vows of membership.  Once this knowledge is shared, if they feel that they are ready, we are ready to receive them.

I suppose that there could be some problem members that enter the congregation but I've always looked upon these people as placed before us by God.  Maybe they'll experience the transforming grace that we receive in membership as a part of the body of Christ.  But we'll never know unless we take the risk.

Those outside the church know about the hopsitality of Jesus toward those considered "unclean" by the religious establishment.  They may not be aware of the demands of discipleship that Jesus also gave us.  But unless we lead with grace, they may never want to find out.

Google reminds me that today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. 

Darwin's publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859 rocked the world with the theories of natural selection which led to our modern understanding of evolution.

It wasn't well received from the church.

The problem lies in a literal reading of Genesis for our origins.  It is hard to talk about millions of years in evolution when the Bible says six days.  A binary thinker will say it's either one or the other.  It cannot be both.

We know that evolution is accepted by the scientific community.  If we, as a church, believe in education (we support various institutions of higher learning - the closest being Oklahoma City University), we sometimes get caught in the middle of this debate.  Is it millions of years or six days?

Is it some combination of the two?  Is it all or nothing?

Largely, as a denomination we have said very little regarding evolution versus creation.

That is, until the 2008 General Conference.

A couple of petitions that passed as resolutions by The United Methodist Church clearly take a stand in the whole debate.

One changed the language of our Book of Discipline.  The 2008 edition now reads in paragraph 160F (on Science and Technology):

"We find that science’s descriptions of cosmological, geological, and biological evolution are not in conflict with theology. "

and

"We find that as science expands human understanding of the natural world, our understanding of the mysteries of God's creation and word are enhanced."

and

"Science and theology are complementary rather than mutually incompatible."

Furthermore, this General Conference passed a resolution (5052) entitled "Evolution and Intelligent Design" that reads:

"Therefore, be it resolved, that the General Conference of The United Methodist Church go on record as opposing the introduction of any faith-based theories such as Creationism or Intelligent Design into the science curriculum of our public schools."

 I find these changes to be expressive of my position as a Christian and a pastor.  I believe that these are helpful in expressing who we are as a denomination.  Most Christians are represented by literalists and those that have a scientific cosmology often feel that their beliefs are not compatible with those of the church.

We offer an alternative.  For those feeling shut out because of thier views on science, I would invite you to give us a try!

When I was in Jacksonville at the Living the United Methodist Way conference, I took a class on globalization and how this will effect the church.

We saw a cool video that showed United Methodists from around the world speaking on this subject.  When I inquired as to where I could download this video for use in the congregation, I was told that they would eventually put it on DVD and I could have it mailed to me for $5 or so.

The irony of this statement seemed lost on the speaker and I will likely forget to ever order the DVD.  What the church leadership needs to understand is that putting the media on a DVD is already archaic.  To be truly global, the access needs to be on the World Wide Web so that those featured on the video can actually watch it.

Sadly, this is not the first instance of our denomination missing the mark concerning resource availability.  At General Conference, we voted on a petition that would allow the Book of Discipline (our United Methodist understanding of how we conduct ourselves) online for free. 

I guess "countless" doesn't include free online access.