Free Range Chickens

I used to get eggs from a friend who had free range chickens in her yard.  The chickens wandered around everyday eating ticks and whatever else they found.  These chickens' eggs were so good—hard shells, dark yoke, and yummy.  I’ve never tasted a store-bought egg, even those marked “free range,” like the eggs from these truly free chickens.

The United Methodist Church is a mess.  I don’t need to go into the details.  Most of you know what’s happened.  And if you don’t, a quick google search will fill you in quick. 

Like most United Methodists in the US, I’m sad, especially for the pastors who identify as LGBTQI+ and pastors who are leading divided congregations.  Grief.  Frustration. Vulnerability.  It's all part of this.  I must be honest with myself too.  I’m in a safe church, which is mostly of one mind.  As a cis-gender, heterosexual woman I have a ton of privilege in how I frame the debacle of the last few weeks.  As I speak, I want to acknowledge I speak from that social location.

For as sad as I am, I’m hopeful too.  In fact, I personally feel more freedom now than I have ever in the United Methodist Church.

The writing was on the wall going into this conference.  The global United Methodist Church was becoming more conservative each year; the US church was becoming more progressive on gay rights.  It didn’t matter the outcome of the votes.  We were already a divided church going into this conference.

On Tuesday, when I watched the live vote results pop up on my computer screen, I said to myself, “The fence has just been knocked down.  We are now all free-range chickens.”

Free… free from this horrible word “incompatible” that has plagued the church since the 1970s.  Free from the bickering.  Free from the constrictions that drain our human and monetary resources as we fight and fight and fight.  We had this fence around us, called the Book of Discipline, which was supposed to unite us.  But instead this fence just made us mad at each other.  And like chickens, we kept pecking at each other, fighting for resources and position.

On Tuesday, February 25th, the fence fell.  While it may seem like the rules were tightened around gay rights, the reality is that they became (or will become) null and void.  And we are finally able to get away from those who peck us and those we peck.

Reorganizing free range chickens is not easy.  Right now we’re all running in different directions trying to figure out what to do, where to go.  In fact, it’s going to be messy.  Bishops have a devotion to unity.  Big church pastors have a devotion to sustainability.  Church planters and restart pastors have a devotion to innovation.  Activists have a devotion to social movement.  On top of it, progressives don’t really follow authority easily.  But over time leadership will start to develop, and we will start to follow a new path.  Certain folks will rise to the surface; they will organize with others; and people will start to follow.  Holy smokes, I hope the bishops and big church pastors will put their credibility and influence behind the innovators and activists.

Friends, our Methodist movement started because of the need to reform and renew.   That is the spirit and fuel of our churches.  Somehow we got muddled down in policy, discipline, and rules under the guise that these tools would unify us and hold us together.  But they didn’t hold us together; they only held us in… like a fence.

But we’re free now.  And it’s time to re-unify in the spirit of renewal and reform.  Let these be the things that unite us.  I can’t wait to see what kind of eggs are produced.