Friday, July 31, 2009

Book of Reso-what?

General thoughts crossed my mind recently in reading a post at another site I visit. The thread mentioned the Book of Resolutions created by the United Methodist Church General Conference. For any who do not know, it includes the stuff we Methodists are “resolved” about, and it appears we are resolved as a denomination about a lot of stuff. It’s not church law, but it does provide official position guidance for any agency that carries the United Methodist Church label. You can find the topics we Methodists are officially resolved about in the Table of Contents provided here at Cokesury’s website in only 18 PAGES! Eighteen pages of just Table of Contents!


It seems we are resolved to the tune of over 1000 pages of topics involving the Natural World, The Nurturing Community, The Social Community, The Economic Community, The Political Community, The World Community and ubiquitous "Other Resolutions".

Let's see... Should I read War and Peace ... or ... Book of Resolutions. Hmmm. Somehow, our General Conference is able to adequately discern the Spirit's message in over 1000 pages of resolutions? Perhaps our church bureaucracy has reached a point of diminishing return, to quote an Economic Community phrase. Is the only way to adequately express the Lord's work in our denomination by having to write down over 1000 pages of resolutions???? Really??? Are lawyers running the denomination?

So anyway...what follows is some of the questions that pour through my mind about the BoR .... and by no means am I an authority on the matter. In fact, I question whether any ONE person can be an authority. It would take 4 years to learn it, and then we change it again anyway!

thoughts....

How many United Methodists sitting in the pews throughout the world know that this thing called a Book of Resolutions exists?

How many know what is in it?

How many know what weight it carries in our denomination?

How many would join the United Methodist Church if they read it before joining?

How many would laugh at reading a 3+ inch thick book (at my last glance) of fine print?

How many members would leave if they knew what was in it?

How many would knock down the doors to join if they knew what was in it?

What does it do to make disciples?

Does it help disciples transform the world?

Does it cure insomnia, light a fire, or light THE Fire?

How much does it cost to purchase and if it does cost money to purchase, how do lower income people afford it? (Same goes for the BoD, as far as that goes).


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