Stuck in the Middle with You

Today is Wednesday of Annual Conference Week. It is the end of our meeting time and in a few minutes the bishop will drop his gavel and "set" the appointments for the coming year. My appointment will be to return to the First Farragut United Methodist Church for a fourth year. I am excited to be going back and hope that for many years to come, when the appointments are set, my name will be listed beside First Farragut with incremental years that approach double digits.

During this Conference, I have had many opportunities to reflect back on these three years at First Farragut. On Sunday, after two morning worship services where we looked at how the disciples dealt with the obstacle of the Jewish leaders and what they were called to do and say by God, the Brewster Family boarded the family motor home. With the Saturn in tow, we headed to Lake Junaluska, NC. Shortly after crossing the North Carolina state line, in the midst of the winding and mountainous I-40, I was confronted by a guardrail to the right of me, a car in the lane left of me, and a wheel (metal rim with tire attached) in front of me. It was in my lane. I slowed down as much I could, but we hit the wheel. My decision was to not push the car next to me into the concrete barrier.

The impact with the wheel blew the front wheel of the motor home, damaged the entry steps, and busted the wheels and tires on the right side of our towed Saturn. The next 45 minutes were spent trying to find someone open on a Sunday, near our location in Nowhere, NC, who could help us with three flat tires. We waited for another 2 hours for help to finally arrive.

Due to the delay, I missed the opening worship of Annual Conference. Monday was spent looking at why Holston Annual Conference needs to adopt "A Call to Action" to address the need for more vital churches. This meant we looked terrible statistics of loss and decline over 40 years. Then we followed this depression by haggling over a couple of line items in the budget for next year. As I left for the afternoon, I decided to run around The Lake and reflect.

In three years, we've made some pretty big decisions. Some might even say that we decided to hit a pretty good sized wheel in the road, because the other options weren't really options. As we had these times of visioning and discerning, we reached these difficult decisions with consensus. We all agreed to move boldly, risking what may come for the glory of God. Sometimes it felt like at least three wheels had fallen off. It was difficult to find help because our situation was unique and was bigger than most could handle. The wait was longer than we expected. We wanted results quicker than they came.

But help did come. Three wonderful guys made it to us and changed our motor home tire, towed our car to safety, and then found us rims and tires to complete our fix. I believe our help has arrived for us as a church ... and it's not me. It's the Holy Spirit working in and through us in ways we have not experienced before. There is hope ... We are already doing most of what "A Call to Action" suggests. So, in this next year we'll concentrate on becoming more vital as a congregation.

BIT: So, First Farragut, in a few moments as the gavel falls, in the words of Stealers Wheel describing being on tour (and other things), I'm "stuck in the middle with you". Yes, "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you, Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you, stuck in the middle with you."

BITTER: Whether we have cars to the left and a guardrail to the right on a winding mountainous road ... Or clowns to the left and jokers to the right, we're stuck on this tour bus together ... For at least one more year. I believe we are going to have a great time, filled with fun adventure as we become a more vital congregation for Jesus Christ. So, here's to Fantastic Four (oh, I may have my blog title for June 2012)!