William H. Willimon - Sermon Untitled (April 29, 1996)

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Man	We're rolling whenever you're ready.	0:04
-	Okay.	0:06
	What are three critical issues	0:09
	that face our church in the future?	0:12
	I think the first issue that would	0:16
	come to my mind is appointments.	0:18
	Surely one of the most important things our bishops do	0:22
	is to appoint clergy leaders to congregations.	0:24
	A bishop has the responsibility to ensure that there is	0:29
	a good fit between the mission of a particular congregation	0:33
	and the gifts and the graces of a particular clergy person.	0:37
	When I travel about our connection, I find	0:43
	that many believe we have a crisis of leadership today.	0:45
	And so I would work for a fair,	0:49
	rational, responsive system of appointments,	0:54
	a system based not on factors	1:00
	of gender or seniority	1:04
	or many of the other factors that have alas been used	1:07
	to make appointments in recent years, but rather mission.	1:11
	I want each church to be led to a statement	1:15
	of their particular mission and then to fit	1:18
	that mission statement with the gifts	1:21
	and graces of particular clergy.	1:23
	I think we are in a crisis of leadership	1:26
	where many of our laity and clergy are wondering	1:31
	about the rationality of our present system.	1:35
	That is the first critical issue I think	1:38
	that must be addressed by every bishop in our church.	1:41
Man	Stop there, and let me just kind of.	1:45
	And we're rolling.	1:48
-	What are three critical issues facing our bishops today?	1:53
	The first issue that would come to my mind is	1:58
	the appointment of our clergy.	2:00
	Surely one of the most important things a bishop does	2:02
	is to appoint pastoral leaders for our churches.	2:04
	As I travel about the connection,	2:08
	I feel there is a crisis of trust	2:10
	in our ability to appoint	2:14
	to the right people in the right places.	2:17
	A bishop has to ensure that there is a good fit	2:20
	between a congregation's mission	2:23
	and the gifts and graces of the clergy	2:26
	appointed to help lead that mission.	2:29
	We need an appointment system which is obviously rational	2:31
	and understood, fair and, above all, based on mission.	2:36
	The mission of the local church should be primary	2:41
	in appointment-making, not seniority	2:44
	or primarily questions of salary, et cetera, but mission.	2:47
	We clergy exist to help	2:51
	the local congregation fulfill its mission.	2:53
	Second, I would think that a major concern of our bishops	2:57
	ought to be empowering the local church.	3:01
	My great long-term interest in the restructuring	3:05
	of our church is motivated in great part on my concern	3:09
	that our structure has disempowered the local congregation.	3:14
	Too often we've come to think that the good ideas	3:18
	flow from the top down, whereas I keep saying	3:21
	the really good ideas flow from the bottom up,	3:26
	that is the church, in its annual conference	3:31
	and general conference manifestations,	3:34
	exists to empower the local congregation	3:37
	in the fulfillment of their mission.	3:41
	The structure, our leadership shouldn't be that which is	3:43
	an impediment to mission but which is	3:46
	an encouragement, facilitator of mission.	3:48
	And then the third area I would have to say would be	3:51
	that our bishops need to work at evangelism.	3:54
	I'm in campus ministry here at Duke	3:58
	and work with young adults, and our church has lost	4:00
	an entire generation of young people	4:03
	to our church, and we could do better.	4:08
	Too often we have given our energies and creativity	4:12
	toward internal maintenance issues	4:17
	when I think we need to give more attention	4:20
	to external issues, reaching others.	4:22
	The church turned outward to the world,	4:27
	this is surely part of our historic Wesleyan genius,	4:29
	and it is a an aspect of our church we must recover.	4:34
	Appointments, empowering the local church	4:39
	and evangelism come to mind.	4:42
	Now, what can a bishop do to lead,	4:45
	to motivate us in this direction?	4:48
	Well, I think, first of all, our bishops need to listen.	4:52
	They need to be in the local churches.	4:56
	They need to be with the people on the front line,	4:58
	pastors and laypeople, listening to the frustrations,	5:01
	to the hopes, the visions of the local congregation.	5:05
	We don't need absentee bishops during a time like ours.	5:09
	I think our church is in crisis.	5:14
	We've got to have bishops willing to stay	5:16
	in their Episcopal area to work at the needs	5:18
	that are there in their Episcopal area.	5:23
	I think that is crucial.	5:27
	Too often our bishops have concerned themselves	5:29
	and become entangled in general church committees	5:31
	and commissions and concerns.	5:35
	I think they need to know that the center of their ministry	5:37
	is within that annual conference.	5:42
	And then, after listening and being present,	5:45
	bishops preach, and I love to preach.	5:49
	They can teach.	5:52
	We in our church, I think, are in a kind of crisis	5:54
	of doctrine, a crisis of identity.	5:57
	Who are we?	6:00
	Wesley used to organize his original annual conferences	6:02
	along the questions, what to preach,	6:06
	that is, what is our message, what to teach,	6:09
	that is, what is our doctrine,	6:13
	what is the basic form of our faith,	6:15
	and then finally ask, what to do?	6:17
	I think those three questions are still	6:20
	or perhaps even more valuable for us today.	6:23
	Bishops can write, share their ideas,	6:27
	and interchange with our people, and I also enjoy writing.	6:30
	I think, alas, too often the bishops we have been electing,	6:35
	as I've said, have been managers rather than leaders.	6:40
	I think a bishop should be a person with ideas,	6:43
	should be willing for those ideas to be exposed	6:46
	to the examination of the wider church,	6:48
	and then be present in the interchange	6:51
	as we all work on energizing and changing our church.	6:55
	Finally, what is my vision for our church?	7:03
	I've been critical of our church,	7:08
	and I've been criticized for my criticism,	7:10
	but overall I'm extremely hopeful.	7:13
	I think we United Methodists have	7:15
	a wonderful way of structuring ourselves	7:17
	for mission if we will make that primary.	7:21
	I think we have a marvelous system of clergy deployment	7:24
	in that we clergy are important to the church	7:27
	only on the basis of what needs	7:31
	to be done in the local congregation.	7:33
	I feel that we are poised for a great period	7:36
	of renewal and rethinking.	7:40
	I believe that we're turning the corner	7:42
	on our decades of denial.	7:45
	It's hard to imagine an organization	7:48
	which has lost 20% of its constituency	7:50
	in the last two decades that has not made	7:53
	really one major structural change	7:58
	in the way we do business.	8:03
	I get the feeling that that may be behind us,	8:06
	that we have increasing numbers of us	8:08
	that are ready to ask the tough questions,	8:11
	to face the reality, to think, to dream, to re-envision.	8:13
	And I think it would be a great opportunity to be	8:19
	part of the church during this period of renewal.	8:22
	We Wesleyans have always been known to be practical people.	8:26
	What works is what's good.	8:31
	The church exists to be impacting the world	8:34
	and spreading the Gospel and moving out and reaching others.	8:36
	I want that vision to be regained, and I'm hopeful,	8:41
	excited, energetic, feel that it can be regained,	8:45
	particularly if our leaders hold us accountable	8:49
	to the best that is within us,	8:52
	hold us accountable to the strengths of our tradition,	8:54
	and then help us to move forward.	8:58
	Thank you.	9:01
Man	Okay, whenever you're ready.	9:13
-	What are three critical issues	9:18
	which face our bishops in our church?	9:19
	Well, the first issue that would	9:24
	come to my mind is appointments.	9:25
	One of the most important things a bishop does	9:28
	is to appoint clergy to local churches,	9:30
	and as I travel about our connection,	9:32
	I feel it can be said there is a crisis	9:35
	of trust in our appointment system,	9:38
	on the part of both clergy and laity.	9:40
	A bishop has got to demonstrate that appointments of clergy	9:43
	are made in a rational, open, fair and caring way,	9:47
	and that they are made on the basis of mission,	9:53
	an assessment of that local congregation's mission	9:57
	and an assessment of that particular pastor's gifts	10:01
	and abilities to help that congregation be in mission.	10:05
	Bishops have got to work at appointment-making.	10:09
	Then I would say the next critical issue	10:15
	is to empower the local congregation.	10:17
	Empowerment of the local congregation	10:21
	is related to wise appointment-making,	10:23
	but it's also related into the structure,	10:27
	the way we do business.	10:29
	My decade-long concern with the structure of our church	10:31
	is based upon my deep faith in the local congregation	10:35
	as the chief locus of our church's ministry.	10:40
	I believe all good ideas, in a sense,	10:43
	flow from the bottom up, rather than, as our structure	10:46
	would make you to believe, from the top down.	10:50
	I think we've disempowered our congregations	10:53
	with the way we've appointed clergy,	10:56
	with the way we have done our business.	10:59
	I want to return a sense of vision	11:01
	and empowerment to the local congregation,	11:04
	so that everything is dependent upon that congregation	11:07
	coming to a sense of its own mission	11:12
	in its particular time and place,	11:15
	and then our larger connection giving that church	11:17
	what it needs to fulfill its God-given mission.	11:20
	The third critical area I would mention is	11:24
	something dear to my heart and that is evangelism.	11:27
	Our church has been too internally concerned,	11:31
	expending too much energy and resources	11:35
	and time on purely internal concerns	11:37
	and not enough energy and creativity	11:42
	and innovation expended on external concern,	11:45
	the world about us, the people who need us.	11:50
	I work here at Duke, on a university campus,	11:53
	and so I am deeply concerned	11:56
	about our young people, our young adults and youth.	11:58
	And yet our church has had a sad record	12:03
	in the past two decades with this particular age group.	12:05
	It is as if we have lost an entire generation.	12:08
	I would want to work to change that,	12:13
	to ask our church, what changes do we need to make	12:15
	among ourselves in our own self-understanding,	12:19
	our own definitions of the church,	12:21
	to turn our church more outward, to reach, to teach,	12:24
	to preach, to integrate new life into our churches?	12:28
	That would also go for my great concern	12:32
	about the excluding ethnic population in the United States,	12:34
	a population which we, alas, as United Methodists,	12:38
	have not been doing well in reaching.	12:41
	I think that our failure to evangelize	12:43
	both our younger generation	12:46
	and the exploding ethnic population	12:48
	are due in part to the way we have structured ourselves,	12:51
	to the way we have deployed and utilized	12:55
	our clergy, to our failure to undergird	12:58
	the local congregation and reaching out.	13:02
	Now, what can a bishop do to lead,	13:07
	to motivate a church to attain these visions?	13:10
	I think the first thing a bishop can do is to listen,	13:15
	to get down in the local church,	13:18
	to listen to those people there, their frustrations	13:21
	and their dreams, their hopes for our church.	13:25
	This means that we need bishops to be present.	13:28
	During a time of crisis, which I think our church is in,	13:31
	we can't afford absentee bishops.	13:35
	Our bishops, many of them have spent	13:38
	far too much time getting entangled	13:40
	in general church commissions and committees and processes	13:42
	and not enough time in residence	13:45
	working within their annual conference.	13:47
	And I think that is essential, to keep the bishops	13:50
	close to their Episcopal area.	13:53
	A lot of internal work needs to go on	13:56
	so that we can be an external mission.	13:58
	Bishops can preach, and I love to preach.	14:01
	Bishops can teach the faith of the church.	14:04
	A lot of United Methodists say they don't know who they are.	14:08
	There's a crisis of identity.	14:10
	Who are we?	14:12
	What is the basis of the faith?	14:13
	Teaching the faith is important.	14:15
	A bishop can write, and I enjoy doing that,	14:18
	putting one's ideas out before the whole church	14:21
	for examination and discussion.	14:23
	Alas, I think for the past couple of decades,	14:26
	as I have said, at many places,	14:30
	we have been electing managers rather than leaders,	14:31
	managers who merely keep the status quo	14:36
	rather than help the church in dreaming	14:38
	and envisioning and moving forward.	14:41
	Well, I think a bishop should be a person of ideas,	14:44
	a person who is in constant interaction with the church	14:48
	about how to make our most lively future.	14:50
	What is my vision for the United Methodist Church?	14:55
	Well, I'm hopeful.	14:59
	I've been critical of our church,	15:00
	and some have criticized me for my criticism,	15:02
	but I want to assure you that my criticism of our church	15:04
	arises from my deep love and faith in United Methodism.	15:08
	We've got a wonderful church	15:14
	and a wonderful way of going at ministry.	15:15
	The United Methodist Church, from our Wesleyan roots,	15:19
	inherits the idea that the church exists	15:23
	to take part in Christ's service to the world.	15:26
	Therefore, at our best, everything,	15:31
	clergy, laity, the structure of the church,	15:33
	everything is subordinate to mission.	15:35
	What works is what's good.	15:38
	We are practical people.	15:40
	I believe, from my travels about our connection,	15:43
	that we are turning the corner	15:45
	on now a couple of decades of denial,	15:47
	that we are at last ready to confront some tough issues.	15:51
	We're ready to dream and to revision.	15:55
	It's hard to imagine an organization like ours	15:59
	that has lost 20% of its constituency	16:02
	and much of its giving power in the past two decades,	16:05
	where we have not made really one fundamental change.	16:09
	I believe we're turning a corner on that,	16:15
	and we are ready to move forward.	16:17
	People are looking for voices of change,	16:19
	of innovation, of new thinking.	16:23
	People are looking for ideas.	16:26
	And I find it exciting to be part of that change,	16:28
	and would welcome the opportunity to help lead	16:33
	in what I think may be	16:37
	one of our greatest decades of United Methodism.	16:39
	Thank you.	16:45

Item Info

Title:

William H. Willimon - Sermon Untitled (April 29, 1996)

Description:

This is a campaign speech for a bishop position with the United Methodist Church. The candidate speaks to three challenges he sees in church work: clergy appointments and church leadership, empowerment of the local church, evangelism. He offers his vision and proposal in the end. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r49z90t2n

Date:

April 29, 1996

Speaker:

Willimon, William H.

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 BETA-0001
ref9735_xt2
uachapelsermaud
duke:321454
dcrmv001001
ark:/87924/r49z90t2n
17745924-3b30-46f5-b5ce-eb0956e1f5a7

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

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This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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