Five Stick Friday

I’m winding down my week with a music listening session. And out of nowhere this track from 20+ years surfaces while I was on “random” shuffle.

And tears just began welling up in my eyes. Because the lyrics couldn’t have been written any more succinctly than my thoughts about the current Age of Disinformation the United Methodist Church has had thrust upon it.

I’m just too weary to re-hash the argument here. But the church that “took me in at 15 years old” after ANOTHER church brouhaha down the street at First Baptist back in 1979 is now involved in a split. And at least from afar it doesn’t look very amicable. Maybe more on that another day…but I will say I hope all involved realize you can’t effectively be a member of two churches at the same time. And staying at one to “keep an eye on things” for future considerations is less than honorable. Enough on that. At least for now.

Oh, the days when I drew lines around my faith
To keep you out, to keep me in, to keep it safe
And oh, the sense of my own self entitlement
To say who’s wrong or won’t belong or cannot stay

‘Cause somebody somewhere decided
We’d be better off divided
And somehow despite the damage done
He says, “Come “

There is room enough for all of us, please come
And the arms are open wide enough, please come
And our parts are never greater than the sum
This is the heart of the One
Who stands before an open door and bids us come

Oh, the times when I have failed to recognize
How may chairs are gathered there around the feast
To break the bread and break these boundaries
That have kept us from our only common ground
The invitation to sit down if we will come

There is room enough for all of us, please come
And the arms are open wide enough, please come
And our parts are never greater than the sum
This is the heart of the One
Who stands before an open door and bids us come

Come from the best of humanity
Come from the depths of depravity
Come now and see how we need
Every different bead on this same string

Come, there is room enough for all of us, please come
And the arms are open wide enough, please come
And our parts are never greater than the sum
This is the heart of the One
Who stands before an open door and bids us come

Come, there is room enough for all of us
Come, and the arms are open wide
And our parts are never greater than the sum
This is the heart of the One
Who stands before an open door and bids us come
And bids us come”

So…why the title? “Jesus Didn’t Do Marketing”?

Because this situation has now spilled over, in a town of 34,285 people, into a “Social Media Marketing Contest” between the church splitting off and the church remaining ( see above).

I’ve got some reality for both. It’s highly unlikely just from an academic point of view that the population of Dalton can support two large Methodist Churches…so are you going to be happy being two smaller churches scrapping for resources all the time? One from a “new church” perspective looking for staff, location, etc. while the current church has bills to pay on a large property? Is this worth it? What about International Missions? UMCOR?

And to be fair, early on I had the viewpoint that if the “new church” was going to try to “take over the existing church from the inside” they should just leave and start their own…which is now exactly what they’re doing.

I just wish they’d done it years ago and ripped the bandaid rather than take a church off mission ( remember that mission of “Making Disciples of Jesus Christ?” for years.

But here we are…

As Nichole sings…there IS room for all of us. And always important to remember that a bird with only a right wing…or a left wing…flies in circles. And I can almost see the “circular church chemtrails” in the skies to the north of where i sit right now.

And I continue to listen. And cry. Because this didn’t have to happen.

But here we are…