Report from Change from the Ground Up

This past Sunday First United Methodist Church of Birmingham hosted the forum "Change from the Ground Up." The purpose was to discuss why and how we as local churches and the denomination as a whole should engage with the LGBT community. Here are my notes of the event.

The forum was held in the church gymnasium, which looked pretty full. I asked one of the organizers if there had been a count of attendees. He didn't have an exact number, but estimated about 300 people attended. I don't know how many of the more than 80 churches in the district sent a delegation.

The first panelist to speak was Rev. Bill Ritter, Pastor Emeritus of Birmingham First UMC and Executive Director of the United Methodist Union of Greater Detroit. He talked about the silence surrounding LGBT people and then his personal experience dealing with LGBT people and their relatives within the denominations he led. One of the things Ritter said came after he took one of the Bibles normally given to youth when they join the church. He ripped off the back cover. He said, "Is every Biblical Word of God the last Word of God?" His point is that what God has to say does not stop with the last page of Revelations.

Ritter listed a few things a church should do:
* Identify and confront all the bits of a congregation's liturgy and practice that show shunning and shaming.

* Invite a gay colleague to co-teach a Bible study.

* Hire staff to emphasize and enable inclusiveness.

* This issue needs a leader. And that leader is the pastor.

Up next as panelist was Rev. Jeff Nelson of Redford Aldersgate UMC. His emphasis in the discussion was the local church. Nelson said he felt called to the issue of LGBT inclusion because he was haunted by the suicides of gay youth. He recounted on suicide in particular and wondered what part the church played in that death. He lamented that pastors won't speak up while others won't shut up.

Nelson said action must happen in the local church because: The local church needs to counter the local message, what is coming from other churches, the schools, and the community. It is in the local church where love is explained and exhibited. It is in the local church where teaching gets done. In addition, it is in the local church where Nelson met gay people and their allies. The issue is now personal to him.

Nelson was asked about what the Bible says about LGBT people. Yes, whenever same-sex relations are mentioned in the Bible -- all six verses -- they are mentioned in a negative way. But those six verses are in conflict with many of the overarching themes of the Bible. He concluded by saying, "I can't prooftext someone I love."

The last panelist was Rev. Melanie Carey, Superintendent of the Detroit Renaissance District. It is a wonderful sign that the leader of the district supported the forum and the efforts of LGBT inclusions. However, she warned us her presentation may not be pleasant.

The main focus of Carey's message was the Book of Discipline and what it says about how the denomination is to deal with LGBT people. She listed all six paragraphs. I won't mention them by paragraph number because I didn't record them accurately. The various paragraphs essentially say this:

* A pastor may not conduct same-sex ceremonies and such ceremonies may not be conducted in UMC facilities.

* A self-avowed, practicing homosexual may not be a pastor in the denomination.

* Money from the various boards and agencies of the denomination may not be used to promote LGBT causes. Also, the money may not be used to condemn LGBT people.

* All people are of sacred worth with grace available to all. The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.

It is the first part of that last statement that the panelists say is the motivation for calling the church to engage with LGBT people.

Carey noted that many young adults are quite puzzled why we are still wrangling over this issue. She hopes we will resolve it before the wrangling drives the young from our churches (at a rate faster than what is happening now).

Carey says there are tensions: The more global our church is the more complex it is as we deal with differing understandings in differing contexts. There is tension in the local church as laws across America become more inclusive of LGBT people. There is tension in the denomination over the church trials of pastors who perform same-sex ceremonies. There is tension over how to deal with a growing and overwhelming dissent of current church policies. But people are tired of arguing over the issue. And there is an increasing number of local churches asking for pastors who preach LGBT inclusion.

So Carey calls for work to be done across the district with local churches helping each other.

There was a question and answer session to conclude the program. However, I didn't take any notes of the remarks.

The One Voice Chorus, which now rehearses at Birmingham First, presented a number at the start and end of the evening.