Photo by Sharon C. Patterson

Frank Jackson, 84, a reserve delegate from Lovers Lane UMC, and Ricky Harrison, 20, a rising junior at McMurry University, represented the extremes in age from the NTC.

“I enjoy working with Ricky, even though I’ve got ties that are older than he is,” Jackson said. “I never think of myself as old. I still think young. “This is my third General Conference. . . . I am not sure that I will get another shot.” 

For Harrision, “It is great to work with Frank and having the ability to work with others who have more experience and wisdom. There is range of experiences and backgrounds in the delegation, and I appreciate it.”

A North Texas Conference who’s who

Joe Stobaugh and his guitar

It takes a lot of people to put on something as massive as GC 2012, and North Texans were in the mix, including Joe Stobaugh and John Thornburg. Stobaugh, a deacon who is the cantor and curator of worship at Argyle UMC, served in the house band at General Conference.

“I have played in 27 services at this General Conference. I play bass, saxophone and guitar. I have also played in the 2000 and the 2008 General Conference in Fort Worth. This is my first time being here the entire time,” he said. Thornburg, director of A Ministry of Congregational Singing, coordinated morning prayer and recruited worship leaders for morning and evening services.

John Thornburg is excited to attend!

Some of the recruiting happened only once delegates arrived, sometimes from overseas. “It has been the beautiful experience of going to meet people, grabbing a translator and meeting someone on the fly,” he said. “Some of it comes by the leading of the holy spirit, too. If I see someone whose face or expres- sion of joy or articulate nature tells me that they ought to be a leader, I recruit them.”

North Texas delegates paused for a photo during their busy schedule. They included (front row, from left) Gary Mueller, Ouida Lee, Lisa Greenwood, Jill Jackson-Sears, Ron Henderson and Owen Ross; (second row) Debbie Chapman, Jan Davis, Kay Yeager, Tim Crouch and John Allen; (third row) Clayton Oliphint, Richard Hearne and Ricky Harrison; (back row) Dana Coker, Henry Lessner, Frank Jackson and Andy Stoker. Not pictured: Don Underwood and Mary Brooke Casad.

Mary Brooke Casad, Clayton Oliphint, Richard Hearne and Gary Mueller vote on electronic keypads during a General Conference session. - By Wil Murphy

Plano’s Mueller adds amendment on women, race and age to proposal on guaranteed appointments

The Rev. Gary Mueller, senior pastor of First UMC Plano, was at the forefront of softening the blow to end guaranteed appointments for clergy. The highly controversial legislation came on the floor for vote quietly May 1 and was approved quickly. However, it is under judicial review, and a ruling on whether it will stand is expected in coming months.

Under this legislation, bishops and cabinets will be allowed to give elders less than full-time appointments. Also, bishops and their cabinets, with the approval of their boards of ordained ministry and annual conference’s executive session, can put elders on unpaid transitional leave for up to 24 months.

The “Mueller Amendment” also lifted up concerns for the inclusion for women, persons of color and older persons. “Prior to General Conference, I had been working with folks across the country on an amendment because of a concern about what would happen to women, people of color and those who are older if the security of appointments went away,” Mueller said. “I crafted an amendment in conversation with the North Texas delegation, and it became known as the Mueller Amendment.”

“It was approved overwhelmingly by the Higher Education and Ministry Committee. Then suddenly it went out on Twitter,” he said. “The amendment lifted up concerns for those who speak up for justice, those engaged in prophetic ministry and those who are on the edges of the theological spectrum. Now there is accountability, dialogue and reporting,” he said.

“I was shocked when the guaranteed appointment legislation was not taken off the consent calendar,” he said. “It was an important enough issue for us to talk about on the floor of General Conference. I am disappointed that the entire General Conference did not talk about it.”

But there was a good bit of conversation on Facebook and other social media about it, he said.

Don Underwood (left) talks strategy with Ron Henderson. - By Wil Murphy

The amendment “provides protection and data in conversation with the bishop on an annual basis,” Mueller said. “The amendment provides that there will be a team that advises the bishop and the cabinet each year on the process of making missional appointments to raise questions about women, persons of color and older folks so those folks are not being left on the edges because it is easier to appoint certain people to certain places. 

The amendment provides that the bishop and cabinet will report to the executive committee of the Board of Ministry annually statistics about who is not receiving appointments. That information will be passed on to the committee on the episcopacy at the annual conference and jurisdictional levels as a part of the bishop’s evaluation. The items built in look at data and transparency to see if there is a trend developing of certain folks not getting appointments.

“Here is how our Annual Conference will be impacted,” he said. “We will create a team of eight people, half laity, half clergy, including the dean of the cabinet. They will meet annually with the bishop to look at trends around missional appointments with attention to women, persons of color and older persons. We will measure the impact of doing away with guaranteed appointments. It will begin good conversation and transparency around missional appointments. I think it will be great conversation, and we will be a healthier conference as a result of it.”

Clayton Oliphint gave high praise to Mueller’s efforts.

“The guaranteed appointment legislation went through on consent calendar. They tried to lift it off, but it was defeated. Hard work had been done in the committee, especially by our own Gary Mueller. His amendment made the legislation palatable for those who had strong concerns about the implementation of the ending of guaranteed appointments.”

A Message From the Bishop

by Bishop Earl Bledsoe

In my previous column, I used fishermen’s terms – fish or cut bait – to describe what the UMC needed to do at the 2012 General Conference.

What actually happened at the 2012General Conference may best be described in terms of a chemist who pours vastly different liquids into a test tube and stirs the tube. A frenetic combustion takes place. The mixture pops and fizzles. Eventually the chaotic action ceases, and the vastly different liquids meld. The combined liquid that comes out of the tube does not resemble the varied liquids that first entered the tube.

That’s what I believe happened at the 2012 General Conference, and I had the opportunity to see it from a different perspective than elected delegate or visitor. Bishops at General Conference do not vote, but sit on a platform that gives us a bird’s-eye view of the action of the delegates.

I witnessed various groups that came hoping to move the denomination in a number of ways. They are like the various liquids. The truth is, many of us are passionate about our church, and we all want improvement. But all the ideas and plans cannot prevail if we want to focus on the mission of the church and increase the number of vital congregations in the UMC. That’s where the chaotic action comes in. During the second week, there were heated debates and lots of tension as delegates spent hours trying to focus on an improved denomination.

Leslie Bledsoe and Bishop W. Earl Bledsoe attended a dinner celebrating African delegates during the General Conference.

At times it was not a pretty sight. I witnessed hurt feelings, disappointments, rage and dejection. However, as with the test tube, a calming eventually occurs, and the end result is a combination of liquids that look far different than those that went into the process. I witnessed many delegates, caught up in angry debates earlier, shake hands, pray and agree to work together.

I want to salute the North Texas delegation as they took major roles in the efforts to reshape the UMC. The 2012 General Conference ended with unexpected up and downs, and the North Texas delegation was in the thick of it. Many of the delegation members poured countless months and even years into legislation that would restructure the denomination.

But late on the final night of the General Conference, the approved restructuring proposal, Plan UMC, was ruled unconstitutional by the Judicial Council. Another North Texan, the Rev. Gary Mueller, played an instrumental role to ensure that women, people of color and older persons would not be hard hit by the loss of guaranteed appointments.

While this legislation was approved, it will be reviewed by the Judicial Council in the upcoming months and a ruling will be rendered.

Although many were disappointed by the rejection of Plan UMC, there are reasons for the North Texas Conference to be proud. We had North Texans working behind the scenes in the band, serving as marshals and planning worship. I was proud to see the Deaf Ministry Choir from Lovers Lane UMC signing during worship. All outstanding.

And there is one more group that I must mention. We had a group of lay and clergy North Texans who came to General Conference to watch, support and pray. They tweeted and added their voices to the experience and were a blessing to us all.

By Richard Hearne

There is a wonderfully poignant scene in the 1949 movie She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, starring John Wayne, where the troop returns to the fort after an unsuccessful patrol. It is the last patrol for Capt. Nathan Brittles, who is retiring after 30-plus years in the U.S. Army Calvary. Capt. Brittles, who won the Medal of Honor in the Civil War, is leaving the Army, in his opinion, a failure.

I must confess that I feel much like Capt. Brittles this morning, the morning after the adjournment of the 2012 General Conference.

For you see, like Capt. Brittles I am in a retirement mode. My four year term as your Conference Lay Leader will end at the conclusion of Annual Conference. I will also, with the shrinking of many of the boards and agencies of the general church, not have a place on the committees I have served on in the past years. I have said many times in the last year that I believe in creating space for newer and younger voices, and I therefore won’t seek election to the 2016 General Conference delegation. General Conference 2012 was my last patrol, and, in my opinion, a failure.

I, along with almost 1,000 other delegates, met in Tampa, Fla. – for two weeks at a total cost of $8 million and two weeks of our lives – and saw all the work that we accomplished dashed on the rocks the last day. The Judicial Council rendered a unanimous decision that the work that we had done on the reorganization of the general church was unconstitutional.

Richard Hearne, left, and Gary Mueller shared a light moment at the General Conference. But Hearne was not happy later with the outcome of the vote on reorganization.

Your North Texas Conference delegates, who had led this work under the inspiring leadership of the Rev. Don Underwood, were left stunned, breathless and, in all honesty, angry.

My friends, we now have what I see as a very dysfunctional general church. We are not driven by our mission statement of “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world” but by this new form of representative government.

By that, I mean every group feels like it must have someone at the table – as we heard over and over – “who looks like me and can represent my views.” The special interest groups are now running our United Methodist Church.  Every committee, and I mean every, must have representation of specific groups. While I acknowledge the many injustices of the past, I don’t think that should preclude us from moving forward. Where have we come up with the idea that for me to understand your situation, I must be exactly like you? Am I unable to see injustice and discrimination because I am not part of your group?

We heard all through GC that we needed to have a youth and a young adult on every committee of the general church. It was almost funny when you look at how many committees there are and wonder where we are going to find qualified youth and young adults to fill the spots – we will just start putting them on the committees to reach quotas. I am proud of my record over the past four years of lifting young people into responsible roles and working on mentoring them as they mentor me. We created the District Youth Lay Leader specifically to bring youth and young adults to the table. 

Obviously, not enough fast enough.

The future of the UMC is not clear. I don’t believe that the church as it is currently organized can survive. We have the boards and agencies operating without any accountability except to their selfappointed boards. What will happen, only God knows – and I do believe in Jeremiah 29.11: “I know the plans I have in mind for you,” declares the Lord. “They are plans for peace, not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope.”

We must all remember that the vitality of the UMC is in the local congregations. I tweeted that last day of GC, “I thank God for my relationship with University Park UMC or I might walk away from the UMC.” I have invested almost half my life at my local congregation and 20-plus years with the Annual Conference and general church.

Like Capt. Brittles, I will continue to serve even in a retired status (you will have to watch the movie to understand), and I know that God’s plans will prevail. I pray that you will join me.

Richard Hearne is Lay Leader of the North Texas Conference, which stretches from just this side of Bogata to just that side of Burkburnett. E-mail him at rbhearne@sbcglobal.net.