Tension, Conflict, and Faith: The “Joys” of Being a Pastor & Delegate in a Larger Church Setting

This morning I sat in a Q&A session about divestment in fossil fuels through our national setting investment corporation, a movement that is passionate about socially conscious-free investments. More clearly, investing monies in companies or businesses that do not harm people, environment and the like. Hopefully that’s a clear enough picture that I’ve painted.

I’m now in my committee (OY! Committees!?!?!? Yep, that’s the congregational way of doing things) discussing resolution 14, RESOLUTION SUPPORTING COMPASSIONATE COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM AND THE PROTECTION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF IMMIGRANTS (sorry about the caps lock thing, I’m a little to lazy this morning to retype a copy and paste).

This has been an informative hour and a half,my brain breaching max capacity. If I forget a few of my family member’s names, I can blame the sheer volume of information that has my slots full.

There’s a conflict in my heart. A good conflict. While faithfully mindful of the environment as it pertains to a healthy world, i.e. agriculture, I also am pastorally mindful, compassionately mindful, of my constituents in rural NE Colorado, home of one of me largest fracking industries in the nation. If you’re familiar with both fracking and faith,you understand my conflict, the tension within which I exist. I’m also in conflict due to the context within which I pastor, rural Colorado, where labor forces for agricultural industries rely heavily upon migrant or immigrant hands.

While agricultural field or slaughter jobs are available, many Caucasian folk aren’t likely to apply for open positions. Again, conflict rises in an area with heavily Hispanic/other immigrant population rises as an economic/industry need and yet conflicting with negative or even uneducated sentiment toward the particular race or culture entering in. While our church’s local history is one of immigration and cultural resentment toward founding members, perhaps the history has been forgotten, perhaps empathy has been replaced with an unfortunate cynicism. All in all, I’m in conflict. There have been ICE raids in our locale, and did I mention, I also carry a badge, as the Commander of the Volunteer Chaplains of our local law enforcement agency. Conflict once again…layers…

…and layers…

…and layers…

…of inner, spiritual conflict.

The environmental impact of fracking is debatable in some socio-economic arenas, in other words, depending on where one lives, the opinion will likely change…greatly. Similarly, the,issue of immigration is more heated now (particularly in the southwest) than ever before, even though this present administration, while promising a better life for immigrants, is responsible for the highest rate of deportation and even detaining undocumented folk than any other administration in our nations history.

Surprised? I am.

Appalled? You should be, if you’ve heard the stories of unfair treatment, of systematic oppression only comparable to the likes of Jewish concentration camps of the late 1930’s early 1940’s.

This is all new information I’ve taken in in the last 2 hours…I’m emotionally pooped.

So here’s where I am in all of this…at the moment…as I continue to be informed by new information and by your responses, as members of the local church, to navigate a proper and valuable vote to represent who I represent…the local church member.

I am not in favor of the resolution to divest from fossil fuels as it does not address appropriately our insatiable appetite for them, aka – demand. I also do not agree with a section of the resolution that states fossil fuel companies business plans are completely flawed. Perhaps staying at the table as investors to steer these same companies toward renewable energy? My answer is, “I don’t know, but is it possible?” All things are possible.

As it pertains to the committee I am sitting on/in (follow this link to the current resolution as its been proposed before any amendments via committeeresolution #14) I am in favor of the resolution.

I’m in favor because my faith, our faith, should continuously call us into this notion of neighbor. Do you love your neighbor? St. Augustine’s definition of neighbor was whoever was standing/sitting beside you. So, I ask the question, who is your neighbor and do they have to be right beside you?

I look forward to your (the local church’s) input. God’s grace and peace to you.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the GS29 Forum…

Yes it did.  I’m back.  With vengeance.  Okay not with vengeance, but with perspective.

From the end of sabbatical to the full-immersion return into pastoral ministry.  In other words, out of the frying pan and into the fire.

I’m attending our denomination’s national-setting biennium gathering, General Synod (#29) in Long Beach, California.  Roughing it, I know.  I’m serving for the first time at one of these events (this is the 4th Synod I’ve attended) as a delegate – a voting representative of the conference I am serving within, the Rocky Mountain Conference, of the United Church of Christ.

This exponentially amps up the responsibility of simply attending as a visitor or guest of the Synod as committee meetings and business sessions are, pretty much, required.  And I can tell you, as a visitor, I don’t believe I made it through a single business meeting without leaving early.  This will be a test of faith…and patience.

I arrived yesterday and today the fun began in a sabbatical-esque fashion.  I thought I was serving a committee for a resolution to study a reframing of conference boundaries, but then discovered the number of that committee didn’t coincide with the number of the resolution that I was supposed to be sitting on a committee for.  Sound confusing?  We’re not even halfway through the fog.

To make a long story short (too late, Greg, too late) I’m serving on a totally different committee than the previous two numbered resolutions had eluded to.  I’m serving on a committee that’s discussing comprehensive immigration reform.  It’s a resolution calling every level of the Church, the National, the Regional, the Association, and the local Church to action – to stand up for immigrants’ rights and, maybe more importantly, their safety and well-being.  The latter of which I strongly feel called to as a Christian with empathy – one who feels for another.  I care.  Not all Christians, as we’ve most likely experienced, care for others.

As it pertains to me personally and to the local church I serve in Fort Morgan, Colorado, the resolution is quite personal.  Immigration is and should be a rather important issue to those in my church.  Immigration reform and how we, as a Christian body, respond to our neighbors seeking citizenship is crucial to our own history of being a people primarily from “another place.”

Immigration is biblical – our earliest Israelite ancestors were migratory.  Immigration is historical – populations move.  Immigration is global – there isn’t a single country that isn’t effected by immigration in some way, shape, or form.

For some people immigration is the culmination of dreams while for others it is or was an unwanted passage.

With one southern border being (still being raised) a large steel wall, reminiscent of the Berlin wall only broken less than 30 years ago, we may find ourselves close to repeating history…and not the kind of history we want to repeat.  We can do better.

Over the coming days I’ll be sitting in more educational meetings about this resolution and preparing more blog entries (sans family, RV, neurotic cat, hospital stays, etc.) to do my pastoral duty in something I truly believe in – covenantal relationship.  Simply this – I must communicate to the local Church and communicate the local Church to the larger Church setting.  That’s my job.  This week, it’s overwhelming.

So far, however, I’ve reconnected with friends from across the states, some from our stay in Portland, Oregon, too.  I’ve also made new friends and discovered more about the wonderful, diverse tapestry of American Christianity that I have come to love.  Here our “church” is much less generic and much more colorful in a way I believe every Christian should experience.  Grace abounds no matter who you are or where you are on this journey of faith you’re on.

I’m happy to be back to this blog.  I’m also happy to have a 6-month old, without a feeding tube being as chipper as any father would want them to be… pictures to be posted soon…  Thanks for returning to this with me.