Let’s pick up where we left off in our last newsletter. Again, I’m quoting from an article in The United Methodist Reporter, the official newsletter of The Memphis Annual Conference, written by Dr. Donald Haynes. I think its something that ALL United Methodists need to read, and THINK ABOUT, very carefully.

“Soren Kierkegaard was a brilliant philosopher in Denmark, and he was a popular preacher. One of his sermons began with this story:

“Once upon a time, there was a village called Ducktown. The entire population was made up of barnyard ducks. They built little duck houses and slept in feather beds of duck down, and gobbled up duck food and quacked in duck talk. On Sundays the females put on little hats and sashes, the males put on little neckties and the duck families waddled down to Duck Church, quacking all the way.

One week, they called a new duck preacher, and were very excited to hear his first sermon. He told them that God had endowed all ducks with three great gifts – webbed feet for swimming, beaks for gobbling food and wings for flying.

However, they had lost the talent to use their wings. If they looked into the sky, the duck preacher said, they could see flocks of wild ducks flying in perfect “V” formations. But they were content to eat, quack and waddle around Ducktown, and they couldn’t even swim very well, much less fly.

The duck preacher said, “I am here to tell you that you CAN fly. Your wings can still lift your bodies into the air and you can soar like the wild ducks. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to leave the church this morning and take a short flight over the village?”  He was so persuasive that, suddenly, there was a loud “Quaaaack” from the back of the duck church, and one of the young adult ducks was in the air, circling over the congregation. Some of the other ducks were so excited that they joined in the fun, and soon you could hardly see, for all the flying feathers. Their lives would be changed forever. They would no longer be confined to the ground; now they could claim their God-given endowment as “masters of the sky.”

Then it happened. One loud duck waddled down to the front and quacked out a protest. “ Stop this nonsense! We are domesticated, not wild ducks. We are civilized ducks. We have houses with beds, yards with gates, a village with streets and a church with walls. Flying is what our ancestors did, but we DON’T fly anymore.”

One by one, the ducks flew back down to their perches, feeling a bit foolish for what they had done and holding up their heads with quiet dignity. The chastising duck preacher pronounced the benediction and they all waddled home, NEVER to fly again.”

There is a lot of truth in that story. We are, constantly, tempted to ignore the nudging of the Holy Spirit to “press on the upward way.” We are tempted to live beneath our potential, , to “sell out” to the present age or what St. Paul called his “lower self.” We live out our days muddling and waddling, but, folks, WE CAN STILL FLY” YES, WE CAN!

Have a lot of United Methodist (and, other denominations, too!) assumed that we, no longer, have to do the things that God is calling His Church and individual members to DO? Have many of our present-day leaders, Boards, Agencies and staff been like the decision-makers on the Titanic, ignoring all the icebergs? Have we really thought  United Methodism was immune to the great decline that some of our other “Mainline” denominations are going through, presently? Does not our own denomination – United Methodism – see some corollary in our own loss of membership over the past forty years, and see the loss of influence in the public square? Have we become satisfied to waddle rather than FLY? Are ALL of us more willing to sit back and let others do what needs to be done, in God’s Name? If we are more willing to “let others do it” (The “Green Sheets” are available for you to find places of services in our church, serving where God is “calling” you to serve Him). Pick one up, check it over, find your “place” and PRAY that God will guide you into His Service, IN and THROUGH the Church). We must have the desire to drastically RE-THINK, to DRAMATICALLY be Good Stewards of what we have, and be willing TO SERVE God and His Church, even more.

Dr. Haynes concludes his article with these words: “If you have read this column (and others in each Conference Newsletter) you will know that, No, God is NOT finished with United Methodism! We may be humbled, but not humiliated, chastised, but not crippled.”  (I, wholeheartedly agree. We’ve got a great church. Let’s ALL step out, and follow God’s Will, and DO His work, and WE WILL SEE UNITED METHODISM, ALL ACROSS THIS NATION, REGAIN ITS PASSION – “TO SHARE GOD’S LOVE, AND MAKE DISCIPLES FOR CHRIST, FOR THE SALVATION OF THE WHOLE WORLD.”   May God continue to TOUCH YOUR HEART each and every day!  JUST THINKING!