can someone get me a DNR?
(the difference between transparency and "holy crap. this really isn't any of our business, is it?")


it wasn't surprising. we knew it was coming. we just didn't know it would be this soon, right? like any bad relationship that you know is eventually coming to an end but neither side wants to be "the bad guy", such could be said for the relationship between huffman methodist church and the north alabama conference. sunday, it was announced to our congregation that the conference had made "the call". due to circumstances that, on the surface, were seemingly out of our control, the bishop decided at the eleventh hour to pull our associate pastor, julie holly, away from our church and appoint her to discovery united methodist church in hoover. discovery, once an up-and-comer in the nac system, has suffered from some poor decision-making of it's own in the last several years and now finds itself back in single-A ball fighting for a second look from ownership. julie will get her fred mcgriff and tom emanski videos on and attempt to teach that group the fundamentals of what it is to be a church again. good luck with that. and i'll stop with the baseball metaphors.

just a week ago, it was announced that huffman would be retaining both julie and chris denson for another year, so all of this came as quite a shock to the folks at huffman left still paying attention. the message that it sends is fairly clear, though. julie commented to the bishop that she did not feel like it was a good time for her or for humc for her to be moving. the bishop took that into consideration and moved her anyway, leaving this note taped to the front door of our sanctuary. "this shouldn't come as a surprise to you, but i am sure it will anyway. what do you expect? through no request on your part, we gave you freaking charles lee and this church did not flourish under his "unique" brand of leadership. you have not paid your full apportionment (tithes to the conference) in i don't know how long. you are in the middle of a black community and you have two active black members. you are old, stubborn and unwilling to change your ways. you are no longer relevant to your conference or to me, your bishop. when people talk to me about huffman united methodist i say, "they haven't closed their doors yet?", and then i chortle an old man ceo's laugh because i have the power to make decisions that define your fate. and i define you dead. time of death...sunday, may 25th. take care. -will"

well, the note read something like that. i didn't see it myself. we don't really have a leg to stand on to dispute the move, but it still stings with disappointment. julie was young, bright, spirited and fully involved (whether she liked it or not) in the only important thing left at the church, the children's place. she never overwhelmed with what she brought to the table, but her being at our church was good for us and people liked her because she was nice and had a good heart. and i am sure the church will replace her with someone with an equally good heart. someone else that we didn't ask for but will welcome with open arms because that's what methodists do. but the message is clear. it is more important, in the life of the conference, for julie to be at discovery than it is for her to be at humc in her current role. that's it. it's fairly simple. it's rejection at it's finest. so, what now? well, that will take some time to figure out. you'll be kept in the loop, i promise.

in other uplifting news sunday morning, it was also announced that our current district superintendent had turned in her credentials to our pope, er bishop, along with the other d.s. that she was getting jiggy with due to the always ambiguous but never really so "inappropriate behavior". in a classic and gratuitous case of the conference saving face being more important than the individuals involved, our congregation was told that the conference did not want to be secretive about the changes, and therefore were being as full with their disclosure as they possibly could. which, i guess is all well and good, but 95 percent of the folks in church sunday had never met our d.s. even fewer had met or even heard of the guy (not her husband) that she was hooking up with. the announcement in the middle of worship of their affair and the consequences of it seemed, how do you say, like a poor choice. again, i appreciate the idea of trying to get out in front of the rumor mill. maybe the announcement sunday was just the lesser of two evils, but if you are really having to pick between two evils, couldn't you not pick either? hmm. i wonder what jesus would do? oh well, forget that thought. jesus wasn't the main attraction sunday, so there's no need to pretend.

all in all, not a real good day to be a methodist sunday, especially a huffman united methodist. it's not every sunday that you are lucky enough to have your worst fears confirmed by the highest authority in your conference. through circumstances that were out of our control (but, truly, were completely within our control), our DNR order was signed along with the careers of two random humans. we all left a little more broken than when we entered, which is what a good worship service is all about.

what?

is that not right?