One of the labels I have chosen to describe myself is that of ‘romantic idealist.’ I have a strong sense of how things should be combined with a somewhat misguided belief in the possibility of things eventually being as they should. This perhaps explains why I feel so attuned to that line from Desiderata which promises that—even if I am not aware of it at the time—the universe is unfolding as it is supposed to.
This facet of my worldview held me fast to the notion that my vocation (being called by God to a prophetic ministry of service to others) was most compatible with an occupation in the church, and my father’s example naturally led me to think that this meant the ordained ministry. I have elaborated upon my childhood and adolescence development—perhaps more than I needed to—in order to bring me to what I now realize to be one of the most important discoveries of my life: the church is a business!
Had I been quicker to accept this truth I might have done some things differently, but my idealism (and naiveté) caused me to hang tight to the belief that the Church was, like the church I had grown up in, primarily in the business of theologizing and social action. But as James Burke argues in his book, The Day the Universe Changed, the function of the institution ultimately becomes to preserve the institution. So, had I been born a couple of millennia earlier than I was I might have encountered the authentic community of faith inspired by Jesus the Christ, but instead I ran headlong into the political bureaucracy that is The United Methodist Church of today.
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