Go West, Young Man?

There is a kind of logic to the Roman Catholic dictum that its priests remain unmarried and celibate. I don’t agree with it, but being married and the father of two cast a whole new light upon the appointment system employed by The United Methodist Church of which I was becoming a part. As the newly formed Desert Southwest Annual Conference began deliberating and defining the role of the local pastor, I was first exposed to the hypocrisy of the consultation process. United Methodist congregations and pastors alike agree to accept the appointments made by the resident bishop, but the supposed checks-and-balances provision of the agreement is that pastors and congregations will be consulted by the bishop and her/his cabinet to try to ensure a “good fit.” Just as there is nothing in the Discipline which states that the exclusive route to ordination is through seminary, neither does the Discipline prohibit a licensed local pastor from being appointed associate pastor to a church large enough to support that position (indeed, the Discipline does not prohibit a local pastor from being appointed as the senior pastor). I was happy to be the associate pastor at Trinity Heights; Nate was amenable to me being his associate, and the congregation was favorable to the two of us being its pastoral team. None of this mattered, however, to the conference hierarchy. Having moved to Flagstaff from Denver the city felt small and remote, but it now seemed mammoth in comparison to Williams and its population of 2,500. A drive by the parsonage revealed a substandard house, and it was known throughout the conference that the church building was sorely in need of expensive repairs. Had I been single the appointment might have been viewed as a challenge that I’d like to take on, but taking Mary, Rachel and Rebecca into account made finding some sort of alternative an absolute necessity.