True Colors

I was recently in Dallas at a meeting of the Directors of Connectional Ministry (all the folks who have the job similar to mine). At this time of the year, one of the standard questions that gets asked around tables is how each Conference did in collecting the previous year's apportionments. As would be expected, some did better than Greater New Jersey, some worse.

I was amazed when my counterpart from Louisiana, whose conference had suffered the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, shared that their conference churches had remitted 95.75% of their apportionments. In Greater New Jersey, where Katrina and Rita meant we endured a couple of rainy days at the end of a beautiful summer, our churches remittances were just about 80%. I have to admit, I was a little embarrassed.

Bishop Bruce R. Ough, episcopal leader of the Ohio West Area, had a similar reflection in that conference's newspaper, the West Ohio News (January 27, 2006). He looks at even more detail:

"The Lake Charles District, leveled by Hurricane Rita, paid 100 percent of its apportionments. Bethany United Methodist Church in New Orleans, which was completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, paid more than 100 percent of its apportionments.”

Then Bishop Ough points us toward the scripture where Paul makes the following observation about the churches of Macedonia:

“Fierce troubles came down on the people of those churches, pushing them to the very limit. The trial exposed their true colors: they were incredibly happy, though desperately poor. The pressure triggered something totally unexpected: an outpouring of pure and generous gifts…They gave offerings of what they could afford, far more than they could afford!” (II Corinthians 8:2-3, The Message).

Bishop Ough suggests that “the extraordinary disasters of this past year have exposed the true colors of the United Methodist Church.” I could not agree with him more. Over the next few postings I’ll continue to share some observations of how our true colors are shining through. Come back often.