Looking back on the past month, Bishop David Bard highlights a few challenging news items and the shared work in Jesus Christ that is now before us.

BISHOP DAVID ALAN BARD
Michigan Conference

It has been quite a month. We have had an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The current president, Joe Biden, has withdrawn from consideration for a second term, which has not happened since Lyndon Johnson withdrew from seeking another term in 1968. The Olympics began in Paris with controversy over part of the opening ceremony. Wildfires are burning again this summer in the Western United States and Canada.

In The United Methodist Church in the United States, jurisdictional conferences were held in July. The Michigan Conference is part of the North Central Jurisdiction, and one function of jurisdictional conferences is to assign bishops for the coming quadrennium (the four years from September 1, 2024, to August 31, 2028). As you might imagine, that greatly interested Julie and me. We are delighted that I have been reassigned to serve as bishop for the Michigan Conference, but this assignment comes with a twist. As the number of bishops to serve in the United States has decreased by action of the 2024 General Conference, many of us are being asked to serve additional conferences. Beginning September 1, I will also serve as bishop for the Illinois Great Rivers Conference, sharing that responsibility with Bishop Kennetha Bigham-Tsai of Iowa.

This new arrangement will mean changes. I will not be as available to preach here in Michigan as I need to share time with the Illinois Great Rivers Conference. I will need to attend more meetings electronically, though many meetings have already made that shift. I have had dual responsibilities before. In 2021 and 2022, I served as the interim bishop for the Minnesota Conference. I know we can do this together, and I am grateful for your encouragement, support, and prayers.

Our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world will not change. We are committed to sharing our faith with love and respect, inviting people to a shared journey with Jesus in vibrant communities of faith. We are committed to building beloved community in our churches and communities, taking up the work of Christ to break down dividing walls. With courage and compassion, we will address the legacies of past prejudices and biases, which still impact each of us and our communities. We will seek to understand one another in our diversity and differences. As the world around us feeds division, we will seek ways to see each other as friends in Christ, appreciating the variety of contexts in which we live out our ministries, whether rural, small-town, suburban, or urban. We will explore vital questions together. What does discipleship look like in the twenty-first century, and how can we nurture the essential qualities of being a disciple of Jesus in our faith communities? How might we, as disciples, address the pressing issues in our wider world?

That brings me back to some of the events of the past month. They are part of the context in which we engage in ministry. I did not watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics, but I have read enough about what happened to say a couple of things. Social media amplifies controversy quickly, and the rapid response time often promotes reactivity. It is inappropriate to mock religious traditions important to millions of people. It does not appear that the International Olympic Committee intended to mock Christianity, and they have issued an apology for an artistic presentation that was interpreted by many as mockery. And we might all do well to breathe, think, and pray. I wonder if some of the early reactivity might have been moderated had people taken time to breathe, think, and pray. Perhaps these are some of the essential disciplines for disciples of Jesus in the twenty-first century.

We continue to live in a time of violence. The assassination attempt on former President Trump was reprehensible. Beyond unequivocally condemning it, how do we characterize this violence? Was it political violence? It certainly was violence at a political event, yet the investigation into the motives of the shooter is ongoing. It is not clear that this troubled young man was politically motivated. At this point in the investigation, he seems more readily to fit the profile of other mass shooters: feelings of hopelessness, despair, and isolation; interest in other shooters or violent acts; and access to firearms (based on the work of Jillian Peterson and James Densley). Peterson and Densley acknowledge the complexities of identifying all that may be going on in the mind and heart of someone willing to shoot into a crowd and kill innocent people.

To address political violence, as followers of Jesus, we can encourage civil political conversation and commit ourselves to peaceful transitions of power following elections. We should work in the world to lessen isolation, hopelessness, and despair. The good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ is intended to offer hope and healing and to build a beloved community. In the grace of God, we seek to let all others know they are seen, heard, and matter.

As followers of Jesus, we are also to encourage good stewardship of the earth. Climate change, which is exacerbating the conditions for the kind of wildfires we witness year after year, is a serious threat to humanity and the planet. Among our earliest scriptures, we find God’s charge to human beings to care for the garden of the earth.

It has been quite a month. The challenges and opportunities awaiting us as disciples of Jesus Christ in the Michigan Conference of The United Methodist Church are significant. I look back with joy on the work we have done together these past eight years, and I look forward to our shared work in mission and ministry in the coming four years. There is work to do, and the God who invites us to this work in Jesus Christ gives us grace and power to respond. And this God brings us together in Jesus to respond together.

Last Updated on August 14, 2024