Leadership in the Middle

When I lived in Kansas, the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection was the United Methodist church people had heard of. It's young and huge, and continues to grow. Every year they have a leadership institute that hundreds of pastors and lay people attend. Christ Church has sent groups to the institute in the past.

The founding pastor, Adam Hamilton, is somewhat controversial. He used to be very conservative, now he's more middle of the road. This often means for conservatives he's too liberal, and for progressives, he's not liberal enough. This week he wrote a commentary on the election of Barack Obama. You can read the entire commentary here.

One thing Hamilton emphasizes in his commentary is the diversity within the UMC. He lifts up Obama as an example of how a person can live in tension on social issues and have their faith allow them to be comfortable with the tension. Here's a quote from the commentary that really spoke to me as a United Methodist, and the way I come to decisions as a United Methodist. Hamilton suggests Obama offers a "both/and."

A few examples: Obama articulates a personal Christian faith and a desire to follow Jesus Christ, and he holds this together with a progressive concern for social justice and individual rights that he sees as rooted in his faith. He supports the right of a woman to choose, and he is the first Democratic candidate for president to write into the Democratic platform a commitment to reduce the number of abortions in America. He believes that marriage is defined as the union of a man and woman, and he supports the rights of states to grant civil unions. He believes that government has an important role to play in addressing the welfare of the populace and, to the chagrin of some in his party, he supports faith-based initiatives as important to addressing the welfare of our people.