"I fix these appointments for another conference year"
Even though I have seen my name on a appointment list and heard six Bishops say the same thing for 41 years, there is still something about that moment when the Bishop "fixes" the appointments that gets my attention. Now, as some people like to joke, all the clergy have been "fixed". That always gets a bit of a chuckle, but it's the historic language for the setting of the appointments in the long Methodist tradition of itinerant traveling preachers. My first appointment in 1971 was an "appointment to attend school". Back then you could be ordained as a deacon during seminary, so in 1971, after completing two of my three years, I received my first appointment from Bishop Roy Nichols. Though I can't say it improved my grades, knowing that I was appointed to attend school did seem to matter to me. Now 41 years and 8 appointments later, it still matters. We Methodist preachers are not employed by the local church, we are appointed by the Bishop; not called, but sent to serve the church in the name of Christ. Monica and Brian's names show up at new places on the appointment list this year--Northville and West Bloomfield--and the tradition of Methodism moves on.
There was a time when clergy went to annual conference not knowing where they were being appointed until the Bishop read the list, so if as in Brian's case, your name wasn't read with "Birmingham", you would have to wait all the way to the "W's" to find out you were going to West Bloomfield. Then, in those days before cellphones, there would be a mad dash to the pay phones to call the family and say, "Start packing...we're moving!" Today the system is more humane and the consultation with local churches is more open, but none-the-less, we are still "traveling preachers", sent in the spirit of Bishop Asbury who said, "Live or die, I must ride."
After all these years in ministry, I find great joy in being able to work with young, in-coming seminary students like our Duke intern Taylor Mertins. Taylor comes to us from Virginia and is completing his second year at Duke. Unlike my day, students are not ordained during seminary, yet the call to see seminary as a sacred time is just as clear. We look forward to the contribution Taylor will make to our life and more importantly, what we can offer to him as he anticipates a career in ministry. It's part of what it means to be a teaching congregation, committed to raising up a new generation of leaders for the church.
So I've been fixed...or let's say my appointment as been fixed at Birmingham for another conference years, and I couldn't be happier. It's going to be a great year.
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