A friend who knows me well tells me I need another way of phrasing what I wrote this morning. The friend agrees in substance but not in medium; my friend says tothink before I nail my 95 theses to the wall and not alienate the very people who have to make the decisions about our future.

So let me be clear: I include myself in the leadership of the church, the leadership that has to make hard choices about how to handle our crisis of finances and relevancy. It is hard to face the issues squarely and make a proactive decision. So I don't want to insult anyone with what I wrote, as if the blame falls on leadership. We have hard work ahead that is going to demand hard choices that none of us want to make.

If I were to say it differently: the church as it exists today will not be here in 15 years. There will be radical changes in structure and finance. I wish we would make the decisions to change now.

Let me also repeat that I am optimistic. The Methodist church has the message. I am bummed that I don't think I will get to be too much a part of the changes. They are going to be exciting. Painful and weird at first, but exciting and spirit driven.


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