Ken

 Eleventh Monday after Pentecost

It's Faith Journey Narrative Day. Much research on memory over the last few years has shown that our memories aren't nearly as good as we think they are. It's not just forgetting. There is a lot of misremembering as well. For me fewer years in the same place make for clearer memory. The events of two years in Triune, Tennessee; three years in Chatham County, NC; and six years in N. Wilkesboro, NC; tend to stand out better in my mind than those of twenty-one years in Greensboro. The Greensboro years were good but not quite as memorable, perhaps because there were so many of them. Does that make any sense?

For example, I can remember all the pastors that served Christ UMC in Greensboro those 21 years and all the associates, but I'm not sure I can put the associates with the pastors chronologically, especially when there are overlaps between the two. At some point early on we got a new Associate. His name was Ken. He was really tall, 6'7". Every other year the Christ UMC choirs put on a wonderful production of Benjamin Britten's Noe's Fludde with amazing animal costumes.  Ken always played a giraffe. Ken was smart. A Duke Divinity School graduate, he went on to work on a Ph.D. in Religion at the University of Virginia. U.Va.'s Graduate Religion program is notorious for its students having to take ridiculous numbers of years to finish. Ken was one of many to drop out. He told me that his dropping out was not because of that, but because he felt God was calling him to parish ministry. He was right. I worked closely with Ken on Worship Committee and in some other projects. He looked to me as more than the usual Worship Committee chair, as someone he could learn from. Learn he did. Marianne and I were in a dinner group with Ken and his wife Pam. The more I worked with Ken; the more I respected not only his intellect but his pastoral skills. I thought this guy was pretty good.

I was happy for Ken but saddened for our church when Ken left to begin a start-up church (I think "church plant" is now the appropriate term), St. Timothy's, in another part of Greensboro. Ken told me that this was what he really wanted, something he could build from scratch. He said he intended to be there at least 12 years and maybe for the rest of his career. St. Timothy's did not have the potential that many had seen in it. In far fewer years than he had planned to be there, Ken was moved on to a larger church in Winston-Salem. 

So here's the short of it. I knew Ken was good and that he had potential to be an excellent pastor. Ken served well in a couple of larger churches as the years moved along. He eventually became the pastor of Providence UMC in Charlotte, one of the two or three largest churches in the Western North Carolina Conference. While there he worked closely with Al Brown, a enormously successful bank Vice President. Al was Chair of Ken's Staff-Parish Committee, then became Chair of the Church Council. Al was my best friend growing up. His parents were my Godparents. My parents were his Godparents. I did Al's father's funeral. 

Back to Ken. Ken was elected Bishop Ken Carter and assigned to the Florida Conference. He has been a great Bishop. Ken was then elected President of the Council of Bishops, a position he holds now, not just for the United States, but for all the United Methodists in the world.  If Methodists had a pope, Ken would be it. Ken has led our denomination through the last three most difficult years in its history since the Civil War. He has had a lot of praise and taken a lot of flak. He was principal author of a plan to keep the UMC united through the disagreements over homosexuality. His plan did not pass General Conference. He has also been Moderator of The Way Forward movement which will resolve the issue in favor of full LGBT inclusion in every aspect of the UMC and provide a path for dissenting churches to form a separate denomination. The overwhelming majority of churches will stay in the UMC. This was to be finalized at General Conference this year, but Coronavirus is has led to postponement till next year. Through it all Ken has been a strong guiding hand of God's love to all . I am grateful to God that Ken is our leader and that I had a small role in Ken's spiritual formation.

Our faith journey is not just an individual thing. Ken's faith journey is a part of mine, and to some small extent, mine is a part of his. 

Faithfully,

Christian