Dr. Lloyd F. Speer, III

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"Formational and Spiritual Growth Leave" Blog

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JUNE

Sunday, June 1

Paragraph 351.3 of the 2004 Book of Discipline allows a clergy person to take a "Formational and Spiritual Growth Leave" for up to six months. But just what is such a leave about? It is not an extended vacation. It is a time for study, reflection, prayer, worship, and a host of other spiritually renewing activities. Because of the nature of pastoral work, United Methodist clergy are required not only to obtain a college and seminary degree to be ordained, but also to participate in continuing education events after being ordained. The book of Discipline requires that this be done through meeting a minimum of 8 "continuing education units" every four years. Each CEU requires ten contact/study hours. The Book of Discipline also states that clergy should do this continuing education through a leave of at least one full week each year, and one month every quadrennium. In addition, both the denomination and the Annual Conference encourage clergy to occasionally become involved in a more extensive educational leave through a either a "formational and spiritual growth leave" (which can be up to 6 months, while continuing to hold an appointment) or a sabbatical (which is usually for a whole year, and is done as an appointment).

While many clergy never get around to taking one of these last two types of leave, from June 2, 2008 to August 25, 2008, I will be taking a "Formational and Spiritual Growth Leave." I’ll explain more about what I’ll be doing educationally later, but for now I’ll just say it is a continuation of the dissertation project I did for my D. Min degree. During that time, the Rev. George Mamourian will be serving as the interim pastor at Jonestown. So how is my leave funded? From a variety of sources, which I’ll mention later too. One of those sources, which you can check out for yourself, is through a grant by our own Board of Ordained Ministry. For more information on that, go to the Board of Ordained Ministry’s web site.  The following link,          http://www.gbgm-umc.org/EPCBOOM/continuingeducationpage.htm, will take you to the "Continuing Education" page on that site.  Scroll down the page to the "Formational and S

After packing up my car on Sunday afternoon, and going to sleep early, I left at 4 am this morning to drive to Durham, North Carolina. Not wanting to get stuck in traffic along I-95, I took I-81 through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, I-77 into North Carolina and I-40 to Durham. It was a gorgeous day, and the mountains of North Carolina are majestic sites to behold. It almost made the 9 hour trip worth it. Almost. After arriving in Durham, I made my way to the Homestead Suites, where I will stay until June 27th. After unpacking, I then drove over to Duke and made my way to the Divinity School. I will one of about a dozen ‘scholars’ participating in the Summer Wesley Seminar under the guidance of Dr. Richard Heitzenrater and Dr. Randy Maddox (two pre-eminent Wesleyan scholars). They will run a collaborative ‘event’ for a few hours on Monday and Friday over the next four weeks to help everyone in the group think more creatively about their project, get feedback and suggestions from others about their project, and offer advice in return. The rest of the time, we will be free to use the Duke Library system and its vast holdings to do research on our project. You can find out more about the Summer Wesley Seminar at http://www.divinity.duke.edu/wesleyan/research/summer.html

So what is my project? In 2001, I finished a Doctor of Ministry dissertation on churches that were growing to the point that they had to address building and space needs. While I proved my thesis, I did not get to the point of creating a resource book for congregations to use to ensure a successful planning process. My "Formational and Spiritual Growth Leave" project therefore will be to produce that resource book. After meeting with the group, getting our Duke Card (which grants us access to the vast holdings of the Duke Library system), and seeing the Duke Chapel and campus in the late afternoon sun (which pictures do not do justice to), I had to detour back into the mundane realities of real life and stop at Wal-mart and Food Lion on my way back to Homestead Suites.

I went back to Duke today, and made my first foray into the library. Getting there wasn’t easy, however. The parking passes we were given were not being recognized at first. And the Duke Card was not allowing us to do activate it to gain access to the system. But after working with the staff, things were eventually resolved. After searching the databases (as their ‘card catalogues’ are all computerized), I checked out a pile of books I wanted and headed for the parking lot. On the way, I stopped in the office of the Rev. Chris Brady. Chris is a probationer in our Annual Conference, and works as Assistant to the Dean at the Divinity School. I was on his interview team, so I stopped in to talk for a bit. Next week, we will be having lunch together and going to the Center for Leadership Development, a Duke leadership research and training organization that is similar to the Alban Institute or the Lewis Center for Church Leadership that Lovett Weems runs. Both Chris and Randy Maddox suggested I talk with the staff there as they may have information pertinent to my project. For now, however, I have a pile of books to read, and a ton of materials to look up using the "Eighteenth Century Online" catalogue that we have access to through the program. It should be a very interesting couple of days.

Sunday, June 8

I’ve spent the last few days in the libraries at Duke searching for books relevant to my project. Ordinarily, that might have become monotonous after awhile. But with the temperature pushing 100 degrees each day, I wasn’t likely to do anything else. But today I ventured out to do something else anyway: I drove east to worship at West Raleigh Presbyterian Church. It wasn’t a change of heart; studying at Duke hasn’t made me want to become a Presbyterian. The current pastor at WRP was the pastor at Colonial Park Presbyterian Church when I was a student at Messiah College. He served as my supervisor for an internship, and later officiated at my wedding. After worship, I went to his home and visited with his family (the youngest of which I had never met). It was nice to spend time with friends I hadn’t seen in years, talking as if the time had not passed in between visits. Later that evening, I returned to Duke. If you have never been to Duke, you might enjoy seeing the picture of Duke Chapel below. It towers over the center of a massive gothic style campus, reminding all who walk its grounds of the values and aspirations on which the university was originally founded.

It has been a productive week. I’ve checked out, read, and returned, dozens of books. I’ve downloaded reams of publications from a digital collection called the Eighteenth Century Online. And I’ve read article after article on microfilm. At the meetings on Monday and Friday, the participants in the seminar also took turns presenting what they were working on and receiving feedback from fellow participants as well as Richard Heitzenrater and Randy Maddox. The week wasn’t all work, however. On Tuesday night, we were invited to the home of Randy Maddox for a picnic (although the high temperature pushed it indoors). It was a lot of fun. We were able to get to know one another in a more informal way, and talk about things we probably would not have talked about in the setting of the university campus. For instance, I grew up in Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey. In the course of dinner conversation, I found out the Richard Heiztenrater spent the first two years of his life on the other side of the lake when his father served as a pastor there (albeit a few decades before I was even born).

To give you an idea of the diversity of the group, here is the list of this year’s seminar participants, and the topic of each person’s project:

Michael Browder, Nazarene College and the University of Manchester             Wesley’s View of Tempers, Affections, and Heart           

Edgardo Antonio Colón-Emeric, Duke Divinity School                                   The Grace of Conversion: Wesley’s Theology of Preaching

Patrick Eby, Drew University                                                              Charles Wesley’s Theology of the Restoration of the Image of God

Lucas Endicott, Regent College                                                              The Methodist Episcopal Book Concern 1789-1820

Peter Forsaith, Oxford Brookes University                                              Papers relating to John Fletcher of Madeley

Sharon Grant, Southern Methodist University                                             The Baptismal ritual in the AME Church of Jamaica　

Stephen Gunter, Duke Divinity School                                                      The Wesley Works Project, Moravian materials and Roman Catholic writings

Steven Hoskins, Trevecca Nazarene University                                           The Influence of the Anglican Non-Jurors

Mark Quanstrom, Olivet Nazarene University                                                  A Clear Explanation of Entire Sanctification

Stephen Sours, Duke University                                                       Catholics and Methodists on Eucharistic Sacrifice

Kenton Stiles, Indiana Wesleyan University                                            Sense, Taste and Pleasantries: the Aesthetics of John Wesley

Lloyd Speer, Pastor, Jonestown UMC                                           Constructing Church Buildings on the Foundation of Christ and His Kingdom

Andrew Thompson, Duke Divinity School student                                       Early Methodist Class Meeting

Woodrow Whidden, Adventist Institute of Advanced Studies, Philippines       Wesley and the Doctrine of Christian Assurance

Philip Wingeier-Rayo, Pfeiffer University                                                   John Wesley to Thomas Coke: Early Methodist Missiology

Andrew Wood, Auburn University                                                             B.F. Haynes and the Languages of Southern Methodism

Here is a picture of most of the group

As I mentioned in an earlier note, Chris Brady is a probationer in our conference, and works as Assistant to the Dean at the Divinity School. I was on his interview team, so I’ve stopped into his office a couple of times. Today, I joined him and his family at Asbury Temple United Methodist Church. Chris was going to be preaching, and since I was looking for another new worship experience, I decided to join them. Asbury Temple isn’t a very big church, but it seems to be actively engaging its community in many ways. It also seems open to the varied gifts that God is bringing into their midst as there are a number of students from Duke Divinity School who are actively involved there. In addition, while the congregation is primarily African-American, about 10% of their attendance today was Caucasian and another 5% was from various other ethnic groups. It truly was a ‘Pentecost experience’ that more churches should be blessed by

Monday, June 16

In addition, to reading more books, and attending the seminar meeting today, I was able to arrange meetings for later in the week with a number of faculty members who have expertise in the issues I am dealing with in my project. I was also able to converse via email with Geoffrey Wainwright, who when not teaching a class at the seminary is involved (among many other projects) in chairing the Methodist side of the dialogue that the World Methodist Council has been having with the Roman Catholic Church over the last few decades in an attempt to bring down some of the walls that all too often still exist between our denominations. He was gracious enough to not only reply to several questions that I sent him but also suggest some resources and send me links to several online documents he has co-authored as part of the his work with the Council.

Wednesday, June 18

After spending the day in the library, I met Sam Hammond, the University Carillonneur, at Duke Chapel. Each day at 5 pm, and before and after Sunday worship, Sam plays the carillon housed in the tower. If you arrange an appointment with him, he is willing to take you up to watch him play. I’ll let you decide what that experience was like for yourself through the pictures and video sound files below.

Video Sound - Short       Video Sound - Long

This past week has been busy and productive. I was able to find a great deal of material for my project. I was able to meet with Nathaniel Kirkpatrick, the Managing director for the "Leadership Education at Duke Divinity" program (which does a lot of consulting with congregations and pastors), and I was able to arrange to meet next week with David Odom, the Executive Director. The bi-weekly seminars have also been a learning experience in and of themselves, as each person has presented their project and discussion and dialogue about that project has ensued. As with the first two weeks, I haven’t spent all my time working. On several occasions, I have gone out somewhere with some of the other seminar participants to eat. And while handling something necessary, like lunch or dinner, was the main reason for going out, the real highlight of the time was being able to have lengthy discussions with persons we might not otherwise have ever met. [Which means that we often turned short trips out for food into a "slightly longer" time of conversing.] But with books, and periodicals, and lots of things to read through our online access at Duke, waiting for everyone back at the Homestead, we would eventually find our way back and return to our individual projects.

I finally made it to Duke Chapel this morning. It is a grand place to worship - as you can see from the picture of the interior below.

In addition to the sheer magnitude of its size, and the majesty of its English Gothic architecture, the chapel serves a dual role. Since it sits in the middle of Duke University, it has responsibilities to the university, its faculty, and its students. It is also an active congregation, so it has responsibilities to its own ministries, programs, and needs. Given the complexity of how those dual responsibilities come together, the church is not a United Methodist congregation, but an interdenominational one - although much of what it does is tied into the mission and ministries of the United Methodist Church.

While I walked in this morning, regretting that it was only on my last Sunday that I was able to worship here, that feeling quickly left. The main reason was the message that Dr. Samuel Wells (Dean of the Chapel) delivered. It was based on Genesis 16:1-16 (one of the assigned Lectionary texts for the day). In speaking of Sarah and Hagar, he laid out an interpretation of that text which related to a point in my project. As a result, I couldn’t help but walk away feeling that God had a reason for arranging my schedule the way He did (although not before arranging to talk with Dr. Wells later in the week to get his permission to use his Genesis 16 interpretation in my project).

Monday, June 23

Over the last several weeks, I have gathered a great deal of material for my project. I’ve taken notes. I’ve photocopied books and articles. I’ve downloaded pdf documents (such as dissertations and electronic copies of Wesley’s sermons). I’ve also been away from home long enough that I am getting homesick. After the group meeting today, I made one last trek to the library to get some books I’ve been waiting to check out (as someone else in the group had them). On the way back to the Homestead suites, I went shopping for souvenirs to bring home to my family.

Over the last two days, I made copies of some great materials. Some of it related to my project, but much of it was related to the history of the Evangelical United Brethren Church and its predecessors in Pennsylvania. Since the church I serve is from the UB side of the merger, it was interesting to see information about its history in materials that were originally written when the church was UB and EUB. An interesting find in my reading of those materials was to see how interrelated the Methodist, UB, and EA works were in Lancaster and Lebanon, for while it was eventually the UB Church that established a congregation in Jonestown, it was the EA (with periodic unsuccessful attempts by the Methodists) who were actually first to establish a mission there. Another interesting find, and one I will need to try to track down when I go to Drew (which houses the EUB archives), is to follow up on a comment in one of those early histories. It stated that the Jonestown ‘church’ existed as much as fifty years earlier than the conference or our local histories record. Whether the author was confusing the UB congregation that eventually developed with EA mission efforts in town (which didn’t result in a congregation), I’m not sure. Only time, and searching more shelves, will tell.

Last night, I packed my belongings. This morning, I got up early and made the 9 hour trek home. Not wanting to get stuck on I-95, I took the longer route up I-81. Gas prices are having an effect on travel. There were a lot less cars on the road than one might expect at the end of June. People at the restaurants, gas stations, and rest areas I patronized all confirmed that "business is down." It will be interesting to see how all this plays out over the next year, and whether or not what happens in November has any effect on the economy.

After unpacking, and remembering things like how to operate our microwave, I began to settle back in at home. I took the last couple of days off, and today went to the 8:30 am service at Jonestown. It was nice to be able to slip in late, sit in the back, and not be responsible for what was occurring. [Although my presence may have concerned two members who were sitting in the back. They wondered if I was there to check on them, and whether or not they were behaving for the interim!] Kidding aside, everything is running as smoothly as I hoped it would. Rev. Mamourian has been continuing to preach on the lectionary texts (as I had been doing over the last year), he and our Care Team have been handling any needs that have come up (including an unexpected funeral of a community resident), and the congregation is continuing to be in mission and ministry.

As I near the end of the first month, however, I am reaching a ‘financial transition point’ in my study leave. My leave is being funded through a variety of sources. The first - and major - source is the conference "Formational and Spiritual Growth Leave" grant. The second source is personal finances. The third is the church (via money that would normally have been part of my business reimbursement account). The largest single cost was hiring an interim pastor. That came out of the grant up front, leaving the remainder for other study leave costs. Since the time at Duke was expensive (although worth it), I am now at the point that the remainder of the grant is dwindling. During the rest of my leave, costs will now start getting put against money budgeted for my business expense account. Any additional costs, as well as personal costs (like those I spent at Duke for things like dishwashing liquid), will be paid out of personal finances. Hopefully, by the end of the things, I will at least break even financially from where I would have been had I not taken the leave. If not, however, it has been a wonderful experience, and will be worth the cost even if it doesn’t turn out that way.

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