Clergy School 2015 – An Interview with Our Preacher

The West Virginia Annual Conference sponsors an annual continuing education event for Clergy. This year our event will be from October 13 – 15 at Blessed John XXIII Pastoral Retreat Center in Charleston. A link for registration is right here.

In order to introduce you to one of our primary speakers – our preacher for the event – I have done an email interview with Rev. Tim Craig. Please use this to get to know our preacher a little better and keep him in your prayers as he prepares to bring us God’s Word for this event.

Scott: “Tim, tell us a little bit about yourself – your background, your family, your work history, and even some of the things that you do that make your unique?”

Tim: I grew up in an Irish Roman Catholic family and attended Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland. It was there at Loyola that I started to feel a call into the ministry. But at the same time I wanted to get married and have a family … things you can’t do or have as a priest. When I talked with a priest, he recommended that I look into other denominations. That was a real gift from that priest.

I attended a United Methodist Church and felt right at home. What sealed the deal for me was when the pastor said that the communion table was open to everyone and not just members.

I met my wife Ann through mission work. We both served in youth ministry.

Ann and I have four kids; three daughters and one son. I have three in college. My son and my youngest daughter go to VA Tech. My middle daughter is at George Mason University. My oldest daughter graduated from Mason and now works as a Program Director at Wesley UMC. Ann is a first grade teacher. We have been married for 25 years.

After college I taught high school algebra for a few years. I went into the business sector for a few more years and worked for ADP (Payroll Services). I started seminary (Duke Divinity) in 1991. I was a student pastor while in seminary. I served an “eventful” two-point charge in southern Virginia. From there I served as an associate pastor of a large church in Richmond. From there I went to serve a mid- sized congregation. After only two years in that appointment I was appointed to a church in Northern Virginia that had significant conflict. I stayed there for eight years. The church worked through the challenges and turned itself around. I was then appointed to serve a large church in Arlington, Virginia. After five years of ministry in the hustle and bustle of the metropolitan DC area, I am now serving Great Bridge UMC in Chesapeake, VA.

I love the Chesapeake area. It is much slower paced and I am 30 minutes from the beach. My family and I love the beach. We go to relax, fly stunt kites, collect shells, walk, and hang out with friends. The beach truly rejuvenates my soul.

I love music and I love being around people. Love Jesus with everything I have.

A few years ago, I was inspired by Rev. Sue Nilson Kibbey’s work with Gallup Strength Finder. She uses the StrengthsFinder 2.0 test to help you see your strengths in ministry. My top five strengths are: Connectedness, Positivity, ideations, Achiever, and Adaptability.

Scott: “How much do you know about West Virginia? (You can be honest…as long as you don’t say that you didn’t realize it was a separate state!)”

Tim: Well … I know some. Great Bridge UMC takes about 2 to 3 mission trips to Iaeger, West Virginia every year. I’ve been on two trips so far. We work with Little Sparrows Ministry. I even attended the McDowell County fair last year. I ate fried oreos! Quite a treat.

Scott: “If I am not mistaken, you are the one who introduced my family to Bar-B-Que Oreos…I still have the mouth burns to prove it, actually! Glad you picked on the Southern WV Oreo tradition!

I also understand that you were a recent participant in the Royce and Jane Reynolds Program for Church Leadership in North Carolina. What was that experience like and what was your main take-a-way?

Tim: I attended the Royce and Jane Reynolds Program for Church Leadership. It is a great program sponsored through the Western North Carolina Conference and taught through the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The program is two part. The first part consists of developing one’s leadership potential. The second part focuses on leadership needed in the local church.

My main take-a-way was the need to really focus on and develop clarity around mission/ vision and core values. We find ourselves stuck in maintenance mode so many times because we overlook these things in the local church. Busyness is often the culprit.

If your conference ever gets chance to work with Russ Moxley or Janice Virtue from the Center for Creative Leadership, I highly recommend it. I know the Virginia Conference has put together a leadership program with Russ. It is in year two. Participants from last year really enjoyed it and learned a lot. (Tim Tate took the program last year. He would be a good point of contact too.)

Scott: What have been some of your formational moments in building relationships with people who have greatly different theological positions than you hold? How is that going to be helpful to you as you prepare?

Tim: I have to tell a story to answer this one. My mother and father divorced when I was young. My father and I were not close. He was a strict Roman Catholic. I know. I know. Divorce and strict Roman Catholic do not go together on paper. Then there is life.

Both my mom and father remarried. My father and his wife had more children.

My mom would call my father when I needed some fatherly chastising. When I left the Roman Catholic Church to unite with the United Methodist Church, my mom called my father. We talked and the last words that he said to me where these, “You are no longer my son.”

My father died of pancreatic cancer. When he was passing he said to his children, “Tell Tim I love him too.” They had no idea who Tim was and so my oldest brother began to ask questions and started searching.

A few years after my father’s death, my brother tracked me down. We met and I now have 5 new siblings as well as a mother-in-law.

My father’s last words were not “you are no longer my son”; they were words of love. And that is the theological position that is by far the greatest and the one that is formational and foundational for me.

It is tested often but love is the greatest and love conquers all.

A few years ago, Westboro Baptist Church came to picket the congregation I was serving because we had a woman pastor. In response, we changed the preaching schedule around and she preached on the Sunday that they came to picket. We had record attendance that Sunday. While they shouted obscenities filled with hate, we responded with love. It was a great day. The headline from the newspaper that covered the event stated “love drowned out the hate message”. Amen to that!

Scott: As you know, the theme for this year’s Clergy School is “Passing the Bread, Keeping the Peace” – a reference to the times that we live in as United Methodists. There is a lot of division and much of that division is centered on the church’s policies and practices concerning LGBT issues – same-sex marriage, ordination, membership, and full inclusion are all being discussed quite a bit. As the preacher for this event, what do you hope to bring to the pulpit that would help those of us who are on very different sides of these issues to maintain a “common Table?”

Tim: The writer of Hebrews once sermonized, “Make sure that no one misses out on God’s grace.” (Hebrews 12: 15) Whatever the side we take this needs to be who we are. Period. And this becomes even more important to us as United Methodists who believe that God’s grace is prevenient, justifying and sanctifying.

Grace is where I see hope. Always have and always will. While homosexuality is the hot topic sin of the day, I am sure that it isn’t the only sexual sin that is out there. And for that matter, I am sure that it isn’t the only sin that is out there. Of course someone is going to read this and say “he just called homosexuality a sin” and that’s not the point that I am making. If you see homosexuality as a sin then I have to ask; what are doing to make sure that these children of God do not miss out on the grace of God? Are you willing to have a heart like Christ that from the cross proclaims “Father forgive them”? If you see homosexuality as not a sin, can you offer grace to those who have been taught by the Church for centuries that it is? Can you come alongside these folk and have honest conversation without being equally judgmental toward their position?

In a nutshell, what I hope to bring to the pulpit is a reminder of the importance and power of grace and that this grace is what is needed for both sides as we come to the common table.

Scott: If you could recommend a book in the Bible for participants to read in preparation for this Clergy School, which one would it be?

Tim: I would recommend that you read the gospels. I know you asked for one book but read all four of the gospels. In addition, read them in such a way that the words about Jesus live for a purpose other than preparing a sermon! We get so used to reading the Bible for sermons; I think it is important to read the Bible from time to time as God’s story.

Scott: If you could recommend a non-biblical book to be read – which one would it be?

Tim: Wow- this is a tough one! I read a lot. I think for the topic of grace I would read Phillip Yancey’s “Vanishing Grace.” For leadership principles I would ready Ron Heifetz’s “Leadership on the Line” or Russ Moxley’s “Leadership and Spirit.”

Scott: Tim, thanks for taking time out of your schedule to share with us! I’m sure this will help everyone prepare for our time together. I will take your suggestions about the Bible reading seriously and will look into the leadership books as well.

Once again, you can register for this year’s Clergy School right here. We look forward to seeing as many WV Clergy there to welcome our Virginia colleague!!

Scott: Oh, one more question: How do you feel about a back-to-back championship for the Blue Devils this year?

Tim: Do you have your final four tickets yet? If you are a Duke fan, I would start booking now. And somewhat prophetic to the theme of the clergy school, if the new recruits play together as a team, it will be another championship for coach K.

An Apology, a Comment and a Response

First of all, allow me to offer my apologies to a faithful reader of this blog, Dr. Cory Williams. I failed to approve a comment he made in response to my last blog post dealing with questions about Scripture. I am sorry, Dr. Williams. Not sure why I responded to your post personally and failed to approve it, but I did just that. I feel certain that if there were fines that could be written for “bad blogging techniques,” this mistake would have landed me a whopper of a fine – right along with my failure to properly spell check my posts and my occasional overuse of “however”! I’d be broke being these fines. Continue reading “An Apology, a Comment and a Response” →

Ground Pine and Hope

Once a year my Mom would send my Dad and my brothers and I out in the woods in search of ground pine. It was almost always in November and through the years, Dad became so used to the different areas where it grew that it was less searching for ground pine as it was picking it up from the woods. This interesting little plant – or weed, some would say – was a needed ingredient in our annual Advent Wreath creation in the Sears home.

I remember several wreaths. There was one that was made out of an old piece of a stump. There was one created in Cub Scouts with acorns arranged as candle holders. There was one that was made of metal one year, but that one didn’t last. I don’t think any of us liked it.

It was the tradition in the home of my youth together on the Sunday evenings of Advent to light our candle for that week, read Scripture and pray together as a family. Most of the time, I must admit, I was just praying that we would be done in time for us to watch “The Wonderful World of Disney.” And yet, despite the lack of attention that I gave to the whole ritual, something about it stuck with me.

Maybe it was the fresh smell of the ground pine. (I don’t think I mentioned that we would pick enough of this stuff so that mom could keep some “wet” and change it out each week.) Perhaps it was the flicker of the flame on the candles. It might even have been the way that my two brothers and I would fight with one another over the right to light the candles or better yet to blow them out and let the hot wax “accidentally” drip into our hands as we did so.

Something stuck about Advent because this is the time of the year when I become my most hopeful.

I look at the headlines of a burning city in Missouri. I realize that I will never see the world, never understand power, never truly grasp what justice means to someone of a different race than my own. I watch our nation grapple with figuring out how to handle such things and I hear so many voices crying out “doom”. But not me. I remember the evergreen of Advent and know that somewhere in the presence of Jesus there is hope.

I look at the area I live in – Southern West Virginia – and I listen to so many people talk about how we are losing everything because Coal is no long King. I wish I could buy into that message and join the war against the war against coal. But I don’t. This time of year, I see the evergreen and I can’t help but think that there is a greater King than Coal. Sure, he was born in a stable. He was one of the poor. But maybe why that is why we should hold him as our King even more. He truly is one of us.

I look at mainline churches and notice the struggle that so many are having. Some are fighting within about beliefs and doctrines. Others are the ever present worship war. Some are watching their average attendance plummet because members do not commit themselves to attending as often. Some of them, like the church I serve, are watching budget shortfalls eat away at the hope people have for continuing to do the ministry we already have and the flame of any new idea for ministry and mission.

But folks…to me…this season of Advent is the greatest season of Hope that I know.

I believe we will find some way to balance justice and power in a world that has for so long ignored the voices of minorities.

I believe the King will show us a new way to power our economy in Southern West Virginia.

And I believe that church’s will find peace, they will grow committed disciples, and they will even find people who can give the money needed to grow ministry into the next year.

It’s Advent folks…and I am full of hope.

Perhaps it time to go ground pine hunting!!

I Saw a Song*

Princeton Community Garden Mercer Street Princeton, WV — Princeton Community Garden
Mercer Street
Princeton, WV

Trash cleared
Earth smoothed
Holes dug
Timbers places
Soil moved
Plants rooted
Gravel spread

As the rain fell

An artist, a laborer,
A musician, a mother,
the unemployed, a preacher,
and those with skills beyond us all

Together we toiled to bring light to the darkness
and I saw a song.

*Thanks to Lori McKinney for inviting us to be a part of this Community Garden project and for the title of this piece.

On Capital Punishment

During the “Pray-As-You-Go” exercise for Good Friday, I was challenged to imagine myself as one of the people in Jesus’ group of family and friends who were witness to the execution of Jesus on the cross. I found this very difficult. It wasn’t that I couldn’t imagine the scene – I have seen so many depictions of it in art and movie that my imagination didn’t have to work very hard – it was that I found that I could not remain among the group of people who were there with Jesus. My mind kept slipping over to view this scene from the perspective of the family members of the others who were being executed by Jesus. (If you want to read what became of this imaginative exercise, you can click here.)

Granted, the fact that Jesus was killed between two thieves has been something that has captured my theological imagination for quite some time. What does it mean that “a completely innocent man” was killed in the name of the state between two people who were also “convicted” of capital crimes?

Part of me imagines that Jesus would have chosen to be killed in exactly this way. He spent his life hanging around those who had reputations that were less than stellar. I think that it is only fitting that the man who gave up heaven to walk the earth spent his last few breathes on public display with exactly the type of people he loved the most – those who were always on the outside of any faith based on legalism. What were the crimes of these convicted felons? I know we have certain standards in our world today for executions, but what are those standards really based upon? And this says nothing of the “figurative” way that people are killed in the name of a group of people in power. I think of all the people who are ostracized by “the Church” in the name of legal interpretations of our Book as well. What about these people? Is Jesus still handing on a cross beside them and waiting for us to notice? It even happens in our communities. Not very long ago, a man in our community took his own life after being investigated for child pornography issues. Yesterday a man in South Korea took his own life rather than face the relatives of the children killed in a tragic ferry accident. What do these things say about us as a people? I know that this is not “capital punishment” but what does it say about our ability to stand with those who commit crimes or even those facing the tragic circumstances of which they played some part? Those who follow Jesus should be able to offer some hope, some joy, for even the worst among us. Jesus managed to do it on the cross.

Another part of me wonders about the justice issues that we as Christians cannot deny exist when we look at the cross. An innocent man was killed “by the state” for crimes he was convicted of by the judicial system of that day. Even an attempt at some sort of pardon by the state failed. It stands to reason, at least for me, that those who were hanging on the left and right of Jesus of Nazareth could have just as easily been every bit as innocent as Jesus. (Granted, one of those two confesses his crimes on the cross, but still, I have to wonder about any system that finds justified killing in the name of the people of a state somewhat suspect.) I know the stance of my church on this issue:

The Death Penalty

We believe the death penalty denies the power of Christ to redeem, restore and transform all human beings. The United Methodist Church is deeply concerned about crime throughout the world and the value of any life taken by a murder or homicide. We believe all human life is sacred and created by God and therefore, we must see all human life as significant and valuable. When governments implement the death penalty (capital punishment), then the life of the convicted person is devalued and all possibility of change in that person’s life ends. We believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that the possibility of reconciliation with Christ comes through repentance. This gift of reconciliation is offered to all individuals without exception and gives all life new dignity and sacredness. For this reason, we oppose the death penalty (capital punishment) and urge its elimination from all criminal codes.

Is it possible that even one innocent person is killed today? I can’t imagine that we are that much better than those who led in Jesus’ day. Things do happen. People do let their eyes be blinded by certain preconceived notions of what is happening. I know I do.

And yet, at the same time, I hear so little about it…especially as it relates to the way we sometimes “kill the spirit” of those who are convicted of other crimes in the Church. Both are serious problems that our society and church face today.

I know…pretty serious thought for the Saturday before we celebrate the Joy of Easter. However, I had to get this off my mind. As I go through this day and even tomorrow, I hope I find myself praying for all those who are on “death row” these days, in our prisons, in our communities, and in our churches. I know that Jesus is with them still. I know Jesus would offer hope. I know that since “joy is the serious business of heaven” (C. S. Lewis) then that same joy should be our serious business as well – “on earth as it is in heaven” and all.

May the Joy and Hope of Easter be with us all!

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