Leading with Love DRAFT

Leading with Love

We will lead with love here in the Arlington District!

Leading with love means first and foremost, our vision will be to discern the most loving way to move into the mission God has given us all – to make disciples and transform the world. It doesn’t mean we will be terminally ‘nice’, let stuck people, churches and places in our system hold us back from our mission, or fail to hold each other accountable in love. It does mean that in those place where we intersect with each other, with our community, with the people that are our neighbors – everyone will first know that we love them, because we are leading with love.

I want to introduce myself to those of you who many not know me very well. I have one son, Matthew, who is 26 and lives in Fredericksburg. I also have a boxer named Sugar Ray to keep me humble by always leading with love – usually by leaping high in the air with joy whenever he sees me – if only we could be as awesome as our dogs think we are! . I was an Army kid (itinerate from way back!) who landed in Fairfax for middle school and high school (Go Oakton Cougars!), so I’m practically a native by Northern Virginia standards. My first career was as a lawyer and entrepreneur, working with small business owners on their legal issues. I had a very audible call from God in 2001, to “feed my sheep” and came to understand the intersection of that calling and my gifts looks like this for me – I am here to help build healthy churches and communities that transform people and the world through the love of Jesus Christ. I then became a United Methodist pastor, and served one large church as associate and multisite planter, and one small church doing revitalization work. The last five years I have served as the Revitalizer for the Bi-District of Arlington and Alexandria, and I have had the honor of working, preaching and teaching in many of your churches over that time.

When Bishop Lewis asked me to serve on her Cabinet just before Christmas last year, I felt confident I could continue the work of revitalizing and developing the Arlington District as the Missional Strategist. I have been well mentored by Cathy Abbott and Jeff Mickle, and have the advantage of knowing the churches and the demographics of the area well. You and your churches have been my ministry for five years, and you taught me well! The District’s desire to walk alongside local churches, pastors and laity meshed well with my calling to build healthy churches and communities that transform people and the world through the love of Jesus Christ.

And then came General Conference, 2019. God and I had plenty of conversations about how hard this was going to make our work, and how many pastors, lay leaders and churches were going to find their ministry distracted by denominational issues. Things felt very chaotic and unclear – how would we walk through what might completely change the United Methodist Church? I was having a lot of “what if” conversations with God, with myself, and with the people on our District teams. As I sought a way to stay calm, connected and on course in these days, I heard a distinct direction from God – “I lead with love, and this is what you will do too”.

I had to take some time to process this – leading with love sounds almost banal, or as my son would tell me, “Lame, Mom – very lame!” Of course we lead with love! But as I was reading scripture, I was struck anew by 1 Corinthians 13:12-13 (NRSV)

For now we see in a mirror, dimly but then we see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. Ad now faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

And I love this Message translation as well:

We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly as he knows us! But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

The power of scripture to reach out and shake us sometimes is –amazing! So – my vision for ministry here is that first and foremost, we will Lead with Love. I will encourage each of you reading this today to also Lead with Love. Yes, things are unclear, and we cannot see the future – and we will still Lead with Love. This is not a mushy, squishy, unformed kind of love! This is the kind of love that requires us to be resilient and discipled enough to seek God with our whole being, and then share that love with others through that same strength and discipline. This is the kind of love that actively transforms people, and churches, and whole institutions toward justice and mercy in the name of the One who loved us first. This is the kind of love that reminds us we are Beloved of God, and holds us accountable when we don’t treat others as also Beloved.

Practically speaking- her’s one way to lead in love: by welcoming all the new clergy to the District! You will find their names and churches here. When you see them, please welcome them personally to the Arlington District! This is a busy, often intimidating place to serve, and a warm welcome and a hand reaching out to help with be appreciated by all.

This is hard work, leading with love. When we do not, we focus instead on the worship count, or the money, or the building – these things are not leading with love, but lagging indicators of whether or not we’ve put love, “the greatest of these,” first and foremost. Leading with Love is purposeful, intentional action and that is as clear as we may get for how we move through the coming years together. May God bless our journey together, remind us of our Beloved-ness, and help us to Lead with Love into God’s future.

-Sarah