United Methodist clergy from across North Carolina met last week for the Duke Endowment’s 25th Convocation on the Rural Church, “Making Our Way in the Wilderness: Reconnecting with God and One Another to Do a New Thing.”

The convocation’s wilderness theme centered on the biblical passage Isaiah 43:19-21, in which the prophet Isaiah compares the Israelites’ exile from their homeland to a state of wilderness.

Clergy within the United Methodist Church (UMC) are familiar with wilderness, the Duke Endowment’s Director Robb Webb said at the start of the convocation.

Last May, the 2024 UMC General Conference removed multiple denominational provisions, allowing local UMC churches to enact full equality for LGBTQ+ members and pastors. In the years leading up to the conference, more than 7,600 congregations, or about a quarter of UMC churches in the country, disaffiliated from the denomination.

In North Carolina, a total of 671 churches left the UMC.

Following disaffiliation, and amid societal and political upheaval, Webb said it can be easy to feel lost in “the wilderness.”

“We arrive at this space at the halfway point between the United Methodist General Conference and the general election… it felt like a time in the wilderness, and it may still feel a little bit that way for some of us,” Webb said. “It’d be really easy to retreat, to resign ourselves to a litany of quiet desperation, but God is alerting us that God is about to do a new thing, that we too are on the advent of being delivered, of experiencing healing and restoration. We only need to make space to be able to see it.”

This year’s convocation, Webb said, was designed to provide such a space.

About 250 people representing 70 North Carolina counties gathered in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Aug. 5-7 for the 25th annual convocation. Attendees included clergy from the North Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church, the Western North Carolina Conference, and the Beaufort District of the North Carolina Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.

Though the convocation ended a day early due to bad weather from Tropical Storm Debby, this year’s theme reminded attendees of the importance of taking time to connect with one another — even during life’s (metaphorical or literal) storms.

“Our time together is designed so that we can reconnect with old friends and make new ones,” Webb said. “…It’s a time to just be still, to help us begin to see the shape and the contours of that new thing that God has done.”

At the start of the convocation, Dr. Kate Bowler offered a blessing to attendees. Bowler — an associate professor at Duke University, New York Times bestselling author, and award-winning podcast host — started by noting that clergy have “the weirdest jobs.”

“I’m really hopeful that in the next couple days, you guys can just take it down a couple notches. This time is for you, because you are so weird — that you chose to love Jesus for so long and that it takes all of your time,” she said. “So I just wanted to bless that weirdness, with a little blessing to thank God and you for doing whatever was on the calendar.”

I will admit, God, that I am hoping there will be an award ceremony. Nothing fancy, but my name will be called for a podium, and I will, hand fluttering to my heart in feigned surprise, rise to speak, saying a few words of thanks for this great honor. I did everything on the calendar this week.

I attended meetings book-ended with at least five minutes of small talk. I went to appointments that gobbled up my money. “Don’t forget to schedule a follow up on your way out.” I ran errands to solve problems that loved ones will probably never realize they had. I checked on people who don’t check on me.

Lord, love is a chore. But then, Holy Spirit, you were there somehow, when I had to shampoo the dog and someone else couldn’t find their medication. You were decidedly not there when I was in traffic, but by the time I arrived, I felt that familiar tug of your insistence on tending to the people who would need me when I got out of the car.

Lord, most of the time I am consumed by my own resentments and how exhausting, annoying, and soul-depleting it feels to be this indispensable. And then the guilt — oh, the guilt — at not cheering at every act of service.

So Lord, let me hear you say it, “Well done, good and faithful one, you did what was on the calendar.” And now draw me into your arms with a few extra assurances that you love me equally when I do nothing, nothing, nothing at all.

Dr. Kate Bowler

The importance of rest in the wilderness

In January, a national survey showed that more than 4 in 10 of clergy surveyed in fall 2023 had seriously considered leaving their congregations at least once since 2020, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Post-pandemic burnout, especially in polarized churches, is a growing problem among clergy, the report found.

“I am exhausted,” said one pastor quoted by the report. “People have moved away from the area and new folks are fewer, and farther, and slower to engage. Our regular volunteers are tired and overwhelmed.”

For UMC clergy — who have navigated years of the disaffiliation process — stress and burnout are that much more of an issue.

With such stress in mind, convocation organizers said they hoped to create an experience full of rest. The convocation included time away from work responsibilities, worship that attendees didn’t have to plan, and time with friends.

Organizers also gave attendees information on Duke’s Clergy Health Initiative, which “examines the causes of burnout, the pressures you encounter, and the toll it can take on your physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.”

“Congregations flourish when their pastors flourish,” an initiative handout said.

On Tuesday, one of the breakout sessions, “Intro to Restorative Yoga,” even offered practical strategies for finding rest.

The session included an introductory yoga session, led by instructor Gwen Heginbotham. Attendees also received a packet with yoga tips and reflective questions.

Here is a look at some of the questions included in the packet — for clergy and non-clergy alike.

How has your understanding of rest changed throughout your life?

In a normal week, when and where do you feel the most peaceful?

How would you describe your average congregants’ relationship between their body and their spirituality?

When (during yoga) did you feel most relaxed? Which breathing technique felt most centering?

What do you think yoga offers that might not be as available in church?

Are there aspects or elements of yoga that you can bring to your community or congregation?

Heginbotham also linked to a “Restorative Yoga” playlist on Spotify, and included several YouTube resources.

• Yoga with Adriene (large selection)
• Dianne Bondy Yoga (21 day accessible challenge)
• Yoga with Kassandra (yin yoga classes)
• Eckhart Yoga (gentle yoga for all ages, plus yoga at your desk)
• Flightmaster Yoga (yin yoga classes)
• Alo Yoga (beginner and relaxing classes)
• Yoga with Zelinda (gentle yoga, yoga for bigger bodies, yoga for achy knees)

Learning to live in the wilderness

Throughout the convocation, speakers offered several tips and lessons for navigating life in the wilderness.

Rev. Dr. Cynthia Hale, the founder and senior pastor of the Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Georgia, said we don’t have to “make our way through the wilderness in isolation.”

Hale’s message, titled, “It Ain’t Complicated,” said the wilderness is often a lonely place — but it doesn’t have to be.

“It feels like we’re having a wilderness experience in America right now,” Hale said. “But wildernesses not meant to be permanent for us, when we have the promise of God, that God wants to do a new thing in our lives, in our ministries, in our relationships, in our nation, and world.”

Hale emphasized the importance of loving one another — even those we disagree with.

But, she cautioned, loving others does not mean going along with harm and oppression.

“Peacemakers are painfully honest about the lack of peace in our world, our nation, the church,” Hale said. “It is not well… but it can be, it can be, if we can learn how to confront and speak the truth in love.”

Listen to Hale’s closing remarks, which end with her singing lyrics from “I Need You to Survive,” by Hezekiah Walker.

Ahead of the convocation, the Duke Endowment sent attendees two books: “Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith,” by Sarah Bessey, and “This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us,” by Cole Arthur Riley.

Both authors were slated to speak during the convocation, but Bessey’s plenary was canceled due to the weather. (She is recording her intended remarks to share with attendees soon.)

“Field Notes for the Wilderness” is “a nurturing and hopeful collection of practices to help an emerging generation of Christians reconnect to their faith, find inner healing, and build spiritual community,” according to its book jacket.

“In a time when so many of us feel like we are spiritual wanderers, Sarah Bessey reaches out a hand and offers wise and careful company on the journey,” Arthur Riley said in a review of the book. “Through the tenderness and intimacy of letters, this book shows us the many ways we might survive together in the liminal.”

“This Here Flesh,” is a “compelling spiritual meditation, a powerful intergenerational account, and a tender coming-of-age narrative,” its cover says.

During her plenary, Arthur Riley — also the creator of Black Liturgies on Instagram — spoke about the need for taking time to grieve in the wilderness.

“There are evils we were not meant to bounce back from, that we have been trained to shrug off or will ourselves to forget,” she said. “I think good grief doesn’t drown out joy. Honest joy doesn’t drown out grief, they’re cohabitants and both witnesses to memory in their own way.”

Rev. Dr. Ellen Davis, an Old Testament professor at Duke Divinity School, also spoke about the importance of memory.

When navigated with God, she said, the wilderness “is the best place to practice the art of memory.” As people wander in the wilderness, God can help them remember and wander rightly, she said.

“The church will need a very robust wilderness theology to do our part in reconciliation,” Davis said. “… As we prepare to leave, let us ask for the grace and courage to continue the wilderness work we have just begun, to let go of whatever… separates us from God and one another, and may God open our eyes to the new thing that God is doing.”

---

Editor’s note: The Duke Endowment supports the work of EducationNC.