June 16, 2005

I’ve been wondering who The Wesleyan Church’s GBA will elect as General Superintendent to replace Dave Holdren who is going back to his old church in Ohio October 1 due to a family tragedy. He’s not leaving because he isn’t getting along with anyone or doesn’t like the job—I think he loves it. But he is returning to his home church due to the tragic and sudden death of one of their sons-in-law, Stephen Hanks, husband of their daughter, Marsha.

I love national politics and hang around with political science professors at IWU. I also love the church and my denomination. So I can’t help but merge these two interests when an election comes up like this. (I am one who does not think “politics” is a bad thing in the church—unless we eliminate human choice and draw straws it cannot be avoided). A decade ago I left denominational political life and one of the things I miss is speculating on these things every day at 8:45 when we all had coffee together. I was even interested in the Pope’s election this year and read Time magazine’s description of the candidates with keen interest. Well, my denomination doesn’t have a pope—we have a tripartite arrangement of three equal “General Superintendents.” But some of the same issues that figured into the Pope’s election could influence this one so it’s fun to speculate (I presume Time magazine won’t be covering the candidates for this job—so I’ll do it here).

Of course I expect some spiritually superior reader to scold me for political speculation like this and they’ll chide me saying, “You should be praying instead of speculating.” I’d rather do both. So while praying in private I’ll speculate in public. Here are my “morning after” pondering the morning after hearing the news of Dave Holdren’s resignation. It is of course all speculation and I speak for nobody. I’m just having fun like 60 year old retired-from-political-life old codgers are allowed to do. So here goes:

WHO ARE THE CANDIDATES?

I don't see too many clear DSs coming to the forefront in this election.

Of course Steve Babby is king of all DSs past and present and if he wanted to wind up his career as a GS he might make a strong run for it—but Steve’s become more a source of wisdom and mentoring to the church than a GS candidate, he’s a “senior statesman” now—I wish he’d write a column too! Too, would he want to move from California? Would Barb? Babby is clearly the “best DS in the denomination” so if there would be a DS candidate he should be it, but I doubt he’d want to be GS. I also doubt H. C. Wilson would run again—by now he has been elected and left the job enough times to know he doesn’t want to be GS (there’s another job I think he might take, but more on that later). Harry Wood has the most sterling character in the church in my opinion and should be a GS right now—but he was elected but only stayed a year so I don’t think enough has changed for him to consider it again. A few other rising star DSs have “crashed and burned” in past GBA-GS interviews so they are probably out of the picture too. There is one DS who fancies himself a rising GS, but that’s all it is—fanciful thinking almost exclusively in his own mind and he should go back and… well, never mind. I may be missing some other DS here that are credible candidates, but on “the morning after” Holdren’s resignation I see no DS yet very big on the screen yet.

There are some pastors that might make a run.

After all, Dave Holdren was considered the “Pastor’s GS” and came directly to the position from the church he’s going back to. Will the church trade one pastor-GS for another? I suppose it could consider Paul Hontz who has served several hundred years at Holland Central Church and maybe doesn’t want to stay at Holland the rest of his still-long life ahead? Paul is good leader though a novice politician—he’d not even know how to respond to people testing the wind, but being so non-political might be an advantage for him, maybe the people are weary of coy political answers? I suppose Steve DeNeff is a strong pastor-candidate too. He has strong currency with the grass roots pastors and is undoubtedly the only preacher in our church equal or better than Earl Wilson. But he may still be stronger with the grass roots than the GBA and I’m not sure DeNeff’s “ladder is leaning against that wall.” Of course Jim Garlow could make a great run for GS if he wanted it and would be a dandy candidate of the conservatives but I doubt Garlow, (like John Maxwell before him) might want to move to a job where you are one of three equals.

There are two insiders:

I suspect there are two major insider candidates. This insider race may look a lot like the election of a pope—is the GBA leaning conservative or liberal? What did the “Australia decision” and other decisions tell us and how will that figure into this election? Will the two forces—conservative and progressive—on the GBA use this election to make a statement to the church, like happened with the Pope? They might and the two insiders, while closer than people imagine, represent two directions in a way. Don Bray is finished with Missions in 2008 and is already a leading candidate for GS in three years. He has already sort of “announced” that he won’t be available for the Missions job in 2008. He could go into the GS office three years early and have seven years in the office instead of four (of course one never knows how many years a GS will stay—once you are elected you can stay forever if you’re willing to accept a steadily declining vote, as the recent decades has shown). I bet Don Bray will run strong with people who want to shake things up and liberalize the church making it more progressive, seeker-friendly, and evangelistic. Some fear he is a “loose cannon” of sorts but his supporters say, “Are you really worried that a General Superintendent’s cannons can ever be too loose? If Bray left Missions I bet H. C. Wilson might be a candidate for that job—he’s had his heart in missions for several decades and some think that’s why he could never be happy as a GS. If Bray goes in to the GS spot will H. C. Wilson may be the candidate to replace Bray?
However there is another insider: Jerry Pence. He is a solid man and a stable leader. The insider people who fear Don Bray’s non-screwed-down cannon will go for Jerry I bet. Jerry Pence’s present job has knocked some of the spunk out of him (face it, being a general officer in the last two decades does that to a person). But Jerry is a solid “company man” who will be an exceptionally strong insider candidate. I bet he has more pastoral experience than Don Bray but people sometimes treat Jerry as more of a bureaucrat than Bray so that may give Bray an edge. I suppose if I were giving odds on the two insiders I’d give Bray the edge over Pence at the starting gate—and of course some will say, “Pence will have another chance later.” Maybe Jim Dunn is a third insider, I suspect he may have a slim chance maybe 2%, but I bet he’d be stronger with the grass roots than with the GBA, after all the grass roots put him into the Spiritual Formation department over the “GBA’s man” just a year ago. But I doubt the GBA will go for Dunn now in spite of his powerful Dunn family connections.

But there’s a huge looming outsider-insider

The one person who is both an outsider and an insider is JoAnne Lyon. Earle Wilson has already anointed her as his successor in 2008—he did so at the last general conference. (If we have one leader-picker in the church it is Earle Wilson. Sometimes he picks people and makes them a leader by anointing and promoting them. At other times he picks someone who is already a destined leader and “anoints the inevitable.” I think he did the second with JoAnne Lon at General Conference in 2004.) I think JoAnne is about the same age as Don Bray but age is different for women than men. Women often kick-start their “careers” later than men. For women the ages 65-70 are prime years. Male leaders are usually winding down (or already coasting) in their 60’s (though you can’t accuse Don Bray of coasting). Women are running circles around en in their 60’s even the aggressive ones. However, nobody should support JoAnne Lyon because she is a woman. She should be supported because she is a leader—maybe the only leader as strong or stronger than Earle Wilson. Some will worry that she’s can’t be replaced in her present job leading World Hope, but of course that’s silly since she will have to be replaced anyway sooner or later. Everyone is replaceable (this is another job H. C. Wilson could be open to if you are in the HCW party.) And if JoAnne Lyon became a GS she could still mentor whomever takes over at World Hope—she could be a “Chancellor” of sorts for World Hope—as long as she breathes she’ll be that anyway. I think JoAnne Lyon will be the insider-outsider candidate for this job.

So which one would I vote for? I’m with Earle Wilson’s speech at General Conference last year—I’d vote for JoAnne Lyon. I wonder if she’d take it?

Unsigned responses to this column will be published on June 30

--Keith Drury

June 15, 2005