In addition to being Palm Sunday, yesterday was the day “projections” were announced in my conferences of the United Methodist Church. Let me back up in case you are new to/completely unaware of this.
In the UMC, pastors are under appointment of a bishop (who is also a pastor BTW—but one who has been given and accepted authority to oversee other pastors). So once a year the bishop shares with the pastors in her region whether or not they are moving, as appointments of service in the UMC currently are still year to year. These are called projections because they are not “fixed” (finalized) until the meeting of an entire regional body called Annual Conference. Basically, it’s when pastors announce to congregations if they are staying or leaving and if they are leaving they can share where they are likely going. But wow the jargon. You just don’t realize it until it’s all right in front of you.
So, because I am the way I am this all fascinates me. It is especially interesting to a dork like me because when you move one pastor it sets in motion a series of moves because someone has to come into the position that is being vacated. One move can potentially bring about four or five others—especially when people retire (which they are doing at alarming rates). This is also interesting to me because I like to predict who will go where, and then once things happen I am either shocked that I got something so wrong or pleased that I was correct. It all ends up being like sports with different players and coaches going to different teams.
It occurred to me today that I want to do a radio show about this next year. It seems like it would be perfect to broadcast the news as it comes in and also share commentary like “Billy is moving to St. Bart’s in Dyersburg where he will be following the pastor who baptized him when he was growing up in Fulton.”
I need to start working on sponsorships, but this seems like pure gold to me.
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