Historic Examination - The General Rules

Question: Do you know the General Rules of our Church? Will you keep the General Rules of our church?
Answer: Yes (though my bishop always adds - what are they?)

There are many pieces of United Methodist doctrine and polity that I deeply appreciate as one who is invested and interested in spiritual formation. Amongst those pieces are the General Rules - known more recently by the title Bishop Job gave them - three simple rules.

On one hand, the general rules of the church are quite simple - Do no harm. Do good always. Stay in love with God. Yet, on the other hand, they can be so complicated to live into.

The summer of my first year of appointed ministry I was commuting back and forth to a hospital 2 hours away for Clinical Pastoral Education - a wonderful program that helps you both become more comfortable with visitation but also, and perhaps more importantly, address your own internal issues that can become stumbling blocks to being an effective and healthy pastor. While there I came to appreciate how hard the Hippocratic oath can be for doctors - sometimes its not easy to tell what is causing harm to your patient and what is not. So it is with doing no harm. Sometimes we confuse doing no harm with keeping everyone happy, which both isn't realistic and isn't effective ministry. The same issue arises, but looks a bit differently, with do good always. Are we seeking to not create any stumbling blocks for people that could hinder their relationship with Christ?

It can also be hard to stay in love with God as a pastor. If you are always the one leading worship, what do you do to worship God? If you are constantly in the Word but are doing so to prepare a message or sermon for someone else, where are you being fed by Scripture? Pastors need to be intentional about staying connected to the life source, Jesus Christ, every single day.

The general rules are helpful because they steer us towards what it means to be a disciple in our every day lives.