"Some have less, some have more. We are all a part of the same guild of practitioners whose job is to live and preach the Gospel in everything we say and do, hopefully making apostles (disciples are just students dependent on the leader for direction and purpose) who we sustain in their important ministries in their everyday jobs, neighborhoods, families, schools and communities. Therefore, every once in a while, I address bishops simply by the title of reverend. But that is only a minor symbol.

"In truth, when we’ve made pastors bishops, we have just given them an appointment beyond the local church. They no longer itinerate the way the rest of us do (this quadrennial thing is almost negligible) and because of that, they are out of the loop as far as what it is like to be a pastor in the 21st century. Except for our making nice when bishops come around and paying our apportionments, we may actually be forgotten. Unless the bishops remember why we made them bishops, which is to put us where we can do the most good as preachers, United Methodism may as well be congregational in structure.

"It behooves us pastors to keep our perspective, too, and be ready to go where we are needed. That is much easier when the bishop knows us and actually cares what we can do and where it needs most to be done. Yes, most of us are general practitioners and can manage wherever we are put, at least for a while. But it is discouraging when the bishop year in and year out really deals with only a few dozen pastors and local churches as if they were the only ones in the conference and either leave the rest of us languishing or simply play ‘fruit basket upset’ because we don’t make a difference.

"The local church is where the rubber hits the road. Pastors that we’ve elected bishops who remember that, who miss having a congregation at Christmas time, who miss the collegiality of clergy in the town/county/section of the city, who miss the joy of weddings and baptisms and confirmation and miss being one of the stabilizing forces during times of heartbreak and grief of illness and death, and who remember the way some people can be so mean-spirited toward pastors, those bishops will find ways to help us. If they are just glad to be ‘out from under,’ and love the limelight without having to work their butts off, I hope they retire as early as possible! And let the rest of us work at doing the Church right."