GMC talk - Holy Covenant

Introduction

I was a United Methodist before I was a Christian. I am sure there are folks here that can relate. Grew up in the church but came to faith in my 20s. When I surrendered my life to Jesus, I had a lot of questions. The first one was “mom, dad, why are we Methodists?”

“What is a methodist?”

Shrug....

This is a story i have shared in ministry to get a few laughs but over time it dawned on me that this is both paradigmatic for a lot of Methodists and the source of some of my own struggle with the UMC.

We do not know what it means to be Methodist.

There are of course some ugly examples of this that you no doubt may hear. When these examples are brought up the proponents of Staying UMC respond forcefully, reminding us that they do believe in the Bible, in the divinity of Jesus, in the creeds etc. And with an overwhelming majority that is probably true.

But where the idea that “We don’t know what it means to be Methodist” is most compelling, it is when you take any example and survey the room.

Friends, on paper GMC is not much different on paper. The point in all of this is not to rewrite the whole thing but it is to get really clear about our focus and who we are. My hope today is to speak positively about what is forming in the GMC.

Theology

Bishop Lowry: “The GMC will either anchor itself at the very heart of the Christian faith or it will be stillborn.”

The GMC will be committed to the historic faith. If our political turmoil and COVID years has taught us anything....it is that we are not shaping and forming people to BE CHRISTIAN, to live out the Christian life, to have the Mind of Christ.

1. Catechism: anchored to the faith and teaching through the Nicene Creed. Then teaching of Wesleyan characteristics.

2. We will again focus on the New life, (real new birth) found in Christ:

Transforming life in Jesus Christ.

Reclaiming of our theology of sanctification and of holiness:

So much of what fills our churches today is education of the Christian life and very little devotion to living out the Christian life. Furthermore, the pursuit of holiness, which was once penned as the goal of the Christian life by John Wesley, is more an amorphous catchphrase rather than the focus of our church communities. Wesley says this holiness is perfect love: “It is love excluding sin; love filling the heart, taking up the whole capacity of the soul. It is love ‘rejoicing evermore, praying without ceasing, in everything giving thanks’ (The Scripture Way of Salvation, I.9).

Discipline

With a renewed focus on the very doctrines that set the Methodists apart… pursuit of holiness, brings structures of discipline that were vital to the people called Methodists of John Wesley’s day.

Class meetings and bands for example: Empowering people to seek transformation in community with others. To be Methodist once meant you were a member of a class of 10-12 men and women gathering together for prayer and testifying to what God was doing in your life. This means of Grace is lay driven, focusing on raising up disciple-making leaders in our churches.

The band meeting is a place of confession and prayer for 3-4 men with men and women with women.

These structures, as Kevin Watson puts it, help us to begin running the race of the Christian life instead of just buying shoes and reading magazines about what it is to be a runner.

Ecclesial Structure

The Global Methodist Church will not just rethink discipleship structures but also ecclesial structures to pursue this end.

Appointment process will push more responsibility and opportunity into the local church for considering their church’s characteristics, needs and opportunities. The intention is to move away from the yearly appointments and pursue more stable long-term commitments for clergy. Our current denomination has seen the need to move in this direction, the GMC will formally do so.

Appointments will no longer be guaranteed. What was once designed for protection for clergy and particularly persons of color and female clergy, it is now a hampering mechanism that allows for ineffective clergy (or worse) to be passed from church to church.

The District superintendent office will change and get more nimble. Elders will be named presiding elders and continue to lead their church while overseeing smaller “districts”

Bishops, will be elected for a term. Their role would be of course episcopal leadership but more importantly, a return to teaching and defending the faith. This is a historically and biblically faithful change to this office of ministry of oversight.

More can be said here, and others more involved in the transition are helpful. But the most important take away for me, is there is substantial changes that trim the fat of the top-heavy and slow moving bureaucracy, while acknowledging that structure is important. This re-emphasizes the local community.

Evangelism

Finally, and I think most important....the GMC will be committed to evangelism.

GMC leadership setting the vision to plant 3500 churches in the next 7 years. They are seeking partnerships and raising money to begin this work immediately.

Our churches will be focused on evangelism:

Example: A former church, etc.

We will be recommitted to reaching our local context, to bring people to find real transformation and new birth again.

This is not a movement that excludes anyone. But a movement that is actually more inclusive because we are more clear to what we are calling people to.

Come as you are is a bait and switch. To come into community with the triune God at the center, might be to come as you are, but it is to leave completely changed.

In closing:

What does it mean to be a Methodist? Well in the big-tent it means all kinds of things. In theory, a big tent sounds welcoming. But when you consider characteristics of a Methodist:

Theology....and it is stretched across the tent with 100 shades of nuance,

when you take discipline and organizing our communities to follow Jesus and stretch that across the tent then you have all kinds of differences.

Mission and justice, stretched out. ETC…

When we stand for everything, we do not stand for much.

The GMC is not after doctrinal purity, or fundamentalism.....

the GMC is after the Character of a Methodist as John Wesley put it. To be holy in heart and life. And to invite others to the place at the table. Focus in our mission so we might seek the next movement of God for the people called Methodists.

Thank you Covenant family. Praying for you in this time of discernment.