On Jan 3, 2020, a diverse group of United Methodists assembled by Sierra Leone Bishop John Yambasu unveiled their carefully negotiated proposal to the 2020 UMC General Conference to help United Methodism split into two streams. One prominent left-of-center blogger called the whole thing 'bonkers.' I disagree with that assessment.
The proposed plan is bold. It represents amazing mediation on the part of Ken Feinberg. It properly recognizes that traditionalist delegates hold considerable power in the wake of the 2019 GC vote. And the deal was sealed with a group photo of the most diverse array of United Methodists I have ever seen all smiling simultaneously in the same moment.
The proposal (and more importantly, the good faith exercised to produce it) is anything but bonkers. It is a ray of hope.
Let's talk about bonkers. The United Methodist status quo is bonkers - a fun house with seemingly no exit - that has become a house of horrors for all parties. Church was never intended to go like this. The proposal, unveiled Jan 3, 2020, seeks to provide an exit for all from a truly bonkers situation.
The proposal will be vetted by the denomination's Judicial Council before any delegates arrive in Minneapolis in May. If changes and tweaks are needed, they will be made before General Conference. Some delegates will have heartburn over this or that - but my gut tells me that the majority are ready to exit the fun house.
On the other side of all this drama, after the champagne stops flowing, two (or more) denominations are going to awaken to discover there is a lot of work to do. While the UMC has been distracted with LGBTQ+ issues for the last however many decades, the world has changed. Our churches, both progressive and traditionalist, are increasingly isolated from their neighborhoods. So many issues, both evangelistic and prophetic, have been inadequately addressed while we debated sexuality ad nauseum.
In terms of the prophetic, I still mourn the lost opportunity, in 2014, for the Council of Bishops, to rally the denomination (left and right) around an agenda of anti-racism in the wake of the Ferguson, Missouri crisis. The UMC was, for the most part, crickets chirping silent. We as a denomination could have convened conversation circles of law enforcement and persons of color for deep listening all across the land. Instead, we were focused on finding our own 'way forward': an exercise in institutional denial and internal naval gazing that could be compared to the Russian Orthodox debate on clerical vestments during the 1917 Communist Revolution. Bonkers.
In terms of the evangelistic, most of our churches are slowly dying. Dying churches typically offer little help to the society at large, as an ever higher percentage of resources flows into aging buildings and institutional survival. And yet, we continue to dabble with mild-tweak revitalization, when our churches need CPR. Bonkers.
While the Path 1 initiative briefly doubled the rate of church planting in the UMC, much more must be done to help our churches more effectively engage their neighbors with the gospel of Christ. I am hopeful that the birth of the new traditionalist denomination will kickstart new ministry development in the Wesleyan tradition like Methodists have not seen in 150 years. So many leaders on the traditionalist side of things have a heart for reaching their neighbors with the Christian good news. I am hopeful that in the remnant UMC, that the movement we call Fresh Expressions can move beyond light fellowship and mission to more robust and sacramental expressions of Christian faith. I see great possibility for a learning partnership between the new UMC and the British Methodists in the work of pioneering new faith communities. (Epicenter Group is working right now with the best and brightest all across the UK: their ministry innovators have lots to teach us!)
In terms of mission, once we get this denominational business sorted out, I am hopeful that we can roll up our sleeves and work across denominational lines with one another in disaster relief and in certain spheres of justice advocacy. In short, I look forward to us getting on with being the church, after obsessing with a single issue for far too long.
I am hopeful in this Epiphany season! I see Land on the horizon - emerging through the fog, a Land beyond Bonkers! Can you see it?
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