Where is Our United Methodist Church Headed?
Many of us have been hearing about “The Way Forward” and the upcoming called General Conference. We’re all concerned and I want this article to be a neutral one that explains all sides. Please read it and understand that the opinions are those of the named individuals and no one will know how the 2019 General Conference will turn out until after the conference is held.
Christopher Ritter says this about the 2019 General Conference:
- The Traditional Plan reaffirms our denominational teachings on marriage.
- The One Church Plan redefines marriage in our denomination.
- The Connectional Conference Plan restructures our denomination based on different understandings of marriage.
Emily Allen says “the voting delegates will debate the legislation proposed to implement various plans and vote for the option we think is best for the Church. The One Church Plan is focused on maintaining unity across the denomination while allowing for an increase in LGBTQ inclusion in those areas interested in doing so. This Plan allows for every annual conference to decide whether it will or won’t ordain gay and lesbian pastors, every clergy person to decide whether they will or won’t marry same-gender couples, and every church to decide whether it will or won’t allow same-gender weddings in its building. On the positive side, church trials against gay and lesbian pastors or pastors who perform same-gender weddings would end. On the concerning side, gay and lesbian folks who feel a call to ministry but could not be ordained in their region would have to decide between ignoring that call or uprooting their lives and moving elsewhere to go into ministry.”
Mark Holland says “the United Methodist church is not facing “schism” so much as “splinter” from one well-organized group. Since WCA (Wesley Covenant Association) has a vision for ministry and has expressed a desire to leave for several years, it would be more credible if they simply negotiated with the church the terms of their departure. Their splinter group could make plans to leave without dragging the entire United Methodist Church through the drama of General Conference. They continue to lobby for “exit” provisions which impact the whole church with catastrophic implications for our Trust Clause and Pensions. Most importantly, we should not let one splinter group set the agenda for the General Conference. Our families, our local churches, and our denomination have disagreed on a whole host of issues through the years, but we agree that we want to maintain the global unity of our church to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”
David Scott has narrowed down the scope of the Plans. The Committee on Reference ruled that all three Plans submitted by the Commission of the Way forward are in harmony with the call (The purpose of the called General Conference). That means the One Church Plan, Connectional Conference Plan and Traditional Plan will be the major options of the General Conference. There is a major number of petitions that will be presented in addition to the Plans.
Lloyd Tichaenda Nyarota has written an interesting article titled the “Real United Methodist Crisis: Loss of U.S. Power to the Growing Church in Africa.” He states that “in recent years the number of African delegates keep increasing by each General Conference and the USA numbers continue to go down. The growth in Africa is changing power dynamics and those who initially had power over decisions taken at General Conference feel threatened by those who were segregated a few years ago. Fearing that they are losing power and unable to influence people who articulate views independently, they have now opted to dissolve the denomination and leave. Lloyd says “I believe General Conference should not consider any exit plan other than what we have now as ruled by the Judicial Council. There is already a process if any feel like they want to leave the United Methodist Church.” Lloyd says at the end of his article, “When it comes to the plans before the 2019 General conference, I see the One Church Plan as the plan that would help the church focus on the mission of making disciples for the transformation of the world rather than using resources to fight unending battles in the church.”
Sarah Rehret shares another view from Ron Renfroe. Renfroe says that the Traditional Plan is most likely to pass as it continues what has been approved by every General conference since 1972.” Rohret says it’s time for the Progressive Movement to put forth a vision that is larger than human sexuality. “Although any Progressive Methodist vision must certainly include a clearly stated sexual ethic, we need more than that to be a movement that is committed to mission and ministry. A new vision would reject the power of evil in this world and stop the oppression of the environment. Progressives might encourage solar panels on every church roof, recharging stations in every church parking lot and make gardening as common as church activity as Sunday School. The new vision for the church would be to transform our racist society by committing to this work. Finally, the new vision could amend the baptismal vow of promising to serve Jesus as our Lord in union with the Church, which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations and races by adding “genders and sexual orientations”.
As you can see by all of these different ideas and opinions – the 2019 General Conference will be filled with different petitions and different ideas about which plan is best. The College of Bishops has said the best plan is the One Church Plan. Ron Renfroe thinks the Traditional Plan has the best chance of passing. No one knows for sure! Emily Allen makes a lot of sense when she says, “But there’s one other thing that I know. I saw the Holy spirit break through at the last two General Conferences. The Holy spirit acted in ways that we could not plan for – could not even imagine and ask for – yet every time it brought forth a fresh breath and a new possibility for the Church.”
I hope you will join me in discovering all we can about these plans and praying for each of the delegates to General Conference. I ask that you daily pray that the Holy spirit will break though and lead us to be the “Church” God wants us to be.