If you are not connected to my religious tribe, you may be completely unaware of an intense and multilayered conversation that continues to occupy the energy of that portion of the Christian family in which I live out my faith and vocation: The United Methodist Church.

It is a conversation about division and disaffiliation

It is a conversation about orthodoxy and orthopraxy and their relationship to one another.

It is a conversation about human sexuality and what the church will teach about it.

It is a conversation about Biblical holiness and what it means to practice it.

Much of the conversation these days, unfortunately, is accusatory and disparaging in multiple directions, nurtured by those so absolutely certain of their own rightness (about one thing or another) that they feel justified in their methodology. If you pay attention to some of the conversation, you will hear multiple references to the goodness of “blessing one another,” even in the case of disaffiliation. What complicates the work of blessing one another, however, is the absence of both a shared understanding of what it means to “bless” and a shared commitment to stewarding that blessing in a manner that invites generosity and honors accountability. It is a messy set of circumstances, to be sure, made even messier by a widespread eagerness on the part of the church’s people to assume the very worst about one another and to articulate vitriolic viewpoints loudly in the various chambers of social media (where everyone gets to hold a microphone, irrespective of the degree of wisdom, care, or sensitivity with which they use it).

A number of people with whom I have journeyed for many years have already made the decision to leave the United Methodist Church and live out their faith elsewhere. The most publicized motivation behind their departure is their anger over what they believe to be unaddressed violations of the 2016 Book of Discipline’s restrictions concerning the practice of homosexuality—restrictions they believe to be absolutely essential if both the Bible’s teaching and the church’s law are to be honored. (Said one pastoral colleague to me recently, “If denominational leaders had just been faithful about bringing punishment to the violators of the Discipline, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”) Accompanying this desire for more consistently enforced restrictions is a concern that the continuing United Methodist Church may become more permissive and inclusive related to homosexuality, since the denomination includes so many vocal and prominent members who steadfastly point to the harm caused to LGBTQ+ persons by the church’s restrictions and who believe that the broader Biblical emphases upon love and justice must take priority over what they interpret to be contextualized (and therefore flexible) Biblical norms.   

Some have been quick to name other reasons for the disaffiliation—things like Biblical authority, Christology (doctrine related to Jesus), and an exaggerated emphasis on social justice at the expense of doctrine. I am not at all convinced, however, that any of these additional reasons withstand scrutiny, since the denomination’s Doctrinal Standards (which articulate United Methodism’s collectively affirmed understanding of Biblical authority, Christology, doctrine, and social justice) have not changed. Individual United Methodists may attempt to question, challenge, expand, or even reframe these standards—not altogether surprising within a denominational tradition that has historically encouraged both doctrinal rootedness and theological exploration. But the standards remain unchanged, representing both the collective affirmation of United Methodist believers and the time-tested theological ground upon which they stand. These standards are protected by restrictive rules and prominently placed in the current Book of Discipline. I can only conclude, therefore, that matters related to human sexuality remain the primary fuel for disaffiliation conversations, and that any other articulated issues are, at most, secondary considerations and largely dependent upon perceived inconsistencies as to how doctrinal standards are either articulated or enforced (and not dependent upon the doctrinal standards themselves). 

Many of those who have chosen (or are choosing) to disaffiliate from the denomination are people I know personally and love dearly whose faith and ministry have nurtured and shaped my own—pastoral colleagues who have mentored me; parishioners who have graciously walked alongside me; friends with whom I have laughed and cried, celebrated and lamented, worshiped and grown. I acknowledge their deeply held convictions and have no interest whatsoever in arguing with them. Even as I type these words, I am praying fervently for them. Praying for the continued strengthening of their discipleship. Praying for their hearts and minds. Praying that their love for God and neighbor will increase, wherever it is that they land in the denominational spectrum. There is sadness in my spirit over the fact that they have concluded that it is best for them to leave the denomination. (As Retired Bishop William Willimon said in his August 17, 2022 opinion piece in The Christian Century, “the UMC will be weaker when they [disaffiliate]: from the loss of financial resources and [some] of our dearest, most vital congregations and our most creative, entrepreneurial pastors. Progressives will also lose some of their most adept, doggedly persistent, Bible-loving interlocutors…”) My sadness, however, is tempered by my belief that God will continue to work in and through those who disaffiliate in ways that I cannot even begin to imagine. Disaffiliation is certainly not the only lens through which I see them. I hold them deeply in my heart, always with love and gratitude.

As for this pastor and blogger, my conviction about my own place in the Christian Church has never been stronger. 

I will be a part of the continuing United Methodist Church.

Joyfully.

Excitedly.

And with purpose.

When reading those last several words, some may be quick to respond with at least a hint of cynicism: “Of course you will be a United Methodist,” they might be inclined to say. “After all, you are a United Methodist District Superintendent! A ‘company man!’ Your institutional position requires you to toe the party line and offer at least a fabricated loyalty to a flawed institution!”

My decision to remain a United Methodist, however, is the result of neither a reliance upon superficial familiarity nor a penchant for institutional maintenance. Rather, my decision is based upon a two-year season of spiritual searching that included an often-disruptive rhythm of prayer, journaling, fasting, and Bible study. That season of searching produced an entire collection of personal reasons why choosing to be a United Methodist Christ-follower is the only decision I could possibly make about the matter. What follows is a list of ten of those reasons—the ones I believe are most important.

Again, I am not picking a fight with this blog post. I am not seeking to argue with anyone about any of the points I am about to make. I am only offering a portion of my own frail pilgrimage in the hope that what I share will be of some help or encouragement to those of you who find yourself burdened, confused, or perhaps even heartbroken by the current climate within the United Methodist Church.

Here are my reasons:

I am remaining a United Methodist because of United Methodism’s steady understanding of the mind-boggling grandness of God and its deeply-rooted affirmation of God’s Trinitarian nature.

In United Methodism’s Doctrinal Standards (contained in Paragraph 104 of the 2016 Book of Discipline and which are not at all under debate), Article I (of The Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church) articulates with noteworthy boldness and clarity United Methodism’s theological understanding of God’s Trinitarian nature:

There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

I find in those words, and in United Methodism’s ministry in general, a robust and clearly-articulated affirmation of God’s character and nature. The denomination, since its very beginning, has celebrated the mystical oneness of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—not portions, pieces, or products of God, but the persons of God’s very identity, devoted to God’s saving work and joined in a perfect and loving unity that both reflects God’s immeasurable vastness and illuminates the abundant joy that God finds in authentic relationship.

If United Methodism abandoned its understanding of God as Trinity, then an accusation of doctrinal distortion would certainly be appropriate. As the denomination’s Doctrinal Standards make clear, however, United Methodism’s worship of the One who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit remains the foundation of the denomination’s doxology. That is of critical importance to me and to the denomination.

I am remaining United Methodist because United Methodism is unapologetically, urgently, and graciously Christocentric (Christ-centered). 

Whenever I need to be reminded of the urgency and centrality of Jesus in the Christian faith, I normally do two specific things: First, I spend some time with Colossians 1:15-19, where we are told that, “in Christ, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” And second, I revisit Article II of United Methodism’s Doctrinal Standards:

The Son, who is the Word of the Father, the very and eternal God, of one substance with the Father, took man’s nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin…very God and very Man, who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for the actual sins of [humankind].

The richness and succinctness of the lofty Christology communicated by those words was utterly compelling to me as a confirmand back in 1980. It is even more compelling to me today. 

I love being part of a denomination that so clearly names the uniqueness of Jesus and the comprehensive scope of his Lordship. Furthermore, I have come to value greatly United Methodism’s consistent effort to treat its Christology as something to celebrate and share instead of seeing it as a theological weapon to exploit or manipulate.

I am remaining a United Methodist because of United Methodism’s rich and unique theology of grace that both resonates with truth and illuminates the nature of God’s relationship with the world.

United Methodism’s doctrinal heritage and basic Christian affirmations (expressed in Paragraph 102 of the 2016 Book of Discipline) includes the denomination’s uniquely elaborate and descriptive affirmation of the various expressions of God’s saving grace. In those paragraphs, one finds a beautiful description of prevenient grace (“the divine love that surrounds all humanity and precedes any and all of our conscious impulses…and prompts our first wish to please God, our first glimmer of understanding of God’s will…”); and justifying grace (in which “we are, through faith, forgiven our sin and restored to God’s favor”); and sanctifying grace (which is a continuing growth “through the power of the Holy Spirit” and toward a condition of “having the mind of Christ and walking as he walked”).

In this Wesleyan theology of grace, which is one of the grandest portions of United Methodism’s unique contribution to the Body of Christ, grace is seen, not as a product of God, but a saving relationship, occurring entirely at God’s initiative, and engaging us from the first moment of our existence and throughout eternity.

It is this comprehensive understanding of grace that undergirds every portion of United Methodism’s identity. The denomination’s worship life celebrates this grace. Its theology steadily affirms it. And its ministries of disciple-making and social justice bear witness to its conviction that God is tirelessly at word to sanctify both fallen souls and a fallen world.

Indeed, United Methodism names and celebrates an amazing grace. How sweet the sound.

I am remaining a United Methodist because of United Methodism’s longstanding emphasis upon joyful and relational evangelism.

In United Methodism’s theological task (outlined in paragraph 105 of the 2016 Book of Discipline), it is said that “we labor together with the help of God toward the salvation, health, and peace of all people” as we “confess our Christian faith and strive to display the manner in which Jesus Christ is the life and hope of the world.”

Life. Hope. Good News! United Methodism finds joy in the salvation that Jesus offers and believes that we fail to be the church at its best when we are not intentional about sharing—in both word and deed—this Good News with a hurting world. I want to be part of a church like this, a church that embraces and reflects the joyful Good News of Jesus and chooses the way of relational evangelism over the way of spiritual colonialism.

I am remaining a United Methodist because of United Methodism’s unique and beautiful synthesis of personal piety, doctrinal integrity, merciful ministry, and social justice.

Another part of what I cherish about United Methodism is its strong conviction that salvation in Jesus Christ includes a synthesis of several soteriological components, none of which can exist in healthy fashion without the others. United Methodism emphasizes the urgency of maintaining doctrine that is as Biblical as it is cogent. As the denomination’s Doctrinal Standards make clear, “our heritage in doctrine and our present theological task focus upon a renewed grasp of the sovereignty of God and of God’s love in Christ amid the continuing crises of human existence.”

In the United Methodist way of being church, though, doctrine is not the totality of discipleship. Rather, it is the fertile soil out of which a garden must emerge, the vegetation of which includes personal piety and merciful ministry (since “even repentance should be accompanied by ‘fruits meet for repentance,’ or works of piety and mercy”) and social justice (since “Scriptural holiness…is always linked with love of neighbor, a passion for justice, and renewal in the life of the world”). 

I greatly value being part of a denomination that employs such an extensive and holistic approach to both faith and discipleship. Throughout United Methodist history, one finds a unique and noteworthy emphasis upon both orthodoxy (truthful perspective or belief) and orthopraxy (truthful practice or action). In United Methodism, faith and discipleship, while planted deeply in the fertile soil of sound doctrine, are evidenced and nurtured in an ever-expanding garden of sanctification. In such a garden, things like personal piety, merciful ministry, and social justice are not looked upon as optional crops. Instead, they are part of the necessary harvest that God’s sanctifying grace always yields.

With great respect to what other denominations bring to the Body of Christ, I know of no other denomination whose theology of faith and discipleship is so consistently and Biblically holistic.

I am remaining a United Methodist because of United Methodism’s understanding of salvation as being both about the redemption of souls and the transformation of a fallen world that God refuses to abandon.

According to Scripture, God’s salvation includes the deliverance of souls: “For you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 3:9). God’s salvation also includes a participation in God’s initiatives to bring about redemptive transformation in a world often distorted in sin: “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow” (Isaiah 1:17).

Throughout Christian history, these two components have too frequently been separated and pitted against one another—personal salvation versus the redemption of the world; or individual rebirth versus the pursuit of social justice. Part of what I love most about United Methodism is its steady refusal to dichotomize these soteriological streams in a manner that Scripture does not permit. In Scripture, the redemption of the individual and the redemption of the world are never treated as separate or competing realities. Rather, they are two lungs in the same body, each breathing air that the body desperately needs to be fully healthy. United Methodism not only understands this truth. It incarnates it.

I am remaining a United Methodist because United Methodism creates healthy and necessary space for divergent perspectives while affirming the durable and supernatural unity that Jesus Christ makes possible.

It is most certainly true that divergent viewpoints are plentiful in the United Methodist portion of the Body of Christ. Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and others gather together at the United Methodist Communion table. Some United Methodists identify as traditionalist/conservative; others identify as progressive/liberal; still others locate themselves somewhere between the two (depending on the issue being discussed).

And, yes, as has been mentioned, there are divergent perspectives related to homosexuality in the church. Because of what they believe Scripture clearly teaches and timelessly intends, some United Methodists want the church to maintain the conviction that the practice of homosexuality is sin. Other United Methodists, because of what they believe to be the denomination’s unjust prooftexting of the pertinent Biblical passages, want the church to put an end to what they see as the sinful and harmful discrimination against LGBTQ+ persons.

More than a few have lamented and decried the tension and messiness that such divergent perspectives have generated within the denomination. Personally, I am one who chooses to see the redemptive potential and the clarifying energy of this tension. I believe furthermore that United Methodism, over the decades, has interpreted this tension, not as a deal-breaking debate between people who believe in the Bible and people who do not, but as an in-house disagreement between Christ-following and Bible-believing siblings who have come to differing (but not disconnected) conclusions about how the Bible is best interpreted and applied concerning homosexuality. Rather than treating the tension of divergent perspectives as the enemy, United Methodism sees such tension as the necessary byproduct of the earnest search for God’s Truth amid the complexities of a world that groans for its redemption. United Methodism maintains that there is sufficient space for even these divergent convictions within the supernatural unity produced by a shared affirmation of the Lordship of Jesus. 

Quite frankly, United Methodism needs all of its voices—traditionalist, progressive, and centrist—in order to be the church that God is calling it to be. Each segment of the theological spectrum helps the other segments to remember something important that they are probably tempted to forget. I love being part of a church that makes space for the occasional theological tensions produced by differing but deeply held convictions. If such tension is exploited or weaponized, it becomes a doorway to division. On the other hand, if such tension is given healthy air to breathe within the unity that Jesus makes possible, it becomes a functional hermeneutic in the continuing effort to interpret Scripture rightly and to apply it wisely.

I am remaining a United Methodist because of United Methodism’s long history of affirming Scripture as God’s Word while also affirming that tradition, experience, and reason are necessary interpretive lenses that assist the church in its ongoing struggle to proclaim Biblical truth with integrity.

The manner in which a denomination relates to Scripture as God’s Word is far too expansive an issue to be addressed adequately here. What has always spoken to my heart about United Methodism’s approach, though, is its long-held conviction that Scripture is always “primary” in the denomination’s theological reflection (meaning that Scripture is both foundational and of chief importance in the denomination’s understanding of God’s revelation). Accompanying this conviction is United Methodism’s belief that Scripture is never read in a hermeneutical vacuum and that a healthy reading of Scripture demands the interpretive lenses of tradition (i.e., the way in which past disciples and eras have interpreted Scripture), experience (i.e., the way in which conditions, circumstances, contexts, and events interact with Scripture and impact our Biblical interpretations), and reason (i.e., the way in which our expanding knowledge and cognition might help us to understand Scripture and its context even more deeply). 

As United Methodism’s Theological Task phrases it (in paragraph 105 of the 2016 Book of Discipline), “While we acknowledge the primacy of Scripture in theological reflection, our attempts to grasp its meaning always involve tradition, experience, and reason…They quicken our faith, open our eyes to the wonder of God’s love, and clarify our understanding.”

I am grateful to be part of a denomination that honors and reveres the complexity of God’s Word by recognizing that Scripture demands nothing less than careful and rigorous interpretive engagement. 

I am remaining a United Methodist because I embrace wholeheartedly the three general rules that date back to the denomination’s origins and that remain somewhere close to its spiritual heart.

“Do no harm”—A call to live in a way that stands against anything that would lead to the hurting of others, the corruption of circumstances, or the unnecessary fracturing of relationships.

“Do good”—A call to initiate specific actions that bless others, that improve circumstances, that correct injustices and inequities, and that reflect the love of Jesus.

“Attend upon all the ordinances of God”—A call to be consistently attentive to those time-tested and soul-nurturing spiritual disciplines—such as worship, study of Scripture, the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, prayer, and fasting—through which God leads a disciple more deeply into sanctification.

These are the three general rules that have shaped United Methodism’s spiritual environment from the very beginning of the Methodist movement. 

They are broad and God-honoring rules that speak deeply to my heart and awaken my sensibilities to the things that God values most.

It brings joy to my spirit to be part of a denomination that prioritizes a resistance to doing harm, the embracing of doing good, and a commitment to an obedience to God’s ordinances.

I am remaining a United Methodist because United Methodism is my spiritual home and I love it.

Please do not misunderstand me in this. I do not worship a denomination, nor do I bow idolatrously before United Methodism, as though it were an altar unto itself.

United Methodism, though, has been the only spiritual home I have ever known. 

It is where I met Jesus and gave my life to him. 

It is where I learned the hymns of faith, the songs of praise, and the teachings of Scripture.

It is where I experienced the rhythms of worship, first with my faithful parents, and, for the last 35 years, with my beloved wife.

It is where I came to appreciate the communal significance of potluck dinners, congregational picnics, and after-worship coffee hours.

It is where I have served as a pastor under appointment for the last 33 years. 

It is where I have experienced vital relationships with many other faithful believers who have taught and, more importantly, shown me what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. 

United Methodism is not the deity I worship, nor is its existence essential to the purposes of God.

Still, it is my spiritual home. One that I treasure and trust. One that I love and cherish. One that I believe is still uniquely poised to offer vibrant ministry in a way that no other part of the Body of Christ can offer it.

For these reasons, and many others, I am—and will be—a United Methodist Christ-follower.

Joyfully.

Excitedly.

And with purpose.

If you disagree with me in this matter and feel led to leave the denomination, know that I appreciate you and continue to value the connection of our lives.

If, on the other hand, what I have said resonates with your own convictions, know that I am honored to stand alongside you as together we continue in United Methodism’s urgent mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ and to allow God, through us, to transform the world.

Peace.

In the 34^th chapter of Charles Dickens’ sweeping yet incisive novel, “Dombey and Son”—a novel throughout which themes of alienation, separation, and reconciliation run deeply—Dickens, through the voice of a perspicacious narrator, offers this observation:

In this round world of many circles within circles, do we make a weary journey from the high grade to the low, to find at last that they lie close together, that the two extremes touch, and that our journey’s end is but our starting place?

As I reflect upon the long and complex history of the Christian church, it occurs to me that Dickens’ metaphor of “circles within circles” is at least partially applicable to the church’s many schisms. The people of the Church, ostensibly united in their conviction that God has acted uniquely, definitively, and salvifically through the life, ministry, death, and Resurrection of Jesus, have never lacked vigor in finding things over which to separate. Divergent understandings concerning Baptism and Eucharist; contrasting perspectives on the relationship between God’s sovereignty and human agency; opposing viewpoints on Papal authority and church governance; incompatible convictions related to gender roles and race; doctrinal conflicts emerging from differing hermeneutical approaches to Scripture—these things and many others throughout the centuries have resulted in an ecclesiastical complexity in which manifold denominations often function (to borrow Dickens’ imagery) as “circles within circles,” sharing an affirmation of the Christian faith, yet encompassing disparate interpretations of its sacred text, its creeds, and its theological priorities.

It is popular to conceptualize the various denominations as streams that were once a river together but that now flow separately. Frequently, though, I am led to believe that denominations are often more like what Dickens’ narrator describes—circles spinning meaningfully within and around one another, touching one another and thereby reminding those within each circle that “our journey’s end is but our starting place.” If that is at all true, then not even a church schism can eliminate the continuing connection that the separating parties experience within a grander circle. The remembrance of this has been an encouragement to me in recent days.

On May 1, a new Methodist denomination called “The Global Methodist Church” (GMC) experienced its official launch. Seeing itself as the provider of a necessary corrective to what it believes to be the theological and missional distortions of the current United Methodist Church (UMC), the GMC has cultivated a very specific understanding of orthodoxy and its implications.

While the UMC’s continuing disagreements over human sexuality are at the forefront of the GMC’s origins, some within the GMC have asserted that the divide over human sexuality is merely the presenting issue of a much deeper theological crisis within the UMC—a crisis that includes widespread deficiencies in the denomination’s Christology, its understanding of the authority of Scripture, and its theology of holiness. I do not wish to debate the matter in this context. My concern, however, is that the larger theological criticisms articulated by several proponents of the GMC do not represent an accurate characterization of either my personal theology as a United Methodist clergyperson or the theological worldview of the vast majority of United Methodist clergy and laity with whom I serve. This fact leads me to believe that the church’s current schism is primarily fueled, not by a rampant problem with United Methodism’s Christology or its doctrine of Scripture (both of which are clearly and sufficiently described in the UMC’s Doctrinal Standards and General Rules), but by two connected realities: first, a significant and longstanding divide over how best to interpret, understand, and apply the Biblical verses about homosexuality; and, second, clearly divergent convictions about how the UMC should respond to situations of intentional noncompliance with the prohibitions enumerated in its Book of Discipline.

I maintain, then, that the current schism is not a division between Christians and apostates. It is rather a division between faithful followers of Jesus who have come to radically different conclusions about the ways in which the principles and priorities within Scripture are best identified and honored.

Friends and colleagues whom I dearly love and deeply admire have already made the decision to become a part of the GMC. Others will join them in the months and years ahead. These are people whose leadership and ministry have shaped and encouraged me throughout my life beyond what I can capture in words. I hold them in my heart, praying that their discipleship continues to bear vibrant fruit and that their love for God and neighbor grows exponentially in their new denominational context.

Other friends and colleagues have already made the decision to remain in the UMC, which will no doubt become a very different denomination as a result of all that is taking place. These are people whose leadership and ministry have shaped and encouraged me throughout my life beyond what I can capture in words. I hold them in my heart, praying that the integrity of their faith and the joy of their salvation will help the UMC to become more faithfully the church that God is calling it to be.

Other friends and colleagues (and congregations) are currently uncertain of precisely where they will land. These are people whose leadership and ministry have shaped and encouraged me throughout my life beyond what I can capture in words. I hold them in my heart, praying that their discernment in the days and weeks and months ahead will become a time of deepening intimacy with God and increasing clarity about where and how they might best live out their faith.

If this season of new ecclesiastical realities is to unfold in as healthy a way as possible, I believe that the divided but still-beautiful portion of the church called United Methodism will need to embrace several important priorities:

First, we must commit ourselves to the spiritual discipline of refusing to believe the worst about one another. Refuse to believe, for example, that those who choose to remain in the UMC are driven by idolatrous institutionalism or an eagerness to downplay Biblical truth, when, in fact, they may very well be motivated by a deep commitment to denominational legacy and a Biblical hermeneutic that inspires them to prioritize what they believe to be a Christ-honoring justice over an adherence to a Biblical prohibition they believe causes harm. Likewise, refuse to believe that those who choose to become part of the GMC are driven either by legalism or homophobia, when, in fact, they may very well be motivated by the conviction that the church’s integrity and holiness are at stake and that faithful discipleship demands nothing less than a diligent and sacrificial stewardship over one’s own sexuality. In the intense rhythms of schism, it is frighteningly easy to demonize or disparage those whose decisions and perspectives do not align with ours. One of the most reliable ways to guard against this tendency is to pray our way into a stubborn refusal to assume the worst about one another so that what is potentially best about one another might be affirmed instead.

Second, church leaders (Lay Leaders, Bishops, District Superintendents, clergy and laity across the theological spectrum) must commit themselves to the hard work of helping one another into the denominational future to which they feel called. In order for this to happen, they must prioritize accountability, integrity, and graciousness while resisting resentment, territorialism, and punitiveness. In the Annual Conference in which I serve, I am grateful for a Bishop who has consistently expressed her heartfelt desire for people to “land well” wherever it is that they feel called to land. The particulars of what that might mean in present circumstances remain to be discerned. At the very least, however, it will require a shared devotion to doing good, avoiding the doing of harm, and attending upon the ordinances of God. As a District Superintendent, I commit myself to this work and invite you to do the same.

Finally, our part of the church must make peace with the fact that the road ahead will be hard, just as it has already been. Quite frankly, it needs to be hard. Leaving the connectional covenant of the UMC, after all, should not be easy or cost-free. But neither should it feel punitive or exploitive. Likewise, remaining in a changing denomination should not be easy or without sacrifice. But neither should it feel burdened by unnecessary institutional weight. Daily prayer for the church’s ministry and daily acceptance of the hardness of the road before us are nothing less than essential.

In the interest of transparency, I will tell you that I write this post as a Christ-follower and clergyperson who has chosen to remain in the United Methodist Church. In the days ahead, I may write more about how I arrived at this decision, not for the purpose of convincing anyone else, but simply to share deeper portions of my heart, my faith, and my priorities. For now, I will simply ask you to respect my decision, as I respect yours, and to pray for me, as I pray for you.

I return to the words of Charles Dickens:

In this round world of many circles within circles, do we make a weary journey from the high grade to the low, to find at last that they lie close together, that the two extremes touch, and that our journey’s end is but our starting place?

I am praying that the various circles continue to lie close together—close enough to touch, in fact—and that our ending places and starting places are both close to Jesus.

Throughout the years of my childhood and youth, this is the language that I heard the pastor use whenever persons were received into the membership of a United Methodist congregation:

Dearly beloved, the Church is of God and will be preserved to the end of time, for the conduct of worship and the due administration of God’s Word and Sacraments, the maintenance of Christian fellowship and discipline, the edification of believers, and the conversion of the world. All, of every age and station, stand in need of the means of grace which it alone supplies.

In many ways, this language shaped my ecclesiology before I even knew what ecclesiology was. In hearing these words on a regular basis, I came to believe that the church, at its best, is something more than an institution or denomination. In fact, the church is nothing less than God’s sacramental instrument in a fallen world—a Christ-centered and Christ-shaped community that God will preserve “to the end of time.”

I still believe those things about the church. If you are a person of the church, I hope that you believe them too. 

I am inspired to invoke that paragraph from United Methodism’s liturgical history so that it might become the theological backdrop for everything else I am about to write. These are challenging, frustrating, demanding, and at times heartbreaking days for the denominational tribe known as the United Methodist Church. My prayer, however, is that United Methodist Christ-followers will find encouragement in the truth that the Church is well worth the struggle and that the Church “will be preserved to the end of time,” even if we are uncertain at present of exactly what part the United Methodist Church will play in that preserved church.

As most United Methodists have heard, the Commission on General Conference issued a press release last week (Thursday, March 3) stating that the long-delayed 2020 General Conference will be postponed once again, this time until 2024. The following link will take you to the Commission’s press release in its entirety:

https://www.umc.org/en/content/general-conference-further-postponed-to-2024

This news, while perhaps somewhat anticipated, has fallen heavily on the hearts of many persons throughout the denomination, irrespective of where they might locate themselves in the theological spectrum. In a meeting that I attended recently, one pastor phrased it this way: “I feel like we are stuck in an administrative quagmire that is preventing us from doing the ministry that we are called to do. And the mechanism for getting out of the quagmire has just been pulled away from us for another two years.”

Even those who were less enthusiastic about the proposed Protocol for Separation (a portion of separation legislation upon which the General Conference was to have voted) are feeling the pain of this most recent postponement. “I will be a United Methodist come what may,” said a lay person to me this week. “But I hate the thought of people in the United Methodist Church feeling like they are being held hostage by a denomination that they no longer feel called to be a part of.”

As a District Superintendent in the denomination, and as one who has served gratefully at various levels of United Methodism over the last 33 years, I hold the dynamics of the current situation deeply in my spirit. Like many, I too am weary with the waiting, even as I cling to my conviction that God is still redemptively at work in the nooks and crannies of the struggle. I am also weary of the cynicism and rancor that many are all too eager to embrace in their frustration. Wherever it is that I have been either an agent of such cynicism and rancor or its inspiration, I offer prayers of repentance, even as I type these words.

A second announcement made last week concerns an updated launch date for a new traditionalist Methodist denomination called the Global Methodist Church. Leaders had originally planned to launch the new denomination later in 2022 in conjunction with the General Conference that was to have been held in late August and early September. Motivated by the most recent postponement of General Conference, the Global Methodist Church has moved up its launch date to May 1, 2022.

What does all this mean for United Methodists in the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference and elsewhere? 

Given the fact that this news is so recent, denominational and conference leadership is still in the process of responding to it. The Council of Bishops met last week and will meet again this week for the purpose of clarifying information and achieving consensus on how to lead the denomination in a manner that addresses the current circumstances and navigates their implications. The episcopal leaders of the Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Susquehanna Annual Conferences (Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi and Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball) have kept their Cabinets up to date on the general progress of these important meetings while guarding completely the confidentiality of the meetings’ specific content. I am confident that reliable guidance and leadership from the Bishops will be offered in the days, weeks, and months ahead. I invite your patience in that regard.

Worth noting is that coordinated, sustained, and prayerful work has been done in the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference over the last year to envision, develop, and, I hope, eventually propose some strategic ways forward for the Conference related to the current denominational division. While I cannot share the particulars of this work (since the work is still in process), I know that the work has taken place at Bishop Moore-Koikoi’s initiative and with her active involvement, and that the participants in this work include traditionalist, centrist, and progressive laity and clergy, all of whom have voiced a commitment to helping the people of our Annual Conference to “land well,” no matter what happens in the denomination. I am deeply encouraged by the fact that Western Pennsylvania’s Bishop and Conference leaders have been forward-thinking enough to begin strategic conversations about how this Conference can approach denominational realities in a manner that is attentive and gracious to all parties. With you, I look forward to more detailed information about this work when that information becomes available.

I am also encouraged by the fact that Bishop Moore-Koikoi and her Cabinet (including this District Superintendent) are wholeheartedly committed to providing the kind of leadership and assistance that will help the laity and clergy of Western Pennsylvania to navigate the complex territory that is before us. We are seeking to lead in a manner that, in accordance with our tradition’s “three simple rules,” avoids the causing of harm, manifests the doing of good, and prioritizes an attendance upon the ordinances of God.

As the dust settles upon recent developments in the denomination, I encourage the United Methodists who are reading these words to commit themselves to those practices that best reflect the love of Jesus and the integrity of our Gospel:

• Pray with fasting and a renewed sense of urgency for our part of the Body of Christ called the United Methodist Church. Even if you are unsure of exactly how to pray at this point, spend daily time in wordless attentiveness to the presence of God on behalf of the denomination, allowing the Holy Spirit to intercede on your behalf and to translate the deepest groans of your soul into articulate petitions. Pray for the members of the Commission on General Conference as they process the various reactions to their recent decision. Pray for the Council of Bishops (including Bishop Moore-Koikoi) as they discern how best to lead. Pray for the entirety of the denomination in a without-ceasing kind of urgency, that we might become more vibrantly and faithfully the church that God is calling us to be.
• Engage in the essential spiritual work of providing non-anxious leadership among anxious people. Some of the people in your church will approach these matters with fear, anger, and perhaps even resentment. Amid such responses, behave in a manner that helps those around you to envision what it looks like to rest and live in God’s peace, even when the circumstances feel less than peaceful.
• Model consistently a graciousness that stubbornly refuses to dismiss, belittle, or demonize the viewpoints and perspectives with which you disagree. Remember that the divide in United Methodism is not a divide between people who love Jesus and people who don’t, or between people who believe in the Bible and people who don’t. Rather, it is a divide between faithful Christ-followers who have arrived at significantly different conclusions about how the Bible is to be read, interpreted, understood, and applied. I am not suggesting that each conclusion is equally right. I am simply calling for agapic love across the theological divide and a stubborn refusal to weaponize one’s own sense of certainty. 
• Be intentional about caring for those voices and hearts in your church that might reflect a minority viewpoint that runs counter to your church’s majority perspective. In most if not all of our United Methodist congregations, there is a spectrum of thought that includes a diversity of convictions. While many congregations may have a dominant theological viewpoint, it is unlikely that it is unanimously affirmed.
• Remember that there are LGBTQ+ persons who are part of your congregation or who are connected to your church, community, or family who feel particularly vulnerable and who bear with great pain the emotional wounds and scars of this ongoing divisive conversation. Irrespective of your theological stance, look for ways to incarnate an intentional ministry of love and care on behalf of the LGBTQ+ persons in your network of relationships.
• Help the people of your church to cultivate the kind of patience that will prevent them from acting irresponsibly or hastily (ahead of pending guidance from episcopal and denominational leadership) and that will enable them to practice discernment at a healthier pace. I realize that a call for patience might sound unhelpful and even offensive to those who feel they have been waiting too long already for an intended outcome. In my experience, however, significant and trajectory-altering transitions demand much more time than many are willing to afford to them. It is the responsibility of experienced leaders to set a pace and tone that make holistic discernment a greater possibility.
• Stubbornly resist anything like cynicism during these days, since cynicism both distorts our spiritual vision and stifles the joy of our salvation.
• Finally, amid denominational division, help the people of your church not to get sidetracked or distracted to the point that they lose their focus on the church’s mission, which remains as urgent and critical as ever: Making disciples of Jesus Christ and equipping them to offer transformational love, ministry, and witness to a fallen and hurting world.

Within my network of friendships and certainly within the ministry of the United Methodist Church, there are Conservatives/Traditionalists whom I dearly love and who will eventually find their way into the Global Methodist Church; there are Liberals/Progressives whom I dearly love and who feel strongly called to become a very different kind of church than that which the Global Methodist Church envisions; and there are those whom I dearly love who locate themselves somewhere in what might be described as “the wide center,” holding strong convictions but refusing to treat them as either theological litmus tests or a compelling reason to divide.

I am praying daily and fervently for the many souls in all three of these categories, believing that the unity we share in Jesus Christ is durable and trustworthy enough to permit hearts to connect even over significant theological differences and perhaps even different denominational identities.

I conclude where I began, with a portion of the church’s liturgy that speaks powerfully into the circumstances in which we find ourselves:

Dearly beloved, the Church is of God and will be preserved to the end of time, for the conduct of worship and the due administration of God’s Word and Sacraments, the maintenance of Christian fellowship and discipline, the edification of believers, and the conversion of the world. All, of every age and station, stand in need of the means of grace which it alone supplies.

May the truth of those words resonate loudly in the hearts of United Methodists, that their discipleship might reflect unwavering integrity and that their church might illuminate the very priorities of God.

 

 

There were beautiful parts of this year’s session of the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, held on the campus of Grove City College. These beautiful parts to which I refer practically brought me to my knees in grateful prayer:

The sound of over a thousand voices singing grand songs of praise during worship;

The ordination and commissioning of precious souls who are as gifted as they are called;

A Retiree Celebration that provided a heartwarming honoring of retirees, all of whom have served the church with faithfulness, creativity, and integrity for a long, long time;

A Memorial Service that celebrated the lives of our conference’s honored dead, who breathed their last breath during this last year (but who, at present, are more alive than they have ever been);

Preaching that elevated my spirit and illuminated the goodness of Jesus;

Testimonies that reminded me of the transformational impact of the Gospel;

Youth whose vibrancy regularly inspired a sense of abundant life;

The setting of pastoral appointments for another year of ministry;

The leadership of a Bishop who teaches me something every time she leads;

Moments of prayer and tender conversation with amazing people, many of whom I only get to see once a year;

Friends (like Joel Garrett and Erica Rushing) going out of their way to minister compassionately to my spirit.

In the aftermath of Annual Conference, some participants make it a sport to denigrate the entire experience, which always feels to me like both the mistreatment of a portion of sacred ground and a dishonoring of many people who sacrificed a great deal of time and energy to put the experience together. Our collective heart would probably beat in healthier fashion if we began with gratitude rather than cynicism.

I will certainly acknowledge, however, that I experienced great pain at Annual Conference this year—perhaps a deeper and more unsettling pain than I had ever experienced in that context. I know that I am not alone in that. Progressives experienced the pain. So did Traditionalists. So did the LGBTQ+ community and its advocates. Many things led to the pain, not the least of which was a burgeoning sense of a division among people related to the denomination’s official position on homosexuality—that homosexuality “is incompatible with Christian teaching,” which has led the denomination to continue its prohibition of the ordination of self-avowed practicing homosexuals and the hosting of same sex weddings in United Methodist sanctuaries.

Traditionalists maintain that this position represents a necessary honoring of orthodoxy and the Biblical understanding of marriage. Progressives assert that it represents an institutionalized bigotry and a marginalization of people based on an irresponsible adherence to biblical legalism. This spirit of division manifested itself dramatically this last week at Annual Conference, particularly around the work of electing our delegates to the 2020 General and Jurisdictional Conferences. At those 2020 Conferences, the issues of human sexuality and denominational structure will once again figure prominently.

The following are my personal reflections on what transpired this last week. There is nothing official or sacrosanct about these reflections. Nor am I insisting on my own rightness. (There is already way too much of that going on.) I offer these reflections simply to broaden the conversation, deepen our shared sense of accountability, and hopefully clarify my own heart on some of the matters at hand.

Here are my reflections.

We elected a remarkably gifted and extraordinarily faithful delegation to the 2020 General and Jurisdictional Conferences. The clergy and laity on the delegation bring strong convictions, abundant giftedness, and a wealth of experience. They will serve the church faithfully, prayerfully, and with a comprehensive devotion. I am honored to be alongside them in the work of the delegation, and I will learn much from them. They are my friends, and many of us have stood together in important places over the years. I have been praying for them since the moment they were elected. I am particularly grateful that Rev. Alyce Weaver Dunn is the chair of the delegation. Her stellar leadership will be a profound blessing to all of us. In fact, it already has been.

We elected a delegation that does not reflect (or represent) the complexity and theological diversity of Western Pennsylvania. This is where the pain begins. In a time when people feel a sense of urgency about clarifying boundaries and battle lines, tension is heightened and processes become distorted, or at least exaggerated. This year, the exaggeration at hand is a delegation that is disproportionately Traditionalist. This fact takes nothing away from the gifted delegates we elected. It simply generates a marginalizing and disenfranchising sense of voicelessness on the part of many in Western Pennsylvania who feel that their convictions will not be valued or honored fully, particularly at General Conference. The delegation will need to be attentive to this.

The 16 people from the delegation who will travel to the 2020 General Conference in Minneapolis (12 delegates and 4 alternates) include one Asian American and no African Americans—meaning that, in the election process, we were not as attentive to racial diversity as we have been in the past. I do not believe that this reflects intentional racism on anyone’s part. Please hear that. But there is such a thing as institutional racism—a systemic devaluing of racial minorities that finds expression when processes and systems bend toward a particular strategy that ultimately excludes or marginalizes people of color (such as when an election process becomes fixated on a particular theological perspective at the expense of fair and necessary representation). A posture of privilege might inspire some to dismiss this point as irrelevant. My sense, however, based upon several personal conversations, is that many African American United Methodists in Western Pennsylvania experienced a deep sense of institutional harm at Annual Conference. We dare not allow ourselves to become dismissive or cynical about that.

The Wesleyan Covenant Association of Western PA, a strategic Traditionalist group in the Conference, mobilized effectively and had a significant impact on the elections of delegates. In fact, the six clergy and six laity elected to General Conference were precisely the twelve people that appeared on the WCA’s list of endorsed possible candidates. In Western Pennsylvania, many women and men whom I greatly admire and whose leadership I value have become members of the WCA because their deeply held convictions and prayerful discernment have led them in that direction. Which is to say, it is not my intention to demonize the WCA or its leadership. But I will express this heartfelt concern: There is always the potential for great relational and spiritual harm whenever any group, irrespective of its theological persuasion, begins to have a disproportionately weighty influence on the decisions of a community. In such cases, the group often becomes a self-appointed arbiter of discernment, which can only result in a truncated collection of priorities. While I respect the WCA’s convictions, I hope that we as an Annual Conference will recognize the urgency of making certain that we avoid the kind of one-dimensionalism that ignores the reality of who we are.

The Wesleyan Covenant Association of Western PA, in one of its recent letters, singled out five leaders in Western Pennsylvania for whom NOT to vote in the elections for General and Jurisdictional Conferences: Sharon Gregory (our Conference’s faithful Lay Leader); Diane Miller (a longtime overseer and supporter of Missions in the Conference); Amy Wagner (our Conference’s multi-gifted Director of Congregational Development and Revitalization); William Meekins (former District Superintendent and Assistant to the Bishop, current pastor, and one of the most courageous voices for Christ-centered justice that this Annual Conference has ever known); and, finally, yours truly (a humble District Superintendent who is simply trying to keep it real). We were put on the list of “objectionables” because, at the 2019 Special Session of the General Conference, we stood in support of what the WCA describes as the “progressive” (an adjective that I find inaccurate) One Church Plan—a plan for which I did indeed vote. Of all the plans that remained, I saw the One Church Plan as the best option to ensure the existence of a denomination that could make space for a diversity of perspectives on matters that, in my opinion, do not strike at the root of Christianity. I also saw the One Church Plan as an opportunity to remove language from the Book of Discipline that, irrespective of the righteousness of our intentions, has become weaponized against a segment of humanity that has already been marginalized and excluded.

Because of the way we voted, five of us made the WCA block-list. This was not a hatchet job on the part of the WCA. They did not disparage our character and made clear in the letter that we are loved (which I appreciated). But it was indeed a calculated political maneuver rendered for the purpose of keeping out of the General Conference voting the voices of leaders whose convictions on human sexuality might not be in alignment with the WCA’s corporate understanding of orthodoxy. I suspect that members of the WCA would defend themselves by saying that, since their goal was to preserve what they understand to be orthodoxy by influencing who gets elected, the end justifies the means. But there is a destructive consequence when a group moves intentionally from “please consider voting for these people” to “please DO NOT vote for THOSE people.” Such a tactic corrupts community, undermines both the integrity and the potential of colleagues, and elevates hegemony over orthodoxy.

I hope that the members of the WCA, no matter how justified they feel in their actions, understand that their block-list was wounding to the people named. It felt like a punitive response to our commitment to do exactly what we were entrusted by the Annual Conference to do as delegates in 2019—specifically, to vote our prayerful conscience with the most attentive discernment that we could bring to the table. As a member of the larger delegation for 2020, my challenge now is to open my heart to some wonderful people on the delegation whom I dearly love but who may be connected to a WCA that publicly advocated for my not being elected to the very delegation of which I am now a part. I pray that my friends on the delegation (and my friends in the WCA) will hear my heart and join me in the vulnerability of navigating this complex territory.

Finally, I will share with you once again some words that I wrote in the immediate aftermath of the Special Called Session of the General Conference in February. They are words about what I am choosing to believe at present:

I choose to believe that my Traditionalist friends are driven, not by hatred, homophobia, or bigotry, but by their conviction that souls, eternity, and biblical truth are at stake.

I choose to believe that my Progressive friends are driven, not by irreverence toward Scripture or by an eagerness to accommodate cultural trends, but by an unwavering passion for a history-altering liberation and justice to which they believe the ministry of Jesus absolutely points.

I choose to believe that my Centrist friends (and, yes, I believe that there is a Center place in all of this) are driven, not by a refusal to “choose a side,” but by the belief that the saving grace of Jesus Christ makes possible a wide and durable unity in which divergent viewpoints can breathe the same healthy air.

I choose to believe that my LGBTQ+ friends are driven, not by a desire to diminish the church’s emphasis on sexual holiness, but by their recognition of the fact that their sexual identity is an integral part of their personhood and by their desire to be seen, not as an “issue” or as a group of “incompatibles,” but as souls within the Body of Christ who are called, gifted, and equipped and who long for relational covenants and spiritual wholeness like all the rest of us.

Most importantly, I choose to believe that Jesus is still Lord, and that God cares about the ministry and mission of the United Methodist Church even more than we do—FAR more than we do, in fact. Furthermore, I choose to believe that our current struggle has not taken us beyond the boundaries of what God can redeem, reshape, reconfigure, and restore.