United Methodist Hope

United Methodist theologian Bill Arnold of Asbury Seminary, who was a key legislative committee chair at last month’s General Conference, shared his hope for United Methodism when speaking to the Virginia Conference Evangelical Fellowship last Friday June 17 in Roanoke, which I was fortunate to attend:

I have heard of some United Methodists who are discouraged and feeling hopeless because of what they have read in the mainstream media or social media about General Conference. Some of you may be tempted, or may be planning even now, to leave our church, because you believe the Council of Bishops’ “Special Commission” has been empowered to change our church in ways you believe are not consistent with orthodox Christianity or with our Methodist heritage.

I want to say to you – this is not the time to jump ship. This is the time to wait, to pray, and to allow the process to unfold. I have three reasons for saying this. First, the Bishops’ commission has no authority to change anything on its own. It will make recommendations to the General Conference, either to a called General Conference in 2 or 3 years, or to the 2020 General Conference. Second, this General Conference has demonstrated that United Methodism is not like other mainline Protestant churches of North America. Methodism made a statement in Portland. Of all those non-Roman Catholic churches, we’re the ones who still have deep roots in the English reformers and in our Anglo-Catholic heritage. I’m not necessarily speaking now for the whole Kentucky delegation when I say this next part, but I do not believe United Methodism will be moved by the prevailing winds of culture blowing across North American society. Third, I believe the next General Conference will resolve the conflict, and establish a formal change for Methodism. Why? Because I believe God is doing something new, and I believe our Wesleyan theology is exactly what North American culture needs most at this remarkable moment in our history. In a best case scenario, the Holy Spirit will blow in the sails of a newly revitalized Methodism, and I for one, want to be part of that movement of the Holy Spirit.

So, this is not the time to leave. Please go home to your local churches, and tell people, this is not the time to jump ship. God is doing something new, and within 3 or 4 years at most, I believe it will be clearer what that fresh movement of the Holy Spirit is. This is the time to wait upon God, to pray, and to submit to our church’s leadership as they seek God’s face.

Bill is right to be hopeful. The 2020 General Conference may or may not be legislatively decisive in crafting an explicit solution for denominational differences over sex. But it will be a key turning point. After 2020 the General Conference will meet in the Philippines in 2024 and then Zimbabwe in 2028. The African delegates will likely have a delegate majority by 2024. There was no plenary vote at last month’s General Conference partly because everybody knew the result would reaffirm the current orthodox standards, which will be even more true in the future. Sex will cease to be the dominant topic at General Conference in the next decade because dissidents from the church’s teaching will not have sufficient votes to make debate worthwhile.

There will be much discussion over next several years about a United Methodist schism, but I’m skeptical there will ever be sufficient consensus in the global church for it. So what will happen to church dissidents who are dominant voices in fast declining liberal conferences like New England and the West Coast? There will be ongoing defiance of church teaching, but the serious, orthodox majority on the Juducial Council will likely contain much of it.

These dissident voices may be loud but they will continue to shrink in size and become less relevant to the global church. Will many of them leave United Methodism? Probably not. At most, only a few. But with time, as the church’s traditional marriage teaching persists and is strengthened, a new generation of dissidents will be less inclined to enter the ordained ministry of a denomination whose policies they deem reactionary.

United Methodism’s growing orthodoxy and globalism will frustrate liberal dissidents, who realize their cause cannot prevail. But there’ll also be impatience by many USA evangelicals, understandably exasperated by continued defiance from dissidents. There likely won’t be a neat, conclusive solution that satisfies all in the near term. But neatness and quick conclusions are highly unusual in church history.