The Good News Movement: A Job Well Done (Part III)

Good News, the United Methodist movement of evangelicals, is phasing out of existence and the final celebration banquet has been held. So it is appropriate to celebrate the various ways God has used the Good News movement during its 57 years of existence. Part 1 of this series discussed doctrine and Part 2 discussed Sunday School literature. Part 3 discusses missions, an area where, it can be argued, Good News has had its greatest impact on world-wide Methodism.

In October, 1971 Philip Hinerman, pastor of Park Avenue Church in Minneapolis, attended, as the chair of Good News, the annual meeting of the Board of Missions held in Minneapolis.  Hinerman up to that time had spent most of his Methodist life cloistered in the evangelical subculture and was, in his words, “shocked.”

“In five days I heard nor read not one word about the need to reach those who are forever lost without Jesus Christ,” Hinerman reported. There was, however, much talk about liberation theology, South America as the focus of mission, and emphasis on gearing up for social justice.

Despite the liberalism that had characterized establishment Methodism during the 20^th century, the Board of Missions represented a safe haven for evangelicals through the 1950s and into the 1960s. The seminaries had been captured by modernists; Sunday school literature disdained teaching about sin and salvation; the church’s social stands were supportive of socialism, but evangelicals were still welcomed to serve as missionaries and carry the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth.

This is not to say there were no issues being debated in the mainline churches. There was still the thought that through education, evangelism, and economic development, the world could be Christianized. I grew up hearing on various occasions about the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. The journal Christian Century, took its name from the idea that the 1900s belonged to the coming Christian Kingdom. World War I was fought to make the world safe for democracy. The horrors of that war greatly influenced the direction not only of European politics but also European and “Western Civilization” religion. In 1910 out of 21,000 foreign missionaries to “third world” countries over 60 percent were European and only 30 percent American. By 1968 there were 45,000 missionaries in the world of which 70 percent were Americans.

However, by the early 1970s a great number of leading evangelical Methodists were adding their voices in alarm to developments taking place. In the Jan-March, 1972 issue of Good News David Seamonds, who had spent 16 years in India as a missionary, wrote an article, “Missions Without Salvation.” The article noted seismic ideological shifts in establishment Methodism’s missionary philosophy. Christ was no longer the atoning Son of God, but a revolutionary figure working for political and structural and economic change in the world. There was no urgency in seeking out the lost.  Indeed, there was hardly any mention of “the lost.” God was most active in the sociopolitical revolutionary movements of the times. Furthermore, Methodism’s missionary force was collapsing: from 1,309 to 870 in just four year’s time. These numbers became more discouraging than even Seamonds had imagined. The figures would continue to drop, from 870 to 600 to 400, and then under 300. Today, the figure is under 200.

In February, 1974, 70 leading evangelical pastors and lay persons met in Dallas, Texas, for a missions consortium. The group formed the Evangelical Missions Council (EMC), pledging itself to the cause of missions and to dialogue with the newly formed General Board of Global Ministries (BGBM). By this time GBGM itself, after the Methodist-Evangelical United Brethren merger, had become a colossal superboard, with seven divisions, and some 244 directors who had to fit into a mandated quota system.

The new board did not take well to Good News and the EMC concerns. This was especially true for the request that the board make room for the evangelical voice. Echoing similar responses in the area of seminaries and curriculum, GBGM claimed that its entire board was “evangelical” and there was no substance to the concerns. Secondly, there was a suspicion that Good News and the EMC were really right-wing groups with an outdated gospel at best but more likely motivated by political opposition to the programs of racial and social justice.

In 1976 Virgil E. Maybray became EMC’s first full-time staff person. Maybray’s task was not to be embroiled in ideological controversies but to build positive support for evangelical missionaries and ministries already functioning in the missionary enterprise. About the same time the board hired Malcolm McVeigh, a highly respected missionary in Africa, to serve as Functional Secretary for Church Development and Renewal with a portfolio on evangelism. However, in two years McVeigh resigned in frustration, with the explanation that his job was only window dressing and the board had no interest in refocusing on evangelism.

If this was so it was because GBGM attention was shifting to other matters. In the July 22, 1977 issue of United Methodist Reporter Dow Kirkpatrick authored an article “Castro and Wesley.” Kirkpatrick, successful pastor who had chaired the General Conference Restructure Committee that had given superpower status to GBGM, and who in retirement had been given missionary status, spoke of his exhilarating experience of being in Cuba on May Day.

Kirkpatrick wrote that Methodists could learn evangelism from Marxism in Cuba, arguing that the Cuban Revolution—in contrast to the Christian Church–is one that is “with the poor” and “he who condemns a revolution like this one betrays Christ.”

These conflicts in mission philosophy were affecting more than United Methodists. The March 18, 1981 issue of Christian Century, carried an article by Richard G. Hutcheson, Jr., entitled, “Crisis in Overseas Mission: Shall We Leave It to the Independents?” Hutcheson spoke of the international mission movement today as in “a crisis more radical and extensive than anything the church has ever faced in its history.”

In discussions it seems that liberals and evangelicals in their disputes seldom seem to be talking about the same thing. So it also appeared in the discussions between EMC and GBGM. In 1983, after several years of discussions between the two groups, in frustration a group which included Gerald Anderson, perhaps the foremost missiologist in the UM Church, came together to form another sending agency, the Mission Society for United Methodists. The new Society saw itself as working in cooperation with GBGM. But it would work especially with bishops in overseas conferences who were requesting missionaries from the board, but were not receiving them (or at least the kind of missionaries they wanted). It would also raise financial support.

When the date, May 7, 1985, was set for the commissioning of the first Mission Society missionaries, Bishop James Thomas, president of the Council of Bishops, made arrangements with three other bishops to be present and participate in the commissioning. However, strong voices in the Council of Bishops, who tended to see the society not as a friend but as divisive and thus a foe, intervened and Bishop Thomas had to renege on his promise. This was followed with the bishops’ resolve not to give special appointment to any clergy who would seek service with the Mission Society. This resolve would prevail for a number of years.

There is much more to this story of evangelicals related to Good News and the present-day United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. This account will continue with the next article in this series.  What can be said at this point is that one of the most encouraging signs of hope for the gospel in the world today is the explosive growth of Christ’s Church in areas like Africa, Asia, and South America. As far as United Methodism is concerned, while the church in the United States has decreased in membership since the 1972 Methodist-EUB merger from nearly 11 million members to fewer than 5 million, the total membership of the church has increased to nearly 12 million members. There is reason to look toward a bright future.

Riley B. Case is a retired United Methodist clergy member of the Indiana Conference.