by Bob Phillips

On April 5, 2024, at the New Horizon Global Methodist Church in Champaign, Illinois, I witnessed a literal miracle. “Miracle” comes from the Latin word, miraculum, which means “wonderful thing” and in modern usage refers to “an extraordinary event.” Roughly 160 clergy from the 4 states of the Great Lakes Conference had gathered for worship and spiritual nurture. As part of opening worship, a pastor stepped forward to lead in the Nicene Creed.

I have heard these great words of the historic and universal Christian faith recited, spoken, mumbled, and affirmed countless times. In this instance, in that time and place, the creed came alive. People sensed as they spoke the words that “a Greater than routine” had arrived. The leader voiced passion as he spoke but without theatrics. A surge of excitement and renewed faith was obvious as worshippers found themselves affirming this redeeming truth in a rising crescendo of conviction. At the last words, “We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come,” applause and cheers rippled spontaneously among the gathered. In that moment the creed was not simply affirmed. The creed was ‘vivified,’ alive and pulsing with the power and immediacy of convictional truth. It was a…miracle, a wonderful and extraordinary moment, like cheering the Doxology (typically used as a cash register song in traditional worship) and calling for an encore.

What has that to do with the upcoming inaugural Global Methodist Church General Conference? It reflects one of the five notes of hope and good news that are coming together with promise as the midwife process of the previous 5 years finds fruition in the full birth of this new Wesleyan way. Consider these notes of hope.

GC2024 can model living worship, the true source of our connection in Christ and with one another. To worship passionately is the first of the three core visions for the GMC. People across cultures hunger for a living connection with the transcendent. The ‘wholly, holy Other’ of the Triune God, is the essence of the goal of human longing. True worship parts the curtains between the infinite God and the finite “us.” An engaged focus on worship, experienced in unquestioned power during GC24, can set the stage. Combine this with a conference focused on affirming and empowering the reality of worship in the church in its programs, budgets and support, and the re-set button of spiritual revival for this new expression of the Wesleyan way will be pushed. No more worship comparable to “a forced, two-hour tour of one’s own living room.” Worship as performance or pro forma predictability can give way to worship “in Spirit and in truth.”

GC2024 can fix and confirm a windshield vision for the future and leave rearview issues in the rear-view. The recent gathering of clergy from the Great Lakes conference was heartening for another reason besides worship. The vision, the planning and the focus was forward. Many in the room had been wounded in the disaffiliation process, as some clergy and laity who have remained in the legacy church undoubtedly bear wounds and grief. The temptation was real to vent, to channel ‘righteous’ anger, name names and round up the usual suspects. Other than an occasional general acknowledgment of a painful process, the vision was forward toward the future. No time was spent nursing grievance, settling scores, planning revenge, or pleasantly dreaming about the ugly future awaiting…others. When Marines face an opposed landing on an enemy beach, the guidance is clear. Never look back toward the ships and get the blazes off the beach ASAP, move inland, and get the job done. To be clear, the UMC is not and must not become the ‘enemy’ insofar as it is in the power of the GMC to prevent such attitudes. Yes, many churches in the US had no meaningful way to consider disaffiliation and nearly every non-US church had the door shut. That unfinished business will find its resolution. The deeper point remains. GC24 must pour its energy into what builds the future, and not spend time embalming past angers.

GC2024 can push the reboot button to re-center this Wesleyan movement on what matters most. Bluntly, Christianity is not centered on global warming, fossil fuels, abortion, gender identity, poverty, hunger, homosexuality, voting rights or any number of causes that can range from the noble to the silly. What matters most, in the words of Wesley to his preachers, is to “Offer them Christ.” Wesley, in both his sermon-tracts on “The Character of a Methodist” and “A Plain Account of Christian Perfection,” identified Methodists as those who love God and neighbor, Great Commandment Christians. Affirming and creating practical emphases, programs, and initiatives in this first formative General Conference, can lay a dynamic foundation for the future. Choosing the truly important over the noisy urgent is wise guidance from secular and sacred wisdom. Other issues and implications will find their place, but within a Christ-centered church rather than a seemingly endless cause(s)-centered religious lobby.

GC2024 can model what it means to be a truly “Global” Methodist Church. Perhaps the greatest change facing the GMC is for Western white Christians to live into the implications of being a truly global church. How can affluent Western Christians support the larger global church that is growing exponentially, without developing a ‘rice Christian’ dependency over those without Western wealth? For example. Congo has at least 2.5 million United Methodists, 75% of whom live on $2.15 income daily. How can the West begin to model true collaboration and equality of clout in decisions and priorities if large numbers of the global poor shift to the GMC? When non-US churches speak of an approach to an issue that US evangelicals generally view differently, how will the church work through such issues in unity of purpose and Spirit? It is not enough to state how the GMC will not repeat legacy church mistakes (see point 2 above). Pointed questions over the true motives behind UMC regionalization are fine, but do not exempt GC24 from engaging how it will become truly ‘global’ in wise and holy ways. The great news is that it appears GMC US leadership is committed to go the distance to ensure “full inclusion” in the best biblical sense, with equal seat and say for all. GC24 is poised and positioned to act. The recommendation to pause election of bishops until the entire church can have equal say is an example. The feeling is that US delegates (the overwhelming number of those present due to the refusal of the UMC to permit non-US disaffiliations) will seek to lay the groundwork and structure for such a global church. May feeling and fact align in September!

GC2024 can reaffirm the passion and integrity of true koinonia rooted in a shared vision of Christ and the gospel. The theologian Dolly Parton once said, “A bird and a fish can fall in love, but where are they going to live?” This is sage truth, not only for pre-marriage preparation but for the creation and nurture of true koinonia. Many clergy and laity have draining experiences of being in settings officially intended for connection or fellowship, but the spiritual foundations and convictions in the room went far beyond Wesley’s “think and let think,” since denial of what he called “the root of Christianity” cancels spiritual connection. The GMC is aware of Walter Lippman’s classic warning that “where all think alike, no one is thinking very much.” GMC reference to being numbered with other “like-minded Christians” can be spun into unhealthy groupthink. “Like-minded” also can open doors of refreshment in true koinonia with those who are like-minded on core Gospel truth. Thus, the GMC is a church in which the Nicene and Apostles’ creeds are not merely metaphors that hover in thin air without grounded facts. The creeds point to a Jesus really virgin-born, really atoning for sin “by the blood of his cross,” really resurrected and really coming again. All these are convictions preached, taught, and lived through new birth and discipleship without apology. I am fully confident that every delegate to the GMC 2024 shares this foundation, opening a door to the trust vital to nurturing deep and true spiritual connection that is the essence of koinonia.

The challenges facing GC2024 are real. Not all the challenges are obvious. No one general conference can bake the perfect cake, even with 250-300 quality chefs in the Costa Rica kitchen. That said, grounds for hope are real and firmly based. The Global Methodist God movement is the real deal. May the GMC embrace this hope as a modern “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” as the future begins in earnest.

Bob Phillips

Degrees from University of Illinois, Asbury and Princeton Seminaries, University of St. Andrews

Graduate of Senior Executive Seminar on Morality, Ethics and Public Policy, Brookings Institution

Captain, Chaplain Corps, US Navy (ret)

See Bob’s work on Methodist Mitosis in Methodist Review.