by Chris Ritter
The question of whether the Separation Protocol should be passed will soon be eclipsed by a much more practical question: Will it? I could give a 50,000-word answer to that question, but you will thank me for not doing that. How about three words? Yes, it will.
For a host of reasons, the UM Separation Protocol will be approved early at GC2020 and today’s UMC will give way to two separate churches, each different from anything we have previously known. While it is possible additional options may surface, I believe most congregations and conferences will choose between one of two oxymorons: A New Traditional Methodist Church and a Post-Separation United Methodist Church. We will all take part in fleshing out what these curious descriptions will ultimately mean.
There is ample evidence accumulated over the years about the shape of a UMC no longer frustrated with organized Traditionalist interference. The Post-Separation UMC in America aspires to be connected globally but governed separately as a U.S. Mainline denomination. It will be open, permissive, institutional, and at peace if in dignified decline. Selective in its application of Wesleyan heritage, it will embrace theological pluralism on a scale the UMC never could and will take the quest for social justice and diversity as its unifying paradigm.
There are things that I would love about continuing to serve in the institutional UMC. But my First Love calls me alongside those who will begin figuring out what “new traditional” means. Glimpses of the future have surfaced here and there, including the draft Discipline WCA drafted. But more voices must come to the table to give this task the justice it deserves. What we shall be has not yet been revealed.
For now I can only share my hopes.
I hope the new church is all about Jesus: His Lordship, his Gospel, his message, his Cross, his Resurrection, his transforming power, and his Coming Kingdom. I hope it is never about anything else. I hope we proclaim the Jesus prophesied in the Old Testament, revealed in the New Testament, and proclaimed in the classic creeds.
I hope we are Charismatic in the highest and best definition of that word. I hope the Holy Spirit fills us with a fresh Pentecost so that our Gospel consists not only in words but in power. I hope our sons and daughters prophesy and our seasoned saints continue to dream dreams.
I hope we are a praying church, not just a church that prays. I hope we are a worthy of the great heritage of prayer left to us by folks like Susannah Wesley, E. Stanley Jones, and E.M. Bounds.
I hope we always find ourselves in humble awe as we gather at the table of the Lord. I hope we never lose the joy and calling of our baptism. I hope we worship deeply, richly. joyfully, and sacrificially.
I hope we are a singing and song-writing church. I hope Charles Wesley and Fanny Crosby smile down from Heaven on a whole generation of artists inspired by and inspiring the work of God happening around them.
I hope we confess our sins to one another and hold one another accountable in love. I hope we recover bands, class meetings, and other forms of intentional discipleship. I hope we break free of the gravity of shallow consumer Christianity.
I hope we are global. I hope we are African, European, Asian, and North American. I hope autonomous churches in Puerto Rico, Latin America, the Caribbean, and South America help us comprise something completely new. I hope elements of Evangelical British Methodism will find their way to a place of close fellowship.
I hope we are conspicuously multi-ethnic here in the U.S.without making that somehow the point. I hope it happens inevitably as we lift up Jesus together. I hope the new traditional church is African American, Korean, Hispanic, and a home for newer immigrants communities coming to the U.S. I hope we creatively conference together so as to maximize our impact in diverse communities and prosper our collective witness.
I hope there is no Board of Missions because the whole church is mission. I hope there is no Board of Evangelism because the whole church is evangelism. I hope there is no Social Witness Board because the church itself is the living embodiment of social holiness.
I hope the church embraces education and life-long learning. I hope we have the best minds in Wesleyan theological scholarship and do not make a golden calf of institutional education as the sum of the preparation needed by our clergy.
I hope we have a strong “culture of call” and that the clergy union gives way to pure servant leadership. I hope the best and the brightest of our young people answer Jesus by giving themselves away in ministry. I hope our current gifted young evangelical clergy are filled with holy boldness to lead.
I hope we produce pastors from shift workers, Ivy League faculties, the recovery community, second career people, and former prostitutes.
I hope we are the church of apostolic bishops like Kasap Owan, shepherd bishops like Mark Webb, prophetic bishops like Sharma Lewis, scholar bishops like Scott Jones, missionary bishops like Eduard Khegay, preaching bishops like James Swanson, truth-telling bishops like Frank Beard, and ministry strategist bishops like Bob Farr.* I hope all our bishops maintain laser-like focus on equipping healthy local churches… aiming them outward toward their communities.
I hope local pastors and bi-vocational pastors are fully recognized and empowered for ministry. I hope the hard categories of laity and clergy become more and more blurred as we are all in ministry together.
I hope we plant three new churches a day to make up for the losses we have experienced in the times since we planted two a day. I hope we are worthy heirs in evangelism to Phoebe Palmer, Harry Denman, Francis Asbury, Martin Boehm, and Peter Cartwright.
I hope our conference meetings are like revivals. I hope our iron sharpens iron. I hope we quickly abandon habits that do not produce fruit. I hope we fast and lay prostrate before the Lord when we don’t know what to do. I hope matters of structure and strategy are always kept as secondary concerns.
I hope the Methodist Social Witness will find a fresh flowering as we give voice and flesh to Wesleyan faith and practice in the larger marketplace of ideas and values.
I hope we repent when we mess things up. I hope we never hit the snooze button when the Holy Spirit tries to awaken us to new opportunities. I hope we resist the trappings and comfort of nationalism. I hope prophetic voices are not kept out in the wilderness.
I hope our large church pastors are honored as ministry pioneers and not looked upon with suspicion. I hope micro and mega churches alike successfully reproduce healthy DNA in new locations.
I hope we sell what we have and give to the poor. I hope we adopt and foster kids who need a home. I hope warm-hearted pro-life beliefs are matched with practical assistance to those who are struggling. I hope we welcome the sojourner and stranger. I hope we are place of welcome and healing for the broken, the outcast, and the afflicted.
And I hope we engage more deeply with the LGBTQ community and other sub-cultures. I hope we stop arguing over what we believe and begin serious missiological reflection and action based on those beliefs. I hope the battered and broken refugees of the sexual revolution find a home with us.
I want to hear your list, too. But let me conclude with this:
I hope we don’t react so strongly against what was wrong with the UMC that we lose what was right. I hope we don’t try so hard to prove what we are not that we miss claiming who God is calling us now to be. I hope we don’t succumb to the temptation of replacing all the comfortable structures we are leaving behind… just because.
I hope we can forgive and bless our brothers and sisters in the post-separation UMC so they, too, can move forward with their own hopes and dreams. As Abraham Lincoln said in his Second Inaugural Address, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right…”
As we are the ones to be leaving, I hope we leave well… and not look back. And I hope we begin well, too.
It is time to build and that’s kind of exciting.
*This isn’t intended as a list of bishops I think may be part of a new traditional Methodist Church (although some will). They just represent leadership qualities I feel we will need. Some may not be with us. There are awesome traditional bishops that may very well be with us that are not in this little sampling. Bishop Torio in the Philippines, Bishop Mueller in Arkansas, Bishop Nunn in Oklahoma, and Bishop Lowry in Texas immediately come to mind.
People Need Jesus 
Nice post. But…Bob Farr—definitely not going with us in my best guess.
Blessings and peace, Beth Ann
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Yes, I expect not. But I like some aspects of his leadership for such. Thanks, Beth Ann.
Outstanding proclamation of what this new movement can be and should aspire to be. Thank you Chris for your laser focus on these crucial goals.
Chris, I thank you for this list. As one who would most likely find myself in the post-separation UMC, I want you to know that 99% of your list is what I hope and pray for the church I may be part of “on the other side.” God’s gift may well be that all new expressions of Wesleyan Methodism find renewal, revival and revitalization. What you hope for your new church, I certainly hope for mine. May the Holy Spirit seize control of any and all outcomes as a result of the Protocol for Reconciliation and Grace through Separation.
You might want to add the word none in the Abraham Lincoln quote: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Thanks, Barrie! I appreciate the friendly edit.
Sounds like just what we are trying to get away from. Don’t agree with your bishops or conferences. Will lead to the same think we have know.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Sonny. Everybody realizes this church is going to made up initially of current United Methodists, right?
Sonny, you are correct. Bishops, District Superintendents, Conference Council of Ministries Directors (of which I once was one, and recommended the position be abolished – and it was!) General Church Boards & Agencies (with largely unaccountable bureaucrats), apportionments, all the trappings of a “connectional” table-of-organizations, is a deceased concept.
To replicate it in part, or in whole, is a recipe for failure
Great “I have a dream” post, Chris! Thank you for your leadership, vision and servant leadership in this long journey to a new homeland.
Whoops – repeated myself – I meant to say your “servant’s heart in this long journey” – it’s late!
I hope for a Church that persues The Heavenly Vision, Where the are all Peoples of the Earth are welcome, where we fight death and disease, where tears are wiped ( Rev 21.)
I hope we will have a Church where Bishops, Clergy and Laity will be Accountable to God, The Church and to each other.
I hope for a Church where the poor and the sinners willing to accept Jesus will be at The Table.
I hope for a Church where Money is not used to manipulate others but as a means to Expand The Kingdom of God.
Forbes Matonga, January 13, 2020.
Forbes, can you say more about how you are thinking about the protocol?
Chris,
Thank you always for thoughtful and well-conceived visions of a meaningful future. As I read about the emergence of new fellowships, I replace all your instances of “hope” in your memo to “pray” if there is any chance for unity. It is somewhat oxymoronic for me to consider a “united” Methodist Church in a divided state. It seems more prudent to call out by name the two factions: a Traditional Methodist Church, and a Progressive Methodist Church. To declare a “Post-Separation United Methodist Church” presumes unity and infers the UMC still exists in a form different than already voted upon in the 2019 conference. I thank God for His Majesty and authority in our fallen world.
Rejoicing always,
Dave
Thanks, Dave. I agree “United” will seem like the height of denial following a split, but the Protocol gives this to the Centrists and Progressives. We don’t know what the traditional church will be called yet. These are just working titles.
Thank you Pastor Chris for sharing your hopes, they are mine too. I hope the clergy in the IGRC are treating you kindly. I remember what happened at last year’s conference. Blessings on your ministry.
Thanks, Gail!
I am encouraged by your comments on local and bivocational pastors. Will we have voting rights on constitutional amendments and clergy delegates? And will we be able to be GC delegates. I see no need for us to vote on matters of ordination or be DS’s or Bishops’s. Most of us just want to represent our congregations fully. I have been bombarded with questions about the protocol for seperation. Few if any of the traditionalists care about giving up the agencies, and the bureaucratic nature of the UMC. What they are gripping about is giving up the name, although I think that is a good idea since the UMC name has been dragged thorugh the mud. Are there any names floating around. Somebody asked me about returning to Methodist Episcopal, although I am sure it belongs to the UMC. What about Evangelical Methodist?
Thanks, Scott. I think you will see local pastors fully at the table. Achieving ordination will likely be streamlined. If we follow WCA’s suggestions, guaranteed appointments are going away for elders. This alone will serve to level the playing field. There are named floating around: The Methodist Church, The Global Methodist Church, Covenant Methodist Church, The Methodist Church International, etc. Both Covenant and Evangelical have ties to Reformed Theology. No consensus yet on this as far as I know.
I strongly feel for the name ‘Evangelical Methodist Church’ primarily because it may have members who are from the former Evangelical United Brethren, and the use of Evangelical will be a good nod to their heritage.
At the same time, many have already acknowledged the use of the name ‘Evangelical’ to mean conservative, traditional, etc etc. (Not necessarily though; for example, ELCA.)
One little problem: the Philippines already has an Evangelical Methodist church (the Iglesia Evangelica Metodista en las Islas Filipinas or IEMELIF) established by the first ordained Filipino pastor in 1909. Would the use of EMC by an increasingly non-US-centric church inspire a merger of the Philippines Central Conference and the IEMELIF. Only God knows.
P.S. I am blessed with this article. Among others, it mentions Bishop Sharma Lewis (whom I hope would join what I call EMC). She preached during Thanksgiving Sunday at our church here in the Philippines and I felt the Spirit truly work within her. Looking forward to hearing her preach again.
Thanks for another brisque, easily digestible, fair and comprehensive evaluation of visionary prospects. A lot of hope here. Will progressives wake up after their post-separation UMC parties, realizing they are stuck with paying life support for its bloated UMC apparatus (one bristling with agendas) with fewer apportionment dollars?
Yes and yes! Great article and exciting hopes for the new traditionalist Methodist Church. I hope that our main missional objective will be reflective of our authentic Wesleyan tradition of saving lost souls as a priority as an interlude in making disciples of Jesus Christ. That’s where kingdom building starts! Jesus started out by preaching the gospel of grace in inviting lost souls to repent from their sins in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. Mark 1:15.
If that’s our first priority being or pursuing to become a missional Pentecostal church rooted in our Wesleyan evangelical calling in making disciples of Christ, this new traditional, Biblically based church will have another great awakening. Jesus is the Lord of the Harvest and is anticipating a huge revival in our midst because God smiles upon those worshippers who worship Him in Spirit and truth (John 4). Now it’s time to prepare our hearts through repentance, forgiveness and consistent prayer for God to develop in us a true Jesus like passion for souls. Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ!!
Very Hopeful Words!!!! Thanks!
My heart was full as you shared your, and my, hope’and vision for a new fresh expression (or is it the original) of methodism.
WWJD – We need the mind and thoughts of JESUS!
M S Pressley, you hit the nail on the head. What would Jesus do? Would he ordain a gay Pastor to the church? Would he marry a gay couple in the church? I recently heard the following comments by a well known Pastor in California. “God loves us, unconditionally, but, He is also everything else He is: He is righteousness; He is justice; He is the law; He is the executioner of those who violate His law and do not turn to Him in repentance and faith.”
So, are you going to follow the words and plans of man? or follow the Word of God and His plan of Salvation, for all who sin, through repentance and faith?
Excellently and passionately stated Chris Ritter. Though I am not a Methodist, your list of what we should strive to do and be applies to all believers.
Your hopes, to me, are the embodiment of the Wesleyan revival. Yet this could still be Him making all things new. Thanks for sharing.
Well-said. Your list is more comprehensive, but it reminds me of the six “streams” of Christian faith and life promoted by Richard Foster and Renovare (Foster, “Streams of Living Water”; http://www.renovare.org). I’d love to see a church (local or denomination) be Word-Centered, Spirit-Empowered, Prayer-Filled, Committed/Consecrated in Holiness, Compassionate, and Incarnational.
What is your hope for the “new church’ regarding gay youth in their congregations who come out as gay. Will they be told that they are an abomination? Or told to “repent” of their sexuality? Or pressured into some kind of bogus conversion therapy? Or told that you can “pray the gay away? Or pressured to leave?
I hope all youth are called to take up their cross and follow Jesus. I hope we call all youth to find their identity in Christ alone. The journey is not gay to straight, it is lost to found, the broad way to the narrow way. I hope all know we are Jesus’ followers by the love we have for one another.
Chris – I love your articles – however, while I agree with all you said here, and I know you are considering the anger in the post you are responding to, I think you leave out a reality. Conservatives would ask that youth to adopt celibacy as a lifestyle, or choose to love and marry in a heterosexual relationship. I think we need to be more direct with these answers, and connect them to all the ways the Bible calls us ALL to bring our various sinful orientations (and behaviors) into conformity with the Word of God.
Being a member of the Methodist church for over 60 years my hope is that I can find a church that follows Gods word and not just the pressure from what I consider sinners. I still will love all that sin but it should not be allowed to grow using the church I have grown to love but will leave to stay true to the Bible teachings The Traditional Church is what we have had for the past 150 years. Do you not know the definition of tradition
Chris Ritter, Good thoughts and I agree with all except:
And I hope we engage more deeply with the LGBTQ community and other sub-cultures. I hope we stop arguing over what we believe and begin serious missiological reflection and action based on those beliefs. I hope the battered and broken refugees of the sexual revolution find a home with us.
As one personally abused as a child and personal knowledge of others so abused I cannot accept active members nor those who are proactive in the acceptance of the alphabet group.
I like all of what you are saying. But when delegations like the Holston Annual Conference send all male delegates to the global gathering and have all males in leadership it says, “sexist, patriarchial and fundamentalist.” The new wave of Methodist isn’t progressive but should be a contemporary traditionalism that embraces leadership by all ethnic groups and embraces gender equality. This is what the church needs to touch the hearts of all people. My hesitation with WCA is the rhetoric of equality without it being embodied in the leadership of the annual conferences especially those in the Southeast jurisdiction. Who will hold them accountable? Do you think only men can lead this new wave? I believe women are vital to its success too.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Janet. I watched the elections at the WCA legislative assembly and noticed real attention being given to gender diversity. I agree that we need the full body of Christ to be a whole church. We have such amazing women of God on our current Council: Jen Cowart, Nako Kellum, Carolyn Moore, Elizabeth Fisher, Cara Nicklas, Joy Moore, Jessica LaGrone, Beth Caulfield, Madeline Henners, Elizabeth Fink, Elizabeth Chryst, Suzanne Nicholson, and Joy Moore.
Chris,
I hope the new church also intends to take better care of widows as is mentioned several times in the Bible. We are an outcast group that are often overlooked in modern society. Thank you for sharing.
Chris,
A couple of days ago, in a post “Protocol” funk, I skimmed this post and my immediate reaction was “meh”.
Then I read it carefully, completely, thoroughly. A couple times, in fact.
Your eloquently stated hope has reignited mine. Thanks be to the Spirit for giving you these words, and God bless you for sharing them with us.
Blessings,
Jeff
Thank so much, Jeffrey. I have been on an emotional roller coaster, too. May God birth something beautiful out of this.
Thanks, Chris, for this inspiring, forward-thinking vision. It is biblically sound, spiritually faithful and thankfully motivational. I am not familiar with all the bishops you named, but I do recognize every one of the leaders you mentioned from the past. I agree with what you hope, and I hope it, too. God bless.
Pastor Ritter
We appreciate you clearly expressing your hopes for the new church. Our thoughts, our prayers and our hopes are with you.
Love in Christ,
Todd & Kay Sieben
Thank you, Todd and Kay!
Your words are not only eloquent but I believed God breathed. Bringing to life these words, could bring God’s transformation to Geneseo like nothing I’ve seen in my 30 yrs. Living here. God bless you in bringing this about.
Sola scriptura.
We have some scholars in Evangelical Methodism that insist that Wesley was prima scriptura rather than sola scriptura. I won’t attempt to argue that here. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Imagine looking back on this time 20 years from now. What would a wise observer select as examples of things the new church did exceedingly well? Any of the 20 characteristics you’ve described would be outstanding. I would punctuate one – leadership.
My hope is that looking back years from now, someone will say:
“The New Traditional Methodist Church immediately accepted that the level of leadership quality in the new church would be a direct result of the church’s commitment to cultivating that leadership. Nothing was taken for granted. They recruited proven leadership experts from business, military, and faith institutions and established a unique partnership with the Kellogg School of Management. Even as The New Traditional Methodist Church is universally understood to be the provenance of the great 21st century Christian revival, it is also the core case study in seminary classes on leadership development in ministry.