by Chris Ritter

Methodist General Conferences are tests of collective sanctification. Global Methodists came to Costa Rica with an open question. Would the better angels of our nature show up or would we regress into the well-worn rut of hurt, distrust, and fear from which we have climbed?

Tests are nerve-wrecking things. The angst of waiting to turn over an exam paper is enough to make even a prodigy chew the eraser off their #2 pencil. Did we prepare enough and in the right ways? Is it true/false, multiple choice, or essay? Nightmare scenarios prey on the mind. Final grades from our time in Costa Rica won’t be posted for years to come, but we leave confident that our young Global Methodist tribe passed with flying colors. No one is predicting a divine “100” with a smiley face. But we are walking out the doors with a decided spring in our step, a profound sense of relief and joy. It was better than any of us knew it could be.

The election of bishops was a watershed moment. Oxygen flooded the room as the bumpy nominations process gave way to joy and unity. We elected half of our six new bishops on the first ballot. It was clear to the body that Kimba Evariste knows both the cost of discipleship and our growing African contexts. Carolyn Moore’s election was validation that we are a church that views the Holy Spirit as a friend, not a specter. Leah-Hidde-Gregory’s selection on that same first ballot put an exclamation point on the statement that great leaders are great leaders. The GMC is not an old boy network but a church with a mission so urgent we have no time for keeping one hand tied behind our back. Jeff Greenway and Kenneth Levingston offer the rock-ribbed, tested, and humble determination that caused our movement to be born. My heart nearly burst when Bishop John Pena Auta was elected. I don’t know him personally, and neither did most of the people voting. But our newest GMC conferences from Nigeria do know, trust, and need him. Our hearts were with them, even though they could not be with us. Bishop Yohanna’s selfless prophecy came true: He would return from General Conference with a new bishop for the GMC and the Nigerian people.

Mark the Global Methodist Church safe from slouching into vanilla American evangelicalism. Our new mission statement echoes the same distinctively Methodist battle cry that ushered in our 19th Century Golden Age of Christian mission. We have some work to do in defining Scriptural Holiness for our present age, but our Assembly of Bishops has the chops to help us with that. The adjacent vision statement retains the triad of worshipping passionately, loving extravagantly, and witnessing boldly that has focused our work thus far.

I had the opportunity for a brief hallway discussion with Bishop Eduard Khegay of Russia. The churches he leads will have completed their long exit from United Methodism next year and will vote on joining the GMC. If that is approved, it would give us a ninth bishop as we move toward our first regular General Conference in 2026 (to be held somewhere in Central Africa.) Keith Boyette announced that the GMC has just been approved to operate in six additional nations. We are in for an exciting season of launching and receiving new conferences across the globe.

At the airport for my flight home I sat beside Dr. Thomas Tumblin of Asbury Seminary. He was kind to update me on the exciting work of church multiplication here in the United States. God is providing resources to help make effective church planting a reality. In a separate airport meeting, I bumped into the CEO of our local communications company back home. Mike is a commuter par excellence. My church and community in Illinois get him through the week and his family in Georgia gets him every weekend. He was not at the convening General Conference, but Mike and some friends are organizing a new Global Methodist congregation in Hawkinsville, Georgia. The future of the GMC is in the hands of people like Mike as much or more than with those of us returning home for Costa Rica.

As the “transitional” season wanes, the real test of the Global Methodist Church has commenced. But it is so very refreshing to have a General Conference from which to launch rather than to heal. As John Maxwell has said, “You never have to recover from a good beginning.”