Reformation Not Separation: An Argument for Keeping the UMC Together
This article is part of our Counterpoint series, in which Firebrand explores opposing viewpoints on theological topics. For a different view of the issues surrounding the United Methodist Church and separation, see Jeff Greenway’s article, “Time to Go: Why We Must Pass the Protocol.”
The Narrative of the Elites: Pass the Protocol
If the legislative package of the Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace through Separation (hereafter, the Protocol) is passed by the 2022 General Conference, The United Methodist Church will divide. In its place, a progressive denomination (or denominations), a centrist denomination (that keeps The United Methodist Church name brand and tries to make room for all), and a traditionalist denomination (or denominations) will arise. In the months and years that follow the Protocol’s adoption, United Methodist bishops, clergy, laity, congregations, and annual conferences will be given the opportunity to select their denomination of choice with minimum to no penalty. After most of those decisions are made and much of the dust settles, each resulting denomination will begin in earnest to order its life – its doctrine and discipline, ministry and mission.
If this is what occurs, it will be done to: (1) relieve those who are currently “tired of fighting” and weary of “giving harm to others” in The United Methodist Church over matters related to human sexuality, and (2) maximize the missional outreach of each new denomination that emerges from The United Methodist Church (since the twin distractions of “fighting” and “giving harm” will have been eliminated).
Who, exactly, are the proponents of the Protocol and its adoption at the next General Conference? They are leading United Methodists. Many, perhaps most, bishops support the Protocol. Many, perhaps most, board-and-agency executives support the Protocol. Many, perhaps most, renewal-ministry executives support the Protocol. Many, perhaps most, college and seminary professors support the Protocol. Many, perhaps most, district superintendents and high-steeple pastors support the Protocol. Many, perhaps most, of so-called “professional laity” (who attend every United Methodist meeting in sight) support the Protocol. Whether they are progressive, centrist, or traditionalist, these are the denominational leaders who tend to back the Protocol.
These well-intentioned leaders believe, in their heart of hearts, that the Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace through Separation – which basically aims to manage the church’s separation in a way that minimizes lawsuits, costs, and damages – is the only way for The United Methodist Church to escape denominational polarization, fighting, gridlock, decline, and distraction from the missional priority. For them, the adoption and implementation of the Protocol are necessary, practically essential, and organizationally required, pure and simple. According to these leaders, as soon as the Protocol is adopted and implemented, the post-Protocol denominations will be able to get on with their mission and ministry.
The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church
If the Protocol does not pass General Conference in 2022, that could turn out to be a providential, silver lining for The United Methodist Church. Without the Protocol to implement, United Methodists could recommit themselves to being truly the Church of Jesus Christ – one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. We would be one church of Christian conviction and practice – not three (or more) denominations founded on multiple choices. This church would be holy in its love for God, for one another, and for friends outside the Church--not in its love only for those whom we have chosen to love. This church would be catholic in its ministry and mission--not novel in its internal life together and external mission to the world. And it would be apostolic in handing on the faith of the apostles--not creative in adjusting and altering that faith to please as many as possible.
The Bible is clear about what it means to be the Church. 1 Peter 2:9 powerfully declares,
“[Y]ou are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (NRSV).
Without the Protocol to divide United Methodists into denominations that can be preferred and chosen, we would have to follow God’s way into becoming “a holy nation,” a people, “God’s own people.”
What Makes a People?
So, you might ask, what exactly makes a people? Relying on the work of Dr. Leon Kass in Founding God’s Nation: Reading Exodus, George Weigel, the Roman Catholic lay theologian, answers that a people is created by: (1) a shared story, (2) a founding event, and (3) faithful worship. Weigel writes: First,
“[a]ccording to Exodus, a nation needs a shared story. In the case of the people of Israel, that was and remains the story of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt, where bondage prevented them from being truly a people.”
Second, Weigel goes on, “[i]n Exodus, that constituting [or founding] event, is the free acceptance [of] the Sinai covenant, the Ten Commandments, and the Mosaic Law.” Third, he concludes:
“a true people needs a worthy response to the human aspiration to be in touch with something greater than ourselves. So Exodus instructs its readers to reject false worship (the golden calf) for the sake of true worship--the worship of the One who alone is worthy of worship, the One who enters history to liberate his people and asks them to follow his path into the future.”
Again, undivided by the Protocol, The United Methodist Church can respond to God’s gracious call to be the Church, a holy nation, a people of God, by centering on shared story (The Story of the World, from creation to consummation), founding event (the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ), and true worship (Word and Sacrament).
The picture of United Methodists growing and maturing into the Church of Jesus Christ can be painted quickly. United Methodists, now in The United Methodist Church, are accustomed to declaring what Martin Luther reportedly said: “Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.” United Methodists, truly growing into being the Church, could say, “Here we stand. We can do no other. God help us. Amen.” From “I” to “we.” From “me” to “us.” That is what Christ, working through His Church on His disciples, accomplishes.
The United Methodist Church, truly as Church, could take a cue from Father Stephen Freeman of the Orthodox Church in America, who writes:
“Orthodoxy is seen by some as a castle of sorts in the culture wars, a bastion of traditional beliefs and practices that provides a place of safety from the prevailing liberal winds. It is, indeed, a place where traditional practices and beliefs are matters of dogma. But it is not a conservative ‘wind machine.’ To both liberal and conservative, the Church says, ‘Come in out of the wind.’ The invitation is [to] renounce the religious spirit(s) of the age, whether they are blowing from the Left or the Right” (“The Religious Nature of Modern Life,” February 15, 2021, “Glory to God for All Things” blog).
Becoming a holy nation, a people of God, part of Christ’s Church: that is the goal. A life without the Protocol would make that goal visible and pursuable.
How to Get There?
The Protocol demonstrates this ugly truth: leading United Methodists would rather divide The United Methodist Church than live together in a way that includes not only grace but also accountability. To get over this accountability problem – and it is a crippling problem – will require the 2022 General Conference to vote down the Protocol, and then to encourage all United Methodists to live in grace and accountability. Key words: All. United. Methodists. Accountability.
All United Methodists will be needed to help The United Methodist Church move toward being the Church of Jesus Christ. All United Methodists will be challenged to live according to their Baptismal Covenant vows, as The Book of Discipline specifies that the Christian and the church follow. All United Methodists--bishops (resident and retired), seminary professors, clergy, lay leaders, laity--will need to be taught and encouraged to be active citizens in a holy nation, participants in a people, participants in God’s own people. All United Methodists, loving one another, must learn to live according to the church’s doctrine and discipline, and to affirm and encourage and admonish and correct one another. All United Methodists must acknowledge the unfortunate necessity of church trials when church law calls for them, and the unfortunate necessity of discipline and punishment that the guilty call down upon themselves. All United Methodists must insist on the good faith of clergy and laity abiding by church discipline (even as they, at times, tolerate dissent against the church’s teaching) when it is proposed in the committees, conferences, and councils of the church in a Discipline-abiding manner. All United Methodists are called to defend the church’s teaching, through various ways and means, when that teaching is tested and undermined. All United Methodists must respect the consciences of those members, clergy, congregations, and/or annual conferences that decide to leave The United Methodist Church, for whatever reason.
In the event that the Protocol does not pass the next General Conference, and The United Methodist Church decides to become more truly the Church of Christ, bishops would play an essential leadership role. United Methodist bishops would be wise to follow the words of St. Augustine. On an anniversary of his becoming a bishop, he preached about the basic duties of a bishop:
“The turbulent have to be corrected, the faint-hearted cheered up, the weak supported; the gospel’s opponents need to be refuted, its insidious enemies guarded against; the unlearned need to be taught, the indolent stirred up, the argumentative checked; the proud must be put in their place, the desperate set on their feet, those engaged in quarrels reconciled; the needy have to be helped, the oppressed to be liberated, the good to be given your backing, the bad to be tolerated; all must be loved” (Sermon 340).
Bishops who will not do so must be removed. Traditionalists, who hold the majority at General Conference, must insist on it. We must not lose our nerve. We must not tire of fighting, especially in this arena. There can be no accountability in the church if the bishops do not exercise accountability among themselves. This is crucial to all that follows, and once it is in place, we can expect changes down the line.
And yet there is something still more important even than the work of our bishops: the work of God. We must ask ourselves whether we are willing to entrust the church to him. The journey from today’s United Methodist Church (now composed of autonomous individuals, each of whom insists upon getting his or her own way) to tomorrow’s United Methodist Church (a people, a holy people, God’s own people) will be impossible for the laity and clergy to accomplish. However! With God’s providential help, with the love of the Father, with the presence and guidance of the Son, and with the power of the Holy Spirit, The United Methodist Church might well be re-born. This church might be re-formed. This church might undergo reformation. This miracle could, and would, be credited to God; and to God alone.
Where Is the Plan?
To this article, some will respond: It is irresponsible to advocate in a way that might in the slightest way lessen the prospect of the passage of the Protocol; and then, if the Protocol is not adopted by the 2022 General Conference, it is irresponsible not to offer a detailed plan for the future for The United Methodist Church. After all, so much of the reasoning and debating around the Protocol have focused on the details of this organizational plan and its practicalities (often without reference to the doctrine of the church or the witness of the Bible). I admit: in this article, no such plan is offered.Guilty, as charged.
Yet there are two reasons I offer no post-Protocol denominational plan. First, given the large number of moving parts in the church, such a plan would be nearly impossible to formulate and consider. Second, United Methodists, clergy and laity, would be wise to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit into a more churchly understanding of the Word of God and the Sacraments of God--not the details of yet another organizational plan. Such plans have come and gone for decades. It is time for the Word and the Sacraments--that is, Jesus Christ speaking and visiting--to take center stage in The United Methodist Church.
If the 2022 General Conference does not pass the Protocol petitions, Jesus Christ will remain the Head of the Church. After the Protocol’s failure, the delegates would need to seek Christ’s guidance through Word and presence through Sacrament. Christ will not leave His Church alone. To those assembled and stunned, He will say, “Lo, I am with you always to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20), and He would fulfill His promise. Present with the Church, He will teach, edify, admonish, correct, and lead in ways that have seldom been witnessed in The United Methodist Church.
The Rev. Paul Stallsworth is an elder in the North Carolina Conference of The United Methodist Church. Living in Wilson, NC, he is the editor and president of Lifewatch, a witness for the Gospel of Life within United Methodism.