The United Methodist Renewal and Reform Coalition has released the text of a letter sent earlier this year to the UM Council of Bishops. The Coalition includes the Confessing Movement Within the United Methodist Church, Good News, Lifewatch, UM Action, and Transforming Congregations. The full text is reproduced below. Links have been added by MethodistThinker.com. — Ed.
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Dear Bishops,
God’s grace and peace to you and yours.
We honor you as the duly elected spiritual and temporal leaders of The United Methodist Church and count it a privilege to share with you some carefully considered perceptions about our church’s future.
The annual conferences of our church have recently through spoken decisively through their votes on the 32 proposed constitutional amendments.
Though most of these proposed amendments were endorsed by the Connectional Table, and all were approved by at least two-thirds of the 2008 General Conference, rank-and-file United Methodists through their annual conferences have apparently rejected most of them by wide margins.
The people of the church are clearly calling their leaders to reconsider the direction proposed by most of the constitutional amendments.
More specifically, the reorganizational plan that the 23 Worldwide Nature of The United Methodist Church (WWN-UMC) amendments would have set in motion, has apparently been decisively overturned.
We are convinced that United Methodism’s most pressing problem is not her organization. Our denomination’s decline for over forty years (PDF) is not the result of faulty organization. Indeed, if we focus attention and resources on reorganization, we will miss a precious opportunity to address the main problem in our church.
The main problem facing The United Methodist Church is spiritual and theological in nature. Over the last forty years, our church has drifted from the foundational truth of Biblical authority and Wesleyan doctrine.
Significant portions of the church no longer believe that Scripture, well interpreted by the church, is “the true rule and guide for faith and practice” (The Confession of Faith, Article IV). A considerable minority in Methodism no longer believes that all persons, in their natural condition, are sinners in need of salvation.
A 1960 study guide
Some even disagree that Jesus’ death on the cross was an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.
Indeed, there is no general agreement in our church about what the Gospel is. Seldom do our clergy and other leaders teach the Articles of Religion and the Confession of Faith.
Because our church lacks consensus about our message and its accompanying mission, we are a drifting, declining denomination.
We in the renewal movements take seriously John Wesley’s warning that Methodism would surely become a dead sect unless it “hold[s] fast to the doctrine, spirit, and discipline” with which it began.
Only the Triune God — not reorganization — can renew The United Methodist Church. We are convinced you can help lead us into the proclamation, pedagogy, and practices that God can and will anoint with His Holy Spirit. We respectfully ask you to consider implementing the following initiatives.
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Finally, we acknowledge that from time to time circumstances require a reorganization of the church’s structure in order to make it more effective at fulfilling its mission. We appreciate and look forward to the opportunity to have input into the study commission’s work.
In that vein, we believe the following points are essential for creating a structure that is both helpful and has the broad based support of the church’s people.
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We share these perceptions with you and offer these initiatives and ideas for your consideration with profound respect and hope.
In no less than two months, we plan to share this letter with our constituents, as we are speaking on their behalf, and they share our concerns and awareness of the problems facing our church. But first, we want to give you ample time to respond, individually and/or as a Council.
Please know we are praying for the entire Council as you lead our beloved United Methodist Church in these challenging days.
In Christ,
(signatories)
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The Renewal and Reform Coalition letter is signed by the Confessing Movement’s Patricia Miller (executive director) and Greg McGarvey (board chair); Good News’ Rob Renfroe (president/publisher) and Chuck Ferrara (board chair); Lifewatch’s Cindy Evans (administrator) and Paul Stallsworth (president); UMAction’s Mark Tooley (president) and David Stanley (board chair); and Transforming Congregations’ Karen Booth (director). The letter is available in PDF format here.
In November 2009, renewal leaders presented additional concerns to the Council of Bishops’ Unity Task Force at Lake Junaluska, N.C. A written summary of the renewal delegation’s presentation is here (PDF).
Related posts |
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| • | Prominent UM layman offers analysis of amendments outcome |
| • | Bishop Scott Jones: Rethinking the path to a worldwide UMC |
| • | Bill Bouknight: What I wish the Council of Bishops would say |
| • | Podcast: Randy Maddox on Methodist ‘doctrine, spirit, discipline’ |
| • | Maxie Dunnam: Amendments outcome reflects ‘sense of the faithful’ |
| • | Bill Bouknight: Methodists are saying ‘No’ to their leaders |
Related articles and information |
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| • | 2010 State of the Church Report (PDF) | UMC Connectional Table |
| • | U.S. conferences report declining numbers | Heather Hahn, United Methodist News Service (July 20, 2010) |
| • | UM Bishops announce defeat of global church and open membership amendments | Connor Ewing, Institute on Religion and Democracy (May 12, 2010) |
| • | Study Committee responds to constitutional amendment rejections | Stephen Drachler, Committee to Study the Worldwide Nature of the United Methodist Church (May 11, 2010) |
| • | Conference data comparison 2007-2008 (PDF) (all five U.S. jurisdictions suffered a net loss of membership in 2008; not a single conference in the Northeastern, North Central, and Western Jurisdictions showed a gain) | Background Data for Mission, UM General Board of Global Ministries (March 2010) |
| • | Unity Task Force Meeting: Dialogue with Renewal Leaders (PDF) | Meeting with the Council of Bishops Unity Task Force, Lake Junaluska, N.C. (November 5, 2009) |
| • | This is our story: Trends in the Church (PDF) | Office of Analysis and Research, UM General Council on Finance and Administration (June 2008) |
| • | A rare breed: Professions of faith decline in UMC | Mary Jacobs, UM Reporter (Feb. 1, 2008) |
| • | Exploring professions of faith (PDF) | Background Data for Mission, UM General Board of Global Ministries (May 2007) |
| • | Methodist membership as compared to the United States population: 1790-2000 | UM General Commission on Archives and History |
Thank you so much for speaking so strongly for the rank and file of the United Methodist Church.
I pray that your letter be taken seriously by the Bishops — however, history makes me not want to hold my breath on that possibility.
If the Bishops won’t listen to the other branches of church government and the UM conferences, they will not be moved by this innocuous letter.
The spiritual warfare is for the very soul of the United Methodist Church. It cannot be fought with an occasional passionless paper cut.
— The Rev. John Warrener
Speaking as a former United Methodist, I think you are wasting your time.
The UMC’s radical left have positioned themselves in power positions within the United Methodist Church — and that is not by accident but by design.
Their agenda is clear to any one that has been following the progression and direction of the Methodist Church:
1. Reject the Bible as the inspired Word of God;
2. Eliminate or water down the basic tenets of the Christian faith:
3. Promote, hire and encourage those in lifestyles contrary to the traditional moral teachings of the Christian Church under the guise of “inclusion” and “loving your neighbor”;
4. Allow radical Bishops, pastors and laity to promote, encourage, and sanction homosexual activity and cohabitation, eliminating the “sin” factor;
5. Discourage pastors and leaders from upholding the historical, biblical doctrine of the Christian faith by intimidation, removal, and filing charges against;
6. Disband the international unity of the United Methodist Church so the UMC in United States can further the agenda of the radical left.
The late Bill Hinson (of the UMC’s Confessing Movement) had it right in 2004: “The time has come to end this cycle of pain and conflict…. [T]he gulf is too wide, the differences are irreconcilable — and we cannot bridge these.”
Thank you, Renewal and Reform Coalition, for this excellent letter to the Council of Bishops. This coalition is an entity that has enough integrity and strength to be heard by our upper management. This letter will make an impact.
We pray that God has been preparing hearts to receive this word and to respond in ways that will foster revival of our Wesleyan heritage.
What’s so amazing to me is that for many years (especially since the Falwell Moral Majority era) the theo-political Left — which clearly includes many in the Council of Bishops, UM academia, and the GBCS — has sanctimoniously and hypocritically decried the mixing of religion and politics regarding actions by the “Religious Right,” which is their terminology for anyone more conservative than they (and also their code language for “bigot”).
But here’s the rub: the Left has been mixing religion and politics much longer — and in a much more secretive fashion! Further, they are more intolerant than the most close-minded fundamentalists are on their worst day! It brings to mind an old saying: the best defense is a good offense.
This bunch has turned hypocrisy into an art form!
It’s already been referenced on this website (in the ThinkerTwitter feed), but I think the story about the funding of the left-leaning, ostensibly Christian causes of Jim Wallis (Sojourners) by an atheist-supporting, abortion-loving leftist billionaire such as George Soros is telling. And there are likely MANY stories like this that are never reported because those in charge of exposing leftist corruption (i.e., the media) are themselves leftists.
Last month, Marvin Olasky asked Wallis to admit his affiliations on the left when he reported on the money from Soros in WORLD magazine:
George Soros, one of the leading billionaire leftists — he has financed groups promoting abortion, atheism, same-sex marriage, and gargantuan government — bankrolled Sojourners with a $200,000 grant in 2004. A year later, here’s how Jim rebutted a criticism of “religious progressives” for being allied with Soros and MoveOn.org: “I know of no connections to those liberal funds and groups that are as direct as the Religious Right’s ties to right-wing funders.”
Since then Sojourners has received at least two more grants from Soros organizations. Sojourners revenues have more than tripled — from $1,601,171 in 2001-2002 to $5,283,650 in 2008-2009 — as secular leftists have learned to use the religious left to elect Obama and others.
Wallis at first suggested that Olasky was lying. Then he came back and essentially admitted that Olasky was correct but that the “spirit” of Olasky’s report suggested that Wallis was in cahoots with the political left and Wallis denied such an association. References to the 220K-plus that Soros gave to Wallis were scrubbed from the both Wallis’s and Soros’s (Open Society Institute) websites, but not before Olasky had exposed them.
These people are shameless.
Sad to say, but I have to agree with Donna and John. The more I read the official web sites and pastor blogs, the more obvious it is that the UMC is so ridden with cancer that it’d be almost impossible to cut it out unless we can change the leadership, the seminaries, and a lot of our pastors.
Large numbers of leaders need to replaced. I don’t see 1) how we can do this, and 2) where we’d get new leaders from. So many traditional believers have had bad experiences with the UMC that they have left the denomination and are not likely to want to return.
As noted, the problem goes deeper than the bishops and other denominational heads. Many of our seminaries are so liberal and unorthodox they’re barely Christian.
The local church has become Ground Zero. How can we expect our denomination to re-embrace traditional Christianity when so many of our seminary-trained pastors are preaching what amounts to heresy?
The pastors of the United Methodist are tied to the denomination. Pensions, salaries, a retirement plan and the health benefits made available to retired pastors, play a part (I would think) in why biblically inspired preachers remain in the UMC.
The Methodist Church changed in the late 60s-early 70s. You can hear the mindset of the lay persons in their repeated expression of being “in love with the Methodist Church.” This seems akin to an attitude the Apostle Paul warned against in 1 Corinthians 3. Our position is “in Christ.”
It didn’t take long for biblically faithful Lutherans to get moving — http://www.lutherancore.org/pdf/Connection-Aug-10.pdf