I Love the United Methodist Church

January 28, 2019

1:23 PM

Without apology I am a Methodist, a United Methodist, that is, since 1968. Some years ago Ben Garrison wrote a book on this same theme. He titled it: The Methodist Church, Warts and All. The title doesn't need much explanation. Ben knew the church he loved wasn't perfect. He loved it anyway. So do I.

Ever since those two sweet old ladies (Carmen Pernell and Letha Ledbetter) gathered us all on Sunday morning in the church basement and taught us to sing “Climb, climb, up sunshine mountain, faces all aglow . . .” I have loved the Methodist Church. Beyond the world of our small nuclear “Methodist” family the Methodist Church has been the community of grace that shaped my life. It is a home to me and I love it.

“Let me count the ways,” sings the old love song. When I think of all the ways the Methodist Church has blessed my life it becomes the lead in to a “Litany of Praise.” The Methodist Church taught me that God “first loved me” and that I should love everybody. The first of these two precepts has been easier for me than the latter. God loves me unconditionally and I love him back (I know God may be more of a her than a him). It's harder to love everybody. Some people are easier to love than others.

Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS

Bishop William B. Lewis

I have to pray a lot about loving everybody. Some folks just make me mad and I know it is a sin for me to feel the way I do about them, so I have to pray about it and work at it. Today I'm thinking about the people who do not love the United Methodist Church, and I really do have to pray a lot for forgiveness about the way I feel about them.

They call themselves the Good News movement but they dwell on the bad news. They say they are the Confessing church but they act more like a criticizing (“nitpicking”) crowd. They have created an Institute for Religion and Democracy but they give religion a bad name and undermine the democracy – electing corrupt leaders. Now they come in the form of a misnamed Wesleyan Covenant Association to reform, renew, and save the United Methodist Church. They want to fix us.

Forgive me Lord, but I don't believe them. I am praying that you will forgive me for the way I feel about them. Forgive me for repeating myself. They will be offended by my prayers and maybe rightfully so. What they call reform seems more like an assault to me. They attack, attack, attack. What they call renew seems more like resistance to change, fear of the other and the unfamiliar, and nostalgia for the “good old days” that never were and never will be again. I think they are reactionary. It looks to me more like they want to steal the United Methodist Church than to save it.

Its harder to like people who don't like you. (I realize you know more about that than I do, Jesus). I am a bishop and a progressive. I have heard them bash bishops with my own ears. They say they love their bishop, and it seems to me like they have some skin in that game, but in their gatherings,they really do demonize most bishops. I have been there and heard them do it. It hurts because “I are one.” And I have so many friends and colleagues who are bishops. I love them (the other bishops) a lot. (Is there something wrong with me?) They seem more gentle and kind, and more learned and wise (except for me) than the people who are attacking them.

I am a progressive. (I usually, though not always, vote for Democrats.) The WCA people really don't like “progressives” and they say it a lot. I know, Lord, that they are talking about “liberal” theology when they dwell on the evil of us “progressives.” They talk a lot about “orthodoxy” and church history (“tradition” is the word they like), but I'm not impressed with how much most of them seem to know about either subject.

I know I shouldn't dwell on this. It isn't healthy. But there is a meeting coming up across the river from my home and the folks who don't love the United Methodist Church the way I do are on the warpath. They think they are more truly Methodist than I am and will resent everything I'm saying. I shouldn't blame them. I don't like what they say either.They have a funny way of showing their love for The United Methodist Church. They are more loyal to the WCA than they are to the church I love.

Forgive them, Lord. Forgive me, Lord. I want to get past the way I feel about this. I'm trying to love everybody. Its hard, Lord.

I hope they sing, “Shall We Gather at the River.” Real Methodists love that song.

Comments (7)

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Remember the good old days...

Remember in the good old days when a man and woman joined in matrimony to raise children guided by the word of God? Remember when sin was sin and not up for popular vote? Remember when John Wesley preached temperance and virtue? Remember when the Bible was the authority of the Church and our lives? I think I remember those days... My family helped found a Methodist Church before the State was even a state, before there were cars, before many things yet this One Church option is going to kill everything they dug that foundation for.

Brian more than 7 years ago

Conservatives are the problem

Just by reading the wording in several of the comments here, it's clear to me that you strict conservatives/extremist groups are the problem, not the progressives. Progressives have been trying to reach some sort of middle ground with you for years, but your "my way or the highway" attitude is what's bringing the church down. You don't really care about the future of the denomination as long as you can control it...and that's not what church is supposed to be about at all. People of faith should be able to disagree like respectable human beings without feeding into the witch hunt/excommunication mentality you're adhering to. More and more young people are walking away from church in general. A generation or so down the road, there may not even be a UMC. You should be wanting to bring in more people despite differences, not trying to push certain ones out. I firmly believe most of you worship the literal words of the Bible over God almighty himself and God's Spirit, which is supposed to be guiding you as a light in this world. Judgment and division seem to be what you're all about, and if you know your Bible verses so well, you know those are not the fruit of the Spirit.

Quite frankly, if you feel so strongly against the direction the UMC is going, then why don't YOU leave and start your own church? Nobody's holding you back.

Michael more than 7 years ago

Thank you

Thank you for expressing my pain as well. A WCA member and a 20+ year friend and colleague leaned forward during a report about the process of the Way Forward Commission and said to me "It's been nice knowing you." This really was hurtful. Why did he feel the need to say that with such joy in his face? Why if he loved the United Methodist Church and me would he be so gleeful about his plan to leave us both behind. The WCA is not a stupid organization. They have said a lot of the "right" things when confronted with the notion that they are really just trying to steal the denomination or split the denomination, but when you read the stuff they put out and the things they say to one another...Controlling or leaving has ALWAYS been the goal of the two organizations Good News and The Confessing Movement. The IRD has always had division as their only goal. They are an outside organization with deep pockets from the donors who have nothing to do with the denominations that they have attacked for decades.

Thank you for speaking so honestly about your pain (and mine.)

Rev. Billy Kurtz more than 7 years ago

Thank You

Bishop Lewis, thank you for your sanity in this crazy discussion. We have forgotten to keep the main thing the main thing. God is God and we are not. Let the one without sin cast the first stone. - The Church is not perfect, but we need to remember to the vision that Peter experienced, what God has made clean let no one call unclean. I don't believe we are called to leave anyone out, especially those with whom we disagree. I would be surprised if our sexuality was something that would keep us out of heaven. If that's true, then why should it keep us out of communion with each other. May we all be in prayer about this so that we can be a witness to those who have no hope. Oh yeah, I might be wrong. I hope people reading this are willing to say the same thing.

Paul Baker more than 7 years ago

Love the church

It is the progressives who have openly defied our policies and rules and have brought this crisis upon us. They have pledged to delay and disrupt conferences when they do not get their way. They openly defy even our judicial rulings as seen by the unlawfully consecrated lesbian bishop who is still occupying the office. And yet you blame those who hold fast to their beliefs for the current problems within The UMC. You might want to take a closer look and rethink who is to blame here. I am tired of the shrill screaming by the progressives who insist that The UMC be remade into their image. There is no deal that can be made with oath breakers. It is time to resolve the dispute or walk away.

Kevin more than 7 years ago

And what about the reality

That there are progressives who are on their own warpath to force their beliefs on those of us who also deeply love the church every bit as much as you do but have a completely different understanding of the church and Christianity than you do. What about progressives who refuse to accept the word on sexuality every General Conference since 1972 has spoken. The only thing designated to speak on behalf of the whole church has spoken time and time again on sexuality and yet the battle rages on, and the problem are those who agree with General Conference has been saying? What is wrong with this picture? As a laity who has spent years listening to every voice I could find in the UMC, I am stunned that it is drowning in theological plurality. I am stunned that Bishops think it is OK for a church to speak with voices that contradict and conflict with each other, leaving the church nothing in particular to say. This is not easy on any of us who grew up in The Methodist/United Methodist Church. Growing up it was the most stable and consistent thing in my life that was anything but stable and consistent. It consistently pointed to a never changing God. Now it points to a God who does not even know what He intended when He created humans as two distinct genders.

betsy more than 7 years ago

The WCA is the only sane voice and the

Only adult in the room. Whereas LGBT individuals can be Christians, they should never be clergy nor churc leaders. Only those who recognize the LGBT behavior as sinful are credible as church leaders. All others should resign, find another denomination, or choose another line of work. If they can’t discern God’s clear Words Re marriage, homosexuality then they have no business teaching or leading the rest of us. The WCA has the right goal of teaching God’s word as revealed to us via the Bible, and not simply trying to be politically correct. Shame on progressives for trying to lead us astray. I pray for a swift and total split from progressive leaders.

Steve more than 7 years ago