Traditionalist Caucuses WCA and Good News Still Lobbying

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Feb. 16, 2024 | UM News

Key points

  • The traditionalist caucuses Good News and Wesleyan Covenant Association have been encouraging congregations to leave The United Methodist Church for the Global Methodist Church.
  • Both groups plan to be lobbying at the United Methodist General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina.
  • Critics say the meeting should be for those committed to The United Methodist Church.
  • The groups say they need to advocate for churches and conferences that may still want to disaffiliate.

Good News and the Wesleyan Covenant Association used to operate as unofficial traditionalist caucuses within The United Methodist Church, advocating at General Conference and elsewhere on denominational policy.

But for the past two years, both groups have been encouraging congregations to leave The United Methodist Church for the traditionalist Global Methodist Church.

Though now clearly aligned with that new, breakaway denomination, Good News and the Wesleyan Covenant Association plan to be a lobbying presence at the fast-approaching United Methodist General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina.

That doesn’t sit well with some United Methodist loyalists.

“If you work for Pepsi, you don’t expect to be in the board room where decisions are made for Coca-Cola,” said Pat Luna, an Alabama-West Florida Conference delegate to General Conference.

The Rev. Stan Copeland, a North Texas Conference delegate, said he knows of no United Methodists planning to try to influence the Global Methodist Church’s Convening General Conference, to be held in Costa Rica in September.

Copeland believes The United Methodist Church, like the Global Methodist Church, deserves a stakeholders-only meeting.

“We’re basically charting our path forward to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world,” Copeland said of the Charlotte legislative assembly, set for April 23 to May 3. “Only the ones who are invested in that should be making the decisions.”

Leaders of the traditionalists groups counter that they are needed in Charlotte to advocate for those who may still want to leave The United Methodist Church.

“Our focus is going to be providing for exit paths for congregations and annual conferences, particularly outside the U.S.,” said the Rev. Tom Lambrecht, vice president and general manager of Good News.

The WCA will be partnering with Good News toward that end.

“We want every church to land where it wants to land during this separation period,” said the Rev. Scott Field, the WCA’s  president.

The United Methodist Church has long faced internal division, particularly over how inclusive to be of LGBTQ people.

Traditionalists have prevailed on that issue at past General Conferences. A special 2019 General Conference, called to deal with the church’s divide over homosexuality, reinforced the denomination’s bans on same-sex weddings and ordination of “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.”

But the meeting was highly contentious, leading to increased defiance of the bans in the U.S. Traditionalists continued their complaints about lack of enforcement of the bans and described the denomination’s conflict as untenable.

Early in 2020, a theologically diverse group of church leaders proposed the Protocol of Reconciliation & Grace Through Separation. But the COVID pandemic repeatedly postponed the General Conference at which that breakup plan was to be considered.

In 2022, the Global Methodist Church formed, with support from Good News and the WCA.

The Rev. Rob Renfroe, Good News’ president, did a series of videos making the case that traditionalist churches should leave The United Methodist Church for the Global Methodist Church. Lambrecht did the same in writing.

“As someone who was heavily involved in helping create the Global Methodist Church, I whole-heartedly believe this is the best option for local churches looking for a Wesleyan denomination,” Lambrecht said in a 2022 column for Good News.

Just over 7,600 U.S. churches left The United Methodist Church between 2019 and 2023, under an exit path approved by the 2019 General Conference. The exit path — spelled out in Book of Discipline’s Paragraph 2553 — expired at the end of 2023.

Good News and the WCA say their agenda for the General Conference in Charlotte will be limited, with a focus on extending disaffiliation opportunities.

The groups’ presence will be appreciated by remaining U.S. traditionalists in The United Methodist Church, said the Rev. Robert Zilhaver.

“I’m glad they’re going to be there and do some breakfasts and just give us a place to process everything that happens,” said Zilhaver, a Western Pennsylvania Conference delegate.

But the Rev. Drew Dyson, a delegate from the Greater New Jersey Conference, is among those frustrated that Good News and WCA continue to be involved.

“Our polity should be determined by those whose intention is to remain faithfully within the UMC,” he said by email. “In my estimation, Good News and the WCA are simply attempting to undermine and harm the work of the UMC under the guise of ‘fairness’ for their allies.”

Good News formed in 1967 and has long been a force at General Conference and in United Methodist politics generally. The WCA is a much newer organization, officially launched in 2016. It served as the incubator for the Global Methodist Church.

Good News has for years provided financial support to the UMC Africa Initiative, a traditionalist United Methodist group coordinated by the Rev. Jerry Kulah of Liberia. Lambrecht put the amount of support in 2023 at about $50,000.

At past General Conferences, Good News has held daily breakfasts for traditionalist delegates. These are occasions for prayer but also for lobbying those attending to vote Good News’ position on key issues.

Lambrecht said Good News will have two such breakfasts in Charlotte. He said Good News is not having a pre-General Conference briefing in the U.S., as it has done before. But he said Good News is planning a meeting in Africa ahead of the Charlotte gathering.

In the past, Good News has helped underwrite the travel costs of African reserve delegates coming to General Conference. (Primary delegates’ expenses are covered by General Conference.) Lambrecht said the group is not doing that this time but has helped pay for some African delegates’ travel within Africa as they’ve made repeat trips to try to get their visas to the U.S.

The 2019 General Conference — on the recommendation of its Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters — decided that changes it made to the Book of Discipline would not take effect outside the U.S. until a year after the following General Conference.

Because of COVID-caused delays to General Conference, disaffiliation under Paragraph 2553 never became an option outside the U.S.

That’s why there’s a need to secure exit paths for non-U.S. churches, Renfroe said. He emphasized the importance for African United Methodists.

“I do believe that people who are Black and poor deserve the same right (to disaffiliate) as people who are primarily wealthy and white,” he said. “That has not been the case in a denomination that often talks about justice and condemns neo-colonialism.”

Africa has been an area of rapid growth for United Methodism, and traditionalist views on human sexuality dominate among United Methodists there.

But some African delegates contacted by UM News say they don’t need U.S.-based traditionalist groups’ help.

“How can I feel OK with Good News and WCA being active politically at General Conference while they are strongly motivated to create chaos by doing all they can to destroy our United Methodist Church, which we love so much,” said the Rev. Robert Kilembo, a Zambia Conference delegate, by email.

Good News and WCA also favor extending an exit path for U.S. churches, arguing that extra costs imposed by some annual conferences under 2553 made disaffiliation unaffordable for some.

Renfroe said that some traditionalist U.S. churches held off on disaffiliating, honoring the request of their bishop or district superintendent to wait to see whether the next General Conference lifts the bans on same-sex weddings and ordination.

Good News’ leaders said those churches too need a fair exit path — and will want one after the Charlotte meeting. They insist U.S. delegations have become more progressive due to elections and the departure of some traditionalist delegates to the Global Methodist Church.

“The way we do the delegate math, there’s no way that the standards on sexuality and marriage will not change,” Lambrecht said. “That to me is a foregone conclusion.”

Good News and WCA have been critical of regionalization, a major agenda item for the Charlotte gathering and one that would require at least a two-thirds vote, given that it would amend the denomination’s constitution. For ratification, constitutional amendments also require at least a two-thirds aggregate vote of the lay and clergy members voting in United Methodist annual conferences.

The legislation would create regional conferences that could decide some matters that before were left to General Conference. The idea, advocates say, is to make General Conference less U.S.-centric and to contextualize ministry and mission across the church.

The traditionalist groups see the real motives of regionalization as letting the U.S. move toward full LGBTQ inclusion and limiting the influence Africans have on the whole church through their growing number of delegates at General Conference.

But the groups’ leaders say they are still weighing how much they’ll advocate on the issue and may hold off if the exit paths they seek get approved before regionalization comes up.

“The timing would be very important,” Renfroe said.

Good News has board members who have left The United Methodist Church for the Global Methodist Church. Lambrecht remains a United Methodist elder, on extension appointment to Good News, and Renfroe is a retired United Methodist elder.

“I didn’t think I could be in another denomination and continue to speak into the life of The United Methodist Church,” Renfroe said.

Field, of WCA, said he retired as a United Methodist elder but has since moved his clergy credentials to the Global Methodist Church.

How long will the traditionalist caucuses continue, given that the Global Methodist Church is up and running?

“I would anticipate that over the next year or two we would want to resource (United Methodist) churches that are considering disaffiliation, just as we’ve done over the last several years,” Lambrecht said of Good News. “As those churches make decisions of either disaffiliating or not, our activities would wind down.”

Field suggested the WCA may wrap up sooner.

“I’m just trying to hold the door open and then I’m happy to say, ‘Thank you very much, God bless you, and we’ll be on our way.’”

Sam Hodges is a Dallas-based writer for United Methodist News.