What's Ahead for The United Methodist Church?

Commentary

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It's not quite 3 o'clock in the morning as I write. It's the time of night when either my subconscious or my bad back wakes me up. It's a thin time, when things of the spirit can make their way past the incessant cacophony of daytime.

In the distance, a train horn emits short, muted sounds like it's approaching a crossing. A crossing. A crossroads. A place of decision. That's where The United Methodist Church sits poised as it begins the second week of the thrice-postponed global lawmaking assembly that is the titular 2020 General Conference happening in 2024.

There's a fragile spirit of hope abroad among delegates and observers alike. It's almost as if we can't quite believe that people are actually collaborating with one another to build a new expression of United Methodism.

By this point in times past, participants could discern the trajectory of Week Two by the amount and tenor of wrangling in multiple legislative committees. This General Conference boasts 14 such sub-units, plus the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters, which acts as a legislative committee.

Of the 10 General Conferences I've observed, this session has proved to be the most collaborative, most cordial of any such gathering in the past 36 years. Past sessions, particularly those in 2016 and the disastrous special session in 2019, have been so fraught with contention that the atmosphere was palpable, like the sting of fire ants we experience in the southern United States. (And fire ants bite as their name implies -- their stings feel like hot coals on the skin, leaving behind pustules of venomous pain).

This time is different. By some accounts, delegates have taken great care to honor the work of thousands of church members around the world who have studied, prayed, discussed, prayed, drafted, prayed and finally delivered legislation to shape a church that is international, equitable, and intentional. So far, only one legislative committee – Financial Administration, which devises the church's four-year budget – has been reported to have any serious contention.

Veteran observers are bracing themselves for the hopeful spirit of Week One to dissolve like dew in strong sunlight once hundreds of petitions are brought to the plenary floor. One reason for the reluctance to embrace hope unabashedly is the absence of traditionalist advocates in legislative committees. Delegate Mark Holland, executive director of Mainstream UMC, said in his April 27 report that it's as if Good News and the Wesleyan Covenant Association have simply "packed up and gone home."

General Conference veterans doubt Dr. Holland's interpretation because plenary votes are where the real fights happen. Longtime observers know that delegates for and against petitions have spent the first week of General Conference poring over the body's rules to make sure they're equipped with parliamentary procedures that can stop legislation in its tracks like a blast from an elephant gun. Such delegates may seem quiet for the moment, but that quietude is no assurance that they're gone.

Such is the nature of humans, as has been noted several times during the first week's sermons and reports. That little drop of sin lurking in everyone rebels against cooperation, collaboration and charity. Could it really be possible this time that United Methodists have seen the error of their quarrelsome ways and are moving toward a Pentecost spirit of building a new church? Uncanny. Absurd.

Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa of Zimbabwe, acknowledging himself a blunt speaker, built his April 27 sermon around the Apostle Paul's equally blunt counsel to the church at Philippi: stop quarreling! Since 2019 the UMC has seen the bitter fruit of its quarreling, with the departure of some 7,600 churches in the United States along with annual conferences in eastern Europe. Some say they left because the UMC is corrupted by its failure to enforce church laws against homosexuality. Some say it's because too many bishops and preachers have played fast and loose with their interpretations of scripture.

Hence now is the time to be especially wary of forces that will try to root out the emerging vines of United Methodism. They're not gone, they're only lying in wait.

In my wholly humble and unofficial opinion, I've come to see the past few years of disaffiliation as God pruning an overgrown vineyard. The pruning has been agonizing, causing lacerated souls, broken friendships, fractious lawsuits and even fractured families. A tender United Methodist Church has emerged from the trial exhibiting more spiritual sensitivity, more cohesion and more focus on its central mission: showing the world God's unconditional love that transcends all human boundaries to bring more people into relationship with Jesus, the Christ.

Hence now is the time to be especially wary of forces that will try to root out the emerging vines of United Methodism. They're not gone, they're only lying in wait. And they're not solely the kind of human adversaries that have torn apart the church with rancor and deceit. As the modern-day saint Mohandas Gandhi once said, we're all such sinners that the only devils running around are the ones in our own hearts.

The difference now may be that United Methodist decision-makers are finally fully aware of their sin of disputation. General Conference Week One brought everyone a glimpse of the psalmist's vision of how good it is when siblings work together for God's glory. The prayer on many lips as voting begins April 29 is that the spirit of cooperation won't depart from the assembly but will indeed permeate deliberations. If that comes to pass, a new church will rise ready to follow where God's Holy Spirit, not the desires of power and privilege, will lead.

United Methodist Insight Editor Cynthia B. Astle has reported on the United Methodist Church at all levels since 1988. This is her 10th General Conference. Please click here for permission to reproduce this content elsewhere.