No, You Don't Have to Decide

October 31, 2022

10:35 AM

No vote WCA

From the Reconciling Ministries Facebook page

October 30, 2022

Recently in my church world I have heard this many times: “to not decide is to decide.” Specifically, to not make a conscious decision about whether to leave the UMC, or stay in, is to somehow abandon your responsibility to take a stand on whatever it is you don't like, or like, about United Methodism.

Hunt ident

Now this is actually just nonsense. God does not expect us to re-examine every commitment we’ve made every time our circumstances change slightly. I’m married. I see a pretty woman. Oops now I’m going to have to go through a process of discernment to decide whether I stay married or not because, to not decide is to decide. I’m an American citizen traveling abroad. I see that there are other countries and cultures. So now I must go through a process of discernment to decide whether or not I want to remain an American. Because to not decide is to decide. I read about a new religious faith. It seems attractive. So I’m now obliged to reevaluate my faith in Christ. Because although He has been faithful. To not decide is to decide.

This nonsense has an origin, and it’s an origin in the kind of evangelical movement that is promoting discernment and decision-making by United Methodist congregations. It goes back to the days of revival that many of us have already lived through: emotionalism seeking to fuel urgency in order to create a crisis. Then: "Make a decision for Jesus Christ tonight." "To not decide is to decide." "Choose Jesus or you are choosing Satan, and after all, you could die on your way home from the revival."

Contemporary version: "Current provisions for leaving the denomination will end soon. So you must decide now." "Last chance to buy your freedom at this low price." "To not decide is to decide."

It’s just the old American evangelical hucksterism with a new product to sell: disaffiliation instead of salvation.

And it's still just manipulation: emotionalism fueling false urgency to create a sense of crisis that forces a decision.

To repeat. Just because circumstances change doesn’t mean that we are obliged to reevaluate the commitments that we have made and have been made to us over the centuries.

There actually is a word for not deciding, or even considering the options. That word is faithfulness.

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Comments (6)

Comment Feed

We voted anyway.

Our congregation was explicitly told by the bishop through the DS that we could not in fact vote to leave the UMC, and that we needed to “move past the language of disaffiliation.” Guess what? We had a lay movement to vote anyway. We did it, even though we were told by the DS that the vote was just a “temperature-taking measure” that didn’t have any true status with the UMC. This is just like Brexit. The people vote to leave, but the leadership drags their feet and uses every delay tactic possible.

Melanie W more than 1 year ago

No.

Kick the can is no longer a workable strategy for avoiding making a decision. A pastor or board cannot stop the vote. Neither can a DS or bishop that wants to stymy a church from making a decision about the future they will share together in Christ. There will be a vote in every single local church. Not one single church will fail to vote. The members of the churches will vote with their feet. There is not one thing episcopal or institutional leadership can do except wait. The only decision that will matter will be determined by those who vote with their feet. If they stay, it will be because they want the future God wants them to have. If they separate, they will be separating because they choose the future that God wants them to have.

thomas more than 1 year ago

no deadline on para 2553 - nothing to see here

for churches that are tired of the dysfunction and lack of accountability to the BoD, there is a deadline. and if one does the math, decisions do need to made in the not too distant future. guess that urgency is snake oil in your commentary. maybe it would be better to ask, why these churches want to leave than attack the GMC for reminding folk that no decision is in fact a decision - to die an accelerating death with a dying mainline system. the UMC is broken. throw stones if you must if it makes you feel better

Steve Card more than 1 year ago

Steve

Many Conferences have implemented, or are working on implementing, an extension to para 2553 until after GC2024.

Steve more than 1 year ago

Abandon all hope ...

If you enter into 2024 w/o using the exit afforded by 2553, abandon all hope that a 2024 GC will do anything at all.

bthomas more than 1 year ago

There's hope

My Conference has already extended the para 2553 deadline until 2025. Other Conferences are already doing the same. Regardless, the BOD has provisions to leave outside of para 2553. So this rush people are talking about seems to be akin to the used car salesman saying they got a buyer coming in to pay cash if you don't buy the car right now.

Also, Wespath is proposing that GC allow the retirement liability to pass with the clergy. That would save many churches a lot of money and seems likely to pass. Waiting seems to be more fiscally sound than acting on emotion. If it doesn't pass, then churches and clergy (like myself) can still leave under the provisions of para 2553 as extended by the Conferences.

Plus, this gives the GMC to have their GC and develop a BOD so we know what we are joining. They keep changing their traditional BOD that it seems foolish to commit to leave and join them now. They had a version of a trust clause (called a lien on property) up until May this year when they were telling churches they could keep their property. Hopefully they can get everything together and set in stone to be more appealing to join them. Right now, not so much.

Steve more than 1 year ago