'It's a New Day in North Texas'

by

For thirty-plus years, I have attended annual sessions of the North Texas Conference and often have left feeling like I needed to take shower because of the raw and ugly politics, or that I needed to spiritual bandages for my wounded soul.

But this year, our new episcopal leader, Bishop Ruben Saenz sincerely spoke a truth that was perhaps bigger than he even meant: It does often feel like we leave a little piece of our soul at annual conference.

But not this year.

This year felt fundamentally different in incredibly hopeful ways, in part because of the non-anxious leadership of our new bishop. He masterfully led 1,000 conference members through hours of complicated and potentially thorny conversations. And he did so with patience, humor, and without one visible shred of personal fear.

Beyond this, there was also a remarkable camaraderie among lay and clergy conference members, rural and urban, liberal, conservative, and moderate.

There appears to be great joy that we are moving past a painful few years of disaffiliations, where church members were sometimes pitted against one another, and where bald-faced lies were told about the future of the United Methodist Church (and even about some of us personally!).

This year, it appears to me those who remain United Methodist in North Texas are ready to boldly move forward under the aspiration to be a “One Church” denomination.

Some years back, a small group of us led an effort to encourage the North Texas Conference to live aspirationally as a “One Church” conference. This meant that we would be a denomination that made space, true space, for everyone, that became a “big tent” and respected theological, cultural, and contextual differences.

Despite fierce pre-opposition at the time (even from friends) that “One Church" resolution overwhelmingly passed at that previous annual conference. I bring this up now because I was deeply moved by the number of times it was referenced in the 2023 annual conference. A good aspiration such as "One Church" can become embedded into our spiritual DNA and our personal behavior in terms of the language we use to speak to one another and also the way we treat each other.

As pertains to that “One Church” resolution, I could not be more proud of this.

At the 2023 Annual Conference, we heard exciting reports about new United Methodist Churches that are being founded in towns where the old churches have left for the Global Methodist Church. We talked about powerful ministries led by women and ethnic minorities. We talked about amazing ministries in our small towns and cities. We talked about disaster relief, through UMCOR and our local efforts.

The bishop – yes, the bishop in his address – noted the ministry of our churches who marched in Dallas' Pride Parade.

Said another way: we moved into a celebration of the true “One Church.”

What impressed me the most is how our conference members moved through 13 resolutions — some of which have to do with incredibly fraught social and cultural issues — with respect and without rancor.

My feeling of many years is even more strong now: Many laypersons feel disempowered and helpless in the face of large, cultural issues. They feel like their churches don’t speak out enough on important issues of the day. I understand why churches do not speak out because there is often pushback and a cost.

So, this year the North Texas Conference considered “weather balloon resolutions” on potentially conflicting issues such as LGBTQ rights, trans families, gun control, and abortion. In almost any other year, any one of those could occupy hours, perhaps days, of time and discussion. The North Texas Conference considered all these resolutions, and patiently moved through all of them in a matter of a few hours!

I didn't sense frustration in the room over this, or a “Let’s just move on…” moment. Quite the opposite, both in committees and on the floor, our conference members took this work seriously.

Again, these resolutions do not officially change United Methodist Church law. But they do help us self-understand who we are as an annual conference. They send important messages to all of our greater North Texas neighbors that United Methodists passionately urge all Christians to take the issues of the day seriously through the lens of our faith. Some of the topics:

A "one church" resolution: “The United Methodist Church will continue to engage in respectful dialogue to understand differing perspectives of ministry in an effort to maintain unity and work towards resolving differences in a manner that is consistent with its mission and core values while upholding its orthodox doctrine and practices…that this body affirms the commitment of The United Methodist Church to remain diverse and contextual across the globe, embracing all individuals, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or any other form of differentiation, as full and equal participants in the life and work of the Church.” (I believe this resolution passed unanimously…)

A resolution supporting members of the North Texas Conference experiencing disaffiliation: “…we, the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church, pledge to foster an inclusive environment that welcomes diverse perspectives and promotes dialogue and action to support The United Methodist Church as a big tent denomination in all our efforts moving forward.” This resolution named just how hard the past two years have been in many local congregations.

A resolution supporting the removal of discriminatory policies. This resolution, which was supported by our General and Jurisdictional Conference delegates, flew through with absolutely no negative or halting discussion. It was approved by 99% of the delegates.

The North Texas Conference overwhelmingly said that we aspire to: “…a more diverse and fully welcoming UMC is a testament to a more complete image of God, which includes persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities; and a more diverse and fully welcoming UMC allows all United Methodists to offer their prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness, as followers of Jesus, to further Christ’s mission; and by the power of the Holy Spirit, God calls and includes all persons into the life and leadership of the Church, transcending the limitations of human categorization; and the current language in the Book of Discipline places limits on Christ’s teaching and example of God’s universal love; and the current language in the Book of Discipline falls short of embodying the spirit of John Wesley’s simple rules to do no harm, do all the good we can, and love God; and legislative changes to the Book of Discipline would reduce barriers and allow movement toward wider diversity and inclusion in our United Methodist Church. ... The North Texas Annual Conference supports the removal of all discriminatory policies and harmful language related to sexual orientation.”

This resolution has been part of the 30-year struggle of my ministerial career. As it was approved, I thought about Methodist clergy who lived in fear for their careers and ministries for decades. I thought about those early years at annual conference when we wore rainbow stoles and were angrily told “you are being divisive.”

I thought about dozens of laypersons — many of them with deeply painful personal stories of rejection by their churches and families — who over a period of two decades volunteered themselves to meet with our North Texas delegates to General Conference. They offered not once, but before and after each General Conference for 20 years. To their credit, the delegates often made time with/for them over lunch or in their offices. This was a powerful movement of personal Christian lay witness — sometimes risky, and always vulnerable — to personalize the sharing the story of God’s working in their lives, only to have General Conference often kick them in the gut session after session.

I thought about good and faithful people I have known who have left the United Methodist Church over the years — thousands of them — because of this Disciplinary language. I thought about my friend and mentor, the Rev. Bill McElvaney, whose last great act just before his death was to preside over a marriage of two gay rights icons and friends. I thought about times he privately shared with me his own struggles even to stay as a retired UMC clergy, given the harm our denomination was causing.

I thought about the many clergy over the years who at many Annual Conferences would sidle up to me privately (like they were sneaking into a liquor store) and tell me, “My heart is with you, but I cannot speak out where I am.”

I thought about the sometimes politically and theological conservative people who would come confidentially to my office to ask how they could support their gay or lesbian children, and how they were ultimately helped by Reconciling Ministries Network churches, PFLAG, other groups, many pastors and how they often became powerful Christian witnesses to the power of true Christian repentance.

I thought about the years when those of us who performed same-sex weddings did so under the actual threat of being defrocked and losing our ministries and callings, how we discussed these threats with our spouses and children, preparing them for the possibility that we could lose our jobs.

And so, on Tuesday afternoon, June 13, 2023, as the North Texas Conference approved removing the harmful language in the Discipline by a margin of 99% — my mind raced quickly through all these memories and more.

And as all these thoughts raced through my brain, I thought… “How far we have come.” And how many unacknowledged tears, how much pain, how much deeply hard work, led to this moment? They cannot all be named. But they live in the heart of God.

The resolution on removing discriminatory language is aspirational, of course. The General Conference still will need to act to remove the language from the Book of Discipline. But based on my experience, did I ever imagine 99% of North Texas Conference members would vote to remove that language?

No, I could have never imagined what happened on June 13 on the floor of the North Texas Conference.

We have more work to do, especially at the General Conference level. But more than one person said to me: “Eric, it’s a new day in North Texas.”

And I will say with them: It most certainly is.

The Rev. Eric Folkerth serves as senior pastor of Kessler Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas. This essay is adapted with the author's permission from the post on his blog “When EF Talks.” To reproduce this content elsewhere, please contact the author via his blog.