Living as United Methodists Between the Radical Ends

January 2, 2020

10:51 AM

Does God still have need of The United Methodist Church?

I’ve been listening to our church fight over the issue of human sexuality for 30 years. As we look toward General Conference 2020, the thing that bothers me most is that while we have fought over human sexuality, there has been very little interdisciplinary discussion about human sexuality during this period.

Perhaps those of us who live in the United States of America are “all knowing” and have the luxury of believing that our way of understanding the Bible is the only way

Beverly Wilkes-Null

The Rev. Beverly L. Wilkes-Null.(Photo courtesy of Highland Hope United Methodist Church.)

While there has been very little conversation or willingness to learn from each other around issues of human sexuality, somehow it has been discerned that it is time for The United Methodist Church to be dismantled and destroyed because it no longer represents a few people on opposite radical ends.

What about the rest of us — the centrists who have been willing to listen and find validity in the holy disagreements of the radical ends? What about The United Methodist Church for the rest of us?

I grew up as a Missionary Baptist in Western Kentucky and became a United Methodist because of its large theological tent rooted in a Wesleyan understanding of grace. I am one who has always viewed our United Methodist Book of Discipline as our covenant of law and grace.

When General Conference 2019 was over, my heart sank as I realized that with the passing of the Traditional Plan, we United Methodists had stripped our book of covenant of its grace.

While I am not seeking to endorse anyone’s 2020 plan for The United Methodist Church, I do want to send out a clarion call to all centrists to allow God to use you to discern a path forward that makes room for all of God’s children in our global United Methodist Church.

We are all fragile humans who have more than once viewed our sacred text through the lenses of our limited experiences.

If our views of Scripture were never challenged:

African Americans would still be slaves
African Americans would not have the right to read.
African Americans would not qualify for ordination.
African Americans would not have the right to vote.
Women of every ethnic group “would have to go home.”

Sometimes in our passion to forge the Gospel ahead, we become Pharisees and we get it wrong! We are not Calvinists — we are Wesleyans who bring all of who we are to the Scripture and to our living out of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We are all incompatible with Christian teaching; that’s why we all need a Savior.

While I cannot speak for the 12.6 million United Methodists living in 125 countries, I do offer this clarion call for those of us living between the radical ends: Now is the time to stand up, speak up and show up — prayed up and ready to do God’s work at General Conference 2020.

The Rev. Beverly Wilkes-Null is directing pastor at Highland Hope United Methodist Church in Highland, Illinois, and a delegate to General Conference 2020. This essay was distributed by United Methodist News Servicel

Comments (2)

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Weleyanism is the Problem

Rev. Wilkes-Null is right on Weleyanism but wrong on Reformed/Calvinist theology. True reformed Christians are more forgiving of sin accompanied by repentance because they understand that all, including them, are under the curse of sin and there is no good in humanity except that provided by God through the grace of the Holy Spirit. That makes it easier to accept someone else as a sinner in need of grace and repentance, because you are just the same as them. Wesley, and other Arminians fall into works righteousness by claiming that there is a spark of good in everyone and if they will just choose God, everything will be wonderful. Good concept, but bad theology not supported by the Bible. You don't choose God, God chooses you.

Just because you condemn sin does not make you a Pharisee. Condeming only some sins while acting like you are not a sinner is Pharisaical. I think that UMC seminaries neglect the OT and the Law way too much. A careful reading of Jeremiah should scare the you know what out of clergy as they contemplate what God says about false prophets. The consequences of the Law make grace and Christ's atonement for our sins all the sweeter and more precious.

Dan more than 4 years ago

Except...

Wesley and Wesleyan theology never has claimed that we can "just choose God." Wesley said that on Total Depravity, he was but a "hair's breadth" from Calvin. That we are totally depraved never meant that every morsel of our being is entirely without good--just that every morsel has in some way been corrupted by sin. Not the best analogy, but a loaf of bread that's grown moldy isn't necessarily 100% mold; there are still crumbs of good bread within the loaf, but the mold has affected the entire loaf sufficiently that the loaf is no longer good for its original purpose of being. God's prevenient grace extended to all humanity (a little more robust than Calvin's notion of common grace) awakens us to God's beckoning AND enables us to accept or reject his call. All is initiated by God--it's erroneous to think that the human soul can independently "choose God."

That being said, too much of the UMC has been infected by the faux Arminian-Wesleyan theology you've described--it's what I heard in childhood Sunday School classes and abounds throughout our connection. But it's not, and never was, Wesleyan.

John more than 4 years ago