Digging Deeper

Why did Tim Bias really leave Discipleship Ministries?

Editorial Analysis

Copyright 2016 United Methodist Insight

Personnel stories about United Methodist leaders pose some of the biggest challenges to church-related news outlets because of the denomination's rule that allows secrecy regarding employment matters. The recent announcement of the Rev. Dr. Timothy Bias' departure as top executive of Discipleship Ministries provides the most recent case of how, in some cases, the denomination's rules protect the political status quo more than anything else.

The news of Dr. Bias' departure from Discipleship Ministries, announced on Jan. 5, took many United Methodist leaders by surprise. Both Discipleship's president, Bishop Elaine J. W. Stanovsky (Mountain Sky Episcopal Area) and Dr. Bias insisted in a United Methodist News Service article that the decision was by mutual consent, and voluntary on Dr. Bias' part. However, neither would give any reason why Dr. Bias decided to make such a move.

Bishop Stanovsky explained it this way to United Methodist News Service: “After long conversations, and as a result of deep discernment, the board and Dr. Bias came to an agreement for his departure."

The announcement stunned all the more because it came barely four months before the 2016 General Conference, the once-every-four-years meeting of the denomination's top policy-making body. Dr. Bias was elected to his office in October 2013, but didn't take on the job until 2014. From past experience, no general secretary leaves office after such a short tenure just prior to General Conference unless she or he is gravely ill or has committed some serious wrongdoing. Besides the denials of wrongdoing, there has been no previous indication that the former executive has any health problems.

In the hours after the announcement was made public, a third alternative began making the rounds of United Methodist social media: Was Tim Bias encouraged to leave because he backed loosening a United Methodist ban against using denominational funds so that Discipleship Ministries could begin a ministry to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youths at risk of suicide?

At first glance, this theory seems unlikely, since Dr. Bias has considerable conservative bona fides. To cite one example, as the pastor of First United Methodist Church of Peoria, Ill., a congregation publicly aligned with the Good News "evangelical" caucus, Dr. Bias was a frequent, vocal opponent of The United Methodist Church's divestment from Caterpillar Inc. because it sells equipment used by the Israeli military against Palestinians. Caterpillar's international headquarters is in Peoria; some of its top executives are members of First UMC, and Dr. Bias was Caterpillar's staunch defender.

Yet the "crowdsourced" third alternative begs for closer scrutiny.

In an Aug. 21, 2015 United Methodist News Service article, reporter Heather Hahn quoted Dr. Bias' support for amending United Methodist Book of Discipline Paragraph 806.9 so that Discipleship Ministries could develop new curricula for local churches to help LGBTQ youths at risk of suicide. The Discipline forbids the use of any denominational funds that "promote the acceptance of homosexuality."

The article quoted Dr. Bias:

“This is not about advocacy,” said the Rev. Tim Bias, the top executive of Discipleship Ministries. “This is about just being Christian disciples, about just caring for people.”

Later, Ms. Hahn wrote:

"Bias and other Discipleship Ministries staff members said the hope is the change will help the agency carry out another directive from General Conference ─ Resolution 2121: Teen Sexual Identity and Suicide Risk."

To many across the denomination – such as the North Alabama Annual Conference, which passed a resolution in June 2015 endorsing ministries with at-risk LGBTQ youths – the August 2015 proposal by Discipleship Ministries represented an appropriate ministry. However, the ban on using denominational funds for such ministries posed a significant obstacle.

To advocacy groups such as Good News, the unofficial "evangelical" caucus, loosening the prohibition against using denominational funds for LGBTQ ministries chips away at United Methodist condemnation of homosexual practice as "incompatible with Christian teaching." In her August 2015 article, Ms. Hahn quoted a Good News board member, the Rev. John Grenfell, who was a General Conference delegate in 1976:

 [Grenfell] recalls that a study by Discipleship Ministries was part of what prompted the funding restrictions. That study, he said, described homosexuality as “an alternative Christian lifestyle.”

“At this point, I don’t trust the leadership (of the church) in their commitment to exercise the polity of the church,” he said.

Aside from these most recent developments, there's one more historical reason to give credence to the idea that church politics played at least some role in Tim Bias' unexpected departure.

Formerly known as the General Board of Discipleship, Discipleship Ministries has long been a bastion of conservative theology among denominational agencies. This identity stems in part from its founding as the Methodist Board of Evangelism in the mid-20th century and its historic ties to a predecessor denomination, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

While Discipleship staff has been allowed some leeway in the preparation of curricula and other resources, for decades Discipleship directors have held tight rein over any theology that seemed to deviate from "traditional Christianity." The appeal to "Christian teaching" – i.e., tradition and Scripture – forms the basis for the UMC's refusal to accept same-sex relationships as normal human sexual expression. Hence, even the smallest deviation from this hardline stance would be viewed as a wedge to break open United Methodist resistance to accepting homosexual practice, leading ultimately to conservatives' greatest fears: allowing pastors to perform same-gender marriages and annual conferences to ordain LGBT clergy.

Given this political reality, what top executive would wish to go into the denomination's global policy-making assembly knowing that some of his directors – his bosses – would be working actively against a mission that the executive and his staff saw as both timely and morally right? Considering his past affiliations, did some of Dr. Bias' colleagues warn him off pushing to amend the funding ban?

Or, given the Discipleship board's conservative theological bent, did directors decide they couldn't risk having an executive who openly backed loosening the ban against using  church-wide funds for a ministry to LGBTQ teens? Aside from personal convictions, directors who didn't take their executive to task over such a policy shift would no doubt get earfuls of complaint – in fact, probably already had – from constituents opposed to their offering-plate dollars going for resources that potentially would tell troubled teens it's OK to be gay.

United Methodists at large likely will never know for sure what sent an able executive such as Tim Bias from Discipleship Ministries. Cloaked by UMC secrecy on personnel matters, closed negotiations between the executive and his directors prevent the denomination from learning the full truth. As they've said, the involved parties may well have seen Dr. Bias' leaving office to be of mutual benefit, but for vastly different reasons.

This much we can reasonably discern: Dr. Bias didn't leave because of wrongdoing or ill health, and Discipleship Ministries directors didn't fire him for lack of leadership ability, management skills or experience. That leaves three possibilities: undisclosed poor performance of some kind, personal animus, or church politics. Given the volatility of what was proposed to go to the 2016 General Conference, our money is on church politics.

A veteran of 28 years' reporting on The United Methodist Church, including covering seven General Conferences, Cynthia B. Astle serves as editor-in-chief of United Methodist Insight.