By Pastor James A. Pauley III
When my wife and I first brought our son home from the hospital, we bundled him out of the car in his little carrier, set him in the living room floor, brought in luggage and a few groceries, looked at him sleeping so sweetly, looked at each other, and said together, “Well, now what?” We were plunging ahead into an unknown future together.
The Postponed 2020 General Conference of the United Methodist Church concluded last week, with sweeping changes to many long held position statements and doctrinal standards. And I am reminded of that first question asked, plunging ahead into an unknown future, “Well, now what?”
The changes are historic. LBGTQ+-persons were not to be candidates for ordained ministry – they are now permitted. Pastors could not perform same-sex weddings without facing consequences, including possibly being removed from ministry. They are now able to perform such weddings without consequence. Language that “Homosexuality is incompatible with Christian practice” has been removed from the Social Principles. Another less-well-known change to come out of the Conference is called “Regionalization,” a church-governance plan that, on the surface, is an attempt to make the UMC less “America-centric,” and to put the African and overseas churches on a level playing field. The “quiet-part-out-loud” is that it is just one more way for progressives within the church to entrench these changes, free from any dissenting voices from the more-traditionally minded parts of the world.
The logic used to justify these changes, and call them Biblical, would fill volumes. The arguments against such changes would fill just as many volumes. For the record, I personally oppose the liberalization of these standards. I oppose the removal of restrictive language. I even oppose regionalization, not because I desire a US-centric church, but because it sadly allows the US to go off on its own, without the oversight of our Brothers and Sisters in Christ overseas. There are “sharp divisions” (Acts 15:39a), and Regionalization passed so overwhelmingly that I am concerned that the overseas church is simply abandoning the US to go off on its own way. That has consequences, too (Romans 1:24, 26, 28). Don’t take my word for it – look these verses up yourselves.
In fact, regarding Regionalization, one stand-out moment to me was when an black man from the American south stood up and called it the “Separate-but-Equal plan” on the floor. That should have been a hint. That all of these things, regionalization, the removal of restrictive language, the social principles revisions, were bundled together in the church’s version of “omnibus bills” and passed without hardly more than a token debate on the floor should have been a hint. The fact that there were dozens of delegates from traditionalist Africa not in attendance, because the church authorities waited until far-too-late for these delegates to get interviews at US embassies in order to get visas, should have been a hint. This was not, in my view, “totally above board,” and that doesn’t say a lot about this being a church conference, a place where “Holy Conferencing” is supposed to take place, but instead politicking and Jim Crow reigned instead. Yes, I said “Jim Crow.”
The last UMC General Conference in 2019 passed legislation tightening the restrictions and increasing accountability, and providing a generous exit path for people who couldn’t in good conscience remain in such an “exclusivist” church. The progressives decried everything, announced they would not ever follow the rules, and worked and worked to drive the traditionalists out. There were other generous plans offered for an amicable divorce, which should have happened in 2020, but then came COVID. Plans fell apart, alliances fractured, and ultimately in my view, the Bible abandoned for the whims of the culture.
As a result, in America, many traditionalists saw the writing on the wall and had already left, going independent, joining other Methodist denominations, and many forming the Global Methodist Church in May, 2022. And without this “voting bloc,” the “Three R’s” plan (Regionalization, Restrictive Language, Revised Principles) passed without comment and without difficulty.
“Well, now what?”
John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, once wrote, “I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.” John Wesley would not recognize the doctrine of the UMC. The attitude on the floor toward traditionalists painted us a “unloving,” because we have a value called “accountability,” and it was the lack of discipline – the utter failure of church authorities to hold people accountable to the churches laws, that ultimately has led us to the brink of schism, if not sailing right over it. For the UMC, Wesley’s prediction has come to pass.
I was asked this week by a progressive pastor, “Why stay?” That’s easy. Wesley himself was an Anglican preacher his entire life. He never separated – his was a reform movement, not a “split.” The “split” was a necessary thing in America because of the Revolutionary War. But he spent the remainder of his life preaching the Gospel with the goal of “spreading scriptural holiness across the land.” I’m not called to leave at this time. I’m called to stand up in the face of all this and say, “No.” I’m called to preach Christ, and him crucified, died, and raised on the third day, as the Scriptures foretold. And I believe in that Wesleyan mission statement of “spreading scriptural holiness across the land.” Right now, that’s in my two churches that are, for right now, United Methodist Congregations. And argue what you will about all the changes, no matter what, if you come to my church, you will be welcome.
Finally, Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” I take great stock in that.
“James A. Pauley III is a licensed local pastor serving two churches in the Mon Valley District of the United Methodist Church.”