Fighting the good fight
By Steve Wood

Let me first report that I am no longer hearing the sounds of drums, which is really a miraculous thing! I was beginning to worry that I had developed some sort of disorder from the activists’ percussion vigil held not far from my corner room at the Hilton in Fort Worth. General Conference 2008 was a whirlwind learning experience, the likes of which I have never known. There were so many special blessings I cannot count them all, but most important was the power and presence of the Holy Spirit at work in all who were there who fought the good fight for the preservation of scriptural authority and the revived mission of the United Methodist Church in the Wesleyan tradition.

Even weeks later, I felt a “good tired” simply because I am convinced that I represented God and the brothers and sisters who elected me to the best of my ability and even beyond!

I’d like to share a word or two about the legislative committees and the plenary sessions. My respect for my co-servants is unwavering and my respect for the great diversity within the United Methodist Church is greater today than ever before. However, I must say that I am perplexed in trying to understand the motivations by which many now choose to process scriptural truth and live in holiness of heart and mind. Equally complex to me is the apparent new definition of “experience” in the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, which we have historically employed to process theology, life, and our charge to keep from God. To be exposed to a neo-quadrilateral process where personal human experience has become the cornerstone definition of experience was an interesting phenomenon to behold and a downright confusing one to hear. Even more interesting was witnessing several delegates from various jurisdictions of the U.S. employ the neo-quad model in their thinking, articulation, and exegesis (or is it isogesis?) of the Holy Scriptures. It seems that this long understood concept of experience that we have held with consensus is going through a metamorphosis, kind of like the term “pluralism.”

Call me old-fashioned, but my theological foundation has been constructed on the foundational principle that Scripture validates and enlightens experience. Holding fast to the Sola Scriptura mindset of processing life and all that God has created and inspired was a discipline I saw employed by fewer of my cohorts than I had expected. I guess I’m just naïve! I heard more times than not the phrase, “Well, my experience is/was…” which opened the door to the discussion and implementation of legislating human experience rather than legislating a Kingdom approach to mission and ministry based on the authority of God’s Word. I’m still trying to digest the whole of the experience.

Take, for instance, the passion for “human rights.” I am for that—or, at least I thought I was, until one of my fellow delegates kindly explained to me that my theological conservative stance rendered me out of order for the authentic human rights movement.

What strikes me as strange is how one can be so impassioned about the preservation of human rights in matters of sexual orientation and covenantal relationships, yet remain silent and uncommitted to the very same rights for children not yet born. It seems to me that if we are for human rights, we ought to be for the human rights of all of God’s children, and I am very much for that! But there is a difference between the fight for the preservation of human rights for all people, and the redefining of human behaviors that God has proclaimed to be sin.

Unless I am living in major denial, I do not think I am stuck in a world that demands that everyone interpret the Word, or life for that matter, the precise way that I interpret those things. However, I do confess that ours is a Kingdom work of God, faithful only when lived out with God’s Word as the guide and standard for objective moral and ethical truth. I also confess that the cross in and of itself is divisive in many ways when we consider the collision of human experience and preference in comparison to a bar of divine truth and God-defined relationships.

Would I go back to General Conference if elected? Absolutely, and for one major reason: above all else there rises the greatness of God, almighty and everlasting, seated on the throne, full of love and mercy, the creator and sustainer of all living things. I find unspeakable comfort and tremendous motivation in the reality of this greatness of God by which the church has survived the nature of humanity and both clergy and laity throughout the ages. Praise be to God, and God bless the United Methodist Church!

Steve Wood is the senior pastor of Mount Pisgah United Methodist Church in Alpharetta, Georgia.