August 25, 2010

Dear Friend,
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is a great joy to serve him and to serve you who care so deeply about our orthodox faith and the renewal of the United Methodist Church.

In my most recent GOOD NEWS editorial I mention that the Council of Bishops and the Connectional Table have commissioned a group called The Call to Action Committee to determine the problems plaguing the United Methodist Church and to offer possible solutions. And we do have problems. Over the past 40 years, the United Methodist Church in the U.S. has lost 2,240,000 members. That’s a 22 percent decline. Of course, the decline is even greater where our churches are most liberal. In fact, the Western Jurisdiction during the same time period has seen its membership decrease by 45 percent.

Yes, we have problems. But they run much deeper than our sad decline in membership. Dr. Tom Oden, for many years the Henry Anson Buttz Professor of Theology and Ethics at Drew University, has written:

Mainline churches stand today not merely in a crisis of numbers, but in a deeper crisis of faith. Though often portrayed as a crisis of politics or demographics or moral values or sexuality, it is more profoundly a crisis of biblical authority and theological integrity.

Permissive leadership often looks the other way as opinions gain currency that are obviously contrary to ancient and historic … Christian teaching. No one calls them to task. Sometimes it appears that no one can.

Dr. Oden states that the mainline churches, including we United Methodists, are in trouble numerically and theologically. And I believe the two are related. I believe that beliefs matter.

Deny the orthodox Christian faith, give into the culture, refuse to hold onto the essential spiritual truths of the Bible, the very things that Dr. Oden says are occurring in the UM Church, and you cannot expect God to bless the efforts of your denomination.

The Call to Action Committee has received reports from two well respected consulting firms who were asked to research why the United Methodist Church is struggling. Two findings are of particular note. One, our General Boards and Agencies are failing us. And, two, the people in the pews have a lack of trust in our denominational leaders.

It is certainly refreshing to hear someone else report what those of us working for the renewal of the church have been stating for decades: there is a huge disconnect between faithful, Bible-believing United Methodists and the liberal positions so often espoused by many of our Bishops and others who represent us at the highest levels.

One wonders what recommendations for change will come from the Call to Action Committee—and what the Bishops and the Connectional Table will do with the Committee’s proposals. A cynical response would be to doubt that those who are such a big part of the problem would ever make the changes necessary to fix the problem.

But we can hope and pray that the Spirit of God will open the eyes of our Episcopal leaders to the reality that we are in crisis and something must be done. What we must pray for is that our leaders understand that the crisis is not just our declining numbers; it is also theological in nature and it has resulted in a lack of trust throughout our denomination.

My fear is that the proposals for change will be structural in nature and little more. But the truth is, even with the most efficient structures, if we have leaders who deny the basic teachings of the Christian faith (such as the deity of Christ, the necessity of faith in Christ for salvation, and the authority of the Bible), we will never again experience the full blessing and power of God.

I want you to know that Good News is monitoring the work of the Call to Action Committee very closely. And we will watch carefully what the Council of Bishops and the Connectional Table do with the Committee’s recommendations.

This is a most important moment. There is a real opportunity for the Church to hear what the Spirit of God is saying—that we need biblical leaders in high places so trust can be returned to our members and so the power of God can again come upon us. If the Church grabs this moment, we may experience genuine revival. If we miss it, who knows when the Spirit of God who blows where He will, will come our way again?

Your faithful giving allows Good News representatives to attend Call to Action Committee meetings and to keep up with its progress. Your generous donations will enable us to continue in the struggle to influence our leaders to put Christ first—ahead of cultural correctness and church politics.

Good News has always trusted you and people like you to support our work, and you have never let us down. I pray that you will continue to trust us as we represent you and our Lord as we contend for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints.

Yours in Christ,

Rob Renfroe

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