by Steve | Nov 20, 2017 | In the News, Perspective E-Newsletter
By Tom Lambrecht-
With apologies to Robert Frost, one of my favorite poets, he describes the current situation in The United Methodist Church in his poem, The Road Not Taken: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.” Two roads are diverging within United Methodism today, and we can see the impact of that divergence in the “sketches” offered by the Commission on a Way Forward and the Council of Bishops (COB) as described in a recent UM News Service article.
Sketch #1 is described by the COB as it “affirms the current Book of Discipline language and places a high value on accountability.” This approach is the most popular among evangelical and traditionalist United Methodists. It would require major efforts at accountability, including church trials and the “voting out” of bishops and annual conferences from United Methodism in order to be effective.
Sketch #2 is described by the COB as it “removes restrictive language and places a high value on contextualization. This sketch also specifically protects the rights of those whose conscience will not allow them to perform same gender weddings or ordain LGBTQ persons.” This model is the most popular among so-called “centrist” or moderate United Methodists. It would neither affirm nor prohibit same-sex marriage and the ordination of non-celibate LGBTQ persons. The decision would be left up to individual pastors and annual conferences. This plan has been floated before and did not find success at General Conference.
Sketch #3 is described by the COB as “grounded in a unified core that includes shared doctrine and services and one COB, while also creating different branches that have clearly defined values such as accountability, contextualization and justice.” This model would dispense with the current five geographical jurisdictions and replace them with three branches, each with a defining theology and moral stance. This option is the most complex and the most difficult to adopt, since it would require constitutional amendments.
It should be noted that the COB descriptions do not indicate how the central conferences outside the United States are accounted for in each of the models. It will be important that whatever proposal adopted by the General Conference considers fully and fairly its impact on the central conferences, so as not to harm them.
Divergent Theological Roads
These proposals suggest that there are two theological roads that are diverging in The United Methodist Church. One road believes that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching, and that God is not glorified by this practice. Out of that theology flows the prohibition of same-sex marriage and the ordination of non-celibate LGBTQ persons. At a deeper level, this theology is based on an understanding of Scripture that gives the Bible primacy in determining what we believe and how we are to live. It values continuity with the historic Christian understanding of Scripture. Holders of this viewpoint are often called evangelicals, traditionalists, or orthodox.
A second road believes that God creates persons with a variety of sexual orientations and gender identities, and that God is glorified by persons who understand and live out of their authentic orientation and identity. Out of that theology flows the affirmation of same-sex marriage and the ordination of non-celibate LGBTQ persons. At a deeper level, this theology is based on an understanding of God’s revelation as continuing over time, based on but sometimes superseding the witness of Scripture. It values the incorporation of new insights and new understandings from science and philosophy that can reinterpret or even render obsolete the teachings of Scripture. Holders of this viewpoint are often called progressives.
These theological roads lead in different directions. They truly diverge. The models make room for that divergence with the “gracious exit” path that is provided with all three. Under Sketch #1, followers of the second theological road will need to depart from the UM Church, either willingly or unwillingly. Under Sketch #2, many followers of the first theological road will need to depart by reason of conscience. And the exit path is available to both groups under Sketch #3, if they find they cannot live with that model.
Strategic Roads
These proposals also suggest that there are two strategic roads that can be taken. A choice will need to be made between separation from and separation within. Both Sketches #1 and #2 envision the creation of a fairly univocal and united Methodism, from which those who cannot live with it will need to depart. In the case of Sketch #1, it is clear that progressives will need to depart and form their own separate church. Many progressives have said that they will not willingly depart. Their goal is not to form a separate denomination, but to change The United Methodist Church to an affirming view of LGBTQ practices. Progressives would need to be forced out, which would require years of accountability actions, trials, and discipline. It would have to overcome the reluctance of our current bishops to enforce the Discipline. This model would not end the fighting within our denomination and therefore would face a very difficult challenge in succeeding, even if adopted.
Sketch #2 is a bit more subtle. On the surface, it purports to create a space where each person can act according to his/her own conscience and beliefs. However, this model is inherently unstable. It is impossible for a church to hold two contradictory theological positions at the same time for long. Many evangelicals will choose to depart from the denomination because they cannot in good conscience be part of a church that permits practices that they believe go against Scripture. Many progressives will not rest until LGBTQ persons are fully affirmed everywhere in the denomination. They cannot long tolerate a situation where parts of the church are allowed to discriminate (in their view) against LGBTQ persons. So the pressure to affirm LGBTQ practices will continue, which pressure will in turn drive more evangelicals to depart from the denomination. The whole “centrist” approach appears to be a strategy to hold as much of the church together as possible while people either die or change their minds to embrace a progressive understanding.
Sketch #3 takes a different route. Rather than the separation from that will result from following models #1 or #2, Model #3 provides for separation within the denomination. A space would be created for each theological perspective–one that affirms LGBTQ practices and one that does not. A third space would allow such practices, but not require them. The individual spaces or branches would be the primary place where theology and ministry would be worked out and applied. Accountability would be maintained in each branch according to that branch’s understanding. Each branch would have to have the ability to determine its level of participation in any shared general agencies of the church. Each branch would have to have the ability to set its own standards and qualifications for clergy. Each branch would have to be able to elect its own bishops. And each branch would have to be financially self-supporting, such that funding is not going to support a branch that is in disagreement with the branch providing the funding. (Some have called this provision a “financial firewall.”)
For those thinking outside the box, this third model may hold the greatest potential for keeping the most people and congregations in The United Methodist Church. However, it is also the most difficult to adopt and implement. It would require numerous constitutional amendments, which takes a 2/3 vote at General Conference and a 2/3 vote of all annual conference members. There would need to be a several-year transition period of implementation, as annual conferences and congregations, as well as bishops and individual clergy, make their choices about which branch to affiliate with. If quick and easy are the requirements for a solution, then Sketch #2 is probably the best option. If one is looking at a way to keep the most people united, then Sketch #3 could fill the bill.
So there are forks in the road ahead: We will need to decide which theological road to follow. Will we affirm LGBTQ practices or not? And we will need to decide which strategic road to follow. Will we go for separation from or separation within? As in Frost’s poem, the road we choose, both individually and collectively, will make all the difference.
For further analysis of the three models in sketch form, I recommend blogs by David Watson and Joel Watts. Obviously, we need to have a lot more details about each of the options in order to fully understand and respond to them. Much more will need to be said about them, examining both the positives and the negatives of each. But we now have enough of an idea that we can begin to think about the possibilities inherent in each approach.
Thomas Lambrecht is a United Methodist clergyperson and vice president of Good News.
by Steve | Nov 15, 2017 | In the News
By Michael Yaconelli
Children tell God what they are genuinely thinking. They are honest, simple, and direct. They understand that God is listening, and they understand that prayers are very important. Somehow when we become adults, we forget how important praying is. So if you and I are going to be like little children, we must not forget our prayers.
Billy Graham came to Sacramento, the capital of California, [in 1996] to hold his crusade at the Arco Arena, just north of downtown. The night before the crusade was to begin, choir rehearsal went late. One of the members of the choir was driving home through downtown when he noticed a man slumped over on the steps of the capitol building. It was cold outside, almost midnight, and not the safest of places to be. The choir member decided he could not ignore the plight of this poor, homeless man. He was nervous as he approached the man, not knowing what to expect. The homeless man was crouched almost cocoonlike on the steps, and the choir member reached out and gently touched his shoulder.
“Sir, can I help you?” he said. “Are you okay?” The man looked up. It was Billy Graham. He was praying for the city of Sacramento.
Billy Graham is famous. He has people all over the world praying for him and his crusades, but he still knows where the power of his crusades comes from: his moments praying with his Savior. In this day of TV evangelists with their flashy clothes, sophisticated fund-raising, limos, gold necklaces, and Lear jets, it’s nice to know that one evangelist still trusts the silent, unflashy power of prayer. Billy Graham has not forgotten to say his prayers. And neither should we.
Content taken from Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith by Michael Yaconelli, © 1998. United by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. To order the book, click HERE.
by Steve | Nov 15, 2017 | In the News
Dr. David Watson, academic dean at United Theological Seminary, has provided thorough analysis of the interim report sent to the Council of Bishops from the Commission on the Way Forward. He offers an assessment of each of the three plans given to the bishops for consideration at the special called 2019 General Conference in St. Louis.
“The problem is that we lack not only a common vision for the church, but a common vision of the church,” writes Watson. “Put differently, it’s not just that we disagree over what the church should do. Rather, we disagree over what it means to be a church. I have insisted in the past, and will continue to do so, that the church is, among other things, a moral community. We have to make decisions—as a community—over our standards of right and wrong. Disagreement among our ranks doesn’t change this. When there is disagreement, we have methods of resolution. In fact, every church has methods of resolving disagreement because, without these, unity is impossible. Our decision-making processes in the church, our ways of resolving disagreement,are instruments of unity. Once we abandon these instruments unity becomes impossible. Our recent denominational history bespeaks as much.”
To read his full article, click HERE.
by Steve | Nov 14, 2017 | In the News, Perspective E-Newsletter
By Garry Ingraham-
In the Gospel of John, Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Jesus was spelling out his earthly purpose in contrast to the work of the spiritual darkness of “the thief” who comes to kill, steal, and destroy. Unfortunately, every morning we are subtly – and not so subtly – reminded of the work of “the thief” as we watch the news.
As Christians, we need to keep the abundant life that Jesus spoke about at the forefront of our thinking and ministry. This abundant life depends on an inward spiritual transformation that reaches every aspect of who we are as men and women. We are all in need of this new life.
Though I grew up in a Christian home, I was in need of that spiritual transformation. Around puberty I discovered that I was same-sex attracted. Despite years of prayer and enrolling in a Bible College, I felt as though I was struggling alone. At this stage in my life, I was addicted to porn and hated God and the Church. It seemed as though there were no answers or help for me.
I eventually became a bartender at a gay club and felt like I’d finally found my people. Still, in all my sin and rebellion, God never stopped pursuing me. When I crashed, He was there to catch me and draw me to Himself.
To hear my story of healing from homosexuality, click here. You can hear my wife Melissa’s story here.
The one organization entrusted by God with real answers for healthy sexuality and confident gender identity is the Church. Unfortunately, it has been embroiled in controversy and mired in politics rather than ministry devoted to transformation. The Church, through Christ and the inspired word of God as well as the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, has been given everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).
Every single Sunday we have men and women and youth in our pews who are seeking the abundant life Jesus spoke of and are looking for deliverance from sexual bondage — whether it is heterosexual or homosexual — to temptations such as adultery or porn. Because of our fear, or our own struggles, or simply out of ignorance, the Church has not been active in offering healing for those who struggle with their sexuality.
Through community and confession, we can find redemption. We can discover His image in us and His incredible design for sexuality – a lifelong commitment between a man and a woman.
There is a desperate need for churches to stand in the gap of 
our confused, empty, and sex-saturated society.
“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed,” writes the Apostle James. “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (5:16). If Christians would learn to become transparent with one another in this way, we would see a deep and profound healing in the Church. That healing would position us as “wounded healers” to reach out to our troubled world.
Our church would receive a jolt of Holy Spirit-infused new life if believers shared scriptural truth in love and offered friendship and a healthy emotional connection with those who are struggling with sexual brokenness.
Within the church, for example, the pervasiveness of porn is overwhelming.
The talons of porn have latched on to Christian men, Christian women, Christian young people, pastors and leaders. To be effective witnesses within the world, we need the Holy Spirit to first set us free.
For the last 40 years, The United Methodist Church has battled internally over its moral teachings about marriage and human sexuality. That is what draws controversial headlines. But beneath the public skirmish is a conflict over the abundant life that Jesus spoke of and the promise of transformation through the lordship of Jesus Christ. Some United Methodist leaders say this is all simply a disagreement about the interpretation of a few passages of Scripture. For me, however, it comes down to a decisive difference over St. Paul’s declaration: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (II Corinthians 5:17). In this time of theological confusion and disagreement, what gospel is the church promoting and what Jesus is the church proclaiming?
Coming out of homosexuality was the hardest thing I have faced in my life. My wife and I know of many transformed men and women who have chosen to surrender their sexuality and LGBT identities to the Lordship of Jesus. They find in Christ and his authentic, loving community more than enough to meet their deepest needs.
Transforming Congregations (a program of Good News) has been a renewal ministry and witness within The United Methodist Church for nearly 30 years. We focus our work on equipping United Methodist pastors and leaders on how to develop environments that foster transparency throughout the church.
Transforming Congregations provides ministry through:
1) preaching and teaching
2) conferences and retreats
3) leadership team meetings
4) personal mentoring for Christian leaders struggling with sexual sin
5) coaching men’s and women’s groups to get beneath the surface
6) helping develop friends and family groups for people with LGBTQ loved-ones
7) coordinating an inner-healing program called Living Waters
Through these primary methods, Transforming Congregations works with leaders to develop positive growth in transparency and a corporate life-style of confession and repentance, ultimately impacting the DNA of the congregation. We help churches to shift the emphasis away from a spectator/consumer mindset to become more of a teaching hospital or M.A.S.H. (mobile army spiritual hospital) unit for the sexually broken. We want to be involved in developing churches that a lost community comes to value and depend on for support, compassion, gospel truth, and a way out of their empty lives, to discover the true Jesus.
If our values, purpose, and methods resonate with your heart we would love to connect with you regularly. Would you sign up to receive our email updates (fill in your name and email address and check the box marked Transforming Congregations on the right side of the web page) and consider partnering with us by providing prayer-covering and financial support? You can also find additional details and resources on our website. In so many ways, we are standing in the gap, offering unpopular but essential truths, communicated in love, that God calls out for this generation.
Garry Ingraham, wife Melissa, and their two sons
Garry Ingraham is a layman who has been the executive director of Transforming Congregations since 2016.
by Steve | Nov 14, 2017 | In the News
Bishops pray with their episcopal colleagues who serve on the Commission on a Way Forward during a meeting of the Council of Bishops at Lake Junaluska, N.C., on Nov. 8, 2017. Photo by Heather Hahn, UMNS.
By Heather Hahn, United Methodist News Service
United Methodist bishops are exploring three possible models for how the church should handle LGBTQ inclusion.
The models come to the bishops from the Commission on a Way Forward, which has the task of trying to find a way for the church to stay together despite deep divides over homosexuality.
The bishops have been meeting in closed session Nov. 6-9 to discern whether the commission is heading in the right direction. The bishop-appointed commission has three more meetings planned early next year, and the bishops do not plan to develop any final recommendations until May 2018.
The possibilities under consideration:
- Affirm the current Book of Discipline language and place a high value on accountability. The church policy book says the practice of homosexuality “is incompatible with Christian teaching” and lists officiating at a same-gender union or being a “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy member as chargeable offenses under church law.
- Remove restrictive language and place a high value on contextualization. This sketch also specifically protects the rights of those whose conscience will not allow them to perform same-gender weddings or ordain LGBTQ persons.
- Create multiple branches that have clearly defined values such as accountability, contextualization and justice. This model would maintain shared doctrine and services and one Council of Bishops.
Each possibility includes a way to exit for those church entities that feel called to leave the denomination.
To read Heather Hahn’s entire report, click HERE.
