by Steve | Aug 12, 2024 | In the News, Perspective / News
Nigerian Conflict and Chaos
By Thomas Lambrecht
This has been a difficult summer for the Good News office. Hurricane Beryl caused two weeks of power outages, preventing us from working in the office or accomplishing much of anything. Technical issues caused our website to go down, leaving some people to believe we had gone out of business (we have not!). Then our email failed to work for several days. Everything is in the process of being fixed, and we are back up and running again. We are resuming our regular schedule of Perspective e-newsletters.
As some would say, this chaos is a “first-world problem,” in that most of the world is not so dependent upon electricity or technology as we are in the U.S. The United Methodist Church of Nigeria (UMCN) has experienced a fair amount of chaos this summer, as well, and its chaos is much more damaging.
As reported by the Global Methodist Church, the four annual conferences of UMCN have voted unanimously to withdraw from The United Methodist Church and join the Global Methodist Church. In the wake of that decision, Bishop John Wesley Yohanna resigned from the UM Church and was received as a bishop of the GM Church. Presidents pro tempore were appointed for the four annual conferences, and they have begun to operate as annual conferences of the GM Church.
That paragraph makes this transition sound simple and easy, but it was anything but.
As we and others have reported in the past, the Nigerian church has been riven with conflict since 2012, when Bishop Yohanna was elected bishop. One faction of the church refused to accept him as their bishop and withdrew from the UM Church to establish their own independent Methodist church. Repeated attempts at reconciliation over the years have been unsuccessful.
Several years ago, a key leader in the UMCN, Ande Emmanuel, began to resist the authority of Bishop Yohanna. He, too, has gathered a faction of supporters within the church and attempts to portray his group as the true UM Church in Nigeria. According to sources in Nigeria, there are allegations that Emmanuel has fomented violence against fellow church members by hiring “thugs” to attack and beat persons belonging to the mainstream Yohanna part of the church, disrupting worship services and other church activities. Emmanuel filed lawsuits in court attempting to take over the property of the UMCN.
Emmanuel filed complaints against Yohanna through the church accountability process, and Yohanna filed complaints against Emmanuel and his group. Those complaints were supposedly resolved by a Just Resolution last year agreed to by all parties. However, the terms of the agreement appear not to have been fully implemented. Each side accuses the other of failing to live up to the terms of the agreement.
The conflict came to a head around the time of the 2024 General Conference, when Emmanuel became a frequent speaker on the floor of the conference advocating for regionalization, which the bulk of the Nigerian church opposes. When Emmanuel and other delegates returned to Nigeria, they were greeted by protesters opposing regionalization and what they characterized as the LGBTQ+ agenda. Emmanuel’s group engaged in counter protests, and the threat of violence caused the local government in one city to close all United Methodist churches for a month to allow things to cool off.
Meanwhile, the court ruled that Emmanuel’s lawsuit was without merit, dismissed the lawsuit, and fined Emmanuel for bringing the suit. Many Nigerian members unhappy with the General Conference actions agitated for the UMCN to show its opposition to those actions.
Bishop John Schol (Greater New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania) was sent to Nigeria in June to attempt to negotiate a resolution of the conflict between Emmanuel and Yohanna and their groups. Instead, Schol reportedly got an earful from the annual conference cabinets voicing their displeasure at the General Conference actions. He was unable to fulfill his mission of reconciliation and was apparently escorted to the airport for his own security.
Bishop Yohanna had called special sessions of the four Nigerian annual conferences. The four conferences voted unanimously to exit The United Methodist Church with all their properties to join the Global Methodist Church. Bishop Yohanna and nearly all the district superintendents of the four conferences then resigned from the UM Church to become Global Methodist.
The UM Council of Bishops then appointed Bishops Schol, Nhiwatiwa (Zimbabwe), and Streiff (Southern Europe, retired) to serve as a team of interim bishops in Nigeria. In their communication, the bishops allege the special annual conference sessions were not held according to the Discipline. “There are reports that Annual Conferences were held, and Conferences voted to leave The United Methodist Church. This is not true. There were no Conference Sessions convened according to our Book of Discipline, and most delegates/conference members were not invited to these gatherings.”
Reports on the ground and official communications from UMCN leaders, including a press conference held by Bishop Yohanna, state that the conference sessions were held and that they did take action to withdraw. It is probable that annual conference members belonging to Emmanuel’s group may not have been included in the conferences, since they had renounced the authority of Bishop Yohanna. But reports on the ground indicate at least two of the conferences had over 80 percent attendance.
The bishops’ letter also alleges that “a group of United Methodists were [sic] imprisoned due to complaints by the former cabinet and leaders because they are committed to staying with The United Methodist Church.” However, a church leader identified with the GM Church reported on Tuesday, “Four members of Sunkani District are in detention yesterday morning. Two of them are GMC members while two are UMCN members. They were in detention due to what happened in Sunkani District on Sunday, August 4, that led to the closure of our Church. [This alludes to the threat of violence I mentioned above that caused the government to close the churches for a time.] The DS and the Church secretary of Sunkani District are our GMC members who were in detention along with two members of the UMCN.”
Information received on Wednesday indicated that the members were released from detention. Based on this report, the detention was due to the threat of violent altercation, rather than because some members wanted to remain in the UM Church. Indeed, two of the four detainees were GM Church leaders, not those wanting to remain in the UM Church.
In the midst of this chaotic situation, the bulk of the Nigerian church is moving to the GM Church. Some individual congregations and pastors have yet to decide which way they want to move. Out of a church that most recently reported 600,000 members, several hundred thousand of them are moving to the GM Church. It will be a number of months until the dust settles and we know for sure what proportion of the UMCN is now GMC.
This move of Nigeria is significant. It was done according to the laws of Nigeria, rather than by any process that is in the Discipline. While the General Conference closed the door on any official disaffiliation pathways in the UM Church, legal realities in many countries could still allow disaffiliation by annual conferences.
The members of Nigeria join a rapidly growing GM Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Tanzania, Kenya-Ethiopia (which is also growing dramatically), and South Africa. A number of other countries are poised to inaugurate the GM Church, as well, with other countries moving toward that goal. It appears that only a handful of the African countries that have a United Methodist presence do not already have a movement to establish the GM Church in their country. That means 20 or more African countries may have GM conferences in the next year or so.
The Global Methodist Church is truly growing as a global movement of the Holy Spirit. Many are looking forward to the convening General Conference September 20-26 in Costa Rica as a seminal moment in reinforcing the solid foundations for this new denomination.
Thomas Lambrecht is a Global Methodist clergyperson and vice president of Good News. Photo: Nigeria Area Bishop John Wesley Yohanna says a prayer alongside members of his cabinet during a gathering of United Methodists from the North East and Southern Nigeria annual conferences on July 24 at McBride United Methodist Church in Jalingo. Yohanna announced July 29 that he has left The United Methodist Church. Photo by Ramson Danjuma, communications director for the North East Nigeria Conference (via United Methodist News).
by Steve | Jul 5, 2024 | Uncategorized
But Grace Said …
By B.J. Funk
On that painful morning, his words cut deep into my heart. I had driven the forty-five- minutes-drive the night before as soon as I got the call. Daddy was now with the Lord, and I went to be with my mother. Her kind preacher stayed until I got there. This was my first experience of losing a family member.
Death crept into my daddy’s sickbed at the hospital and graciously ended his seven-year struggle. It had been a long battle, cruel and painful as we all watched our brilliant daddy’s mind reduced to bouts of forgetfulness. Equally painful was knowing his life was now limited to living in a wheelchair and being dependent on others for his personal needs.
We slept. I don’t know how, but we slept. Around 9:30 that next morning, the phone rang. I answered.
“This is the funeral home. We wanted to ask Mrs. Greene if it is okay for us to start embalming Mr. Greene.”
The lights went out inside of me. Silence on my end. The words were the cruelest ever. Embalm him? No! This is MY daddy you’re talking about. Embalm him? Why? I don’t know for sure he is really dead! My mind cannot comprehend it. My heart is broken over it. And now the funeral home man wants permission to embalm my very loving and dear daddy. No! No! No!
My insides broke into a million pieces. No daughter should be asked that question. No wife should either. Somehow, I managed to say “You can,” and hung up the phone. My mother never learned about that cruel phone call. And, I have never figured out why in the world the funeral home needed permission. It was hurtful. It was cruel.
For twenty years I have kept that horrid phone call to myself. Now, however, grace calls out to me to forgive, let go and move on.
Grace said “He didn’t handle it well. Forgive him anyway. He could have used a different approach. Forgive him anyway. He was only thinking about his job and not about your family’s pain. Forgive him anyway.”
And, so tonight I am. I never knew his name, and he will never know my pain over his call. How my stomach doubled in knots, reaching up to my heart and breaking it and how my whole world shattered over his words.
It’s hard enough to accept death. Then, you have to accept that your loved one is at the funeral home without you. Then….then….you have to face that horrid word “embalm.” That’s the word that puts the exclamation mark on the truth of daddy’s death. That’s what makes the staccato on the reality of losing my daddy.
In the days following daddy’s death and burial, I began to see things a little clearer. Somewhere in between all the farewell plans we had to make, I recognized the role of the funeral home, and this thought entered my mind.
“What a blessing that there is someone who can take care of my daddy and get him ready for burial. I couldn’t. My mother or sister couldn’t. There’s only one place that can do what has to be done for us and that one place is the funeral home.”
I don’t think about that hurtful call anymore. I don’t equate it with painful or cruel anymore. I still think it was insensitive and unnecessary. Why couldn’t they just go ahead and do it?
But grace said…..let it go. Let it go. Let it go.
And so I did.
B.J. Funk is Good News’s long-time devotional columnist and author of It’s a Good Day for Grace, available on Amazon.
by Steve | Jul 5, 2024 | July-August 2024
TMS Global has a new CEO
“Thirty years ago, I never would have guessed that God would use our team’s tiny church plant in Kazakhstan to raise up pastors and many believers who now live in 11 countries around the world,” tells Dr. James “Jim” Ramsay, TMS Global’s new president and CEO.
This is just one example of what God has done through TMS Global (formerly The Mission Society) over the past 40 years. Today the tiny church plant that began with the TMS Global team in Kazakhstan is fully led by local believers and has even planted other congregations.
“I was recently in Asia and had the joy of being with Valodya,* a young man I first met when he came to our church in Kazakhstan. He came to faith, grew in the faith, eventually pastored that church, and now trains church leaders in discipleship across Central Asia.”
Jim could tell you many other such stories of lives who have been transformed by the love of Christ and called into mission. Himself called, he has dedicated the last 30 years of his life to mission—through TMS Global. Prior to joining the home office staff, Jim served with his family for 10 years in Central Asia. He is this organization’s first CEO who has served as a missionary (“cross-cultural witness”) with TMS Global.
“That says more about the organization than it does about me,” he says. “It equips, supports, and develops people, and encourages innovation. In a sense, TMS Global has raised me. There is no doubt that the values of this community are part of who I am. And they will carry me into this role.”
While our mission is the same as when Jim joined 30 years ago, the world is not the same. “I am humbled by the creativity of our cross-cultural witnesses who have innovated new ways of doing ministry and engaging culture, ways of serving that I could not have imagined back when we first moved to Central Asia in 1996.
“As an organization, we also are innovating new ways to assist local churches and pastors in being missional in their own increasingly diverse communities.” As for the future of TMS Global, for Jim, the example of Valodya’s life and ministry serve as inspiration. “This is my vision—that through all we do, our purpose remains to invite people to faith, then disciple them well so that they enter into the good works God has for them. They, in turn, disciple others—for the sake of the gospel and the advancement of God’s kingdom.”
Dr. Jim Ramsay is preceded in office by the Rev. Max Wilkins, who retired on April 30, after having served for 10 years as TMS Global’s president/CEO and 32 years in pastoral ministry. *pseudonym
If you would like to learn how TMS Global can serve you, your pastor or your church, please join Jim for a Virtual Town Hall meeting in July where you can ask him any question. Learn more and sign up at: www.tms-global.org/townhall24
In the past 40 years, TMS Global (formerly The Mission Society) has trained, mobilized, and served hundreds of cross-cultural witnesses who communicate the good news of Jesus in word and deed. For more information about how you might serve or partner with TMS Global, visit tms-global.org.
by Steve | Jul 5, 2024 | July-August 2024
Is There Room for Traditionalists?
By Thomas Lambrecht
July/August 2024
The 2020/2024 General Conference has just concluded its ten-day run in Charlotte, North Carolina. A summary of some of the actions taken by the conference are available in last week’s Perspective, “A Tale of a New Church.”
Many participants remarked upon the different atmosphere that prevailed in Charlotte, compared to previous General Conferences. Many items were adopted on the consent calendar, meaning that they garnered no debate and had very little opposition. To those in the majority, it appeared that a spirit of unity and a common direction pervaded the assembly.
The reason for that new unity and the many lopsided votes was due to the fact that most dissenting voices were not present. The loss of one-fourth of UM congregations in the U.S. translated into the loss of more than half the traditionalist U.S. delegates, including many of the leading traditionalist voices. The fact that one-fourth to one-third of African delegates were denied a visa and unable to be present further diluted the traditionalist voice.
A greatly reduced opposition meant that the new majority was able to enact its agenda largely unimpeded. That agenda not only affirmed the full-throated acceptance of LGBTQ ordination and marriage, it erased clear moral boundaries around all forms of human sexuality. It accommodated the church to a Western sexual ethos based on consent and self-fulfillment, rather than on God’s purpose for sexuality as a binding element of marital intimacy, a reflection of the Trinity, and a depiction of the relationship between Christ and his Church.
Good News and other traditionalist observers and delegates were present as a witness to traditional values and scriptural understanding, as well as to advocate for a clear and reasonable pathway for churches unable to embrace the new UM agenda to disaffiliate with their property.
Room for All? The conference went out of its way to ensure the inclusion of LGBTQ persons. The conference affirmed same-sex marriage and empowered pastors and churches to perform such weddings. Partnered gay and lesbian people may now officially be ordained as clergy and consecrated as bishops. Sexual orientation is now included alongside race and gender as characteristics that may not be considered when appointing a pastor to a church. LGBTQ persons are mandated to be nominated to all general church boards and agencies.
In the midst of all these mandated open doors, it became obvious who was being excluded. Little respect was given to those voicing opposition to any of the above agenda. An African leader seeking to make a personal statement to the conference was completely shut down, unlike in past General Conferences where moments of personal privilege were freely granted to those supporting a progressive agenda.
From the opening sermon by Bishop Thomas Bickerton, the outgoing president of the Council of Bishops, the question was raised about who belonged in the room. He began by asking, “Do you want to be in this room? Are you willing to move forward in the spirit of hope and embrace a season of reformation?” This “reformation” was not an attempt to align the church with biblical teaching, but an adoption of the “full inclusion agenda” promoted by progressives.
Setting the direction of the General Conference, Bickerton promoted this new agenda in vague terms, but ones that all its supporters understood and welcomed. “This is the time to refocus the church for the future. Lay out the beginnings of our next expression and find a way to decide that different people from different cultures with different theological persuasions CAN be the body of Christ in unity and respect and love.” That “next expression” of United Methodism took a very progressive turn at this conference. The question remains, however, whether that progressive tent is large enough to include theological conservatives in one church body “in unity and respect and love.”
A definite direction was set for the church, and Bickerton made clear that no opposition to that direction would be welcome. “Do you want to be in that room? I pray that you do. But if you are in this room, I think you need to be prepared to get on board a train that is moving on down the track to a new day for what it means to be The United Methodist Church.”
The train’s destination is predetermined. But what if we don’t want to go to that destination? Clearly, we were invited to get off the train. Bickerton continued, “And if you are not committed to that positive narrative of who we are or where we are going, you might just be in the wrong place! And perhaps, just perhaps, in love we might just ask you with integrity that you just leave us alone to do our work.”
Disparagement and Discouragement. Throughout the conference, a running commentary from a self-described centrist special-interest group disparaged and slandered traditionalist delegates and urged them to leave. It’s email blast on May 1 criticized a traditionalist delegate for expressing a heartfelt opinion on behalf of traditionalist members across the world. Yet, it proclaimed that she should never have attended the General Conference.
We saw the vote totals at this General Conference steadily decrease, as delegates absented themselves from the floor of the conference. At its high point, there were 750 delegates voting on matters. After the vote changing the definition of marriage, the vote totals declined to around 665. Even 750 delegates represents only 87 percent participation of the total of 862. That indicates the loss of many delegates from Africa, perhaps as many as 100 missing. A decline to 665 delegates represents only 77 percent participation. This could very well be a message from African and traditionalist delegates that they feel their voice and participation is no longer valued. Rather than participating in futile opposition to the prevailing winds of change, some delegates obviously found other things to do.
The message communicated to traditionalists by Bickerton and others was that we can participate in the church, as long as we fund the new agenda and keep quiet – and do not openly disagree with the stance of most of the church. That reduces traditionalists to mere checkbooks – second-class members of the church. Many traditionalists may find these terms of membership to be untenable.
A Locked Door. While being encouraged to get off the train if we don’t like the destination, many traditionalists may find the door locked. Par. 2553 allowing local churches to disaffiliate was removed from the Discipline by a 72 percent majority, even though it had already expired at the end of 2023. The presenter of that petition opined that disaffiliation should never have been considered, nor should that paragraph have ever been included in the Discipline, and he rejoiced that it would never be in a printed version, since the Discipline was not printed in 2020 following the 2019 General Conference. Other attempts to pass a process of disaffiliation, even for just those annual conferences outside the U.S. that never had a chance to consider disaffiliation, were overwhelmingly voted down.
It is highly ironic that at the 2019 General Conference, traditionalists passed an exit path for progressive congregations who could not abide by the Traditional Plan – an exit path that the vast majority of progressive churches were unwilling to use. But in 2024, the “champions of tolerance and grace” refused to pass an exit path for traditionalists who could not abide by the decisions made by this General Conference – an exit path that traditionalist congregations are more than willing to use.
If we cannot agree with the direction taken by the new UM Church, we are asked to leave. But for many, the door is deadbolted shut, at least as far as it concerns taking church property along in the disaffiliation. To some, it was a reminder of the last line of the song, “Hotel California,” “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”
Hopeful Ways Forward. It is hoped that many bishops and conference leaders will see the futility of trying to keep local churches in the UM fold by forcibly denying them a way to leave with their property. There is still a way through the church closure provision (Par. 2549) that annual conferences can close a church and then sell or deed it back to the congregation. Again, to be reasonable, such a process should be no more costly than Par. 2553 was, and for some churches it may be less. It will be up to each annual conference to decide whether it will allow churches to leave using this provision and at what cost.
Unfortunately, in some instances, an exit from the UM Church with a congregation’s building will not be possible. In those cases, it may be necessary for parishioners to be willing to walk away from their building for the sake of biblical faithfulness, as they see it. It may take the form of individuals finding another Wesleyan, biblically-faithful congregation nearby to join. Or it may be that a critical mass of the congregation walks away together to start a new ministry in that community. There are many stories of vibrant new churches forming out of the necessity to leave a building behind and start a new congregation, both in Methodism, as well as in the Episcopal/Anglican and Presbyterian worlds.
Stay UMC or leave, we hope that the decisions made by the 2024 General Conference will not cause people to abandon their biblical convictions and compromise with a worldly value system that prioritizes self over obedience to Christ. It remains to be seen whether those biblical convictions will be welcome in the UM Church going forward
Thomas Lambrecht is a United Methodist clergyperson and the vice president of Good News. Worship consultant Marcia McFee and others celebrate on May 1 after the 2024 United Methodist General Conference, meeting in Charlotte, N.C., voted to remove the denomination’s ban on the ordination of clergy who are “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.” (Photo by Paul Jeffrey/UM News).
by Steve | Jul 5, 2024 | July-August 2024
Marriage Decision Provokes Delegates
By Sam Hodges and Jim Patterson
African delegates and one African bishop joined in a demonstration after General Conference delegates voted to revise the church’s position on marriage, for the first time approving same-sex couples who choose to wed.
At the opposite end of a plaza outside the Charlotte Convention Center, members of the Queer Delegate Caucus and allies celebrated the same decision.
This General Conference has embraced full LGBTQ inclusion through a number of votes, including on May 2 affirming “marriage as a sacred, lifelong covenant that brings two people of faith, an adult man and adult woman of consenting age or two adult persons of consenting agw, into a union of one another and into deeper relationship with God and the religious community.”
After the marriage language decision, about 65 Africans, with a smattering of others, sang hymns and prayed together, while also making clear their view that the Bible does not sanction same-sex marriage and The United Methodist Church shouldn’t either.
“We do not believe we know better than the Bible,” said the Rev. Jerry Kulah, a General Conference delegate from Liberia, coordinator of the traditionalist Africa Initiative and leader at the rally.
Virginia Bambur, a delegate from the Central Nigeria Conference, also disapproved of the General Conference action.
“I’m not happy about it,” she told UM News. “You cannot change the word of God.”
Bishop John Wesley Yohanna of Nigeria joined the gathering and criticized the General Conference’s more expansive language on marriage.
“Marriage is between a man and a woman, period,” he told UM News.
Most African United Methodist bishops have expressed strong support for the traditional definition of marriage, while also saying they are committed to The United Methodist Church, provided church policies can be adapted to the African context.
But Yohanna has long made clear that he would have to leave the denomination if it in any way endorsed same-sex marriage.
He said after the protest that he is nearing the end of his episcopal term and wants to stay long enough to help bring reconciliation among United Methodist factions in Nigeria. He said he was still weighing whether he would eventually join another denomination.
Yohanna predicted that the new language on marriage will come at a cost to United Methodism.
“I’m very sure this will affect the membership of the church in Africa,” he said.
Kulah echoed that while speaking at the protest.
“We return to Africa with important decisions to make regarding the future,” he said.
Kulah also said that more than 70 African delegates never made it to General Conference and blamed the Commission on General Conference for lack of communication and lateness in sending letters of invitation necessary to get a visa.
“It felt as if we were not valued or wanted,” Kulah said.
This General Conference’s credentials committee has reported on the absentee delegates but without specifying the number of Africans. The committee’s chair also has noted the challenge the staff faced in verifying properly elected delegates from Africa.
Maybe 30 yards from the Africans’ protest, supporters of the change on marriage language gathered, including Bishop Karen Oliveto.
Oliveto, a lesbian whose 2016 election as bishop by Western Jurisdictional Conference delegates caused major controversy in the denomination, spoke to the crowd.
“You are the love child of God,” she said. “The church looks a lot more like heaven today.”
Justice Mitchell, a graduate student studying for a divinity degree, had driven to Charlotte from Durham, North Carolina, the morning of May 1, after finishing finals the previous day.
“I’ve been a Methodist my whole life, and I’ve been in the ordination track for the past three or four years,” he said. “A lot of the stuff that we’re voting on has very huge impacts for my future in the next three or four years.”
Katelyn MacDonald, another observer from Durham, said she was “excited that the church structurally is moving in a more inclusive direction.”
“We’re trying to get our church polity and structures to catch up to what God has already been doing in the world,” she said.
Jan Nelson, a lay delegate from the Oregon-Idaho Conference, said her life has started to revolve around the church more since her retirement.
She said that this General Conference’s decisions on LGBTQ inclusion are a big positive.
“This means that this fight can be set aside and we can keep working for eliminating poverty and eliminating racism and all the other things that the church needs to be about,” she said.
Sam Hodges and Jim Patterson are news writers for United Methodist News. Nigeria Area Bishop John Wesley Yohanna speaks during a demonstration organized by African delegates on May 2 outside Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, N.C., where General Conference met through May 3. Yohanna and others who spoke made clear they strongly oppose the church’s new language on marriage. Photo by Sam Hodges, UM News.
