Five Reasons for Hope in the Emerging Global Methodist Church

Some observations after the MidSouth Annual Conference of the GMC (and what I want the GMC mission statement to be, if anyone's asking)

Hey friends. I’ve just returned from a few days in Maryville, TN for the MidSouth Annual Conference of the Global Methodist Church. I’m kind of blown away by how powerful the worship was, how encouraging the community is, and just the overall spirit of unity God has brought to the folks that were gathering together. The Holy Spirit was palpably present and ministering to the people. It was genuinely a privilege to simply be in the room.

From the conference, held at Fairview Methodist Church.

I thought it would be a good time to just offer a few thoughts of what I am seeing, feeling, and excited about so far in the GMC world. These ideas are just from my observations, so take them with a proverbial grain of salt; it will be interesting and exciting to see how the emphases of the movement are adopted into the official Book of Doctrines and Discipline at the General Conference in Costa Rica this September. But I’m so, so hopeful about what I’m seeing, and I hope you are too.

And so, here are a few observations:

1. The GMC is laser-focused on evangelism and church planting.

This for me is one of the most refreshing aspects of the GMC as a movement. There seems to be a bedrock understanding that the call to preach the gospel to unbelievers, both at home and abroad, to make new disciples, is really the central calling of the church.

And along those lines, if there are not people saying yes to Christ and becoming new disciples in our congregations, campus ministries, church plants, and other ministries, then I sense a openness from pastors and churches to rethink everything about what we are doing and start again from scratch. The days of prettying up the catastrophic decline of church participation in North America look to be over, at least in the GMC. The refrain of “numbers just aren’t a good way to measure growth,” that just doesn’t work anymore—seeing as those numbers refer to people who bear the image of God, people who do not yet have a saving relationship with Jesus.

The monumental task of preaching the gospel to a post-Christian nation and Western world (as well as preaching to the unreached, non-Christian world) is one that demands truth-telling, compassion for the lost, conviction about the power of Jesus, and a sustained dependence on the leadership of the Holy Spirit. And in the GMC, this is leading many to heed the calling to plant churches. The drumbeat I am hearing is calling for: more churches, new communities of faith, and more non-believers coming to know life in Christ. All really, really hopeful stuff.

I’m genuinely excited to see that folks in the GMC seem to grasp the urgency of the church’s situation, while also sensing that the only one who can bring renewal to the church is the triune God. Thus, instead of “church growth” seminars, I’m seeing a lot more teaching and preaching on unceasing prayer, ministering in the Holy Spirit, healing ministries, intentional discipleship, sanctification, pursuing holiness, group discipleship via class and band meetings, that kind of thing. Growth for growth’s sake is not good; but growth for the sake of the kingdom is urgent, exciting, needed, life-changing, world-upside-down-making. My prayer is that this laser-focus on evangelism and church planting would remain central to the GMC’s ethos, and I imagine it will.

2. The GMC is reviving the language of sanctification and scriptural holiness.

Only in a group of Wesleyans could a calling to return to the language of sanctification get a rousing cheer, but at our conference it did. I think for the first time that I can remember (I could be wrong) I heard a bishop (Bishop Scott Jones) refer to “scriptural holiness” as the key thing we are called to pursue as a church. Throughout all the sermons and teachings and even reports there was a consistent hum that this theme, sanctification, is really the theme of what it means to be a follower of Jesus in the Wesleyan tradition.

Personally, I think this is right, and I would center it into our denomination’s mission statement, though no one has asked my opinion about it yet. There was a point in the conference when Bishop Jones asked us to say what the GMC’s mission statement is, and nobody could exactly remember the wording (“to make disciples of Jesus Christ who worship…*looking around to read someone else’s lips*…passionately, love…*long pause*…extravagantly, and witness…boldly”). Obviously, the message of our current mission statement is who we want to be, but it’s a bit adverb heavy and not exactly distinctly Wesleyan in its wordage.

If it were up to me, I would much prefer this:

The Global Methodist Church’s mission is to spread scriptural holiness across the globe.

That to me seems more memorable, more succinct, more provocative, and more specifically Wesleyan. But in any case, scriptural holiness and sanctification is going to be a central focus of the GMC, in our doctrine, in our preaching, and help us God, in our practice too. Papa Wesley would be happy, I think.

3. The GMC is committed (without exception) to women serving in ordained ministry.

I only bring this up because in some circles I am still seeing some fear-mongering about the GMC’s commitment to women in ministry. I don’t really understand where that is coming from, but I have yet to encounter a person (in real life, mind you) that is in the GMC that is not fully committed to the ordination of women. At our ordination sermon, Leah Hidde Gregory, the President Pro Tem of the Mid-Texas Annual Conference, preached about her calling to ministry (as a woman), and gave an anointed sermon about churches becoming those who would storm the gates of hell. It was one of the best sermons I have ever heard at a Methodist conference. I look around and I continue to see women in prominent places of leadership in the GMC, who are gifted preachers and pastors and leaders, and I remain confused why anyone imagines the GMC is not committed to this historic stance. Wesleyans for many, many years have recognized and celebrated the calling and giftedness of women in ministry. And there is a strong majority of clergy and lay people (like myself) who draw a very serious red line on that point theologically, for grounded biblical reasoning.

So if you are someone who is worried about this in the GMC, I would maybe just counsel you to not confuse the actual, flesh-and-blood people in the GMC with anonymous commenters who have joined a Facebook group. The two are very much not the same thing.

4. The GMC is committed to keeping funds in the local church.

This to me is actually a really important part of the GMC as a movement, and it will require focus on our mission to keep it this way. Keeping funds in the local church will mean saying no to good things that are just simply not the mission of the GMC. To stay lean and nimble, we’ll have to strive to keep parachurch ministries independently governed and responsible for their own fundraising; we will have to be really skeptical about buying and maintaining conference properties; and we will have to be more comfortable saying no than Methodists have tended to be in the past. We are, after all, people of the heart, strongly tugged by our emotions (a blessing and a curse); but focusing on our mission and keeping funds in the local church really is the best way to love this world and love our congregations. So far, so good on this point; I’m hopeful we will remain committed to keeping funds in the local church.

5. The GMC is reviving healthy, joyful connectionalism.

This point would require more thought than I want to put here, but simply, the emerging structure and culture of the GMC is one that I am really grateful to be a part of. It’s a connection of congregations and clergy who have freely chosen to work together, who have a much greater deal of authority at the local level, and yet who want to pool resources together to preach the gospel of Jesus to a weary and hurting world. It’s an opt-in connection, a coalition of the willing, which to me is a very healthy and refreshing thing.

Though the exact polity of how a modified sent (or modified call?) system of clergy is still being hammered out, it appears clear that the days of a top-down, hierarchical, at times fear-based connection are over, and a much better one seems to be coming into being. No one is going to force a church to accept a pastor that they don’t want to have; clergy no longer have to fear a call from their District Superintendent, forcing them to move from a church where vibrant ministry is happening that they are not ready to leave; and yet, there will also be a structure and support in place for when clergy need a new church, or when churches need a new pastor. There will be a Wesleyan theological foundation in a global connection, that is rooted in the ancient creeds and teaching and doctrine of the universal Church, all rooted in the central authority of scripture. There will be bishops, overseers, who will be given the task to proclaim and teach and defend the doctrine of the church—there will be someone with spiritual authority to step in when congregations have a crisis—there will be a group of people, elders and lay people, who will support you and pray with you and come to your aid when you are in need. There will be people doing ministry not in competition with you but as teammates, friends, brothers, and sisters. It makes a huge difference, especially for the at times lonely role of being a pastor.

I know that many people (myself included!) have quibbled about how the GMC will be structured. But to be an “independent Methodist church” is to no longer be Methodist; to have no oversight, no accountability, no connection with others, no covenant community of preachers, is to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Certainly, there are “independent” churches doing great work for the kingdom, and I mean that sincerely; but I can’t find a one in the New Testament. And I also think that the local control and nimbleness you may gain in throwing off any connections with other churches, is no match for the support, the encouragement, the accountability, and the foundation you find in being a part of a greater church body.

I’m very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of a church connection; without it, I would have felt like a boat at sea, lost and rudderless, alone in a post-Christian ocean. I hope that many congregations who have felt skittish about joining a denomination would begin praying seriously about it, and would begin studying the scriptures about which church structure more closely imitates the early Christians. I can’t see any serious downsides to traditional Wesleyan congregations joining the GMC, and I highly encourage you to consider it if you’re a part of one. I know myself, or anyone else in the connection, would very genuinely love to talk with you about it.

The Bishop’s Goat Video

So, anyhow, those are my hopes right now. For my friends in the GMC, what are yours? Would you have added others? Let me know.

I will leave you with this tremendous video of Bishop Jones being given a goat after preaching in Africa. It’s really worth watching. The kingdom of God is truly amazing: