Annual Conference Reveal
As I write this, it’s the closing run of American Annual Conference season in The United Methodist Church. From watching live streams to participating in my own joint annual conference sessions, it turns out that Annual Conferences reveal a lot about what people think of the Covenant.
We hear a lot about the Clergy Covenant from church trials of pastors who offer marriage services to same-gender couples, or from pastors who refuse to divorce their same-gender partners to continue in ordained ministry.
But this annual conference season, most of the conversation in at least one Annual Conference was about whether two churches had been practicing Methodism all along.
A Failure of Leadership
In the debate at the Mississippi Annual Conference about the exit of two congregations from United Methodism, two comments came up that revealed the truth of the situation. Both Getwell Road and Orchard were allowed to leave the denomination with their property intact and paying only their financial obligations (i.e. Apportionment) for the year.
During the debate on the Mississippi Annual Conference floor, Chris McAlilly, son of Bishop Bill McAlilly (who was the founding pastor of Getwell Road UMC), remembered that he went door to door to invite people to that church’s founding. In his assessment of the current leadership at Getwell Road, he said this:
“These are people we love, who contribute to the church that we are. They had the opportunity to lead the conference, and over and over they chose not to do that.”
To McAlilly, Getwell Road had great leadership who chose to remain insular rather than participate in the annual conference. If they were dissatisfied with the conference leadership or direction, they could have involved themselves or advocated for change; instead, they became more and more insular and broke away from the connection via a thousand cuts.
Led Away from the Church
During the same debate, one speaker made note that he was part of another UM church in Tupelo at the founding of the Orchard church in that same city. He recalled that 40 couples left his church to be part of Orchard inception and are now not United Methodist at all, thanks to the Orchard’ leadership. They’ve been led away from the denomination.
But it wasn’t about the LGBTQ debate, the Tupelo resident said, that led them astray. He recalled that there was a struggle to get Orchards to add “A United Methodist Congregation” to their sign, and to have a Cross and Flame in their sanctuary. He concluded his remarks with these damning words:
“So many parts of the Discipline have not been upheld up to this point.”
For both Getwell Road and The Orchard churches, the problem began long ago. It was 2012 when The Orchard stopped paying its apportionment in full. For five years, it neglected its obligation and failed to uphold the Discipline, even as it railed against those other Covenant-breakers. And according to locals closest to the situation, failing to uphold the Discipline was a practice long before they stopped paying their fair share.
Process not a Product
Mississippi is finding out what Wisconsin figured out four years ago. As part of the clergy trial of Rev. Dr. Amy DeLong, they did reflections on the Covenant and found out an interesting result: the doctrine of the clergy covenant is secondary to the communal practice of the covenant.
While we hear a lot about the clergy covenant and about how everyone should uphold it, the problem is that the clergy do not seem to really know what it means to live out a covenant beyond assent to commandments. The Wisconsin clergy pushed back that “unless the practice of the covenant is made evident, then the consequences of violating the covenant are null and void.”
I think this articulation of the Covenant as a practice and not merely a set of beliefs is important because it seems that the people who want to uphold the Covenant as a set of Commandments don’t practice the covenant themselves.
- I’ve personally seen a megachurch pastor (and prominent supporter of the Wesleyan Covenant Association) leaving halfway through a mandatory clergy meeting. Not to go visit a hospital or a pastoral emergency, but to eat lunch and then go home. I’ve gotten a letter from the Bishop for missing a mandatory meeting, so I know such accountability is enforced, but not when large church pastors are forced to mingle with smaller ones.
- Clergy regularly do not call for the required six special offerings a year, as noted in their Charge Conference reports, a practice that benefits connectional entities such as UMCOR. A clergy friend noted on Facebook that in one Oklahoma district, only 11 out of 41 did the UMCOR special offering. In fact, there’s at least 25 ways how UM pastors don’t follow the Discipline.
- Megachurch pastors often do not expect to participate in the itinerant process, and have a strong arm in retaining and recruiting the best clergy to their churches…a reversal of the covenant connectional expectation that “Bishops appoint and we accept.” And when they don’t get their way, they withhold their substantial tithes in protest.
In short, because United Methodists are not practicing a healthy form of the Clergy Covenant, all are suffering from the lack of valuing the Connection.
Where do we go from here?
Here’s what I believe:
- I believe conservative and progressive pastors who practice the covenant with each other by being in a small group with each other, communicating with each other, and participating in leadership with each other, end up filing fewer charges against each other.
- I believe conservative and progressive pastors who practice the covenant with each other by paying attention to what one another says and does behind their church doors leads to fewer churches going astray and leaving the Connection.
- I believe the Covenant is woefully misused when it is only a form of punishment instead of being a practice to which the biggest Megachurch pastor and the smallest country church are called to watch over one another in love–and participate in that relationship.
Thoughts?
Thanks for reading, commenting, and your shares on social media
An example of the lack of covenant from my Conference is the Elder most closely affiliated with the IRD, who in recent years during our Annual Conference sessions (after the failure of a number of IRD-backed resolutions), would sit on lounge chairs in the hallway outside of the sessions instead of participating with us. Eventually, all chairs were removed from the hallway, perhaps due to his little rebellion, and even through he has now retired, I’m guessing we can’t bring the chairs back until he shuffles off this mortal coil.
For once, I agree with you, Jeremy. We ALL need to do our very best to live into our covenant, regardless of our theological leanings, sizes of the churches we serve, or the changes we’d like to see become reality. Yes, those more conservative pastors who are not abiding by our covenant are damaging our witness & their own credibility. As we call for covenantal obedience & accountability – which is entirely appropriate – we need to model it as best we can.
I see pigs flying outside our window, Keith!
🙂
As an outsider coming in, I think another thing that we are experiencing is this, The Connection and all of the traditional Methodist positions from our history years ago……… is no longer workable in America where everyone has an independent mindset and spirit. The churches in America that thrive are those that are not only conservative and Bible believing, but are independently led from within. If the UMC wants to change I really think, it must now change for today. What worked in Wesley’s day, will not work today. But we can find a way to be relevant. Wesley himself went through this that no-one is recognizing when after the Revolution there were not enough Ordained to provide Sacraments. He was forced to allow Asbury and Coke then to go ahead an Ordain those already against the order , providing Sacraments for the people in America. This is just one example. But it does reveal the problem that occurred in MS and beyond that just has begun to surface.
Correlation is NOT causation. I believe that connectionalism is our church’s best expression of the gospel. It’s what allows us to be in ministry in some very remote parts of the planet. It is certainly antithetical to the American trends of individuality…but so is love thy neighbor! So is love thine enemy!
And it does work when people work it. Case in point in Rev. Smith’s own current district, where collegiality among clergy is amazing. In my current setting, connectionalism and collegiality among clergy are helping to do that for which it is intended: tackle community-wide problems that are bigger than any one congregation. For us in SW Washington, we are educating low-income children AS A RESULT of churches working together.
You don’t have to be conservative (which some thing of as pharisee like) to be “Bible Believing”.
Thanks …
We live in times when humans claim authority over God’s Word denying others the right to pray and hear God’s Word if the end interpretation is not the exact one the authority figures want.
I returned to the UMC partly for what was advertised as a “connectional church” where conservatives and liberals focused more on the Good News of Jesus (Not the breakaway sect that chose to use that name as their moniker but the true Good News of the Gospel.) than on their specific differences. As noted in your blog, I too have watched pastors who focus on the codes of the WCA who dismiss their connectional relationship with the greater UMC.
Stay strong … pray … Jesus did not come to establish multitudes of denominations that argue and fight with each other providing non-believers with a solid reason not to join a church but he came to bring salvation to the world while teaching us to love God and love ALL of our neighbors, which includes welcoming the strangers into our midst.
Here’s the reality . . . and comes from many conversations with other pastors.
The clergy meetings are usually nothing but circle jerks. Yeah, you heard me. It consists of a lot of top down leadership that does nothing and wastes time. If you speak up about it, then you are considered someone who does not value “connectionalism.”
“Ahem” . . . go and look at the AC reports around the UMC. There are drops in the thousands in membership and worship attendance in almost every American conference. A lot of us don’t want to sit around in circle jerk wasting our time listening to the latest “plan” to make our churches “vital.” It’s a bunch of bullshit.
We are not connected and the UMC bureaucracy is not going to “connect” us. Many of us who want to do mission are organically connecting with others who want to do mission and who share the same beliefs that we do. We are not going to sit around and be lectured.
But you have a point. The whole thing is breaking apart and many are to blame . . . I guess. Whatever. Life is too short to be a corporate monkey who values doing what the “big men” say. I want to live like Wesley . . . to live on the margins of the church, on the margins of society, enjoying true Christian fellowship with Spirit-filled Christians, and doing real Christian ministry – proclaiming the Gospel, healing the sick, feeding the poor, showing hospitality to strangers, witnessing the Spirit transform people.
I think you want the old 1968 UMC to come back so that a bunch of liberals in high places can self-righteously tell what others want to do and live cushy lives. Well, guess what? That UMC is dead and it is not coming back. Welcome to the new reality.
Josh, it sure reads like you don’t value the upkeep and “watching over one another in love” aspect of United Methodism, which ironically traces itself directly to Wesley. He would say you can’t have a growth mindset without an accountability value structure, which sometimes is inefficient, but necessary. Sorry you don’t find yourself a Wesleyan in this aspect.
Jeremy,
Interesting blog. As usual, we have different perspectives but this time perhaps the same events. I have served faithfully for 20 yrs as a “part time local pastor”. The churches I have served have always paid 100% of their apportions. In my service I two have seen and heard many things that were not consistent with any covenent bound behavior. These items destroy the the connection.
1. Two Elders walking into an evening clergy meeting: “I hate coming to these evening sessions with the “locals”. (The other) “Yeah it’s time to celebrate the bottom rung of the ecclesiastical ladder.” I was walking behind and offered “happy to be your step up”.
2. Saw a progressive pastor from a large (not mega) church walk out of required clergy sexual ethics training to talk with their buddy in the hall for an hour before leaving. Nothing was said.
3. At my BOM review one year the DS sat and played with a straw while the other members interviewed me. When asked for input, the DS replied “nah, I’m good”.
There are other events I could list but the point I’m trying to make is that in many ways the connection is so tenuous as to not exist except when needed. For me, the connection I cherish is my covenant of service to God. I am someone who try’s to treat all with respect, even when I disagree with them. Having said that, if the day comes when I could no longer serve in the UMC, I will walk away. The connection that will be severed will be with the UMC not God. I doubt anyone outside my congregations would pay much mind. I’ll even add this should a number of smaller churches leave the UMC, I doubt if it would even be noticed. Most smaller churches had little to no debt. Their apportionments are in the $3000.00 dollar range and some see them as dead weight. Now what does that say about us? From my perspective we are all sitting in a house on fire arguing about the electric bill.
We have a great theological divide that grows each day. Each side positions their statements and thoughts accordingly. I don’t know if we can navigate a way across again. That isn’t defeatism, it’s an observation from my position. I wonder if it’s time to consider if it’s time to figure out how to separate? We talk about the trust clause and how it’s supposed to work but without a congregation, the trust clause represents little more than a liability for the “corporate” church. This is especially true for more rural churches. This legal stick that was proposed to keep the church from splitting may very well be the rope used to hang the church.
As an extension minister (chaplain) that lives outside the bounds of my conference, I experience little connectionalism or contact from my annual conference. I would like to be more connected but the logistics are complicated. Any ideas for extension ministers?
The vilest heresey of all is the dogma that there are churches, there are large and small congregations , conservative and liberal congregations ,but there is only one Church and it is not Getwell Road- Mega Congregation, nor Hebron UMC , tiny congregation, IT is the only Church , and it is Apostolic and Universal, built on the ROCK, and that ONE and only CHURCH is the CHURCH Jesus CHRIST built and HE promised that it will PREVAIL, not even the gates of hell will prevail against it. Let us never forget that, and let us not forsake the CHURCH for the congregation who may have long forgotten and forsaken the CHURCH, in many cases unwittingly being led by the blind leading the blind. OPEN OUR EYES LORD JESUS!
It is time for time for the United Methodist Church to revert to the name Methodist Church. There is nothing “united” about it. e,g, United Methodist Church – Independent Methodist Church – Free Methodist Church – The Wesleyan Church – The Nazarene Church – who did I miss? Call it what it is — The Methodist Church.
There’s been little unity since its inception in 1968. And if “unity” was what “United” was intended to reference, I’d be with you all the way. But “United” was taken from the name of the “Evangelical United Brethren.” There was already in existence an “Evangelical Methodist Church,” so that name wasn’t available (and most of the old-guard, institutionalist Methodists would have rejected the inclusion of “Evangelical” in the new name anyway). What’s even sadder is that so much of the richness of the EUB tradition has been trampled down and forgotten in the ensuing years.