The following are ~1000-word attempts to describe the current state of The UMC in a succinct manner that likely oversimplifies things with broad brush strokes. Nonetheless, they will be useful primers for newcomers to United Methodism, longtime members, or passersby looking to enter the conversation.

• How did we get here: Power & Polity versus People & Places (LINK)
• What happens now: General Conference 2024 (This article!)
• What future awaits us: Avoiding the Fundamentalist Future Trap (LINK)

Part II: General Conference 2024

The worldwide level of The United Methodist Church is structured like the U.S. Government with three branches:

• The Legislative Branch is the General Conference, a deliberative body that typically convenes every four years to write the polity of The UMC.
• The Executive Branch is the Bishops and the General Agencies / Independent Commissions that put into practice the polity of The UMC and govern the UMC in between General Conferences.
• The Judicial Branch is the Judicial Council, a review entity that determines answers when the written polity and the actual practices of the UMC are in conflict or unclear.

In 2024, the General Conference will convene at the end of April. Yes, we all know it was delayed from 2020, but let’s look more at what it means in this article.

For a comprehensive look, UM Communications has published a Guide for General Conference that has everything you can imagine in 37 pages for a suitable introduction.

The Changed Calculus from 2020 to 2024

At this time four years ago, United Methodists were gearing up for a tough slog of a conference–now, the feeling is far more congenial and collaborative across the aisle. What has changed?

The global COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on travel and public health delayed the General Conference from May 2020 in Minneapolis to the end of April 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Some Methodists couldn’t wait that long to legislate harm against queer United Methodists. From 2021-2023, thousands of USA churches exited United Methodism via the disaffiliation paragraphs passed by traditionalists in 2019. You can read the Lewis Center Report here.

The exit of most Traditionalist delegates and the advancement or election of progressive or centrist reserve delegates turned what was already a progressive/centrist majority in the USA (thanks a strong reaction to the antigay Traditional Plan) into a supermajority in America. This allows for a better chance at alignment across the worldwide United Methodism on structure and principles, even if practices will continue to be different.

With the change in calculus and the self-immolation of traditionalist influence from most US delegations—not to mention clearer relationships between USA churches and African churches—many things are possible. Here are the top three but the Guide for General Conference contains the other really important work to support as well.

Regionalization goes Worldwide

United Methodism is a global church (we practice being global–we don’t just brand ourselves it). However, our church structure reflects our colonial past, with unequal decision-making and accountability. Regions outside the USA (Central Conferences) have far more permission to make local changes than the USA, and those same regions at General Conference have to sit through days of polity discussions and privileges that are USA-centric.

To remedy these wrongs, Central Conference voices have written or been involved in efforts to right those unjust structures, which is called regionalization: flattening the church hierarchy by creating and allowing all geographic regions to operate united in mission but contextual in practice. Ask The UMC has a comprehensive look at Regionalization here, responding to false information and providing clarity on questions. Read more there!

At the General Conference, Regionalization has the highest hurdles to jump, with 2/3 of the delegates at GC2024 and a subsequent 2/3 of United Methodists aggregate across all annual conferences globally to support the constitutional amendments. Even if it passes at conference, we will not know at the end of GC2024 if it will be put into our polity given the voting by the annual conferences over the next several months.

It will be a long time to wait and a lot of work, but United Methodists can do hard things for the sake of our common mission. 

Revise the Social Principles

The revised Social Principles were developed over several years and General Conferences, with the General Board of Church and Society holding dozens of conversations globally to craft these new principles. The proposed revised Social Principles are under consideration and haven’t changed since the 2020 proposal.

You can read them here at UMC Justice website (PDF).

Even though, as a progressive, I wish some of them were stronger and bolder than they are to reflect the more aligned UMC we can be now, I support passing these without changes to reflect the yearslong and worldwide voices that crafted them. The Holy Spirit can work throughout the years in this painstaking process, not just in Holy Conferencing one day in Charlotte.

Remove Harmful Language

LGBTQ+ United Methodists are not fully included in the life of the church, as full membership, clergy orders, and marriage support are excluded by name in our polity. Multiple efforts will take place this year to remove those exclusions.

The bar is lower for this effort: Only 50% + 1 of the delegates need to support changing our polity, and votes against this effort have been 58%/42% or less over the years. However, the traditionalist exits only affected the USA representation, which accounts for just over 50% of the delegates. 

So it will remain to be seen if global camaraderie, relationships, and shifting allegiances will get this over the 50% mark.

If you want to read more about these three priorities, take a look at this open letter signed by GC delegates.

Watch out for bad actors!

We believe Holy Conferencing is led by the Spirit, but bad actors can put roadblocks in the way. In 2012, the spirit of reorganizing United Methodist general agencies was thwarted by a consolidation of power players who overreached in their aspirations in PlanUMC, leading the effort not to victory but to total defeat. We have to watch out for bad actors that abuse our political process.

In 2024, one such roadblock is that Traditionalist caucus groups will continue to be active at the General Conference, with the sole stated purpose of seeking to exit even more people and property from United Methodism. Why we let people who set fire to our denomination still hold influence is beyond me. Their latest proposal is a promise that Traditionalists would leave and not vote against Regionalization if The UMC re-opens and expands disaffiliation processes again.

However, those of us with memories longer than a goldfish remember that Traditionalists would not make the same promise in 2020 to vote for the Protocol and then leave so that those who wish to stay United Methodist could vote in the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons.

Integrity matters, and proposals that hold the UMC hostage in order to inflict the damage of disaffiliation again are to be categorically opposed.

Whether you watch the livestream or attend the General Conference in person (and I hope you do!), be aware of political efforts outside the frame and on the edges as bad actors try to stop the Spirit’s movement towards a more just United Methodist Church.

Your Turn

At the end of General Conference 2024, I hope that we can look back and say that 2022’s launch of the Global Methodist Church was one of the biggest strategic blunders in our ecclesial history, throwing away decades of long-term Traditionalist takeover for short-term gain. That action fractured the church and caused incredible pain these last few years, but at the end of it, United Methodists are more educated and excited about who we are, and the people who are United Methodists now actually want to be.

The only question is whether United Methodists will let that goodwill become effective General Conference action, or whether we’ll be left again in the trenches of disarray. In our final article, we’ll examine what futures await The United Methodist Church, and how they hinge on this General Conference.

Thoughts?

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