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Presentation to the Study
Committee
INTRODUCTION
Thank you for the invitation to address you, the Study Committee
on the Worldwide Nature of The United Methodist Church. It is a
privilege, an honor, and a rare opportunity to be with you and
to work with you.
My name is Paul Stallsworth. An elder in the North Carolina
Conference, I pastor St. Peter's United Methodist Church in
Morehead City on the coast, serve as the president of the
Taskforce of United Methodists on Abortion and Sexuality, and
edit the quarterly newsletter Lifewatch, which many of you
receive.
The task before us, this afternoon, is great -- especially so
soon after lunch. I trust that this presentation will not
facilitate any early afternoon naps...
As you know well, the summer of 2008 placed a denominational-
reorganizational plan -- in the form of twenty-three (23)
constitutional amendments, pertaining to the worldwide nature of
The United Methodist Church -- before all the Annual Conferences
across the church. Based on the reported votes to date, that
plan will apparently not be ratified.
It is important for you, the Study Committee, to step back,
consider why the Annual Conferences voted as they apparently
voted, gather additional information, and set out on a new
course for denominational reorganization. In other words, this
committee should not simply rewrite the constitutional
amendments that were placed before the Annual Conferences in
2008. To simply edit the presumably rejected amendments, and
return them to the 2012 General Conference and perhaps the
Annual Conferences, would squander the attention, time, and
money of The United Methodist Church. Something more faithful to
God and the Gospel, more thoughtful, and more courageous is
required of this Study Committee.
In what follows, I will: (I) place my
proposal for this Study Committee on the table; (II) explain
what, in The United Methodist Church, makes this proposal
necessary; and (III) revisit the proposal.
(I) THE PROPOSAL
This Study Committee should initiate a study of ecclesiology,
the goal of which would be to write a brief statement on
ecclesiology for The United Methodist Church, laity and clergy.
(Ecclesiology has traditionally covered both the nature of the
Church and the mission of the Church. This proposed statement
would focus mainly on the nature of the Church.) To accomplish
this task, the Study Committee would secure the services of a
few of Methodism's world-class theologians, who would act as
consultants to the project and perhaps drafters of the
statement. The major portion of the final, ecclesiological
statement would concentrate on the Nicene Creed's article on the
Church: "the one holy catholic and apostolic [C]hurch." Only
after this study is completed, published, and distributed would
the Study Committee, informed and guided by the newly minted
statement and by the theological consultants, draft new
constitutional amendments that would bring constructive changes
to the polity of The United Methodist Church. The theological
consultants would be active, throughout the process of drafting
the constitutional amendments, to help the Study Committee to
best reflect solid ecclesiology in its drafting of the
constitutional amendments.
(II) WHAT MAKES THIS PROPOSAL NECESSARY
You, the Study Committee, must rightly and deeply understand
ecclesiology -- The United Methodist Church as Church -- before
you create a new reorganizational plan. Getting ecclesiology
right at the beginning of the reorganizational process will help
you to write and refine the constitutional amendments that will,
in due course, be debated and approved (God willing) by General
Conference and the Annual Conferences. On the other hand, if
your denominational-reorganizational plan does not begin in the
soil of ecclesiology, you, the Study Committee, though busy with
organizational change, will most certainly misunderstand the
true identity of our church, treat our church as just another
voluntary organization, and arrive at a reorganizational plan
that is guided by organizational, political, and
business-management theories, not by Christian truth about the
Christian Church.
The problem is that the doctrine of the Church, which is
essential to the work of this Study Committee, is largely absent
from The United Methodist Church today. Therefore, this Study
Committee will need to dig deep into Biblical and Traditional
sources and outline the United Methodist ecclesiology that is a
part of the Church's faith and the Wesleyan heritage.
Again, the troubling reality is this: substantive ecclesiology
is in very short supply in The United Methodist Church today.
Ecclesiology is nearly nonexistent in contemporary United
Methodism because of four (4) factors: (1) the nature of
Protestantism, (2) the origins of Methodism, (3) the history of
American Protestantism, and (4) the ways of ordering the church
today.
First, the doctrine of the Church is thin in United Methodism,
in part, because of the basic nature of Protestantism. As
Protestantism developed over time, some Protestants defined
themselves primarily by proving themselves not Roman Catholic.
Adolf Von Harnack's book, The Essence of Christianity (1900), is
a classic statement of this unashamedly non-Catholic
Protestantism. Harnack understands Protestantism as
"[(]non-dogmatic, non-ecclesiastical, non-sacramental,
non-legalistic) Christianity." (Michael J. Hollerich,
"Retrieving a Neglected Critique of Church, Theology and
Secularization in Weimar Germany," Pro Ecclesia [Summer 1993],
p. 312) Again, some of Protestantism, including some of
Methodism, sought and seeks to be "non-ecclesiastical" -- that
is, without ecclesiology -- in its faith, life, and work.
Second, United Methodism is short on ecclesiology because of our
denomination's historical origins. Methodism began as a
revivalistic movement within the Church of England. The brothers
Wesley, busy about revival, assumed the
ecclesiastical-sacramental structure provided by their Mother
Church. However, when Methodism made the voyage across the
Atlantic, much of the ecclesiology that the Wesleys took for
granted did not make it to America. The ecclesiastical treasure
that did reach America immediately lost its influence because of
the rugged conditions of the New World. Methodism, especially in
America, was so dedicated to revivalism -- to making disciples
of Jesus Christ, one by one -- that insufficient attention was
paid to the Church and its nature.
Third, the history of American Protestantism is another reason
for the deficit in ecclesiology in American Methodism. Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, reporting in August 1939 on his second and last
visit to the United States, wrote a fascinating essay entitled
"Protestantism without Reformation." In his essay's concluding
paragraph, Bonhoeffer suggested much about American Methodism:
"God has granted American Christianity no Reformation. He has
given it strong revivalist preachers, churchmen and theologians,
but no Reformation of the church of Jesus Christ by the Word of
God..." (No Rusty Swords: Letters, Lectures and Notes 1928-1936
[Harper & Row, New York, 1965], p. 117, emphasis added) Here,
Bonhoeffer implied that God employed American Methodism to make
disciples of Jesus Christ; but God did not reform the Methodist
Church in America. Therefore, ecclesiology took a back seat, if
it got any seat at all, in Methodism.
And fourth, contemporary Protestants, United Methodists
included, act as if the Church is theirs to order, structure,
and direct, however they please. (For example, consider the
"Rethink Church" program within United Methodism today.) Dr.
Erik Peterson (1890-1960), a European professor of the New
Testament and early Church, claimed there are three (3) options
facing many churches today. Summarizing Peterson, Dr. Michael J.
Hollerich writes: "Modern Protestantism had evolved three
different ways to compensate for the loss of [the public reality
of the Church]... One of those was the substitution of
'universal truths of reason' for pure doctrine... [Today,
consider rationalistic religion that seems to follow cultural
elites in the West.] A second alternative was mysticism, by
which Peterson meant inwardness or spirituality. In modern
Protestantism it was manifested as pietist regeneration,
existentialist earnestness, and secular equivalents... [Today,
consider the multiple spiritualities available at the local
Barnes & Noble.] The third alternative was church activism,
which sanctioned projects such as foreign missions and social
service... [Today, consider the well intended political lobbying
for social justice.]" (p. 327) Peterson himself wrote: "These
were the three alternatives of a church and a theology in danger
of losing their public character, and with it an essential
component of the very concept of the church." ("Erik Peterson's
Correspondence with Adolf Von Harnack and an Epilogue,"
translated by Michael J. Hollerich, Pro Ecclesia [Summer 1993],
p. 343, emphasis added) This is a devastating critique of many
modern Protestant churches, including The United Methodist
Church, that have forgotten that they are, first and above all
and always, the Church.
To be sure, United Methodism gets the Church's mission. As The
Book of Discipline (2008) asserts: "The mission of the Church is
to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the
world" (Paragraph 120). This is the doing, the action, of the
Church. However, what about the nature, the being, the character
of the Church? On that, United Methodism has much less to offer.
(It is no wonder that there are devout, intelligent United
Methodists who, to this day, see our denomination as an
evangelistic association more than a church!) Official United
Methodist doctrine -- specifically, Article XIII of The Articles
of Religion ("Of the Church") and Article V of The Confession of
Faith ("The Church") -- provides beginning notions of the nature
of the Church. However, more could, should, and must be said.
The United Methodist tradition contains the needed
ecclesiological material to help restructure the church today.
But that material must be reclaimed, formulated, deepened,
declared, taught, and applied for the good of The United
Methodist Church today.
(III) BACK TO THE PROPOSAL
United Methodists in our day carry a weak understanding of the
nature of the Church. However, this Study Committee can begin to
remedy that problem by initiating a study, with invited
theological consultants, on ecclesiology. Such a study might
begin by examining The Nature and Mission of the Church: A Stage
on the Way to a Common Statement (WCC/Geneva, Faith and Order
Paper 198). A potentially rich point of departure for the study
would be Paragraph 12 on the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic
Church. It declares: "Being the creature of God's own Word and
Spirit, the Church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic. These
essential attributes flow from and illustrate the Church's
dependence upon God. The Church is one because God is the one
creator and redeemer (cf. John 17:11, Ephesians 4:1-6), who
binds the Church to himself by Word and Spirit and makes it a
foretaste and instrument for the redemption of all created
reality. The Church is holy because God is the holy one (cf.
Isaiah 6:3; Leviticus 11:44-45) who sent his Son Jesus Christ to
overcome all unholiness and to call human beings to become
merciful like his Father (cf. Luke 6:36), sanctifying the Church
by his word of forgiveness in the Holy Spirit and making it his
own, the body of Christ (Ephesians 5:26-27). The Church is
catholic because God is the fullness of life 'who desires
everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth'
(I Timothy 2:4), and who, through Word and Spirit, makes his
people the place and instrument of his saving and life-giving
presence, the community 'in which, in all ages, the Holy Spirit
makes the believers participants in Christ's life and salvation,
regardless of their sex, race or social position.' (Confessing
the One Faith, WCC [Geneva], Faith and Order Paper 153,
Paragraph 240) [The Church] is apostolic because the Word of
God, sent by the Father, creates and sustains the Church. This
word of God is made known to us through the Gospel primarily and
normatively borne witness to by the apostles (cf. Ephesians
2:20; Revelation 21:14), making the communion of the faithful a
community that lives in, and is responsible for, the succession
of the apostolic truth expressed in faith and life throughout
the ages."
Only after this ecclesiological study is completed, and the
study's statement is published and taught, would new
constitutional amendments on The United Methodist Church's
polity be composed. These amendments would be informed and
guided by the ecclesiological study, statement, and consultants.
CONCLUSION
For over forty years The United Methodist Church, particularly
in the United States, has been in search of the way, the method,
the answer, the solution that will stem the drift in our
denomination. Evangelistic programs, church-growth methods,
advertising campaigns, business-tested theories, and now
leadership principles have enjoyed their brief acts on our
denominational stage. Many of us have watched as these various
acts have come and gone.
I believe it is time -- actually past time -- for The United
Methodist Church to remember, consider, and learn more deeply
what it means to be the Church. That will not involve exciting
programs or flashy ads. It will involve you, the Study
Committee, learning anew what it means for the Church and The
United Methodist Church to be one, holy, catholic, and
apostolic. It will require of you, the Study Committee, to
teach, to teach the Christian truth about the Christian Church.
It will demand of you, the Study Committee, with the help of
theological consultants, to write constitutional amendments that
will increase The United Methodist Church's unity, holiness,
catholicity, and apostolicity. For this task, you will need
wisdom, courage, and perseverance -- all of which God can and
will provide in abundance.
I close with a word from Bonhoeffer in edited form: "[We should]
protest against any form of the church which does not honour the
question of truth above all things." (No Rusty Swords, "A
Theological Basis for the World Alliance," p. 160)
Thank you for your time and attention, patience and
consideration.
Rev. Paul T. Stallsworth
St. Peter's United Methodist Church
111 Hodges Street
Morehead City, NC 28557
(252).726.2175church (phone and fax)/(252).726.0491home
paulstallsworth@nccumc.org |
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