Lessons from United Methodist Renewal

It is a personal joy and real honor, to be a part of your gathering here in Orlando. I bring you greetings from Good News, a renewal movement representing kindred spirits within the United Methodist Church. Our ministry was launched in 1967, when our founder, Dr. Charles W. Keysor, published the first issue of Good News while serving as a pastor in Elgin, Illinois.

In 1981, Dr. Keysor stepped down and I became Executive Secretary of Good News, coming out of local church ministry in Cadiz, Ohio. So, I have had the privilege of working with renewalists within the mainline Protestant Churches in the U.S. and Canada for more than 24 years now.

I want to help you understand a bit more about us United Methodists as a result of my being with you. You need to know something about how we go about our work, and especially you need to know about our bishops. One of our bishops was giving a children’s sermon one Sunday in a local church and asked the children a question, “Do any of you know what bishops do?” There was dead silence for a few seconds and then a precocious six-year old boy raised his hand. “I know what bishops do,” he nearly shouted. “Alright,” the bishop said, “What do they do?” The youngster said with great confidence (and some bit of knowledge about chess), “They move diagonally.” Well, that’s not bad. They do that and much more, in their appointment-making responsibilities.

If I were to have a text for these moments with you this morning, it would be Paul’s charge to Timothy, when he wrote, “What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that has been entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us” (II Tim. 1:13-14). It has seemed to me that it remains the solemn responsibility of the church to guard the good deposit of the faith, in light of many who would like to re-write the script.

Now, our generation has witnessed the rise of what we call Renewal Movements or Ministries. Every mainline denomination in North America has experienced this phenomena because each has been infected by the same virus—with very similar feverish symptoms: membership loss, lack of spiritual vitality, loss of Scripture’s authority, decline of world mission, doctrinal confusion and defection, pro-homosexual activism, and the embracing of trendy, fad theologies.

For us United Methodists, in 1968 we merged with the Evangelical United Brethren, bringing our membership to more than 11 million. We are now at less than 8.3 million. That’s a loss of at least 2.7 million. Statistics often don’t have the impact they should, so let me say it another way. It is like we United Methodists have closed a church of 250 members every day, 365 days a year, for 29 years!! This kind of loss, of course, is not a fruit of the Spirit. In the book of Acts we read that the Lord was adding daily those who were being saved. Sadly, our United Methodist leaders seem to be more embarrassed by those numbers than heart-broken and repentant of them.

After 24 years, I continue to feel strongly about the rightness of the cause of renewal. The work of renewal is a much needed, right, and urgent work. Let me share with you some basic convictions that have come to me during my years in renewal ministry.

The work of renewal must be theological

All of us need to face the question, “How did we get into the mess we are in?” United Methodists, for example, must ask just how did it happen that our denomination—once so vital, growing, and effective in winning the lost—has ended up with 30 plus years of consecutive decline? All of the mainline denominations are struggling with issues of human sexuality, but it is really just the presenting issue, reflecting a much deeper problem.

As we think about what happened, we need to realize it is not something that just happened recently. All of us in the American mainline have felt the impact of something that happened many years ago. Consider these words from a Methodist professor at Drew University School of Theology:

But what does the modern church believe? The church is becoming creedless as rapidly as the innovators can have their way. The ‘Confession of Faith’—what is happening to it? Or what about the ‘new’ confessions that one sees and hears—suitable enough, one imagines, for say, a fraternal order. And as for the Apostles’ Creed—‘Our people will not say it any more’; which means, apparently, that ‘our people,’ having some difficulties over the Virgin Birth and the resurrection of the body, have elected the easy way of believing in nothing at all—certainly not in ‘the Holy Catholic Church.’

That sounds like it might be Dr. Thomas Oden speaking at a recent national conference, doesn’t it? Well, these words are from Dr. Edwin Lewis, Methodist professor at Drew but written back in 1933, in Religion in Life journal. What a telling vignette those words are!

All of us must look back to the early decades of the 20th century. Two intellectual forces were sweeping across America during this period. Americans were enthralled with the New Science and with Social Darwinism. The New Science placed emphasis on observation and experimentation. It challenged any and all appeals to custom and authority. It brought a mechanistic worldview with a strong emphasis on cause and effect. If something were to be true, it must be put to the test of scientific verification. This, of course, wreaked havoc on biblical authority, on revelation, on miracles, and all things supernatural. Under fierce attack, traditional Christian teaching began to disintegrate.

The second force, Social Darwinism, helped create a euphoric sense of upward progress that blended with America’s innate sense of hope and optimism. It helped Americans have great confidence in evolutionary development, social reconstruction, and expectations of a new and better world. Things seemed to be evolving, getting better and better every day. Many felt at the time that we were on the threshold of a “Christian Century” (and thus the journal by that name). The future was certain to bring unlimited progress to America.

In the midst of this intellectual milieu, theological Liberalism emerged as a movement to accommodate the Christian faith to these rational, secular, anti-supernatural axioms that were quickly finding a home in America’s intellectual life. It was an attempt to make the Gospel more believable and acceptable to “modern man” during a time of intellectual ferment. Dr. J. I. Packer, the eminent Anglican evangelical, summarized liberalism’s disastrous impact on evangelical faith, saying, “Liberalism swept away entirely the gospel of the supernatural redemption of sinners…. It reduced grace to nature, divine revelation to human reflection, faith in Christ to following His example, and receiving new life to turning over a new leaf.”

This new theological current was devastating to most all of the historic mainline churches. The loss of the transcendent dimension, of divine revelation, of scriptural authority, and of God’s power to transform sinful lives led to an increasingly vacuous theology, characterized by a loss of the sense of the broken relationship between God and man. H. Richard Niebuhr described this new theology with this well-known, devastating critique: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through ministrations of a Christ without a cross” (from The Kingdom of God in America).

So, it is in this context that we carry out our renewal ministries today, still living in the wake of that great “theological depression” of the early 1900s. As we do so, we must heed Paul’s charge to young Timothy, “What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching; guard the good deposit that has been entrusted to you” (II Tim. 1:13, 14).

Let’s remember, first, that the work of renewal must be theological. A second conviction I have is:

Renewal ministries unite and encourage the evangelicals in our churches

One of the facts we need to be reminded of is that there are many folks of solid, evangelical faith in our various denominations. Unfortunately, many of them are not aware of the issues with which we are dealing.

In the year prior to Good News’ founding in 1967, Methodist pastor, Rev. Charles Keysor, wrote an article for our denomination’s pastors’ journal, the Christian Advocate. He wrote about “Methodism’s Silent Minority,” that is, those conservative Methodists who had long been concerned about the neglect of the central biblical doctrines in their church’s teaching.

After Keysor’s article appeared, he received several hundred letters and phone calls from pastors and laity all across the country. They all were saying basically the same thing: “We felt we were the only ones who felt this way.” “We have felt so isolated, so alone.” They felt cut off and unrepresented by their denominational leadership. Keysor concluded that there needed to be a publication in the Methodist Church that affirmed those key Wesleyan doctrinal tenets.

Many pastors had gone to denominational seminaries, in which they had encountered questions and claims which challenged their most foundational assumptions about the message of the Gospel. Now, at last, here was a magazine and a movement that affirmed the faith and doctrines as they understood it. I just want to say as a reminder this morning—friends, there are many evangelicals out there in our churches! Granted, not all of them can articulate their faith well and many have not been well grounded in biblical teaching. But many are out there who have a basic confidence in Scripture and are in no way revisionists of the faith.

I was stunned by this reality when I saw a study done some 10-12 years ago by one of our United Methodist agencies. In a carefully researched survey, it reported that 70 percent of United Methodists defined themselves as “conservative” on moral and theological issues! Think about that. Seventy percent!

This reminded me of the account I read many years ago about a well-known philanthropist in England by the name of Jeremy Bentham. He had left a large sum of money to a hospital in his home city. The only stipulation connected with the giving of his huge bequest was this: He left careful instructions that any time the board of the hospital would meet, his carefully prepared remains were to be brought out and positioned at the table. Then, when the role was called by the secretary as the board meeting began, when Bentham’s name was called, the secretary was to make the response, “Present, but not voting.”

Now we laugh at such a story—which I have been told is a true story. But one of the things I have learned is that United Methodism is basically a town and country denomination, mostly centrist and conservative at the grass roots. But our good, evangelical people have simply not been involved. Unfortunately, they have been PRESENT BUT NOT VOTING. Finally, however, they are beginning to get involved and it is making a significant difference.

We need to redeem our perceptions about the political and legislative side to our denominational life, so when we think of the legislative process, we don’t see a smoke-filled room with wheeling and dealing. The political (or I would rather say “legislative”) side of our denominations is a dimension that can be used rightly or wrongly, depending on how we approach it. It can be used or abused. We need, however, to urge our evangelical constituents to be good stewards of what influence they do have. Let it not be said about us that we were “Present, but not voting.” Sadly, that has sometimes been the case. I become impatient when I hear some of our pastors talk about going to their week of annual conference, admitting that they are not going to attend and participate in the business sessions because they are too boring. I have seen important votes lost because evangelicals were not there to vote. Unfortunately, we evangelicals have not always been “as wise as serpents” or even good stewards of our influence.

At our quadrennial General Conference in 1980, the first I ever attended, Good News had a small team there trying to make a difference. We may have had 30 persons each morning at our nine morning briefing breakfasts. We introduced 18 petitions and they all went down in flames. It was not a pleasant time.

However, in Cleveland, in 2000, we had as many as 240 delegates and friends each morning at our nine briefing breakfasts. Then, last year in Pittsburgh, we began with 240 at the very first breakfast, and quickly moved to 300, 350, 400, and then 425! It was exciting to see a whole ballroom full at 7 a.m. in the morning with delegates and friends who were supportive and enthusiastic about evangelical faith. The good news for us is that evangelicals have begun to get involved.

I recall two press representatives coming up to me after most all the votes on the sexuality issues were over. The Biblical/Traditional position had prevailed by the highest margin ever. The votes, some 15 of them in all, were stunning. These press reps, one from the Associated Press and the other from Religion News Service, began their interviews with me with something like this: “Do these votes represent the kind of thing that happened in the Southern Baptist Church 20 years ago when the conservatives took back that denomination?”

I assured them that this is not what is being reflected. But what was being reflected is that this huge mainline denomination, with perhaps more local churches in America than there are United States Post Offices, is finally seeing its evangelical, conservative, and traditionalist constituency getting involved in the legislative process. Evangelicals are making themselves available to be delegates to their denomination’s General Conference and are getting elected! And why not? They represent the strong majority of United Methodists across the country.

Involvement at the national level of denominational activity has been a dimension of our church life that in the past has been wholly owned and controlled by persons of liberal theological views. They have been running our denomination without opposition for decades. Evangelicals have been happy to focus primarily on local church ministry. However, I believe our Lord would say, “These things you ought to have done, and not left the other undone.”

Fortunately, evangelicals are getting involved and liberal hegemony is breaking down. Renewal ministries have played a major role in this new dimension. We have spent considerable time and resources in encouraging and training folks how to get evangelicals and traditionalists elected. We have also provided instruction about how, always prayerfully, they can make themselves available as potential delegates.

An important part of this new emphasis has been a broad-based and unified prayer network, in which United Methodists all across the country are praying regularly for renewal and reform in their church. During the eleven days of our quadrennial General Conferences, we have thousands of persons involved in an intercession prayer network as well as on-site prayer teams bathing all of our General Conference activities in prayer. We have seen evidence of God honoring and answering the prayers of those interceding on behalf of our denomination.

So, let’s not forget that renewal groups play an important role in encouraging, uniting, and training the many evangelicals who are out there in our churches. A third conviction I have this:

All of us are called to contend for the truth

Jude wrote, “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 1:3).

I must confess I sometimes lack patience with my fellow clergy who remain unaligned and unheard from in the midst of the major challenges to our faith and doctrine. I know their primary calling is to pastor their flock. But when we are ordained, most of us United Methodists promised that we would “faithfully proclaim the Word of God and defend the church against all doctrine contrary to God’s Word.” Our United Methodist bishops, when consecrated to the episcopacy, are given the charge, “As servants of the whole church, you are called to preach and teach the truth of the Gospel to all God’s people.” The phrase that impresses me there is “the truth of the Gospel.” We need to remember that what we are preaching and teaching is the “truth” of the Gospel and the truth about life.

The Church has always talked about knowing the truth, heeding the truth, walking in and doing the truth. In fact, Paul urged Timothy and us to present ourselves to God as workmen who need not be ashamed, “rightly handling the word of truth.” It’s not myth; it’s not just story; it’s the “word of truth” that Paul says we must rightly handle. And frankly, it is under assault today by those who would revise, reconstruct, re-imagine, and redefine it. Many out there are trying to re-write the script.

All of us are influenced and must deal with how our post-modern age has made truth entirely personal and subjective. All truth claims are valid, says the trendy post-modernist, but it’s true only for me. I have mine, you have yours, and isn’t this just grand. However, any claim that one’s own convictions might possibly be preferable to someone else’s brings an outcry. It is seen as an attempt to impose our views on others. When we do this, say our progressive post-moderns, we are being exclusive and are pushing others to the margins. This leaves us with virtually no authoritative truth claims that the Church can affirm year in and year out. We are left only with a handful of “affirmations for the week.” Next week’s will probably be different than those affirmed this week. It is exactly what Paul spoke of when he mentioned not “being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14).

As I have thought about this development, it seems that what many have come to embrace is a Democracy of Ideas. That is, the view that all ideas “are created equal,” and that to disagree with others is somehow to deny their personhood. Of course, we believe all persons are created equal in God’s eyes. But their ideas don’t share that same virtue.

Now, the fact is that some of our evangelical pastors are weary of this battle over truth, and even see it as a distraction from the real ministry of the church. But Sue Cyre has written so aptly in an article in Theology Matters some 9 years ago, that this is not a distraction from real ministry. She contended, “The battle over truth and falsehood is the real ministry of the church. Everywhere the church goes, it is to proclaim the truth of the Gospel but it is always against a backdrop of some false beliefs….” And these false beliefs are gripping people’s lives, influencing their values, and they usually don’t let go of them easily—Scripture attests to that. Sue quoted John Calvin, who in speaking of the long-term nature of spiritual warfare, said, “Peace is not the norm, the battle is.” What a timely word that is for us today!

I learned from Parker Williamson’s great book, Standing Firm, that Bishop Athanasius, one of the great heroes of the Church in the 4th Century, was enmeshed in the Arian controversy for some 56 years! Think about that. What a protracted conflict that was. But the result of that struggle was to seal for centuries to come our understanding of Jesus being “fully God and fully man.” No doubt many during that struggle felt it was a distraction from the Church’s real work. The Church, however, will have to wrestle with those kinds of issues in every generation.

Friends, Paul’s words to the Galatians are so relevant for us this morning: “Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest, if we don’t give up.” (Gal. 6:9) We are contending for the “faith once for all entrusted to the saints.” The challenge, of course, is to contend for the faith without becoming contentious in spirit and disposition! But contend we must. And then a fourth conviction I have is:

We must develop a strategy for renewal in theological education

In 1975, Dr. Ed Robb gave a powerful address at a National Good News Convocation. His title was, “The Crisis in Theological Education.”

A part of the crisis was that United Methodist seminarians could not get solid teaching in Wesleyan theology at our official United Methodist seminaries. In the days following, Dr. Albert Outler, eminent Wesleyan scholar at our Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, heard about Robb’s address and took strong exception with him. After all, Outler was one of our leading professors of Wesley Studies at Perkins.

After an exchange of letters, Robb decided to go visit Outler personally. The result of that visit was a new and lasting friendship with Outler—a friendship that led to the forming of A Foundation for Theological Education (AFTE). This Foundation began raising money to fund Ph.D. candidates and beginning in 1976, the first five John Wesley Fellows were chosen. They would receive a substantial grant for three years while they worked on their doctoral degrees in Wesleyan theology and biblical studies. Each year, five more would be selected, and each would remain in the program for three years. There are always 15 John Wesley Fellows in the program. To date, there have been a total of some 105 John Wesley Fellows, many of whom have completed their terminal degrees and others still in process.

The good news is that these John Wesley Fellows are moving into positions of leadership in many of our seminaries and colleges. Many are writing new commentaries which will make a contribution for decades to come. The two deans at Asbury Theological Seminary (at the Orlando and Wilmore campuses) are John Wesley Fellows; Dean Greg Jones at Duke, is a Wesley Fellow; Ted Campbell, until just recently the President at Garrett-Evangelical Seminary, is a Wesley Fellow.

We United Methodists have been praising God for the vision Ed Robb had along with Albert Outler to establish AFTE. As I look at the theological scene in the United Methodist Church today, I believe that the future of theological education belongs to evangelicals.

I would also add that I believe there are signs that theological liberalism is suffering from chronic intellectual fatigue. There is virtually no serious engagement in theological substance today; there is little more than ad hominems.

We are also excited about the impact today of Asbury Theological Seminary, a non-denominational seminary in the Wesleyan tradition that has kept a strong evangelical character. Consider these statistics: In all of our 13 official United Methodist seminaries, plus Asbury (which is unofficial), we have 3,300 United Methodist M.Div. students preparing for ordained ministry. Of that total of 3,300, 1,200 are studying at Asbury Seminary! Those numbers are stunning. And thankfully, today’s students are not coming to seminary in order to evade the draft. In more and more cases, God has called them and they have responded. This brightens the outlook for our future as a denomination. And a final conviction is:

We need the courage to stand for truth

One of the lasting impressions I have after 24 years of renewal ministry is the profound degree to which our United Methodist pastors are intimidated by our liberal leadership. Perhaps it’s our appointive system, which certainly can be unjust and unfair. I’m reminded of a pastor who sent a letter to me sharing about a problem in his area. However, he went on to say with real concern, “Please don’t publish this in your magazine. I don’t want to be sent to a church that has a parsonage with a dirt floor.”

I knew what he meant. All of us understand that intimidation. We have been ashamed by acquiescing to it at one time or another. Paul must have felt it, too, for he said, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel.” Again, to the Ephesians, he wrote, “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should” (Eph. 6:19).

We need to pray for courage in the midst of opposition forces in our churches. We need spirit-anointed boldness, saturated in graciousness. Dr. Tom Oden has written these timely words about our need for courage:

It is only when the faithful have the courage to say no that yea-saying has plausibility and moral force.

Only when Daniel was willing to say no to idolatry in Babylon were the captive people given hope.

Not until Athanasius unambiguously challenged Arias did the church’s faith become clearly defined.

Only when Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the Wittenberg door did a reformation of medieval abuses begin. Not until the Confessing Church in Nazi Germany boldly rejected the specific idolatries of German Christians did their witness become credible in the Barmen Declaration. The yes to the truth of God does not happen without a tough no to false opposition (from The Rebirth of Orthodoxy, p. 129).

Paul wrote to the Philippians, “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death” (Phil. 1:20).

A few years ago, I read about Hugh Latimer and the English Reformers. At the time, I knew little about them. Between 1531 and 1556, a number of prominent reformers arose courageously in the Church of England. You will recognize some of their names. Thomas Bilney, Hugh Latimer, John Frith, Robert Barnes, John Rogers, Nicholas Ridley, William Tyndale. What you may not know is what all of these reformers have in common. All of them were burned at the stake for their faith.

I remember reading the moving account of Latimer being bound with Ridley to the same stake. After being tied together and seeing the kindling being lighted, Latimer was heard to say to Ridley, “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, whose light will shine throughout all the country.”

And so it did. Just two years later, during the reign of Elizabeth I, 1558-1603, the cause of English Protestantism triumphed. The Reformation cause in England won. Those saints and others who died had made a faithful confession—a confession about the truth of the Gospel. And once again, the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the Church.

In the last 11 months, United Methodism has lost three giants in the renewal movement. In December of 2004, Dr. Ed Robb died; just two weeks later, the day after Christmas, Dr. Bill Hinson died; and in April of 2005, our beloved friend and Episcopal colleague, Mrs. Diane Knippers died. These were colleagues who were courageous, willing to stand boldly for truth, challenge error, and say no when it needed to be said. So, in a fuller sense than ever, this morning, I can say in closing, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Heb. 12:1).

And let’s remember this morning, friends, that there is also a great host of witnesses running with us from every mainline denomination in North America. Let us take heart and not grow weary. Thanks be to God. Amen.

This article first appeared in Theology Matters, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Jan/Feb 2006).