The pastor of my northern Virginia church spends little time
behind the pulpit, preferring instead to pace back and forth
between the front pews. "Are you alive in the Spirit?" he shouts,
drawing scattered amens. The music is mostly traditional hymns with
organ and choir, but the occasional acoustic guitar-wielding young
woman will belt out a folk-tinged contemporary tune.
At one recent service, the minister called those in attendance
forward for intercessory prayer by reciting James 5:14: "Is any
sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let
them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the
Lord." More than half the congregation streamed forward, some
clutching Bibles.
These weren't Pentecostals or worshippers at nondenominational
megachurches. They were Methodists. Methodism was for much of its
history known for evangelism, fiery preaching, camp revivals and
deep personal piety. As it has atrophied, so has mainline
Protestantism.
Today, even lifelong spiritual descendants of John Wesley are
hard pressed to explain what is distinctive about their church.
United Methodism has experienced flagging membership for decades.
Some who have left cite theological drift, a lack of focus and the
replacement of Biblical orthodoxy with cultural faddishness and
social-gospel liberalism.
To bring worshippers back to the fold, the United Methodist
Church launched a $2 million television advertising
campaign at the end of August. As TAS reported
at the time, it's open to question whether the message -- "The
Journey" -- will do much to counter the denomination's generic
reputation. As David Holman wrote, the ads emphasize a welcoming
church, but to discover "that the church is Christian would require
independent investigation."
Some Methodists are striving to make this fact plain. By some
estimates, the United Methodist Church is home
to at least 2.5 million evangelicals. This is larger than the total
membership of many thriving conservative denominations. It also
greater than the U.S. membership of the Episcopal Church, as well
as that of the Disciples of Christ and the United Church of Christ
combined.
SINCE THE MID-1960S, THERE have been organized efforts to reassert
theological orthodoxy and reclaim the church's denominational
heritage. In 1966, a Methodist ministerial student named Charles
Keysor responded to the leftward drift at his seminary by
publishing an article laying out the evangelical convictions shared
by many of his coreligionists.
Keysor received over 200 letters in response, many of them from
pastors leading Methodist churches. The favorable reaction moved
him to help found Good News magazine, a publication for
traditionalist Methodists. Good News was the beginning of
many evangelical ministries in the church. Currently, the largest
is the Confessing Movement, with over 630,000 members in 1,400
churches. The movement's mission statement asserts, "Our purpose is
to contend for the apostolic faith within the United Methodist
Church and seek to reclaim and reaffirm the church's faith in
Wesleyan terms."
In recent years, these ministries have achieved some results. At
the church's 2000 General Conference in Cleveland, United
Methodists voted to affirm traditional teachings about the Trinity
and Jesus Christ as Savior and to require evangelism in the
curriculum for ordination. Despite protests, traditional teachings
on homosexuality were overwhelmingly upheld. The church also voted
to oppose partial-birth abortion and support voluntary prayer in
public schools.
At the 2004 United Methodist General Conference in Pittsburgh,
the church again reaffirmed its opposition to homosexuality and
rejected same-sex unions. United Methodists became the first
mainline denomination to back political action against same-sex
marriage when delegates voted to support "laws in civil society
that define marriage as the union of one man and one woman." While
strong dissenting voices remain within the church (often amplified
by the media), the majority votes for these traditionalist
positions ranged from 60 percent to 80 percent.
Eighty-five percent voted that clergy must remain celibate while
single and monogamous if married. Adultery, premarital sex,
homosexual behavior and performing same-sex ceremonies were
included as chargeable offenses that could result in a church
trial.
THE TRADITIONALIST RESURGENCE IS partly due to improved evangelical
organization and partly attributable to demographics. Sociologists
Rodney Stark and Roger Finke reported in 2000 that United Methodist
congregations with evangelical pastors have rising attendance and
revenues.
Even shrinking evangelical-led congregations, they found, were
declining at half the rate of churches with less orthodox pastors.
Many of the large congregations with more than 1,000 members, by
contrast, have orthodox leadership. The conferences in the South
and Southeast with the highest proportion of evangelical pastors
and conservative churches are even experiencing growth.
Another change has been the absorption of Methodists from
outside the United States into the denomination. The non-U.S.
membership now represents 30 percent of the church. As
denominations ranging from Anglicans to Catholics have found,
African Christians in particular tend to be orthodox in faith and
morals. In the United Methodist Church, they have proven reliable
allies to traditionalists at General Conference. Their proportion
is scheduled to grow at the next conference in 2008.
Theological liberals still dominate the boards and agencies that
speak for the church between conferences, as well as the seminaries
that educate its pastors. Traditionalists are still defeated on
many votes and sometimes feel they have been ignored by church
officials even when they prevail.
It's also possible that demographic shifts have produced not
renewal but a role-reversal: conservatives will grow in influence
as liberals increasingly act as dissenters, leaving the net result
on church unity -- and the clarity of Methodism's message --
unchanged.
But there is good reason to hope that United Methodists are
indeed on a journey -- one that will lead back to the faith of our
fathers.
topics:
Television, Religion, Protestantism, Abortion, Law, Africa, Oil, Unions
