No More!

The words were shocking. Did I read that correctly? Was the Wesleyan Covenant Association actually saying, “immediately begin withholding all apportionments and escrow them.” Was such a drastic call merited? Could such a thing happen?

Reading the entire article, “Let Our People Go!” revealed the case for such radical behavior called for in these troubled times in The United Methodist Church. Jay Therrell carefully built the case and provided clear rationale for such action.

However, I was still shocked. Only radical, fringe groups had ever seriously called on UMC congregations to stop paying apportionments. I was one of them.

It was in the early 1990’s and a group of large church pastors (defined by average worship attendance of 1,000+) were gathered at Epworth-by-the-Sea in South Georgia. The General Board of Global Ministries had made another ill-advised decision which simply infuriated the more traditional pastors who were in attendance. One night after the regular session a group of us gathered to discuss an appropriate response to this unaccountable Board.

After some discussion, it was suggested the large churches across the denomination withhold all General Church apportionments until a change was affected in our General Board of Global Missions. We had asked the pastors of the two largest UMC congregations to meet with us and give us council. Both were well known and well respected for their effective ministry and leadership across the connection.

As a relatively young pastor in the group, I remember my shock at the vehemence of their response, “Whatever you do, don’t do that. We must pay our apportionments to have any legitimate voice in the UMC. Find some other way.”

That ended what I had thought was a good idea. The Board was above listening to anything else, maybe they would listen to money.

However, like faithful UMC pastors we went back to our churches and continued to pour millions of apportionment dollars into what we believed was a corrupt and unaccountable institution. Years later, as a district superintendent responsible for over 40,000 United Methodists, I faithfully executed my office in helping churches pay or grow toward paying 100% of their apportionments.

So why now? What is different today that was not true in the last century in United Methodism? There is a long list which can be accessed through reading much of what the WCA, Good News, and UMAction has published for the last several years.

There are two specific reasons the stoppage of the flow of apportionment dollars is called for now. The first reason is the bad faith shown by progressives who have withdrawn their support for the Protocol. By doing so they have declared their intent to block any path to amicable separation for Traditional Churches.

However, the second reason is even more onerous. It is the overt actions by bishops in a large number of Annual Conferences who have effectively blocked churches from disaffiliating under paragraph 2553, adopted at the 2019 General Conference. Jay Therrell wrote, “of the 53 American annual conferences, these 19 are making disaffiliation processes extremely difficult, and in some cases impossible.”

There it is: 19 of the 53 bishops of the UMC in the US have decided the General Conference got it wrong again and they have no obligation to abide by the will of the Church. Certainly, the legislation was not perfect. Hateful, filibustering tactics by progressives prevented a perfecting of the legislation at the General Conference. Yet, perfect or not, it was passed as the law of the church.

It specified that any church disaffiliating from the UMC had to pay their fair share of the unfunded pension liability and an extra year of apportionments. It also allowed local Conferences to add to this if necessary. This was intended to address local issues such as AC insurance liability or similar situations.

However these 19 Bishops have chosen to effectively block the will of the General Conference and make it essentially impossible for their churches to comply with the clear legislation passed at the General Conference. These bishops have again declared they are not accountable to the church and will “do what is right in their own eyes.” (Judges 21:25) They have declared themselves wiser than the gathering of United Methodists from across the world who, after much prayerful discernment and Christian conferencing, made this path available to churches.

If they will not listen to the will of the church, will they listen when hundreds of churches simply cut off the spigot of cash flow? Frankly, I doubt it. But what action is left for the churches in their conferences? Absolutely none.

Is it a radical action the WCA is calling for? Certainly. Is it merited? Absolutely. Will it matter?  No one knows. But the unaccountable Bishops have not responded to anything else. Bishops have declared themselves immune to the will of the church. There is no process in place to hold them accountable. That is clear. This leaves no other option for churches trapped in this web of institutional abuse.

The laity of the church must rise-up and say, “No more. We will no longer tolerate abuse by our episcopal leaders.” Ethical centrists and progressives should join with traditionalists calling for bishops to abide by The Book of Discipline. Stop paying the apportionments. The time is now. Tell these unaccountable Bishops, “No more!”

The Rev. Dr. Warren Lathem is a senior elder in the Global Methodist Church. Doctor Lathem is a former district superintendent and local church pastor in the North Georgia Conference of The United Methodist Church.