October 15, 2024
By Rev. Dr. Scott Field
What is the Methodist Vanguard?
The UMC media, understandably, generally uses mildly pejorative terms to refer to those of us who have moved on in the Great Denominational Separation. Global Methodists are a “breakaway church”. We’re called dissenters; collectively, we’re a “splinter group”. Others, who have left the UMC behind, refer to themselves as “escapees” or “refugees”.
As I wrote last week, I prefer the moniker “Methodist Vanguard”.
“Vanguard” is derived from avante garde which refers to the “new” and the “experimental.” More specifically, in current usage, a vanguard is “a group of people who are at the leading edge of a movement” (www.britannica.com).
Nobody knows how many of us are “walkaways” from United Methodism, but some of us have formed new congregations and others of us have found our way to another established congregation where our orthodox/evangelical/Wesleyan faith and missional focus have found a welcoming home.
We want to highlight the stories of the “vanguard”, the disbursed movement on the leading edge of a renewal of Christian faith and, importantly, engagement with the culture(s) around us all.
Do you have a picture, a story, or a brief video of the new congregation you have pioneered in the past couple of years? We’d like to receive and share them.
If you have a story to share for the glory of God and the encouragement of others, you are welcome to email a photo of your newly forming congregation or your new home in an existing congregation along with a brief (750-1000 word) summary of your journey so far. Be sure you identify at the very least your ministry setting and area, whether in the USA or elsewhere, and include a contact email so others can be in touch if they want more information, counsel, or advice. Your story will inform and encourage the Methodist Vanguard!
You can email me (sfield@wesleyancovenant.org) or our Administrative Assistant, Elizabeth Fink (efink@wesleyancovenant.org) with your photos and stories. They will be posted in the WCA Outlook.
The first such post is below, but first…
Contentious Court Case Update
Thirty-seven local congregations have been in a legal dispute with the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference over their desire to disaffiliate from the denomination. Last Friday the judge in the case, a United Methodist, dismissed the case. The case is appealable to the Maryland Court of Appeals. The group of local churches and their legal counsel will assess and decide upon next steps. Your prayers on their behalf are most welcome.
And more from the ongoing UMC conflict in Liberia.
Catch the video by Dr. Jerry Kulah, Chairperson of the Liberia Annual Conference Delegation to the UMC General Conference as well as the Chairperson of the Liberia Annual Conference Investigations Committee. The video, titled Breaking the Silence, provides important information as efforts by local United Methodist to determine their future are undermined and blocked by their bishop. Here’s the link. (Pardon the brief promo ad before Dr. Kulah’s video. Hit “SKIP AD” in the lower right corner after a few seconds and you’ll be able to see and hear his presentation).
Now, one of the stories we received this week from the Methodist Vangaurd…
Dear Elizabeth and Scott,
Thanks for today’s WCA email highlighting the work of the “Methodist Vanguard”. I represent a group like that in Savannah, GA, where we have planted Good Shepherd Savannah. Find us online at www.gssav.com
I began as senior pastor of Isle of Hope United Methodist Church, a once strong and vital congregation on Savannah’s southside, in 2019, just before the COVID pandemic. Years of theological and missional drift had plagued the church, but our strong leaders persisted with a plan to vote on disaffiliation in February 2023. We were the first South Georgia church to take a congregational vote and fail to achieve the 2/3 supermajority needed, achieving around 58%.
We may have failed the vote, but we definitely failed forward. Within weeks, there was divine clarity that something new was yearning to be born, and by mid-April, a group of pastors and lay people launched Good Shepherd Savannah, South Georgia’s first Global Methodist plant, meeting in borrowed space in a local Baptist church.
A year and a half later, we’ve baptized two dozen people (many in the nearby Skidaway River/ photo above); we average 220 in worship at our weekly 8:45am service; and every Sunday night welcome 50 children (2nd-5th grade) and students (middle and high school) back to the campus.
An ever-growing percentage of our congregation is new to faith in Christ or new to our church or returning to church after a long absence, fueling our passion that we cannot just be a landing place for former UMC members. We knew that was far too small a mission for the launch of a new church.
My wife Patty and I just returned from Costa Rica, where we were both South Georgia delegates (I as clergy, she as laity) to our GMC Convening General Conference. What we experienced in San Jose lines up with the Spirit of revival we are experiencing at Good Shepherd Savannah. We need Jesus and we need him desperately.
Things are good with the “Methodist Vanguard” here in Savannah.
Thanks for asking!
Scott Tucker
I love this testimony…and this line, I think, is worth tucking in your own collection of “prayer prompters” as we all lean forward in prayer:
“An ever-growing percentage of our congregation is new to faith in Christ or new to our church or returning to church after a long absence, fueling our passion that we cannot just be a landing place for former UMC members. We knew that was far too small a mission for the launch of a new church.”
Yes, Lord!!
Do you have a testimony…whether wildly “successful” or “still finding the way forward”?
We’d love to share it to bring glory to God and to encourage others.
Send it so sfield@wesleyancovenant.org and/or efink@wesleyancovenant.org
And, as the situation noted above in Liberia illustrates, your support in prayer and financial gifts is needed to help our AfricaNOW funding campaign. Your gifts help provide information, resources, and in-person meetings in African Annual Conferences.Friends, your support is greatly appreciated. Click DONATE to help now.
Yours in the Matchless Name of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer!