November 19, 2024
By Rev. Dr. Scott Field
When I read the “Pastoral Letter from Bishop David Bard and Bishop Kennetha Bigham-Tsai”, giving an episcopal update on the “Illinois Great Rivers Annual Conference Exit Plan in light of the recent UMC Judicial Council Ruling”, I couldn’t tell if the UMC Bishops’ invoking “grace and peace” was simply pro forma for episcopal letters, or another example of performative religious jargon that afflicts so many of us in the church, or, maybe, their clever way of saying one thing while actually inferring just the opposite.
Whether intentional or not, the irony is jarring. Instead of appealing to “grace and peace”, a more accurate phrase, in my opinion, would be something like, “Sorry, Charlie. No more church exits; no way, no how. Get back to ‘making disciples for the transformation of the world’ and quit fussing about leaving the UMC.”
Their letter drops the institutional hammer on local churches who had been promised a fair pathway to separate from the UMC if, considering whatever decisions were made at the recent UM General Conference, a local church prayerfully and deliberately discerned that they could no longer continue to support the United Methodist denomination with their prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness.
This is heart-breaking news for the local churches most affected, without doubt; it is also one more local example of the unexpected, irrepressible, and surprising vibe shift carrying Emerging Methodism forward. We’re waking up from our spiritual stupor. We’re re-engaging the primary mission of the church. We’re experiencing the fresh anointing and commissioning of the Holy Spirit. And we’re unwilling to settle for anything less.
Okay, hold it…. what’s a “Vibe Shift”?
“Vibe” is an intuitive sense of the atmosphere or “social wavelength” of anything from a relationship, a group experience, a workplace, a musical or dramatic performance, even a location or a building or event. It’s often expressed as, “We were really vibin’ with that band” or “I wasn’t really vibin’ there, so I’m not going back.”
On a broader scale a “vibe shift” has to do with a not-too-clearly-defined sense that there is a cultural or political or social change underway. “Vibe shift” is what can also be called a “tipping point” or an “inflection point”. If is an abbreviated way to name the situation when “what was” declines rapidly and “what is becoming” increases rapidly. We’re familiar with this in many areas of life, from consumer behavior (think the change from Sears to Amazon) to technology (think of ubiquitous personal computers), to diffusion of information (from newspapers to podcasts, livestreaming, and social media).
In the arena of Methodism, United Methodism in particular, many of us witnessed and navigated a conflicted landscape of theology, missional priorities, organizational structure, and institutional power dynamics for half a century. Things happened slowly. Now they are happening rapidly. A“vibe shift” has occurred in Emerging Methodism.
The Surprising Vibe Shift of Emerging Methodism
I’d like to tack a crack at describing three “vibes” that underlie the broader “vibe shift” of Emerging Methodism.
- African Leadership
- Misplaced Trust
- Laity Empowerment
I’ll start with # 1, below, this week. I’ve also included the story of a group of former United Methodists in the USA who started a new church in a Mexican Restaurant – one example of the third “vibe”. We’ll pick up “vibe 2” and “vibe 3” over the next two weeks.
Vibe # 1: African Leadership
“Over the past century, the geographical heart of Christianity has undergone a significant shift towards the southern hemisphere. The largest and most vibrant Christian communities are now predominantly found in Africa and Latin America. … As observed by Kenyan scholar John Mbiti, ‘the centers of the church’s universality [are] no longer in Geneva, Rome, Athens, Paris, London, New York, but Kinshasa, Buenos Aires, Addis Ababa and Manila.’”
The African continent’s current population is 1.3 billion and expected to double by 2050. By 2050, Africa will constitute one quarter of the global population and 50% of all global evangelical Christians will be African. (Proposal Developed by the GMC Transitional Commission on Evangelism, Church Multiplication, Mission Mobilization, and Disaster Response, p. 26).
What is the current response of the United Methodist Church to this dramatic demographic and religious shift?
The recent refusal to extend to African United Methodists the same provisions for disaffiliation as had been provided to UM churches in the United States, the suppressed representation of African delegates at the recent UMC General Conference, the legislative canard promising African UMs a measure of self-determination while actually propping up UM episcopal and administrative leaders in the USA, and current UMC litigation in Africa to stop any efforts by local UMs to determine their own future, all suggest that the UMC is “not vibin’” with the dynamics of a rising Africa in world population and, especially, in leading the Christian movement globally. The “vibe shift” of African Methodists is, apart from those supporting a waning institution, away from the UMC and toward local initiatives.
The Wesleyan Covenant Association advocated for Africans to be allowed the same opportunity for disaffiliation that had been extended to United Methodists in the USA through our Fair for Some Fair for All Initiative. Along with our partners at Africa Initiative, and Good News, we hosted a leadership gathering last April in Nairobi and assisted in helping African delegates to the UM General Conference. We also included in our UMC General Conference advocacy team observers from Africa who could report back directly to their churches at home without the filter of “official news” from the UMC.
Subsequently, we launched the AfricaNOW initiative to provide resources for African leaders “on the ground” to hold awareness and organizing meetings informing African clergy and laity about the decisions of the UM General Conference which authorized same-sex weddings/marriages in the church as well as ordination of partnered LGBTQIA+ persons as clergy and consecration as bishops. This progressive trajectory of the UMC is a clear indication to most believers in Africa as well as many United Methodists elsewhere, that the denomination has largely cut ties with orthodox/evangelical/Wesleyan Christianity. The strong response to our multiple awareness meetings, presently completed in 15 countries, indicates the “vibe shift” underway. There is a rising tide of African Methodists who are no longer “vibin’” with the UMC.
The generous support for AfricaNOW has provided resources for this grassroots effort. Additional meetings are now planned into the first quarter of 2025. Your year-end gift to provide for these additional efforts would be greatly appreciated. We are winding down active WCA operations in the USA, but in no way do we want to pull back from our African sisters and brothers. Your help is needed. Use the DONATE link to make your AfricaNOW gift.
UMC efforts to control, suppress, or contain African laity and leaders seem connected to the decline of “what has been” and disconnected from “what is coming to be.” Simply using words like “grace” and “peace” in a “pastoral letter”, ironic though they may be, seem to indicate the disconnection of UMC institutional leaders from the “vibe shift” underway.
How about you?
New wine, as Jesus said, requires new wineskins. Attempting to preserve “what was” can get in the way of engaging “what is coming to be”. For Methodists, the surprising vibe shift is on!
Now, another dispatch from the Methodist Vanguard. This time from Austin, Texas:
“When no Austin, Texas UMCs disaffiliated in October 2023, it was time to birth Austin Global Methodist Church in Camino Reale Mexican Restaurant! After about 4 months of Saturday evening worship services, we began Sunday morning worship in the rented chapel of Concordia University Texas. On Sunday, October 20, 2024 we celebrated our 1st anniversary in worship and later this week, we will have a FIESTA celebration at Camino Reale, the wonderful restaurant who helped our church get started. 
We worship between 80 – 95 weekly and our austinglobalmethodist.org website and our Facebook page help us share our Biblical, Wesleyan traditional worship. The Holy Spirit is at work in Austin, Texas and we are blessed to have Reverend Lauren Green Yates shepherd our flock!” (Thanks to Phyllis Cram for sending the report along).
The Methodist Vanguard is comprised of Methodists who have decided they are not “stuck” but are being called to something new. They are part of the building wave of renewal of those being sent out together under the influence of the Holy Spirit for the healing of the world in Jesus’ Name!
If you are part of the “Methodist Vanguard, too, send your story to sfield@wesleyancovenant.org. We would love to share it with others.
Next Week: Vibe # 2 Misplaced Trust
And another Methodist Vanguard story