“Ladies and Gentlemen, as we prepare for landing, please bring all seatbacks and tray tables to their upright and locked position and stow away your carryon luggage.”

December 10, 2024
By Rev. Dr. Scott Field

Though the WCA is “landing the plane”, the AfricaNOW initiative will continue into 2025.

The Wesleyan Covenant Association has had an amazing journey since it began in 2016. Below there are some details on how and when we are “landing the (organizational) plane”, but first I want to provide an update on AfricaNOW …because that part of the journey is not nearly over yet. 

AfricaNOW 

Here’s what I wrote to the WCA constituency in July: 

The recent actions by the General Conference of the United Methodist Church, changing the traditional definition of marriage from one man and one woman to  “two consenting adults” and removing the expectation for UM clergy to be “celibate in singleness and faithful in marriage” has created an uproar, yes, in the USA, but most especially among African United Methodists. Entire African Annual Conferences are beginning to vote to leave the UMC. And, as you might imagine, the UMC’s institutional leaders have a full-on apportionment-funded campaign of misinformation and misdirection to create confusion and intimidation among rank-and-file United Methodists across Africa. 

Since its inception the Wesleyan Covenant Association has been a trusted source of information, networking, and advocacy assistance for traditionalist, evangelical, Wesleyan believers.  Our efforts have been very successful. In Africa we have developed a reliable network of capable and committed leaders. But they need our help now, especially in the next 3-6 months.  

I am writing to invite you to be part of our short-term AfricaNOW funding campaign. 

This is not a small effort. We expect the AfricaNOW initiative to assist more than 2 million Methodists in Africa to discern, decide, and depart from the UMC. I am appealing to you on their behalf to consider a gift to support these immediate efforts 

Providing the financial support for our African sisters and brothers seeking freedom from the bondage of the UMC to pursue God’s leading toward a better future will have an impact across future generations. The WCA does not have reserve funds or an investment portfolio. We are a “cash on hand” ministry. The extent of our reach is immediately and directly related to the financial gifts we receive. Will you partner with us to address this pressing and promising opportunity?

Your gift can be made through the WCA website: www.wesleyancovenant.org or by sending a check to our mailing address: Wesleyan Covenant Association, P.O. Box 130609, The Woodlands, Texas 77393. 

So, what has happened in Africa?

We clearly underestimated the African Wave that has developed in response to the UMC General Conference decisions last spring! The AfricaNOW initiative of awareness, information, and mobilization meetings has reached into fifteen countries in Africa so far, with over half of those countries holding multiple meetings of concerned pastors and laity. We have also cooperated with the Global Methodist Church in getting the GMC registered and recognized in various countries as well as supporting the organization of more than nine GMC annual conferences in Africa. Beyond that, we have also been able to assist our sisters and brothers in the Philippines who have been under severe harassment by the UMC. The awareness and mobilization meetings already planned for the first quarter of 2025 will take this effort to five additional nations. 

Our original “estimated budget” for AfricaNOW doubled and has now tripled. The WCA network has responded generously. But your help is needed now. The African Wave is not primarily an intramural conflict of Methodists who are leaving the UMC. That would be notable, but not necessarily strategic. 

The revival underway in Africa is critical for the future of the Christian mission overall. It is hard to overstate the importance of Africa, as well as Asia, and Latin America, for the future of the Christian mission. African population, currently about 1.3 billion, is expected to double in the next 25 years. While the West, including the USA, has become increasingly secular, the Global South (including Africa) is undergoing explosive growth in the number of people choosing to follow the Lord Jesus. We have an extraordinary, Holy Spirit-given opportunity to partner with the African Wave that will have world-shaping consequences for generations to come. 

Yes, the WCA is “landing the plane” as we complete our mission of helping United Methodists transition toward a better, more fruitful, and higher-impact future. But we are not yet done with the AfricaNOW effort as 2025 dawns. Your gift now has a direct and immediate impact on our ability to fulfill the commitments we are making into the first quarter of the New Year. If you want to and are able to provide financial support, we gratefully welcome your gift. You can DONATE HERE. At all events, pray.  Ask the Lord to give strength, wisdom, and open opportunities for our African sisters and brothers as they press forward. Much is at stake. 

Landing the WCA Plane: When and How

The end of this year, December 31, 2024, will bring major changes for the WCA. Here are several of them:

1. Our “active operations” will conclude. 
2. The WCA website will be maintained, particularly the REVIVE section, for local congregations, laity, and clergy, seeking information as well as legal, financial, and church multiplication resources. 
3. Several regional WCA chapters will remain open in UMC Annual Conferences where there is pending litigation. The rest of the WCA chapters have completed their corporate dissolution. The Jurisdictional WCA Chapters will also complete corporate dissolution by the end of December. 
4. A “custodial Board of Directors” will maintain the WCA corporation to fulfill our AfricaNOW commitments, sustain the WCA website, and care for legal and compliance matters throughout 2025.
5. I will conclude my role as WCA President on 12/31/24. That will also be the date of the final issue of WCA Outlook.
6. These are simply the details of MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! The WCA has fulfilled its calling. We have been a transitional bridge across which so many have traveled (and will continue to travel) to the Global Methodist Church. 

The final weekly issues of the WCA Outlook will carry words of reflection and gratitude by several WCA leaders as we all step into the fresh season of the Jesus Mission before us. As always, we are called together under the influence of the Holy Spirit for the healing of the world in Jesus’ Name…and we will not settle for anything less. 

Yours in the Matchless Name of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer!