September 10, 2024
By Rev. Dr. Scott Field
Recent dustups among Methodists have brought to mind lyrics from Tina Turner, the iconic Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll:
Oh-oh, what’s love got to do, got to do with it?
What’s love but a second-hand emotion?
Mark Millan of The Daily Vault described “What’s Love Got to Do with It” as “three minutes and 48 seconds of pop perfection”. He noted that it is a “soft synth-driven track countered by Turner’s battle-weary voice, barely hiding the cynic in her”, and stated that the song “reeks of attitude.” (If you’re a retro-rocker and want the full review, originally written in 2011, you can get it here. If you want the YouTube video of the Queen herself, you’ll need to do the search on your own; not quite the link we would normally put in a WCA Outlook. And if you want to debate the title The Queen in favor of Miss Aretha, well, I get your point).
How does this have anything at all to do with Methodism today?
I’m glad you asked.
Many, though not all, of the United Methodists who contact the WCA for information, networking, and resources seem akin to Mark Millan’s description of battle-weary voices, underlying cynicism, and “attitude”. One recent email echoed the sentiments of the majority, “It feels like they stole our church and now we’re having to spend all of our time and money attempting to retain what we spent our time and money on to begin with!”
Among United Methodists and former United Methodists, you don’t have to go very far before you run into industrial-strength disappointment, grief, anger, and exhaustion. Even more, I’m not sure we will ever be able to tally up the damage of misrepresentation, broken promises, and fraudulent assurances by pastors, district superintendents, bishops, and other UM denominational leaders attempting to palliate the laity, presuming, apparently, that laity are too gullible or ignorant or distracted to recognize what is going on.
If you are a burnt-out, bummed-out, worn-out United Methodist…
Or if you are a former United Methodist now become Global Methodist, but can’t seem to find the energy and enthusiasm for church that you used to have…
Or, if you are now a homeless former United Methodist and have left church altogether…
Or, if you are a traditionalist/orthodox/evangelical believer remaining in the UMC and wondering if there are others like you…
I’ve got a word for you. Actually, the Word of God has a word for you.
What’s love got to do with the departure of so many Methodists from the UMC?
The standard narrative from UM institutionalists (including pastors, bishops, and administrators) is that the disaffiliations from the UMC, including the continuing separations either undertaken or anticipated through paragraph 2549, are somehow related to the underlying homophobia or legalism or some sort of biblicism by traditionalist/orthodox/evangelical who leave. That is, the underlying motivation of people like me and most of the readership of the WCA Outlook, along with most of the folks gathering later this month in Cost Rica for the Convening Conference of the Global Methodist Church, is a soul-crippling hatred, judgmentalism or, at the very least, a half-sized portion of God’s grace.
Theological progressives and UMC institutionalists and a variety of social media observers have convinced themselves as much. What else could possibly motivate these people to leave? Self-assured veracity, reinforced by the echo-chamber of denominational officials, the group-think of the recent, reportedly unified, UM General Conference (without most of the traditionalists or a large share of the Africans delegates), along with the uncanny “momentum” carrying the UMC to a new future, is, so it seems, pretty intoxicating to the denominationally faithful.
I won’t pretend to speak for every person who has left or is currently seeking to leave or considering whether it is time to separate from the UMC, but for most of the people I have encountered, contrary to the institutional narrative, here’s what I’ve come to understand:
The underlying motivation is the love of Christ.
Actually, the love of Christ is the underlying motivation for daily living; and daily living includes connecting with a community of Christ-followers. And despite the claim of Queen Tina, this love is not a second-hand emotion. The love of Christ is bedrock reality for those who have surrendered their lives to Lord Jesus.
To be straight up on this, not everyone who has left, is leaving, or who thinks about quitting the UMC would say it this way. And if, in fact, you find that your primary motivation is indeed your anger, your demands to hanging on to property, or the pain of a splinter in your soul that “they” are stealing “your” church, take what follows as an invitation to something infinitely better. It is a fresh opportunity to drop the hurt, anger, and disillusionment in order to receive again the love of Christ.
The Compelling Love of Christ
Why are so many making the difficult exit from the UMC? Why not simply “go with the flow” and get onboard the UMC “Love Train”? Why is there a network of traditional/orthodox/evangelical believers within the UMC beginning to get connected – again – to consider together what the future looks like?
In 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul describes a number of difficulties, challenges, and obstacles he and others of his ministry partners have experienced. This is one among several brief descriptions of the situations they were experiencing:
8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. (2 Corinthians 4:8-10 NLT)
And yet, despite the challenges, difficulties, and obstacles, Paul is unwavering:
13 But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke” (Psalm 116:10). 14 We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. 15 All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.
16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. (2 Corinthians 4:13-18).
What is the key to this unwavering commitment? What is the strength behind this resilient endurance? How to continue contending with the conflicts, obstacles, and challenges over the long haul?
Here’s the “power source”:
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. (2 Corinthians 5:14)
This little word (συνεχω), the verb describing the impact of Christ’s love in the life of a believer, is variously rendered in our English Bible translations as:
- The love of Christ controls us
- The love of Christ takes hold of us
- The love of Christ embraces us
- The love of Christ holds us together
- The love of Christ possesses us
- The love of Christ sustains us
- The love of Christ compels us
How does the “love of Christ” have such revolutionary impact in the life of the believer?
Two ways come to mind and heart immediately:
The love of Christ for us takes hold of us, embraces us, assures us, possesses us.
Here is the essential meaning of this assurance: when we come to faith in the Jesus as our Savior, Redeemer, and Lord “the old things have passed away, and the new has arrived.” We are, as Paul writes elsewhere, “crucified with Christ; and now our life is lived in, through, and with him” (Galatians 2:20). We experience the certainty of our salvation by the inner witness of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:15-17). We know, experientially know, that we are bought and paid for by the blood of Christ. We have nothing left to earn or prove.
This is the testimony of John Wesley’s Journal of his experience on May 24, 1738:
In the evening, I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.
Through the love of Christ we become a “new creation”. All other identifiers (race, ethnicity, demographic categories, etc.) become secondary. Our primary identity is that we are now part of a new humanity. Our overriding loyalty, allegiance, and devotion is to the Lord Jesus. All other loyalties, allegiances, and devotions are secondary.
Anytime my loyalty to any denomination (including the UMC) comes into conflict with my allegiance and devotion to Jesus Christ or acts in any way to devalue, correct, or dismiss the Lord Jesus or the life-giving gospel of salvation, then I must either leave or, if I remain, a take on the mission as a dissident witness seeking reform and renewal.
The love of Christ through us takes hold of us, compels us, and urges us on.
The love of Christ for us gives us identity. The love of Christ through us gives us a new purpose and meaning. We become partners in the Jesus Mission of redemption through the gospel. The Apostle Paul, further describing the impact of becoming a New Creation through faith in the Lord Jesus, writes,
16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” (2 Corinthians 5:16-20).
Anytime the primary mission of a church devolves into internal conflict over a protracted period (like a half-century!) rather than giving primary and sustained attention to evangelism, personal conversion, and living as witnesses to Christ, the Light of the World, the missional impact of that church is diminished. Those who are compelled by the love of Christ to reach others with the gospel may well determine that they would better be part of a faith-community more focused on evangelism and reaching those who have yet to know the saving love of the Lord Jesus.
What has love got to do with the number of individuals and congregations, within the USA and elsewhere, who are deciding to leave the UMC? What empowers those traditionalists who remain within the UMC to take up the dissident mission of renewal and reform?
There are a number of secondary and tertiary considerations, to be sure, but it is love of Christ for us and the love of Christ through us that that fuel the resilient strength of those seeking what we have determined to be a more faithful and fruitful future.
If you find that you’re running low on love, grinding it out on anger, or no longer sure why you are involved in this long-running church re-formation, step back. Spend some time reflecting on the Scriptures I’ve highlighted from 2 Corinthians 4 and 5 above, and receive again the Holy Spirit’s fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.
The primary mission of the Wesleyan Covenant Association is to act as advocate and ally on behalf of churches globally that seek pathways out of the United Methodist Church and into the Global Methodist Church.