One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had just gone to bed. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle near the Ark of God. Suddenly, the LORD called out, "Samuel! Samuel!” 1 Samuel 3:3-4 (NLT)
At times in the history of God's people, due to compromise, God has had to start over again or do a reset, such as in the time of Israel's Judge, Eli. Modern Methodism is going through a great reset.
A former student of nine, Greg West, is now the President of the Global Methodist Church in Virginia, USA. Due to my interest in him, I have kept my ear open to the recent happenings in this emerging denomination. Also, I have been trying to learn some of the recent history of Methodism that has led to the establishment of the Global Methodist Church (GMC). I am not a Methodist, and I am hesitant to write about something of which I know very little, but that has never stopped me previously. On the other hand, I may be just the person to speak, not being a Methodist and mired in church politics; I don't think I bring a bias to the discussion.
Eli permitted sacrilege
in the Temple.
How might the time in
Eli's day be like what Methodists are experiencing today? Eli's sons, Hophni
and Phinehas, were scoundrels (1 Samuel 2:22). Eli was not a bad
person. He did not like the desecration of the Tabernacle that was happening
through his sons (1 Samuel 3:24-25), but he permitted the
sacrilege to continue, and he refused to discipline his sons. Eli allowed
familial affection to outweigh his concern for the honor and character of God.
For years, the United Methodist Church has ignored what the Bible calls sin in
its membership and even in its leadership. When you turn a blind eye to sin,
you have to normalize it. That is precisely what the UMC did at its last major
conference.
In 1 Samuel 3:1, it says that messages from the Lord were rare and visions uncommon. People stop listening and practicing when the Bible is not preached fully. Jeffrey Richman, an Elder in the GMC and podcaster, says there was a forty percent decline in church attendance at some UMC conferences before the disaffiliations started. When you start, as the UMC has, to accept the parts of the Bible that agree with your narrative and ignore or reject the parts that don't, people start to vote with their feet. When church leadership starts to call evil good and good evil, we quench the Holy Spirit, and God becomes quiet.
A big tent with a narrow
gate
I have listened to the
GMC and UMC sides of the discussion. The UMC believes they are being loving and
inclusive about homosexuality, gay marriage, and the ordination of gay clergy.
I have heard several people from UMC leadership say their Church has a
"big tent." They are right in a sense; salvation is open to all, no
matter what our sins have been. The imperative here is the past tense, have
been. Entrance into the Kingdom of God is always through repentance, a
one-hundred-eighty-degree turn in your thinking and lifestyle. Yes, we all have
sin, and if we say we don't, we are a liar (1 John 1:10), but that is different
from openly practicing what the Bible calls sin. God is inclusive as he loves
all mankind, but the entrance to this "big tent" has a narrow gate (Matthew 7:13-14). When Jesus performed
miracles and fed the people, he had a "big tent" following him. Yet,
his tent became much smaller when he started talking about the cost of
discipleship; when Jesus dwelt on cross-bearing and their motive for following
him, many left (John 6:66).
Following Christ often
brings division.
I have often said in my
discipleship classes that sometimes God makes us choose between motherhood and
apple pie and the will of God. Luke 14:26-27 tells us that if our
love for God is not greater than our love for mother, father, wife, sisters, or
brothers, we are fit to be a disciple of Christ. Methodism has had to grapple
with the thorny issue of homosexuality and now transsexualism in the Church.
Would Methodism follow orthodox Christianity and the beliefs of the historical
Wesleyan tradition, or would they bend to the spirit of the age? We all know
what the UMC chose recently. In the Scriptures (Luke 8:20-21), when Jesus' mother
and brothers were waiting to see him, he said his true family is those who hear
and do the Word of God. Discipleship always involves some cross-bearing.
Sometimes, Following Christ will include some form of division, even from those
we love.
How does God do a reset?
In the case of Israel at
the time of Eli, God turned to someone very few would have considered: the
young boy Samuel. The historian Josephus thought that Samuel was twelve years
old. When God does something new, he often picks people untainted by the world's
way of doing things. Age has benefits, such as having more experience, but
being old does not mean you are wise. Many spend a lifetime of learning to do
things the wrong way. In living by faith, young people have not learned that
you can't do it, so go out and do it. Darlene Cunningham, co-founder of Youth
With A Mission, with whom I worked for seventeen years, said, "Youth With
A Mission (YWAM) would go down in history as the missions organization that has
made the most mistakes." By allowing young people to lead, fail, and learn
from their failures, YWAM has sent thousands of young leaders into the Body of
Christ; Greg West is an example of one of them. Yes, they will embarrass you at
times. Greg never did, but the most embarrassing thing for the GMC is for the
current leadership to end their ministry with no one to replace them. Your
mid-and-upper-level leadership should not all have gray hair.
Again, how did the GMC emerge, like Samuel's rise and Eli's decline? In Samuel, God found a person who would listen to God's words and tell others exactly what that message was. Samuel grew into a man who feared God and not man. It started with Samuel giving Eli the unpleasant message, even though he loved and honored the Prophet. The GMC will arise as God's instrument if it honors the authority of the holy Scriptures above all else, even if it may bring conflict and division.
Accountable discipleship
As I have kept my ear to
the ground about the founding of the GMC, I have heard a cry to return to the
Wesleyan tradition of John and Charles Wesley. John Wesley founded a church
where discipleship could actually happen. One genius of his church structure
was his small group classes. A place where transparent, accountable
discipleship can take place. In YWAM, I worked primarily with some form of
discipleship training. Our schools were generally thirty students or smaller,
but we divided them into groups of four or five. Jesus had twelve, but he
really had three. The change that should follow authentic discipleship happens
when people become real or genuine, not what they think they should be, but
what they are. This does not happen looking at the back of someone's neck once
a week. It is more apt to take place in groups of four or five than thirty.
Holiness is another cry I hear from the GMC; it happens when people start to
make themselves vulnerable, which happens in groups where they know each other,
are praying for each other, and are comfortable together, which a large group
does not facilitate.
A small group alone does guarantee authentic discipleship. The genius of YWAM, if there is any, is not its people, as the mission consists of a lot of very ordinary people. Yet one of its distinct characteristics is its emphasis on discipleship. I believe that success comes about because of how their training programs are structured. The lecture phase is always linked to an outreach phase with some avenue to reaching the lost. The learning is not just academic, but purpose driven. When God finds a denomination purposed to complete the Great Commission, he will provide the structures and curriculum as he did for John Wesley. The great need of today's Church is not for more truth but the application of the truth we already have. I often told my students that outreach is where the truth they receive in the classroom phase is applied to their hearts. The critical eighteen inches between head knowledge and heart revelation is bridged in real-life situations. Loren Cunningham would often tell us, go is two-thirds of God. A class without a service outlet is like a carriage without a horse, it's not going anywhere.
No need for a UMC 2.0
Another phrase I have
heard from many in the GMC is that we do not need a UMC 2.0. I don't
think many in UMC leadership started out thinking that the denomination would
evolve in the way that it has. That should be a sobering thought for those setting
the guidelines for the GMC. I attended a Nazarene Church for a short time
during my missionary training. Something a District Superintendent once said
that has stuck with me. He said, and I paraphrase, when your denominational
guidelines are so long and detailed, they are unbearable. When you try to dot
all the i's and cross all the t's to eliminate any possibility of compromise in
innumerable possibilities, you have started substituting God's wisdom with
man's. Though not detailed at times, the Bible gives a framework for how you
run a church. I view the Bible's framework of a church like the skeletal
structure of a body; when the church movement grows, you add details as meat to
the bone as needed. Adding details before you know you need them to ensure holiness
may foster legalism rather than Biblical morality. In 1 Samuel 14 24-46, King Saul tried to add
a guideline for Israel to defeat the Philistines, and it had the opposite
effect.
When creating new structures, it is natural to start with the guidelines or structures with which we are familiar. Yet, when God does something new, he often begins with a clean slate or a revised version of the old. God did not try to revise Eli; he removed him. The Gospel and biblical morality never change, but those things' presentation evolve. What works in one season of time may not work in another. Sometimes, God requires that we let go of our sacred cows. I once heard a sermon called The Prisoner of a Positive Past. The thesis was that God had done many great things throughout the history of Israel, but when God wanted to do something new, they could not accept it, not because it was bad, just different. In every new movement or renewal in the Church of Jesus Christ, the old has resisted the new. Hold tightly to the New Testament principles that delineate the 1st century Church and hold lightly to the institution and structures that man has put in place to build that Church. If you do vice-versa, you may end up with a UMC 2.0. God promises are most always conditional. Just as God called out, Samuel, Samuel, God is calling out to the GMC, will you listen and obey?
Conclusion
Let me finish now, as I
have gone too long already. My daughters always thought I preached the
everlasting Gospel. Methodism is in a divine reset. Although, as previously
stated, I am not a Methodist, yet we are all on the same team, and when one
part of the Body of Christ hurts, we all hurt. And when one part succeeds, we
all succeed. I am a big fan of the GMC because righteousness and holiness are being
brought back to the Church, which is always good. I am not a prophet, but some
of what I have written may have a prophetic ring, but it is meant as food for
thought. 1 Corinthians 14:32 NASB says “and the spirit of the prophet is
subject to the prophets.” One thing I am sure about as I have watched and
listened to your short history is that God is doing a new thing. As the Prophet
Isaiah said,
"Do not call to mind the former things,
Or consider things of the past.
Behold, I am going to do something new,
Now it will spring up;
Will you not be aware of it?
I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,
Rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19 NASB
Image in Public Domain
Ken Barnes, the author of “The Chicken Farm Other Sacred Places” YWAM Publishing and Broken Vessels through Kindle Direct Publishing.
Ken’s Website— https://kenbarnes.us/
Ken blogs at https://kenbarnes.us/blog/
Email- contact@kenbarnes.u
