The following are prayers, liturgies, and service elements suitable for a church worship service on May 4th (May the Fourth Be With You, a traditional Star Wars Day).

Enjoy the lightheartedness of the day, even as the rest of the world is heavy.

All liturgies are Creative Commons, meaning YES you can print, project, adapt, anything without permission, but please share attribution (“Rev. Jeremy Smith, HackingChristianity.net”) in some manner. Thanks!

Beginning of Service

Call to Worship (Traditional)

“The Force will be with you, always.”
We know our God is guiding us through the challenges of life.
Even though we know “Fear is the path to the dark side.” In times of uncertainty, we “do or do not, there is no try.”
We choose love and faith over fear and distrust.
When we face trials, we remind each other, “Never tell me the odds.” We know that “the greatest teacher, failure is,” as we learn from our mistakes and grow in faith and understanding.
With God, all possibilities are present, and we persevere with hope.
“You must unlearn what you have learned” as we let go of past burdens. We won’t be the church by “fighting what we hate, but by saving what we love.”
We embrace new life and transformation in Christ.
“Rebellions are built on hope,” and our hope is in God’s persistent love. Empower us to be agents of change in the world, striving for justice, peace, and love in God’s holy name. “This is the Way.”
We gather in peace, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
God says to us, “I love you.”
The people reply, “I know.”
May the Faith Be With You…Always. Amen.

Gathering Collect

O Force, Binder of the Universe,
Who gave life to us and sustained us through every Emperor’s dark reign,
Do continually spur us to offer something more than a hokey religion and ancient weapons to a world without wonder,
Through the Redeemed Anakin Skywalker we pray, Amen.

Opening Unison Prayer

God of Light and Love,
we come to you from many places,
some weary, some hopeful,
some longing for a spark to guide the way.

You have called together rebels and dreamers,
the faithful and the wandering,
the burdened and the bold,
to be your people in a broken world.

By your Spirit, make us one with Christ,
one with each other,
one with all creation groaning for redemption,
one with all who seek the good, resist the evil, and dare to hope.

Shine your light among us, O God,
that we may walk in your ways,
and bear your peace into every place of fear.

In your mercy, gather us,
in your grace, send us,
in your love, make us whole.
Amen.

Contemporary Service Prayer

We come tired.
We come hopeful.
We come looking for a spark in the dark.

You gather us —
the dreamers, the warriors, the ones still holding on.

By your Spirit, surround us and bind us and make us one:
one with Christ,
one with each other,
one with every broken piece of your beautiful world and galaxies unending.

Shine through us,
send us out,
and help us never lose sight of your light.
Amen.

sermon and message

For lectionary churches, consider the following sermon prompts for the lectionary for the Third Sunday of Easter (readings here). For non-lectionary churches, enjoy the inspiration!

1. “Blinded by the Light: Learning to Be Again”

• Scripture: Acts 9:1-20
• Theme: Real faith often starts when God strips away our false certainties. Conversion isn’t from bad to good; it’s from being guided by illusions to faith.
• Illustrations: Saul was knocked flat on his back by God when he lost his path. Luke lost his path in The Last Jedi; Ahsoka left the Jedi Order; Andor chose not to make his horrible life choices be in vain. Not everything we thought was good is good; not every mission we fight for is righteous.

2. “The Cost of Hope”

• Scripture: Revelation 5:11-14 + Psalm 30
• Theme: Hope is not cheap; it demands sacrifice and trust in a future we may never see. Hope is not naive optimism. It’s gritty, stubborn, and willing to pay a cost so that it creates life beyond us.
• Illustrations: Rogue One heroes all die; Bothans died to get Death Star plans; Luthen loses his soul and causes pain for the rebellion. Jesus (the lamb in Revelation) is victorious because He chose to die.

3. “Feed My Sheep: Choosing Love”

• Scripture: John 21:1-19
• Theme: After failure and loss, Jesus calls us not to perfection, but back to love. Jesus doesn’t ask if we are perfect, but if we are seeking to be made perfect through Love.
• Illustrations: Jesus doesn’t shame Peter but calls him to action. Ahsoka could have chosen bitterness but maintains her grace, especially to her closest people. Obi-Wan could have killed Anakin but chose faith. Luke lost his path after trying to kill Ben Solo, and found it again in Rey.

hymns and music

This is the silliest section – skip it if you are looking for serious contributions. These are parodies of traditional hymns that would work for bulletin or projection titles. For familiarity’s sake, these pay homage to Episode IV-VI. These are only the titles: it is up to you to either rewrite the lyrics in your own way or simply sing the correct words with a fandom title.

Processional Hymn [celebrating the true beginning of the story – A New Hope]

• Seek ye first the droids on Tatooine.
• Oh, For a Thousand Tatooines
• O little grounds of Alderaan / How dim we see thee glow [TOO SOON]
• It only takes a spark / To get a Death Star glowing!

Responsive Hymn [remembering the conflict of The Empire Strikes Back]

• As the Tauntaun panteth for the water / so Han Solo longeth after Leia.
• There is a Tauntaun filled with blood…and smells worse on the inside.
• Vader, did you know?
• Oh Yoda was a wee little man / A wee little man was he
• On Dagobah’s rocks I headstand / But my X-wing’s in sinking sand / But my X-wing’s in sinking sand
• Once in Royal, Cloud City
• Abide with me; fast falls the Dark Side / The Dark Side deepens / The Force with me abide.

Recessional Hymn [commemorating the triumph of The Return of the Jedi]

• What can wash away the Sith? / Nothin’ but the Force of the Jedi!
• Away in a Sarlacc, a pit for his bed / the bounty hunting Boba wished Han Solo dead.
• O Sarlacc that will not let me go
• Father, I Endor You
• And Ewoks with me and Ewoks with me / and tells me I’m their own.

Celebration of the Prequels. There are some congregations that celebrate the heresy of the Prequels (Episode 1-3). While these are mostly schismatic Gungans, they do have a legitimate oral tradition and we should have a reconciliatory spirit. Thus, consider offering hymns such as:

• Ani walks with me / Ani talks with me / Ani tells me I’m 3-PO
• I have decided / to follow Grievous
• Hark the herald Troopers sing / For Emperor Palpatine / He killed all the Jedi Knights / To rule all with shocking might
• All hail the pow’r of Vader’s name / The Empire prostrate falls
• And my personal favorite: Our Lord Vader is risen today / No-o-o-o-o O-o-o-o-o!

responses

Unison Prayers of Response

Depending on the bent of your congregation, you may want to pick one of the Jedi or Sith codes.

Jedi Worship service: There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no death, there is the Force.

Sith Worship service: Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken.

Offertory Prayer

“For Luke so loved the Force that he gave his only begotten hand,
may we also sacrifice in our own way to emulate his devotion.
May our faith always be found disturbing. Amen.”

Holy communion

Holy Communion

The following is in the United Methodist tradition; feel free to adapt it to your tradition’s required liturgical elements.

Part 1: The Great Thanksgiving

The Lord be with you. And also with you.
Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is right, and a good and joyful thing,
always and everywhere to give thanks to you,
God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.
Out of the dust of stars, you shaped worlds unseen
even in a galaxy far, far away.
You formed light to shine in every darkness,
calling all creation to dance in harmony with you.

When galaxies drifted from your ways,
when hearts, like twin suns, burned with pride and fear,
you spoke through desert and forest sages,
through dreamers and warriors,
through unexpected voices in unexpected times.

From the Republic’s hollow height to the Empire’s depths,
from broken temples to hidden rebellions,
you planted seeds of hope,
a remnant always faithful to your promise.

In the fullness of time, you sent your Son, Jesus, born of Mary.
He came among us, not with blasters or armies or even the Force,
but with mercy, healing, and peace.
He taught of Your reign where the meek inherit the stars,
where the last are first, and love is stronger than fear.
When betrayal loomed like a dark side unseen,
He remained steadfast.

Your Spirit anointed Him
to proclaim freedom to captives,
sight to those emerging from Carbonite,
peace to those caught in endless wars, local and galactic.

Through His life, death, and resurrection,
You broke the power of darkness.
You forged a new covenant —
stronger than beskar,
wider than the galaxy’s reach.

And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven,
with Leia’s courage, Luke’s hope, Rey’s longing,
with Mando’s steadfast care, Grogu’s silent wonder,
with Ahsoka’s unwavering grace, and Andor’s spark of rebellion,
we praise Your name and join their unending hymn:

Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.

Part 2: Remembering the Night, Blessing the Elements

Use the traditional liturgy here, or one familiar to your congregation. Even though the rest of the service is fun and imaginative, it’s important to be rooted in your tradition at this point.

Part 3: Prayer After Communion

Eternal God,
we give you thanks for this holy mystery
in which you have given yourself to us.

Send us now into the world —
not as wielders of might,
but as bearers of light,
guardians of hope,
seekers of peace.

Where darkness rises, let us stand.
Where fear reigns, let us endure.
Where the way is uncertain, may we trust in you,
the true and everlasting Light.

Guide us, O God,
until the stars themselves sing of your glory,
and every galaxy reflects your reign of love.

Amen.

sending forth

Benediction

Honestly, the best benediction and call to action in Star Wars so far is from Maarva in Andor. So it’s in that style that we have the words of benediction, sending forth.

Go now, awake and alive.

We have slept;
we have turned away;
we have trusted comfort over courage.
But the darkness has grown in our silence,
a wound spreading across all we love.

Today, we remember:
There is a Light no darkness can overcome.
There is a hope no fear can silence.
There is a call no evil can erase.

The time for sleeping is over.
The time for turning away has passed.

Go now —
to seek the good,
to resist the darkness,
to fight with all the gifts God has placed in your hands.

Go now —
awake, alive, and unafraid.

Amen.

Your Turn

Thoughts?

Thanks for reading, commenting, subscribing, and sharing on social media.

(Some elements repurposed from 2014 Star Wars Day)

All liturgies are Creative Commons, meaning you can print, project, adapt, anything without permission, but please share attribution (“Rev. Jeremy Smith, HackingChristianity.net”) in some manner. Thanks!

Original article: Star Wars Liturgy for May the Fourth.

An Unlikely Election 

At the General Conference held in Charlotte, North Carolina (USA) in May 2024, a budget and plan of action was approved that reduced our number of episcopal areas (places where bishops could serve, thus the number of bishops possibly elected). I have a deep dive blog post on this momentous action, but I’m waiting for the final Book of Discipline to be printed before I publish. 

Under the approved plan, jurisdictions that had excess bishops after the downsizing would have to get a volunteer bishop to go to the West and Northeast, which would have open slots open due to retirements. So no new bishops were to be elected. 

After months of meetings, there was a surprise announcement:  there were no episcopal moves that were approved, after the voluntary retirement of one southern bishop, medical leave by a northern bishop, and a bi-jurisdictional appointment of a final one. So instead of moving bishops to the West, the West suddenly was approved to elect two new bishops to fill their vacancies, bringing the jurisdictional college to the minimum number of five (approved at the 2024 GC as well). 

So this week, the Western Jurisdiction is electing two bishops. Wow! But I can’t help wondering if this will be the last time we can elect bishops formed in the Western Jurisdiction.  

A Complicated Jurisdiction

The Western Jurisdiction was intentionally created as the smallest jurisdiction in America, one-third to one-quarter the size of the other jurisdictions (even in 1968, the WJ had 700k members whereas the SEJ had 2.8 million). Its smaller size and dominant west coast culture meant that the movement of the Spirit to a more inclusive church reached a regional majority much more quickly.

Thus, every year, the Western Jurisdiction was used to a certain amount of disdain sent our way. Before the Global Methodist Church exodus in 2023, the criticism was about LGBTQ inclusive actions taken by the WJ: first elected out LGBTQ+ bishop in 2016, and again in 2022; letting clergy accused of LGBTQ inclusion retain their clergy orders, pastors holding public gay marriages without reprisals, etc. As a clergy member of the WJ since 2014, I certainly engaged a number of these conversations online and reported on them each General Conference year. 

But recent years also included more charged language that the WJ was blamed for having too many bishops for their massive region (a land mass the size of exactly half the USA) and that we didn’t pay for them fully. In 2012, the number of bishops was reduced by one per jurisdiction, specifically framed against the WJ, leading to the first jurisdictional conference without an election. In 2016, proposals to eliminate the western jurisdiction were on the table. And in 2024, delegates from the WJ were called “selfish” by a denominational leader for continuing to have five episcopal leaders beyond our station. 

The problem with the narrative is that it wasn’t a WJ member that proposed the minimum number of five bishops in 2024: it was a NEJ member from New England making the floor motion from a jurisdiction that didn’t likely stand to be reduced to less than five. While WJ members likely supported the action (I was subbed in from the reserves during that vote, and I voted for it!), to call it our own selfishness was inaccurate. Additionally, GCFA allocates episcopal fund apportionments, and for decades has allocated less than the cost of our five bishops to the WJ, based on our capacity as less than 10% of United Methodism. 

An Uncertain Future

Regardless of the accuracy—and admittedly the WJ has had a big ego for a while as the torchbearer of progressive values, I know I have!—the anti-WJ sentiments come from regions with significantly more voting power than the West.

So as we look ahead to the 2028 General Conference, the likelihood of reducing episcopal areas in the West is quite high, eliminating chances at elections. Additionally, you can bet a proposal to eliminate jurisdictions entirely will be on the table – it barely was left off of the regionalization proposal in 2020/2024, and defeated only by being deferred to a study committee in 2016.

If jurisdictions are eliminated and bishops are elected including all the USA together, it’s not an unfounded concern that a region that is <10% of United Methodism would no longer have the voting power to elect their own homegrown people. Other regions that have more compact geographic areas and more people power would have a significant advantage to elect their candidates, leading to a denomination without new Western bishops for the foreseeable future. 

A Denominational Setback

I lament this might be the last election from the Western Jurisdiction. The Western Jurisdiction has a long line of “firsts” when it comes to the episcopacy (1) (2). 

• In 1972 Wilbur Won Yan Choy was elected by the Western Jurisdiction as the first Asian-American bishop in The United Methodist Church.
• In 1984 the Western Jurisdiction elected the first African-American female bishop of The United Methodist Church, Leontine Kelly; the first Hispanic-American Bishop, Elias Galvan; and the first Japanese-American Bishop, Roy Sano.
• In 2000 WJ was the first to have a Tongan-American (born in Hawaii) candidate for bishop, Eddie Kelemeni.
• In 2004 the WJ elected the first Latina Bishop, Minerva Carcaño, and was the first to have an openly LGBTQ+ candidate for bishop, Frank Wulf.
• Since 2008, WJ became the first jurisdiction in the US to not have a white male serving as an active bishop. From 2008-2016 the active bishops were 2 Japanese Ancestry males, 1 African-American male, 1 Latina, and 1 white female.
• In 2016 WJ elected the first openly LGBTQ+ bishop, Karen Oliveto, and had the first native Pacific-Islander candidate for bishop, Siosifa Hingano (Rev. Sifa). Also in 2016, WJ became the first jurisdiction to have more active female bishops (3) than male bishops (2).
• In 2022, the election of the first Filipino American bishop , Carlo Rapanut, who is also the first US bishop ordained in a Central Conference. And the election of the first openly gay and married African-American bishop, Cedrick Bridgeforth.

Other jurisdictions have their “firsts” as well, of course. But the long list above were possible because it was a smaller region alone voting on our governing leadership. These would not likely have happened if all the other regions were voting on these candidates too. Heck, the election of the first African-American female Bishop Kelly happened when she was denied election in the South—and was elected while midair on a plane to the West! You can’t deny the demographics: you get more diverse leadership when you draw from smaller regions.

So it is both reasonable to expect and lamentable that eliminating jurisdictions and having instead a regionwide (i.e. USA countrywide) election of bishops would make it even harder to elect people outside the typical power structures. 

One Last Time…

This is my third—and likely last—time I’ll be a delegate to the Western Jurisdiction conference; by this time next week, I will have been part of electing six bishops over my tenure. Each time, I’m asked who I’m voting for, knowing my readership includes a lot of the West. 

My encouragement this year is that we treat this election as if it was our last and that we elect the people who the worldwide church needs to have.

Our role in United Methodism is to do what the other jurisdictions cannot do, or it takes them a long time to do (how many times did Bishop David Wilson, the first Native American bishop, run in the SCJ before he was finally elected in 2022?).  We elect the outliers, the unlikelies, the “Firsts” above, not only because they are gifted people that we want in leadership with us, but also because they bring that perspective to the worldwide council of bishops, and members of marginalized groups everywhere can see themselves at the table. In 2022 we elected the most diverse class of bishops in our recent history. What became a mark of the West

So now we are charged again with doing what needs to be done. And this time, I’m not saying we must elect particular demographics to be “first”, nor that we must elect prophetic voices but no institutional savvy. Rather, my hope is that we elect those with Western values of inclusion, immersion into the difficult places, those who will be willing to turn our church upside down, yes, we need those. But in a shifting church with a massive power imbalance and people jockeying for power, we in the soon-to-be-diminished-West must elect those who can provide power-mindful voices at the tables obsessed with authority. I hope we elect a pair of bishops with these values individually or collectively that can lead us into an uncertain future with Western Jurisdiction values in their heart.

Because this might be the last chance we get.

See you at Jurisdictional Conference this week. Let’s find out together. 

Your Turn

Thoughts?

Thanks for reading, commenting, subscribing, and sharing on social media.

Original article: Will 2024 be the last UMC bishop from the West?.

Day 0 – Rogue One

2017 was a tough year in the church and society. In the church, it was after the 2016 General Conference of The United Methodist Church that continued to uphold its sinful ban on LGBTQ+ inclusion. In society, the 2016 presidential regime that wanted to regress American politics and eliminate the New Deal was in full swing. 

After both of these events, I was appointed by The United Methodist Church to serve as the senior pastor at First United Methodist Church of Seattle (First Church Seattle). This move to pastor in Seattle was unexpected when you consider the qualities of most of the previous senior pastors. 

• The previous pastors at First Church Seattle had predominantly come with decades of ministry behind them; I was under 40 years old in year…11.
• They had all come internally from within the annual (regional) conference; I was being brought in from the next conference over.
• The most immediate previous pastors were queer; I was a straight white man from Oklahoma!
• They had all served as Senior Pastors; I was previously an Associate Pastor at a large urban congregation in Portland, Oregon.
• I went from supervising 2 positions to 10, and presiding over a church budget that was 10x my program budget as an Associate.

But the lack of typical qualities didn’t matter, as I was strong in what they needed: First Church Seattle is a politically active pulpit. I was appointed to First Church Seattle with the express purpose of pastoring this urban congregation, yes, but also informed I would be supporting the resistance against the powers who prey on the vulnerable in society. In my congregation were lawyers who sued Trump’s regime, medical practitioners who supported COVID public health restrictions, corporate LGBTQ+ organization leaders, union reps, immigration advocates, teachers, and non-profit directors, along with legions of tech workers who often spoke against tech industry excesses and failures, and grandmothers who would write postcards to fight voter suppression. 

If I could provide spiritual support to undergird their social action, then that was a role I was happy to serve in and well suited for. The fact I had been visibly active as a brawler faith leader online for a decade at that point probably helped! 

1000 Days of A New Church Hope

First Church 2017-2020 was a unique place. 

• As I have written before, First Church Seattle is a cathedral congregation, and most of its members commute to the church.
• The church also had both a thriving children’s ministry and progressive theology. Most churches have one or the other: a big children’s ministry alongside conservative theology or a primarily adult ministry with progressive theology. It was amazing to serve a congregation with both!

Having served in an urban parish before, the first 1000 days, just under three years, were joyful. The church was growing, our youth had their largest confirmation class in recent memory, our social witness was well established, and our mercy programs to the hungry and houseless were running well. I had some hard learnings on leadership and supervision, but the congregation and staff stuck with me. We were set to fundraise to eliminate our mortgage from relocating in 2010, were dreaming of expanding our weekly feeding program, and had just hosted a national gathering of United Methodists at the LEAD 2020 conference. We were publishing pastoral letters responding to political news, hosting lunch & learns about social justice topics, and were on the up and up across the board as we were halfway through a 2018-2021 Vision plan for the church.

Then, that all changed in March 2020. 

500 Days of Pandemic Strikes Back

In addition to the obvious, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted First Church Seattle in two unique ways compared to other congregations:

1. We did very well weathering the transition from offline to digital church. We are in tech-centric Seattle, where they have a geek pastor and innovative staff. We looked around to get everything we needed, and we made the jump in 3 days’ time as our bishop closed our sanctuaries before the second Sunday of Lent, March 8th, 2020. We had some trial and error, and I shared our learnings using this blog’s channel for maximum reach.
2. But financially, the pandemic cut off our momentum. While the congregation remained incredibly generous, and we could manage shifting costs, 1/3 of the church revenue came from a parking garage by Seattle’s sports arena and cultural district. With all that shut down by COVID, we instantly lost 1/3 of our budget. Thanks to donors and government assistance and unexpected and VERY well-timed gifts, we kept afloat. Ironically, any consultant’s church sustainability strategy was to diversify our income—and we had! But that meant we were immediately financially affected by the pandemic in ways many other churches who were tithes-only were not.

These 500 days were a lonely, difficult trek filled with innovative mountains we climbed and despairing valleys we fell into. I don’t need to dwell on it because we all know it sucked. 

Finally, the church was able to re-open to hybrid worship earlier than many other churches in our region for a number of factors:

• We penned our reopening plan, which was shut down by–and then essentially adopted by–our annual conference (I said what I said!).
• Our musicians did an amazing job of mixing in-person with recorded music.
• Because we had a recently built sanctuary in 2010, we had an up-to-date HVAC system that could cycle the air fast enough to meet public health expectations.
• As I’ve written before, because of urban public health requirements, our church required attendees to be vaccinated, and those who refused vaccination (there were not many in our socially conscious congregation!) could continue to worship online.

Because of all of those things, we were able to open again in July 2021, and to date, we have had no instances of communal transmission of COVID-19.

1000 Days of Return of the Church

But that’s not to say that all was sunshine and puppy dogs. Returning to “normal“ did not happen at the same rate for the various groups in the church. 

We found we did not minister to two groups well during the pandemic: young adults, and families with young kids. Both of those groups were particularly susceptible to zoom burnout, given that they were on their computers all day doing e-learning or remote jobs. Sitting through an online worship service or learning experience, even good ones, didn’t resonate with these two groups, and the lack of gatherings and providing parental relief was particularly hard. While most of the young adults made their way back after a while and are thriving again, young families did not. It’s demoralizing to be a pastor with young children at home and have the children’s program shrink under your watch. I claim my responsibility for not having pastored this community well enough, and I hope for new energy with this transition.

However, in all other areas of the church, growth was slow but noticeable. 1000 days later:

• The parking garage funding returned and has surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
• We are on track to eliminate the mortgage a year from this writing.
• The hybrid church model has become routine: we have a good tech system, and those who need it appreciate it.
• A massive church reorganization (30 committees to ~8 ministry teams!) and visioning processes happened and continue with intentionality and purpose.

While I know I didn’t accomplish everything I wanted, and the church has some decisions that need fresh leadership, there is joy in the air at the church. I am in prayer for the upcoming new pastor at First Church Seattle, and I know the marker of whether I transitioned well is held in their assessment, not my own. 

Looking Ahead

I write the above to bookend my particular pastoral experience. I have so many stories to share, but those will come over the years with more distance and perspective—certainly not in the days after ending a pastoral appointment. 

I’m sitting in gratitude for an experience I did not merit but was definitely the pastor “for such a time as this” in downtown Seattle during a global pandemic.

I will have a follow-up soon about general learnings from my years of hyper-urban ministry…because I’m no longer going to be in that ministry context. My new church appointment is in a community miles away from downtown, and ministry life will look very different for me. This blog will look different without the daily, gritty experience of urban life shaping it. Thank you for stepping into the unknown with me.

Thank you for reading over my shoulder (I wrote this mostly for me), and be in prayer for continued participation in downtown ministries you are connected to—or should be!

Your Turn

Thoughts?

Thanks for reading, commenting, subscribing, and sharing on social media.

Original article: Loving and Leaving my Seattle Church Era.

On Tuesday, April 30th, 2024 at the General Conference in Charlotte, NC, USA, the worldwide body removed the funding ban on LGBTQ+ affirmative ministries and missions. The vote was 667-54.

The United Methodist Church has a long history of silence on LGBTQ programs and forbidding funding of anything that remotely offers affirmation and comfort to LGBTQ children. And learning that history brings much more weight to this action today.

History of The UMC Denying Ministry to LGBTQ persons

Barely a year after The United Methodist Church was created in 1968, the relationship between money and affirmation of LGBTQ persons came to the forefront with opposition to a student magazine that affirmed LGBTQ persons. From Jane Ellen Nickell’s book “We Shall Not Be Moved: Methodists debate Race, Gender, and Sexuality” chapter 4.

“In 1969, motive, the UMC’s student magazine, created controversy when it published an issue on women’s rights that included a discussion of lesbianism. United Methodist congregations and individuals threatened to withhold their apportionment dollars, and the denomination’s Board of Education, which published the magazine, withdrew its support. Without institutional funding, motive ceased publication, devoting its final two issues to gay rights.”

While the original language against LGBTQ persons came in 1972, a ban on denominational financing anything remotely affirming of LGBTQ persons came in 1976. It had three components:

1. Ordered the Council on Finance and Administration to “ensure that no board, agency, committee, commission, or council shall give United Methodist funds to any ‘gay’ caucus or group, or otherwise use such funds to promote the acceptance of homosexuality.”
2. Mandated “the use of resources and funds by boards and agencies only in support of programs consistent with the Social Principles of the Church.”
3. Prohibited “funds for projects favoring homosexual practices.”

The next General Conference in 1980 entertained discussion on prohibitions of gays and lesbians from being employed in church offices, and from using church spaces. These prohibitions were eventually voted down, but they speak to the desire of some to apply the funding ban to local church decisions.

The 2004 General Conference expanded the funding restrictions related to groups that promote the acceptance of homosexuality. Prior to 2004, these restrictions applied only to the national General Conference on Finance and Administration. However, following a complaint filed with the Judicial Council relating to annual conference funding for a ministry* with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons in the New England Annual Conference (JC 491), the 2004 General Conference extended the prohibition to include annual conference councils on finance and administration. (*Full disclosure: I was a member of Cambridge Welcoming Ministries at this time.) The funding restriction would ultimately read:

“To ensure that no annual conference board, agency, committee, commission, or council shall give United Methodist funds to any gay caucus or group, or otherwise use such funds to promote the acceptance of homosexuality. The council shall have the right to stop such expenditures. This restriction shall not limit the Church’s ministry in response to the HIV epidemic, nor shall it preclude funding for dialogs or educational events where the Church’s official position is fairly and equally represented.”

Thus in Decisions 1081 and 1084, the Judicial Council ruled that the annual conference Councils on Finance and Administration (CF&A) are responsible for ensuring that no groups that promote the acceptance of homosexuality receive conference funding.

Finally in 2008, General Conference delegates voted to add an additional restriction for funds used for programs that would “violate the expressed commitment of The United Methodist Church ‘not to reject or condemn lesbian and gay members and friends.’” So they wouldn’t fund programs that directly affirm or directly deny the existence of LGBTQ persons.

(Editor’s note: sections of the above have been adapted from T.L. Steinwert’s 2009 Dissertation “Homosexuality and the United Methodist Church: An Ecclesiological Dilemma” at Boston University School of Theology).

Some Results of the Funding Ban

The effects of the funding ban were felt most strongly in education. The Ecumenical Campus Ministry at Ohio Northern University had its United Methodist funding cut because of involvement with the LGBTQ community. In 2005, the University Of Puget Sound’s UMeth campus ministry was brought up for judicial review because of their welcoming statement. It seems campus ministries were the most scrutinized and vulnerable to anyone with an anti-gay axe to grind. And curriculum development always had to tiptoe around anything gay-related.

There’s a checkered history with the impact of the funding ban and AIDS ministry. A previous version of this article included stronger language about the impact on AIDS ministries, but the comments offered needed correction about the many ministries with and for the AIDS community. Click here to read the most substantive comments from Nancy Carter.

In summary, Rev. Dr. T.L. Steinwert reflects in her 2009 dissertation (page 52):

The 1976 prohibition on funding initiated a movement toward silencing advocates for the full inclusion of homosexual persons. With the threat of denial of funds, this legislation censured those in local churches, annual conferences, seminaries and national church agencies who sought to talk about homosexuality from an affirming perspective. Citing incidents at St. Paul School of Theology, the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, the Women’s Division of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Reporter and the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women…this prohibition on funding “effectively stopped any real dialogue on homosexuality by silencing one side of the debate.” In each case, any discussion of homosexuality that strayed from a strict condemnation of the practice was censured through local church protests and actions taken by General Boards and Agencies.

United Methodist actions and inaction have contributed to a culture of fear and self-loathing by LGBTQ persons. We have been complicit and, in some cases, outright culpable of the harm and death caused by our inability to contribute.

There are places where the funding ban is an iron gate, and there are places where we can see the cracks. For example, a local church’s ministry had a grant denied by Discipleship Ministries because they had a statement of inclusion in their description. They removed it and it was affirmed the next year. But in 2019, the Missouri Annual Conference approved funding a “new ministry in new places” effort specifically for and with LGBTQ persons. A church in Arkansas rented one of its buildings to an LGBTQ youth shelter. The Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference had a staff person for LGBTQ ministries, which had to have a unique funding structure, and several annual conferences employ LGBTQ persons in annual conference positions. So, there was still a patchwork effect locally and at the regional level, even though the global structures continue to be banned from active ministry for and with LGBTQ persons.

While opponents of LGBTQ persons hide behind rhetoric and rationales, the reality is that United Methodist polity and funding bans have made us part of the reason organizations like the Trevor Project need to exist in the first place.

Good Riddance, Funding Ban

It was almost without fanfare that the vote to remove the ban was made. It was lumped in with other changes, so it passed with nary a glance by many people, except those who had tracked such things.

May we begin to dream again. May the decades of reticence and removal from efforts to save lives and increase self-worth be repented of and left in the wastebasket of history. May we become people that are able to say in LGBTQ+ affirming circles “I’m a proud United Methodist” again, maybe for the first time.

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Original article: The LGBTQ+ Funding Ban is Finally Repealed in The UMC.

Drops

The 2012 science fiction film Cloud Atlas journeys through six different time periods and the struggles for justice or mere survival in each of them. One of the time periods is in 1849, years before the breakout of the American Civil War. The son-in-law of a wealthy businessman in America is sent overseas to conclude a business arrangement to transport slaves from Africa. 

The son-in-law is transformed when he witnesses brutality done to the slaves and his life is saved by a slave on the trip home. He returns to his partner and confronts his father-in-law, stating that he has renounced the slave trade and will join the abolitionists. They have the following exchange:

Father-in-Law: There is a natural order to this world, and those who try to upend it do not fare well. This movement will never survive, if you join them you and your entire family will be shunned. At best you will exist at pariah to be spat at and beaten, at worse to be lynched or crucified. And for what, for what? No matter what you do it will never amount to anything more than a single drop in a limitless ocean.

Son-in-Law: But what is an ocean but a multitude of drops?

Cloud Atlas, 2012

There is no movement for creating a more just society that is not the result of one drop drawing in another and another until the weight of the drops seeps into and overwhelms even the most powerful and insidious institutions on earth.

And that’s true in the church as well.

Polity

The United Methodist Church has a book of polity called The Book of Discipline. The book is very much like a multitude of drops in that it contains the efforts, insights, and wisdom of generations of Methodists–and theological foundations from centuries before that.

Together, they form the bulwark against secularism outside the church, limit fundamentalism inside the church, guide our leaders in the pulpits, and protect the vulnerable in our pews. Amongst others, they celebrate our ministries with women and girls, our missions with ministry partners across the globe, our preservation of historical landmarks and heritage, our advocacy for reproductive justice and refugees, as well as simple guidance for local churches to operate and serve their mission fields.

All polity drops are not equal (our doctrine about Jesus Christ is waaaay more important than how the trustees vote on a new boiler), but the accumulation of all of them hopefully becomes a multitude of drops deep and wide enough to hold all of us and lift all of us up as a rising tide lifts all boats.

Big Drops

On Day 4 of the 2024 General Conference, there are many big drops that will make a big impact on The United Methodist Church:

• Regionalizing the Worldwide church:
  • Five of the Eight primary enabling petitions for Worldwide Regionalization passed, including one critical Constitutional Amendment that passed with an overwhelming majority. Read a statement here and more about regionalization in MFSA’s brief here. There are still three to go, including two more constitutional amendments, so stay tuned.
  • One quick note is that the USA traditionalists (who are now a minority) have called this gathering illegitimate because not all the delegates are present because of COVID delays and visa problems for international delegates to the gathering in the USA. However, even if all delegates were present and every person missing voted against regionalization, each of them would have passed with the needed 66.7% supermajority
• Removing Harmful Language against LGBTQ+ persons:
  • A petition calling for the regionalization of the definition of marriage passed. While it is not marriage equality or recognition of LGBTQ+ right to marry, it does lay the groundwork for that conversation to be had in a new way. There are positive reports from committees and sub-committee work, but they have not reached the floor and thus caution in reporting is being practiced. There is a ton more coming, but they are scheduled towards the latter days of the Conference. You can read MFSA’s brief here.
• Revising our common Social Principles:
  • UPDATE 4/27: one-third of the Social Principles passed on consent calendar. The petitions that related to topics on LGBTQ+ inclusion and reproductive choice passed the committee but not the consent calendar, so it will be debated on the floor. You can read MFSA’s brief here.

The “Three R’s” are big topics that will dramatically shape the way the church is structured, the way how we relate to each other, and the way how we advocate for what we believe.

Little Drops too!

I admit to being a polity wonk so I get into the details, but the reality is that even the smallest of changes to our Book of Discipline can offer accountability, clarity, or direction to the church.

There were over 1000 petitions for the delegates to wade through and consider, and as someone who is working with a legislative committee, these things matter too. There’s not too much to report yet as the committees are still working, but you can bet Hacking Christianity will lift up the details in later reports.

Before the General Conference, even progressive strategists seemed to advise disregarding or de-emphasizing work on the petitions that didn’t have to do with regionalization, removing harmful language, and revising the social principles. I’m glad to report that delegates have not taken that advice and have put significant work into the little topics just as much as the big topics. At the end of Conference, we will be thankful–or ready to live with–the changes large and small.

Just Keep Swimming

At the 2024 General Conference, California-Nevada lay delegate Micheal Pope reminded us of the movie “Finding Nemo” when the small and perhaps insignificant Nemo and scatterbrained Dory were in the net of caught fish being pulled up out of the water. To escape, they convinced the floundering and scared multitude to swim in the same direction, and the combined weight and energy broke even a metal crane, and the caught fish escaped to a new lease on life.

But swimming together only worked because they stayed in the water. If they hadn’t banded together before the surface broke, they would have been caught, and all would have been lost. We can’t swim if we get out of the water.

My hope is that this remaining week of the General Conference is a time when the worldwide church bands together and swims together–because we live together and die alone. Let’s keep in the water, keep working on the drops large and small, to help us end our fortnight together with love and affection for our worldwide church.

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Original article: An Ocean of Drops at the 2024 General Conference.

Glass-blowing and faith

Across the street from First United Methodist Church of Seattle is the Chihuly Museum of Glass, which houses amazing works of art, boats, chandeliers, bowls, glasshouses, garden flowers, you name it…all made with blown glass by artist Dave Chihuly.  

I attended a glassblowing demonstration where some of their artisans stuck molten glass on the end of poles, heated them up, and then inflated them with air, forming them into amazing shapes like the ones on this blog post. The key is heat. Heat is important to artists: whether you are sculpting iron in Africa, swords in Japan, clay bowls by native peoples in the southwest USA, or casting bronze in China, heat is an essential component for those types of artistry.

One of the artisans said when the glass is hot, it can become anything and as it cools down, it limits what we can do with it. If you are making the molten glass ball turn into something useful, you have to act when it is hot. The artisan shared a meaningful sentiment: when things cool down, they become limited; while they are hot, the options are endless. 

A Hot Fortnight

United Methodists are a people with a hot passion for the Gospel. Our original ancestors were deplored by locals for singing too loudly, and our founder John Wesley “became more vile” by preaching in fields rather than stuffy Anglican pulpits. Our worldwide faith is filled with meaningful, diligent liturgy in some areas and loud, rambunctious Pentecostal experiences in others.

And so it is little wonder that contemporary United Methodists choose an intense 10 days to do meaningful sculpting of our common life: writing our polity and upholding our doctrine at the General Conference, which begins as of this writing on April 23rd, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.

We have to strike while the glass is hot. Artisans recognize that glass can become anything when it is hot. Likewise, when things are still in flux, when our brains have plasticity, when United Methodist people of faith gather together, we can mold our common life into something useful. We have limited time until the glass hardens and we are stuck with what we have…for four more years at least.

Our common hope for those centered on the health and wellness of worldwide United Methodism is that we seize the moment and mold United Methodism–through hot topics and heated conversations and warm rooms–into a shape that is useful.

Crafting a Useful Shape

There are almost 1100 petitions, which, in small and large ways, shape United Methodist polity and doctrine. Most of them will be considered in smaller legislative committees with 30-80 delegates each, and the majority placed on “consent calendars” because of their high support or rejection. The big topics will have floor debates because they can significantly impact the church and transform it into either a useful shape or a leaky vase that is of no good use.

There are early signs that United Methodism is ready to be molded into a better shape, with favorable takes on worldwide regionalization by a critical body (more details as they are officially reported later) and incredible organizing energy from a progressive and centrist coalition that has reached alignment on a lot of topics. After a season of shameful disaffiliations and the effects of the disastrous 2019 General Conference and the global pandemic, United Methodists seem ready to be a renewed church, though we won’t know until the closing bell.

But there are also impurities in the system. Glass-blowers and metalworkers heat up their craft not only to shape it, but so that impurities can be identified and removed. Likewise, bad actors at General Conference can slow down the proceedings, misdirect conversations, and sabotage relationships. These can freeze our process and have the fortnight fizzle with us stuck with a shape that is of no use. The bad actors would celebrate this broken outcome because they can bank on discontentment to exit more people and property from United Methodism.

So pay attention this week, whether on the ground in Charlotte or on the curated livestream, to what actions warm us towards each other with the hope of crafting a meaningful common life together…and what actions seek to slow us down and freeze us out of a future with hope.

We are in a moment like blown glass, heated up, fired up, and the potential directions we can go are immeasurable. My hope is that we end up creating something useful to God to transform the world through making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Keep up with General Conference

If you want daily proceedings and commentary these two weeks, try these channels for my perspective:

• Threads: https://www.threads.net/@umjeremy
• Mos Eisley (Twitter): https://www.twitter.com/umjeremy
• WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaVOzjSG8l57OHKHA22o

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Original article: General Conference Begins: Can the UMC be put to good use?.

Letters of Appreciation

As I prepare to attend the 2024 General Conference, I was reading the history of advocacy for the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons in The UMC and the many stories of the big-time names who changed history. Likewise, as a clergyperson supporting the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons in the United Methodist Church, I find my life is filled with names of people who transformed my life in little ways and nudged me ever so slowly to advocacy.

I cannot write the names of all of them publicly, and so I will write about them in an equal format: with letters for names.

I give thanks to those I met at an early age…

• For D, who was such a funny friend of my parents…and may never know I didn’t wonder why he didn’t have a girlfriend.
• For T, who would come to our house to hang with our family, then would go into one of the bathrooms and come out dressed for work as a ravishing drag queen…and may never know I just loved his outfits and looked forward to his visits!
• For R, who my mother and I would visit as a part of a RAIN team taking meals to persons living with AIDS in the 1980s…and may never know I was afraid he would hurt my mother—and she had to explain that he really wasn’t interested in her. 

I give thanks to those who gave me grace when I failed…

• For A, who was my first (known) gay friend in college, who tolerated my ridiculous questions…and may never know how much I was afraid to ask her. 
• For J, who was afraid to come out to me because he didn’t know if I was accepting…and may never know how much I lament that I didn’t live it out louder.
• For J, who is raising a huge adopted family and takes on parenting and homophobia every day…and who may never know how much I wish I stood up for her more when she came out.

I give thanks to those who are my partners in ministry…

• For S, who I knew before and after his transition…and who may never know what an ongoing transformation he has had on me.
• For T, with whom I worked a summer camp and he never sought me out even as a known ally…and who may never know how much I wish he had. 
• For C, who cried when I told her that of course we would baptize their child and her partner could stand with her…and who may never know that as she was crying, I was fighting a red rising fury because two partners being allowed a Sacrament together ought not be a surprise in our church.
• For R, who walked through our church doors and asked if this was a safe place for her daughters to learn what church was like without hate and harm…and who may never know what an honor it was to provide that space.
• For the whole alphabet of names at Cambridge Welcoming Ministries in Massachusetts who shaped me for five years side by side in that circle of chairs and in the kitchen; at First Church Seattle as I pastored alongside a strong and thriving queer community of church members and staff; and queer clergy colleagues across the connection who show me what it is to be faithful every single day…all of whom I hope know of my appreciation and affection for them.

Finally, for K, for my friend who hoped to serve in our beloved United Methodist Church, who was and is a better pastor than I will ever be…but the UMC would not consider ordaining her. She knows that she was the last straw, that the Spirit convicted me through her that my church–our church–was wrong. 

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 

Your lives (and many, many others) echo into infinity and touch more lives that you may have thought possible. I am only one of many. And I carry all of you with me as I serve and support the movement for full inclusion and affirmation of all the Letters and Names in The United Methodist Church.

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Original article: Bringing all the Letters to the 2024 General Conference.

All Part of the Plan

For the past few decades, the traditionalist caucus groups in The United Methodist Church have called themselves “renewal groups.” Their stated purpose has been to renew United Methodism by reforming its practices and polity to reflect the renewal groups’ antigay and power-obsessed theology.

Back in 2019, Hacking Christianity was the first reporter of a buried text: a 2004 strategy document by Renewal Group leaders that outlined five different ways they would achieve their method of undermining United Methodism to the point of outright takeover or destruction of the denomination. Even if they chose to leave, they lamented it would leave the UMC “somewhat intact, with the accumulation of resources to potentially continue for decades on a progressively revisionist track.”

We knew about this 2004 document since it was written. I had a copy of it since circa 2008. We knew this was happening. And renewal groups have not been quiet about their opposition to “minority mania” and their creation of a shadow denomination and constant queer-bashing in order to quote “make the environment of the church so hostile to the minority party that they choose to leave or agree to amicable separation.”

For decades these groups have operated in plain sight. Their practices have gotten more extreme each time I’ve attended the General Conference since 2004. And yet the denomination has bent over backwards to accommodate their demands.

Why is this year different?

Have Renewal Groups Left?

United Methodists with traditional theologies will always be part of United Methodism, but in the past year, their political leaders have abdicated their decades of organizing power.

Traditionalists abdicated their political power in 2022 with the launch of the Global Methodist Church denomination, a container for disaffiliating United Methodist churches. Their decades of work and a successful disinformation campaign resulted in 25% of churches exiting the denomination, along with a vast majority of those traditionalist leaders and USA delegates to the General Conference.

Progressives and Centrists may be tempted to have rose-colored glasses headed into the General Conference after reports of longtime antagonists within United Methodism finally leaving, caucus groups shutting down their UMC operation after the 2024 General Conference, along with the progressive wave of bishops elected in 2022, and reports of super-majorities of progressives and centrists in the USA delegations this year.

But, that is not the case.

…Nope! Not even close.

While we’ve known since 2022 that the WCA would continue to operate in the denomination through the disaffiliation season that ended in 2023, the reality is that they are continuing still today in order to re-open the disaffiliation season again. That’s right: the renewal groups have become removal groups.

This doesn’t sit well even with international Central Conference delegates. Sam Hodges at UMNews reports:

“How can I feel OK with Good News and WCA being active politically at General Conference while they are strongly motivated to create chaos by doing all they can to destroy our United Methodist Church, which we love so much,” said the Rev. Robert Kilembo, a Zambia Conference delegate, by email.

In short, while the majority of Traditionalists have left with disaffiliating churches and with their own feet leaving their local UMCs, Traditionalist caucus groups are operating at strength with the intention of removing more churches from United Methodism and crippling relations in the denomination to the point where it cannot recover. Remember: it’s all in the plan.

There will always be caucus groups promoting traditionalist values in United Methodism. That’s fine, that’s part of our denomination–and I’ve been part of a minority progressive caucus for my entire ministry (and progressives will continue to be a minority in United Methodism). But this mutation of renewal groups to removal groups should be too far even for United Methodist Nice. You can’t be part of the “loyal opposition” if your heart is not with the denomination going forward.

Underhanded Tactics

This year, it seems there are two tactics from the renewal groups: messing with delegations and poisoning UM worldwide regionalization efforts in order to try to exit more people and property from United Methodism to their own benefit.

First, the facts: the vast majority of Central Conference delegates have visas and are already in or on their way to Charlotte for the 2024 General Conference. Here’s the latest update.

The renewal groups have been harping on central conference delegate representation troubles, knowing traditionalists in the central conferences are their only hope of getting another round of removals happening. So the WCA/GMC have battered The UMC in the press even as they might have created the problem themselves.

• One thing to note is that visas to the USA require letters from USA organizations. It is alleged that Good News pre-empted the General Conference by providing visa authorization letters to friendly elected and reserve delegates and observers last summer, and since each US embassy doesn’t offer unlimited visas in a particular time frame, it’s possible that those handpicked persons received their visas earlier and easier than the official General Conference delegates. We don’t know yet if these alleged actions by Good News have resulted in some elected delegates being denied visas.

It’s important to remember the WCA/GMC doesn’t care about giving authority to central conferences to disaffiliate. Central Conferences already have that authority. They only want to re-open the USA disaffiliation process (with even more agreeable terms) so they can attempt to remove more churches and communities into an even more antigay denomination of the Global Methodist Church. That’s it.

Second, while COVID concerns and travel logistics are barriers to the full participation of the entire denomination, missing delegates has happened every recent conference, and we SHOULD denounce and fix this problem with representation–and there is a simple solution. As Upper New York delegate Ian Urriola writes in an excellent letter at UM-Insight:

The proposal for worldwide regionalization coming from our Central Conference leaders who are on the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters presents a pivotal opportunity to repair historic harms…And so it is all the more concerning that there is continued resistance to worldwide regionalization by some U.S. caucus groups. Those who say they will stand against this necessary paradigmatic shift and hold it hostage to advance their own financial agendas do so at the risk of plunging our church back into a normalcy riddled with the same toxic, colonialist behaviors that the UMC must overcome.

A simple and faithful solution, but the remaining renewal groups recently vowed traditionalists would vote against Regionalization unless The UMC re-opens and expands disaffiliation processes again. Remember: they lamented in 2004 that their exit would leave United Methodism “somewhat intact” and that’s an outcome to avoid, but it also exposes their hand that worldwide regionalization glues a broken church back together and begins to heal the harm from decades of traditionalist hardball politics.

One final fear: Disinformation

Recently, the Dakotas-Minnesota conferences suffered a fraudulent use of their website. While most folk who take advantage go for money, these particular opportunists inserted disinformation and informed anti-UMC language into official conference documents that were then distributed to churches. As their bishop writes:

It has come to our attention that the General Conference Webinar Question and Answer document highlighting the mission and ministry of our delegation, published on April 8, 2024, was infiltrated, and altered on April 9. This counterfeit document was littered with disinformation about our denomination and reeked of a spirit of divisiveness and deceit. Further, not only did it seek to do harm to our relationship together, it was distributed as an official document of the Dakotas Conference of The United Methodist Church. This action is not only outside the bounds of human decency, it is also counter to the very character of Christ.

As of this writing, the WCA and Good News have not denounced such tactics.

Things will get worse before they get better. You can bet I’ll continue to be attentive to the misuse of technology, AI, fake videos or photos, and other tactics by those opposed to the health and wellness of United Methodism going forward.

Going Against the Grifters

As I outlined since 2016, renewal groups reflect culture more than Christ. Our American culture’s celebration of grifters like the former president and people who “get away with it” have influenced United Methodist politics in devastating ways in recent years. So also, the opposition to the health and wellness of United Methodism has used such fake concerns to exit people and property from the denomination in the last few years.

The current language of concern and of wondering if votes will be legitimate sounds nice, but they are opportunistic. If there were 100 central conference delegates missing to vote on the Protocol in 2020, you can bet the WCA/GMC folks would not call a successful outcome illegitimate. And even though regionalization is in the worldwide church’s self-interest, renewal group opposition to it is not to make United Methodism better–it’s to make it worse so they can use disagreement to exit more property and people easier.

My prayer is that General Conference delegates see through these machinations and vote for efforts that center the health and wellness of United Methodism’s operations, care for the people harmed by the church, and empower our mission fields to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

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Original article: Against the Grifters at General Conference.

The Crane Wife

One of the stories from Japanese folklore is Tsuru Nyōbō (鶴女房) translated as “The Crane Wife.” As with any folklore, there are many variants and versions–now there are anime versions and a popular band the Decemberists’ version of this folktale. But here is a retelling of the first version that I saw that had little details that I think were the Holy Spirit’s way of capturing my imagination, and I hope yours too. 

The story goes that one winter, a man was heading toward the local village when he came across a crane that had been caught in a trap. He set the crane free and the crane flew away. In Japanese culture, a crane is a symbol of good fortune, so that was a good act of kindness. The next evening, a beautiful woman came to the man’s doorstep, and asked to stay the night. The man was very poor but offered her his home, and eventually his heart, and they were married that same week. His new wife said she would be able to provide beautiful silks and textiles, but only if he promised that every seven days, he would leave her completely alone for a whole day to get the fabric prepared. He did this and upon his return, he saw his wife very tired but holding a beautifully woven cloth of fabric and feathers.

This went on for many months. He would go away for one day every seven days, return for a new woven cloth that he would sell at the village market and lift them out of poverty. Things were going very well, but he began to notice his wife was looking more and more tired each time he would return from the day away. So finally one day he broke his promise and doubled back and crept up to the window to look inside. There, in their house, was a crane that was plucking out all of its feathers and was weaving the feathers into the fabric. And as he watched, after all the feathers had been plucked out, the crane turned into the woman, bloody and bruised. 

The crane saw him and said “Yes, I am the crane you helped those months ago. I have returned the favor, but since you have seen who I really am, I know you can no longer love me. I must return home. Take this cloth and be happy.” She turned back into the crane and flew away in the night. 

The Crane Church

The Crane Wife story makes me wonder if the United Methodist Church is a Crane Church in a dark echo of that story.

For too long LGBTQ+ United Methodists have plucked themselves out, offering their gifts without acknowledgement or acceptance of their true beautiful forms. My friend, the Rev. Sean Delmore, a trans pastor in New England, once said that queer community in the church is wrung out like lemons to make lemonade, and even then, the church cannot accept the community as they are; the church has to add sugar and dilute the community to accept them. 

For too long, the church itself has contorted its natural form into something pleasing to a particular demographic and allowed that demographic to erase 25% of the church in the disaffiliations of 2022 and 2023. 

For too long, women especially have given themselves in secret, the invisible work that women often do in households is no different in the church. Women take pieces of their selves and weave them into the very fabric of the Church’s existence, and we don’t dare look too closely at the blood, sweat, and tears mixed in with the fabric of our community.

For too long, we have forgotten who we are.

A Crane without the Magic

In some versions of the story, the woman loses her magical abilities when she plucks out her feathers; in the same way, the UMC has lost its magic from its origin story. There was a time when we poured ourselves out to expand the church to more and more people rather than forcing people to pluck themselves for our benefit.

• The ordination of women happened in 1956, over 30 years after women’s suffrage in America. A shameful wait but one earlier than many other denominations. 
• The inclusion of African Americans away from separate but equal jurisdictions came in 1968, 14 years after Brown versus Board of Education. We got a little better. 
• These were amazing acts of inclusion. But since then, for 52 years, we’ve been fighting to expand the circle to gays and lesbians and now the entire queer community.  We forgot how to be an inclusive church…or this is what blowback looks to those twin acts of inclusion. This June is the 9-year anniversary of same-gender marriage becoming the law of the land, and I hope we keep narrowing the gap between societal and church affirmation. 

For too long, we have been a Crane Church, and have forgotten who were meant to be, and we keep on forcing minority segments of our church to pluck out their feathers, to give their gifts without regard for what they cost so that the Church to give grace and welcome to someone else, even as it hasn’t given the same grace to its own members.

(You can learn more about how we got here in our 2024 updates part 1, 2, and 3)

A New Hope

The 2024 General Conference has a chance to invite our Crane Church to be its authentic self, and no longer be twisted into a form that does harm to itself and to others.

• We can choose to support better polity that opens up the church to the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons–and add “gender” to our list of inclusive statements, which bafflingly is missing.
• We can choose better practices like divestment from fossil fuels and a more equitable church structure that gives the mission fields priority.
• We can choose to speak more clearly in our Social Principles in a world that would rather we keep silent.
• There’s a whole list of things that we as a church could do better–and also vote for our values to hold the line against those who would turn the UMC into a lesser version of itself. 
• You can view many of these hopes here.

My hope is that we realize we are a Crane, and we have been generous, plucking ourselves over for decades to satisfy someone else. But we are born to soar and to transform not ourselves to satisfy the world, but to be our best selves so that we can transform the world through disciples of Jesus Christ.

I pray you join me in that hope.

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Original article: The Crane Church: A New Hope for United Methodism.

• How did we get here: Power & Polity versus People & Places (LINK)
• What happens now: General Conference 2024 (LINK)
• What future awaits us: Avoiding the Fundamentalist Future Trap (This Article!)

Part III: Avoiding Narrow Futures

Post-disaffiliations, both United Methodism and the Global Methodist Church are seeking to avoid the narrow future that is ahead of them.

• United Methodism is trying to avoid the fate of other sister mainline denominations that turned into smaller, like-minded traditions. Those denominations continue to affect change and grow disciples, to be sure, but no longer shape culture through people power and political influence. Since an inclusive worldwide Wesleyan denomination does not currently exist, creating one will enter into a new territory of incredible opportunity, but it’s a fine needle to thread.
• The Global Methodist Church is trying to avoid becoming another run-of-the-mill Baptist denomination, no matter how desperately some of their leaders want it to become a Methodist ACNA (odd how both futures have limits for clergywomen). Sadly, in the Global Methodist Church, the fundamentalist transformation is already happening as they recently moved their investments and health benefits to a Southern Baptist-affiliated pension fund that does not affirm women’s ordination. They also recently announced that all GMC Korean congregations would be in the same non-geographical conference as only one ethnicity (Who looked at that and said, “Gosh, that’s a great idea we haven’t done before?”). They haven’t even had their organizing conference yet–wait until the congregationalist rank and file get ahold of their polity!

So we can already see the bad ideas that come from too many like-minded people in the room on the Global Methodist Church side….now what about United Methodism? Is that our future as well?

Following up on Part 2, where we talked about the three big ticket items, let’s look at the different potential outcomes from the 2024 General Conference and how they set United Methodism on the path to renewal or ruin.

01 Brand New Day: UMC Regionalizes, Revises, and Removes Harm

A future with hope sits on the three-legged stool of recognizing worldwide regionalization, revising the Social Principles, and removing the harmful language against LGBTQ+ persons (see Part 2). This outcome takes us to new heights as it…

• Shifts the LGBTQ+ debate by moving most of that decision to each region, with the continued conversation of our Social Principles that unite us at the General Conference.
• Allows to organize for a mission closer to the ground. The expression of the church can match its missional context without being defined from on high by other cultures. One region does not make decisions for all the other regions, central conferences can keep their values local.
• Buttresses against further disintegration of United Methodism, continues funding across The UMC, and allows us to focus on our mission again after decades spent in the trenches.

02 Justice Deferred: Regionalize but don’t Revise or Remove Harm

Regionalization stands alone and is separate from Revising the Social Principles and Removing Harmful Language. Regionalization has nothing to do with LGBTQ+ inclusion, so it will thankfully be considered on its merits and the current practices. However, if it is the only prevailing idea this season, this outcome is…

• Another gut punch to LGBTQ+ inclusion advocates and members, even with promises it would be considered at the special 2026 GC or that regional conferences would be able to handle the question separately. It kicks the can yet again down the road, all the while progressive congregations are shedding members who cannot choose to remain.
• A problem for the different regions because instead of starting from a place of relative neutrality (removing language across the board), each region would start from a place of exclusion and have to choose inclusion. Having no language as a blank canvas would be better.

03 Stuck in the Trenches: Revise and Remove Harm, but don’t Regionalize.

Revising the Social Principles and Removing the harmful language against LGBTQ+ persons are AMAZING goals, but doing so without passing Regionalization (even though it has a higher vote threshold) is hugely problematic. This outcome…

• Fails to recognize that regionalization is already the de facto practice of United Methodism. Our regions have shown their willingness to choose how open or closed their regions are to LGBTQ+ persons. The hoped-for polity is affirming the practice, not opening the UMC to new practices.
• Fails to put up higher walls between regions, continuing our current colonial structure where one region could continue to dominate all the rest of them.
• Continues to replicate the politics that led us into this mess in the first place. Without stronger regional authority in the Constitution, everything is up to a majority vote again like in the past and we become a wishy-washy church every four years again.

So this is a future to avoid if we want a church that gets out of the trenches and into the mission field.

04 End of Line: No Regionalization, No Revision, No Remove Harm

This is the least likely scenario because there is significant momentum behind the revision of the Social Principles since they included so many global voices in their work, and the removal of harmful language has strong numbers so far. Regionalization is a higher bar to pass, of course. But it’s very possible that none of these things will pass. In this outcome:

• Regionalization would continue to be the practice of United Methodism – but its need to be recognized and regulated would become even more stark as every jurisdiction in the USA becomes LGBTQ+ inclusive in practice (and some other annual conferences as well) and every central conference continues similarly unsanctioned local practices.
• Nobody wins. For some, they’ll feel the need to leave. For many, the struggle will continue. But it’s a bummer of a conference that calls into serious doubt operations as usual if even a more aligned UMC cannot agree on what structure is best for it.

Even in this bleak night, there’s a distant hope: The Bishops have already called for a 2026 General Conference, which would use much of the same delegates as in 2024. It’s possible this could be used for a do-over or reconsideration of any of these items (or a reconsideration of the church budget because it failed to regionalize), but justice deferred is justice denied, and would do a lot of harm in the interim.

The Future is Ours

I am looking forward to any post-2024 General Conference when we debate again about deep theology and social issues. Because then, I know I’m arguing with people who have the life and trajectory of The United Methodist Church in the goodness of their heart.

I believe the delegates to the 2024 General Conference hold this value too, and it saddens me to see outside caucus groups that are just trying to tear it apart like a corporate vulture using methods they have sought for over 20 years.

May we follow Jeremiah 29 and seek a future with hope…and it can all start at the end of April 2024.

Your Turn

The past – recent and historical – have not been kind to The United Methodist Church, by our own self-inflicted wounds and by the structure of our denomination allowing bad actors free reign to cause harm and to exit people, property, and enthusiasm from the denomination.

Will we take action at General Conference to unify and transform the world, or will we have been so poisoned by bad actors to be left again in the trenches of disarray? 

The choice is yours. Be in prayer for our delegates at General Conference at the end of April 2024.

Thoughts?

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Original article: State of the United Methodist Church in 2024 [3of3].