Decision #10

Restoring Methodism

Decisions For United Methodist Churches in America

James B. Scott and Molly Davis Scott

2006, Provident Publishing

Note:  You can read previous posts on the chapters of this book using the "Blog Archive"you find on the left side of this page !

Decision #10:

Recognizing the Reality of the American Church

Focus

To examine the theological movements of the twentieth century

and their relationship to the root of Christianity.

FAILING CHURCH METRIC  The authors offer a long list of of multiple church movements of the 20^th century that have come to an end.  This includes the church growth movement, the seeker movement, the charismatic movement, the church model movement, and the evangelical movement.  They list a “plethora of theological movements that influenced the church in some ways in the 20^th century” as well.   They all had their strengths and weaknesses but the bottom line here is the Church in America continued to declined substantially. Overall, renewal was not achieved.  (12-16)

A REPEAT OF HISTORY?  In Wesley's world, evangelicals experienced lots of conflicts with “culture and Crown.”  Divisive opinions that “did not strike at the root of Christianity” created splits within the ranks of the faithful.  This in turn led to numerous persecutions which weakened the Body of Christ.  (15)

THE CHURCH'S CURRENT REALITY The authors quote a number of persons detailing the current reality of dramatic decline throughout the 20^th century.  Warnings of decline in the Church were announced by Dr. Outler as far back as the early 1960s.  One person suggested that the Christian Church was on “life support!”   

MEM: Secular critics.suggest that the Church has outlived is usefulness. I  do not agree with this assessment but unless we rediscover our unique mission in the current context we will remain unfruitful and largely irrelevant.  The Church will continue to see its influence marginalized. 

REASONS FOR THE DECLINE? The authors suggest that this decline is the result of the Church having “gone the wrong way.” (17)  They quote Outler who concludes that “their” (the liberal movements of the 20^th century) utopian visions, and ours have turned out to be tragically illusionary.”  Outler goes on to say that the problem here has been the failure to confront the “reality of the radical human flaw” of original sin along with placing far too much faith in technology.  Outler suggests that the human heart longs for “Wesley's Gospel of unmerited favor and the disciplines of love and joy.” (18) 

MEM:  John Calvin would be delighted to hear that the “liberals” were to blame for the downfall of the Church but I doubt he would be thrilled with all this talk of “unmerited favor” and “disciplines of love and joy.”  He would not be surprised at all by the multiple sins of a totally depraved humankind. 

SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?   The right way to go is to rediscover our  “Wesleyan, historical biblical foundation.”  (18)

Decision #10

To recognize that all of the theological and religious movements in the Church in the 20^th century have ended without bringing renewal to the United Methodist Church
 and to seek the restoration of our Christian and Methodist foundation. (19)

MEM:  This discussion does not take into account the radical shifts in culture we continue experience. Of course, parallels can be drawn to Wesley's time but the current context of our mission is very different. The current changes make the situation in Wesley's day seem like child's play.  The radical forces of change set free by the Enlightenment were just beginning to be felt in Wesley's day.   The culture was theocratic compared to the culture in America today.  One's “religion” was a defining and significant element in one's heritage.  With 20% of folks in America officially non-religious, and over 30% of our under 30 population declaring themselves to be “nones” this is a radically different context.  50% or more who are members of local churches change denominations when they move to a new area. Folks remain “spiritual” but increasingly they see no compelling reason to be active in a church.  Many are looking to a host of non-church sources to satisfy their spiritual needs. 

The rhetoric of compassion is found on the lips of politicians, CEOs of major corporations and others. Church goers and the non-religious agree that we should “love one another.”  Meanwhile, we endorse policies that are making the rich much richer and driving more and more middle class folks into poverty.  An estimated 100,000 girls are sold into slavery in America each year yet there is no great public out cry to do much about the situation.  Perhaps we have too little energy left over after fighting battles over the two most divisive issues in the country today, homosexuality and abortion.  The “global economy” values corporate profits over ethics and justice and protecting the environment.  The multiple sins of greed, pride, and lust for power and control are evident. While most folks lament the situation they feel powerless to change the situation.  At present the Church has vert little impact in correcting these abundant sins. Indeed, it seems we have co-opted Jesus in support of corporate sins. 

The solution to the decline of our denomination offered by the authors is getting back to Bible basics.   Of course, as always, our focus should be Bible basics with a focus upon the life and witness of Jesus. There is nothing new regarding this penultimate conclusion. The problem here is how to find consensus on exactly what these Bible basics are.  Within the Christian community today,  there is little consensus as to exactly what we mean by “Bible basics” and how to apply them to public policy.  It remains to be seen if we can reach consensus on how to interpret and apply the Bible to this contentious contemporary context.  It is not enough for a single denomination to reach consensus.  Those who dare to call themselves “Christian” must agree across denominational lines.  Without this, the unchurched and non-christians will be presented with a very confused picture of “The Body of Christ.”  Without denominational and inter-denominational consensus, we will not have the impact needed to transform the culture.  The Christian Church has faced this social situation many times before.  In those situations there was a dynamic movement of the Holy Spirit that raised up a band of folks who did transform the culture in ways that seemed impossible at the time.  Therefore, we must have faith knowing that God's purpose can and will be accomplished.