By Rob Renfroe
“So, let us not talk falsely now for the hour is getting late.” That line was written by Bob Dylan in the late 60’s. But it is apropos for The United Methodist Church in 2014. The hour is getting late. And it’s time to speak the truth.
The truth is we may not be able to live together as one church. The truth is if our bishops do not act swiftly and decisively to uphold our process of holy conferencing and enforce our Book of Discipline, The United Methodist Church will be lost. God’s church will continue and the Gospel will go forth, but we will have squandered the beauty and the power of Wesleyan Christianity as embodied by the UM Church.
Knowing that they will not be able to change our official UM positions regarding human sexuality and marriage at the next General Conference, progressives have begun a campaign of disobedience and are now publicly performing services of holy union for homosexual couples. How our bishops respond will determine if this defiance is the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end.
How might our bishops respond and what will be the result of their actions?
They might choose to do little or nothing. This has been the course of action chosen by the majority of our bishops. Some who are left of center, many who see themselves as centrists and most of those who are conservative have refused to make public statements or take decisive action regarding the most divisive issue the church is facing. Wanting to appear as statesmen/women, they tell us that the church should major on the majors and focus its energies on making disciples for Jesus Christ. Agreed. And the crew of a ship should focus on keeping its engines running well and making certain that it’s on course. But when a vessel begins to take on water, at some point the leaks must be repaired or the ship will eventually find itself submerged at the bottom of the ocean.
Read more at http://goodnewsmag.org/2014/02/editorial-methodisms-late-hour/
4 Comments. Leave new
John Wesley is turning over in his grave. How can these deceitful pastors get away with this?
God is not mocked. After many year of being a Methodist I am afraid I will have to return to my roots as a Presbyterian. Thank God there is still one denomination that preaches the truth.
They honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. The PCUSA is further down the road to destruction. The exodus from Sodom – Churches that have left PCUSA – for the EPC (Evangelical Presbyterian Church) and the ECO (Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians) like the exodus from Egypt has been going on and there is no end in sight. Page 14 of the Winter 2014 issue of The Layman has a listing of some and there are more links to the issue of leaving the PCUSA.
It will depend on which Presbyterian denomination you are referring to. The PCUSA has been debating and voting on the homsexual issue for 40 years. During those same years, we have lost approximately 40,000 members per year. Granted not all because of the homosexual issue. The issue has deeply divided the PCUSA and many churches have left the denomination going to several other denominations or organizations at great financial costs to the churches, Presbyteries and denomination.
I finished reading Albert Mohler’s “Desire and Deceit: The Real Cost of the New Sexual Tolerance.” Dr. Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY, explains how the new tolerance has swept through the culture and into the more liberal or progressive churches. The first subversion of the church began when the fence of biblical authority was removed. Once removed, the subversion was systematic and comprehensive.
The UMC has lowered the fence and the bishops, administrators at best and seldom shepherds, are in
a quandary. In due course, either the majority exercise ecclesiastical oversight and exert episcopal
authority or the church will lose its way and enter the waste land of cultural conformity.
I wish I was more hopeful for a U-turn in the former Mainline Churches, but I am not. The void will be
filled by those denominations and independent congregations that honor the Bible, preach and teach
the Word of God delivered to the saints, and be part of the harvest for the kingdom.
Because world wide Christians are being killed and persecuted and eventually that level of violence
will finds a home in the U.S.A., those who are cultural Christians or in name only may survive but
at the cost of their faith, because they are counterfeits of the faith.