“Integrally holding connectional unity and local freedom, we seek to proclaim and embody the gospel in ways responsible to our specific cultural and social context while maintaining ‘a vital web of interactive relationships’ (¶132).” The Book of Discipline, ¶125
The effectiveness of The United Methodist Church in proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ throughout the world rests in the strength of our worldwide connection. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is a great example. The connection—the vital web of interactive relationships between individuals, local churches, annual conferences, and general church bodies—provides the financial and human resources that make UMCOR one of the world’s premier faith-based relief organizations. Right now, UMCOR is able to respond to the worst pandemic of our time because of the strength of this worldwide connection.
Our effectiveness in proclaiming Christ’s good news also rests in our ability to adapt ministry to a particular cultural and social context. Ministry is, after all, carried out by people in local churches or extension ministries embedded in particular neighborhoods, villages, hamlets or burbs. Ministry that happens in these culturally and socially specific spaces is shaped by language and customs that are particular to the people of those spaces. To do ministry that most effectively impacts people’s lives requires the freedom to address the local context and still stay in relationship with the whole.
Because we do not have enough autonomy in our governance, The United Methodist Church has often struggled in this respect. Though we have established central conferences in Africa, Europe, and the Philippines, our governance is often too U.S.-centric. This dynamic can smother the richness of our worldwide diversity and subordinate the world’s needs to U.S. sensibilities and concerns. Oddly, our governance also denies the U.S. the ability to adapt church polity to address the needs of its particular contexts for ministry. Our struggle around how to be in ministry with our LGBTQIA+ siblings is one example of this quandary.
What we need is a leveling of the playing field that would enhance our ability to adapt ministry to local contexts and remove the U.S. as our governance center. If we could do that, perhaps we could prevent our general conferences from being driven by U.S. concerns and captive to fights over polity. We could maintain our interconnectedness in worldwide relationships while investing in ministry shaped by the context on the ground. We could focus on creative ways to engage world-transforming ministry together.
The CT’s legislation creating the U.S. as a Regional Conference seeks to address such aspirations by de-centering the U.S. as the focal point of governance for the church while giving the U.S. the ability to adapt to its local contexts. Legislation referred to as the Christmas Covenant accomplishes many of the same things. Indeed, it expands on the CT’s legislation by creating regions around the world. A comparison of these regionalization plans is on the CT website.
Either of these pieces of legislation would maintain our worldwide connection in ministry while providing regional autonomy in governance. With more robust regional governance, no one country or culture would be our center. Our center instead would be our call to engage God’s mission in the world:
“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you.”
Matthew 28: 19-20
I invite you to share ways in which worldwide partnerships have enriched your life and ministry.
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What do you think would be different if our church were governed more regionally?
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What might be possible for our church if it were to become less U.S.-centric?
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How might our church become more centered in God’s mission?
Please join me in this conversation. You can share your thoughts through our social media. If you would like to write a longer piece, please contact us about writing for Emerging, an on-line forum that seeks to explore what is emerging in United Methodism.
Also, please support UMCOR’s coronavirus response efforts by giving to the COVID-19 response fund, Advance #3022612.
Prayer: God bless all of the ministries of our church as we seek together to address the coronavirus crisis. Bless the work of UMCOR as it provides relief for vulnerable populations around the world. And bless our worldwide connection as we seek to make a difference in people’s lives.
Rev. Kennetha J. Bigham-Tsai
Chief Connectional Ministries Officer of the Connectional Table
Photography credit: Kathleen Barry, United Methodist News