Return to Where you Once Were

Andrew Thompson has an article in the UM Reporter in his weekly column, Gen-X Rising. This column is called "The Church's First Mission." It can be read here.

The column is a criticism of the current individualistic stance taken by the United Methodist church and encourages it to return to its roots of scriptural holiness.

Thompson begins with a quote from H. Richard Niebuhr about the mainline Protestant view of the coming kingdom of God. "A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” This is quite an insult, but makes quite a point about the current stance of the church. As Thompson continues, he looks at how the UMC has moved from proclaiming the gospel to championing social issues. As a result of losing our focus on the gospel, the church is decaying.

The church, according to Thompson, has become a microcosm of society, focused on the individual. When are touchy-feely "Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors" campaign, we invite all to our church without the risk of being called out. It is good for all people to be welcomed into our churches, Jesus certainly didn't turn anyone away because they were too sinful or not a certain dynamic, but he also didn't leave them as sinners. He preached the good news to them, that the kingdom of God had drawn near and for them to repent of their sins and to follow Him. Now, we just say that the kingdom of God has drawn near, let's try to get our facebook group to 1,000,000 fans. The pastor at a church I use to attend even commented once in a sermon that as United Methodists we don't like to talk about sin and to go across the street to the Baptists if you wanted to hear about sin. We have grasped society's belief that all people have the right to believe what they want and that all are right.

The future of the UM Church has been analyzed by many. The numbers indicate that church population is getting older and smaller. I am not going to go into detail here, so we will just leave it at that. The pastor at the church that I use to attend sort of wrote off the future of the church saying that all organizations come to an end. Others have begun to look out how the United Methodists can control our future. A desire of many has been for the church to once again be a movement. That is how the church was originally founded, a movement within the Anglican church that only became an independent church because of the American Revolution causing the Anglican church to stop sending pastors to America.

Thompson says that in order to return to the movement that Methodism once was, we must return to the examples set forth by Wesley and his scriptual way of salvation. Our first and foremost message must be the gospel, bringing salvation to people. It is amazing the number of times I have attended United Methodist churches and never heard the basic gospel message be taught. Thompson encourages us to take preaching the gospel as seriously as the circuit riders once did who because of their convictions risked their lives traveling across the American frontier to spread the message about sin and salvation. In order to receive the gospel message, that Jesus is our savior, one must acknowledge that they need a savior. We must admit that we are sinful. That means we must actually talk about sin in our church and not just leave it up to the Baptist. Once we have embraced the gospel message and repented of our sins, the holiness of Christ will become evident in our lives. The gospel message is so powerful that it can transform our lives as we move toward perfection in Christ.

Individuals come to God, but it is usually in community, the community of the church. If the United Methodist church desires to continue to be relevant in the future, it must give up its individualistic tendencies and spread scriptural holiness by starting with the gospel.