Charlie is Born!

Welcome to the world, Charlie!

You are the most beautiful granddaughter a Pops could dream of!

Anticipation

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Anticipation.

Anticipation. It's making me wait.

As you probably know (since I've mentioned it, oh ... dozens of times), Sandy and I are eagerly awaiting a new granddaughter. As I write, the due date is just two weeks from now. On top of that, our daughter Deborah seems more than ready.

I saw the director of the local Wesley Foundation at a meeting this week, and I asked him if he's going to be around the next two or three weeks. Who knows. I might be calling him one Saturday night when we are en route to the hospital. I don't know if I've ever, EVER felt such anticipation.

Whenever I think of the subject (and this dates me, I'm afraid), my mind goes to the old Carly Simon song. It came out when I was a child and I remember hearing it on the radio all the time. Some of the words are: 

We can never know about the days to come,

But we think about them anyway.

And I wonder if I'm really with you now

Or just chasing after some finer day.

Anticipation, anticipation is making me wait,

is keeping me waiting.

And tomorrow we might not be together.

I'm no prophet.

Lord, I don't know nature's way,

so I'll try to see into your eyes right now,

And stay right here.

'Cause these are the good old days.

Anticipation is such a complex emotion.

What will our dear baby look like? How pudgy will her cheeks be? What color will her hair be? Will she even have hair? And if she has hair, will she lose it?

It's not just things like that. What kind of person will she be? What type of God-given personality will she have? What gifts and talents will she offer to make the world a better place? What pain and suffering will she know? What will give her joy?

I have so many questions. And alas, there are no answers right now. Regardless of that, it's all capturing my imagination.

I've been thinking about anticipation in the spiritual life. What kind of anticipation are you feeling about life right now? Is it about a family matter, or something at work, or discernment about something related to your future? How do you deal with the anticipation?

My encouragement for you today is just to live in it. Lean into it. These aren't useless questions just because you don't have the answers yet. So much of life is living the questions.

I pray that in your relationship with God, faith might become less about knowing all the answers (which nobody does, especially if they think they do) and more about living the questions. It's really a good place to be.

I believe Christian faith is about beholding mystery and embracing uncertainty. Why else would Jesus boil down faith to the phrase "follow me?" We have no idea where he's going to take us. And it becomes the adventure of a lifetime.

My Twelve Convictions as the UMC Moves Forward

As I pray and continue to find healing and perspective after last year's season of church disaffiliations from the main body of the UMC, on a recent retreat I wrote down these twelve convictions. What would yours be?

My Twelve Convictions

1. Ministry is messy because relationships are messy. It’s by grace that we are saved! I love church because it’s the gift God gave us to bring people to Christ. So I embrace the messiness with joy. I choose the Jesus way and work things out in love.

2. As I said in my book, “the arc of Christian history bends toward inclusion.” Christianity, since the early church, has reformed itself over and over to come back to this gospel value. Here we are again. Reform is painful but it’s necessary to meet the times.

3. My personal views were changed by decades of ministry with LGBTQ+ Christians, in and beyond my local church. The idea that you can’t be gay and be Christian is bogus. I know too many that are. Their witness formed me over time. I have experienced the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 in slow motion.

4. I don’t worship Wesley. But I find the Wesleyan way an unparalleled, balanced, and passionate expression of biblical Christianity. Wesley’s sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation” and our core doctrines in the Discipline spell it out. I just love being a mainline United Methodist. I believe the holiness tradition the separatists claim is a derivative of Wesleyan spirituality. I don’t believe we can arrive at a sinless life. I choose to be overwhelmed by grace!

5. It’s clear from Wesley’s writings, especially “On Schism” and “The Catholic Spirit,” that he would be mortified by how the separatist leadership has functioned over the last ten years. The secessionists caused the schism, not the people they demonized.

6. The initial concerns were valid … how do we move forward in light of dramatic changes in our culture? But the WCA formed in 2016 to openly plan schism. They overturned the One Church Plan presented by the Commission on a Way Forward in 2019, though they knew they would probably leave anyway. They also knew full and well that the Traditional Plan was not sustainable, so I have concluded that it was never intended for unity. It was to say “either they’re leaving, or we’re leaving.” I saw this from the beginning and protested. It turns out they followed through with their end game.

7. The separatists did not leave the UMC for theological or biblical reasons. They left for sociological reasons, rooted in American culture wars and ideological politics. They simply made justification for it using the Bible and theology. This exposed the underbelly of American religious history, as such movements have done in the past. I love our religious freedom because it leads more people to Christ, but this experience has shown me this is the biggest pitfall.

8. Diversity, not division, is a sign of the Holy Spirit. Unity has never been the same thing as uniformity. Wesley coined the phrase “agree to disagree” because he strove for perfection in love. Love is what matters. Love wins.

9. The gospels never even mention the hot button topics that separatists left over. But the gospels definitely teach about unity. Jesus prays for it for a whole chapter in John, noting that our unity comes from abiding in him (not agreeing on everything).

10. Yet here we are, and those who left us are our siblings in Christ who we must now love, just as we love people of other denominations. This will involve forgiveness and healing. I am on a journey of opening my heart.

11. The communion table is the gift Christ gave us to bring unity in our diversity. It’s not just about me and Jesus. It’s about the kingdom of God. We need to come back to the table in order to move forward. This message is the gift I brought to the larger discussion, for such a time as this.

12. The UMC can now robustly stand for the positive biblical value of unity in diversity, over against the divisiveness of our culture. We are unhindered by the divisions of the past and can truly embrace the vision of open minds, open hearts, and open doors. We can grow by bringing all kinds of people into vibrant relationship with Christ and a life of being immersed in grace. I’m excited about our future.

Thank you for remaining UMC!

I saw a post in a clergy forum on social media, from a pastor of a church that disaffiliated but he remained with the UMC. He simply want to say thank you to others who did so as well. He said that while filling in at a church, he had a lay person thank him for remaining UMC. He realized that no one had done that … no denominational leader had done that.

He simply wanted to say "thank you” and wish God's blessings on them in their new ministry setting!

I responded with the following comment.

Yes! I want everyone to know I have gratitude in my heart for all of you who persevered. Thank you for your loyalty to Christ and to the mystical church God gave us.

I realize I am personally fortunate … I serve a local church that chose not to enter a discernment process, and we only lost 10% of our people which was painful but not disruptive to ministry. And I was blessed beyond measure to be in appointment from which I could openly lead our Stay UMC movement in North Alabama.

I admire people like you who held to the faith, who believe what the Bible says about Christ’s prayers for unity and about the DNA of the early church called to live the radical love of Jesus even when it’s uncomfortable. It was hard to hold fast when those around you were falling into the schismatic fear. Yet you did.

Thank you. You chose to remain in communion with me and such a diverse group of other Christians, though you and I may only know each other on social media. We are family, the body of Christ.

It meant the world to me that a bishop at Jurisdictional Conference went out of his way to thank me for standing up as a leader to defend the faith. You all should be thanked as well!

More than that, know that Christ holds you close to his breast. Well done, good and faithful servants.

Holiness or Methodist?

I recently listened with an open heart to the sermon of a pastor who is one of the separatists who recently left the UMC. He articulated (very well) how their movement falls solidly into the tradition of “holiness” movements. From a historical and theological standpoint, I couldn’t agree more. Even Asbury seminary, which fuels the movement, has always been a Wesleyan holiness seminary and has never been United Methodist.

The only difference this pastor and I have is that he considers this holiness movement as the original Methodism, when I believe it is actually a derivative of early Methodism which appeared about a hundred years later.

Wikipedia describes holiness movements pretty well. See below. I agree they emerged out of the Wesleyan concept of Christian perfection. For the UMC, though, Wesley’s call to perfection has always been holiness in love, not some sort of concept of sinlessness. Striving to be free of sin is, in my theology, a vain effort. I choose to be overwhelmed and formed by the grace of God.

For more on the distinction, this Wikipedia article describes it well. You can read it HERE:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holiness_movement?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0GsSA4lTjHeePVHUgOWgpHUz6KAsBYha6il5Z67B4AM-pa_vr2P-gLSD8_aem_DFuhXq1-eB6w7wqPcOMxgQ

I actually detected the holiness strain when I read through the GMC provisional book of doctrines and disciplines (to knowledgeably refute what they were doing). Specifically, it follows some holiness teacher at Asbury seminary that teaches that there are four (not three) “scripture ways of salvation” … prevenient, justifying, sanctifying, and glorifying grace. That last one is purely an additive, Wesley never said that. Also, I detected in there a call to “entire sanctification”, I can’t remember the reference exactly but it was there.

Yes, the language of glorifying grace does come out of Asbury seminary, as far as I can tell, and is not taught in UMC seminaries or included in the doctrinal section of our Book of Discipline because Wesley did not use the language himself (the matter of Eastern theosis which Wesley found attractive is considered in UMC theology a feature of sanctifying grace, as in the Eastern thought he read and adopted like that of Macarius the Egyptian). I interpret “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” in terms of sanctifying grace. I know this might be kind of “deep in the theological weeds” for some. All that’s to say when I say holiness theology is derived from Wesleyan theology and came later, that’s not a bad thing.

I love 2 Cor 3:18, which speaks of the veil on the face of Moses when in the tabernacle … “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” This is Eastern theosis indeed, which Wesley embraced. We are always being transformed (it is never past tense).

I believe the reason Wesley used the language of the doctrine of sanctification, as did the Eastern fathers, and did not add a separate category of glorification, is because for him sanctification is a continual process and experienced as a gradient, not an instantaneous experience. He did believe entire sanctification was possible, but very unlikely … and he openly said he did not know anyone who had attained it. The belief that there is a “second blessing,” a second regeneration experience that makes you free from sin, was not really Wesley’s theology … though you can certainly find strands of holiness in Wesley that could lend itself to that (he was not a systematic theologian).

If the word additive seems too strong, perhaps derivative is a better word. The doctrine of glorification is a holiness derivative of Wesley’s theology. Not only does he never say it, in my studies I don’t think he believed it, at least not in the sense of arriving in that state due to a second regeneration experience. The Christian perfection he longed for was perfection in love, the love of God and neighbor. We strive but never arrive. That love was his definition of holiness.

The GMC has embraced the doctrine of glorification that is from holiness tradition, or arguably from reformed tradition outside of Wesley, as stated in their online material. The pastor I heard is correct. One can argue that it’s derived from Wesley’s theology, sure. But I maintain that it’s not language actually from Wesley’s writings, and it’s not part of UMC doctrine or taught in any UMC seminary. Our language is here:

https://www.umc.org/en/content/distinctive-wesleyan-emphases

I want everybody to know as we wade through these theological weeds that I do not think the separatists split off BECAUSE they believe in holiness theology.

But I do believe it makes sense that they would more fully embrace holiness theology, as movements in the past which have split off from the main body have done. This is more sociological than theological. While the symptomatic issue was culture wars over the latest thing, as it always has been in the past (slavery, temperance, evolution, racial segregation, etc.), holiness theology tends to be a more convenient fit of separatist views.

All that is to say the holiness tradition is a beautiful theological tradition. There is nothing wrong with it and many United Methodists believe some aspects of it, though it is a derivative of Wesley’s original language.

Uganda Mission Trip

Celebrate with us on the return of a wonderful Uganda mission trip. 18 of us (9 from our church, 5 relatives, and 4 joining us through Africa Children’s Mission, or ACM) enjoyed an amazing journey, led by teams leaders Bruce and Evonne Cunningham. We were registered with UMVIM (United Methodist Volunteers in Mission) and hosted by the ecumenical organization of ACM.

We had many projects, all while the people of Uganda shared Christian faith so openly and passionately with us. We opened the dental clinic we sponsor for several days, visited dozens of children on behalf of their sponsors in our church at home, “mudded” a new outdoor kitchen for an elderly lady, built a well for a village that had not had fresh water for 8 months, and led “Activity Day” (think Vacation Bible School) at a local school. We visited other ministries connected to ACM, the Proverbs 31 Women and the Cornerstone Leadership Academy. I taught pastor’s school for two days with 50 African pastors (half of whom were women clergy), and we worshipped and had “dinner on the grounds” at a church where I was invited to preach. We also made various little visits to local schools near the ranch.

After the ministry work, we enjoyed a day and a half on safari before heading home. We saw the most powerful waterfall near the very beginning of the Nile River, the body of water around which the park was designed.  

We are so blessed to have had this experience. If you’ve never been in a mission trip, I encourage you to go on one. It changes your life.

Making My Book Available for Discount

To celebrate a historic General Conference and uplifting Annual Conference, I’ve made my book available for a discount. Amazon and Wipf & Stock have it for $21. I’ll send you a copy for only $15 (with free shipping).

Just EMAIL ME or PRIVATE MESSAGE ME on Facebook with your address! I’ll send it with an invoice and you can pay me later.

If you really want to know why I was active in creating the “Stay UMC” movement, this book is about why.

Adam Ployd, professor and theologian at Wesley House in Cambridge, said, “This book is not so much a work of pure scholarship—though the author has clearly done his homework on the topic of Wesley and communion—as it is an exhortative reflection on the ways in which a robust Wesleyan vision of communion should shape the future of United Methodism. West sees a central problem at the heart of the crisis facing The United Methodist Church: it is being divided by political culture wars that threaten the integrity of the Body of Christ and the radical community it is called to be. The sacrament of Holy Communion, he believes, holds the theological and practical key to renewing the Body and cultivating community in a way that can allow the church to move forward in pious, charitable unity …

“Although West is writing for a popular audience— educated laity and clergy alike—this is an erudite book. West incorporates historical voices, from the earliest generations of Christians to the English Nonjurors and, of course, the Wesleys themselves, in order to educate his reader in some fairly nuanced theological ideas. He does so nimbly, demonstrating both his knowledge of the subject matter and his ability to communicate that knowledge with unusual clarity. Indeed, this is a book to be recommended to all United Methodists struggling with the current crisis who desire a rich, reliable theological resource for thinking about things in a way that transcends the surface-level issues.”

See the link Something Happens Here for more information.