I just finished reading Lord, He Went, a biography of Bill Hinson by Stanley Copeland. For 19 years Bill Hinson was the senior pastor at First UMC of Houston, the largest congregation in Methodism. Hinson died in December of 2004 at the age of 68. Just a few months before his death, he made one of the boldest, most prophetic speeches in the history of Methodism. During this speech he called for "an amicable separation" to take place within the United Methodist Church. In the years since, Hinson has often been misquoted or statements taken out of context. It may be one of the most talked about speeches that came out of any General Conference that so few have heard or read in its entirety.
From time to time I have echoed Hinson call for an end to all the fighting through an amicable separation but not nearly as eloquently or as powerfully as Hinson himself. Here's that speech as reprinted from Lord, He Went pages 97-99.
All of us have poignant moments when deep sadness sweeps over our souls. I recall as a young preacher when our church was the largest Protestant denomination in America, and a the time first began to lose members. I've always thought numbers were important because they represent people. Have you ever noticed that people who run numbers down never run them up? Mine is the last generation of United Methodist preachers who can remember when we were a growing movement. Trust has been broken, violated, disenfranchised. They say, "Seek autonomy."
I've felt another poignant moment of sadness on the morning I learned that Karen Dammann had been acquitted. For the first time in my life I wasn't so eager to go out and face the world with the announcement that I'm a United Methodist pastor. Last Monday night when six of us met with fifteen persons who are of a different perspective, my sadness took on a new dimension. We took turns talking in that circle about the church and where we were coming from. At the end of more than two hours my feelings had coalesced to the point that I was fully persuaded we cannot bridge the gap separating us. I was and am profoundly saddened by that conviction.
Our friends in the Western Jurisdiction have left us. Our covenant is in shreds. And when I speak of covenant I'm not talking about the trust clause. I'm talking about a sacred trust that is much deeper and more binding. Through the years such a trust could be counted on to keep us faithful to what we have discussed, voted on, and placed into our Book of Discipline. All of that has now changed. More than that, our friends who have broken our covenant feel that they themselves are broken; because the votes of this Conference have largely gone against them, they feel disenfranchised, they feel we are doing spiritual violence to them, and have told us clearly that we are not truth tellers. In addition they are seeking autonomy from the larger body. They garnered more that 300 votes in an attempt to do things their way with regard to ordination in the Western Jurisdiction. Let's set them and ourselves free to pursue our highest aspirations.
No sincere person can rejoice in another person's pain. No one enjoys stepping on another person's dream....No earnest Christian enjoys seeing another human suffering. I believe it is time for us to end this cycle of pain we are inflicting on each other. The thought of hurting another makes us sick. They hurt us by defying the covenant, and we hurt them with our votes to uphold the Discipline every four years.
There is a great gulf fixed between those of us who are centered on the Scripture and our friends who are of another persuasion. Repeatedly they have spoken of the need to get our church in step with our culture. We, on the other hand, have no desire to be the chaplain to an increasingly godless society. Rather, our desire is to be faithful to the Word of God....
For many, truth is still evolving. They sincerely believe that the world has the wisdom we need and we should relativize the Bible so as to bring our thoughts into harmony with whatever the current worldly wisdom suggests. We on the other hand believe that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of God shall stand forever....
Let me confess that there is a deep yearning in my heart as strong as when I first began to preach to be caught up in the wave of God's Spirit that is sweeping the earth, especially in the global south. Just this week I had dinner with two of the bishops from Africa to listen to them speak of the mission and ministry being accomplished in their areas. To hear them speak is to make the heart homesick for a place in the world revival...
Now my earnest desire is that my church, which exists to spread scriptural holiness across the earth, might be free to recapture our mission and refocus on the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations. I dream of men's women's and youth's movements grounded in the Great Commission. As someone stated, "It's not that life is so short, it's that eternity is so long." There are people out there dying; and God wants to use us to share the Good News.
We cannot fight both church and culture. Our culture alone confronts us with more challenges than we can, humanly speaking, confront and challenge. That struggle, combined with the continuous struggle in the church, is more than we can bear. And our people, who have been faithful and patient, should not have to continue to endure our endless conflict. I believe that time has come when we must begin to explore an amicable and just separation that will free both sides from our cycle of pain and conflict. Such a just separation will protect the property rights of churches and the pension rights of clergy. It will also free us to reclaim our high calling and to fulfill our mission in the world. Therefore, let us, like Paul and Barnabas, agree to go our separate ways.
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