The Unity of the Whole Church and the UMC

A number of potential changes in the structure of the United Methodist Church have been proposed for consideration at our General Conference in May 2020. Many of these proposals entail division, separation, reorganization, multiplication or mitosis. Pick your word.

A Small Part of the Whole People of God

So let's do some math. There are around 2 billion Christians in the world, with about 212 million of them residing in the United States. The United Methodist Church's 12 million members worldwide constitute less than 1% of the whole church. In the United States, 7 million United Methodists make up less than 3% of this country's Christian population. The whole church may be present in each of its parts, but the United Methodist Church is not itself the whole. It is a tiny fragment of the whole, neither more nor less important than any other part.

The church itself acknowledges that in its constitution.

The church is a community of all true believers under the Lordship of Christ. .... The United Methodist Church is a part of the church universal, which is one Body in Christ.

Or, as I have previously written, the United Methodist Church is one institutional expression of the whole church of Jesus Christ.

Unity Beyond Institutions

Nevertheless, one argument frequently heard against changes in structure, governance, accountability or institutional affiliation is that these changes are sins against the God-ordained unity of the church. I heard this argument recently during a United Methodist service of Holy Communion. The preacher appealed to the Gospel of John.

Joh 17:20-23  "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;  (21)  that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.  (22)  "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;  (23)  I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

And to the Book of Discipline.

The church of Jesus Christ exists in and for the world, and its very dividedness is a hindrance to its mission in that world.

Ironically, the worship bulletin acknowledged that the prayers used in the liturgy were drawn from resources published by our brothers and sisters in the Christian Reformed Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA). The chosen liturgy demonstrated a different kind of visible Christian unity, one that does not depend on institutional boundaries.

A Gift of God to be Received by Faith

There is one Church of Jesus Christ, the state of which is known only to God. The unity of Christ’s church does not primarily depend on its institutional organization; it is, rather, a spiritual reality, a gift of God to be received by faith with thanksgiving. ... Each institutional expression of Christ’s one Church humbly takes responsibility before God for its own practice and expression of the faith, while maintaining the catholicity of the whole.

Those familiar with Bonhoeffer's Life Together will see his chapter on "Community" echoed in these words.

The manner of organizing the Church and its clergy, and the names by which the clergy are called, may vary as best fulfills the Church’s mission.

This is my corollary to our Article of Religion 22 - Of the Rites and Ceremonies of Churches.

It is not necessary that rites and ceremonies should in all places be the same, or exactly alike; for they have been always different, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men’s manners, so that nothing be ordained against God’s Word.

That's not to say that there aren't very good reasons to maintain the historic orders of bishop, elder, and deacon, with a diocesan model of organization centered on the bishop and the principle of apostolic succession. The proposed full communion agreement between the United Methodist Church and The Episcopal Church, however, contains one affirmation I absolutely adore.

We understand “apostolic succession” to be succession in the apostolic faith — that is, to believe, preach, and teach the faith that the apostles’ held.

It's not about who touched whom or how institutional forms of the church come into existence.

In this view, two or three Christians meeting secretly in a hovel in North Korea apart from any official church structure may be just as much in apostolic succession as an elegantly robed bishop leading a procession in a magnificent cathedral. They and I belong to one holy, catholic and apostolic church.

In the words of that Catholic chorus I sang in my Baptist youth group so many years ago, "We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord." I know now, though, that "one in the Spirit" doesn't primarily mean warm, affectionate feelings. The unity of the Church is a gift of the Holy Spirit to all who are united to Christ. We receive this divine gift as we do all others, with thanksgiving, though faith in the promise of God's word. Organizational unity has a bearing on that, but it is not the thing itself.

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