Just after the end of the Special Session of General Conference, I had a chance to talk with Jim Wallis and reflect on what happened in St. Louis. Jim offered some commentary on that conversation and where we are in The United Methodist Church with Sojourners, which you can read here. I share a few pieces from our conversation here, too:
“‘I think that God’s way is to handle it around the table in every local church where people are trying together to be the body of Christ,’ Willimon said. And as a bishop, he has seen that happening and happening well in many local churches.
The big challenge is always: ‘How to be part of a church with people you don’t like or agree with. How to try to follow Jesus with the other people who are called to him?’
That diverse ecclesiology reflects the alternative proposal — the ‘One Church Plan’ — that was put forward by the majority of Methodist bishops and for which Willimon and nearly half of the other Methodist delegates voted. In that plan, decisions on LGBTQ ordination and same-sex marriages would be the purview of regional bodies and local congregational levels.”
—Will
Peculiar Prophet 
When you’ve lost all appeal to catholicity, and actually say that what used to mostly happen within the depraved and deprived incacerated population can be a form of healthy and wholesome sexuality, you should be heading for the door. No part of the historic church owes you. You moved. So, move on. Indeed, unlike the loving liberals who won their fight in the other denominations, the horrible conservatives who won here actually say you can keep your buildings. Hmmm. You are without excuse, are you not?
Now, use this chance, bishop, to show everybody how much God will bless your dogged renewal of preChristian morality and embrace of a secular ethos. Let’s see how much your churches will attract the youth of tomorrow. Or, do you have neither true faith nor genuine integrity?
LikeLike
I would say the culture of division comes when a bishop prays that God would smite his opponents don’t you? https://reformedtruths.com/2019/03/08/answering-will-willimon/
LikeLike