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Scott J. Jones is the Resident Bishop of the Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church and served as Bishop of the Great Plains area of The United Methodist Church. He was formerly the McCreless Associate Professor of Evangelism at Perkins School of Theology, where he taught courses in evangelism and Wesley studies. Previous books include The Wesleyan Way, The Evangelistic Love of God & Neighbor, Staying at the Table, and Wesley and the Quadrilateral, all published by Abingdon Press. of the United Methodist Church and served as Bishop of the Great Plains area of The United Methodist Church.

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Staying at the Table

Abingdon Press

Chapter One

Unity is God's gift, and Christians should claim it.

The United Methodist Church should not split. Nor should its leaders allow it to be torn apart. Nor should anyone let herself or himself so focus on one part of the Church's life or mission that the gospel beauty and excellence of the whole is ruined.

The General Conference of 2004 was a tumultuous time. Prior to the meeting, several persons, both liberal and conservative, had written or spoken in ways that suggested it was time for the Church to think about splitting. Sometimes those proposals suggested that an opposing group should leave the Church. Other times, the weariness and frustration of dealing with controversial issues led some to say they were ready to leave the Church. During the Conference a group of persons began talking, and ideas about amicable separation were put on paper. Following the revelation of a written proposal for splitting the Church, the Conference reacted.

On May 7, 2004, the Conference supported a resolution brought by six persons—one from each jurisdiction in the United States and from one Central Conference—stating the Church's commitment to unity. Approved overwhelmingly, the resolution said,

As United Methodists, we remain in covenant with one another, even in the midst of disagreement, and affirm our commitment to work together for a common mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ throughout the world.

In this way the question of the continuing unity of The United Methodist Church took a new turn and received a new urgency. This was not a new conversation. Many such discussions have occurred both formally and informally for many years. Most notably, the conclusions of a dialogue on unity sponsored by the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns were published as a document, "In Search of Unity," that sought to clarify many of the issues. While for many this is primarily a debate about homosexuality, "In Search of Unity" identified deeper issues. It argued that strong disagreements within the church on Christology, ecclesiology, and the authority of Scripture were the main problems and that the debate on homosexuality was a symptom of deeper disagreements. They said,

There are many ways in which the unity of our church has come under strain over the years. Some of the factors at work are easy to identify; some are not. Some are relatively isolated and independent; others are deeply intertwined in complex and even enigmatic ways. It is useful to distinguish between three kinds of challenges to unity: 1) Some challenges are those that we associate with the human condition (the fall from original righteousness); 2) Other challenges extend from disagreements that harm the quality of our existence in a variety of ways; and 3) Yet other challenges run so deep as to harbor the danger of explicit disunity or schism.

As the next General Conference prepares to meet, I hope to contribute to the continuing conversation about how best to think about and receive the gift of unity.

In addition to the issues addressed in the dialogue about unity quoted above, there is another question of unity facing the Church. In many ways, The United Methodist Church is a global Church. It is one body, with one mission, one set of doctrinal standards, and one Council of Bishops. It has general agencies with ministries that affect the entire Church and local congregations meeting and serving in more than fifty countries on four continents. Yet, the Church continues to function like a United States Church with a few non-U.S. outposts. Since 1964 various committees and task forces have addressed the issue of the global nature of The United Methodist Church, so the ongoing conversation about the global nature of our Church will be part of the discussion here.

The Vision of the New Testament and the Early Church

The New Testament clearly envisions that some degree of unity will exist among all of the disciples of Jesus. Jesus prayed,

"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me." (John 17:20-21)

When the church was facing a variety of tensions, Paul advised them,

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:1-6)

Paul goes so far as to say, "As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:27-28). By the time of the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople in the fourth century, these scriptural teachings had been summarized in the third article of the creed: "We believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church."

These texts—Jesus' prayer in John 17, Ephesians 4, Galatians 3, and the Nicene Creed—are worthy of extended commentary and exposition. Such a commentary would find many ways to elaborate on a basic theme of the gospel: it is God's will that all of the disciples of Jesus be one. To the extent that we are separated from each other, or, even worse, in conflict with one another, we are in rebellion against God's will for God's Church.

But what sort of unity is it that God wills for us? God values diversity. Again, the New Testament gives many strong indications that God does not intend uniformity. Two key texts show this. First, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples and they began speaking in different languages. Acts 2:5-6 says, "Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each." If the Holy Spirit had worked a miracle so that all of the listeners could suddenly speak and understand Aramaic or even Hebrew that would have been an indication of movement toward uniformity. Instead, the Spirit worked so that each person heard Peter's message in his or her own language.

The other crucial text supporting diversity is Paul's image of the church as a body. The church at Corinth was suffering from a number of divisions—based on who was baptized by whom or spiritual gifts or wealth and perhaps other factors—which Paul addressed in the twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians:

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to...