The Fork in the Road

The Free Methodist Church is in the middle of an identity crisis.  All of us who follow the church closely know this.  Once a sect on the margins of society, we have become a primarily middle-class, mainstream evangelical denomination with little to offer America that is distinctive from the other church down the street.

As a new pastor working in the inner city, I am beginning to understand the importance of co-operating with other churches in accomplishing God’s mission.  And this leads me to ask the very important question: What makes the Free Methodist Church different than any other church?  What do we have to offer that is unique as part of the body of Christ?

In my opinion, two options lie before us.  First, we can return to our roots by once again becoming a sect which devotes itself to ministry among the poor.  We can, like the early Free Methodists, choose to live lives of radical simplicity and generosity, shunning the upward mobility of American culture and standing prophetically against the increasing materialism of our age.  We can do this both in families and as churches.  As churches, we can decide to relocate our buildings out of the suburbs and into the inner cities of America.  We can stop spending God’s precious money on padding for our pews and indoor basketball courts.  (If I sound radical here, please read B. T. Roberts and I think you’ll find him much more abrasive).  We can channel our funds into food pantries, community centers, homeless shelters, and soup kitchens.  And as families, we could reject the middle-class American way of life with its brand name clothes, new cars, and suburban houses.  All of this sacrifice is, of course, so that we could live in solidarity with the poor and provide more for their needs.  As a community, we could decide to “live simply so that others might simply live.”  But this option would require a deliberate shift from our focus on reaching middle to upper class America.  We would make this shift not because we are convinced that middle class America needs no church -- for they certainly do -- but because this need is being met by many denominations and OUR place in the body of Christ is to minister to the marginalizes of society.

The other major option I would propose is this: we continue to target not the poor, but middle class America.  However, if we choose this option, I believe we ought to overcome the denominational boundaries which separate us from other Christians.  We ought to merge with the Wesleyans, Nazarenes, and other holiness denominations.  As it is now, we are simply duplicating what they are doing, but oftentimes not doing it nearly as well.  It would be better to extend to them our hand of fellowship and stop trying to fill the exact same niche in American evangelicalism.  If this means the end of Free Methodist identity, then so be it.  In my opinion, we lost our identity long ago.

The status quo will not suffice.  We must choose to either become distinctive again or to merge with others who are doing the exact same things we are doing and bring unity back into the body of Christ.  Personally, I prefer the first option because I think it is more “Free Methodist,” but I would be happy to see us move in either direction. We simply cannot continue with business as usual or we will miss out on what God is doing in our part of the world.

- Greg Coates

Comments

[Kathy Callahan-Howell]

Amen, Greg. I would second your motion to return to our roots and live in solidarity with the poor. Roberts sold his home to buy a church in the city. We have that as our model as Free Methodists.
Kathy Callahan-Howell

[WICK]

With this, it might do us good to be sure and not purely serve Free Methodism in itself. But I hear what you're saying.

Long time Nazarene, recently Free Methodized here....and I'm down with the simple life, because it seems Jesus leads us that way. I still love Roberts (Bresee and Wesley too for that matter)...but even they were aiming to return to the roots of Christ.

Perhaps the current economic strain could do America a large favor by forcing true community to take place once again. We, as Jesus followers, have a great deal to offer those heading that direction...ESPECIALLY in the densely populated, low income areas. May God bless us, as we seem to be awakening to this aspect of our journey...

[WICK]

With this, it might do us good to be sure and not purely serve Free Methodism in itself. But I hear what you're saying.

Long time Nazarene, recently Free Methodized here....and I'm down with the simple life, because it seems Jesus leads us that way. I still love Roberts (Bresee and Wesley too for that matter)...but even they were aiming to return to the roots of Christ.

Perhaps the current economic strain could do America a large favor by forcing true community to take place once again. We, as Jesus followers, have a great deal to offer those heading that direction...ESPECIALLY in the densely populated, low income areas. May God bless us, as we seem to be awakening to this aspect of our journey...

[Vaughn W. Thurston-Cox]

I think we are over simplifying matters here. I agree there a need for a return towards simplicity. Like most Americans we have become defined more by what we consume rather than who it is we are. What that looks like corporately I can't say. Hopefully it is not a return to services without music, stark black clothing and the loss of the wedding band! We need a return to simplicity that speaks to freedom from a culture of wealth and possession.

I find problems with your insistence that we abandon our suburban churches, even our rural congregations. As it is most of the thirty-seven churches in my conference (North Michigan) are rural. And these churches represent communities in need of Christ. In the two appointments I have held as a local pastor, both have been in communities where all other churches had given up. The Free Methodist Church was the only church who persevered to provide people a living witness.

Perhaps your language was intentionally hyperbolic, but I don't know how we can keep faith with God in abandoning those scattered in the countryside or settled in the suburbs. Suburbia isn't our enemy. It is our own lack of faith. And that isn't solved by running away.

[Greg Coates]

Thank you for your comment, Vaughn, and I respect the spirit in which it was given. Poverty can take on many different faces. The rural poor are often wrongly neglected because "poverty" is too often associated solely with the inner cities. We certainly need to keep a heart beating for ALL of the poor of this world regardless of where they call home. Also, I hope you did not understand my call to simplicity as a return to the legalistic abuses of our past. I wear a wedding band and feel no guilt for doing so. However, I think we do need to recover the zeal and passion of our fathers who lived in such close relationship with the physically needy that they couldn't help but reject the upward mobility of American society. We are called to live in solidarity with the least of these. I agree that suburbia is not the enemy, but my question is this: if so many other denominations are targeting this same demographic, why can't we return to a focus on what was once our "niche" (the poor)? And if we do not make this return, then haven't we already lost our unique identity such that we ought to consider merging with other theologically similar denominations? Let's not abandon our rural locations, but let's make sure that even these churches are reaching out to the poor and marginalized of their communities.

[Vaughn W. Thurston-Cox]

Thoughtful post, Greg. I am still reticent about abandoning our suburban congregations, but there is something to be said for a return to simplicity, a willingness to be different. I would agree too that might much be gained through a merger. In many ways I feel many of our pastors have more in common with conservative United Methodists (Who are generally Evangelical.) than Wesleyans and Nazarenes who remain holiness at least in confession.

[WICK]

I think a nail was hit, Vaughn, when you mentioned "freedom from a culture of wealth and possession". We are called to proclaim the Kingdom of God (a new "system"), and the very reality of God's reign and rule HERE and NOW...to the country, suburbs, and the city...as communities where the Kingdom is breaking through. When we find that as more important than our individual success or even the "success" of our churches...look out world. :) And I believe our view/heritage in "holiness" can be a very helpful thing in this direction.

[WICK]

(ya'll need to blog more) :)

[Kevin Book-Satterlee]

Greg, have you read any of Howard Snyder's books? Liberating the church talks about what to do with our churches and effectiveness. I also agree with Vaughn in that a commitment to the poor need not solely be urban. I think we can reshape our suburban churches as well, considering now that the shift has occurred where more of our nations' poor live in poorer suburbs than in the cities or in the rural areas. What needs to be said is that we reclaim our identity to serve the poor. Rural, Suburban and Urban. We have an urban church network, but do we have a rural one? Seems like the suburban one is strong unofficially but not necessarily working for the people that our denomination has historically reached out to. Good post. Glad I found it.

[Dustin Jenkins]

I believe that a return to simplicity is a great idea. Just how far are you willing to go with it, for Jesus said in Luke 9:3 "And He said to them, 'Take nothing for your journey, neither a staff, nor a bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not even have two tunics apiece.'" To what end do you follow poverty. I believe that answer is with Paul and his letter to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 9:22 "...I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some." Now you don't want to take it too far and step outside of God's law and sin. You wouldn't become a glutton to get to over eaters or do drugs to preach to druggies, but different people have different gifts and different passions for different people. My parents have a great love of the Chinese, but does that mean that all churches not in China pack up and we all become missionaries in China? No, "For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ." (1 Cor. 12:12)Each part of the body has a different job, but that doesn't mean you abandon the rest of the body to do just that one job.
Greg, I would assume it's safe to say that you have a calling to inner-city missions, but not everyone has calling and (meaning absolutely no disrespect) if we were all to take up that, we would be stifling all other integral parts of the body of Christ.

[Dustin Jenkins]

I believe that a return to simplicity is a great idea. Just how far are you willing to go with it, for Jesus said in Luke 9:3 "And He said to them, 'Take nothing for your journey, neither a staff, nor a bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not even have two tunics apiece.'" To what end do you follow poverty. I believe that answer is with Paul and his letter to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 9:22 "...I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some." Now you don't want to take it too far and step outside of God's law and sin. You wouldn't become a glutton to get to over eaters or do drugs to preach to druggies, but different people have different gifts and different passions for different people. My parents have a great love of the Chinese, but does that mean that all churches not in China pack up and we all become missionaries in China? No, "For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ." (1 Cor. 12:12)Each part of the body has a different job, but that doesn't mean you abandon the rest of the body to do just that one job.
Greg, I would assume it's safe to say that you have a calling to inner-city missions, but not everyone has calling and (meaning absolutely no disrespect) if we were all to take up that, we would be stifling all other integral parts of the body of Christ.