Rev John Christie's prepared remarks….

 

I.This Conference has broken faith with United Methodists

    üWe can no longer trust that the will of the United Methodist church, as determined by General Conference will be followed by this Annual Conference.   The Discipline of our church is ignored, and its authority is flouted.   One pastor publicly proclaims that her church had been blessing gay holy unions for decades, and another said he has lost count of how many he's performed.   All this done with impunity and even with the blessing of this leadership.  Jimmy Creech was publicly promised a position in this Annual Conference.   Since 1972, General Conference has spoken clearly and decisively that homosexual practice is not to be condoned.   And yet this conference blesses what the General Church cannot condone.   This Conference has broken faith with United Methodists.

    üThe UMC has as its heritage, the legacy of John Wesley.  John Wesley was a man of one book, and that book was the Bible.  He led a Spirit empowered revival that had as its aim the spread of "Scriptural holiness across the land."  Today, to speak of Scripture and holiness in the same sentence is to be written off as a fundamentalist.  Wesley was viewed as a threat to the bureaucratic Anglican Church, which made him feel unwelcome at their table.  This conference has become the Anglican Church of Wesley's day to evangelicals.  This Conference has broken faith with our United Methodist heritage.

    üI want to leave this Annual Conference because it is clear we no longer share the same religion.  Lyle Schaller says the number one question facing the future of United Methodism is this: "Is the Christian faith a revealed religion that was disclosed by God ...  in the Holy Scriptures for all generations to come? Or is Christianity a religion that both expects and obligates each generation to reinterpret the redefine the faith?" We answer that question differently.  For evangelicals, the Christian faith is not a riddle to be solved, but a revelation to be received.  It's not a mystery to be discovered, but a truth that was "once for all delivered to the saints." What divides us is not a single issue, but a foundational difference on the nature of biblical authority and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

    üI want to leave this Annual Conference because the decisions and promulgation's of the leadership of this Conference cut me off at the knees in trying to build an evangelical church.  In some parts of our country there is still pride among evangelicals for being United Methodist.  But has become an embarrassment in evangelical circles to be United Methodist in this Annual Conference.  I teach at SJCC, [San Jose Christian College] and the classes view me with surprise as "a United Methodist who actually believes the Bible."  This Conference has broken faith with United Methodists, and become an embarrassment to us.

    üI want to leave this Annual Conference because in ceaseless promotion of the gay lifestyle, the leadership of this Conference is promoting schism.  Wolfhart Pannenberg, one of the most esteem theologians of our day, wrote: "Here lies the boundary of a Christian church that knows itself to be bound by the authority of Scripture.  Those who urge the church to change the norm of its teaching on this matter must know that they are promoting schism.  If a church were to let itself be pushed to the point where it ceased to treat homosexual activity as a departure from the biblical norm, and recognized homosexual unions as a personal partnership of love equivalent to marriage, such a church would stand no longer on biblical ground but against the unequivocal witness of Scripture.  A church that took this step would cease to be the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church."  This Conference has broken faith with our United Methodist Heritage.

 

II.  This Conference has broken trust with evangelicals

    üI do not feel welcome or included at the table of this Annual Conference.  I do not feel that Evangelical theology is ever considered when this AC trumpets its inclusiveness and diversity.  The Bishop, D.S.'s and Conference staff, assembled here, as far as I know, all disagree with the statements in our Church's Discipline about not condoning the practice of homosexuality and considering that practice to be incompatible with Christian teaching.  This Conference has broken trust with evangelicals.

    üFurthermore, there has never been an Evangelical D.S.  in the 20 years I've been a part of this Annual Conference.  Some say it's been closer to 30 or 40 years.  I know AVS [ Al VomSteeg] was offered the position once, at a time when he couldn't accept it.  But there has been no follow through.  It has never been a priority.  This Conference has broken trust with evangelicals.

    üFor 6 years I was forced to take a Sabbatical and then LOA from this Conference because the Bishop refused to appoint me to work in Ghana with the MSUM [Mission society for United Methodists] .  There is no written agreement among Bishops not to appoint to the MSUM.  Many other Bishops have done so.  But not ours.  The President of the Methodist Church — Ghana wrote to Bishop Talbert requesting that I be appointed to work directly with the Methodist Church — Ghana to train pastors.  Copies of this letter were sent to and received by my DS and the Chair of the Conf Relations Committee.  The Conference response was to not act on this, even to deny ever receiving such a letter.  And there was no follow through because no one cared.  At the same time I was requesting a special appointment, we had pastor's under special appointment to serve as an elementary school teacher, a financial service representative, a psychodramatist, a president of a sex institute, and a political science instructor, to name just a few.   These were considered "in keeping with the goals of this Annual Conference." AVS recently transferred to another AC where the Bishop there appointed him to work with the MSUM, because our Bishop refused.  And this in spite of an overwhelming vote of our Ministerial Session in favor of the MSUM as an acceptable site location for ABLC.  Evangelicals are made to feel unwelcome at the table of Jesus Christ in this Annual Conference.  This Conference has broken trust with evangelicals.

    üLyle Schaller says this about the UMC in his book, appropriately entitled, Tattered Trust: "Why is the system dysfunctional? Because it is organized on the basic assumption that Christian people in general and congregational leaders in particular, cannot be trusted "  Last year we lost an evangelical congregation at Salem UMC in Lodi.  One of the largest evangelical congregations is halved in size because the cabinet knew more than the SPRC whom to appoint there.  Quest for Quality training says "the focus is always on the customer," but our Conference prefers to lord it over them.  Jim McGhee left this Annual Conference a number of years ago; feeling there's no future for evangelical pastors.  Al Vom Steeg is gone, Kevin Clancy is leaving.  22 pastors signed a document saying we want to leave this annual conference because we are tired of being abused and having our values treated with derision.  The system is designed for the results it's getting.  This Conference has broken trust with evangelicals.

 

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