wfn.org | Confessing Movement calls church to accountability

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Sept. 14, 1999       News media contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville,
Tenn.     10-21-28-71BP{466}

NOTE: This report is accompanied by photographs and a sidebar, UMNS story
#467. 

By Lynne DeMichele*

INDIANAPOLIS (UMNS) - A leading United Methodist conservative warns that the
stakes are high for a church movement that is trying to bring the
denomination back to its scriptural foundation.

"I'm convinced the soul of the church is at stake," said the Rev. Maxie
Dunnam in opening remarks at the Sept. 9-11 national conference of the
Confessing Movement. The unofficial United Methodist organization describes
itself as a renewal movement in the church. Dunnam, president of Asbury
Seminary in Wilmore, Ky., is a founding member.

His statement drew approval from many of the more than 900 members in
attendance. The group is concerned that the denomination has fallen away
from its doctrinal and scriptural foundation. Supporters of the Confessing
Movement are determined to bring it back and are calling for more
accountability from church leaders.

Members are also "concerned by ... what they see as increasing evidence the
church is becoming too influenced by popular culture," said Patricia Miller,
executive director of the Indianapolis-based movement. 

The evangelical initiative began five years ago and claims more than 600,000
supporters. 

One local pastor in attendance, the Rev. Mark Dicken of Edwardsville (Ind.)
United Methodist Church, described fellow supporters as "people deeply,
passionately committed to the church, whose hearts are broken by other
movements away from what makes us United Methodist -- the primacy of
Scripture, the absolute truth of the Gospel."  

After three days of prayer, worship and discussion, the members adopted a
public statement urging the church to reclaim its traditional Bible-based
heritage.

"The Indianapolis Affirmation," as the document is titled, calls for "a new
level of integrity and accountability in upholding our constitutionally
established doctrinal standards." Specifically, it calls on the church's
bishops to "teach the historic apostolic faith without apology," an apparent
reaction to bishops who have publicly opposed the church's official position
that homosexuality is sin. 

Also, two United Methodist pastors have undergone church trials recently on
charges of violating denomination rules by performing same-gender holy
unions. The first, the Rev. Jimmy Creech of North Carolina, was acquitted in
March 1998 and is now facing trial again for performing another same-gender
service. The second, the Rev. Greg Dell of Chicago, was convicted last March
and is appealing the verdict to a higher church court.

In addition, 68 pastors in the California-Nevada Conference are being
investigated by a church panel for their roles in a same-gender service last
January.

In the Indianapolis Affirmation, the Confessing Movement encourages the
denomination to provide a process of exiting from the church without penalty
for those who "cannot abide by and remain true to the teachings of Scripture
and our doctrine."

Other issues touched on in the statement included "the sanctity of the
unborn child" and complete rejection of partial-birth abortion;
reaffirmation of celibacy for singles and fidelity in marriage -- a
principle termed "non-negotiable"; and rejection of efforts to extend to
same-sex domestic partners the same rights provided to those in heterosexual
marriages.

In addition to these societal issues, the statement addresses a key internal
issue. It asks the General Conference, the church's top legislative body, to
abandon mandatory apportionments -- a fair-share assessment that each local
church pays in support of missional programs -- in favor of "askings", an
earlier concept wherein such payments were more discretionary. The askings
should not exceed 10 percent of the local church's  expense budget,
exclusive of capital improvements and benevolences, the statement says.

General Conference will meet May 2-12 in Cleveland.

A distinctly spiritual goal of the Indianapolis convention was to begin
preparing for General Conference by organizing "prayer warriors." This
initiative, led by the Rev. David Thomas, pastor of Centenary United
Methodist Church in Lexington, Ky., seeks to identify 1 million United
Methodists agreeing to pray every Wednesday until General Conference. Also a
24-hour prayer room during the two weeks of General Conference is planned,
and it will be staffed by 2,000 "prayer delegates." 

"We're at war," Thomas declared, "and we're in it to win it." 
# # #
*DeMichele is communications director of the Indiana Area of the United
Methodist Church and editor of the Hoosier United Methodist News.

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