PlainSpoken

Jim Ramsay is the Chief of Global Operations for TMS Global, formerly The Mission Society, which was an evangelical answer to the leftward drift of United Methodist foreign missions a few decades ago. TMS Global is now an interdenominational effort around the world, and it will stay that way, but they are perhaps uniquely positioned to work with Global Methodist local churches to engage in meaning...

Many have predictably taken offense to my highlighting the bad behavior of people within the denomination I left earlier this year. Many within the UMC and the GMC agree that spending time naming the sins of the past and present just is not helpful. To their mind, it only exacerbates bad behavior. If folks like me would just stop, people would finally heal and remember that they are called to act...

This is the final section of Part 4 in the Transitional Book of Doctrines and Discipline, which covers topics around “The Ministry of the Called.” In this final segment on Part 4, we cover the circumstances in which ordained clergy can step out of ministry for short or longer periods of time. When is the local church obligated to pay clergy while they have stepped away from serving the church? Whe...

Rev. Dr. Matt O'Reilly is Lead Pastor of Christ Church in Birmingham, Alabama, Director of Research at Wesley Biblical Seminary, and a fellow of the Center for Pastor Theologians. He has been facilitating Methodist theological education online for many years. His effort is called Theology Project.  Matt and his church will be hosting the Reconstructing Methodist Conference on April 26-27. Thos...

We pick up in ¶409 with the specifics involved in ordaining deacons and elders, and proceeding into various ideas and capacities for ordained clergy in the GMC. We covered some good ground, so make sure to come along for the ride. Link to Transitional Book of Doctrines & Discipline - https://globalmethodist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Transitional-Discipline.20231130.pdf Advertising Inquiri...

On Monday it was announced that Roman Catholic practice can now be changed to be more accommodating of homosexual unions and other nontraditional couplings. There is still some confusion about to what degree this is implicitly or explicitly declaring sexual behavior to be no longer problematic in one’s relationship with the Lord or his church. While many Roman Catholics tout the faithfulness of th...

Yesterday’s report dealt partly with an article written by Ruth Graham for the New York Times. Part of it stated the primary reason for disaffiliation from The United Methodist Church being opposition to gay marriage and ordination. I got an email from a gentleman who wanted me to speak about this. Is it really the case that the primary reason for the “biggest denominational split ever” is the gay...

The denominational woes of The United Methodist Church has been remarked upon by worldly sources a few times over the years. Now that disaffiliation season under Paragraph 2553 has concluded, a couple larger outlets have decided to tell our story to the rest of their reading audiences.  In this segment, I walk through the reporting of both outlets to some degree, while also consulting a couple of...

This segment covers the requirements for consideration for ordained ministry in the Global Methodist Church. What background is needed in order to be recommended by one's church? Once recommended, what does the educational and candidacy process look like? We have an extended reflection on the relevance of modern psychotherapy in the culling the candidates for ministry. The final content deals...

¶401-403 Deals with "The Ministry of the Called." It establishes a basic theological framework for ordained church leadership, beginning with Certified Lay Ministers but then getting into Deacons and Elders. In this segment, we talk through a theology of calling and how it stands against other traditions that have other litmus tests for who should lead. We also try (and largely fail) to su...

A reflection on a strange farewell - This segment deals with the conclusion to the recent 'special called' Florida Conference, at which they said goodbye to another 74 local churches. The bishop had some choice words for people who 'did not leave in peace.' What could this mean? Links: Florida WCA post - https://www.facebook.com/WesleyanCovenantAssocFl/posts/pfbid0pZUXzzGa1LLZX5WAD...

In May of this year, the Rio Texas Conference of the UMC filed suit against 40 of its own churches because negotiations around disaffiliation had broken down. Both sides have spent a good deal of money on litigation, and it remains to be seen which will prevail. Meanwhile, 17 churches are appearing before their assembled conference body this Saturday, seeking ratification of their disaffiliations...

Sections X-XIV - The Method of Organizing a New Church, Transfer of a Local Church, Shared Ministry, Congregational Fidelity, & Transitional Provisions In this episode, we finish talking through Part Three of the Transitional Book of Doctrines and Discipline, covering church planting, protecting doctrine, exiting noncompliant churches, and allowing for all kinds of interesting relationships be...

The United Methodist Church continues closing churches against their will in what Chris Ritter has termed “connectional cannibalism.” Some churches closed lean right or center-right. Yet a couple of weeks ago, the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference closed a Reconciling Ministries church AGAINST THEIR WILL. They saw it coming a mile away, named it, fought it, and the DS came to worship and announced th...

The current situation in Israel and its military operations among Palestinian civilians among the Hamas terrorist militants has heightened international tensions around Islamic extremism and Zionism. The specter of a world war is in view for worldly people. For those of the Christian faith, there are also many tensions with apocalyptic import. Many voices in the charismatic and evangelical traditi...

Sections VIII & IX - Connectional Funding In this episode, we finish talking through the mandatory committees and the work, and we get into how local churches are expected to fund shared ministries. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Section VIII - Local Church Administrative Committees Very few people enjoy committees and committee work. Even so, the Transitional Book of Doctrines and Discipline of the Global Methodist Church has adopted a lot of the structure and stipulations spelled out for committees from The United Methodist Church. To our surprise, a lot of this stuff is actually pretty great. In this episode, we talk th...

Rev. David Wesley Donnan is a Global Methodist clergy serving in the South Georgia Annual Conference. He has a mind of administration, serving on his conference’s Finance, Administration, Pension, & Benefits committee. He is the elder at Glennville Methodist Church. He ministers to the GMC broadly through his website, daviddonnan.com, where he has links to articles and podcasts that he has pub...

Rev. Angela Pleasants grew up in a Metho-Baptist family in North Carolina. She had obvious gifts for pastoral ministry that were eventually acknowledged even by those who didn't have a frame of reference for such a role. She is currently serving a vital and pivotal role in the formation of the Global Methodist Church. In this conversation, we talk about her personal and professional history, t...

Section VII - Organization & Administration This week we dive even further into part 3 of the GMC Transitional Book of Doctrines & Discipline. While most of these paragraphs are mundane organizational framework there does appear to be some problematic language that may be a holdover from the UMC around the gauge language of "Inclusion". Join us and our friend Spencer as we discuss...

Rev. Dr. Warren Lathem is a Methodist conservative thinker and writer who lives in Georgia. He recently published a piece on the Institute for Religion & Democracy’s website, engaging the critiques of institutionalist United Methodists. While I agree with many of his conclusions, the way he gets there sets up a lot of problems down the line.  During my live stream last Friday, while taking a b...

At the special called conference of the Western North Carolina Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church (held only online), a 17-minute video of Bishop Ken Carter was played to set the tenor of the separation. His tone was mostly warm and pastoral, but near the end he turned paternal and controlling, instructing churches leaving on how they were and were not to act after separation. I have...

Karen Oliveto has been given the status of bishop in The United Methodist Church, even though, by the denomination’s standards, she is not eligible even for ordained ministry, much less the episcopacy. Since her ‘consecration’ as a bishop, she has revealed herself to be aligned against all forms of traditional Christianity, compromising the integrity of the UMC from within. Her continued standing...

<This is an updated version with better audio> Simon Mafunda has been active in The United Methodist Church for much of his adult life. He has capably and conscientiously served. Recent developments in Africa leave him concerned about the institution he has given so much of his life to. In this talk, we address concerns around African bishops who seem to have lost loyalty to their constituen...

So many people are starting off with the Global Methodist Church without knowing what it stands for or how it operates. Given that so much misery was caused by the ignorance of doctrine and discipline in The United Methodist Church, the moral obligation of people now, if the GMC is to get off on the right foot, is to know and protect our new covenant body. For that reason, TJ and I have been walki...