Adam Hamilton, pastor of United Methodist megachurch Church of the Resurrection, posted the following in an open Facebook group:
My own assessment of the UMC is that in the last twenty years we've shifted towards the center theologically and a reclaiming of our evangelical heritage. I believe the United Methodist Church is at its best when it is passionately evangelical, firmly committed to justice, and with a liberal spirit that is always seeking truth, always willing to question old assumptions, and always open to reform.
Part of what I love about the United Methodist Church is that we affirm the historic essentials of the Christian faith but recognize that the 3 lbs of brain mater we each possess is hardly adequate to fully comprehend the glory of God. So we tend to do theology with a bit more humility than some. My hunch is that when we get to heaven we may all be in for a few surprises concerning the theological convictions about which we're willing to divide here on earth.
While there are some in our church who have capitulated on the historic essentials – this is a decreasing number of people. I know most of our bishops and few if any are where Sprague was. We have the most committed and gifted group of bishops in my lifetime – and most have a passion for Christ and care very much about the church's faithfulness. This does not mean that they are socially conservative. But I am not certain that social conservativism is to be equated with Christian faithfulness and at some points I am confident it is likely opposed to Christian faithfulness.
Regarding the issue of homosexuality, this is, in my mind, an issue of differences over biblical hermeneutics and one's theology of scripture. My personal belief is that twenty years from now most Christians will see this issue differently than we do today. I think this may be an issue about which God's views may not be adequately summarized in the six scriptures that specifically address same sex intimacy in the Bible. If anyone is interested, check out my chapter on this issue in my book, When Christians Get it Wrong.
I've had the privilege of meeting with many of our young clergy in the UMC – mentoring some in the Young Pastor's Network and meeting with others as I speak at annual conferences. They are overwhelmingly evangelical in their theological orientation and also overwhelmingly progressive in their social stances including their views on homosexuality.
I, for one, am more hopeful about the UMC than ever, and I believe our blend of liberal evangelicalism with its emphasis on both holiness and grace, the intellect and the heart, personal holiness and social holiness is one that stands the greatest chance of reaching a new generation of unchurched young adults.
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“Part of what I love about the United Methodist Church is that we affirm the historic essentials of the Christian faith but recognize that the 3 lbs of brain mater we each possess is hardly adequate to fully comprehend the glory of God.”
I agree with Pastor Hamilton; but…for the consideration of any who read this blog, exerpts from Timothy Keller’s book “King’s Cross,” [pp. 5-10] as he defines ‘the glory of God.’
“There are three parties active in the creation of the world: God, God’s Spirit, and God’s Word, through which He creates. The same three parties are present at Jesus’ baptism. Just as the original creation of the world was a project of the triune God, Mark says, so the redemption of the world, the rescue and renewal of all things that is beginning now with the arrival of the King, is also a project of the triune God.
“Why is it important that creation and redemption are both products of a Trinity, one God in three persons?
“The Christian teaching of the Trinity is mysterious and cognitively challenging. The doctrine of the Trinity is that God is one God, eternally existent in three persons. That’s not tritheism, with three gods who work in harmony; neither is it unipersonalism, the notion that sometimes God takes one form and sometimes he takes another, but that these are simply different manifestations of one God. Instead, trinitarianism holds that there is one God in three persons who know and love one another. God is not more fundamentally one than He is three, and He is not more fundamentally three than He is one.
“According to the Bible, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit glorify one another. Jesus says in John’s Gospel: ‘I have brought You glory on earth by completing the work You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory that I had with You before the world began’ [John 17:4-5]. Each person of the Trinity glorifies the other.
“In the words of my favorite author, C. S. Lewis, ‘In Christianity, God is not a static thing…but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance.’
“Theologian Cornelius Plantinga develops this further, noting that the Bible says the Father, the Son, and the Spirit glorify one another: ‘The persons within God, exalt each other, commune with each other, and defer to one another…. Each divine person harbors the others at the center of His being. In constant movement of overture and acceptance, each person envelops and encircles the others…. God’s interior life, [therefore,] overflows with regard for others.’
“The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are each centering on the others, adoring and serving Them. And because the Father, Son, and Spirit are giving glorifying love to one another, God is infinitely, profoundly happy.
“That’s what God has been enjoying for all eternity. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are pouring love and joy and adoration into the other, each one serving the other. They are infinitely seeking one another’s glory, and so God is infinitely happy. And if it’s true that this world has been created by a Triune God, then ultimate reality is a dance.
“‘What does it all matter?’ Lewis writes. ‘It matters more than anything else in the world. The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us…[joy, power, peace, eternal life] are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality.’
“Why does Lewis choose to dwell on the image of the dance?
“A self-centered life is a stationary life; it’s static, not dynamic. A self-centered person wants to be the center around which everything else orbits.
“The Trinity is utterly different. Instead of self-centeredness, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are characterized in Their very essence by mutually self-giving love.
“No person in the Trinity insists that the others revolve around Him; rather each of them voluntarily circles and orbits around the others.
“If this world was made by a triune God, relationships of love are what life is really all about.
“So why would He create us?
“There’s only one answer. He must have created us not to get joy but to give it. He must have created us to invite us into the dance, to say: If you glorify Me, if you center your entire life on Me, if you find Me beautiful for Who I am in Myself, then you will step into the dance, which is what you are made for. You are made not just to believe in Me or to be spiritual in some general way, not just to pray and get a bit of inspiration when things are tough.
“You are made to center everything in your life on Me, to think of everything in terms of your relationship with Me.
“To serve Me unconditionally.
“That’s where you will find your joy, That’s what the dance is about.
“Are you in the dance or do you just believe God is out there somewhere? Are you in the dance or do you just pray to God every so often when you’re in trouble? Are you in the dance or are you looking around for someone to orbit around you?
“If life is a divine dance, then you need more than anything else to be in it. That’s what you’re built for. You are made to enter into a divine dance with the Trinity.”
“King’s Cross” [pp. 5-10]