More than 500 persons representing 18,000 United Methodist individuals and 950 United Methodist congregations gathered at a conference of the Confessing Movement within the United Methodist Church at Cincinnati, Ohio on September 27-28. They took a dramatic step to chart the course and direct the growing momentum of the movement.
Acting on a recommendation from one of the ten working groups, participants in the conference unanimously voted to employ a full time executive director; and to develop a plan of sustaining membership for individuals, families, groups, local congregations, and conferences.
Dr. John Ed Mathison, chairperson of the Steering Committee of the Confessing Movement expressed delight: "We came without a specific plan for the future of the Confessing Movement but the Holy Spirit gave direction through the people of the grass roots. Organizing in this fashion is a sure sign of our long term commitment to doctrinal and missional renewal in the church."
The theme of the conference was built around the unity of the Church as expressed through the confession of Jesus Christ as Son, Savior and Lord. In her opening keynote address, the Rev. Joy Moore, a clergywoman from the West Michigan Conference, reminded the gathering, "Jesus Christ is not a caucus, not one more item on our legislative agenda." The first priority of the Confessing Movement is to call the church—including all its caucuses and groups—to confess Jesus Christ as Son, Savior and Lord.
Building on the theme of the Conference, participants further defined the purpose of the movement in the following statement, "Confessing Jesus Christ as Son, Savior, and Lord, the Confessing Movement exists to enable the United Methodist Church to retrieve its classical doctrinal identity, and to live it out as disciples of Jesus Christ."
One member of the Steering Committee, Dr. Maxie Dunnam, said, "This means we are committed to doctrinal renewal and apostolic mission and ministry."
In leading a Wesley Covenant Renewal Service, the Rev. Gregory Stover said that "while we are a covenantal church it is our confession of Jesus Christ which is the foundation and gives substance to our covenant." Stover pointed to the Articles of Religion and Confession of Faith as the basis for defining our confession of Christ and said, "You don’t put Restrictive Rules around truth you expect to refine, redefine, or re-imagine over the years."
Conference participants celebrated the witness of grass roots movements which have grown out of the "Invitation to the Church" and the "Confessional Statement" previously issued by the Confessing Movement. One of those is a group of pastors from Wisconsin who have challenged the moral authority of annual conference legislation when it contradicts the doctrine and discipline of the church.
At least fifty pastors have signed the Wisconsin Declaration which states, "We find unacceptable the designation by the Wisconsin Annual Conference of itself as a Reconciling Conference and will not be bound by it. Such a designation rejects Scriptural teaching and spurns the consistent stance of the United Methodist Church." The Rev. Tom Lambrecht expressed gratitude to the Confessing Movement for its foundational documents which formed the theological basis and organizational principle for the Wisconsin Declaration.
Participants at the conference pledged to build communities of support for persons, groups, and churches who pursue acts of conscience in confessing Jesus Christ as Son, Savior, and Lord.
In a stirring closing address, Dr. James Holsinger, chancellor of the University of Kentucky Medical Center, repeatedly called the church to fidelity to its doctrinal standards. He compared today’s church to the time of the Judges, when "everyone did as he or she saw fit." He cited Wesley’s sermon on "Catholic Spirit" in which Wesley, deploring doctrinal indifference and instability, said, "A man of a truly catholic spirit has not now his religion to seek. He is fixed as the sun in his judgment concerning the main branches of Christian doctrine."
The Confessing Movement was born in 1994 when 102 United Methodists met in Atlanta at the invitation of Bishop William R. Cannon (retired); the Rev. Maxie Dunnam, president of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky; and Dr. Thomas C. Oden, professor of theology at Drew Theological School in Madison, New Jersey.
"That which excites me about the Confessing Movement is its focus," Dr. George Morris, Directing Minister of First United Methodist Church in Peoria, Illinois, told Good News. "The movement highlights those things that are critical for the renewal and growth of the world-wide Wesleyan movement: an uncompromising commitment to the primacy and authority of Scripture, clarity of Christological conviction, an antidote to confusion by centering on the doctrinal standards of our church, and a commitment to intercessory prayer.
"Therefore, I am happy that this movement is becoming more intentional in fulfilling its leadership role," said Morris, former professor of evangelism at Candler School of Theology.
Published in the November/December 1996 issue of Good News.