Faith, Freedom, and Finance: The GMC’s Pastor Tithing Policy
November 3, 2023
Chris Ritter is a gift to the Wesleyan/Methodist movement. His articles and time as a delegate have greatly served the Kingdom of God. He is a bright, intelligent, and spiritual leader. Personally, he has been very generous towards me with direct messages on social media over the years and even a recent phone call to discuss Global Methodism.
This is why it pains me to challenge a recent article he wrote. Although I take solace in challenging the idea, not the person.
Chris has an excellent blog called People Need Jesus. I highly recommend it. He recently wrote an article titled The Way to San Jose: Funding the Movement. This article discussed requiring clergy to move their tithe (or at least part of it) from the local church to the denomination.
Funding ministry will be a vital component of the future of Methodism. Dictating for preachers to move their funds from the local church is a dangerous idea with potential to cause a mass exodus from the growing Global Methodist Church (GMC).
Here are three reasons why this idea should go no further.
#1 Governing additional aspects of local church affairs runs against the spirit of the GMC.
We all have some level of trauma we have brought into our new denomination from our previous. Everyone is cautious about administrative overreach. As I have gone out to share with churches about the future of Methodism, I frequently remind them: the days of the Holy Spirit blowing from top down only are over. To paraphrase John 3:8, “the Spirit blows where it wants to.”
Pastors should have the freedom to send their tithe where they feel led by God to send it. Churches and pastors should enjoy more autonomy on an issue like this, not less. We should also be weary of creating policies where there is no will or need for one.
#2 This will cause small churches to leave the GMC.
All churches have the ability to leave the GMC. This has been one of the strong selling points for churches joining. The threat of a large back door should make us all consider the reality of each decision. If a church decides to leave, we should thank them and celebrate them on their new journey. However, we do not want to create issues to make churches feel they need to leave.
In many small churches I have served I have been one of the top givers. Our family has consistently tithed ten percent at each church.
Do we think any church would sacrifice one of their top ten givers to join any denomination? If not, do we think this will make them want to stay in any denomination?
#3 More funds are raised by vision not mandates.
Finally, the way for the GMC, each annual conference, and local church to grow funds for ministry is by demonstrating the value being added to the Kingdom. I have been blessed to serve in North America where many churches are blessed financially. My observations have been that individuals are far more generous when there is a vision for how the church will use their resources faithfully.
I applaud the South Georgia Conference of the Global Methodist Church leadership, especially President Pro Tem Rev. Jay Hanson. Our conference has set the required connectional giving at the annual conference level at zero (Chris does point this out in his article). This is a radical departure from the years of receiving letters notifying us how behind we are on apportionments. The days of district superintendents calling churches who already met their mandated giving to give even more to make up for other churches who are behind.
Time will tell if this radical experiment of faith will last. So far, we have been blessed by churches giving to the dynamic mission and ministry blowing fresh wind and fresh fire in our conference.
Conclusion
In fairness to Chris, he does share some objections to his idea. Again, I am grateful for his work but hope we move away from this idea of forcing clergy to take their tithe from the local church.
One Year in the Global Methodist Church
October 5, 2023
On September 25th, 2022 the Glennville United Methodist Church celebrated it’s re-establishment as the Glennville Methodist Church. It was our first Sunday in the Global Methodist Church (GMC). We are now just over a year in the GMC. Before we joined we were warned “it is just a website”, “they can not support you”, and “they have no structure”.
So what was the first year really like in a new denomination? Let me share a few highlights.
#1 A Huge Celebration
We started out with a very special Sunday. During worship we celebrated the recognition of my status as an elder (still to be ordained). My church read a liturgy for the celebration of my appointment in the GMC. We also read Tesia Mallory’s liturgy at the end of the service where we all re-committed our church membership. Following worship we had a delicious meal where plaques were presented to Dylan Mulligan, Sharon Durrence in place of Wendy Durrence, and myself.
#2 Support from Leadership
The South Georgia Conference of the Global Methodist Church (SGAGMC) offers amazing leadership. President Pro Tem Jay Hanson stopped by our Fall Festival. Our Area Presiding Elder Issac Salgado has offered quality leadership and assistance to us.
There also have been rich worship opportunities. Last October there was the Isaiah 43 conference at Epworth by the Sea. There was beautiful worship, amazing workshops, and fellowship. It was the first official gathering of the SGA GMC. Hundreds of Methodists from South Georgia and further attended this historic event.
Pastors were also given special opportunities to grow closer together and closer to God. In January there was a pastor’s day away retreat at Little Ocmulgee State Park. A corn hole tournament was won by Rev. Allen Cason and Rev. Haynes Martin. The pastors discussed Midnight Rider on the Morning Star. This was a book about early circuit riding hero Francis Asbury. The corn hole winners were presented with a trophy with Francis Asbury riding a horse.
In February we took laity to Harvest Church in Warner Robins, GA to the Grow Conference. We had an amazing time of worship. My church members were happy to see the facility and team at Harvest Church. I had a couple of highlights from this day. One was getting to eat lunch with Chief Executive Officer Keith Boyette. The other was seeing so many of our legacy ministry partners from the South Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Pastors were also invited to attend a preaching conference led by President Pro Tem Jay Hanson at Epworth by the Sea in May. Jay shared his best tips as well as a deep theology for preaching. There were great collaborative discussions about preaching among the pastors there.
#3 Less Anxiety in Myself and Church
The process to disaffiliate here has been one of the smoothest I know of. With that being said it was still extremely stressful. Yet after we left it was as if scales had fallen from our eyes. It was nice to talk to people and our first comments were not about what was happening in the wider denomination or how to get through the next hoop to jump through. I knew it was stressful at the time. It wasn’t until we got a few weeks past our final special session in the United Methodist Church that I realized how much stress I was carrying. I could breathe deeper, my shoulders felt looser, and my mood was brighter.
Another activity I began doing was writing more. I felt the freedom to use my gift of writing and communicating that I had not felt before. As a provisional elder so much of my mindset was on getting ordained and not creating content that could be used against me. Now I feel like I can say what I believe without reprisal. Was this threat perceived more than a reality? Maybe. All I know is it is gone.
Also, our new found freedom gave us time to devote to more mission and ministry. Our membership has grown. I have sat front seat to see members make radical next steps in their journey with Christ. We also hosted a prayer conference called Deeper in Prayer. Methodist from across Georgia gathered to hear ways to grow closer to Christ through prayer. It is hard to imagine our church having the bandwidth to take on hosting a conference in the midst of disaffiliation.
#4 Ordination, Convening Annual Conference, and Hosting Bishop Jones
I was ordained at Epworth by the Sea during the Convening Annual Conference in July. Methodists gathered from all over. I was blessed to have family, UMC, and GMC clergy there for my ordination. One of my highlights was serving Holy Communion as part of worship. I had not been keeping up with everyone making the jump into our conference. To be surprised to see all the familiar faces that I had known for decades come forward was beautiful and emotional.
While Bishop Jones was in the area he came and preached at Glennville Methodist Church. It was one of the highlights of my ministry career. We of course showed him southern hospitality with a church wide meal. The highlight of the day was of course Mrs. Mary Lou Jones. We sang Love, Mercy, and Grace out of the Cokesbury hymnals. Mrs. Mary Lou enjoyed that hymn so much. I also enjoyed getting to pepper Bishop Jones with questions.
Of course this only covers a small portion of the benefits we have enjoyed from being in the GMC. The real bread and butter of our ministry is the worship of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We still have many challenges as a church. Yet, by God’s grace we do not face those challenges by ourselves. I am grateful to have a ministry partner in the GMC who helps us achieve our shared goals of making disciples of Jesus Christ who worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly.
More From David
What will the future of Methodism and the Global Methodist Church have in store for the rest of 2023?
I would like to take a moment and share some topics which may be given clarity over the next several months.
Let Me Be Clear
Let me be clear, this is not a criticism of the Transitional Leadership Council or our Bishops. They have done an amazing job of working incredibly hard to get a new denomination up and running. This also is not an attempt to pressure anyone to make decisions any quicker than they feel led.
I also want to highlight that this is a conversation about larger church administration. While we still have important work to do in the wider arena, I celebrate that we have hundreds of churches and thousands of Methodists who are disciples of Jesus Christ who worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly. We have provisional annual conferences on four different continents.
We have men and women clergy who are appropriately credentialed, have health insurance and pensions. We have pastors who are “responsible for ensuring that members are cared for by implementing a discipleship process focused on helping members to ‘go on to perfection’ by loving God with all of their heart, mind, soul, and strength, and by loving their neighbor as themselves. They are charged with equipping all the members of a congregation to be in ministry by meeting people at their point of need and offering them Jesus.”
We have significant governance with our Transitional Book of Doctrine and Discipline with accountability from the Transitional Leadership Council and our Presidents Pro Tempore (acting in similar roles of bishops).
The larger church work to be done should not keep us from singing praises to the Lord for the great things happening.
Sneak Peak
Even with all the mission and ministry happening, there are some important chores we need to do before our first convening conference. I am looking forward to clarity around these areas.
#1 Convening Conference Date and Location
At some point there will be a historic convening conference in which delegates representing all the Global Methodist Church from around the world will come together. Much is still to be decided about this conference. I have not seen any clear confirmation on the date (please correct me if I am wrong).
During an interview on Dr. Sterling Allen’s Show Thursday Night Live transitional connectional officer Rev. Keith Boyette said, “we won’t be in a place to hold the convening general conference most likely until the spring of 2025.”1 However, there are others hoping for a 2024 date.
I would like to humbly offer up Glennville, Georgia as the location for the convening conference.
A more serious possibility are cities with international airports to help our overseas brothers and sisters. It is also not outside the realm of possibility that we could hold the convening conference outside of the United States as a way of cementing the global nature of our church.
#2 Annual Conference Sizes and/or Geography
How large will an annual conference be? Will the size of the annual conference be measured by geography, number of churches, number of members or some sort of combination of the three.
This would be helpful to know for administrative purposes. If a transitional annual conference wants to expand or pair up with another conference how would they accomplish this? On the other hand, if an annual conference needs more episcopal oversight how could that be accomplished? Would there be room to appoint an auxiliary bishop to assist an area with a bishop already? Would a conference need to split if it needs more episcopal leadership?
#3 The Role of Bishops
The role of bishops is ongoing. I’ve been impressed with all the interviews I have seen with our bishops so far. I thought Bishop Webb was candid in an interview with John Lomperis:
“One thing I think that Bishop [Scott] Jones, Bishop [Emeritus Mike] Lowry, and I all agree on is that we are not interested in continuing a royal episcopacy. We believe that the role of Bishop, the role of the episcopacy [in] the Global Methodist Church, must be first and foremost a model of servant leadership. And then it needs to be a model where Bishops…defend the faith, cast vision for the church, and come alongside others to help equip them […] to be a part of what God’s already doing uh in their lives. And helping to stir up the gifts that the Holy Spirit has already placed within them to carry out the mission in this transitional time.
You know I keep reminding folks that the convening conference will have a conversation about the role of the episcopacy. The convening conference of the GMC will take what is in the transitional book of doctrines and disciplines, they will add to it, they’ll delete from it [and] they’ll keep some of it the same. So I think the nature of the episcopacy is yet to be fully formed or shaped in the global Methodist church. I’m fully aware that you know in this season all I can focus on […] and I think our commitment as Bishops right now is to try to help lay foundation and groundwork for the things that we want to see move forward moving forward initially and in this season.”2
In Multiplying Methodism Rev. Dr. Jeff Greenway and Bishop Mike Lowery lay down some admiral aspirations:
“We strongly recommend a redefinition of the episcopacy from that of institutional maintenance and leadership–to reclaiming the teaching office of the church… the role of Bishop in the Global Methodist Church will be primarily spiritual–teaching the faith, ordaining clergy, and fixing appointments–but the operational leadership of the more temporal affairs will be delegated to a Connectional Operating Officer.”3
Rev. Dr. David F Watson has nine powerful revisions to the office of Bishop in his Firebrand Article “A Spirit of Governance”: On Bishops in the Global Methodist Church.
In his third point Watson says, “we should not conceive of bishops primarily as managers. We should not hobble them with unending bureaucratic responsibilities. Rather, we should conceive of bishops as pastors, evangelists, and defenders of the faith. The bishop is an office within the order of elders, and the Spirit of governance God pours out upon bishops is for the church’s spiritual care. Let business managers handle business. Let attorneys handle the law. Let bishops lead the church in word, sacrament, and order.”4
#4 The Election of Bishops
The process for electing bishops is still not clear. In the former denomination the elections happened in the jurisdictional (regional) conferences.
Again from Multiplying Methodism the argument is made:
“We recommend the elimination of jurisdictional conferences (which are the residue of institutional racism and the source of the move to regionalized expressions of faith in the United Methodist Church), and that bishops be elected at the General Conference. We recommended bishops be elected for a maximum 12-year term, and if the bishop is not of retirement age, their title is ‘Bishop Emeritus’ when their term ends, and they return to serve a local church.”5
Election at the General Conference is a fascinating possibility. Will there be time to approve the process of electing bishops and have elections in the same convening conference?
#5 The Election of Delegates to the Convening Conference
The process for electing delegates to the convening conference needs to be formalized. It could be as simple as the Transitional Leadership Council asking each conference to develop their plan. However, there will need to be a way to determine how many delegates each area gets.
In conclusion, I have full confidence in our leadership structure in the GMC. We certainly have a firm foundation laid. The future is bright and will only get better as we get clarity on these topics.
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Footnotes
1 Global Methodist Church Thursday Night Live. GMC Thursday Night Live State of the Church 2022 with Rev. Dr. Sterling Allen & Rev. Keith Boyette. Youtube. Rev. Dr. Allen, Sterling. Posted November 17, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFjXkU3pQgc
2 The IRD. Global Methodist Bishop Mark Webb interview with John Lomperis. Youtube. Lomperis, John. Posted January 18th, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVuHVm_fzhM&t=1045s
3 Greenway, Jeffrey E., and Mike Lowry. Multiplying Methodism: A Bold Witness of Wesleyan Faith at the Dawn of the Global Methodist Church. 313 Publishing, 2022. p.111-112
4 Watson, David F. “‘A Spirit of Governance’: On Bishops in the Global Methodist Church.” Firebrand Magazine, Jan. 2023, https://firebrandmag.com/articles/a-spirit-of-governance-on-bishops-in-the-global-methodist-church?rq=bishop.
5 Greenway, Jeffrey E., and Mike Lowry. Multiplying Methodism: A Bold Witness of Wesleyan Faith at the Dawn of the Global Methodist Church. 313 Publishing, 2022. p.111
David Donnan 