David Donnan

For the past several months I have had the opportunity to share with individuals and groups about the Global Methodist Church. This is the talk I give formatted for my blog.

#1 To Stay Connected to our True Wesleyan/Methodist Heritage

“Since its inception, God’s Spirit has enlivened the Methodist movement. In the 1720s John and Charles Wesley and friends at Oxford University met together to deepen their Christian faith through daily, practical spiritual disciplines. Derided by others as a ‘new sect of Methodists’ for their ‘methodical’ ways of practicing the faith and holding one another accountable to it, the small group embraced the insult and persevered in their fellowship. And so they and the millions who followed after them have ever since been known as ‘the people called Methodists.’”¹

The term Methodist still has deep meaning to me personally. I believe Wesleyan theology is a gift to the entire Body of Christ with its emphasis on God’s Grace, freed will, and His call on His people to make a difference in this world.

#2 To Provide Structure for Our Local Church to Better Serve the Community

The Global Methodist Church (GMC) will have a light touch on how you structure your church. Our Transitional Book of Doctrine and Discipline says “The basic organizational plan for the local church may be designed by each congregation in such a manner that it provides for a comprehensive program of nurture, outreach and witness to all.”²

If you like, you can still have the same structure you used in the prior denomination. However, we offer flexibility as long as you have a governing board. There is the familiar charge conference and nominations to help you approve your leadership, budget, and pastor compensation.

#3 To Have Our Preacher Held Accountable and Encouraged

The pastor is “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. [You] 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.”³

Pastor’s will have the support of their fellow clergy as well as a board of ordained ministry.

#4 You Keep Control of Your Church Property

“God owns all of creation (Psalm 50:9-10); we are but stewards of it for a period of time. Property (real, personal, tangible, and intangible) deeded or titled in the name of the Global Methodist Church and its entities (including its local churches) is to be used for the glory of God and to carry out the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ and to spread scriptural holiness across the land

There is no trust clause for property held by local churches, annual conferences, regional conferences, connectional commissions, the Transitional Leadership Council, or any of their entities.”⁴

#5 High Standards and High Openness to Input

“A leader’s job—whether at the top of an organization or somewhere in the middle—is to create a safe space for people to speak up, make mistakes, and bring their full selves to work.” – Amy Edmondson, Harvard Business School

My hope, and for many in the GMC, is for us to have a grassroots led church. The days of believing God’s Spirit only blows from the top down are over. 

Evidence of this is there is no required connectional giving for the first two years. Connectional giving will be capped at 6.5% (1.5% for wider church, 5.0% at the annual conference).

#6 The Future of the Church is Global

The past years in the United States have made many weary of globalism. We have seen how supply chain issues during the pandemic have pointed out the fragility of our global infrastructure. We have seen jobs shipped overseas and the detrimental effect it has had on industries like steel production as tens of thousands of workers are displaced.

Yet, our legitimate worries about globalism should not make us weary of the global nature and mission of the church.

In Genesis 22:18 (CEB) God tells Abraham, “All the nations of the earth will be blessed because of your descendants, because you obeyed me.”David F. Watson says, “There is great need for both theological education and academic theological discourse in places outside of the Global West, and we need to be involved…We would do well intentionally to collaborate with people from the majority world.”⁵

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¹ The Transitional Book of Doctrine and Discipline preface page 3

² The Transitional Book of Doctrine and Discipline paragraph 337 page 33

³  The Transitional Book of Doctrine and Discipline paragraph 322 p. 29 (Ephesians 4:11-13).

⁴ The Transitional Book of Doctrine and Discipline Selections from paragraphs 901 and 902  p. 100

⁵  https://daviddonnan.com/2022/06/10/the-global-nature-of-the-future-methodism/

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