Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Embracing the Wideness: The Shared Convictions of The United Methodist Church
    Embracing the Wideness: The Shared Convictions of The United Methodist Church
    Embracing the Wideness: The Shared Convictions of The United Methodist Church
    Ebook149 pages2 hours

    Embracing the Wideness: The Shared Convictions of The United Methodist Church

    By Bishop William H. Willimon, Stanley Hauerwas and Rev. Kenneth H. Carter JR.

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Embracing the Wideness contrasts a generous orthodoxy with the culture wars that seek to drive a wedge between Christians with deep faith convictions. A generous orthodoxy is possible for The United Methodist Church because scripture supports both a confessing movement and a reconciling movement.

    In addition to our divergent understandings of holiness in The United Methodist Church, we apparently have two distinct conceptions of church. These two conceptions of church present in American Methodism grew from seeds planted in the earliest practice of British Methodism:

    A separatist church, which views holiness as a calling that separates us from the world—“come out from among them and be separated” (2 Corinthians 6:17). Here holiness is a quality that distinguishes Christians from the world.
    An activist church, which understands holiness as a movement for change in an unjust world. The boundaries between church and society are blurred, with the “wheat and tares” growing together (Matthew 13) until God’s final judgment.

    At times, a denomination is able to hold these two conceptions of church in tension. And at times, as in recent experiences of American Christianity, there is fragmentation and division. The division may finally be the result of clearly articulated values that are not compatible. And the division may also be the result of how leaders do harm to each other.

    What great things could be accomplished if we rediscovered orthodoxy in service of the healing, instead of dividing, of our bodies—our churches! Such a generous orthodoxy would help us not to become immersed in the emotional processes that pit people against each other. Such a generous orthodoxy would keep us from becoming stuck in cycles of harmful collusion and escalating conflict. Such a generous orthodoxy would know that the source of our capacity to be healed of our schisms is a miracle beyond our human power or goodness or intelligence.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAbingdon Press
    Release dateSep 4, 2018
    ISBN9781501871573
    Embracing the Wideness: The Shared Convictions of The United Methodist Church
    Author

    Bishop William H. Willimon

    Will Willimon is a preacher and teacher of preachers. He is a United Methodist bishop (retired) and serves as Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry and Director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Duke Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina. For twenty years he was Dean of the Chapel at Duke University. A 1996 Baylor University study named him among the Twelve Most Effective Preachers in the English speaking world. The Pew Research Center found that Will was one of the most widely read authors among Protestant clergy in 2005. His quarterly Pulpit Resource is used by thousands of pastors throughout North America, Canada, and Australia. In 2021 he gave the prestigious Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale Divinity School. Those lectures became the book, Preachers Dare: Speaking for God which is the inspiration for his ninetieth book, Listeners Dare: Hearing God in the Sermon.

    Read more from Bishop William H. Willimon

    Related to Embracing the Wideness

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Uncharted Cultural Waters

      Mar 18, 2022

      Uncharted Cultural Waters
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Catholic Temptation

      Oct 28, 2020

      The Catholic Temptation
      8 min read

    • Article

      Judge Jackson and Critical Race Theory

      Mar 24, 2022

      Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson says her passing mention of critical race theory in a 2015 speech was about "sentencing policy and all of the different academic disciplines that might relate to it." She said the theory has not been a part of any decision

      5 min read

    • Article

      Truth You Can Trust

      Apr 27, 2021

      If we’re faced with confusion or deceit, it can seem hard to know what truth is. But understanding God’s nature as infallible Truth itself empowers us to discern between what’s true and what’s false.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Joy! News

      Sep 29, 2023

      Joy! News
      6 min read

    • Article

      Can Abortion Be A Question Of Religious Liberty? These Faiths Say Yes.

      Aug 1, 2022

      Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg says there are situations in which it would be her religious duty to help a woman get an abortion. And for her, as for many who follow the traditions of Judaism and other faiths, states that now ban or severely restrict access

      6 min read

    • Article

      The 53-State Solution

      Feb 11, 2020

      The 53-State Solution
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Plutocracy That Is U.S. Democracy

      Dec 16, 2021

      The U.S. doesn’t have democracy, it has politics. Democracy is about serving the people, giving them what they want and improving their lives. China doesn’t have career politicians, it has bureaucrats. Trained and skilled administrators who are elect

      2 min read

    • Article

      Why Americans Die So Much

      Sep 12, 2021

      Why Americans Die So Much
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ask Val

      Jun 16, 2023

      Ask Val
      2 min read

    • Article

      Where Do We Go From Here?

      Jun 26, 2020

      Where Do We Go From Here?
      18 min read

    • Article

      Fox News Commentator Charles Krauthammer Says He Has Weeks To Live

      Jun 8, 2018

      Fox News commentator Charles Krauthammer issued a public statement Friday announcing that he is terminally ill and has a few weeks to live. Krauthammer, a Washington Post columnist who also has long been considered one of the most rational and inform

      1 min read

    • Article

      Southern Baptist Women Are 'Shocked' By Church Leader's Comments

      May 7, 2018

      More than 2,000 women claim a seminary president has "an unbiblical view of authority, womanhood, and sexuality" and should not be allowed to continue in leadership.

      4 min read

    • Article

      2017 Has Been A Rough Year For Evangelicals

      Dec 29, 2017

      Self-described "evangelical" Christians helped elect President Trump in 2016. But this year, the label lost coherence. Some evangelicals reconsidered what it stood for, while others disowned the term.

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Miracle Happened Inside Me

      Oct 22, 2021

      Christ for all Nations (CfaN) has had a part in changing the face of Africa. To date, by the grace of God, we have seen more than 81 million people receive Jesus Christ as their Saviour through the ministry of CfaN. We truly thank the Lord for these

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Original Roe V. Wade Ruling Was Leaked, Too

      May 3, 2022

      Leaks of any kind are rare at the Supreme Court, but in 1973, the original Roe decision was leaked to the press before the court formally announced it. The chief justice was furious.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Culture War

      May 30, 2021

      Culture War
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Embracing the Wideness

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Embracing the Wideness - Bishop William H. Willimon

      PREFACE

      For twenty-eight years I was a pastor and preacher in local churches. During this season I lived in the tension of these two callings: to care for the flock of God that had been given to me through the assignment of my bishop, and to interpret the scriptures with and for those gathered each week in the sanctuary for worship and in smaller groups for study.

      And so I approach this conversation—about the unity of the church, a way forward, and LGBTQ identity—as a pastor and a preacher whom God called, through the laity and clergy of a jurisdictional conference, to the work of oversight (episkopos, bishop) for a season.

      This season happens to be one in which the tensions are more pronounced than those I experienced in local churches. I no longer serve a parish, but rather a large and diverse annual conference (Florida) and, at the calling of colleague bishops, as president of the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church. I have also recently concluded work as one of the moderators of the Commission on a Way Forward, and my experience with that global body shaped this book.

      And yet, even as the context of my ministry has changed, my fundamental vocation remains the same: to be a preacher and a pastor, to be an interpreter of texts and, at the same time, an interpreter of the lives of the people God has sent to us. At my best, this is a work of the imagination, and more deeply, a work of scriptural imagination. Richard Hays defined scriptural imagination as

      the capacity to see the world through the lens given to us in Scripture—but when we see the world through such lenses, it doesn’t just change the way we see the contemporary world but also changes the way we see Scripture. There is a hermeneutical circle between the reading of the text and the reading of the world in which we find ourselves.¹

      I am grateful to conversation partners along the way, and they are really too numerous to name. I begin with my wife Pam, our daughters Liz Carter and Abby Carter Stanton and her husband Allen Stanton; the cabinet of the Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church, and in particular Alex Shanks; Sue Haupert-Johnson, Bill McAlilly, Robert Schnase, Gil Rendle, Grant Hagiya, Janice Huie, Greg Palmer, Cynthia Fierro-Harvey, Bruce Ough, Marcus Matthews, Charlene Kammerer, Paul Leeland, Hope Morgan Ward, Cam West, Robb Webb, and Lawrence McCleskey; my colleague bishops of the Commission on a Way Forward, Sandra Steiner Ball and David Yemba; members of the Commission, especially Jorge Acevedo, Alice Williams, Jasmine Smothers, and Tom Berlin; and those who led the Florida Conference POV (Point of View) Conversations, especially Jason and Hillary DeMeo.

      I have also been honored by invitations to share some of this material with St. Luke’s UMC in Orlando, Florida; Duke Divinity School; the Oxford Institute for Methodist Theological Studies; Candler School of Theology; Boston University School of Theology; Asbury Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida; Claremont School of Theology; Perkins School of Theology; Duke Memorial United Methodist Church in Durham, North Carolina; Lake Junaluska (N.C.) Assembly; First United Methodist Church in Waynesville, North Carolina; First United Methodist Church in San Diego, California; and with clergy from the Florida, Arkansas, Holston, Iowa, Cal-Pac, Tennessee, Memphis, Western North Carolina, and North Carolina Conferences.

      In the spirit of the Latin, Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, in our praying is our believing, I invite you to join me in prayer:

      O God, whose nature and name is love:

      We pray for the light that shines in the darkness,

      the radiant light that we see in the face of Jesus Christ, our

      Lord and Savior.

      Give us the faith to grow into his likeness,

      and give us the confidence to follow him.

      We pray for the faithfulness of the church—that we would

      walk in your ways,

      trusting in your providence, listening for your voice.

      We pray for the fruitfulness of the church—

      that we would make new disciples of Jesus Christ,

      in new places and in new ways, for the transformation of

      the world.

      And we pray for the unity of the church—

      that we would live with a heart of peace

      and, insofar as it depends on us, that we would seek to live

      in peace with all people.

      May the words in these pages and the meditations of our hearts

      be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to you.

      And may we, the people called Methodist,

      more fully offer to the world the grace that we have received,

      the grace that has brought us safe thus far, and the grace

      that will lead us home.

      In the name of Jesus, our teacher and healer,

      and for the sake of his body, the church.

      Amen.

      Chapter One

      GENEROUS ORTHODOXY AND THE PEOPLE CALLED METHODIST

      Matthew 18

      My faith has been formed by:

      •reading the New Testament from beginning to end, one spring

      •singing in choirs as a youth and young adult

      •serving on mission trips

      •memorizing scripture with the Navigators as a college student

      •witnessing a public request for forgiveness

      •seeing racism diminish in people I admired

      •teachers who came along at just the right time

      •experiencing the courage of clergywomen who kept going even when no one affirmed them

      •opportunities to preach and lead Bible studies in prisons

      •traveling to Israel with Jewish friends and learning about the Sabbath from them

      •getting to know LGBT friends who were on the same journey of holiness as me

      •a spiritual director who had charismatic gifts and taught me about the Holy Spirit

      •mentors who encouraged me and opened doors

      •a theology of hope and a dependence on grace

      •my wife’s commitment to mission

      •generous people who stepped up when the church needed them, and who blessed people without insisting on recognition

      •challenging assignments and calls that seemed impossible at the time

      •a few poets and novelists

      •friendships

      •a denomination that is imperfect, yet has given me and countless others a spiritual home and place to serve

      •evangelicals who were apolitical, and activists who were evangelicals

      •strategic guides along the way who knew a lot more about leadership and management than I did, and helped me

      •being a son and a grandson, then a parent, and now a grandparent

      •coming to know that faith is less about where I stand and more about who I am walking with

      In reflecting on this journey, so far, I have an increasing clarity about a Christian faith that is generously orthodox.

      The word orthodox here has a distinctly lower case o. It is about my trust in the scriptures, the creeds, and the faith of the church. I am carried along by a great current of Christian tradition that is deep and wide, ecumenical and global, trinitarian and liberationist.¹ It is a faith that articulates the cries of God’s people (Exod 3), that breathes life into a valley of dry bones (Ezek 37), that endures weeping in the night but also awakens to a joy that comes in the morning (Ps 30). It wanders in the wilderness (Exod 16), experiences the dark night of the soul (Ps 22), knows a peace that surpasses human understanding (Phil 4), and discovers the empty tomb (John 20).

      The word generous is about charity toward others in the body of Christ (1 Cor 13), patience with them in their own spiritual journeys, openness to the possibility that we see through a glass darkly or a reflection in a mirror (1 Cor 13), and humility that we consider others more highly than we do ourselves (Phil 2). Generosity creates a space for reciprocity, giving, and receiving. Generosity acknowledges a dark side to orthodoxy, one that draws too sharp a division and too strong a boundary—and in the process people who worship, pray, learn, serve, and witness together are separated (torn apart in the Greek skhizein, schism).

      The phrase generous orthodoxy was coined a generation ago by the Yale theologian Hans Frei and influenced a number of his students, many of whom would later teach at Duke, where I studied. Frei commented that "we need a kind of generous orthodoxy which would have in it an element of liberalism—a voice like the Christian Century—and an element of evangelicalism—the voice of Christianity Today. I don’t know if there is a voice between these two, as a matter of fact. If there is, I would like to pursue it."²

      Generous Orthodoxy is the title of a blog by the brilliant Episcopal preacher and priest Fleming Rutledge, who writes,

      We cannot do without orthodoxy, for everything else must be tested against it, but that orthodox (traditional, classical) Christian faith should by definition always be generous as our God is generous; lavish in his creation, binding himself in an unconditional covenant, revealing himself in the calling of a people, self-sacrificing in the death of his Son, prodigal in the gifts of the Spirit, justifying the ungodly, and, indeed, offending the righteous by the indiscriminate use of his favor. True Christian orthodoxy therefore cannot be narrow, pinched or defensive but always spacious, adventurous and unafraid.³

      More recently, Generous Orthodoxy was the title of a Malcolm Gladwell Revisionist History podcast. Gladwell tells the story of a same-gender wedding in the Mennonite Church tradition, and how that community navigated the claims of received truth and expressed conscience. The story itself is narrated in a gracious way, especially given the medium of popular culture. In his own reflection on the events narrated in the podcast, Gladwell notes that You must respect the body you are trying to heal.⁴

      What great things God could accomplish if we rediscovered an orthodoxy in service of the healing (and not dividing) of our bodies, that is, our churches?⁵ Such a generous orthodoxy would help us not to become immersed in the emotional processes that pit people against each other. Such a generous orthodoxy would keep us from becoming stuck in cycles of harmful collusion and escalating conflict.⁶

      Such a generous orthodoxy would know that the source of our capacity to be healed of our schisms is a miracle beyond our human power or goodness or intelligence.

      Empathy

      I empathize with those who do not see or hold the faith as I do. My way is not the superior way or the only way. I believe, however, because of experiences, teachers, relationships, and vocational calling that this is the way God has given me to walk.

      Because my faith is orthodox, I can learn from and listen to voices many would characterize as moderate, evangelical, catholic, and traditional. These theological streams have always been life-giving to

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1