Expect big changes to the Free Methodist Church USA in the coming years. These changes are needed to unleash missional momentum so the church can become a movement again, the FMCUSA Board of Bishops explained in a conversation with Brett Heintzman on a recent episode of “The Light + Life Podcast.”
Bishop Keith Cowart said that Free Methodists in different parts of the country have caught “this idea of being a Spirit-fueled movement. We’re not just treading water. We are moving forward with great vision and conviction that we have the incredible privilege of working alongside God to expand His kingdom, so this is growing more out of a desire to see us thriving, not just surviving. ”
Bishop Kaye Kolde said denominational leaders understand that “some of what we do and how we do it might actually be more of an impediment than a benefit to the local churches where the disciples are being made.” The bishops “were reminding ourselves what’s going to outlast us for the benefit of the church when none of us are in these roles, so that it’s not about a personal preference for how things might work, but really seeking the Lord for how His church might flourish.”
FMCUSA leaders created the Unleashing Missional Momentum (UMM) group, which has met several times in person for periods of two or three days with Zoom sessions in between. The group has recommended significant changes to the denominational structure.
“This is a major shift,” Bishop Kenny Martin said. “This has never been done before on this level.”
The bishops emphasized that prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit are key aspects of the process.
“We sense through prayer that this is what the Lord wants us to do,” Martin said. “And so it’s about unity, trust, obedience to what the Holy Spirit is calling us to do — the direction of the Holy Spirit. ”
In assembling the UMM group, the bishops asked superintendents “to choose among themselves six of their number that would work with us, because the Book of Discipline gives us the responsibility of vision and direction,” Cowart said. “We recognize that we humbly accept that responsibility, but we don’t believe that means that we have to operate in isolation. Vision is best created in collaboration, and so we wanted to get clarity about where we need to be going. ”
The bishops also asked Free Methodist World Missions area directors to select “one of their own” to join UMM, Cowart said, “in order to make sure that the things we do here are both informed by the global church and don’t create obstacles for the global church. ”
Instead of the UMM’s recommendations just being another concept that’s discussed and set aside, Cowart said denominational leaders are “actually deeply committed to making these changes. ”
Churches and Conferences
Kolde said the bishops are aware that human and financial resources need to be aligned with the work being done at the local church level to make disciples.
“Some of the things that we’re talking about like a new network of U.S. annual conferences, that vision is really driven by this desire to better equip and resource local churches,” Kolde said. “One of the things that I am very excited about is saying, let’s take some of the resources that currentlyare split between 21 annual conferences in the U.S. and instead bring them together and use them to equip local church pastors through teams in our conferences. ”
Kolde said some of the conferences do not currently have the people and financial resources for a team approach.
“We recognize that the church is designed for each of us to function in our gifting and work together as a body,” she said. “We keep using the word teams, but it’s really about being the body of Christ, and so part of what we’ve been doing is reenvisioning how we work together as a body, even at the conference level. ”
UMM recommendations include reducing the number of conferences and reconfiguring boundaries.
“People are looking very closely at the whole creating a new network of new conferences, and what that’s going to mean,” Cowart said. “Creating new annual conferences is not the vision. It’s the means to a vision. ”
The bishops understand that some Free Methodists may question how reducing or changing conferences would benefit the denomination.
“We recognize profoundly that just changing the boundaries of our conferences is not going to create movement,” said Cowart, who noted that reducing the number of annual conferences from 21 to 10 or 12 may seem like a step backward. “But what we want to emphasize is what we’re truly after is developing a healthy culture throughout our church family, where we are moving together in agreement around our core sense of our identity in The Free Methodist Way.”
Although denominational leaders are concerned with significant differences in how conferences operate, Cowart stressed that “we’re not looking for 10 to 12 conferences that look exactly the same, but what we are saying is we cannot be a movement if we are not all committed to a core mission, core values and a core identity.”
Apostolic Leaders
Martin compared the reconfiguration discussion to going to our Great Physician and asking for the Lord’s help in determining areas that aren’t healthy. He noted that health includes vision.
“We need visionary leaders, right? What we call apostolic leaders. We need to be pioneers for taking new territory,” Martin said. “We can’t be happy just where we are because there are lost people out there. For this to happen, we have to come together in unity.”
Martin said the change must be Spirit-led, and the heartbeat behind the effort is “about the lost and
raising up visionary leaders.” He added that apostolic leaders are visionary thinkers who can discern: “What is God saying to the Free Methodist Church? What is the vision that God has for us?”
Being an apostolic leader is “a calling from God that changes cultures” with “a passion to bring the body of Christ together,” Martin said. These leaders understand “the heart of God where He wants us to be the body of Christ, and an apostolic leader sees that and can communicate that to the church at large. ”
Kolde said the Free Methodist Church has already looked at Ephesians 4 to determine whether a person is an apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd or teacher.
“With the apostolic leader, they have the ability to see the new thing, or to see the thing that needs to be brought to good health and then equip a team and unleash them, and then sometimes move on to the next thing,” Kolde said. “You have leaders who are able to see, cast vision, bring others around them, and those people are the ones who actually continue doing those things well.”
Cowart said that our conferences need people with a variety of gifts.
“Those who work out of an apostolic gifting understand the power of building culture — culture around kingdom values, culture around a kingdom mission,” Cowart said. “It’s more than just putting out a mission statement. It’s more than just stating, ‘This is what we want to be.’ It’s building the kind of culture that actually results in that reality, and those are the kind of leaders that we want to see in every single annual conference.”
Delaying GC?
The UMM proposed to the denominational Board of Administration that the next general conference be delayed two years from 2027 to 2029. General Conference 2023 delegates will meet online March 3 for a “special sitting” to discuss and vote on a resolution that would change the date.
“The idea of extending two years was not ours as bishops,” Cowart said. “That did not come from us, and quite frankly, initially, we were pretty resistant to that idea, but the word that came so strong from our superintendents was: ‘We believe this is the right direction, and we don’t want to see it fall short of full implementation.’”
The special sitting is not intended as a discussion of annual conference changes or other UMM recommendations.
“What is being proposed for the vote on March 3 is not about these specific changes. It is about time,” Kolde said. “It’s about having the opportunity to have many more conversations, to actually be with our leaders in different areas of the country, to look for the best way to move toward this preferred future where we have really vibrant networks, equipping local churches and then working together with the Board of Bishops.”
A general conference is typically held every four years, and planning the event requires a considerable mount of planning and resources.
“A big chunk of our leadership is working toward the next general conference within a year of the last one,” Cowart said. “We need more time to actually implement the things that happen at general conference. So many things don’t ever get implemented because we’re already getting ready for the next general conference.”
Some of the UMM’s recommendations can be implemented without going before general conference delegates.
“There are some things that we have already done that the UMM discussed, and we’re not bringing them before the church for a vote,” Kolde said. “That’s not our polity or the practice.”
Other matters would require a vote, such as a proposal to simplify the Book of Discipline by separating portions that need to change frequently.
Leadership Pipeline
One of the bishops’ priorities is developing a pipeline of new leaders who are equipped to serve in ministry.
“We have to think and prepare at a young age,” Martin said. “We have to prepare this next generation of leaders by mentoring them, preparing them, training them.”
Kolde said that in one area where leaders are exploring the creation of a new conference, “they feel encouraged and hopeful that a new conference with a greater critical mass of different types of ministries and different types of leaders will help them attract more leaders into the conference.”
New conferences could include “the creation of conference teams — a structure where more people are invited into the leadership of the conference,” Kolde said. “There would be regional structures. There would be people who could have positions working on coaching and pastoral formation for instance, or multiplication, and so that would allow a leadership pipeline where many of our gifted pastors could have opportunity to serve at the conference level in addition to pastoring or instead of pastoring a local church.”
Cowart said the bishops are having “deep discussions” about the leadership pipeline, because “we must find ways to connect better with our emerging generation.” He added that we need to recognize God is working in a unique way, “and rather than constantly trying to force them into old models, let’s find ways of unleashing what God’s put in them that might lead us into brand new territory.”
Click here to listen to the full conversation on “The Light + Life Podcast.”