The General Conference prize

Rev. Jeremy Smith has been explaining what is happening in the United Methodist Church as we approach the crucially important General Conference about 70 days from now. I’ve written about some of his previous posts to his blog Hacking Christianity.

The conflict is around the Wesleyan Covenant Association and their stance that the only acceptable plan to come out of GC is the Traditionalist Plan which keeps all the current LGBT restrictions and adds to them. Smith lays out the WCA strategy.

The WCA claims a membership of 125,000 and 1,500 churches. The combined value of these church properties is about $230 million. Their apportionment – the share a local church is to contribute to the global denomination – is $4 million a year, though about 10% is withheld because of local disagreements with the denomination (such as being too lenient towards LGBT people). If the Traditional Plan is not approved expect more WCA churches to withhold their portion.

The existence of the WCA means a local church has a place to go if it wants to pull out of the denomination. Leaving has become a possibility. Will moderate delegates be willing to see that $4 million walk out the door? Is the delegate’s gay nephew really worth that much?

The prize in this conflict is the assets of the denomination – those things beyond the local congregations. And there are a lot of assets – hospitals, colleges, offices (such as the United Methodist Building just steps away from the Capitol and Supreme Court), conference centers, retreats, camps, and the wealth of the United Methodist Foundation (used to help churches expand and repair their buildings). The goal of the WCA is to be the ones holding on to these assets when the dust settles. That dust will be stirred up because the WCA intends to make the denomination so intolerable to progressives and moderates that we leave.

The WCA is saying: Do it our way or we leave – and we take a lot of money with us. If you let us do it our way we’re going to make things so intolerable that you will leave – and we get to keep all those wonderful assets.