Bishops unveil vision for United Methodist Church

Key points:

• United Methodist leaders have adopted a new vision for the denomination to “love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously.”
• The new vision aims to complement The United Methodist Church’s longtime mission to make disciples, and, like that statement, the vision draws on Scripture.
• Bishops also hope the new vision, years in the making, will inform the work of the Leadership Gathering planned next year.
• Ultimately, the goal is for United Methodists around the globe to unite in living out the vision.

Taking inspiration from Scripture, bishops and other denominational leaders have developed a new vision statement for The United Methodist Church.

The vision states: “The United Methodist Church forms disciples of Jesus Christ who, empowered by the Holy Spirit, love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously in local communities and worldwide connections.”

The bishops and the Connectional Table jointly unveiled the statement May 1, a year after a momentous General Conference set the denomination on a new path after years of infighting. The Council of Bishops and Connectional Table — a leadership body of lay and clergy who coordinate the denomination’s mission, ministry and resources — each unanimously adopted the statement.

The hope is this new vision makes clear both who United Methodists are and where God is leading them.

“The vision is about seeing — what we see ourselves doing as a denomination,” said Bishop Delores “Dee” J. Williamston, co-chair of the group’s Visioning Task Force. She also leads the Louisiana Conference.

“As we’re making disciples of Jesus Christ, we will all live into this vision together.”

United Methodist leaders used a “countercultural approach” in developing the vision statement, said her fellow co-chair Bishop Héctor A. Burgos-Núñez. He leads the Upper New York and Susquehanna conferences.

“Usually, the visioning process starts with asking, ‘What do we see?’” he said. “We shifted that narrative, and we asked, ‘What does God say? What is God’s dream?’”

To discern God’s dream, church leaders prayerfully engaged in listening sessions, starting in 2021, with United Methodists around the globe.

Church leaders also drew on the counsel of Bible passages, in both the Old and New Testaments, with an eye toward following Jesus’ example.

Each part derives from Scripture.  

• Love boldly, inspired by Matthew 22:37-39 and John 13:34-35, means: United Methodists passionately love God and, like Jesus, embrace and include people of every age, nation, race, gender and walk of life.
• Serve joyfully, inspired by Psalm 100:1, Nehemiah 8:10, John 13:14-15 and 1 Peter 4:10, means: With a Christ-like heart, journey alongside the most vulnerable, offering care and compassion with joy.
• Lead courageously, inspired by Joshua 1:9 and Ephesians 6:10, means: Follow Jesus’ example by resisting and dismantling all systems of evil, injustice and oppression, striving for peace, justice and reconciliation.

The new vision statement aims to complement the denomination’s nearly 30-year-old mission statement, based on Matthew 28:18-20: “The mission of The United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”

Nordic-Baltic-Ukraine Area Bishop Christian Alsted, who retires on May 24, said mission and vision serve distinct purposes.

“The mission is what we are about, what right now is our task,” said Alsted, who chaired the Connectional Table when the visioning work began. “As a church, the vision is where we go. So the vision, from my perspective, would paint the picture of the future in a way that is compelling and engaging, that stirs passion and involvement.”

Council of Bishops President Tracy S. Malone sees the vision statement as a catalyst for transformation that will help guide the work of the Leadership Gathering that the bishops are planning next year. Participants include bishops, general-agency heads, and three leaders from each of the denomination’s 53 episcopal areas. The gathering will have no decision-making authority but is intended to join in the visioning work.

“The Leadership Gathering is not setting the vision,” said Malone, who also leads the Indiana Conference. “The leadership gathering is gathering hope around the vision and helping us think about, ‘How do we live this into the future? How do we live this vision in light of our mission?’”

While the mission of making disciples remains unchanged, she said, the question before those at the gathering will be: “How do we get there?”

The Book of Discipline, the denomination’s policy book, says the Connectional Table’s responsibilities include discerning and articulating the vision of the church in consultation with the Council of Bishops.

That means the vision statement does not require approval by General Conference, the denomination’s top lawmaking assembly. In fact, with the adoption by the bishops and Connectional Table, the vision is already official.

Williamston, the vision task force co-chair, said the Connectional Table’s past work as well as the denomination’s longtime mission statement were crucial in developing the new vision.

She drew on the West African image of the Sankofa bird, which shows a bird looking backward to pluck a jewel of wisdom out of its feathers. Simply put, she said, the image means: Remembering where we’ve come from in order to move forward.

“We didn’t just start from nothing,” she said. “We’re just not just walking into this doing something brand new.”

Both she and Burgos, as agency board presidents, are also members of the Connectional Table. Williamston is president of the Commission on the Status and Role of Women, and Burgos is president of Discipleship Ministries.

Judi Kenaston, now the Connectional Table’s chief connectional officer, was a member of the group when it began the current vision work after the contentious special 2019 General Conference that led to a fracturing in the denomination.

After COVID hit, Connectional Table members worked to hold listening sessions on four continents with local United Methodists about their thoughts on identity, connection, mission and vision.

Kenaston is excited to see the fruit of those conversations. “I think the vision totally fits the answers we were getting,” she said. “People wanted us to be in ministry with the marginalized. That was across the board. Everybody said, ‘This is who we are.’”

She added that she is very excited to share the vision with her grandchildren. Her one worry is that United Methodists won’t work to put the vision into action.

“If that’s not something that I can share with my grandchild, and say, ‘This is what we do as United Methodists,’” she said, “then it’s just going to be pretty words on the paper.”

United Methodist Communications will be joining the bishops, Connectional Table and other agencies in trying to get the word out and provide resources to support the vision.

The communications agency still plans to use “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors” as an evangelistic tool to introduce seekers to The United Methodist Church.

Poonam Patodia, United Methodist Communications’ head of marketing, communications and public relations, said the vision statement is about identity while the brand promise of openness is about inviting others to join in the vision of Christian discipleship.

Bishop Ande Emmanuel, who leads United Methodists in Nigeria, Cameroon and Senegal, said the vision statement is timely especially as Nigerian United Methodists seek to move forward after a time of conflict.

“I see this vision statement through the lens of the ministry work that we are going to do in the future in The United Methodist Church in Nigeria,” Emmanuel said. “Our congregations have been positioning to love, to serve and to be courageous in their ministry. Our pastors have been encouraged to do the same. So I am sure this vision statement will resonate very well with our mission and ministry.”

Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umnews.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.