In recent months there has been a great deal of conversation throughout the United Methodist Church about the future of our church. Spurred by concerns over continuing church decline, and the Call to Action project of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, people throughout the church have been talking over meals and via Facebook about their hopes and dreams, and their fears and concerns about where the UMC is headed. For the Council of Bishops, this conversation has evolved into the Vital Congregations initiative — an effort to translate the learnings from the Call to Action study into measurable, quantitative practices upon which to hold church leaders accountable. These measures are a step in helping our church address the adaptive challenges that we face.
In parallel with that conversation, a group of clergy and laypersons have been thinking intentionally about the underlying mission of the church. Spurred by conversation throughout various Christian groups around the “missional church,” this group believed that it was important to identify common values as United Methodists which provide meaning and purpose to the practices of vitality. It was in the longing for a statement of vision and values that the Missional Manifesto for the People Called United Methodists was born.
The Manifesto begins:
A Missional Manifesto for the People Called United Methodist
We the people called United Methodist, confessing that we are a people in need of God’s transforming grace, lift up the following vision as a means for guiding our practice and mission.
For more than 250 years, God has been sending people from the Wesleyan tradition into the world for the express purpose of “spreading scriptural holiness across the lands.” This vision is not limited to a a single context, but flows freely across all borders and throughout the world, and is found in announcing the Good News of God’s reign in the whole of creation. In response to this good news, we work to help form one another in the ways of Jesus Christ, making disciples, so that God’s kingdom may be revealed “on earth as it is in heaven,” and the world therefore transformed.
As heirs to this tradition, we have been blessed with the radical love and grace of God–Father, Son and Holy Spirit–which empowers us to likewise be a blessing to the world. This is both a joyful opportunity and a sober responsibility. It is our call, as Wesleyan Christians, both to proclaim and embody the kingdom of God marked by love, reconciliation, peace, forgiveness, and hospitality for all people and in all times and places.
It is through practice of the means of grace that we are gradually formed by the Holy Spirit into the vessels that embody this distinct kingdom of God. And it is through mutual accountability, rooted in love and grace, that we hold one another accountable to living lives that strive to exemplify holiness of heart and life.
Therefore it is with humility and sound resolve that we declare the following to be sign and symbol of our calling as Wesleyan Christians:
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