A TALE OF TWO CONFERENCES
by Riley Case
The May 8, 1964 issue of Time magazine featured the Methodist Church . Bishop Gerald Kennedy was shown
on the cover. Bishop Kennedy was referred to as “the unofficial
spokesperson for Methodism,” and his Los Angeles area highlighted as representing
the bright future for the denomination.
At that time there was reason to be optimistic about
Methodism in southern
California
. What is now the California-Pacific Conference had grown in
membership from 118,000 in 1950 to 218,000 in 1965. Many of those
members were in significant churches. In 1965, 69 churches in the
California-Pacific Conference reported a membership of more than
1,000. Within Los Angeles itself were
two churches that at one time were the largest of their respective
denominations. Trinity Church , under the fundamentalist
“Fighting Bob” Shuler, had been a flagship church in the Methodist
Episcopal Church South. Los Angeles First, under the ministry of
Roy L. Smith, in the days before World War II was perhaps the most
significant congregation in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Southern California was
not necessarily known as an evangelical area but it was at least
open to evangelicals. Bishop Kennedy himself was co-chair of the
Billy Graham crusade in Los
Angeles in 1963 and encouraged the Methodist
churches to participate. Kennedy was also a key influence in
helping Charles Keysor start the Good News movement. In an article
in the very first issue of the Good News magazine Kennedy wrote at
length on the importance of the evangelical witness in the Methodist Church . With an affirmation of the
evangelical witness and in the midst of the most rapid population
growth in the United States
there was every reason to believe prospects for a growing and
vibrant Methodist
Church were good in southern California .
The North Georgia Conference was at that time a
similarly-sized conference in a different jurisdiction and a
different part of the country. The conference reported 211,000
members in 1965 and half the number of churches (35) as
California-Pacific with a membership of 1,000 or more. At the time
no one was writing articles about the bright future of Methodism in
Georgia
. The area, after all, had not dealt well with issues
relating to race, and was not a place where young energetic pastors
were flocking to serve.
Since 1965 these two conferences have gone in two
diametrically-opposed directions. Methodism has become a vital
force in northern Georgia
; Methodism has disintegrated almost beyond recognition in southern California . In the
midst of unprecedented population explosion in southern California
Methodism has lost 55% of its members in the past 37 years, from
218,000 to 97,000 (statistics from the General Minutes, 1965 and
2002). The North Georgia Conference in 2002 reported 322,000
members, an increase of 52% from 1965.
What is particularly telling in a study of the conferences
is what has happened to large churches. Trinity Church Los Angeles,
Huntington Park , San Diego Asbury, and Long
Beach Atlantic are now closed in the California-Pacific Conference.
First Church Hollywood , once with 2,158 members, now has
263. Los Angeles First, once the largest church in Methodism, now
reports 121 members. The conference which once reported 69 churches
with membership of over 1,000, now reports 7 churches (and the
number at the end of 2004 may be down to 3). Only one church, San
Diego First, reports an average worship attendance of over 1,000.
Of 81 churches in the conference that at one time or another
reported 1,000 or more in membership there are none which have more
members today than in 1995.
By way of contrast, North Georgia
has gone from 39 churches with a membership of over 1,000 in 1965,
to 67 churches today. In 1950 no church in North Georgia had more than 3,000 members. Today 9
churches report more than 3,000 members and 6 report more than 5,000
members. 17 churches report an average worship attendance of 1,000
or more. Of 99 churches in the conference that at one time or
another reported more than 1,000 members, 45 of those in 2002
reported they had a higher membership than at any time in their
history.
How is it that Methodism thrives in
North Georgia and flounders in California-Pacific? From
the perspective of The Confessing Movement the answer is clear and
irrefutable: it has to do with faithfulness to the evangelical
preaching of the gospel. This is not to say there are probably some
sociological and cultural reasons why there is decline in one
conference and growth in the other. It is to say, however, that the
most obvious differences between the two conferences are
theological.
While North Georgia cannot
be labeled an “evangelical” conference, it is evident that
evangelical pastors and evangelical churches are in abundance in
that conference. California-Pacific, on the other hand, has long
since departed from its openness to evangelicals and the evangelical
message. The conference presently wants to see itself as
progressive, relevant, “inclusive” (except when it comes to
including evangelicals), diverse and prophetic. But it would seem
that the preaching of Jesus Christ crucified and risen is left out
of that equation. Whatever the situation, very few seem to be
buying the United Methodist message in southern
California
. Like other conferences in the Western Jurisdiction,
California-Pacific agitates to remove all disciplinary restrictions
on homosexual practice.
In the California-Pacific Conference one must surely factor
in the presence of the School
of
Theology at Claremont . Described
recently in The United Methodist Reporter as a school which seeks
questions rather than answers, Claremont is by far the most liberal seminary in the
United
Methodist Church . From process theology to goddess
hunts to the assumption that all world religions are authentic ways
to the same god, Claremont is on the cutting edge of
“progressive Christianity.” The school speaks much about how its
Ph.D. graduates are teaching in a number of academic institutions.
It has very little to say about how many of its graduates are
pastoring vibrant, growing churches.
