When The United Methodist Church was formed in 1968, eminent theologian Albert C. Outler preached an opening sermon in which he extolled “an aura of hope” for the new denomination despite its challenges.
Facing new challenges today, United Methodist leaders recently announced several proposed innovations that many clergy and church members say rekindle an aura of hope after years of dissension and decline.
The UMC officially became a new denomination in November 2025 when the Council of Bishops announced four constitutional amendments had passed a worldwide vote by more than 90% approval. The biggest structural change reorganized the UMC into a worldwide denomination with eight co-equal regions, thus removing the U.S. church from the center and opening the denomination to more participation by United Methodists outside the United States.
Since then, United Methodist leaders have been working to fashion new management while facing significant challenges in membership and finances. While all proposals must be approved by the 2028 General Conference, these ideas have been officially put forth within the past two weeks.
Four agencies — Global Ministries, Discipleship, Higher Education and Ministry, and United Methodist Communications — announced plans to “unify” their operations into a single unit. Global Ministries and Higher Education and Ministry already share a top executive, Roland Fernandes, and all four agencies say they’ll be working toward greater alignment and shared operations from now until the next General Conference. Discipleship, Higher Education and Ministry, and United Methodist Communications are located in Nashville, Tenn., while Global Ministries is headquartered in Atlanta.
The General Council on Finance and Administration brought together UMC groups that work with the Council of Bishops, a body whose existence is threatened by the decline in revenue resulting from the departure of 7,500 U.S. congregations from 2019 through 2023. The late-February summit also brought together representatives of the Connectional Table, a ministry coordinating body, and the Interjurisdictional Committee on the Episcopacy, which works on bishops’ assignments.
The financial council has asked the church’s “high court,” the Judicial Council, to clarify how to apply legislation adopted by the 2024 General Conference that sets new rules for allocating and assigning bishops. A decision may come later this week.
Organizers of the 2028 General Conference, the denomination’s top legislative body, shortened the once-every-four-years assembly from 10 days to eight to work within a budget decreased from an average of $12 million to $10 million. The 2028 congress is slated to occur May 8-16, 2028, in Minneapolis, despite a plea from the UMC’s InterEthnic Strategy Development Group to move the gathering outside the United States.
IESDG and other United Methodists have advocated moving the event to symbolize the UMC’s new co-equal structure and because the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown threatens the safety of international delegates, especially those from Africa and the Philippines. In response, General Conference organizers are looking at the possibility of a remote location in Canada with online video access. United Methodists in Minnesota have said they will protect international delegates with the same courage and dedication Minneapolis residents protected their immigrant neighbors during the recent crackdown in their city.
While the flurry of proposals carry with them myriad details to be resolved — and in some cases, long-held traditions to overcome — news of activity toward the UMC’s new organization sparked relief and anticipation among church leaders.
David Valera, executive director of connectional ministries for the UMC’s Pacific Northwest Conference in Washington and Alaska, wrote April 22 that news of efforts to sustain the Council of Bishops especially drew his attention.
“At first glance, it may sound structural or distant. But the more I read, the more it felt deeply pastoral, because at its core, it’s about how we are led, how we care for one another, and how we remain rooted in connection even as things change,” he said.
Lovett H. Weems Jr. drew on Albert Outler’s 1968 sermon for the title of his new book, An Aura of Hope: United Methodism’s Next Chapter in the United States, released April 15. The distinguished professor of church leadership emeritus at Wesley Theological Seminary and founding director of Wesley’s Lewis Center for Church Leadership, Weems wrote in a recent Substack post: “On that day of celebration in 1968, Outler was clear that the future held challenges. ‘The church is in radical crisis, and in the throes of a profound demoralization,’ he said. He reminded everyone that Methodism’s golden age had faded, and any new world will require a new generation of frontier people to be as dynamically adaptive to their new world as our forebears were in theirs. Indeed, that is once again the challenge of the moment.”
Cynthia Astle
Cynthia B. Astle writes about The United Methodist Church for BNG.