The Regionalization of the Bible?

Really? In response to a recent blog by Dr. Stan Copeland of Lovers Lane UMC (https://um-insight.net/general-conference/general-conference-2024/who-really-speaks-for-african-united-methodists-–-r-hetoric/) one person wrote that "Africa will not accept the regionalization of the Bible."

It would be interesting to know exactly where the idea of "regionalization of the Bible" came from, but a good guess is that it came from Good News Movement propaganda based on recent writings by Rob Renfroe and others. 

So it needs to be stated that the regionalization amendments to the UM Constitution do not regionalize the Bible. They place certain types of decisions in the hands of regional and local church leaders in order for those decisions to be made in culturally sensitive and socially appropriate fashion.

Specifically regionalization gives to the regions the following types of decisions:

• 1. Criteria for ordained and licensed ministry: Regional conferences would set the minimum qualifications and educational requirements to ordain, commission, and license clergy within their bounds. Annual conferences within each regional conference could include additional qualifications and educational requirements as well.  
• 2. Criteria for specialized lay ministries: Regional conferences would also set the minimum qualifications and educational requirements for specialized lay ministries within their bounds. 
• 3. Criteria for admission of and care for lay members: Regional conferences could set their own criteria to determine whether persons qualify for professing membership in The United Methodist Church within their bounds, as well as set expected standards of character and conduct for persons to be continued as professing members. 
• 4. Organization of the regional, annual, district, and charge conferences: Regional conferences could create their own forms of organization for these bodies within their region and document them within their regional Book of Discipline. All such forms of organization must comply with the laws of the country or countries involved.
• 5. Hymnal and ritual: Each regional conference could develop and publish its own hymnal and ritual, including its own rites for marriage and burial, for use within its bounds. 
• 6. Judicial administration: Each regional conference would establish its own judicial court to rule upon questions arising from new or adapted sections of the regional Discipline over time. It would also set its own rules and processes to implement its rules for the investigation and, if needed, trial of its clergy and laity when formal complaints are brought based on the chargeable offenses and penalties as adopted in its regional Book of Discipline.

You'll notice there is no mention of interpretation of the Bible in this list. 

Regionalization does not touch on paragraphs 101-199 of the Discipline, which include Doctrinal Statements, General Rules, The Ministry of All Christians, and the Social Principles. These include the affirmations concerning the Bible in the Articles of Religion, further clarifying that the Bible cannot be regionalized. Nor can those articles be changed because of the restrictive rules (paragraphs 17 - 22.)

So we need to call BS on this idea that regionalization entails "regionalization of the Bible." It is a crude political slogan that is useful only for those who benefit from dividing the UMC.

The desire for an absolutely uniform set of rules based on an unquestioned source of authority is understandable. Many of us want the kind of assurance that we'll never be implicated in the mistakes of others. Or we want the assurance that comes from imposing our decisions on everyone else. Such was the desire of many Jewish leaders in Jesus' day. 

But Jesus himself destroyed that assurance when he healed on the Sabbath and drank the Samaritan woman's water. The apostles ratified his example as their own "rule" at the council of Jerusalem and Paul went on to make it the rule of his congregations.

Wesley himself recognized it when he released his American followers to build a church on the same foundation, but with different rules from his own Methodists in England, Scotland, and Wales. 

Regionalization brings this same Jesus-centric, apostolic, Bible-based tradition to the UMC of the 21st century. Past time, really. Now we can seek assurance from God's love, present through God's Spirit, in our congregations and lives.