In the lead up to the gathering, the Council of Bishops is working with United Methodist Communications to host a series of three webinars open to all United Methodists. These webinars will focus on how the vision statement’s call to “love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously” connects back to the denomination’s mission and Wesleyan theology. The webinars are free and recordings will be made available publicly. Each will be roughly an hour and half in length.
The first webinar is themed "Love Boldly" and explores the foundations of Wesleyan theology and how they shape United Methodist identity today. Participants will reflect on core theological commitments, shared beliefs, and how theology informs who we are as Wesleyans and as The United Methodist Church.
This webinar occurred on January 24, 2026 9:00am Central Time. A recording of the webinar and a discussion guide are available.
Hosts & Speakers
Bishop Ruben Saenz
Bishop Ruben Saenz serves as resident bishop of the Horizon Texas Conference. He brings extensive pastoral, episcopal, and connectional leadership experience to the church’s ongoing theological reflection and institutional discernment. Bishop Saenz offers a global and relational perspective on leadership, discipleship, and the shared future of the denomination. He also serves as the President-Designate of the Council of Bishops.
Dr. Ashley Boggan
Dr. Ashley Boggan serves as General Secretary of the General Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church. A historian and theologian, she provides leadership for the denomination’s work in historical preservation, research, and theological reflection. Dr. Boggan regularly contributes to conversations shaping United Methodist identity, doctrine, and connectional life, grounding the church’s future in its theological and historical foundations.
Rev. Dr. Erika Stalcup
An ordained deacon in the Switzerland–France–North Africa Annual Conference, Rev. Dr. Erika Stalcup serves Village Mosaïque UMC in Lausanne, Switzerland. She coordinates the Methodist e-Academy and teaches Methodism and liturgy at Cliff College in the United Kingdom. Her ministry and scholarship focus on Methodist identity, worship, and theological formation in diverse and international contexts.
Rev. Marian Royston
Rev. Marian Royston is an elder in the North Alabama Conference. She serves as the first female pastor of the historic St. Paul UMC in Birmingham, Alabama. In addition to her pastoral ministry, she serves as a Cultivator through the Conference’s Office of New and Renewing Churches, supporting congregational vitality and leadership development.
Rev. Prof. Peter Mageto
Rev. Prof. Peter Mageto serves as Vice Chancellor of Africa University, a United Methodist–related institution in Mutare, Zimbabwe. Ordained in The United Methodist Church, he holds a Bachelor of Divinity from St. Paul’s United Theological College in Kenya, and both a Master of Theological Studies and a Ph.D. from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Illinois, USA. With more than 25 years of experience in ministry and higher education, he was inaugurated in October 2022 as Africa University’s fifth Vice Chancellor.
Transcript
United Methodists are God's people, shaped by a profound Wesleyan heritage, and we are stepping in faith into a new season of ministry.
The Council of Bishops and the Connectional Table are proud to unveil a new vision for the United Methodist Church, a vision that reflects our deep commitment to embodying God’s dream for the world. 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 connection. Let’s briefly explore this vision and what it means in action.
Love boldly. We passionately love God and, like Jesus, embrace and include people of every age, nation, race, gender, and walk of life.
Serve joyfully. With the heart of Christ, we journey alongside the most vulnerable, offering care and compassion with joy.
Lead courageously. And following Jesus’ example, we resist and dismantle all systems of evil, injustice, and oppression, striving for peace, justice, and reconciliation.
This renewed vision is more than words. It is an invitation to embrace joy and hope as we live God’s mission. It also provides us with a clear, Christ-centered framework for missional unity and collaboration across the worldwide connection. Together, we will discern how each of us can participate in the new thing God is doing. Thank you.
Bishop Ruben Saenz, Jr: Good morning, beloved children of God, and grace to you, and peace from Christ Jesus, our Lord. What a joy and a privilege it is to see the global connection come alive in real time as we listen, learn, and dream together about the future God is shaping for our beloved United Methodist Church.
I’m Bishop Ruben Saenz, Jr., and it is my joy to welcome you to the first of three virtual webinars in our journey toward the October 26 Council of Bishops Leadership Gathering in Calgary, Canada. I extend the warm greetings from Bishop Tracy Smith Malone, our present Council of Bishops’ President, and from the entire Council, who have entrusted this design team with a sacred responsibility to listen, to discern, and to ensure that your voice—wherever you worship, whatever language you speak, whether you lead a congregation or lead in your home—shapes the vision we carry forward together.
Before I go any further, I want to hand off to my co-convener, Stephanie Henry, who will guide you through the technical details of this webinar and help us navigate the platform together. Stephanie, the floor is yours.
Stephanie Henry: Thank you, Bishop. And I’ll flag that I believe I’m hearing Portuguese through the English channel. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening for everyone around the world. I am Stephanie Henry, co‑convener of the design team with Bishop Saenz, and I am thrilled to add my welcome to our first webinar.
We have language interpretation available for French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and American Sign Language. Here’s how it works. You will see a notification that interpretation is available and to select your language channel. Click the interpretation icon—it often looks like a globe or speech bubble—in your meeting controls. You may need to select the three dots where it says “More” to see “Interpretation.” Select the language you want to see or hear from the list. If you select American Sign Language, a separate window will appear. If you select French, Korean, Portuguese, or Spanish, you will hear the translated audio from the interpreter, and you will hear the original speaker at a lower volume to hear the speaker’s tone, but you can mute the original audio in that same menu if you prefer.
Interpreters have an icon next to their name in the participant list. You will hear all speakers speaking at a moderate pace, which ensures clarity, prevents fatigue, and maintains a smooth flow of communication. You may also select to show captions in your meeting controls.
This webinar is being recorded and will be made publicly available via the Resource UMC webpage.
Finally, we have reserved time at the end for questions and answers with the panelists. Please click the Q&A icon—it’s the speech bubble with the question mark—to submit your questions. That should do it, so I hand it back to you, Bishop Saenz.
Bishop Saenz: Thank you, Stephanie. I want to begin with a deep gratitude this morning. We’re blessed to gather with participants from across the globe—from Europe, Africa, the Philippines, and the United States. Thank you for taking time from your Saturday morning, for crossing time zones and language barriers, to join us in this moment of shared discernment. We are grateful for our distinguished panelists—leaders from Switzerland, Africa University, and the North Alabama Conference—who bring rich wisdom grounded in different contexts, but united by a common faith.
We also give thanks for Dr. Ashley Boggan and the design team leadership and innovation team, whose careful stewardship of this process reflects the excellence and care we seek to model across the whole church. And I want to acknowledge the exceptional work of our United Methodist Communications team. Their technical skill and generosity make this gathering possible across every digital divide.
So let me place this moment in a larger story. Two years ago, our denomination faced a crossroads. We carried deep divisions about identity, doctrine, and mission. In this season of testing, the Council of Bishops asked a hope‑filled question: What if we designed our future not for the church, but with the church? What if we listened—truly listened—to the voices of our youth, our general agency secretaries, Sunday school teachers, clergy from rural congregations and urban centers, and laity from six continents speaking in six languages?
That conviction birthed what you are part of today. In the coming months, a denomination‑wide survey in English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Tagalog is asking you three sacred questions: What do you hope the church will prioritize? What do you envision for us 50 years from now? And what message do you want our October gathering to carry back to the whole denomination?
Your participation in this survey is vital. When clergy and laity from around the world respond to the same questions, the Spirit will weave our voices into a single tapestry of hope. That tapestry will guide the work in Calgary and the outcomes that flow back into the episcopal areas, annual conferences, and local churches around the world. The design team has made a binding commitment to weave the themes emerging from our survey responses and our webinar conversations into the October agenda in Calgary. When we gather, your voice will be in the room, your hope will shape our prayers, and your discernment will guide our decisions and commitments.
These three webinars are the heartbeat of that listening. This morning, we gather around the first part of our new vision: Love Boldly. This is an invitation to explore how Wesleyan theology, rooted in God’s prevenient grace and passionate love for the world, can shape a hopeful future.
On February 21st, we’ll gather around the second part of our vision—to serve joyfully. We’ll ask how our mission can both be locally rooted and globally connected.
And on March 21st, we’ll gather around the third part of our vision statement—to lead courageously, bringing prophetic voices to discern what Christ‑centered leadership looks like in this pivotal season.
These webinars are designed for the full diversity of our United Methodist communion. So invite your youth group, invite your cabinets, your local congregation, your Sunday school classes; invite your friends and neighbors who wonder what the United Methodist Church might become.
We expect these conversations to deepen God’s grace and our hope. You’re not observers and you’re not guests; you are essential voices in our collective discernment. So welcome.
So now, as we prepare our hearts for this conversation, I want to offer a prayer rooted in the promise that has sustained the people of God across the centuries. Many of you may recognize these words from the prophet Jeremiah: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, and when you seek me with all your heart, I will answer.”
Let us pray. Eternal God, source of all love and fountain of hope, we gather this morning from many lands, many languages, many contexts, yet joined by one Spirit and one faith. We thank you for the audacious vision that has brought us together, that your church might be shaped not for us, but with us. We confess that we do not always know the way forward, but trust that you walk with us and are already waiting for us far into the future. Jeremiah reminds us you know the plans you have for us—plans for our welfare, plans for hope, plans that invite us to seek you with all our hearts and find you in that seeking.
So we ask you, Holy Spirit, to open our ears to one another in these webinars, to open our hearts to the voices we have not yet fully heard, and to open our imagination to futures we have not yet glimpsed.
Grant us the courage to love boldly—not with a love that is naive or weak, but with the fierce, incarnational love of Jesus Christ, who emptied himself for the whole world’s sake and calls us to do the same. As we listen to our panelists from Africa, Switzerland, and North Alabama, help us to see the face of Christ. As we speak into the survey, as we name our hopes and our visions, help us to speak not from fear or self‑interest, but from the deepest wisdom of your Spirit. And finally, God of all hope, we pray for those who will gather in Calgary in October. Give us the grace to build together, brick by brick, voice by voice, hope by hope, a church that looks more like the beloved community you have always envisioned. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, who loved boldly, served joyfully, and leads us courageously into your future. Amen.
Dr. Ashley Boggan: Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. I am Dr. Ashley Boggan, and I am currently serving as the General Secretary of the General Commission on Archives and History for The United Methodist Church. It is my joy to introduce our theme and our panelists for today. Joining us and guiding us with their wisdom are three United Methodists.
First, we have Reverend Marian Royston, who is an elder in the North Alabama Conference. She serves as the first woman pastor of the historic St. Paul United Methodist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Additionally, she serves as the cultivator through the Office of New and Renewing Churches in North Alabama.
Second, we have Professor Peter Mageto, who serves as the vice chancellor of Africa University and holds a bachelor’s degree in divinity from St. Paul’s United Theological College in Kenya, a master’s in theological studies, and a doctor of philosophy degree from Garrett‑Evangelical Theological Seminary in Illinois. Professor Mageto has a wealth of experience spanning over 25 years, which he has obtained from working in ministry and for various universities. He was inaugurated as the fifth vice chancellor of the 30‑year‑old United Methodist‑related institution in October of 2022.
And finally is Reverend Dr. Erika Stalcup, who is an ordained deacon in the Switzerland‑France–North Africa Annual Conference. She serves The Village and Mosaic United Methodist Church in Switzerland and coordinates the Methodist e‑Academy, and teaches Methodism and liturgy at Cliff College in the UK.
Thank you, panelists, for taking time out of your Saturday to help us discern our future as United Methodists. We are going to dive right in, and Professor Mageto, we are going to begin with you and with a rather broad question. Not all of the persons joining this webinar today might understand what theology means. So can you answer the question for us of, what is theology?
Professor Peter Mageto: I hope I can be heard. Thank you very much. What is theology? You know, I was thinking about it as a young man who accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior while I was only 16 years old. Then I didn’t know that I would be engaged in theology. And I’m not going to go into the theologians’ discourse, but I just want to see it from a very simple approach of our Sunday school class—seated, imagining that there’s a God who is speaking, and there is a human being that is listening, and that human being is expected to respond to what that God has said. Very simple communication that happens from God to humanity and back from humanity to God.
If I were to phrase it differently, it will be what the book of Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 12—and you find the same again in 2 Timothy, chapter 3, verse 16—where the Word is described as being active, in fact sharper than a two‑edged sword. In essence, then, theology is listening to this Word, which is spoken by God, and then humanity giving a response back to God in listening to the spoken Word.
And then, in my own understanding, I say anything outside the response is idolatry, is heresy. And then we ask ourselves, how well do we then listen to the God who is speaking? Because theology—they told us that “theo” is the Greek word for God, and “logos” is the word for Word. Theology therefore becomes God speaking his Word and that Word becoming active.
Consequently, how we respond to God’s Word then becomes now our conversation of that theology. And we see it in the historical sense, we see it in a social sense, we see it in a moral sense, and more interestingly, we see it in the ecological sense, where we respond to God’s Word in all ways possible.
And God has been active in this Word in different ways. And that’s why you hear the others say African theology, liberation theology, womanist theology, feminist theology, Minjung theology—many theologies. But what they are saying: God is in conversation with these people, and his people are responding to God’s Word. Thank you.
Dr. Ashley Boggan: Thank you, Professor, that was an absolutely wonderful response! And I want to jump to Rev. Royston. Why is theology important?
Rev. Marian Royston: Yeah, thank you, Professor, for that very beautiful definition and explanation, and when you were talking, I couldn’t help but think about the fact that it’s so important that we participate in that conversation, and the way that we participate in that conversation really dictates the way that we’ll relate to God, the way that we’ll relate to one another, and the way that we’ll relate to the world around us. And it’s really important that we attend to that, because if we don’t, then we risk not being all that we could be and doing all that we’re called to do for God and with God.
I think that our theology is what animates our holy imaginations about what is possible, about what we can do, and about what we can see. I mean, we get to be those people who envision rivers in the desert and highways in the wilderness, and we can only do that because of the theological imagination we have and because of that conversation. Because if we only look at what’s around us, then we’ll be quite limited. But when we join into those theological conversations—and those can’t just be individual, they have to be with the whole church and with each other—then something really beautiful and something really miraculous happens. And so it’s really important that we attend to that theology and that we continue to listen attentively so that we can clean it up sometimes, or so that we can add to it. So thanks for that.
Dr. Ashley Boggan: Thank you. And Reverend Dr. Stalcup, what is distinctive about our Wesleyan or Methodist theology?
Rev. Dr. Erika Stalcup: Thank you for that question. And that’s a question that I get asked a lot in my context, where Methodism is not well known. I’m going to answer this question in two parts. And the first part of my answer is a bit cheeky. Wesleyan theology is not supposed to be distinctive in any context. John Wesley did not want Methodism to become an end in and of itself, but a means of living out our vocations as people who follow in Christ’s ways.
And I understand that this question probably means, what is most characteristic of Wesleyan and Methodist theology where I live? And there are certainly particular emphases in Methodist thinking, like holding together inward spirituality and outward action, personal and social holiness, and recognizing that God’s grace came before us, goes with us, and is already waiting for us. And perhaps the other panelists will speak more about these characteristics of Methodist theology.
But I’m going to use the space to question the question itself. Is it important to be distinctive? John Wesley said no. He outlined the characteristics of a true Methodist, including right relationship with God and others, holiness of heart and life, and humility, goodwill, and an active and practical faith. But then he added—and I paraphrase a little bit, but not a lot—he said, “You might notice that these are simply the characteristics of a Christian. I know that. Apart from this common Christianity, I vehemently refuse”—and that is a direct quote—“I vehemently refuse to be distinguished from others. In fact, I renounce and detest all other marks of distinction.”
And I’m pushing back at this question not because I enjoy splitting hairs, but because I feel it’s a matter of life and death. How we regard each other—like how we negotiate difference—is so important, especially for such a time as this. And if our goal is to distinguish ourselves from one another and to focus firstly on what separates us from others, we are not helping to bring about the realm of God where all people and things are united.
I understand the importance of knowing who we are as Methodists and knowing what Methodism is and where it comes from, and that’s why we’re here. And at the same time, Methodist theology needs to shape disciples who, when looking at their neighbors, will not focus on what separates me from you, but rather what unites us and what are our joint hopes, our shared fears, and our common mission. And so I see that one distinctive aspect of Methodist theology is to resist being distinctive, or to put our Christian identity above our Methodist identity. And this is what makes Methodists good at ecumenism and interfaith relations, at working with people from other churches and other traditions. And it is also what allows Methodism to take root and to flourish in many different contexts, because it honors the identities and needs of people where they are, as they are.
And the second part of my answer is much shorter. One other characteristic of Methodist theology that I see in my context and elsewhere is this: Theology is a verb. It’s not a destination. It’s not a set of fixed understandings that we all need to arrive at and agree upon in order to call ourselves Methodist or Wesleyan or Christian, but it’s a journey that we embark upon together, and it’s something we do in community. So theology, or faith‑seeking understanding, is this journey that takes sincere questioning and a healthy humility and a holy curiosity about God and one another, and an openness to new understandings, right? Otherwise, we put the Holy Spirit in a box.
And so we do theology not just in the classroom, but in church committee meetings, in youth group, in prayer, through music and other creative arts, and in all our relationships that we entrust to God. Theology is for everyone. And another name for this ever‑evolving journey is discipleship—being a people of the Way, as early Christians called themselves, the people who study at the feet of the one who called himself the Way.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you, Reverend Dr. Stalcup. I always appreciate a good nuisancing of the question.
Professor Mageto, I’m curious as to what you might add to Reverend Dr. Stalcup’s answer in terms of what is distinctive or characteristic about Methodist theology in your context.
Professor Mageto: Just from almost like a footnote of what Doctor has provided, but more importantly within the context of where we operate, there is a level of distinctiveness that Wesley, John Wesley especially, brought out and that remains a Methodist distinctiveness. Think about one of his letters. It is recorded in one of his letters written March 20th of 17—9. And here, I quote: John writes, “I look upon all the world as my parish. This far, I mean that in whatever part of it, it is my bounden duty to declare unto all that are willing to hear the glad tidings of salvation.”
Methodism stands out with the gospel of salvation. This is distinct—not bounded, not framed, not with boundaries, but open. And he takes it out very nicely later when he writes about, I believe you know what—especially if you are Methodists—you know what we call the four alls.
All need to be saved. Now, if you are in the context of Africa Methodism, one of the greatest messages we preach is the message of salvation. We believe that all need to be saved.
All can be saved—that there is none who can be written off. Everyone has the potential to receive the gift of salvation. And this is one of the reasons as to why we engage in missions, in evangelism.
But interestingly, all can know that they are saved. Having that personal experience of Jesus Christ was a distinct nature of Methodism—that you can speak wholeheartedly of your relationship with Jesus Christ.
But we also believe that all can be completely saved.
In those four, in the context of our operations, we take the message of salvation not just as a message that is being preached by everyone, but also that it gives identity to the Wesleyan family, where salvation becomes the basis of our mission, of our vision, and of whatever we engage in. Thank you.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you, Professor. And Reverend Royston, what might you add about the distinctiveness or the unique characteristics of Wesleyan theology in your context?
Rev. Royston: Yeah. So in my context, which is the Southern United States and a part of the country that is known as the Bible Belt, there’s a lot of Christianity here. And there are a lot of different flavors and forms of Christianity. But we do have a distinctive here because I grew up in a very small town in Alabama, and a lot of the people that I spent time with had a more shame‑based understanding of God, a more fear‑based understanding of God.
And our Wesleyan theology in this context stands out because it’s based on what God is doing and how good God is, and not how terrible and horrible we are. It doesn’t center us; it centers God and what God is doing in the world and the way that we’re being formed by the love and the goodness of God. And in a world that seems to be filled with fear and filled with anxiety and uncertainty right now, that does stand out. And that is important to live into because it is different.
It’s not necessarily different on purpose. We believe that we’re being faithful as we live this way. But it’s so very important right now when there are so many people, in my part of the world especially—I can’t speak for everybody’s part of the world—who almost seem to be drowning in despair. To know that we’re not the central actors here, but that we get to participate in what God is doing and be formed by God’s love and be shaped by that, and then be able to boldly go forth and share that love is very powerful. And so, for me, I think that’s something that we need to grab hold of at this time.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you. I mean, on that topic of loving boldly, I want to shift us to our next question, which concerns the new vision statement, which emphasizes loving boldly. So what is a concrete story of loving boldly in your context? And we’ll begin with you, Reverend Dr. Stalcup.
Rev. Dr. Stalcup: So, throughout history, the church has been working on breaking down all sorts of barriers that have prevented different groups of people from being recognized as full participants in the body of Christ. And even the United Methodist Church has so many groups and agencies and commissions dedicated to getting rid of these discriminatory “‑isms” like racism and sexism and many others.
But I see that there is, in particular, one type of inequality that is so deeply embedded in our church practices and our liturgical language that I don’t really see being addressed very much. And this is the distinction between people inside the church and people outside the church. So, one Sunday morning, I was in the middle of praying a prayer of intercession for refugees and others who have experienced war and violence, and suddenly I realized that the well‑meaning prayer that I was praying could not be prayed in the same way by the refugee sitting in front of me. My prayer, which was supposed to be a prayer on behalf of the whole people, was a prayer of the fortunate for the unfortunate.
And I also presumed that the fortunate—so those who were healthy, wealthy, living in times of stability—were part of the church, the “us” here, while the unfortunate—those who were sick or in financial need or living in times of instability—were those over there, people who were far away from the church. And from that moment, I committed myself to intentionally expanding the “we.”
And a few years ago, my local church pressed restart. We wanted to become a community that did not simply exist for itself, but that would nourish and create meaningful relationships with people who might not otherwise consider going to church, especially people who have been hurt by church. So in my European context, there is a deep suspicion of institutionalized religion. Churches are often perceived as being irrelevant at best and judgmental or even abusive at worst.
And in addition, Methodism is not a common tradition, so it’s often suspected of being a sect. And I am often asked, “What is your method?” So when trying to promote ourselves as a helpful and non‑judgmental community, the very fact of being a church presents us with obstacles. But we persisted boldly, and we developed an interreligious residential community and other types of ministries, all the while being very intentional about our language.
And I remember being told once that we would have to choose between being a Christian church and an interreligious organization. And I remember saying, “No.” And so one Christmas, we were singing “Silent Night” by candlelight, and I looked around this big circle and had this sudden realization. I saw a Muslim family, the mother of whom had recently composed a song‑poem about the birth of Jesus for our Advent festival. I saw a Jewish resident of the community who had participated by reading Old Testament. I saw a Hindu resident who sang in our choir. I saw people who had been traumatized by church, people who would not necessarily label themselves as Christians. And I saw long‑time Methodists who chose to stay and to welcome change.
And there we all were, holding our little candles, agreeing to be there with and for each other, celebrating a mystery that none of us fully understood, embodying kin‑dom communion not because we all understood the world in the same way, but because our hearts were knit together in love. And I thought, the Spirit has made this thing of exquisite beauty. Thanks be to God. That’s my story.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you. And yeah, loving boldly does often enable us and compel us to cross boundaries. So thank you for that story.
Professor Mageto, I’m curious as to what a story of loving boldly might be from your context.
Professor Mageto: There are many stories that I can tell. Taking an example that the sub‑Saharan Africa is just huge. But let me share something that almost unites all of us in the context of our continent. We believe in one key phrase that you hear people talk about a lot, but it’s very close to that “loving boldly.”
You hear Ubuntu philosophy that speaks of, “I am because we are. And because we are, therefore I am.” There is no separation between the individual from the community or the community from the individual.
And now imagine that community being a Christian community, a United Methodist community, that sits in the middle of a crisis. And there are so many crises, but let me share an example. I want to share it from a campus‑life experience. We have been privileged to receive all these young people from the four corners of the continent. And while you are on campus and enjoying and seeing there is so much progress, you hear that there is a war that has broken out. There is a crisis in Goma—that’s, of course, in DRC. There is a crisis between the Democratic Republic of Congo, there is Rwanda. What, in most cases, people do not realize—within Africa University, you find that you have the community from all these countries, and you have students from both ends. In fact, you have students from the context where the crisis is taking place.
But thank God that there are people called United Methodists. While they are here on campus, they pull together as a Christian community to share what it means to love in the midst of such a crisis. But they receive the news, too, that the local elder, the pastor, and the bishop—they are also involved in the reconciliation ministry of what is happening, not just reconciliation but the caring ministry.
For me, loving boldly is not a phrase; it is active living. It is the true call of what John Wesley reminded us again of the social holiness—whether that’s called the social gospel. It is a daily call. It is a daily mission. So whether you are within a congregation, you are in the village, you are in the street, you’re on the roadside, loving boldly is a missional call. Thank you.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you, Professor. And Reverend Royston, can you share a story about loving boldly in your context?
Rev. Royston: Sure. And I’ll tell you, going at the end of this line makes my emotions… I’ve heard so many heart‑warming stories. So thank you two for those stories that you shared.
When I was sifting through all the stories in my head of what I could possibly share, the theme that came up with all of those stories is that loving boldly does not denote grandiosity. Sometimes when we hear “bold” we think it has to be big and demonstrative and it has to be way out there. But in all of the cases that I could think about, loving boldly was really simple and more resolute and more about stubbornness almost and refusing to give up than it is about making a big show of things.
And so, before I was appointed to the St. Paul that I am currently pastoring, I was pastoring another St. Paul in another city in Alabama because the North Alabama Conference has many St. Pauls. And at this particular church, I was appointed there at the height of the Omicron variant of COVID‑19, if we can remember back there in our minds. And I was immediately wrapped into this story of this church’s food pantry.
Now, this particular congregation was not big. There’s less than 100 people there, probably less than 50 active members. But this congregation sits in a traditional working‑class neighborhood. The neighborhood has lots of sidewalks, and it’s very walkable, and it’s intergenerational. It has a lot of disabled veterans there. There are a lot of people with mental‑health issues there who have government subsidies to kind of help them live independently. There are elderly. There are children. So it’s very— and there are a lot of ethnic mixes, and there’s a great amount of food insecurity in this neighborhood.
And if you all can recall, in the United States when the pandemic started, there was a great amount of food insecurity that took place. There were a lot of people who were wondering how they would survive. And this particular church, unlike many of the services in the city, never closed its little two‑day‑a‑week, two‑and‑a‑half‑hours‑a‑day food pantry. And as a result, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of families were fed and taken care of because two women decided that they would find a way to continue to take care of their neighbors.
So they changed the process that the pantry had been using, they put on their PPE, they were very brave, and they kept the thing alive the whole time. And by the time that I arrived at this church, this church had an even greater reputation. When some of the other pantries in town opened back up, people would request to be sent to this church because they were treated with kindness and dignity. They were asked what kind of foods they liked. They were asked what kind of food their children liked. They were treated with respect, which should be the norm, but sometimes when people are trying to get a job done, they don’t do it particularly well.
And the beauty of this is that other congregations, other United Methodist congregations, were able to join in. They were able to give food to this pantry. There was one member of another church who went to all the local grocery stores—or a certain grocery store, Publix—and got all of their bread and brought it there. And that was her ministry of contribution.
And so it was really a way of—as those two women loved boldly, they encouraged other people to find a way to love boldly in a situation that otherwise would have looked impossible. And in a situation where other people with more resources, other places that had greater means, these women said, “We’re going to do this.” Even in the face of those who said that they couldn’t, they figured out a way to make it be done.
And it made a huge difference in the lives of their neighbors.
Dr. Boggan: Oh, my gosh. I feel like I could just do story time about loving boldly for the rest of the day and be completely satisfied and my heart strangely warmed.
But I do want to move us on to our next question. So, one of these kind of unique characteristics about Wesleyan theology or Methodist theology is that we have this faith‑filled desire for community. And so I’m curious to hear from our panelists: How does our theology pull us to engage with or towards community? In other words, how do we refuse this false binary between spiritual formation and acts of justice and mercy? And Reverend Dr. Stalcup, we’ll start with you.
Rev. Dr. Stalcup: Thanks. To the first question, our theology helps to create community, I think, when it’s done in community and when it grows out of the lived experiences of the community. So it’s important that theology is something that is done together at the grassroots level. And connected to that is the importance of who does theology—like who is encouraged to seek to understand their faith. Whose voices are lifted up as important guides along this journey of theology? Children—who Jesus says we’re supposed to resemble—elders, immigrants, people from a variety of languages and geographical contexts and life experiences, even the present groanings of creation. Which voices help us to theologize in a way that the realm of God is made visible and tangible? I’m wondering how the very process of doing theology together leads us toward reconciliation and unity.
And one example I have from the European context—this is a story from the Methodist e‑Academy. This is an online school that provides Methodist theological training to European Methodists who probably don’t have a Methodist seminary in their countries or in their context. So these students come from all over Europe and North Africa, and they forge deeply meaningful relationships through this journey of sharing and discovering and seeking understanding together.
This is a story that our retired Bishop Patrick Streiff, who’s the chair of the e‑Academy board, loves to tell. So, the current district superintendents of Romania and Hungary both studied together in e‑Academy. And at one point, the two countries were faced with the need of merging into one annual conference. And in spite of the historic tensions and conflicts between these two countries, the superintendents said that for them it was perfectly natural because they had studied together. And so the way that we do theology shapes how we see each other, which in turn shapes how we build bridges on all sorts of levels.
And then as to the second question—how do we refuse the false binary of spiritual formation and justice and mercy? I think sometimes we mistakenly think that what is spiritual is purely internal and passive, involving our heads and our hearts, and that doing justice is something purely external and active, involving loud and visible and dramatic gestures that require lots of energy and courage—like this grandiose aspect that we’ve already evoked. But our spirituality is not meant to be stuck in our heads and hearts.
We’re also spiritual with the rest of our bodies and the rest of our lives. Our spirituality is lived out in the way we wait in line at the post office, the way that we drive, the assumptions we make about the people we pass on the sidewalk, the choice of plants that go into our gardens. I think the most effective spiritual practices are the ones that are really integrated into our daily lives. And a spirituality of the ordinary might not be very Instagram‑able, but when it leads to right relationship, it absolutely moves us into the realm of justice.
And lastly, justice is not only done in these loud and spectacular ways, but also in these quiet, discreet, and stubborn ways—by responding to derogatory jokes by simply saying, “That’s not funny, that’s not okay,” by making friends with people whose life experiences are different from our own, by teaching our children to care about friends and enemies alike, and by considering every word we say, every dollar or euro or franc we spend, every choice we make as a potential gift. And when these acts of justice—even and especially the little ones—become holy habits, then they bring us right back into the realm of spiritual practice.
Dr. Boggan: Wow. Thank you. Professor Mageto, what might you add?
Professor Mageto: Thank you very much. As an addition, I truly believe that our connectional ministry of The United Methodist Church gives us a true glimpse of what true theology is about, and we must look for ways and means for us to celebrate the connectional ministries. I want to give two examples. One, let me take the ministry of Africa University. For a number of you may not know, Africa University is not a common university. I’ve always believed that this is God’s project, and I present it as God’s project. How so?
Within the connectional spirit of The United Methodist Church, theology pulls us together through Africa University for us not only to offer support, but to train transformative leaders—either for the church, for the community, or for the industry—whom we truly believe that once they come out of Africa University, they are not just carrying credentials, they are not just carrying certifications; they are totally transformed individuals of integrity of character, truly informed by the traditions of The United Methodist Church in going to serve their communities.
But this is also made possible through good people called United Methodists. Through our Africa University–Tennessee, Inc. office, where they raise funds, they invest funds, they disburse funds on behalf of the university. Some of you seated on this call, you may have given in one way or the other to be able to transform—not that individual you may never get to know—but to transform the continent of Africa.
The second example I want to give is one of the general agencies. This is the General Board of Global Ministries. And again, within the continent, the establishment of what has come to be known as the Yambasu Agricultural Initiative—making it possible for communities that have spaces of land to produce food where maybe hunger or famine was literally destroying lives. Now we are declaring new life. This is the connectional spirit of The United Methodists. That is the theology that is pulling us together as we fulfill the mission of the church. Thank you.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you, Professor. Reverend Royston, what might you add?
Rev. Royston: Yeah, I’ll add a story from my context and a comment. Thank you, Professor Mageto, for bringing up the term “transformation,” because I think that’s really important here. And I think that when we refuse the false binary between justice and mercy and spiritual formation, then that means that we want to participate in full transformation, because otherwise it’s kind of incomplete. And so we can’t really say that we want to be participants in the transformation of the world if we’re not willing to be transformed.
So as we are working toward justice and mercy, we have to also work toward union with God and toward growing in grace and toward being transformed by God’s love.
And when I think about all of this, I think about a story from my current St. Paul, which is of the young adults at this congregation. And in the United States, we don’t see as many young adults, perhaps, as we used to in mainline denominations like The United Methodist Church. And in this particular congregation, we have a group of young adults who stayed—a group of young adults who said, “This is my home church. This is where I’m called to be.” And so very shortly into my tenure there—and I’m only at the 18th month, for context—they came to me and they said, “We want a young adult discipleship group. We want a young adult Bible study.” So that’s what it started with, was a Bible study, because they sincerely wanted to grow in grace and they wanted to learn to love God more and to love each other more.
And as it’s gone on, they keep agitating the congregation to do more as they do more. So it started with Bible study, but it’s moved into full community and it’s also moved into doing outreach and service toward the community. Back in the fall, we had a very terrible time in the United States when SNAP benefits, which are food benefits to families who aren’t able to completely pay for their groceries— The Collective, which is the name of this young adult group, they stepped up and they said, “We want to lead a food drive for the congregation. We want to lead the congregation in this.”
And they continue to find ways to lead the congregation, but it started with their personal desire to be formed. And as that happened, then all of a sudden they start to see so many opportunities to not only hold the church family together in love, but to also reach out in love to the community in different ways. And they continue to search for ways to continue to reach others and also to be formed deeply together.
And so they really cherish the time that they spend together, but it doesn’t end with just them spending good time together. It goes out into the world, out into their workplaces. And I have personally seen the transformation of this group. I’m young‑adult‑ish, so I get to join in, too. So thanks.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you for that story. And before we move on to our final kind of planned question for the panelists, I do want to remind our participants that in about 15 minutes, we will move into a question‑and‑answer session. And so be sure you’re putting your questions in the appropriate place if you have those.
So, our final kind of planned question for the panelists looks to the future and asks, how might you see loving boldly shaping the future of The United Methodist Church? And we are going to begin with Reverend Dr. Stalcup.
Rev. Dr. Stalcup: Yeah, it’s me. Thank you. I’ve thought about this, and it takes me a bit of boldness to say some of these things. But I hope that loving boldly can lead us into at least three things: a Methodism beyond belief, a Methodism beyond the box, and a Methodism beyond borders.
So, a Methodism beyond belief—what I mean by that is that it recognizes that agreement on particular exact sets of beliefs has never been and never will be the foundation on which our unity rests, neither as Methodists nor as Christians nor as human beings. And this is not at all to say that beliefs don’t matter, because they do. But just to say that they should not create barriers to growing together in faith and working together for justice and being present with and for one another. This is not a new and innovative idea. John Wesley encouraged people to prioritize loving alike over believing alike. But it requires boldness because it takes lots and lots of humility, and this is not always easy.
A Methodism beyond the box—this echoes a Wesleyan suspicion of formality, which is a fancy way of describing what happens when we start to worship our own ways of doing things. And I think that loving boldly means focusing on right relationship with God, with neighbor, and with self and the rest of creation. And if we keep this as our priority, it might help us to identify forms and habits and structures that do not serve us well—or do not serve us well anymore—and that do not lead to the full reconciliation of all people and things. Or it might help us to gain a new appreciation for ancient forms and habits and structures that could serve us well. And there are many Methodist communities around the world that are being church in surprising and wonderful ways, and they have a lot to share about what happens to communities when we let go and let God.
And the last title that I’ve come up with—a Methodism beyond borders—I want to see resources and ideas and inspiration flowing in new directions within the denomination. What does this have to do with loving boldly? Because it means looking to different worldwide regions as legitimate sources of theology and spiritual practice and recognizing and celebrating the goodness of ways that are not, or are not yet, our own. Because I think worldwide Methodism needs to know that Farsi‑speaking Methodists in Germany are writing their own church songs in Farsi, and that Nordic Methodists produce a stunning coffee‑table‑quality book series called Nordic Perspectives on Methodism, which is in English, and that there exists a wildly successful and deeply thoughtful German‑and‑English podcast called The Holy Club, and that Macedonian Methodists funded a new church building by going on tour selling a traditional condiment made of roasted red peppers and eggplant.
And I give all these shout‑outs because I think that our many different worldwide expressions of Methodism have so much to share, and we have so much to learn from each other. And I pray fervently that regionalization will not lead to compartmentalization, but that it will expand our understanding of what the church can be, that it will enlarge our hearts and deepen our curiosity about one another and give us strength and resources for the journey.
Dr. Boggan: Wow. Let it be so. Oh my gosh. Thank you. Professor Mageto.
Professor Mageto: I truly appreciate that response. It sets the foundation of what I wanted to say. As we think about the future, we must think what has gone before us. Three centuries ago, I just made reference again to John Wesley’s desire: “The world is my parish.” The United Methodists of the church of the future must spend more time mapping the world as our parish. And I want to insist on this one: In order for the gospel and the theology and the love of the Methodism, the Wesleyan family, to take place, mapping the world as our parish will offer us the basis of that future.
And I want to make three points. One, Jesus’ call was very clear. Dr. Stalcup has already made this reference with “Let the little children—let the children—come to me. The kingdom belongs to such as these.” It is high time, if we are really serious about The United Methodist Church of the future, it is high time for us to bring the debate around asking what is the place of the children in The United Methodist Church. A number of our congregations have no children.
Second, we must get into the true call or ministry—mission and evangelism. The United Methodist Church of the future must move into this space of mission, intentional mission. How does that happen? We can’t celebrate the closure of congregations, of sanctuaries. We can’t celebrate the end of ministries. We must celebrate the beginning of ministries. If one door closes, which one has opened? We must answer that call. The United Methodist Church of the future must remain missional in all ways.
Number three—to me this is very critical because I deal with young people—we must take time to hear the prophetic voices that are emerging from our youth and our young adults. What are we hearing from these voices? What are they imagining? What is God saying to them? Not what Mageto is saying to them, not what Ashley is saying to them—what is God saying to them? It is their future, too. Empowered through the power of the Holy Spirit, I believe truly that The United Methodist Church of the future will be greater than in the yesteryears. Thank you.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you, Professor. Reverend Royston.
Rev. Royston: Yeah. And so I have two answers to this one. And the first one is, I hope that in the future we will be okay with being a little bit weird again, without worrying about being so socially acceptable and respectable, that we will confidently go to the dirty, vulnerable places of the world and get our hands dirty, and not just on the higher level, not just from staff from certain agencies, but that we as regular people—lay people, everybody in every corner where there are people called Methodists—that we will be okay with rolling up our sleeves and getting our hands dirty and being present with our neighbors, no matter who they are, no matter what their story is, and being people of love, being people who are very serious about being present in the world.
I just see so much hope in our ability to do that. And I also know that, once again, that it’s a double transformation when that happens. We get to transform the world around us, but we are being transformed. Our communities are being turned into something that looks more like God’s coming and present reign.
And the second thing that I would say is that I hope that in the future we have more of this—more opportunities for people across the connection to get together. We have the gift of technology now, so everything isn’t so expensive. But I know that one of the most transformative things to my ministry and the way that I even understand being a United Methodist is the fact that I got to participate in a training program called United Methodist Ecumenical and Interreligious Training Young Adult Network, in which I got to be in community with other young adults from across the connection. We got to learn about ecumenism and interfaith. We got to visit Africa University, and we got to care about each other in tangible ways.
But outside of General Conference and outside of some other programs like that, we have some limited opportunities to connect across the connection meaningfully. And I think that as we continue to move forward, that has to be a part of what we do—that we really prioritize meaningful connections on every level of the church as much as possible. Thanks.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you all. All right, we are going to turn to some questions that have been coming in through the chat or through the question‑and‑answer place, as well as some that we received when persons registered. So, Professor Mageto, I’m going to direct this question to you to get us started, and then we’ll also go to Dr. Stalcup and Reverend Royston. And this question talks about kind of global conflict and how we love boldly amidst global conflict.
So the question says: In the context of African nations such as the DRC and Rwanda, as well as global conflicts like Palestine/Israel and Ukraine/Russia, how does Wesleyan theology’s emphasis on holiness and love challenge believers to embody a love that boldly confronts the injustice and violence of war? So, Professor Mageto, if you can get us started with an answer to that.
Professor Mageto: Thank you. I don’t know if I’ll do justice to it, but let me just offer one true example how this can be. As we have highlighted in our discussion so far, we are a connectional church. And indeed, the world is our parish. Based on the instances provided, I believe that one core ministry of the church is the ministry of reconciliation. But we also suffer from ignorance. I think as a church we must accept that we suffer from ignorance—not because we do not have a map before us to tell us where this country is or where this country is or what it is.
We suffer from ignorance because for a long time we have dealt with that question—what was seen as politics was separated from what was seen as spiritual. So in most cases, and unfortunately, the cases provided cannot be compared. In certain places, religion or faith or the church was told to stick to the pulpit while the politicians engaged with politics. But really, we talk of holistic living. We are interested in the ministry of the body, the soul, and the mind. And the body called United Methodist has the capacity, and we have seen in different ways through such agencies like UMCOR, through such agencies as the Commission on Race and Religion, we have seen Church and Society. There are certain agencies and commissions that we have seen engaged.
How we devolve this into the real spaces of pain—how we get these agencies into the context of the villages, the streets where this is happening—that must remain our key call.
And maybe this speaks also to the structure of the church. It’s one thing for us to have our connectional-level dealings, our annual‑conference dealings, but maybe we do not get to be where the real pain is. And the real pain is in the congregation. How do we then empower the congregation to be the community of reconciliation, of peacemaking, of that loving boldly? That remains our assignment.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you, Professor. Dr. Stalcup or Reverend Royston, do you all have anything that you’d like to add to this question? Yes, Reverend Royston.
Rev. Royston: Sure. I’ll just add that I think that when we think about global conflicts, that one of the things that we can do that’s very faithful is to refuse to look away. And sometimes it’s very easy to do that, especially in my context where there’s so much social media, there are so many algorithms that can help us to just be entertained all the time and not necessarily informed.
And so as we think about our faithful response, even if we don’t live in conflict zones, it could include us informing ourselves about it, informing our congregations and our Sunday‑school classes and our youth in an appropriate way, and committing to sincere prayer about some of these issues.
And I believe that as we do that, we will find the right action to take, whether that means contributing to relief efforts, contributing to what UMCOR is probably already doing in those areas—whatever that looks like—contacting congregations that might be on the ground and letting them know that we are there in support. But also understanding how the way that we live and some of the things that we benefit from could be contributing to global conflicts and repenting of those things and understanding how we can live in a way that is different and in a way that means that we’re not a part of the problem as much as possible. And so that’s my addition there.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you. Dr. Stalcup, do you have anything you’d like to add?
Rev. Dr. Stalcup: Well, I think that sometimes when we use the word “global” to describe conflicts—I mean, I know that we’re talking about actual things that are happening in particular places—but sometimes thinking on a global level is difficult because we start to think more abstractly. And when we think about people as people instead of this person by their nationality or putting people in categories, but seeing a parent, a child, a human who is like us, I think this can maybe change something for us.
But I think that our relationships—I mean, how we think about and navigate global conflict and just trying to get our heads around it—starts with our more intimate relationships. It starts with how we are with one another in daily life. I will always go back to that. And so I think it’s important in preventing global conflict to start with the people who are around us and the way in which we talk to our children in particular.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you. And related to this kind of understanding of global versus local, or global in connection with local, Professor Mageto, we had a question about how does our current or our emerging structure as The United Methodist Church benefit our call to love boldly? Or how is it a challenge to our call to love boldly? So we’ll start with you, Professor, and then we’ll go around to the others.
Professor Mageto: Thank you. I’ve always looked at our structures of church from an Africa University perspective. We admit students from all corners of Africa—from the Francophone, the Lusophone, the Anglophone. And by the time you get to campus, sometimes you are not aware of what you will be doing. But when you get to campus, the first thing you need to do—if you’re coming from Francophone, Lusophone—is to register for an English class. If you come from the Anglophone, you must register in one of those.
So your first year, you are going to be engaged in one of the languages, either English, French, or Portuguese. Now we are working on Swahili and also on Arabic. Why so? Because the desire is driven by the Ubuntu values.
Now, if we take the question that you have asked around the structure of our church as a connectional body, we come with the newest of regionalization. The essence of it is not necessarily creating barriers or frameworks to be able to provide boundaries for ministry. It is literally what I’ve always seen as providing a space for ministry in context. I hope that when we evolve and as we continue to evolve, we will be pulled enough to be able to tell each other collegially to speak what God is saying in the context of your region.
For me, I use it in the context of the regions that we have in Africa. Interestingly, I come from Kenya, I work in Zimbabwe, and while I walk in there, I literally belong there. Are there similarities? Very many. Are there differences? Very many. Does that stop us from doing ministry? No. Does that call us together into ministry? Yes.
So for me, this is giving a voice, especially to those who are intentional in doing what the Lord Jesus Christ commanded the disciples: “As I have loved you, love one another.” I hope that the regionalization, as part of the structure of the church, will not become a permanent block. I hope it will not become a permanent block where we will be pointing a finger and saying, “You can’t go beyond there, you can’t go beyond there.” The world is our parish, even in regionalization. We must remember that the spirit of connectionalism remains even when we are doing ministry in context. Thank you.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you, Professor. Reverend Royston, I’m curious to hear how you might see the current structure or the emerging structure as either a benefit or a challenge to loving boldly.
Rev. Royston: Yeah, I see it as potentially both. But my sincerest hope is that it frees us to do the best ministry in the context that we’ve been given as possible—that we can be freed up from thinking about things that don’t necessarily impact where we are, and we can begin to be very imaginative and very innovative with what we’re doing where we are and not worry about certain structures holding us back. But those are things that—that’s just me speculating.
But then, as Professor alluded to, I hope it doesn’t silo us off. And I hope it doesn’t draw lines; instead of just creating some boundaries and containers that help us, I hope that we use it appropriately and that we don’t use it to create barriers against one another, because we already see that not only is the world around us changing, but the United Methodist landscape is changing, and even the landscape of the way that we as United Methodists migrate from one place to another and the things that we take with us.
And so I hope that we can continue to learn from each other, that we can continue to be strengthened by each other, and that we use this as a platform for contextual ministry and not for shutting each other out and not learning from and listening to the wisdom of one another.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you. Reverend Dr. Stalcup, do you have anything to add?
Rev. Dr. Stalcup: Well, I echo some of those concerns about the future. I guess from my standpoint in this European context, the practice of regionalization—not the official, but the practice of regionalization—and these differences has already existed. There has already been a right of adaptation in the conferences, regions outside of the U.S., to do different things, to adapt certain things, to modify parts of the Book of Discipline.
And so for many, it appears to be an acknowledgment on the part of the U.S. church that these differences exist. So I think for some of us it doesn’t seem like it changes a lot in practice, but we hope that it will shape, again, the way that we see each other as United Methodists in different parts of the world, the way that we collaborate together, the ways that we continue to share ideas and inspiration. So I have a lot of hope for the structure going forth and pray that those will be realized.
Dr. Boggan: Amen. All right, another question that we have concerns hope. So, coming out of a global pandemic and a season of disaffiliation within the larger United Methodist Church, where do you all see hope for the people called Methodist? And Professor Mageto, we will start with you.
Professor Mageto: We see our hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. As long as Jesus Christ remains the Lord and the Savior of our lives, is the Lord of the Church, is the Shepherd of the Church, we have hope. We can’t be a people who will lose hope unless we do not have that relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. So there is hope.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you. Reverend Royston, where do you see hope?
Rev. Royston: Yeah, I was—I’m glad I didn’t go first with this one. I had to have a little bit of time to think.
You know, I see hope in the mischief of the Holy Spirit right now. I shared with you all earlier that story about the young adults at my congregation, but the other part of that story is that when you dig into the numbers of my city, the average age of Birmingham is 35. And so it’s very curious that there would be all this Holy‑Spirited activity around young adults in a church that has a young pastor. I don’t think that’s a mistake.
But I also think that if we look all around the connection, we see these little Holy‑Spirited sparks that are happening. And it’s almost like we’re on the edge of a revival if we’ll let it happen. And so I have this sincere hope that we will fan these little sparks into a flame and that something big and beautiful and sustainable for the next generation will happen. Because I have a lot of hope in the people who stayed—a lot of hope in the people who are cleaning up the rubble from the mess of COVID and disaffiliations and all those things, and who are doing the very hard work of re‑evaluating some of our practices, some of the culture that we’ve let kind of flourish that maybe we need to let fall away at this point in our life together.
And so I just have a lot of hope in the people who are brave enough to follow the mischief of the Holy Spirit.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you. Dr. Stalcup, where are you finding hope?
Rev. Dr. Stalcup: Well, I’m kind of tagging on what Reverend Royston had just said, and I’m seeing some of those sparks and some of those that have both fanned into flames on this side of the pond. Also, my instinct wanted me to say I see hope in the young adults, not just because they’re young adults, but because I see something’s happening. And I’m wondering if it’s part of this worry about artificial intelligence, a lot of the ways in which how we are with each other has become so disembodied post‑COVID and with digital media and all of this.
And I see this need to just be with people and to find, like, authentic in‑person connection. And I see people seeking that out. There was a news article here recently saying young people are flocking back to church. I don’t know if I would say that in my context, but I see that there’s a need and that people are taking steps to get those needs met. And if the church can be a part of that, so much the better.
Professor Mageto: Ashley, let me provide another footnote to what colleagues have said. I hope, as part of what I just said, if we continue to watch how the world is moving—the whole world seems to be focusing into the Southern Hemisphere, not for anything except for resources.
Now, the body of Christ should be eager, especially our United Methodist Church, to see hope in the young church that is taking place in the Southern Hemisphere. Numbers do not lie. How we inculcate that, how we cultivate that, how we navigate that—that’s where our hope is. I said the hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ. But as they have told me recently, and I’ve outlined a few things, they say, “Hope is not a strategy call.” It sounds very good, almost like we are talking about faith. But in order for hope to be meaningful, there has to be intentional discipline. And how we introduce that United Methodist discipline in form of faith into the emerging communities of faith will indeed shape that hope for the future. Thank you.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you. And we have about seven minutes left in our conversation this morning. And I want to offer our panelists kind of a second to say anything that has been on the tip of their tongue and they haven’t gotten a chance to say thus far as kind of a final word to the denomination. Let’s see—since Professor Mageto just went, Reverend Royston, can we start with you?
Rev. Royston: Sure. I think my final word is that we need each other and that we’re better together. And we do have this gift of a connection. And in my context, we have a lot of churches that are not connected in the way that we are. We have a built‑in structure that is helpful to us. And although people are more skeptical of institutions than they’ve ever been, I believe—or they’ve ever been in my lifetime; I don’t know about ever—
But what I will say is that we have a structure that can help us even as we help each other be hyper‑local and be very contextual and very loving where we are. We still get each other. And so I just think that we need to rely on each other, to lean on each other, to listen to the wisdom of each other, to read the words of people across the connection, and to listen to one another. And that will enrich us and help us to go forward. So that’s my final word for everybody.
Dr. Boggan: Thank you, Reverend Royston. Reverend Dr. Stalcup, do you have a final word?
Rev. Dr. Stalcup: I’d rather stay on her final word. That was so beautifully articulated. I don’t know what I have to add to it except “Amen.”
Dr. Boggan: That is very fair. Professor Mageto.
Professor Mageto: I can only say the future of The United Methodist Church literally is determined by us. God has given us the honor and the privilege to be the church. And in being the church, we shall then cultivate the church of the future. I see hope, I celebrate hope, because in the context of where I am, Africa provides the ground for that hope for The United Methodist Church. Thank you.
Dr. Boggan: And to those of you who submitted questions, thank you so much for your participation. If we didn’t get to your question, we will save it and have it shape our next conversation in the second or the third webinar or the conversations in April or October.
Before turning it back to Bishop Saenz, I just wanted to take a second and thank our panelists. Thank you for your wisdom, your voice, your ministries. It has been such an honor to learn alongside you all today, so thank you, thank you, thank you! And Bishop Saenz, I will turn it back over to you.
Bishop Saenz: Thank you, Dr. Boggan, and I echo your words—thank you to the panelists, Rev. Dr. Erika Stalcup, Professor Peter Mageto, and Reverend Marian Royston. Thank you so much for sharing your stories, for sharing your wisdom, and for connecting us across the world. I know that we have all been enriched by learning about your contexts, and your words and your witness have encouraged all of us that have been here on the panel, but the whole church as well, as we learn about what ministry, what loving boldly looks like in your context.
I like what Reverend Royston said: “The mischief of the Holy Spirit is at work,” right? And so many of you made such poignant remarks and had some powerful spiritual insights about what it means to love boldly—not only internally, the internal work of that, but also the external work and how it manifests in acts of justice and care, and how it works out in all of our lives, whether we’re standing in the grocery line or driving our cars or working, and how our spirituality, our Wesleyan spirituality, lives and makes the difference in the world in our local context and through that throughout the whole world.
So thank you again. Thank you, UMCom production team, for your amazing support and work. And thank you, Dr. Ashley Boggan and your whole leadership and innovation team for stewarding this webinar with so much thoughtfulness and prayer and care.
And so, again, we remind you that our next webinar is February the 21st, and we will be focused on serving joyfully. So now I want to hand it over to Ms. Stephanie Henry, who will close us with a prayer. Stephanie?
Stephanie Henry: Thank you, Bishop. Please pray with me. God, Spirit, Christ, we thank you for our connection that brings us together around the world. We’re grateful for the wisdom and courage of the panelists as they shared with us. Surround us as we go from this place. God, continue to seek us, speak to us, calling us to love boldly. In your holy name we pray. Amen. Thank you all.