Methodist Mime Time at Fresh Expressions

A gathering intended to celebrate United Methodist groups that convene in non-traditional settings touted a mime trainer/community pastor, as well as a group that meets in a tattoo parlor, among the programs promoted at the Fresh Expressions United Methodist National Gathering February 26-28 in Ocala, Florida.

According to a United Methodist News Service (UMNS) write-up, “The graceful arc of a mime in motion or the sting of a tattooist’s needle can start people on the road to redemption just as surely as attending church.”

Really?

The United Methodist Church (UMC) has been enthusiastic about partnering with the Fresh Expressions movement. And this would seem innocuous, but the issue with the UMC’s presentation of the partnership is its lack of interest in actually sharing the Gospel.

As UMNS reported on The Well Community Pastor Taeron Flemming’s mime program, “Flemming said he has worked with hundreds of students, and about 20 have gone on to become mimes themselves. But will those mimes train others so that seven generations down the road there is a large contingent of Christian mimes?”

“Seven generations” was the theme of this year’s conference, derived from the Iroquois Confederacy. As Great Plains Conference Bishop David Wilson explained, “Make your decisions on behalf of the next seven generations coming so that they may enjoy what you have today.” This idea seemed incongruous with the conference’s emphasis on the lack of permanence in ministries, particularly church buildings.

In answer to the question about Christian mimes, the article went on to answer, “Maybe yes and maybe no. In a way, it doesn’t matter. The Fresh Expressions ethos is to continually innovate and adapt to the times, whatever the destiny of any single ministry.”

However, making Christians should, in fact, matter to the Church; that is precisely what the Church is tasked with.

In the past, the Baltimore-Washington Conference has bragged of its Fresh Expression projects, “Rather than prayers, one starts with a ‘moment of reflection’; worship music is replaced with secular songs that carry special meaning for listeners; Bible study is transformed into open-ended questions that lead to deep discussion.” How then does it help them know Christ?

The Fresh Expressions Movement claims to meet in non-traditional settings because, as the Baltimore-Washington Conference explained, “The Fresh Expressions movement is not about growing the inherited church. In fact, they are designed to reach people who might never feel comfortable with traditional religion.”

There is only one church, the mystical body of Christ, and in our daily lives, Christians participate in it through local bodies. It is the church that the Saints loved, and for which the last 2,000 years of martyrs gave their lives in imitation of Christ, whose sacrifice made the church our inheritance in the first place. We are to “go out” in order to bring people in.

It is defeatist to act as though the gospel cannot overcome division; that precisely is what it does, according to Paul’s letter to the Galatians, unity in the body is the prayer of Christ.

The write-up of this year’s conference also dismissed the focus on long-term ministries.

“A sanctuary becomes a daycare becomes a retirement center, is torn down and becomes green space,” the Rev. Matt Rawle told UMNS. “Building lasting ministries is good, but being determined that they last forever may be overreaching… We like to plant and build and take up space with the bold assumption that it will be here forever. The sadness in that I see in my own kids because I have crowded them out from their own footprint.”

This is the opposite of the way congregations for centuries viewed their churches and ministries. It wasn’t that they were averse to change when needed, but they built structures and ministries that they thought would last because they anticipated the body of Christ would continue to be built and serve Christ within them.

When I was a United Methodist, we were continually told something similar: “the building is just a building” and “we have to go out.” “Go out” was never defined, but it was made clear that it was anywhere but the church. This sentiment always felt like the trite platitudes of a denomination that knew its membership was rapidly declining. After all, what’s the point of going out if not to bring people into the body of Christ, and that body has to meet in order to live in community. And the community that meets in church, that teaches the scripture, that is intergenerational, that serves one another, and the community together is far more intimate than fleeting community building programs.

One example that exemplifies the issue with Fresh Expressions comes from the Baltimore-Washington Conference in 2023, “One older man transformed his weekly practice of going to the dog park into a spiritual community. The first question that ignited this Faith Expression was, “If God was a dog, what kind of dog would God be?”

By contrast, my church recently dedicated its organ. We intentionally restored the historic organ that had been bought with the hard-earned wages of the immigrants, who, over a century ago, moved to the area and believed a church was the best use of their money. It was carefully restored by the donations of the current congregants, not just for our use, but as we were told at the rededication, for the use of proclaiming the gospel to our children and children’s children and so on. That is why the first hymn played on the restored organ was “O God Our Help in Ages Past.” By the grace of God, it was a testament to the permanence of the Church.

The UMC’s membership vows require the member, “to uphold the local congregation with one’s prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness.” Those are made to the “inherited church,” and they are in the service of something fruitful and permanent.

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‘Inclusive’ Methodism and Real Inclusion

Mainline Protestantism’s Fall?

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