No, not the Holy Trinity. Trinitarian belief is one of the few shared values and cornerstones of our faith that both ends of the United Methodist theological spectrum agreed upon. God as Father/Son/Holy Spirit survived our simplistic fray. The trinity that did not seem to matter much to either extreme is the triumvirate of relational evangelism, global missions, and social justice. From the seminal moments of the Wesleyan Holy Club, these three aspects of Anglicanism defined the nascent Methodist movement. Without these three outward focused aspects of our faith, one cannot actually claim to be in any way Methodist/United Methodist. And all three got lost/damaged in our current inability to put Christ first in our lives and in our institution.

To focus on any one of the three demands inclusion of the other two. You cannot provide a witness to Methodism through relational evangelism without inviting participation in local justice issues and global missional needs. Focusing on social justice demands telling our faith story in personal and meaningful ways, including our intrinsic need to serve the most vulnerable in our world in the name of the Christ. And to offer Christ to the world in word and deed is fundamentally an act of social justice based in a life transforming faith. Outreach and service are not Methodist options; outreach and service are our essence and reason for being.

Now don’t get all huffy. Yes, relationship with God as parental creator through Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit is the most important thing, and we did endlessly debate who was doing it right and who was doing it wrong, but for traditional Methodism, our outward and visible signs of our inward and spiritual graces are what define us as different from Lutherans, Baptists, Disciples of Christ, Presbyterians, Catholics, etc. Too much of the independent evangelical “me and my buddy Jesus, my faith is nobody’s business but my own, I don’t need the church to be a good Christian, I am spiritual but not religious,” claptrap has leaked into the United Methodist Church, poisoning the well, and turning us inward rather than outward. The outrageous selfishness at the heart of our debates about human identity and sexuality actually denied the gospel rather than protecting it.

Eighteenth century Anglican evangelism had devolved to a mere function of the church; individuals did not have to invite others into the faith because they already knew about it. Churches were full, communities held religion (whether well practiced or not) at the center of the common life, and faith was assumed. Yet, the Wesleys and their Bible Moths understood that a strong, thriving, and growing faith required some nurture. The inquiries, “And how is it with your soul? Where have you experienced the grace of God in your life this week? Where have you been an agent of God’s grace to others?” were questions of faith sharing and relational evangelism. There was a perceived need to reignite the fires of the faith even in lifelong believers. But there was also a much larger world, where many had never heard of the Love of God in Jesus Christ, or had been exposed to a skewed and inadequate gospel.

So, for John Wesley, the need was great to “offer them Christ,” to take the gospel to the four corners of the earth, sharing not only the word to nourish the soul, but food and drink for the body, medicines for what ailed, and supplies to give physical comfort. The work of UMCOR over the last fifty-five years has been the greatest honor or our Wesleyan roots.

But, in its day and time, the social justice movement of early Methodism was truly paradigm shifting. Taking the word out of the church buildings in the factories and fields was a return to a gospel vision of preaching and worship. Championing the needs of the mine and mill workers was essentially unheard of in eighteenth century England but was fundamental to Jesus’ own ministry to tradespeople and fishermen. While modern evangelicals rant about personal holiness, Wesley understood that “there is no holiness apart from social holiness.”

The institution of The United Methodist Church and the dissenting minority wishing no longer to be Methodist completely ignored these aspects of our denominational DNA. In the mainline church, evangelism has fallen on hard times, with more people embarrassed to talk about their faith than to celebrate in their personal relationships the incredible gifts of God’s love and grace. On the other side, evangelism has become a process of weeding out rather than reaping. We evangelize not to Jesus Christ, but to our worldview and perspective.

While the institution has succeeded at global missions, it has done so representationally. United Methodists do not so much engage in global missions as they pay the church to do global missions on their behalf. Ask the average worship attending United Methodist to name the five top missional priorities of The United Methodist Church and see what kind of answers you get. We love the idea of missions more than the actual missions themselves.

While Methodists have always held a balance of all three outward aspects of the faith, there is no denial that one focus has predominated in each century. Evangelism spread our brand of faith across the United States in the 19th century. Global missions rose to prominence in the 20th century. Social justice is the guiding light of the 21st century, except where it isn’t. And where has it not caught on? General Conference. Social justice is the lead in developed countries, but Methodism has been flourishing in developing countries primarily in the Southern Hemisphere, where a weird brand of evangelism and missions has painted those churches into a theologically bankrupt corner. Our simplistic, binary missionary work of the 19th and 20th century planted an Old Testament style faith defined by rules, laws, judgments, and punishments, at the expense of any New Testament love, grace, mercy, and justice. That’s on us. You can’t teach millions of people to think one way, then get mad at them when they won’t think a different way. So, while social justice is our driving gospel pursuit of the 21st century, it has become a topic of division and disagreement instead of a gravitational center like evangelism and missions in the past.

What has been the result of ignoring our identity to try to win an argument? Well, our evangelistic witness to the world is that we are immature tantrum throwers who cannot and will not get along, who take their ball and go home when we don’t get our way, and that the church is no better than our politics that cause more harm than good. We proved to the critics of organized religion that we are hypocrites who deserve no credibility or credence. We have done irreparable harm to our global missions and our ability to serve the poor and marginalized, to support young Christian movements, and to offer tangible relief to human suffering. And social justice? Well, it has been neither social nor just. We should be embarrassed and ashamed and down on our knees in repentance and humiliation – all of us.

We made the egregious mistake of framing our church problems as a win-lose proposition having absolutely nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, yes, we used sacred scripture as a sword and shield, but only to violate the first of our General Rules, do no harm. The second rule, doing all the good we can, became irrelevant. And attending to the ordinances of God? Who had time for that when we had opponents to attack and a church to destroy?

In addition to weaponizing scripture, all sides in our recent disintegration tried to use the teachings and preachings of John Wesley to make their case. It is idle speculation what Wesley himself might think of what we have done to the church, but there is some evidence to form an alternative conjecture. John Wesley would not have comprehended our twisted definitions of tradition, reason, conservative, liberal, progressive. Unless these things all function in the service of Christ and Christ’s gospel, they are worthless. This is where I will turn my limited and biased thinking next.