After much prayer & discernment, I’ve decided to voluntarily retire as bishop 12-31-22. I believe I can best serve Christ in retirement. I’ve sent a letter to all the members of the @txumc citing the impact of continuing disobedience and conflict at txcumc.org #umc – at Houston, TX

All of us have friends and respected colleagues who will each be in these two denominations. As we interact with one another in person and online, let’s call to mind Galatians 5:22-23.

(2/2) Lord, may you give us the wisdom we need, fill our hearts with love and mutual respect, and bless all concerned as we move into this future, even if we are separated in an organizational way, that we might be united in love.

(1/1) Lord, we ask for your blessings on the @txumc as we meet in our #specialsession on 12-3.

My prayer is that the Texas Annual Conference, under the leadership of this new bishop, will in fact be the best that it can possibly be. I am praying for our Special Session on 12-3-22, but also for the future of the @txumc and its churches. #UMC

My goal is to set the Texas Annual Conference up for this new chapter with as much strength as possible so that my successor, the next bishop of the @txumc will have as much stability, yet flexibility to lead the UMC well in these 58 counties and accomplish our mission.

I want to make sure that the Texas Annual Conference emerges from all of this as strong as possible.

To help this happen amicably, I am calling a #SpecialSession of the Texas Conference of the #UMC for the morning of 12-3-22 for a number of limited tasks, including granting separation to those churches deciding that is best for them.

It goes back to the model in Acts 15 where Paul and Barnabas decided to #separate to strengthen the mission of the church. #UMC

I’m proud of the Texas Annual Conference for the way we have been handling this #disaffiliation process, proud of the spirit with which we have approached it, and the way churches are prayfully and carefully discerning how to best serve Christ. #UMC

(2/2) We have to approach this process with the kind of love that John Wesley said, “Even if we cannot think alike, may we not love alike.” Surely, we may. #UMC

(1/2) It’s my reality that I have been presiding over the splitting of our church, as I have tried to tell you, it is breaking my heart. There are a number of churches that are discerning whether to stay or go in the #UMC.

The restructuring of our conference through the discipling model has made the Texas Annual Conference stronger and better able to withstand the changes that are coming. #UMC

(2/2) We’ve made a lot of progress on a couple of issues. We survived a pandemic, started We Love all God’s children, an African American Church Initiative, we planted new churches, and recruited some new clergy. #UMC

(1/2) As my time is drawing to a close, I’ve been thinking about what we here at the @txumc have accomplished.

The United Methodist Church and the Global Methodist Church will both have ripe mission fields and that will impact the audience they are trying to reach. One will be fully inclusive, and that will be attractive to a lot of people.

The other will offer a traditional alternative on issues of human sexuality. There are advantages and disadvantages in both of these options, but also note that I regard both the UMC as it continues and the GMC as it forms to be valid expressions of Wesleyan Christianity.

I'm convinced that the Wesleyan movement needs both a progressive denomination and a traditional denomination to complete its mission in the next decades.

The coming split in our church is a deep defeat for me. As a man who has tried to champion the extreme center, who has tried to do these things, this is just going to be a really, really hard time. Let’s continue to pray for one another in Jesus’ name.

William Butler Yeats wrote a powerful poem: Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer. Things fall apart, the center cannot hold.

For many years I’ve been trying to describe this Christianity as the extreme center. Knowing there are tensions involved & places where we look & hold things in tension w/ each other, we’re going to hold those things in tension & move to it w/ all the energy & power we can.