By Jim Brown and Jody Brown
January 15, 2003

(AgapePress) - Concerned United Methodist pastors and laypersons from across the country have joined together in an effort to restore accountability to their denomination, and in particular, its bishops.

The group has filed a complaint, calling for the removal of United Methodist Bishop Joseph Sprague of Chicago, who openly rejects Jesus Christ's blood atonement and bodily resurrection, calls the virgin birth a myth, and equates literal belief in the Bible to "idolatry."

In a recent report from United Methodist News Service, Sprague is quoted as saying his comments -- delivered in a speech at the Iliff School of Theology in January 2002 -- were intended for "those who want to affirm Jesus but find little meaning in the stilted Christological language of the ancient creed."

Regarding the complaint filed against him, Sprague declined to offer any statements to UMNS. "There are many things that could be said, but my understanding is that the complaint process is supposed to be confidential," he said. "So, given the disciplinary procedures requiring confidentiality, I must choose to say nothing."

Bishop Joseph Sprague

The news service reports Sprague's views have "stirred debate" within the United Methodist Church, and offers comments from bishops in Florida and Wisconsin and a retired Methodist bishop.

Thomas Lambrecht is pastor of Faith Community United Methodist Church in Greenville, Wisconsin, and spokesman for the group that has filed the complaint. He says Methodists from all over the Midwest and as far away as New York and Alaska have wanted to voice their disapproval of Sprague.

"Our complaint asks that either Bishop Sprague retract his teaching and publicly renounce them, or he resign from office or be removed from office as a bishop," Lambrecht says. "We just don't think it's appropriate for a bishop of the church to be espousing doctrines that are contrary to the doctrinal standards of our church."

Lambrecht is requesting prayer for the effort, noting that it will be an uphill battle all the way because many United Methodist leaders have bought in to Sprague's heretical point of view. He explains that Sprague represents the point of view of a minority group within the United Methodist Church that unfortunately has a disproportionate share of power in the denomination.

"The impact on our denomination has been to weaken the ministry and the evangelistic outreach of our church so that we don't have the kind of growth and ministry that we ought to have as a denomination," the pastor says. "We've been in decline for 35 or 40 years in our membership -- and in those areas that are dominated by this point of view, that decline is very steep."

But UMNS quotes the executive director of the Confessing Movement, an unofficial renewal movement in the Methodist Church, who sees something positive coming out of the controversy. Pat Miller says in some ways, it is strengthening the classical biblical faith within the church because it is causing people to disagree with Sprague's statements and reaffirm their belief that the Bible is the Word of God.

Lambrecht's group has filed its complaint with the president of the College of Bishops of the denomination's North Central Jurisdiction. The 28 signers of the complaint represent Methodist conferences in Michigan, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Alaska, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and New York.

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