Facing Up to Reality Imagine if a group within the Sierra Club no longer wanted to fight for the preservation of the environment. Imagine instead that this group, while maintaining to be the Sierra Club, actually lobbied against environmental protection. Naturally the Sierra Club would be completely ineffective in anything it does. This is the mainline situation. There are two churches in nearly every mainline. Now a group of Methodists wants to recognize this and move on. As bad a split would be, it would be even worse to stay on. It's not that the mainlines contain a differing of opinion on some issues. No, rather, they contain two groups within them that have totally different, completely opposed, un-reconciliable worldviews. This goes way beyond diversity of opinion and into the heart of the institution. Two totally opposed worldviews can co-exist in a record club or quilting circle, but not in a Church or any other organization that wants to effectively reach out and change the world. The Methodists make a good point about their recent "victory" at their annual convention: it will never be a final one. I would bet everything in my possession that the revisionists will bring up their agenda at each successive convention ad infinitum (and nauseum). In other words, the orthodox Methodist worldview of making disciples of all nations and converting them to personal holiness will never reach fruition because the revisionists will always be pushing to change the Methodist Church. How can the Methodists or any Church move forward if every Convention they are forced to revisit the past and debate the same issues? This is why I totally support the Anglican Network being formed in North American. The National Episcopal Church and its official gatherings represent a worldview at odds with the Scriptures and tradition. That worldview and mine can never be reconciled, period. It would be great to be in a Church where we don't have to revisit heresy every time we gather as a body. I'd love to be among a group of American Anglicans and know when someone says the creed it is said without the crossing of fingers or intellectual gymnastics. If we don't have to keep arguing about the basics, maybe we could actually move forward in our mission. If you keep trying to re-invent the wheel, you pretty much stay put. The orthodox Anglicans in the Network get it and now it seems the evangelical Methodists do too.