Is it time for the various branches of the United Church of Canada renewal movement to change course? Is the Holy Spirit not calling us to something new-life as a Confessing Christian in the United Church perhaps?

Suspicions I have harboured of late but not uttered until now have gained validity with me by Mike Milne's June 2007 Observer article, "Mellowing of the Right." The information in the article has been reinforced in my mind by Thomas Oden's book, Turning Around the Mainline. I believe there is no turning around this mainline denomination. It has turned; turned away. What we have been doing has not had the desired effect, either within the renewal movement or in the church, and it is now time for the renewal groups to do some turning of their own. It is time to repent, confess our sin and turn onto the way God has given.

This will come as a surprise to Fellowship Publications, but God has uniquely strengthened them to be the inheritors of the mantle of renewal in the United Church.

Milne's opening descriptions of the renewal movement as "mellow," "quiet," and "fading" sound suspiciously like the condemned lukewarm church. His article paints a picture of the diminishment of the UCC renewal movements. The United Church Renewal Fellowship, which many years ago began crying the warning for our present predicament, was lost to amalgamation a few years ago, and is now only a remembrance at an annual memorial rally. The NACC? Diminished by the loss of a third of its congregations. The COC? Diminished by a lack of leadership and direction. Church Alive? Diminished by reduction to a mere forum for dialogue. "Mellowing" was a kind word.

Being a subscriber to all the renewal publications and being somewhat involved in their organizations events, my impression is that Milne's brief report is accurate. My impression is that the report is true-mellowed, quiet, fading, and diminished; none of the aforementioned renewal groups seems to have the energy, the resources or the will to support its desire to have a meaningful impact on the faith and life of our United Church. And it is no wonder.

The forces for promiscuous faith quietly and methodically gained control of the seminaries and the courts of the church. With this power, the voices of the Orthodox Christian consensus have easily been ignored, with toleration extended only to make us "feel better now that we've got that off our chest," and to soothe their conscience concerning their openness to dialogue. No turning around, no return was ever intended by the turned but only a steady striding away from Christianity, to Humanism.

Briefly and imperfectly stated, Oden's book speaks of the North American Mainline Implosion: its crisis of "biblical faith and theological integrity" with its consequent moral collapse. He argues that the mainline is slave to a failed ecumenism that put unity ahead of, or even in the place of, truth. In so doing it spawned four heretical idolatries at the heart of the liberal church. These are: truth as unity of ethical standards, truth as personal feelings and experiences, truth as dialogue, and truth as institutional unity. These support each other, need each other and are anathema to the consensus fidelium, the Apostolic faith, the truth of Jesus Christ "as received by believers of all times and places by general consent."

"The key is orthodoxy-consensual Christian memory…," Oden says. It is the scandal of the atoning, redeeming, saving, sanctifying work of Jesus Christ-God Incarnate. This is, he says, the truth, which the mainline liberal church cannot stomach!

In chapters 10-13, the statements of faith of the various United Church renewal movements are cited extensively as examples of faithful confessing Christians. It is the truth spoken under the compulsion of theological crisis no less dramatic in its utterance to the mainline in our age than it was in the theological battles in the days of the heresiarchs of old.

However, in chapter 16, Oden holds up the United Church of Canada as the North American model of denominational implosion. The chapter title declares it as, "How The United Church of Canada Lost Its Confessional Identity." Although he does not say it outright, the chapter's final words are clear in saying that the United Church has crossed the boundary. Although God's power and grace knows no bounds, yet God has spoken a point of no return. The United Church of Canada has passed that point.

After Oden's thought, as our denomination has turned away from the consensus fidelium, so now the time is come for faithful Christians to cease participating in destructive idolatries and turn to this same rejected Apostolic truth. It is time for faithful Christians to turn away from the idolatries of institutional unity, of dialogue, of feelings, of ethics and to turn to the new ecumenism of the consensus fidelium identified by Oden as Confessing Christians

What does this mean for orthodox Christians inside and outside of the renewal movements of the United Church? Judgement begins at the House of the Lord, and so we who have claimed to be the Lord's must confess our sin, for our failure must be seen, at least in part, as God's judgment on that sin.

Judgment begins with me. The reasons Milne holds up in the mellowing of the renewal movement, these are the sins by which I myself said, "I'm sorry! I cannot come." Although I was for a time a director of Church Alive and a sometime contributor to Theological Digest and Outlook as well as the other renewal publications, and although I attended and gave leadership in some renewal events, I held myself back. I should have, could have done more. I am in need of forgiveness from those here, and those no longer with us, who steadfastly lent UCC renewal their courage, their intellect, their wealth, their time, the sweat of their brow, the strain on their integrity, and the power of their faith. I must ask the forgiveness of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ who lived, died, rose and is coming for me. I held myself back from this one Lord I am sworn to serve. I throw myself upon His mercy and seek His grace.

Judgment begins at the House of the Lord, and so the renewal groups who have claimed to speak for the one true Lord must confess our corporate sin. Milne is right. We whom God calls to be passionate and persevering, to cry the warning from the rampart, to be a beacon on a hill, have become quiet and mellow, understanding and accommodating, tired and distracted, and, dare I say it, as lost as the church to whom we would like to give spiritual direction. One of the best marks I got in seminary was on a report on a failed project. Acknowledging our failures might yet bring us God's best.

Of Church Alive I ask, is not repentance before the Lord to repent of the idolatry of dialogue as if Truth could come by words of civil negotiation, by the genteel exchange of learned opinions? Such things do not bring forth Truth, but Truth brings forth civility, consideration, knowledge and understanding. May it not perhaps be your Lord's will that your life would be forfeit; that you be reborn as you pour your gifts of wealth and talent into Fellowship Publication, and there witness as Confessing Christians to the Truth?

Of the Community of Concern I ask, is not repentance before the Lord to repent of the idolatry of ethics, as if Truth could come from political lobbying and by the votes of courts? Such things do not bring forth Truth, but Truth brings forth freedom and order. May it not perhaps be your Lord's will that your life should be forfeit; that you be reborn as you pour your gifts of wealth and talent into Fellowship Publications, and there witness as Confessing Christians to the Truth?

Of the National Alliance of Covenanting Congregations I ask, is not repentance before the Lord to repent of the idolatry of institutionalism, as if truth was to be found in remaining faithful to physical union? Are all not guilty of this idolatry when we substitute the illusion of staying within the United Church with integrity for the Truth? Such things do not bring forth Truth, but Truth brings forth unity. May it not perhaps be your Lord's will that your life should be forfeit; that you be reborn as you pour your gifts of wealth and talent to Fellowship Publications, and there witness as Confessing Christians to the Truth?

Is this not, you may ask, the abandonment of struggling, faithful individuals and congregations in the United Church? No, it is not, on at least three counts. First, the abandonment of individuals and congregations is already under way by virtue of the mounting failure of the various renewal groups in the church. The steady haemorrhage of United Church membership may be seen, in part, as the recognition by individuals that the United Church is not going to be renewed and they need to seek strengthening in faith elsewhere. To follow the course of action I suggest is not abandonment, but an attempt at the recovery of faithful ministry to those same individuals and congregations who remain.

Second, Jesus was very clear that our unity is in him. If we are united in him then it doesn't matter whose denominational name is over the door. Further, in Matthew 10 and Mark 3, Jesus our Lord is clear that his family is not the earthly family into which he was born but that his family consists of those who do the will of his Heavenly Father.

The United Church is not united in Him, and our faith family is no longer this one into which we were "born," but it is the family of Confessing Christians united by the truth of Jesus Christ. Oden says it is time for the faithful to leave the old ecumenism and join the new ecumenical movement consisting of those who bear witness to the one Apostolic Faith held by the church in all generations, those whom he calls Confessing Christians. We do not need to leave our congregations to do this; it can be done individually, as groups or as whole congregations, by seeking fellowship and support in communion with other Confessing Christians, be they Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Pentecostal, Vineyard, Missionary and Alliance, Mennonite, etc., or even United, where possible.

Third, the renewal work of the COC, NACC and Church Alive is unlikely to match the success of renewal within our sister United Methodist Church south of the border, on the one hand, nor is it likely to bring about the exodus of whole congregations, as it continues to do in the Anglican Communion on the other. Perhaps we should not see ourselves as a renewal movement but as a Confessing movement.

Perhaps the renewal groups need to leave the church of the world to itself, and minister to the faithful children of God. Perhaps the renewal groups need to die to themselves to be reborn as a confessing movement whose work is carried on through Fellowship Publications. I believe Fellowship Publications is the renewal movement's vehicle of God's continuing grace given for the future of Confessing Christians in the United Church. It is strong and faithful, and may we pray, willing for this might mean a change in Fellowship Publications' name and bylaws; a change in structure; and the influx of people and resources from the former renewal movements. Whatever it takes.!

Its ministry might then broaden from just publishing, to the networking of confessing individuals, groups and congregations within the United Church as well as with those confessing Christians outside our denomination whoever they may be; the promotion of a variety of opportunities for spiritual growth in Christian faith and life, and all things required of a confessing Christian. By embracing this new ecumenism we would end up being more, not less, faithful to those who seek to embrace the Truth of Jesus Christ while remaining within the United Church.

To be identified as "quiet conservatives" and "mellow" Christians dishonours our Lord. It is sin from which we must turn. This is not a time for a new organizational strategy. This is not a time to try to find hope in more funds. This is not a time to prop up our own kingdoms. The way into the future is not with a new gimmick or a new program or more money, or just holding on quietly thinking tomorrow may bring something different, or keeping our head down with our nose to our own little grindstone. It is time to look up, get up, put our hand in the hand of Jesus Christ and let him take us with him to the cross, there to die to ourselves to live to him.

I've shared my thoughts rather imperfectly, and I've likely been too preachy. I am the least of those who have any right to say anything-but I say it. I work for these things here where I am, and I'm feeling a burden to share them with you in case there might be a blessing somewhere in it for you. May our Lord pour out his greatest treasures upon you always and in all ways.

Rev. Christopher Beaumont is the United Church minister in Milverton, Ont.