There are a lot of ways to do church badly. As I wrote yesterday, even good churches can drop the ball by over-concentrating on the Sunday morning service at the expense of relational disciple-making activities.

Another way is worse: quit preaching the gospel altogether. I was shocked to read a paragraph from a weekly newsletter from Dr. Ryan Danker of the John Wesley Institute. Dr. Danker introduced an essay on the “new birth” by describing his experience teaching it in a liberal Methodist seminary:

[The new birth was] uncharted territory to the vast majority of my students but it struck one of them harder than the rest. She had grown up as a Methodist and was now preparing in a Methodist seminary for ministry in a Methodist denomination and she had never even heard of the new birth. No one had told her that God wants to make her alive in him. And she broke into tears. – Ryan Danker, February 6, 2025

I wrote to Dr. Danker:

As a non-seminary-trained guy, I’m trying to figure out what we do in our seminaries (and who we recruit to our seminaries). Here’s my problem: the doctrine of the new birth is not some deep, esoteric piece of arcane theology. It’s taught quite plainly in the New Testament. John 3, of course, and also 1 Peter 1.23. “No one had told her that God wants to make her alive in him.” That, of course, is clearly presented in Ephesians 2.

What I’m hearing you say is that most of your students had never read the Bible. If seminary students aren’t reading the Bible, it’s no wonder that their parishioners aren’t reading the Bible either. – Bob Ewell to Ryan Danker, February 6, 2025

The good doctor was kind enough to respond:

The problem that you noted is one found amongst progressives in the mainline. My students were raised in mid-Atlantic United Methodism and for many of them the faith was something that comforts, but not something that transforms. They had been taught liberal Protestantism. Transformation was not personal because we are already accepted as we are – all are welcome – and the role of the church was to tell people that they are welcome, not to change them. Any change would be societal or political. 

I taught at the liberal seminary as a token conservative. Another joined the faculty while I was there, but we have now both gone on to other things. 

So the problem you mentioned is a systemic one in which theological educators over many decades trained clergy who didn’t preach the fullness of the gospel. The result is a dead Methodism, particularly in areas of the country in which these seminaries exist. – Ryan Danker, correspondence with Bob Ewell, February 13, 2025

His response needs no further clarification except to point out that “liberal Protestantism” is really a separate religion, at least according to the book Against Liberal Theology by Roger E. Olson. Here’s a portion of the introduction:

[Liberal Christians’] theology is seriously flawed to the extent that true liberal Christianity ought not to be considered authentically Christian. Honesty calls for liberal Christians to admit that they have “cut the cord of continuity” between their religion and historical, classical, orthodox Christianity to the extent that their religion is a different one…My opinion, based on many years of studying liberal Christianity, is that liberal theology is not authentically Christian because it departs so radically from biblical and traditional Christian orthodoxy. — Against Liberal Theology: Putting the Brakes on Progressive Christianity by Roger E. Olson

And the result is “a dead Methodism,” a shame since the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, was a man of the Word who experienced the new birth and taught biblical engagement. I’ve used some of his stuff, especially when working with Methodist churches.

“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” (Revelation 3.1, NKJV)

PS Naturally, not all Methodist churches are dead neither are all mainline churches of other denominations. I’ve worked with some good ones over the years. The “remnant” maybe. But many are dead or dying. Stay tuned for a close-to-home example.