Moving Forward United: Bishop Malone on Hope, Resilience, and the Future of United Methodism

Phillip Amerson [00:00:01]:

Well, I'm reluctant to frame it this way, but I'll go ahead. We've had a lot of news over the last 10 or 12, 20 years about disaffiliation and the brokenness of United Methodism. And what I'm aware of in doing a lot of reading and looking beyond our church is disaffiliation has been occurring in almost every denomination. It may not have had the headlines that we've had, but I've even recently been looking at Christian nationalism and seen how the assembly of God is splitting privately kind of quietly over this issue. So God is doing a new thing. And I love the way you help us when you say we're all in and on the move. Let's see if I can get it right. Multiplying love, cultivating joy and inspiring hope.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:01:01]:

That's right. We're facing forward, living forward, moving forward in order for us to live into our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. And yes, and we do that by multiplying the love of Jesus. And we do that by cultivating the joy that comes from, from having Christ as our Lord and our Savior and by inspiring hope, you know, and being the face of hope and being the very embodiment of hope as we serve and be in ministry with our neighbors and our communities. And I see the spirit of God moving here in the state of Indiana. And let me just offer this, Phil. Even when we think about disaffiliation in the United Methodist Church and as painful as that process and going through that journey of, especially since I would say, General Conference 2019, we know that we've been in the state of brokenness for a long period of time, over 40 years. But since the General Conference of 2019, when disaffiliation became a legislation and a provision for churches to disaffiliate, and I will say this, what I have witnessed and I give God all the glory and praise for this, that was an in breaking of the Holy Spirit.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:02:25]:

And even when that legislation passed, what the intention of that legislation was was for those who wanted our church to be the church of who we are, a church for all persons. You know, we're not a progressive church. We're not a conservative church. We're not a gay church. We're not. We're the church of Jesus Christ. And but the intent was for those who wanted this church that would be a united church where all were welcome. The thought was that those will be the persons who would lead the church.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:03:00]:

And what is so interesting Is that who we are now as a church as a result of this affiliation? We are this wide circle. We have liberals and conservatives and gay and straight and young and old. We have the body of Christ who are a part of the United Methodist Church. And the church did not split. When we hear that language, I always correct the narrative and say, no, we're not a split church. There was a splintering of the church that felt like persons who felt like they can no longer walk with the church. And we blessed them and we sent them forward in the name of Jesus Christ so that we can carry forward and being who God has called us to be. And I thank God that as a United Methodist church, that we are a church where all persons, our beloved, where all persons are welcomed, where all can be loved and belong.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:04:11]:

All committed to live out the gospel of Jesus Christ to carry forth.

Phillip Amerson [00:04:18]:

Yeah, thank you. Thank you that. That's so important. And we also have the great benefit of the work that your father did and your grandfather and my dad did that continues. I mean, the abundance of having hundreds of churches in Indiana that are beginning to find new ways to pull together. I just delight every time I drive across. Well, I could drive up to Fort Wayne or drive down to Evansville and I see the presence of congregations that are rediscovering who they are. And I.

Phillip Amerson [00:05:00]:

My heart just sings.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:05:02]:

Amen. And our focus is in. Our job is to help us keep our focus not on who left, but on who stayed and for us to stay on mission, to keep the main thing. The main thing. Let us stay on mission and let us move forward.

Phillip Amerson [00:05:25]:

Yes, we've talked about the international church, but tell me what you're discovering. I don't know how you do it because you've also been in all. Seems like every hill and valley in Indiana you now have explored. What have you come to appreciate or know about Indiana?

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:05:49]:

You know, And I am so thankful for this question to bring this closer to home. Let me first say I am so honored to be the Episcopal leader for Indiana. And I've only been here one year. I started September 1, 2024. Just came up on my first year being here in Indiana. And I have traveled all across the state. I was so intentional that my goal was in my first 100 days to get to all parts of the conference because I wanted to see ministry. I wanted to meet as many clergy and meet as many laity and listen to many, as many stories because I wanted to feel the heart.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:06:31]:

Like what is the heartbeat of Indiana and what are some of the emerging needs and opportunities for ministry to expand our witness, to. To expand our mission here in the state of Indiana. And I've met with so many congregations and worshiped and preached and met with so many pastors. I've done a number of one on ones. And let me tell you what I'm discovering. There is not only a deep faithfulness but a deep resilience among our churches. There is a deep commitment to disciple making and living out ministry in tangible ways. I'm seeing congregations feeding the hungry.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:07:18]:

I'm seeing congregations willing to experiment and try new things and to reimagine what, what church can be and what church can look like. I'm experiencing how churches are developing younger leaders. I'm seeing how churches are engaging in their communities. Even just recently, there was an organized effort of a number of churches that gathered together and were protesting and speaking out against what concerns many of us. And that is the conversations happening around building detention centers here in Indiana. And churches came together. And the blessing is even with that, I was in conversation with those who had concerns regarding that and. And the Lord quickened my spirit to put a statement out to encourage churches and to offer some practical ways and things that we can do.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:08:15]:

And lo and behold, our missions and justice team representing clergy and congregations across the state came together and organized and said, no. This is who we are as United Methodists. This is who God calls us to be. To be a place of welcome, to welcome the immigrant, to welcome the stranger, to provide a place of belonging. Churches are making disciples. They're building bridges to the community. They're raising up leaders. They're advocating for peace and justice.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:08:46]:

They're in ministry with the marginalized and the poor. I get to witness that. I get to witness that. Sometimes we focus on the churches that are struggling, declining membership. We have our challenges, but I see vitality. I see commitment, I see resilience. All across the state, from the smallest of congregations with 1520 people to churches who worship 200 and 300 on Sundays, I see it all across the state. And I give thanks to God for what I'm witnessing.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:09:18]:

And I am in. My role as shepherd and leader, as bishop of the conference, is how do we then, in light of what we have learned and what we're seeing, how do we come alongside pastors and congregations? How are we aligning the resources to help make possible ministry in the communities? And so by being out and about and by seeing and witnessing firsthand, that helps me as a bishop work with the staff and the leaders who have responsibility for decisions around how we utilize and develop resources and reminding us. And I just had a meeting with my extended cabinet on Monday that everything that we do is for the equipping and the resourcing and the building capacity for pastors and congregations to live out the gospel and to fulfill our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ, for the transformation of our communities in the world. Everything that we do, we only exist for that purpose. But I am thankful for what I'm seeing. I also see a lot of need and a lot of struggles.

Phillip Amerson [00:10:34]:

I think you probably knew, maybe were friends with one of my mentors who passed away last December, and that was John McKnight and John, for those who are listening or seeing this podcast. Traci and I both have a Chicago connection here. And John, John. I think one of my conversion experiences was standing in the Bismarck Hotel listening to John talk about the changes going on in our nation and the movement that he saw churches could make toward recognizing the capacities and the assets that are in the community and working with those, as you say, equipping the church to work with what's there.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:11:24]:

That's right. And there are a lot of right there in the community. That's right.

Phillip Amerson [00:11:28]:

Well, one of the things that Bishop Malone and I have in common is the city of Chicago and good people there. As a matter of fact, I realize, Traci, that I met your dad at the urban suburban conferences that we used to have for the whole jurisdiction, the whole Midwest, and many other great people in Chicago. One of them was my mentor, John McKnight. And John passed away a year ago. It will be a year in December, but I still remember being in the Bismarck Hotel in Chicago, standing in the back of a room as John was speaking. And I looked down in the front of my shirt was damp and I was crying because he was helping me through another conversion as I was coming hopefully closer to Christ being present in my life and ministry. And what he was helping me see was the gifts that were all around me. And when you talk about equipping churches, what I hear you saying is what John was saying, that there are all these gifted people and abundance out there that we miss.

Phillip Amerson [00:12:44]:

And the denomination has the gift of helping equip them for ministry in new ways. So did you know John and were you at all influenced by his, by his ministry?

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:12:58]:

I did not know him well. I knew of him and I've heard so many stories like what you just shared of the impact and influence that he's had on person's lives and their ministries. But I did not know him personally.

Phillip Amerson [00:13:11]:

Well, he. He introduced me to an AME pastor, George Reddick, and. And boy and Benny Whitten. I don't know if you remember Benny. He was UCC pastor. Well, I'm older, but all these great, great, great pastors. Well, and then we haven't started with United Methodists. Oh, my goodness, yes.

Phillip Amerson [00:13:39]:

The people down at St Mark. My dearest friend in ministry to this day was Michael Anderson of blessed memory.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:13:51]:

I do know Michael.

Phillip Amerson [00:13:53]:

He was my district superintendent here when I was in Bloomington. And again, Michael and I had a connection through John McKnight. So thank you for helping keep that important learning alive in Indiana.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:14:11]:

That's right. Amen. I did know Michael and how I met Michael Anderson. He was the associate at St. Mark United Methodist Church in Chicago. And St. Mark United Methodist Church in Chicago is where I did my field education when I was a student at Garrett Evangelical. When.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:14:29]:

Where. When you were the president of Garrett Evangelical. And so I really got to know him and his ministry and. And he's deeply touched my life as well.

Phillip Amerson [00:14:38]:

Yeah. So who was the senior minister there at that time? Was it Charles Jordan or was it Myron?

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:14:46]:

I served with McCoy or I served with both. When I first arrived at St Mark, when I was in seminary, Bishop Jordan. Charles Jordan was the senior pastor. As a matter of fact, he. That was in 92. 92 is when he was elected, because he was in the candidacy process. I started St. Mark in 90, served there until 93.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:15:13]:

And so Bishop Jordan was elected from St. Mark in 92, and then Myra McCoy followed him as senior pastor. But there were a few months in between the leave of Bishop Jordan and the coming of Myra McCoy and where I, as some people remember, at St. Mark, they thought I was the lead pastor because I was the one holding. I was the one holding it down in that.

Phillip Amerson [00:15:39]:

In between. My apologies to those of you who are listening who don't know this rich history, but we're talking about saints here, and we could go on and on about St. Mark's and the Great, great people in Chicago. Before we close, Bishop Malone, I want to ask a couple of questions.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:15:59]:

Sure.

Phillip Amerson [00:15:59]:

As you continue in your ministry, how can we, those of us listening and those of us beyond this podcast, how can we pray with you? Where are there ways, places, dimensions that we can hold you in prayer?

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:16:17]:

Thank you for that invitation. I am praying for wisdom, for the Lord's guidance in how we, particularly here in Indiana, how we revitalize our congregations. Oftentimes we think about revitalization as you know, those churches who have either lost their way or lost their vision. But I'm talking about the kind of revitalization that we will be imbued with new vitality, with new energy, with new excitement about the Gospel. So if you would just pray with me as we pray together for the revitalization of our churches, because I believe that if our churches are revitalized, our communities will be revitalized. So that's. That's one thing I would say the other thing would be, is for the worldwide church, we are in the process of having all of the votes taking place all across the church around regionalization, trying to just strengthen our worldwide connection with greater contextualized ministries and ways of how to support and resource that all around the world. And as those votes come in and we canvass those votes, we're going to be having an announcement from the Council of Bishops, hopefully come November, as to what is the result of that.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:17:49]:

And so my prayer is. My prayer is, is that those constitutional amendments do pass. And I'm just trusting and believing that as the church moves forward in this next iteration of United Methodism, that regionalization will serve the church and serve our mission and serve our witness so very well. And so I'm just in prayer that we would be prepared for how we live into what it means to be a church that is connected, but connected differently for the sake of mission. For the sake of the mission.

Phillip Amerson [00:18:31]:

Wow. Well, those are pretty large prayer requests.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:18:35]:

Yes. Yes.

Phillip Amerson [00:18:37]:

And I'm happy to join you. As I pray, I'm encouraging the listeners to consider starting the day in prayer. And Scripture used to be what we did as Christians, and we got away from that. And you've just helped us add to our prayer list. Maybe one day we can pray like the Africans.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:19:01]:

Amen. Fervently. Yes.

Phillip Amerson [00:19:06]:

Well, there's another question that I ask our guests, and many of them, not all, but many. Is there some symbol or object or word or experience that you hold as sacred, and it calls you forward, it calls you to be on the move?

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:19:30]:

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. You know, if I would say I have a photo of my mother, the late April Smith, and anybody who knew April Smith, new life, new joy, just new resilience. My mother died at 49 years old.

Phillip Amerson [00:19:53]:

Oh, my.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:19:55]:

Look at my mother's life and think about my mother's life. Even the memories that I have of her is that my mother was on fire for the Lord. My mother, even in her sickness, she died of cancer, but even her journey through sarcoidosis and Ultimately, cancer. My mother never complained. My mother, when you would ask her, april, how are you? She would say, the joy of the Lord is my strength. She was very much aware of what she was going through and knew that her time would be near, but she never complained. And you say, april, how are you? I am blessed and highly favored. So for me, when I hold on to.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:20:40]:

When I look at that picture and when I think about my mom and think about what she did and accomplished in her faith in those 49 years, just being an encourager, I'm being one of deep and abiding faith, you know, she would always say, we can do hard things, you know? So when I find myself either getting down or discouraged, I quickly remember, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Not that I don't have anything to complain about, but I choose not to complain. But go to the Lord in prayer. My mother instilled that in me. So watching her, observing her, that memory of that, and when I see her picture, and people keep saying the older I get, I look more like my mother. And they say, tracy, you just like your mama. I. I received that with a.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:21:35]:

A blessing, because she is one. She's truly the wind beneath my wings, the wind at my back. My mom.

Phillip Amerson [00:21:44]:

Oh, powerful. What a gift.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:21:49]:

Yes.

Phillip Amerson [00:21:50]:

We thank you, Bishop Tracy Smith Malone, for taking this time from your busy, busy schedule to share. And I know that dozens, dozens I hope will join in a daily prayer in support of your ministry. Thank you very much. This is Philip Emerson with the To Be and Do podcast, part of the Belonging Exchange. And we're grateful for all of you who listen and who share in this format. God bless and thank you, Bishop Malone.

Bishop Tracy Smith Malone [00:22:24]:

Thank you. Thank you, Phil.