Doctrinal Standards: The Articles of Religion and the Confession of Faith

By David Watson

The Articles of Religion and the Confession of Faith are currently doctrinal standards of the Global Methodist Church. In designating these two documents as doctrinal standards, we continued the practice of the United Methodist Church, the denomination with which many of us were once affiliated. Each document came from one of the UMC’s predecessor denominations. The Articles of Religion came from the Methodist Church, and the Confession of Faith from the Evangelical United Brethren. When these two denominations merged to form the UMC in 1968, the new denomination adopted both standards.

The problem, however, is that these two standards are not entirely in agreement with one another. Following its first General Conference in 1968, the UMC formed a theological study commission to combine the Articles and Confession and thereby produce a new standard for the denomination. That commission was led by Albert Outler. Rather than combining the two documents, however, the commission came back with a proposal for a loose theological method that involved the use of Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. The UMC thus retained the two doctrinal standards alongside what came to be known as the “Quadrilateral.” The problem of inconsistent doctrinal standards remained unresolved.

Now, with the formation of the Global Methodist Church, we face the same problem the United Methodist Church faced in 1968: we have two doctrinal standards that stand in some tension with one another. The GMC’s 2024 convening General Conference therefore tasked the Doctrine, Discipleship, and Just Ministry Commission to develop a new standard that combines the Articles and Confession, to the extent that this is possible. Following the outlines of a plan proposed by Ryan Barnett, the Commission thus formed two working groups. The first is a writing task force. It is co-chaired by Jason Vickers and David Watson. Other members of the task force include Gabrielle Kopas (Slovakia), David Zamora (Costa Rica), Ken Collins (USA), Matt O’Reilly (USA), Luther Oconer (Philippines) and Esther Kukah (Kenya).

During its April 2025 meeting, the Doctrine, Discipleship, and Just Ministry Commission approved the following guidelines for the writing task force:

Principles for New Methodist Doctrinal Standard Combining the Articles of Religion and Confession of Faith.

1. We will stay as close to the intent and spirit of the two documents as possible.
2. When there are differences between them, we will make judgments based upon our best understanding of Wesleyan theology. We will try to reach consensus on these judgments. If we cannot, we will decide by vote.
3. We will seek to avoid idiosyncratic interpretations, e.g., overly specific interpretations of doctrines relating to topics such as atonement, sanctification, Scripture, and eschatology. We will try to produce a document that will generally encompass the breadth of Wesleyan belief that is present in the GMC currently.
4. We want to maintain about the same level of specificity as the two documents. The articles should be around the same length as in the two predecessor documents.
5. We will strive to write at a level that can be understood and taught by mature Christians, whether ordained or laity.
6. We will focus on affirmative content, rather than on negative content (such as anti-Roman Catholic or anti-Anabaptist articles).

All members of the task force must agree to these principles before we begin our work.

The second working group is a feedback committee. Bishop Scott Jones has agreed to assemble a larger working group consisting of men and women from different regions of the GMC to provide feedback on the document produced by the writing task force. The task force will adjust the document responsively.

Upon completing this assignment, we will submit the new document to the General Conference as part of a legislative petition.

Rev. Dr. David Watson is Chair of the Global Methodist Church’s Doctrine, Discipleship, and Just Ministry Commission, Academic Dean and Professor of New Testament at United Theological Seminary and incoming President (July 1, 2025) of Asbury Seminary.