Survey gives shape to Leadership Gathering

Key points:

• United Methodists participating in the Leadership Gathering got a preview of what they will be working on when they meet in October.
• Driving the agenda are the top priorities church members identified in a denomination-wide survey offered earlier this year.  
• Bishops stress that the gathering isn’t a decision-making body but can serve in a consultative role as the denomination rebuilds.
• A coalition of United Methodist groups is urging the gathering to be as transparent as possible.

The bishops’ 2026 Leadership Gathering now has three priorities to help The United Methodist Church move from a time of crisis to a new direction in Christ.

During the gathering, some 300 participants — selected by the bishops — will consider ways the international denomination can:

• Engage more youth and young people.
• Improve discipleship formation.
• Strengthen global connectedness.  

The gathering’s design team chose these three focal points based on the results of a denomination-wide survey the Council of Bishops released in January with the goal of engaging all United Methodists in the event.

The bishops announced the unprecedented gathering — set for Oct. 20-24 at Knox United Church in Calgary, Canada — after a season of infighting over LGBTQ inclusion that saw thousands of congregations leave the denomination.

Bishop Tracy S. Malone, immediate past president of the Council of Bishops, formed the design team to plan the gathering soon after the momentous 2024 General Conference that saw delegates remove denomination-wide bans on gay clergy and same-sex marriage while also embracing a new structure to give the denomination’s different regions more autonomy.

Malone, who also leads the Indiana Conference, said the gathering is part of the bishops’ commitment “to providing strategic, visionary, inclusive, innovative and missional leadership for the church.”

Under the theme “Emboldened by the Spirit: Imagining a Church Yet to Be,” the bishops see the event as an opportunity to join with fellow United Methodists in prayerfully discerning the denomination’s next chapter.

“We’re asking: What kind of body must we become so that our theology and our mission can flourish for the sake of the world God loves?” Horizon Conference Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. told the gathering’s participants in an invite-only April 25 webinar to prepare for the event.

Saenz is the new Council of Bishops president and co-convener of the event’s design team alongside Stephanie Henry, a lay United Methodist leader from the Pacific Northwest Conference.

“The intended outcomes of this journey are concrete and hopeful,” Saenz said.

He stressed that the gathering is not a lawmaking assembly like General Conference — nor is it a venue to relitigate old conflicts.

“It is the first of its kind, representative gathering to pray, listen and imagine together a church yet to be,” Saenz said. “So, our work is consultative, exploratory and imaginative, feeding into future writing groups and discernment processes, not replacing the role of the General Conference but enriching it with a deeper well of shared reflection.”

But to prepare for that discernment, the gathering’s design team decided to first survey as many United Methodists as possible about their hopes and priorities.

All told, 12,292 United Methodists across the denomination’s nine world regions responded to the 2026 Global Survey, which was available in five languages. Of the respondents, 54.3% were active lay members; 26.8% were clergy; 11.2% were lay leaders, and 7.7% were occasional attendees.

Nearly 88% of the respondents came from the U.S. That means the survey does not fully reflect the denomination’s worldwide connection, organizers acknowledged. It also does not reflect the denomination’s full age range.

During the webinar, Henry — Saenz’s co-convener — announced the survey’s preliminary findings.

The survey asked respondents to rank denominational priorities in order of importance. The six options included: Evangelism and Witness, Social Justice and Advocacy, Worship and Sacramental Life, Leadership Development, Global Mission and Partnerships, and Discipleship and Faith Formation.

Discipleship and Faith Formation had the highest average ranking in importance among the respondents. Interestingly, the rankings for social justice and evangelism were virtually tied.

The survey also asked respondents what they hope their congregations focus on most clearly over the next 10 years. To that question, a resounding 63% selected Youth and Young Adult Engagement.

The age of the respondents also pointed to the urgency of that focus. Of those who took the survey, 71% were over the age of 55 while only 6.5% were under 35.

The survey also found a critical gap in how connected United Methodists feel to the wider church. Of the respondents from the East, West and Mid-Africa regions, more than 70% said they felt very connected. Meanwhile, of the U.S. respondents, only 35% said they felt very connected.

“This is an important dimension because how connected respondents feel significantly shapes their priorities, engagement and outlook,” Henry said.

“The more connected a respondent felt, the more important it was for them to participate in worship. The less connected, the less important it was for them to participate in the most basic act of our local churches.”

While the survey found different senses of connectedness, the results did show common values. The survey asked: In 50 years, when people hear of The United Methodist Church, what qualities or witness would you hope they remember?

“Love was the most common word across all responses,” Henry said.

“Respondents overwhelmingly hope The United Methodist Church will be remembered for unconditional love, inclusion and unity across differences.”

The bishops have chosen emerging leaders they think can help the church address the priorities of discipleship and young people’s engagement as well as the hope for more global connectedness. Each active bishop has chosen three participants, including at least one young adult, from their episcopal areas across four continents. 

But even as the participants prepare for the work ahead, United Methodists who are not part of the Leadership Gathering also expressed their hope that the event’s activities would be as transparent as possible.

The day before the April 25 webinar, the Love Your Neighbor Coalition — an alliance of 15 United Methodist advocacy groups and ethnic caucuses — released an open letter to the bishops sharing the coalition’s hopes for and concerns about the event.

Among other things, the letter urged the gathering’s design team to fulfill “the spirit of openness and accountability” expressed in the denomination’s open-meetings provision, ¶723 of the Book of Discipline. The coalition asks that in-person observers might be able to attend and have opportunities to converse with participants.

The coalition also asked the planners to identify specific ways to train emerging leaders at home after the gathering, and publish online all streamed and printed materials, survey results and outcomes.

The letters said the gathering will be a test of “trust-building, as church members will expect new movement toward justice that came from the decisions of General Conference 2024.”

Saenz told United Methodist News that he would bring the letter to the design team’s next meeting in May for their consideration. United Methodist Communications is also making plans to livestream the event.

On April 25, Saenz also invited Leadership Gathering participants to think about how they could be “a good ancestor,” so that United Methodists will be known to be Christians by their love. 

He reminded the participants of Psalm 78, which tells the story of a people commanded to tell the coming generations about the mighty acts of God.

“We are writing a chapter in the story of The United Methodist Church that our children and grandchildren will read long after we are gone,” Saenz said. “They will remember what we valued, how we treated one another, whether we chose fear or faith, maintenance or mission or comfort or courage.”

To be a good ancestor, he added, is to be “people who tell the truth in love, who share power generously, who plant seeds of hope we may never see fully grown.”

Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.