Hope shines through

GENERAL CONFERENCE FEATURES Overview: Global Methodism in Ft. Worth

CONFERENCE COMMENTARY

United Methodist teambuilding: Acevedo

Looking to the future with hope: Hamilton

Hope shines through: Millard

God is beyond lobbying: Case

Priorities transcend differences: McCurry

The dilemma of 3 Simple Rules: Reisman

COLUMNS

Editorial Reflections on the 2008 General Conference

RENEW Women’s Network Aftermath

Culture in View To Be a Friend of Caspian

Next Generation Responding to Speakaphobia

The Great Commission Brokenness

From the Hear Prison Praise

Hope shines through
By Kent Millard

I was thrilled and excited by the way General Conference 2008 began with a stirring message on Resurrection Hope by Bishop Janice Riggle Huie of the Houston Area, and then continued with a dramatic and powerful Episcopal Address on the Four Areas of Focus by Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher of the Great Rivers Conference in Illinios.

For the first time in recent memory the Council of Bishops and the General Agencies of our denomination have articulated together a common vision for the United Methodist Church to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. They have then shown us how God can use us to accomplish that vision through these four areas of focus. Without raising additional funds, the General Agencies will channel their current funds, energies and staff to support these four priorities:

1. Developing effective Christian lay and clergy leaders for the church and the world. Leadership is key to renewal and when the UM Church has more lay and clergy leaders surrendered totally to God and trained in effective leadership skills, God will set us on fire and once again use us to transform the world into a compassionate, just, inclusive and Christ-like community.

2. Starting new communities of faith. When we provide more avenues of entry we will reach more new people with the good news of God’s amazing grace and unconditional love that comes to us through Jesus Christ. Over the past decade, St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, at which I serve in Indianapolis, has grown to about 3,000 in worship each week in 10 different services in three different locations. Each time we have started a new service in a new location we have enrolled new people in becoming followers of Jesus Christ who would never have darkened the door of our original church site.

3. Engaging ministry with the poor. Everyday 30,000 people around the world die of starvation, and we have the resources and technology to End Hunger Now as Senator George McGovern, Senator Bob Dole, and Dr. Donald Messer have argued in their book by that title. The United Methodist Church will focus more energy on food production and distribution in places of need around the world.

4. Making the world malaria-free, AIDS-free, and tuberculosis-free. Six million people die each year from this triplet of death, and these diseases are all preventable and treatable. The United Methodist Church is partnering with The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The United Nations Foundation, and others to launch a campaign called the Global Health Initiative to raise $100 million over the next several years to help free the people of the world from these killer diseases. The Conference celebrated when Bill Gates Sr. announced that the Gates Foundation was giving the United Methodist Church $5 million to launch this campaign. Jesus said: “I was sick and you came to me,” and when we fail to care for the sick and dying in our world, we ignore Christ himself.

While I thank God for the way we came together at General Conference to focus on these four world-transforming visions, I was disappointed in our inabilitiy to come together around our Social Principles statement on homosexuality. In John 8, Jesus says, “You shall know the truth and the truth will make you free.” The truth is that conscientious, committed United Methodist Christians disagree over homosexuality. Some conscientious Christians believe in their heart of hearts that homosexuality is a sin because of how they read and interpret certain passages of Scripture. Other equally committed and devoted Christians believe homosexuality is not a sin because of how they read and interpret the scriptures, and they believe that people do not “choose” to become homosexual.

My hope was that we could adopt the Church and Society committee’s recommendation that said “faithful, thoughtful people, who have grappled with this issue, deeply disagree with one another, yet all seek a faithful witness.” However, by 55 to 45 percent that proposal was rejected by the General Conference, and so we continue as a divided denomination on this issue. Jesus said the truth will make you free, and we will not become free on this issue until we are able to speak the truth to each other in love.

During the presentation on how United Methodists had sent over 60,000 volunteers to help families rebuild their homes and lives after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast States three years ago, a young woman from Mississippi named Elizabeth Cumbest sang a song she wrote entitled, “Because Of You Hope Shines Through.”

I thank God that because of you (the people of the United Methodist Church) hope shines through to people who need to experience God’s unconditional love in Jesus Christ and who need health, healing, and hope. My prayer is that as we work together on the four areas of focus, God will bring us together in such a way that we will eventually come to a common witness on the areas where we are still divided. God is God and God is not through with us yet!

Kent Millard is the lead pastor of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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Hope shines through By Kent Millard

Hope shines through
By Kent Millard