A Parting Thank You

By Rob Renfroe and Thomas Lambrecht

Good News was founded in 1967 to be a voice for scriptural Christianity within what would in 1968 become The United Methodist Church. Now, fifty-seven years later, our board of directors and our executive leadership team have determined it is time for Good News to conclude its work.

So, over the next few months we will be in the process of closing our office and one final edition of the magazine will be published after the first General Conference of the Global Methodist Church this September. We will continue to publish the weekly Perspective into the fall, and our website will continue to be available as an archive of Good News’ ministry and history.

By God’s grace, Good News played an instrumental role in forming the Global Methodist Church and in helping over 7,000 churches leave The UM Church. We need to thank God for how he has used our efforts in the past and now step into the future he has for Wesleyan Christians who are committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of the Bible.

I became president of Good News in 2009. Tom Lambrecht, after many years as a board member, board secretary, and board chair, moved from Wisconsin to Texas and took on the role of vice president in 2011. We are writing this editorial together primarily to say, “thank you.”

Earlier this summer, each of us transferred our ministerial credentials from the UM Church to the Global Methodist Church. We had remained within the UM Church so we might attend one final General Conference and work on behalf of our African and other international friends who wanted the same opportunity to disaffiliate that we in the U.S. had been given.

But each of us has now said good-bye to The United Methodist Church. Given all we have said and written, much of it critical of The UM Church, it may be surprising that what fills our hearts at this time is gratitude. We are immensely thankful for the lives and ministries God has given us and for the opportunities provided to us by the UM Church.

There is no higher calling on a human life than preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and shepherding his people. For some reason that is difficult to fathom, God in his grace gave us the immense privilege of proclaiming his word and serving his church as pastors. For his calling on our lives and the opportunity to minister to his people, we shall be forever grateful.

We were pastors within The United Methodist Church, each of us for over 40 years – Rob in East Texas and Tom in Wisconsin. It was the UM Church that recognized our gifts, affirmed our calling, and allowed us to serve its congregations. Welcoming us with open arms over forty years ago may be a decision some within the UM Church have come to lament. But we are grateful for a church that made a place for us to be in ministry, to do the work of God, and to fulfill his calling on our lives.

Even more, we are grateful for The United Methodist Church because it was there we came to faith in Jesus Christ. For Rob, it was a summer youth director hired by the First United Methodist Church of Texas City, Texas, in the summer of 1972. His name was Eddie Wills. It was the beauty of his relationship with Jesus that showed me there was more to Christianity than going to church and being a good kid – and that caused me late one night to kneel by my bed and ask Jesus to come into my life.

For Tom, it was a confirmation class led by a student pastor serving as an intern in 1968 at Memorial United Methodist Church in Greenfield, Wisconsin, where I grew up. His name was Jerry Cline, who worked at our church one year while studying at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. That confirmation class helped me understand the Bible, the message of God’s love, and God’s desire that I become a disciple. When we sang “O Jesus, I have promised” on confirmation Sunday, I gave my commitment to follow Jesus for a lifetime, and he has never let me down.

There’s a well-known line that a year from now you will be the same person you are today except for the books you read and the people with whom you spend time. What’s true of a year is also true of a lifetime. And we have known the best people. The best – because of The United Methodist Church. Through our work to renew and reform the church we were blessed to spend time with, learn from, be inspired and formed by many of “the greats” – Maxie Dunnam, Bill Hinson, Eddie Fox, John Ed Mathison, Jimmy Buskirk, Ira Gallaway, Ed Robb, Jr., Ed Robb III, Jim Heidinger, Billy Abraham, Kenneth Kinghorn, Gary Moore, Ben Witherington III, John Grenfell Jr., Riley Case, Pat Miller, and a host of others. There was a time when we were in awe to be in the same room as these giants of the faith, sitting in a corner, listening closely to what they said, hoping not to say anything foolish in their presence if called upon to speak. And later as they passed the torch to us, we continued their work, so desperately wanting to make them proud. Many of them have gone to be with the Lord, while others have retired from active ministry, but none are gone from our hearts. For this blessing we will be forever grateful.

How would the story of The United Methodist Church have played out if Good News had never existed? If Charles Keysor had not written that first article “Methodism’s Silent Minority” that gave so many Bible-believing Methodists a reason to stay in the church instead of giving up and walking away nearly five decades ago? If the original board members had not held national conferences that brought UM evangelicals together – in fact, created a movement? If they had not done the hard work for decades at General Conference after General Conference? If they had not been willing to suffer the slings and arrows, the false accusations and the demeaning attacks of liberal and institutionalist church leaders back when the fight was truly difficult and often mean-spirited? If Jim Heidinger, a prince of the church with a gracious spirit and a backbone of steel, had not taken up the work after Keysor? How the story would have gone, we don’t know. But we are sure of this – there would be no Global Methodist Church. The vast majority of traditionalists would have left years ago, the UM Church would have gone radically progressive long before now, and whatever evangelical movement might have come out of it would, at best, be a mere shell of the GMC.

So, we are grateful for Good News. Grateful for its work, its influence, and its successes. And we are beyond grateful that God was gracious enough to allow us to help lead its efforts for the past fifteen years. Following Chuck Keysor and Jim Heidinger – what an honor and a privilege God has given us.

As we leave The United Methodist Church and as we conclude the work of Good News, we look at our lives and we are reminded of the words of the psalmist: “Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely, I have a delightful inheritance” (Psalm 16.5-6).

The lines have fallen in pleasant places for us. We could not imagine better lives than the ones God has given us. Nor could we be more grateful. Grateful to The United Methodist Church that provided us the opportunity to be in ministry, to those who led us to faith in Christ, to our wives and children who upheld us in ministry, to the congregations that blessed us, to the men and women who inspired us, and to all of you who have supported us and the work of Good News. Please know you are dear to us, and we will forever be thankful for you.

Rob Renfroe is a Global Methodist clergyperson and president and publisher of Good News. 

Thomas Lambrecht is a ​​​​​​​Global Methodist clergyperson and vice president of Good News.