Archive: Convo Gives UMs New Hope

“I believe Jesus Christ is asking us to go to the young people of the world,” said keynote speaker Bishop Richard B. Wilke, Arkansas Area. “One-half of the population of the world is under 14 years of age, and they gulp for the air of abundant life.”

Wilke addressed nearly 1000 persons gathered in Louisville for the opening service of the Convocation on World Mission and Evangelism at the Galt House Hotel, July 9-12. The convo was sponsored jointly by Good News, the Mission Society for United Methodists, a Foundation for Theological Education and the National Association of United Methodist Evangelists.

“I’m weary with church growth; we don’t want members; we want life. We don’t need statistics; we need kids who are saved. Oh, if only we could help young people experience the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” Wilke said pleadingly to an enthusiastic audience which thundered its applause in appreciation.

With more than 830 full-time registrants from 38 states and two foreign countries, the convo featured twelve nationally-known plenary speakers who addressed aspects of the convo’s theme, “The World: Forever our Parish.”

A common note throughout the gathering was the uniqueness of Christ and the fact that salvation is to be found only in Him. Dr. Geoffrey Wainwright, professor of systematic theology at Duke Divinity School, sounded this note in his paper on a biblical theology of mission (read by Dr. H.T. Maclin in Dr. Wainwright’s absence), “The Lord who utters the Great Commission has the authority to do so. … He is the only Son of the Father, and in Him is the world’s salvation to be found. To waver from that belief would be to deviate from what has been Christian faith from its beginnings.”

A similar theme came from Nigerian Bishop Ayo Ladigbolu, who recounted his conversion from a royal Muslim family through the witness of British Methodist missionaries. He challenged UMs saying, “the church must not apologize for the fact that it wants all men to know Jesus Christ and to follow Him. Let me plead with you, my Methodist brethren in America, to recapture your old global vision of the Church’s total mission of soul-winning and outreach.”

Bishop William R. Cannon (retired) reflected on an imaginary conversation with John Wesley in his address entitled “John Wesley’s Message for His Church Today.” Wesley would not be happy with his church, Cannon noted. The bishop had Wesley saying, “Your chief sin is to maintain good relations with members of other religions and to carry on dialogue with them. You are afraid you might offend them to talk to them about Jesus Christ.”

Wesley would advise today’s bishops to be more “sparing in their pronouncements on political issues and international affairs and devote less time to Council of Bishops’ meetings and more to evangelization.”

Bishop Earl G. Hunt (retired) questioned the church’s silence on the New Age movement. And while expressing regret at the appearance of groups and organizations critical of the church, he added, “But I have realized again and again that these parties … have sought to call our attention to things terribly wrong within our structures and to lead us back into the kind of responsible operational integrity which can cure many of our ills. However, our strategy, time after time, has been to criticize our critics instead of listening to their words of counsel.”

Julia McLean Williams, executive vice president of the Mission Society for United Methodists, spoke as a layperson who had served as a UM missionary to Bolivia and then in organizing Volunteers in Mission in the North Carolina Annual Conference. She called on UM leaders to address the controlling influence of the Women’s Division in the overall program of the General Board of Global Ministries.

Dr. Gerald Anderson, executive director of Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut, chided the church’s 1984 General Conference goal to double its membership by 1992 as being an attempt at renewal without change. He also criticized UM leaders for their opposition to the unofficial Mission Society. (See related article, p. 21.)

The Rev. Wesley Putnam, president of the National Association of UM Evangelists (NAUME) and a member of the convo planning committee, said when the convo was ended, “I believe future United Methodists will look back on this as one of the historic meetings of the church, perhaps even a pivotal meeting giving us new reason to hope that God can turn this church around.”

Dr. Ira Gallaway, retired after 15 years as senior pastor of First UM Church in Peoria, Illinois, also a member of the convo planning committee, said following the convo, “Never before in one event has there been such a unity of message among all the speakers as at this convocation. Surely the Holy Spirit was guiding. … This convocation could well be pivotal to the future of United Methodism.”

James V. Heidinger II with wire services