Archive: Good News Celebration draws 600; says lordship of Jesus central to UM Church
“Nothing is more determinative of our life and faith than what we think about Jesus Christ and the authority of Scripture,” Dr. Maxie Dunnam told an enthusiastic crowd of more than 700 persons on July 13, the opening night of the 1995 Good News Summer Celebration at the Marriott Hotel in Cincinnati.
More than 630 United Methodists from 27 states and all five Jurisdictions registered for the three-and-a-half day convocation which had as its theme, “Jesus Christ: The Heart of It All.”
Dr. Dunnam, president of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, and former world editor of the Upper Room, noted the struggles United Methodism has experienced in recent years and insisted the problem has been “a theological and doctrinal one.” He noted that “we institutionalized theological pluralism” in 1972 and “it became the driving energy for us.” The result was the church lost track of its core, its center. “We must keep the center clear. Without a center, you can’t define a circumference,” said Dunnam. He added, “The Confessing Movement [of which he was one of three convenors] believes this is the crisis of the church. Will we accept views that differ with the Articles of Religion?”
In another rousing sermon, Dr. Andrea Bishop, until last month copastor with her husband, Tom, of Jubilee UM Church in Waterloo, Iowa, said the gospel is about a God who sent his Son to redeem, reconcile, and restore us and to make of us a family intimately related to one another. She questioned why we don’t see more miracles. “We take wine and make it into water. We take God’s good stuff and dilute it. The wine of our Wesleyan heritage is on the verge of becoming water,” said Bishop. In response to her invitation to “throw off the symbol of your infirmity and allow God to work afresh in your life,” nearly half of those listening went forward in the meeting to renew their commitment to Jesus Christ. (The Bishops will be moving to Ghana, West Africa, at the beginning of 1996 to train pastors within the Ghanian Methodist Church.)
Celebration participants were also challenged by the personal witness of Dr. Jerry Kirk, for many years senior minister of the large College Hill United Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati. He told how the Lord led him out of the security of a successful pastoral ministry to unite Christian leaders of all denominations in a fight against pornography. In leading the battle, Kirk formed the National Coalition Against Pornography, now the National Coalition for the Protection of Families and Children. Kirk winsomely challenged worshippers to get a vision from the Lord for the rest of their lives: “For awakening to come, revival must start in the individual life.”
Kirk believes that “if we don’t change the way the country thinks about pornography, we’ve lost the country.” He warned the audience that the equivalent of a million adult bookstores have just come on the Internet, a giant, international computer information hook-up. Kirk added, “No one can remain on the sideline of this battle. The adult video porn industry has grown 75 percent in the last two-and-a-half years.”
In still another high-octane address, Dr. Al Vom Steeg, president of The Mission Society for United Methodists in Decator, Georgia, and for some 30 years. A clergy member of the California/Nevada Conference, challenged those gathered by saying missions must also be at the heart of the church. In an effort to put the world’s needs in perspective, Vom Steeg said, “The 2.5 billion unreached peoples of the world won’t care about who is going to Denver [General Conference] next year. The lost are wondering why they are living.”
The passion of The Mission Society, said its new president, is, “We want to make sure that anyone who has a call can get to the mission field. We have a covenant with some 20 different mission agencies. We second missionaries to them or send them out ourselves, but in either case we care for them.”
Vom Steeg lamented the need for such a thing as a Confessing Movement within the UM Church. “With all those who are lost, here we are having to try to get convenes our theology straight about Jesus. We can’t even say, ‘Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.’”
Dr. Steve Harper, executive director of A Foundation for Theological Education (AFTE) and founder of Shepherd’s Care, was the morning Bible teacher. Good News board vice-chairman, the Rev. Bill Hines, and executive committee member, the Rev. Greg Stover, also gave plenary addresses. The Rev. Bob Snyder, along with his wife, Peg, served as co-chairpersons for the Celebration, and were honored for having served in that capacity for a third time.
Participants received training and equipping through 12 different afternoon seminars.
In his update to the Celebration audience, Good News president and publisher, James V. Heidinger II, cited theologian Alister McGrath’s remark that amidst the renewal and revival we are seeing around us, “The Christian vision of the future now seems increasingly to belong to evangelicalism, which is coming more and more to constitute the mainstream of American Protestant Christianity.”
Heidinger cautioned about the Church of Christ Uniting (COCU) proposal passed by numerous annual conferences, will be coming before the 1996 UM General Conference for approval. The COCU plan attempts to unite a number of mainline churches “that are themselves widely divided in their theology.” Most pastors and lay persons know nothing whatsoever about the proposal, he added.
Heidinger also reported that the initial tally from General and Jurisdictional Conference elections suggests that the delegation for next year is noticeably more conservative/moderate than in 1992.
Good News board convenes
At its summer meeting following the Celebration, the 40-member Good News board of directors met and dealt with a number of immediate concerns, which included the controversial May 4 Chapel service at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary (see p. 35), and the public announcement of the Rev. Jeanne Audrey Powers, associate general secretary of the Committee on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, that she is a lesbian (see p. 40).
The board elected a new class of seven members, discussed plans for the upcoming General Conference in Denver, reflected on movements of the Holy Spirit in America and around the world, and heard reports from other unofficial UM ministries and organizations. Dr. Donald Shell, layman from Lake Junaluska, NC, chaired the board during its semiannual session.
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