by Steve | Jan 29, 2021 | In the News
In 2014, the legendary Cicely Tyson is joined on stage by Cuba Gooding Jr. for “The Trip to Bountiful” on Broadway.
By Steve Beard-
Internationally-known for her six decades on stage and screen, award-winning actress Cicely Tyson died on Thursday at the age of 96.
“I come from lowly status. I grew up in an area that was called the slums at the time,” Tyson said while receiving an honorary Oscar award at age 94. “I still cannot imagine that I have met with presidents, kings, queens. How did I get here? I marvel at it.”
The revered actress knows that her fame is due to her superb dramatic roles over the years. “Yet I am also the church girl who once rarely spoke a word,” Tyson writes in her autobiography, Just As I Am, published shortly before her death. “I am the teenager who sought solace in the verses of the old hymn for which this book is named. I am a daughter and mother, a sister and a friend. I am an observer of human nature and the dreamer of audacious dreams. I am a woman who has hurt as immeasurably as I have loved, a child of God divinely guided by His hand.”
At the age of 93, she gave a message to her home congregation of Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem about her childhood. “We were in church from Sunday morning to Saturday night,” she said to laughter in the sanctuary. “On Sunday, I played the organ. I taught Sunday school. We had evening service. Monday, we had young people’s meeting. Tuesday, old people’s meeting. Wednesday, we gathered together to try to introduce young children to the ways of God. Thursday, we had club meeting. Friday, I sang and rehearsed the choir. And Saturday, we cleaned the church.
“I decided at one point that if I ever lived to became a woman, I would never enter the portals of a church again,” she said jokingly – once again, to sustained laughter.
In 2013, Tyson won a Tony award for her portrayal of Mrs. Carrie Watts in the Broadway revival of Horton Foote’s “The Trip to Bountiful.” One notable part of Tyson’s performance triggered a newsworthy audience reaction. Out of character for a Broadway audience, those in the theater sang the classic hymn “Blessed Assurance” as Tyson sang it during an emotional section of the second act.
“From the first note, there’s a palpable stirring among many of the black patrons in the audience, which the play, with its mostly black cast, draws in large numbers,” reported The New York Times. “When Ms. Tyson jumps to her feet, spreads her arms and picks up the volume, they start singing along. On some nights it’s a muted accompaniment. On other nights, and especially at Sunday matinees, it’s a full-throated chorus that rocks the theater.”
Once Tyson discovered that the audience was singing along, she found it thrilling. “Thrilling but unexpected,” the Times points out. “Under normal circumstances the Broadway experience does not include audience participation, even when catchy songs from classic musicals are being performed. The ‘Blessed Assurance’ phenomenon is peculiar, perhaps even unheard-of, but the hymn itself is something out of the ordinary,” the Times admits.
The hymn was written in 1873 years ago by Fanny Crosby and Phoebe Knapp, both members of John Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Manhattan – merely five miles down the road from where Tyson performed her role on Broadway.
Some audience members interviewed by the Times seemed startled that someone might not be familiar with the hymn. “A lot of people in the audience grew up with that song,” said Michelle Crawford, who learned it while attending the Thessalonia Baptist Church in the Bronx as a child. “Nobody had to put the words out there in front of anybody. They knew that song.”
The audience singalong struck many in the audience as unremarkable. “I chimed in,” said Pinkey Headley, who sings the hymn at her Methodist church in Brooklyn. “It’s the natural thing to do.”
Denise Wells agreed. She attends Mount Zion Baptist Church in Jamaica, Queens. “It’s an old Sunday song,” she told the reporter. She then put her hand over her “heart and began declaiming the hymn’s opening verse, nodding emphatically after each line: ‘Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine!’”
While the audience reaction was a surprise to Tyson, the song was not new to her. “It was one of my mother’s favorites,” she reported. “I don’t remember any Sunday, when she was in the kitchen making family dinner, when she wasn’t singing a hymn.” The song is so meaningful to the memory of her mother that Tyson endowed a pew at the Abyssinian Baptist Church that has a plaque reading: “To Mother – Blessed Assurance.”
In Just As I Am, Tyson wrote about her eventual death. “I don’t know when my day is coming. None of us does. Which is why, as soon as my lids slide open each morning, I say thank you. Thank you, Father, for the gift of another day. Thank you for just one more breath. Thank you for the sacred opportunity to live this life.”
“The way I see it, God isn’t finished with me. And when I’ve completed my job, he’ll take me. Until then, I’ve got plenty to do,” Tyson wrote.
Steve Beard is the editor of Good News.
by Steve | Jan 25, 2021 | In the News, Perspective E-Newsletter
Saul attacking David by Guercino. Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome.
By Thomas Lambrecht –
It may seem out of place to talk about finishing well when the year has just begun. The senior pastor at the church I attend just announced his planned retirement. He is the founding pastor of this church and has served well for over 43 years (all at this one congregation)! He is in a good position to finish his ministry well.
The lesson last week at our men’s ministry was about King Saul and the fact he did not finish well. Blessed with physical stature, good looks, God’s anointing, and being filled with the Holy Spirit (twice!), he still ended up unfaithful to God and defeated in leadership.
There is an old saying that one must begin with the end in mind. Before one sets out, it is important to know where one wants to end up. I’m sure King Saul did not want to end up as a paranoid, unfaithful leader who failed his people. But he took his eye off the goal and became preoccupied with what people thought of him and with exalting his own image and power. (You can read his story in I Samuel chapters 9-31.) He did not keep the end in mind.
What is the end we should have in mind? Our goal is to live up to what God created us to be. He created us to enjoy complete fellowship with him and to bring glory to him by our lives. It is easy for us to lose track of that goal in the ups and downs of everyday life. Our culture tells us that personal happiness is what we should strive for.
But God knows that we will only find happiness in relation to him. Jesus said, “Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:25). Jesus is not saying we should literally hate our life, but that if we focus on this-world happiness, we will miss the purpose for which God created us. Whereas, if we focus on loving and serving God, we will actually find happiness in this life and experience eternal relationship with God. “’Truly I tell you,’ Jesus replied, ‘no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields – along with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life’” (Mark 10:29-30).
So it is possible to start out well, to begin a faith-filled relationship with Jesus Christ, and then to finish poorly. Like all good Wesleyans, we believe it is possible for a person to turn away from God to such an extent that they forfeit the gift of eternal salvation. That is why Wesleyans emphasize perseverance in our walk with the Lord.
“Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that none of you have an evil, unfaithful heart that abandons the living God. Instead, encourage each other every day, as long as it’s called ‘today,’ so that none of you become insensitive to God because of sin’s deception. We are partners with Christ, but only if we hold on to the confidence we had in the beginning until the end” (Hebrews 3:12-14, CEB).
We do not abandon God in a sudden shift of perspective. Usually, it takes a period of time to fall away. We become deceived by our sinful desires and the constant message of an unbelieving world that encourages selfishness. We gradually lose our sensitivity to God and the nudging of his Holy Spirit in our everyday choices. Deception, selfishness, and sin gradually grow into unfaithfulness, which leads us away from God.
That is the story of King Saul. It is also potentially our story.
That is why the author of Hebrews warns us to “watch out!” We need to keep our focus on our proper goal: union with Christ. There is nothing more important than forming and growing our relationship with Jesus. Anything that gets in the way of that – even good things – ends up being at least a stumbling block and perhaps even an idol in our lives.
We are distracted and tempted by our own selfish, sinful desires. We want what we want when we want it.
We are also distracted by growing weary. Many of us have become weary of following all the pandemic protocols. We started out well and sacrificed a lot in lockdowns and other mitigation measures that drove down the virus. But we have become weary and careless, so that our virus and death counts are now reaching record levels. My wife and I lost a good friend of ours to the pandemic when she attended a concert where there was little mask wearing. Perseverance is called for in order to save our own life and the lives of people we love, as well as strangers.
In the same way, Paul says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9). I have been walking with Jesus for over 45 years. There are times I get tired of doing the right thing or I get careless about my spiritual life. We cannot let that happen! I cannot imagine spending all these years growing in faithfulness, only to throw it all away at the end of life.
That is why we need each other in the body of Christ, to remind and encourage each other to keep going. Daily Bible reading and prayer, weekly worship and participation in a small group or Bible study, serving others. These things keep me on track with the Lord. We all need them, the consistent practices that build our spiritual strength and lives of faith. We call them “spiritual disciplines” because they require discipline, intentionality, and consistency in order to bear fruit in our lives. If we keep doing them, we will indeed reap a harvest. We must not slack off on these practices because we grow weary.
Many of us have grown weary with the situation in our beloved United Methodist Church. We thought by now we would be part of a new Methodist denomination that would be headed in a direction we could enthusiastically support. We are not there yet.
It is tempting to give up at this point, to just leave the UM Church and become a Baptist or a non-denominational Protestant, or a Bible church member. But the promise remains, “at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” God has something good in store for us, if we persevere to the end. No matter what happens over the next several months with the pandemic and with General Conference, I believe God will get us to the place he needs us to be, and we will get there together.
We need to finish this season of our life in the UM Church well. Good News has been in the struggle for 54 years. I personally have been in this for 38 years. Let us not throw away all those years of invested faithfulness by prematurely giving up or abandoning our goal of a faithful Methodism.
We can finish well on a personal spiritual level in our relationship with the Lord. We can finish well in our struggle against the coronavirus. We can finish well in our struggle for a faithful Methodist church. By God’s grace and our own perseverance, we can finish well, together.
Thomas Lambrecht is a United Methodist clergyperson and the vice president of Good News.
by Steve | Jan 15, 2021 | In the News, Perspective E-Newsletter
By Thomas Lambrecht –
We human beings do not like to be told what to do. Our DNA was formed in disobedience and rebellion in the first garden, when Adam and Eve decided they knew better than God.
We sometimes feel bound or restricted by the law. We tend to obey those laws that we think are appropriate or those for which we can understand the reason. We can understand why we need to go 30 mph in a crowded city street, but out in the country on a deserted road, we are more likely to disregard the speed limit.
We often take the same approach when it comes to God’s Law, as taught in Scripture. Those laws we can understand and affirm gain much more willing obedience than those laws that contradict our desires or do not make sense to us. The vision of God as an eternal traffic cop actually brings out a bit of the rebellious streak in all of us.
From Law to Instruction
That is why it is helpful to reframe our understanding of God’s Law. The Hebrew word for law (torah) more accurately means “teaching” or “instruction.” The purpose of God’s Law is not punishment, but teaching us God’s way of living.
This fits in well with our contemporary understanding of mentoring. We are encouraged to seek out mentors who can teach and guide us in our career or work life, and even in basic life skills, as well. (Previous generations looked to “Dear Abby” and Emily Post.) We look to models and instructors who can help us learn the ropes of life and work, marriage and parenting.
The ultimate mentor, however, is the Lord God of the universe. He created us and knows us intimately, having formed us in the womb. He knows how life is supposed to work, since he designed it. And he knows all things. He does not need to be taught anything. His knowledge is complete and expert beyond human knowledge.
Even more important, our mentor God loves us unconditionally and wants us to succeed in living a fulfilling and purposeful life. He is for us, not against us. He longs for us to fulfill the purpose for which we were made. Who better to teach us how to live life?
Psalm 19 describes for us this teaching function of God’s Law, reminding us that we have access to God’s mentorship through his written Word in Scripture.
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight to life.
Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever.
The laws of the Lord are true, each one is fair.
They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold.
They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb.
They are a warning to those who hear them; there is great reward for those who obey them.
(Psalm 19:7-11 NLT)
Basis for the Instruction
The psalm describes the nature of the laws and commandments of God, so that we know we can trust them. There are six characteristics:
- “Perfect” – without fault or flaw, pure
- “Trustworthy” – we can lean on them without fear that they will prove false or lead us astray
- “Right” – upright, straightforward, and just, not crooked or deceitful
- “Clear” – pure, free of guilt or blame, morally uncompromised
- “Pure” – clean, refined like gold, unmixed with sin
- “True” – reliable, stable, faithful, rooted in reality (this is the Hebrew word from which we get “Amen”)
If God’s instruction is all of these things (and more), would we not want to learn from it and put it into practice in our lives? Is not this teaching to be trusted more than any human wisdom, which is tainted by error or moral compromise?
Effects of the Instruction
Even more encouraging are the ways that God’s instruction is meant to affect our lives:
- “Reviving the soul” – God’s teaching provides life to the inner person. It addresses not just the physical, but also the human spirit and mind. It brings refreshment, like a cup of cold water on a hot day.
- “Making wise the simple” – God’s teaching allows us to live with wisdom. The “simple” are the uninstructed, the naïve. We can live (as my father would have put it) like “a babe in the woods” (knowing nothing), or we can live as we are taught to live, as God made us to live.
- “Bringing joy to the heart” – God’s instruction is not meant to discourage us or oppress us. Some people think living the Christian life takes all the joy out of life. On the contrary, living God’s way frees us from many of the worries and cares that suck the joy out of life.
- “Giving insight to life” – Literally, it says, “giving light to the eyes.” God’s instruction enables us to see clearly how to live. Where there is moral compromise, things quickly become foggy and confusing. People express various opinions about what is right, and there is often pressure to go along with what people advocate. God’s instruction enables us to cut through the fog and see clearly the way God wants us to live.
- “Lasting forever” – going on for perpetuity. God’s instruction never goes out of style. It applies in all times and all places. We can count on it always being true.
- “Each one is fair” – Literally, it says, “altogether righteous.” If our goal is to be righteous in life, God’s instruction is the way to get there. His instruction, taken as a whole, leads us to live a righteous life.
God’s instruction is more desirable than the finest gold. It is more valuable than any material possessions.
God’s instruction is sweeter than the freshest honey. It is more valuable and satisfying than any worldly pleasure.
God’s instruction warns us away from unproductive or destructive thoughts and behavior. Instead, it steers us toward great reward. We experience that reward in this life, as living God’s way leads to much joy and a lot less heartache or anxiety. But we also look forward to the greatest reward, which is eternal fellowship with the Lord.
To experience that divine fellowship, we need to become holy and righteous (Hebrews 12:14). God’s instruction helps us learn how. Of course, in our human strength we are unable to completely live by God’s instruction. We keep being distracted and led astray by temptations and circumstances, as well as self-will. That is why God sent the Holy Spirit to live within us and empower us. As God through Ezekiel promises us, “I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their hearts of stone and give them tender hearts instead, so they will obey my laws and regulations. Then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezekiel 11:19-20).
When I was learning how to play piano as a child, my piano teacher taught and showed me how to do it. She taught me how to hold my hands, how to place them on the keys, which finger to use on what keys, and all the various techniques of playing the piano. I could have argued with her, thinking I knew better, or I could have resisted because I didn’t like to do it the way she wanted me to. By doing that, I would have forfeited my ability to learn to play the piano. She was a good teacher and taught me the right way to play. Learning from her enabled me to mature in music.
In the same way, God is a good teacher. He is the one to be trusted above all others. His Word sets out how to live a godly life. Living that way yields a lot of benefits and enables us to mature as a person. We can resist and rebel, but we are then hurting mainly ourselves and those we love. By cooperating with the Holy Spirit, we can learn and put into practice God’s instruction.
We can start with the Ten Commandments: honor and respect God, give him our highest allegiance, observe a day of rest and worship, honor our parents, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false testimony against another, and do not covet what belongs to someone else.
We can go on from this foundation to explore the breadth and depth of God’s wisdom in all of Scripture, learning from the examples of the lives recorded there, as well as from the teaching found in its pages. We have a lifetime, and perhaps an eternity, of learning to live God’s way and being transformed into the likeness of Christ. Only so can we become all that God made us to be.
Thomas Lambrecht is a United Methodist clergyperson and the vice president of Good News.
by Steve | Jan 11, 2021 | Jan-Feb 2021, Magazine, Magazine Articles
Rob Renfroe
rrenfroe@goodnewsmag.org
As we begin a new year, I know many United Methodists are wondering, “Where do things stand regarding the protocol for separating the church? Is it still on track? Why haven’t we heard much about it lately?”
The Protocol for Reconciliation and Grace through Separation was created by a sixteen-member panel of leading traditionalists, centrists, and progressives, including several bishops. Advocacy groups spanning the theological spectrum, including Good News, the Confessing Movement, the Wesleyan Covenant Association, Reconciling Ministries Network, UMC Next, and Mainstream UMC all endorsed the Protocol.
It seemed certain the protocol would be passed at General Conference 2020 and we who want to maintain the Bible’s teaching on sexuality and those who wish to change United Methodism’s Scripturally-based standards would be able to go our separate ways. But the COVID pandemic caused General Conference to be postponed and the focus of the church has rightly been on helping those who are suffering during this difficult time. So, the protocol has taken a back seat these past several months.
General Conference is now scheduled for this coming August. There is some discussion about the possibility of holding a virtual Conference with delegates being able to participate online from home or gathered together in several regional centers across the world. Whether virtually or in person, the plan at present is for General Conference to convene in August and to take up the protocol. The protocol and the future of the UM Church will again take center stage.
So, what’s the status of the protocol and the likelihood of its passage? Despite some talk that the General Conference might again be postponed because international delegates may find travel restrictions due to the pandemic (see page 22), we believe it is still on track and will be passed by General Conference this year.
Not everyone agrees. Some bishops have reported to us privately that commitment for the protocol is waning among some of their colleagues. Due to our many years of division and the economic effects of the pandemic, general church apportionments are being paid at the lowest rate ever. More “institutional” bishops are concerned about the future viability of the denomination and what the departure of traditional congregations will mean for the UM Church going forward.
Nevertheless, we are optimistic that by this time next year, General Conference will have made a way for annual conferences and congregations who wish to depart to do so.
No one wants to repeat what happened at the General Conference in St. Louis. Earlier this year Bishop Cynthia Harvey, president of the Council of Bishops, stated her support of the protocol, “We could not continue the harm we were doing to each other; we needed a better way… it became very clear that [separation] was the next step we needed to take.”
The pandemic has changed many things, but it has not changed our need to put an end to the fighting and the division that has done so much harm.
The various advocacy groups mentioned above as supporting the protocol have been the ones in the trenches, strategizing, recruiting, organizing, and competing against each other to carry the day at General Conference. None of these groups has stated a change in their commitment to the protocol.
Recently, the Western Jurisdiction, the most liberal in the UM Church, issued a statement under the heading “Where Love Lives.” In their press release, Bishop Karen Oliveto, president of the Western Jurisdiction’s College of Bishops said, “The Western Jurisdiction is committed to living out our belief that God’s church is open to all. The Protocol for Reconciliation and Grace through Separation offers a way forward to begin easing the five decades of pain created by the wounds inflicted on LGBTQ persons by the church.”
It appears that the primary group that might work against the protocol’s passage is the institutional bishops, who are the same ones who have wanted to deny the depth of our division in the past. They are the ones who have offered the false hope that we could find a way to be one church with two different views of the Bible and competing sexual ethics. And they are starting to create the narrative that now is not the time for separation because the institutional UM Church cannot survive it.
We are optimistic. We believe the protocol is likely to pass. But we are also realistic. The battle is not yet over. Voices opposing separation are likely to surface. Progressives have already been to Africa telling bishops, pastors, and delegates they should remain within the continuing UM Church in order to continue receiving the financial support for their ministries they are accustomed to. (They conveniently ignore the fact that the dramatic decline in apportionment payments is already resulting in cuts to funding for African ministry, and that the departure of many traditionalist American congregations will further diminish the continuing UM Church’s ability to financially support ministry in Africa.)
The protocol was negotiated in order to avoid a contentious and litigious separation. Failure to pass the protocol or something like it could result in the acrimonious splintering of the denomination costing millions of dollars in legal fees.
After attending and working for our biblical views at seven past General Conferences, I know nothing is ever certain until the last vote has been taken. I also know how important it is that we remain vigilant and active as we prepare for General Conference.
Traditionalists will continue to reach out to our partners in Africa and in other parts of the world to keep support for the protocol strong. Additionally, we will be staying in touch with bishops who support the cause of a peaceful separation.
We are so close to creating a new future for faithful Methodists. Passing the protocol will allow Bible-believing churches and annual conferences to step into that new day with their property and congregations intact. One last push and the battle will be over.
by Steve | Jan 11, 2021 | Jan-Feb 2021, Magazine, Magazine Articles
“There are no doctrinal litmus tests in the movement. We are moving beyond the supremacy of a single belief system,” said the Rev. Janet McKeithen, a member of the Connexion.
By Heather Hahn –
A group of progressive United Methodists and other Christians launched a new denomination named the Liberation Methodist Connexion, or LMX. The new church aims to center on the voices of people of color as well as queer and transgender individuals — those the LMX organizers see as marginalized in The United Methodist Church.
“We are a grassroots denomination of former, current, and non-Methodist faith leaders working on the unfolding of the kin-dom of God,” the Connexion says on its website. “We intentionally invite the full participation of all who are living out their God-given identities and expressions.”
Organizers announced the new denomination’s formation with an online worship service, presentation, and after-party on Nov. 29, the first Sunday of Advent and the start of the Christian year. The new denomination’s organizers, a number of whom are LGBTQ, said they feel called to act now.
“The timeline of the Holy Spirit is driving our decision to launch the LMX at this moment, and we are following her call,” the Rev. Althea Spencer-Miller told UM News by email. Spencer-Miller, a New Testament professor at United Methodist Drew Theological School, is one of more than 40 collaborators who are helping to establish the new church. She and other collaborators declined to say how many congregations or people are part of the new denomination at launch. Organizers said by email they do not want to equate worth with volume.
Among the collaborators are both United Methodist pastors and lay people, including at least three church leaders elected to be General Conference delegates or reserve delegates. The new Connexion is not asking people to choose between the LMX and their affiliations with other faith communities, Spencer-Miller said by email and at the event.
Ian Carlos Urriola, another collaborator and veteran General Conference delegate, said at the event that the new denomination plans to work with The United Methodist Church’s official racial and ethnic caucuses, “ensuring that we remain in relationship with our forebearers in the struggle.”
At this point, the Liberation Methodist Connexion has obtained tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in the United States. The new church also is in process of applying for a group exemption with the IRS to simplify the administrative process for its congregations and ministries.
The new Connexion has no doctrinal litmus tests, said the Rev. Janet G. McKeithen, a member of the new denomination’s working group. The LMX focuses more on actions than beliefs, Spencer-Miller later added. “We seek not answers that lead us to correct doctrines as to why we suffer. We seek correct actions, correct praxis where God sustains us during the unanswerable questions,” Spencer-Miller said during the online event.
Such actions – the Connexion’s website notes – include reparations, caring for the earth, and freeing Methodist tradition of colonialism, white supremacy, economic injustice, sexism, ableism, ageism, and heteronormativity.
Heather Hahn is a multimedia reporter for UM News.
