by Steve | May 12, 2024 | May-June 2024
Your Journey Matters
By Shane Stanford
May/June 2024
Our journeys matter. Yes, our destination is important, but it is the journey that makes us who we are.
Some of my sweetest memories are of family road trips over the years. My wife and daughters and I have literally traveled across the country, spending time together, exploring exciting places, and attending interesting events. However, the most important part of each adventure – and the focus of most of our pictures from those travels – was simply our being together.
I recently watched a news report that included “migration” as one of the core indicators of a culture’s progress. It said that “movement” – the journeys of a culture from place to place – identifies what that culture considers critical to its identity and longevity.
I’ve experienced my own “migration” in life. I don’t live in the same house where I was born or even the house where I grew up. Some people do, and that is certainly okay. But most people don’t. And the story of how a person got from the home(s) where they grew up to the home where they currently live helps to describe and define the very nature of who they are and what they have learned along the way. Movement brings identity.
Similarly, I don’t believe it is a coincidence that Jesus spent his ministry years moving from one place to another. He didn’t begin his ministry in Nazareth where he grew up. No, his ministry started at Cana in Galilee, and his earthly journey ended in Jerusalem. And, between Cana and Jerusalem, he traveled throughout the region, dealing with unfamiliar places and foreign people like the Samaritans while, at the same time, coming to terms with the truth that “he couldn’t go home to Nazareth” either (see Luke 4:24). Yes, he was a Nazarene, but that was just one part of his story. Jesus’ journey helped to define and clarify who he was.
Even more than that, Jesus’ journey changed the world, defining and clarifying all of its people and nations, for all time.
My personal journey has had its share of struggles and learning moments. I have now lived nearly forty years as a “positive” after receiving a blood transfusion to treat hemophilia. That is the lingo we attach to someone who is HIV-positive, whether we say it from within the HIV community or from the sidelines. It means many things to many different people: it is a test result, a way of life, a question of morality, a lifestyle, a badge, a condition, or a burden.
For me, it has been all of those things at various stops along the road. However, “positive” is, more than anything, the story of my journey. My journey includes chapters involving great illness and medical obstacles, personal betrayal in one of my most important relationships, and having the first church where I was appointed as pastor reject me. I have also dealt with many of the normal avenues of life, including marriage, parenting, friendships, and professional commitments. I have founded a new local church and a new center for applied theology. And, of course, I have traveled to countless points and places in between these marks on my life road map.
I think most of us are overwhelmed by the journey of life. We encounter so much that is hard, so much that is bad – to such a degree that if we knew today what would happen a year or a decade from now, we might not take that next step. But there is also good in our journeys. And there are stops along the way that we are proud of. There is growing and learning and so much that is positive.
Seeing from a different perspective. In 2014, I went from being the senior pastor of a church that was considered one of the top 25 fastest growing United Methodist churches in the world to sitting in a waiting room at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, dealing with the liver disease that I had contracted back when I was 19 years old. My liver had gotten to the point of late, stage-three cirrhosis.
I began a new treatment. For the next two and a half years we went through 140 weeks of targeted drug therapy and then chemotherapy. Finally, it worked, and my liver was cured. But the journey to get to that point had been very hard. I remember a lot in my own soul, my own spirit trying to figure out what it all meant.
Coming out of that experience in 2017, we took a trip down to Mexico to build houses for people in need. We’d done this before (and we’ve done it since), and so much of the trip felt pretty standard. My wife, our girls, people on our ministry team, and I flew into San Diego and drove a couple hours south to Ensenada where we met with a local church there and loved on people by building homes.
But I’ll never forget this particular year. The pastor’s wife there, “Pastora,” had a strong connection to the Spirit, and we knew her well. She and her husband had connected us over the years to people in need. But on this particular night when I got done preaching to their congregation, Pastora came up to me and told me that she had heard a word from the Lord and that she wanted to pray with me.
She invited my wife and daughters to join, and as she prayed I noticed that she motioned to a few of the young men to come up and stand around me – and I felt my stomach sink. I grew up Baptist. I love my charismatic brothers and sisters dearly, but I could tell that Pastora wanted to heal me in the way that I thought only televangelists heal people. She was going to touch my head, and then she expected me to pass out and the young men would catch me, and that would be it. Simple, right?
I was beyond nervous. All I could think about was how much I didn’t want to embarrass her. How much I didn’t want her to realize that this thing that works for her doesn’t work for me.
I wasn’t thinking about what God could be doing. I wasn’t thinking about the possibility of a miracle. Nope, I was worried about how things would look when she failed.
And that’s the last thing I remember.
She dipped her finger in the oil, touched me on the forehead, and I went completely out. The people around me would later tell me that it was as if I floated back, and then the guys there caught me.
I woke up, sitting on the ground in a way that I would never normally sit due to past hemophilia injuries, and I remember feeling as well as I’d ever felt in my life. Nothing hurt or ached, which alone seemed to be a miracle because my body always hurts, always aches. But more than that – the thing that had gotten into my soul was the fact that I kept hearing a voice while I was out. Over and over, the voice said, “It’s about me. It’s about me.”
Ten years before that, I’d had heart surgery to correct some issues that medication had caused, and when I was coming out of that surgery, I remember sitting at the end of what appeared to be a long, white hall, and a man who I believed to be Jesus sat next to me. And he kept saying to me those very same words. “It’s about me.”
To hear those words again, after having the anointing from Pastora, I knew that God was getting my attention. He wanted me to focus on something other than leading a large church or trying to be the right kind of theologian.
Jesus wanted me to really listen to what it means for him to be in charge. And from that moment, I began to pay attention to all the ways that I’d made my life – my faith, my vocation, my work, my relationships – so that everything revolved around anything but Jesus. And as I recentered my life, as I made Jesus my journey-mate rather than a regular stop along the way, the paths before me became overwhelmingly more complete.
A passage to transform your journey. As we consider our individual and collective lives, a common thread binds us together: the broken, forgotten, rediscovered, and redeemed roads we all travel. My story, your story, Pastora’s story, God’s story – they all become our story, if we let them. If we allow the stops along the way to settle in and shape us while Jesus participates in the journey with us. If we allow him to transform us through the “movement” of our lives. Recognizing this bond is what defines a life that is not just “lived well” but one in which we learn something as we travel along the path and are faithfully formed by the journey as a whole.
Jesus’ Beatitudes in Matthew 5 are more than just poetic verse used to begin the Sermon on the Mount. They are the essence of his message from beginning to end. Here is a portion of the biblical passage: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. …” (Matthew 5:3-6).
These familiar, simple words establish the overall tone of Jesus’s teaching ministry and provide an intimate look at his most deeply held values. The Beatitudes are a road map for growing and learning each step of the way. They provide a clear look at what Jesus believed as he began his ministry on earth because his very humanity was formed around these truths. You see, when Jesus said something, he not only meant it but also lived it. To hear him speak these words was to know his heart. The Beatitudes echoed throughout his ministry, providing us a glimpse of God’s view of the world through his Son.
It seems as if bookstore shelves and online book websites are filled with titles that promise a better business, better health, better relationships, and a better life overall. Program after program, technique after technique has come and gone – some with wild success, others completely forgettable. But these modern-day solutions, with all their good intentions and advice, are man-made and man-promoted. They are new ideas to fix old problems – the very problems that Jesus addressed more than two thousand years ago when he provided the answers that people today spend thousands of dollars seeking out.
It is through the Beatitudes, a term that literally means “blessings,” that Jesus gives us a new definition of significance before poetically leading us to reflect on the deeper meaning of life, our relationship with God, and the interconnections we have with each other. Jesus never intended the Beatitudes to serve only as road markers of lives lived well. He meant them to serve as vehicles by which we experience the very best life.
Shane Stanford is President and CEO of The Moore-West Center for Applied Theology and JourneyWise. This essay is adapted from his book JourneyWise: Redeeming the Broken & Winding Roads We Travel (Whitaker House 2023). Reprinted by permission. Photo By Jeremy Perkins (Pexels).
by Steve | May 12, 2024 | May-June 2024
Steps to Move Forward
By Rob Renfroe
May/June 2024
Not long ago The United Methodist News Service published an article reporting that some of us who lead Good News and the Wesleyan Covenant Association intend to be present at the upcoming General Conference in Charlotte. The article was fair and balanced, quoting us and those who disagree with us. Shortly thereafter UMNS published a commentary by a well-known church leader on our being at the General Conference that was quite critical.
Reaction by United Methodist clergy and laity on social media to the two articles was predictable. We were described as hateful and disingenuous, portrayed as “foxes in the hen house,” and blamed for creating all the division within the UM Church. The main message was: Disaffiliation is over and it’s time for Good News, the WCA, and other critics to move on and stop damaging The United Methodist Church.
“Disaffiliation is over.” That’s the claim most centrists and progressives in the U.S. are making and that’s one of the reasons they think we should not be in Charlotte. But how can disaffiliation be over when it was never allowed to begin for the majority of United Methodists? Paragraph 2553 that permitted churches in the United States to leave was ruled by our bishops not to be applicable for congregations outside the U.S. where the majority of United Methodists live. The statement that “disaffiliation is over” evidences a US-centric view of the church that diminishes the importance of and denies the rights of churches in Africa, Europe, Russia, and Asia.
If the General Conference acts as if disaffiliation is over and does not give international churches the same right to determine their future that we in the U.S. were afforded, the message will be clear to members in Africa and the Philippines: United Methodists are willing to extend privileges to primarily white and wealthy congregations in the United States that it will deny to churches in the developing world whose members are predominantly poor and persons of color.
Liberal and “centrist” United Methodists talk often about justice and frequently denounce colonialism. Yet they seem intent on creating a two-tiered denomination where UMs in the U.S. are given more privileges than those outside the States. We agree it is time for the UM Church to move on. But not before it provides the same rights to those outside the United States that were given to churches here.
Second, some responded to the articles with the understandable sentiment that those no longer in The United Methodist Church should not have a voice at the General Conference. That’s one reason Tom Lambrecht, Good News’ vice president, and I, are still United Methodists. Rev. Lambrecht is an ordained elder in the Wisconsin Annual Conference, under active appointment. I am a retired UM elder in the Texas Annual Conference, properly located at a United Methodist congregation in Houston. I understand many are tired of hearing our voices and disagree with our views, but we are still United Methodists. How long we remain United Methodists will be dependent upon what the General Conference decides. But both of us have been UM elders for over forty years. We have both given our lives to the UM Church. For the past four decades we have cared deeply about its health and its future. We still do. When we leave, we will no longer feel the need or possess the right to attempt to influence the direction of The United Methodist Church. Until that time, we have as much standing as any other UM clergyperson to call upon the UM Church to do the right thing.
Others have charged that we have created division within The United Methodist Church for too long and our work at the General Conference will only continue the dissension we have sowed in the past. The truth is the UM Church was divided long before the Wesleyan Covenant Association came into existence in 2016, many years prior to Rev. Lambrecht’s and my ordination in the 1980’s, and even before Good News was formed in 1967. We did not create the issues that have divided the UM Church and have led to the exit of a quarter of its congregations.
We, like those within the UM Church possessing views different from ours, have expressed our beliefs and encouraged delegates to vote in line with what we believed was best for the church. But we did not create the differences that led to disaffiliation. Nor did we promote disobedience to the Book of Discipline as some charging us with fomenting division have done.
A UMNS reporter asked me, “How do you respond to those who say your work at General Conference is nothing more than your trying to harm The United Methodist Church on your way out?” My response was, “All we’re planning to do is call upon The United Methodist Church to be fair and do justice. If that harms an institution, it must be a very sick institution.”
Lastly, we have heard the objection that those who do not plan on remaining in the UM Church should not try to impact its future. Again, that is a very valid concern. Good News and the WCA have no desire and will not be working in Charlotte to influence the future direction or policies of The United Methodist Church – not its views of marriage, not its standards for ordination, not its policy on abortion, not its Social Principles, not its budget.
Our efforts will be constrained to asking the General Conference to provide justice for two groups. One of those groups being the churches outside the U.S. which have been denied the right to discern if disaffiliation is right for them. The other being the congregations in the United States which were told by their bishop or their district superintendent that they did not have to act before Paragraph 2553 expired – they could wait to see what changes the General Conference made in 2024 and then determine whether to disaffiliate.
It’s possible we will feel compelled to address one other issue in Charlotte. If a just opportunity for disaffiliation is not provided for churches outside the U.S. and if international delegates ask for our help, we will assist them in trying to defeat the regionalization plan. Our friends in Africa with whom we work closely have told us they cannot remain in a church that allows for a contradictory, “contextualized” sexual ethic. If they are given no opportunity to exit, we will stand with our brothers and sisters who have described regionalization as a plan for creating “the separate but equal United Methodist Church.”
The proposed plan for regionalization necessitates constitutional amendments. The passage of such amendments requires a two-thirds vote at the General Conference and then the approval of two-thirds of all the connection’s annual conferences. We believe the amendments can be defeated at the General Conference. We feel certain they can be defeated once the vote goes to the annual conferences. But we have no desire to engage in that struggle, and we will do nothing to thwart its passage if an exit path is offered to churches outside the U.S.
What if the General Conference voted early in its deliberations to fairly extend Paragraph 2553 to churches outside the United States and to those churches that would like to enter discernment in this country? Honestly, I think Good News and the WCA would say “thank you,” pack our bags and go home early.
The other option is we go at it one more time. We have fights on the conference floor. The focus of the General Conference once again becomes our differences and the UM Church that needs to move forward gets mired in the divisions of the past.
I prefer the former – people of goodwill on all sides voting to let those leave who desire to do so. It’s fair. It’s just. It stops the fighting. It’s a path that will allow The United Methodist Church – and us – to “move on.”
Rob Renfroe is the president and publisher of Good News.
by Steve | May 12, 2024 | May-June 2024, Uncategorized
Christ in You, the Hope of Glory
By Oswald Bronson
Good News Archive
1971 Good News Convocation
May/June 20204
Think with me on the topic, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Our theme comes from a man physically imprisoned, but liberated in mind and convinced that in his soul lived a universal mystery – the presence of Jesus Christ, who was the ground of his faith and conviction. Any man with a conviction becomes ill at ease when the foundation of that conviction is subjected to misinformation. And so it was with Paul. He had heard that false teachers in Colossae were proclaiming a dangerous and deceptive heresy.
Under the influence of what came to be known as gnosticism, these false teachers sought to syncretize [mix together] the Christian faith with Greek and Oriental religious systems that reduced Jesus Christ to one of many intermediaries between God and man. They instituted complex and secretive initiation rites, paganistic ceremonies that extolled the so-called mysteries of their syncretistic faith. Little did they care that this mixture of religious ideologies was an insult to a prisoner under lock and key in the Roman jail. You see, they had not been with Jesus, not been pricked by his power on the Damascus road.
In the Epistle to the Colossians, Paul speaks to a communal irregularity that threatened to bankrupt the Church’s spiritual treasure, and to immobilize its moral behavior and its Christian witness. Here, my friends, we see one of Paul’s ablest defenses against heresy in the ranks. It is against this background of false teaching – of a divided community, of a church threatened by ethical decadence, and spiritual erosion – that Paul courageously reaffirmed his evangelical faith and pointed to the Mystery hidden for ages and generations. The Mystery is the topic of this address. For Paul says, it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
This theme underscores three basic dimensions of Christology (or the doctrine of Christ), without which our faith is emptied of its pulling power.
1. Jesus Christ, The Image of the Invisible God.
2. Jesus Christ, The Mystery of the Indwelling Presence.
3. Jesus Christ, The Hope of Glory.
In Pauline theology, Christ was not one of a number of equal intermediaries; not simply one of the angels; not a power among other powers, as the heretical teachers at Colossae would have the Christians believe. In Colossians 2:8 Paul warned the church to beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men or after the rudiments of the world.
This warning has relevance for modern day Christianity. You and I know that the modern church runs the risk of becoming theologically sterile and spiritually bereft. Many churches have departed from the biblical faith, lost their spiritual magnetism and the fire that burned in the hearts of our fathers. The absence of the Holy Spirit leaves a vacancy open and available to all kinds of heresy, such as the [1970s] God-is-Dead movement. Preachers and laymen quarrel, blaming the other for the church’s predicament.
Some time ago I came across a rating chart that sought to evaluate the pastor’s work. It sought to measure a pastor’s adaptability, effectiveness in pastoral calling, strength of character, spiritual maturity, preaching skills, and communication. Those were the areas of measurement. Across the top of the chart were the degrees of measurement: Far exceeds requirements, exceeds requirements, meets requirements, needs some improvement, does not meet minimum requirements.
The first area of performance is the preacher’s adaptability. Far exceeds requirements: Leaps tall obstacles with a single bound. Exceeds requirements: Must take running start to leap over tall obstacles. Meets requirements: Can leap over small obstacles only. Needs some improvement: Crashes into obstacles. Does not meet minimum requirements: Cannot recognize obstacles at all.
Sadly, we have folk who are not able to recognize sin and its creeping effects.
What about the pastoral calling? Far exceeds requirements: Faster than a speeding bullet. Exceeds requirements: As fast as a speeding bullet. Meets requirements: Not quite as fast as a speeding bullet. Needs some improvement: Would you believe, a slow bullet? Does not meet requirements: Usually wounds self with bullet.
What about preaching? Far exceeds requirements: Enthralls huge throngs. Exceeds requirements: Enthralls the congregation. Meets requirements: Interests the congregation. Needs some improvement: Only spouse listens. Does not meet requirements: Not even spouse listens.
Surely if you’re going to be a real pastor, you need strength of character. Far exceeds requirements: My pastor is stronger than a herd of bulls. Exceeds requirements: Stronger than several bulls. Meets requirements: Stronger than one bull. Needs some improvement: Shoots the bull.
Surely we need someone who can communicate. What about the pastor’s communication if they’re shooting the bull? Communication far exceeds requirements: Talks with God. Exceeds requirements: Talks with the angels (Paul would be concerned). Meets requirements: Well, talks with self. Needs some improvement: Argues with self. Does not meet minimum requirements: Loses argument with self.
If Paul had to rate the heretical teachers and preachers in Colossae, he would simply say that, “You are losing arguments that are vital, the argument that stands tall and places our faith solidly on Jesus Christ.”
Paul teaches not to be misled by any attempt to establish a religious faith on any power except Jesus Christ. Here he underscores the uniqueness and supremacy of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not one of many intermediaries. Christ is the Mediator. He’s not a power among other equals. He is the supreme Savior, the highest expression of God’s love. He is God’s image from all of eternity, before creation was brought forth, before the Spirit moved upon the waters.
As I heard one preacher say over the radio, before there was a “when” or a “where” or a “then” or “there,” or “this” or “that” – before there were plants, animals and human life on the face of the earth – Christ was already in existence. St. Paul, the man of faith, said, “He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of creation, for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities, he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:15-18).
Not only was Christ with God in the beginning, but on earth he was fully human. Herein lies the great paradox. It is the link between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. In his humanity dwelt the fullness of God, in his deity dwelt the fullness of man. This is a paradox that dramatizes God’s extending himself in suffering love. And humanity reaching its highest in obedience, in humility, and in devotion to God’s will. The downward reach of God, and the upward reach of man, had its highest hour and met in Jesus Christ.
In Christ the Son we meet God supremely revealed. On the cross we experience God’s aching heart, his agonizing love, and his forgiving spirit. Often my heart bleeds when I look at my Savior on the cross, and think how he has there, on his shoulder, all my sins. And then I hear him say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Oh Christ, I love you! Easter brings the Good News that God-in-Christ is victorious over the forces of evil. Pentecost signals through Christ a new baptism, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Surely, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.
We enjoy singing, “All Hail the Power of Jesus Name.” He is not one among equals – he is superior! He is preexistent! He is God, the image of the invisible God. “Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him lord of all.”
We must crown him Lord of all. Jesus Christ, the image of the invisible God, is also the mystery of the indwelling Presence. Please note that Paul frequently uses the word mystery. It denotes the incomprehensible, an event or an idea that cannot be explained and understood by human faculties. A mystery defies human intellect. The secret of his power is on a level beyond our human understanding.
This universe that God has made is filled with mysteries. It is true, we are extending our explorations to other planets. Yet, with each such exploration, we realize that we are dealing with but an infinitesimal part of this vast universe. The full knowledge of God’s power lies only in his mind. Paul was eminently correct in using the word mystery, for life is a mystery. Nature is a mystery. The human being is a mystery.
Through science and technology, the human mind is grasping facts once thought to be miraculous. We think now that we know the secret of the Universe. We understand how to manipulate certain physical laws to bring about desired results. But how these laws came into existence remains a mystery. There is so much we cannot fully explain.
When I was a lad, I used to like to watch Molly, the cow. And I used to wonder how a brown cow, eating green grass, with a red tongue, could give white milk, churned into yellow butter.
Regardless how much we try to explain many of these things, we come back to the question, “Who did it? Who got it started?” We have to come to grips with this one outstanding fact: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and everything therein found.”
I heard a radio preacher very eloquently remind his audience that we live in a push-button age today. We can push a button and lift tons of steel. We can push a button and send astronauts throughout space, even to the moon. We can push a button and sail heavy aircraft through the skies. We have come to feel that there is hardly anything that the push-button cannot do.
But, said the preacher, man cannot push a button and cause the sun to shine, or the stars to twinkle, or create mothers and fathers to provide love for their children, or our Savior, who brings healing to our souls.
The push-button is mechanical, cold, and indifferent to the deeper yearnings and needs of the human heart. Only God can push that button! As Isaac Newton stood in the presence of nature’s mysteries, he said “I feel like a child who has picked up a few pebbles on the shore of a boundless ocean.”
I was glad to hear the great scientist Albert Einstein said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.” Mystery is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. His eyes are closed.
Yes, we are surrounded by mystery.
Paul’s time was the age of mystery religions and secret initiation rites. The false teachers of Colossae were greatly influenced by these religious practices. Against this background, Paul is saying, “I, too, have a Mystery into which I was initiated. It is a divine secret, which for ages no man guessed. Now it has pleased God to make known the secret. And it is, Christ in you. The innermost dynamics and the very nature of God’s being reaches its apex in Christ. And we know this Christ as the inward presence, making our lives one with his life. Christ is the mystery, because in him lies hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Because he represents far more than has yet been disclosed.”
Notice that Paul said Christ in you; not Christ on you, nor merely around you. Not Christ objectified in a philosophical system, or any system locked to a period in history. Not a Christ beautifully painted in a picture, or described in poetry or set to popular music.
Christ on me is not enough! I might change toward him as I changed my clothes, or as I moved from group to group, from city to city, from position to position. Christ around me has great advantages, but he is still external. In theory he is limited to intellectual activities, but our problems are deeper than the intellect.
A Christ arrested in the past is good for the museum; a picture may be good to adorn the walls of our homes and our offices. Jesus Christ in poetry and music is fine, though he runs the risk of becoming a fad rather than the savior.
Instead, Paul sees an urgency in the indwelling Christ. When Christ is truly internalized – permeating every cell, every fiber, thought, utterance, motive, behavior – we become new creatures. We experience unspeakable joy. We have an eternal assurance. We have a new light, a new spirit, a new love, a new heart, a new code of ethics, a new behavior, a new fellowship. With Christ in you and Christ in me, I declare, we’ve got to be together.
On a sign prepared by youth in one of our Atlanta United Methodist congregations are the words, “If you were arrested and charged for being a Christian, and indicted, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”
The indwelling Christ supplies the evidence. It is expressed courageously in a life of love and service, and the record is filled with testimonies across the ages of the transforming power of Jesus Christ as an indwelling presence.
How well do I remember when I was a small child, I heard my father pray, “Lord, I gave Oswald to you before he was born. Help him to be your servant. May you live in his life.”
I heard my Daddy pray that, morning and night. Sometimes I would wake up in the night. I would hear him praying, “God, I gave Oswald to you before he was born ….” I thought about that. At an early age, my Father, not having the kind of theological sophistication that many of us have, but a faith in Jesus Christ, was reminding me of the divine origins of any human being. And that my own existence in the world is the result of God’s creative activity, that in my life was a purpose – a purpose to glorify God.
He surrounded me with the Christian faith. I saw Christ in him. But I needed more than Christ around me, I needed Christ within me. My father’s faith was not enough. As Billy Sunday used to say, “Your wife’s faith cannot save you. You’ve got to be more than a brother-in-law to God.”
When I made my own decision for Christ, God became more than just a distant relative. He became an intimate Savior. The old Gospel hymns took on new meaning. It became a joy to affirm deep within that “I am Thine, oh Lord;” “Have Thine Own Way Lord;” “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine.”
The Christian faith claims that in Christ, God’s nearness becomes a greater reality. He lives within. He becomes the battery that makes a glow radiate from our personality. And when you walk, somebody will say, “There goes a Christian, I see their light.”
Yes, Jesus Christ, the image of the invisible God. Jesus Christ, the mystery of the indwelling presence. Christ, the hope, is a theme that winds its way through the Pauline epistles. The word hope communicates the sense of the possible. It is an attitude towards life affirming that what we really need is possible.
The value of hope is poetically demonstrated by Percy Bysshe Shelley’s drama Prometheus Unbound: “To suffer woes which hope thinks infinite, to forgive wrongs darker than dark of night, to defy powers which seem omnipotent, to love and bear, to hope till hope creates from its own wreck the thing it contemplates.”
Christian hope, however, is more than a general kind of optimism. It is more than hope in hope, or faith in faith. Christian hope is tied to the goal of history, and the purpose of each person’s existence. It is the unshakable confidence in the sovereignty of God, and his eventual triumph over all the forces that stand against truth, justice, righteousness, faithfulness, love, and mercy. In the great contest between good and evil, Christian hope declares God as winner. He is the victory.
For the Christian, in race relations, Christ is the victory. In family crises, Christ is the victory. In marital conflicts, Christ is the victory. Not only is he the hope of victory, he is also the hope of glory. The hope of sharing with God the eternal radiance of his victory.
Today, I have hope. I have hope that through Christ, all men and women will recognize their common bond. I have hope because in everything God works together for the good. Yes, I have hope. It is this hope that sends Christians forth witnessing against wrong, upholding the right, giving God the glory and the praise. It is this hope that brings light and deliverance to the downtrodden, the dejected, the underprivileged, the overprivileged, the “just-right” privileged.
Reverent. A matron in an orphanage whipped little Jimmy E. West, and put him on a bread and water diet. She said he was evading his chores by pretending to be sick. Fortunately a lady who knew Jimmy’s mother before she died, came by to see him. And she asked the matron to let her take the lad to a doctor. The matron agreed. The doctor examined the nine year old lad and sure enough, he had a tuberculous hip. He was laid up for a year on a very hard board. After a year the doctor said, “There’s no hope, so I might as well send him on back.” He called the orphanage, and the matron said she couldn’t take him.
The doctor called the taxi, gave him instructions, and in the gathering darkness he took Jimmy to the orphanage, left him and his crutches on the porch. Little Jimmy was found there by a girl who came to lock up for the evening. She dragged him in. What hope was there for a nine-year-old lad? No mother, sickly, rejected. None, according to the socially accepted opinions of the psychologists and social workers. He was doomed for a miserable life and death.
But a miracle took place. In this orphanage was a Sunday school. And Jimmy’s class was taught by a man who was in charge of the heating plant. He was not a man sophisticated in theology, but he had a faith – a living, vibrant faith, a belief in Jesus Christ that he shared with Jimmy.
Jimmy said later, “I came to believe that my life need not be hopeless wreckage.” And so, he started a life of prayer. He finished high school, worked his way through college and became a lawyer. He was brought to the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt because of his work with underprivileged children. This work was so significant that when the Boy Scouts of America was chartered, Congress elected Jimmy E. West (1876-1948) as its first chief executive.
But the story doesn’t end there. The Boy Scout code of America has one line that the code does not have in England. “A Boy Scout is Reverent.” Who put it there? It was a Sunday school teacher, faith, and spirit, working in the life of Jimmy West. Through Christ, he came to find that God had meaning for him in his time of wreckage. So now, Boy Scouts around the world raise their hand to God and say, “A Boy Scout is Reverent.”
Christ is the hope not only in the world to come, but he’s the hope right now.
In my home community we used to sing a spiritual called “Ain’t That Good News?” The lyrics are: “I’ve got a Savior in the Kingdom, ain’t that good news? He’s the joy of my salvation, ain’t that good news? He’s going to lead us from earth to glory, ain’t that good news?”
Yes, the Christian community has Good News! We have what the world desperately needs. It is Christ within us, the hope of glory. Ain’t that Good News?
When he delivered this address to the 1971 Good News Convocation, Dr. Oswald P. Bronson, Sr., Ph.D., an ordained United Methodist clergyman, was President of Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta. After completing his time at ITC, in 1975, Dr. Bronson began an appointment as the fourth president of his alma mater, Bethune-Cookman University, a position he held for 29 years. Dr. Bronson passed away on February 2, 2019, at the age of 91 years old. This sermon first appeared in the October/December 1971 issue of Good News. Photo courtesy of Atlanta University Center. Photo: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Shutterstock).
by Steve | May 10, 2024 | In the News, Perspective / News
Room for Traditionalists?
By Thomas Lambrecht
The 2020/2024 General Conference has just concluded its ten-day run in Charlotte, North Carolina. A summary of some of the actions taken by the conference are available in last week’s Perspective, “A Tale of a New Church.”
Many participants remarked upon the different atmosphere that prevailed in Charlotte, compared to previous General Conferences. Many items were adopted on the consent calendar, meaning that they garnered no debate and had very little opposition. To those in the majority, it appeared that a spirit of unity and a common direction pervaded the assembly.
The reason for that new unity and the many lopsided votes was due to the fact that most dissenting voices were not present. The loss of one-fourth of UM congregations in the U.S. translated into the loss of more than half the traditionalist U.S. delegates, including many of the leading traditionalist voices. The fact that one-fourth to one-third of African delegates were denied a visa and unable to be present further diluted the traditionalist voice.
A greatly reduced opposition meant that the new majority was able to enact its agenda largely unimpeded. That agenda not only affirmed the full-throated acceptance of LGBTQ ordination and marriage, it erased clear moral boundaries around all forms of human sexuality. It accommodated the church to a Western sexual ethos based on consent and self-fulfillment, rather than on God’s purpose for sexuality as a binding element of marital intimacy, a reflection of the Trinity, and a depiction of the relationship between Christ and his Church.
Good News and other traditionalist observers and delegates were present as a witness to traditional values and scriptural understanding, as well as to advocate for a clear and reasonable pathway for churches unable to embrace the new UM agenda to disaffiliate with their property.
Room for All?
The conference went out of its way to ensure the inclusion of LGBTQ persons. The conference affirmed same-sex marriage and empowered pastors and churches to perform such weddings. Partnered gay and lesbian people may now officially be ordained as clergy and consecrated as bishops. Sexual orientation is now included alongside race and gender as characteristics that may not be considered when appointing a pastor to a church. LGBTQ persons are mandated to be nominated to all general church boards and agencies.
In the midst of all these mandated open doors, it became obvious who was being excluded. Little respect was given to those voicing opposition to any of the above agenda. An African leader seeking to make a personal statement to the conference was completely shut down, unlike in past General Conferences where moments of personal privilege were freely granted to those supporting a progressive agenda.
From the opening sermon by Bishop Thomas Bickerton, the outgoing president of the Council of Bishops, the question was raised about who belonged in the room. He began by asking, “Do you want to be in this room? Are you willing to move forward in the spirit of hope and embrace a season of reformation?” This “reformation” was not an attempt to align the church with biblical teaching, but an adoption of the “full inclusion agenda” promoted by progressives.
Setting the direction of the General Conference, Bickerton promoted this new agenda in vague terms, but ones that all its supporters understood and welcomed. “This is the time to refocus the church for the future. Lay out the beginnings of our next expression and find a way to decide that different people from different cultures with different theological persuasions CAN be the body of Christ in unity and respect and love.” That “next expression” of United Methodism took a very progressive turn at this conference. The question remains, however, whether that progressive tent is large enough to include theological conservatives in one church body “in unity and respect and love.”
A definite direction was set for the church, and Bickerton made clear that no opposition to that direction would be welcome. “Do you want to be in that room? I pray that you do. But if you are in this room, I think you need to be prepared to get on board a train that is moving on down the track to a new day for what it means to be The United Methodist Church.”
The train’s destination is predetermined. But what if we don’t want to go to that destination? Clearly, we were invited to get off the train. Bickerton continued, “And if you are not committed to that positive narrative of who we are or where we are going, you might just be in the wrong place! And perhaps, just perhaps, in love we might just ask you with integrity that you just leave us alone to do our work.”
Disparagement and Discouragement
Throughout the conference, a running commentary from a self-described centrist special-interest group disparaged and slandered traditionalist delegates and urged them to leave. It’s email blast on May 1 criticized a traditionalist delegate for expressing a heartfelt opinion on behalf of traditionalist members across the world. Yet, it proclaimed that she should never have attended the General Conference.
We saw the vote totals at this General Conference steadily decrease, as delegates absented themselves from the floor of the conference. At its high point, there were 750 delegates voting on matters. After the vote changing the definition of marriage, the vote totals declined to around 665. Even 750 delegates represents only 87 percent participation of the total of 862. That indicates the loss of many delegates from Africa, perhaps as many as 100 missing. A decline to 665 delegates represents only 77 percent participation. This could very well be a message from African and traditionalist delegates that they feel their voice and participation is no longer valued. Rather than participating in futile opposition to the prevailing winds of change, some delegates obviously found other things to do.
The message communicated to traditionalists by Bickerton and others was that we can participate in the church, as long as we fund the new agenda and keep quiet – and do not openly disagree with the stance of most of the church. That reduces traditionalists to mere checkbooks – second-class members of the church. Many traditionalists may find these terms of membership to be untenable.
A Locked Door
While being encouraged to get off the train if we don’t like the destination, many traditionalists may find the door locked. Par. 2553 allowing local churches to disaffiliate was removed from the Discipline by a 72 percent majority, even though it had already expired at the end of 2023. The presenter of that petition opined that disaffiliation should never have been considered, nor should that paragraph have ever been included in the Discipline, and he rejoiced that it would never be in a printed version, since the Discipline was not printed in 2020 following the 2019 General Conference. Other attempts to pass a process of disaffiliation, even for just those annual conferences outside the U.S. that never had a chance to consider disaffiliation, were overwhelmingly voted down.
It is highly ironic that at the 2019 General Conference, traditionalists passed an exit path for progressive congregations who could not abide by the Traditional Plan – an exit path that the vast majority of progressive churches were unwilling to use. But in 2024, the “champions of tolerance and grace” refused to pass an exit path for traditionalists who could not abide by the decisions made by this General Conference – an exit path that traditionalist congregations are more than willing to use.
If we cannot agree with the direction taken by the new UM Church, we are asked to leave. But for many, the door is deadbolted shut, at least as far as it concerns taking church property along in the disaffiliation. To some, it was a reminder of the last line of the song, “Hotel California,” “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”
Hopeful Ways Forward
It is hoped that many bishops and conference leaders will see the futility of trying to keep local churches in the UM fold by forcibly denying them a way to leave with their property. There is still a way through the church closure provision (Par. 2549) that annual conferences can close a church and then sell or deed it back to the congregation. Again, to be reasonable, such a process should be no more costly than Par. 2553 was, and for some churches it may be less. It will be up to each annual conference to decide whether it will allow churches to leave using this provision and at what cost.
Unfortunately, in some instances, an exit from the UM Church with a congregation’s building will not be possible. In those cases, it may be necessary for parishioners to be willing to walk away from their building for the sake of biblical faithfulness, as they see it. It may take the form of individuals finding another Wesleyan, biblically-faithful congregation nearby to join. Or it may be that a critical mass of the congregation walks away together to start a new ministry in that community. There are many stories of vibrant new churches forming out of the necessity to leave a building behind and start a new congregation, both in Methodism, as well as in the Episcopal/Anglican and Presbyterian worlds.
Stay UMC or leave, we hope that the decisions made by the 2024 General Conference will not cause people to abandon their biblical convictions and compromise with a worldly value system that prioritizes self over obedience to Christ. It remains to be seen whether those biblical convictions will be welcome in the UM Church going forward.
Thomas Lambrecht is a United Methodist clergyperson and vice president of Good News. Photo: Following a vote to remove restrictions on clergy celebrating same-sex weddings, Marcia McFee leads a celebration outside the Charlotte Convention Center at the 2024 United Methodist General Conference in Charlotte, N.C. Photo by Paul Jeffrey/UM News.
by Steve | May 5, 2024 | Home Page Hero Slider, In the News, Perspective / News
A Tale of a New Church
By Thomas Lambrecht
The story of the 2024 General Conference meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, is the story of a new church being born. Two years ago this month, the Global Methodist Church was born, and it is growing and maturing quickly. This month a new United Methodist Church was born, one that is wedded to a more progressive understanding of the Bible and theology. As the conference ends today, it is appropriate to assess how that took place.
In years past, the UM Church was deeply divided between traditionalists and progressives. The 2019 General Conference in St. Louis demonstrated this divide by approving the traditional understanding of marriage and human sexuality by only 53 to 46 percent. By contrast, the new definition of marriage passed by the 2024 General Conference received 78 percent support.
What caused the shift?
First, in the aftermath of the St. Louis conference, many U.S. annual conferences made a concerted effort to elect progressive delegates to the next General Conference. This was a reaction to, and rejection of, the traditional direction chosen in St. Louis. It was accompanied by widespread avowals of disobedience to what the General Conference had decided and fostered the realization that the UM Church was in an untenable impasse.
Second, the General Conference was postponed, not once or twice, but three times. The third postponement was widely seen by traditionalists as a ploy to avoid the adoption of a plan of amicable separation. It led directly to the formation of the Global Methodist Church in 2022. In response, over 7,600 U.S. churches disaffiliated, leading to a dramatic decline in the remaining number of traditionalist delegates to General Conference, as many strong leaders exited the denomination.
Third, the General Conference staff did not do the work necessary to gather the information on delegate elections from annual conferences in Africa. Due to a variety of challenges, including the illness of key persons and slowness (or lack of understanding) in responding to requests for forms, the staff did not have the necessary information to send out letters of invitation soon enough to enable delegates to secure visas to travel to the U.S. for the conference. The staff could have done more to gain the needed information, including trips to Africa to meet with leaders there, but declined to do so. As a result, between 70 and 100 African delegates (most of whom would have been traditionalist voices and votes) were not able to obtain visas to attend the conference.
As a result, instead of the previous 53 to 46 percent majority, traditionalists at this General Conference were outnumbered, 78 to 22 percent. This gave the progressive-centrist coalition the votes they needed to run the table on their LGBTQ-affirming agenda.
What changed?
The General Conference has changed the denomination’s definition of marriage. Previously, we “affirmed the sanctity of the marriage covenant that is expressed in love, mutual support, personal commitment, and shared fidelity between a man and a woman.” Now, our Discipline “affirm[s] marriage as a sacred lifelong covenant that brings two people of faith (adult man and woman of consenting age; and or two adult persons of consenting age) into union with one another.”
This new, confused definition of marriage allows for multiple options. It preserves the ability of some to say marriage is the union of one man and one woman, while at the same time opening the door to say marriage is between any two people, including those of the same gender. This second definition is a direct contradiction of Scripture (Genesis 2:23-24; Matthew 19:4-6). It puts the UM Church in the situation of having conflicting, incoherent definitions of marriage.
The conference made further changes to our understanding of human sexuality and its proper role. Previously, we stated that “Although all persons are sexual beings whether or not they are married, sexual relations are affirmed only with the covenant of monogamous, heterosexual marriage.” This language was taken out of the Discipline at this conference, and it now reads, “We affirm human sexuality as a sacred gift and acknowledge that sexual intimacy contributes to … nurturing healthy sexual relationships that are grounded in love, care, and respect. … We further honor the diversity of choices and vocations in relation to sexuality such as celibacy, marriage, and singleness. We support the rights of all people to exercise personal consent in sexual relationships, to make decisions about their own bodies.”
It seems the new moral guidelines for sexual relationships are love, care, respect, and consent. Gone is any understanding of the moral purpose of human sexuality to cement the marriage bond and enhance the relationship between husband and wife.
In addition, the qualifications for clergy previously required “fidelity in marriage and celibacy in singleness.” This has now been changed to “faithful sexual intimacy expressed through fidelity, monogamy, commitment, mutual affection and respect, careful and honest communication, mutual consent, and growth in grace and in the knowledge and love of God.” While all these qualities are good, this removes the requirement for sexual abstinence before marriage and further dilutes the church’s moral standards. It is unclear how “fidelity” or “monogamy” applies to single persons or what the sexual ethic for single clergy persons is.
The chargeable offenses for immorality and not being celibate in singleness or faithful in a heterosexual marriage were removed. There is therefore no formal way to hold clergy persons accountable for committing immorality.
Homosexuality
Previously, our Discipline stated, “We affirm that all persons are individuals of sacred worth, created in the image of God. All persons need the ministry of the Church in their struggles for human fulfillment, as well as the spiritual and emotional care of a fellowship that enables reconciling relationships with God, with others, and with self. The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers this practice incompatible with Christian teaching. We affirm that God’s grace is available to all.”
That language has now been removed, and the church takes no formal position on the morality of homosexual relationships. However, in other changes, the church now allows for “the full inclusion of LGBTQ people in church life,” as reported by UM News Service.
- Married or partnered gays and lesbians may now be ordained as clergy, appointed as pastors, and consecrated as bishops.
- Pastors may perform same-sex weddings and churches may host such services.
- Pastors may not be penalized for performing same-sex weddings, nor may they be penalized for refusing to perform them.
- Church funds may now be spent to promote the acceptance of homosexuality. However, funds may NOT be spent in a way that “rejects LGBTQIA persons” or in dialogues where the traditional perspective is presented. This provision seems to exclude church participation in ministry that seeks to help persons deal with unwanted same-sex attractions, and it certainly inhibits the traditional perspective from being perceived as a viable alternative in understanding Scripture.
- LGBTQ persons must be included in the membership of all general church boards and agencies.
The cumulative effect of all these changes is to change the UM Church from a denomination that stood on the scriptural position that sex is for marriage between one man and one woman to a denomination that affirms sexual relations between persons of the same gender and also outside of marriage.
Regionalization
There is a definite disconnect between the understanding of sexual morality by the progressive-centrist United States and the traditionalist understanding of Africa and the Philippines. Progressives and centrists believe that the way around this is to adopt a regionalized form of church governance. This would allow each region of the church to adopt its own rules and policies, including those related to marriage, sexuality, and clergy qualifications.
In conjunction with our African partners, Good News has argued that this approach is misguided and could lead to the weakening of the United Methodist connection. It certainly imposes a burden on Africans and Filipinos to develop their own Discipline, while still being tainted by being part of a libertine denomination.
However, these arguments were rejected by the delegates in Charlotte. They passed the regionalization proposal by a 78 percent margin. It still needs ratification by two-thirds of the annual conference members, which may or may not happen. If ratified, it would go into effect in 2026.
Disaffiliation
The primary goal of Good News at the General Conference was to advocate for an exit path for local churches. Churches outside the U.S. were not given the same opportunity to disaffiliate that we had in the U.S. At the same time, about a dozen annual conferences in the U.S. imposed very high costs for disaffiliation that prevented most churches from leaving. There was also a proposal for a streamlined process for annual conferences outside the U.S. to disaffiliate as a whole annual conference.
Unfortunately, all attempts to include a formal disaffiliation pathway failed. The removal of Par. 2553, the local church disaffiliation pathway, prevailed with 72 percent in favor. We had hoped that some fair-minded centrists or progressives would be willing to support some form of disaffiliation. In that hope we were disappointed.
There is no question that the UM Church is a new and different denomination today than it was in 2019. The General Conference actions have formalized an evolving consensus among the progressive and centrist parts of the church, and reveals they are completely in control of the denomination. Pastors and church members will need to decide if the new direction of the denomination reflects the church they want to belong to and support. Unfortunately, avenues for disaffiliation that allow churches to keep their property (especially in the U.S.) are limited. Some congregations may need to be willing to walk away from their buildings in order to pursue ministry in the way they feel called by God to do so. The fight may be over in the UM Church, but the struggle to carry on biblically faithful ministry is just beginning.
Thomas Lambrecht is a United Methodist clergyperson and vice president of Good News. Photo: Over 700 delegates to the 2024 United Methodist General Conference work on church business in Charlotte, N.C. Friday May 3, 2024. Photo by Larry McCormack, UM News.
