by Steve | Sep 27, 2011 | Magazine Articles
By Reed Hoppe
Arthur and Mary Alice Ivey are Mission Society missionaries who have served in Huancayo, Peru since 2001. Arthur graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology with a degree in civil engineering. He worked as an engineer for many years while he felt a growing call to serve cross-culturally. Mary Alice graduated from Georgia State University with a degree in early childhood education and taught school for several years. The Iveys participated in short-term mission trips for 13 years while praying about moving overseas.
What the Iveys discovered after they moved to Peru was that people would come to know Christ very quickly, but there was no structure in place to disciple these new Christians in their faith.
After spending several years learning the language and getting to know the culture, the Lord gave Arthur a formula for discipling new Jesus-followers.
Arthur leads four discipleship groups at a time, each comprised of eight-to-fifteen members. They meet for two hours each week to fellowship and study Scripture. Each group stays together for about two and a half years. Every person in the group commits to begin discipling someone else within six-to-twelve months. Many of the members start their own discipleship groups, which has led to 250 groups discipling more than 3,400 people at this time.
“The Western church model doesn’t work well in Peruvian culture,” said Arthur. “Most Peruvians are culturally Catholic, and 10-15 percent are evangelical. Many people are syncretistic. When people can’t find the answers they are looking for in church, they leave, and many of the churches are losing members.
“I think the discipleship model has worked so well in Peru because it met a deep need in the heart of the Peruvians. Peru is a very social culture, so the interactive Bible study works well. We have gone to the people with the gospel message and they have found the answers they were searching for in Jesus.”
The Iveys also run a Kids’ Club ministry. More than 1,000 children, ranging in age from two to fifteen years old, come to the Clubs each week. Mary Alice writes the curriculum and disciples many of the leaders who coordinate the 12 groups currently meeting.
The Iveys’ goal is to bring people to know Jesus as Lord and train them to be able to witness to and disciple others. They have seen a dramatic change in many people’s lives as they accept Jesus and seek to live a godly life.
Just this past Easter, Arthur accompanied three brothers to visit their father in prison. Flavio, a former pastor, is in prison for the murder of three people. He also sexually abused his two daughters when they were young. One of his sons, Benjamin, spent time in prison due to the fact that his father involved in him the murders.
Benjamin, Jose, and Moises had not seen their father in more than 15 years. During that time, Benjamin accepted Christ and has been discipled in one of Arthur’s small groups. Benjamin now wanted to tell his father that he had forgiven him. Flavio was thrilled to be reunited with his sons. He came to know Jesus several years ago through a discipleship group that one of Arthur’s colleagues started in the prison. Flavio now leads several discipleship groups in the prison.
After leaving the prison that Sunday, Jose decided to give his life to Jesus. Arthur said, “It was wonderful to spend Easter Sunday experiencing the Lord Jesus’ resurrection power working in the lives of persons to bring salvation and restoration.”
Lizbeth is one of Flavio’s daughters. “Lizbeth and her mother knocked on our door one day looking for help, and we connected her with one of our discipleship groups,” said Arthur. “She was just destroyed. Through the discipleship group, she came to know Christ. She was able to forgive her father and was set free from the pain she had carried throughout her life.”
Lizbeth is now a powerful witness for Jesus. She has traveled all over Peru, speaking about her abuse and how Jesus set her free. Most of Lizbeth’s family has now come to know Christ. They are responsible for personally starting 12 discipleship groups throughout the years, which have ministered to hundreds of people and helped others find freedom in Christ.
“There are so many similar stories,” said Arthur. “I see God moving among his people in Peru to set them free to be the Church he desires them to be—a Church that longs to know him more intimately and wants others to know him, too, a Church that disciples people,” says Arthur.
Reed Haigler Hoppe serves as an associate editor for The Mission Society and is an ordained deacon in the Alabama-West Florida Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. You can make a donation to the Iveys’ ministry at www.themissionsociety.org/people/ivey.
by Steve | Sep 27, 2011 | Magazine Articles
By Duffy Robbins
I’ve never given birth to a child.
But, I know something about the birthing process.
In fact, all of us who teach, preach, or speak on a regular basis—whether to a small group, a large group or something in between—know something about the process of conception, preparation, and delivery. And what we all understand is that delivery is always the high point of the drama. All of the planning and prep work, all of the Bible study, all of the brainstorming—all of it comes down to the moment of delivery. If you’re teaching, preaching, or speaking to teenagers on a regular basis, you know that none of it matters until your students hear and respond to God’s Word.
What that means is that the critical part of communication is not just conceiving the topic or preparing the lesson; it’s about bringing that baby to life!
In the last few issues of Good News, we’ve talked about the process of deciding what goes into a message—will it be a four-week series or a stand alone lesson, a topical message or a textual message? That’s important. But, for the next few issues we’re going to be thinking about how to deliver the message—not what goes into the talk, but what comes out when you talk.
They Don’t Call it Labor for Nothing
Most of us know well Paul’s charge in 2 Timothy 4:2: “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season…”
We also know it can be tough work.
Some say it can’t be done, or that it shouldn’t be—that teenagers today don’t respond to spoken messages the way they used to. Some very creative and articulate youth ministry thinkers believe that we should be moving away from “the talk” as we’ve thought about it in the past—that our communication needs to be more visual in delivery, more active in approach, and less linear in form. Some believe that Paul may have said, “Preach the Word…in season and out of season,” but perhaps its time to declare open season on the spoken message as a form of effective communication to teenagers.
Research, for example, tells us that the vocabulary of North American ninth graders dropped from 25,000 words in 1940 to 10,000 words in 1990. This is an audience that spends hours a day in an on-line environment in which people on average watch only 21.8 seconds of a 30 second online video ad. The average segment of attention without a break in television is a grand total of seven minutes! Is it really strategic to speak to a teenage audience for ten, twenty, or thirty minutes using the spoken word?
I, for one, believe it can be. I don’t believe it’s an either-or proposition.
I’m convinced that our teaching must be shaped by the audience factors we’ve discussed in this space over the last several months. That’s critically important. And I strongly encourage youth workers to use lots of different types of communication styles. I’ve co-written books like Spontaneous Melodramas, Memory Makers, and Everyday Object Lessons because I understand that our youth groups are filled with students who learn in lots of different ways. If we’re teaching every week with a “stand and deliver” style, we probably aren’t maximizing our impact with every student. We should be using visual delivery, active learning, and other narrative and creative forms of teaching.
But, I’m not ready to say, “Speaking is passe,” and I’m not ready to do that for the most basic of reasons: I’ve seen the impact of the spoken Word in the lives of teenagers.
But I also believe it’s incredibly hard work. No wonder Paul followed up his charge in 2 Timothy 4:2 with these words: “…correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
Like every other skill, good speaking requires intention and execution. And like every other impossible mission, it requires the power of God. Of course, we know God will do his part! But, how can we more effectively do our part, especially if we don’t feel like gifted speakers and teachers? It’s a question posed by lots of sincere youth volunteers and Sunday school teachers.
And it’s a question we’ll begin to explore in the next issue of Good News.
by Steve | Sep 27, 2011 | Magazine Articles
Wesleyan spirituality
Thank you Good News, and Steve Harper for distilling the essence of Wesley’s spirituality. “Embracing Wesleyan Spirituality” (July/August 2011) reads like an invitation to join together in experiencing a warm and wonderful place of the heart.
For more than 50 years I have had a keen interest in reading the writings of John Wesley and those who have sought to explain their understanding of him and his work. I believe that Harper has captured and communicated the totality of what Wesley was/is all about, sharing not only the essence but the challenge for those of us who would “follow in his train.”
Harper reminded us of the sources, the undergirding if you will, of Wesley’s doctrine and hence of his spirituality. Hopefully, we, as his children in the Faith, will take to heart Wesley’s emphasis on the supremacy of Scripture. “To the law and to the testimony!” (Isaiah 8:20) became what we might call his mantra, as he interpreted scripture by scripture, as a matter of course. Only when Scripture was silent or of doubtful interpretation did he turn to Tradition (which he defined as “antiquity:” the ancient church fathers’ writings, with the practices of the saints, up to the early fourth century); followed by Reason (meaning logically developed argument); and lastly Experience (i.e., the historical experience of God’s people through the centuries—he wrote: “Neither…by the experience of this or that particular person”).
I pray that we will hold tenaciously to these supporting pillars of Wesley’s spirituality. If we lose the supports, we lose everything.
Alice Russie
Tigard, Oregon
The authority of Scripture
The Wall Street Journal recently carried an op-ed by David Aikman, former Beijing bureau chief for Time magazine, about the persecution of non-state approved churches in China (July 11, 2011, “Beijing’s Theology of Repression”). Aikman explained that the Chinese government has approved one Catholic Church and one Protestant Church which stay within government approved boundaries and control, while persecuting the many independent and largely underground house churches. The article noted that “the faith that TSPM (government churches) adhere to is what church history calls liberal theology, while the faith of the house churches is evangelical theology.” That line brought to mind what happened in Nazi Germany.
Church leaders, pastors and theologians who led the state approved churches were liberal, while leaders, pastors and theologians of the Confessing Church were evangelical. Why would there be this repeated pattern? Liberal theology tends to downplay the inspiration and authority of Scripture, while evangelicals hold a higher view of Scripture. When you don’t believe in the divine inspiration and authority of Scripture, you have no solid anchor to hold you, no Truth with a capital T, so it’s easier to compromise and drift into the path of least resistance.
A United Methodist pastor from Russia told me the same is true in Russia, where the state-approved Orthodox Church places little emphasis on Scripture and more on tradition, while non-state approved churches are almost all evangelical and/or Pentecostal and hold a much higher view of Scripture. While the non-Orthodox churches do have a measure of freedom, they are viewed with some suspicion by the state and face occasional roadblocks that the Orthodox Church does not.
We see the same tendency in the United States, particularly in the mainline churches. One after another, the more liberal mainline churches have followed the path of least resistance, surrendering formerly biblical stances on homosexuality and other doctrinal/ethical issues to stances that are more in line with the opinions of secular society.
Of the mainline denominations, only the United Methodist Church has resisted this trend, due in large part to stalwart conservatives in the U.S. and the growing African delegations to our General Conference. One has to wonder if this is one of the reasons the UM Church is declining more slowly than the other mainline denominations. (But let us not call our slower decline a victory!)
While the General Conference has voted to maintain a biblical standard regarding homosexuality every time the issue has been raised, the issue is coming back in a variety of forms.
• A group of retired bishops issued a statement calling for the Church’s stance to be altered.
• The recent trial of the Rev. Amy DeLong of the Wisconsin Conference resulted in a mere slap on the wrist. The Rev. DeLong performed a “holy union” ceremony for two homosexuals. Unrepentant and unremorseful, the Rev. DeLong was found guilty and received a mere 20 day suspension from ministerial duties and was ordered to prepare a document “outlining procedures for clergy in order to help resolve issues that harm the clergy covenant, create an adversarial spirit, or lead to future clergy trials.” She has said she will perform such ceremonies again if asked.
• Meanwhile, several hundred clergy have signed statements that they will officiate at same-sex ceremonies. Their plan seems to be that, if charged, they will so clog up the system that efforts to discipline them will fall apart. And you can be sure there will be yet another effort at General Conference to change the official stance of the United Methodist Church.
While there are many angles to consider (political maneuvering, church growth and health, the unity of the UM Church, etc.), let’s not forget the foundational issue: the Divine inspiration and authority of Scripture. Without that, we have no firm anchor to keep us from following the path of least resistance, whether the winds blow us toward serving the interests of the state or blending in with secular society.
David Trawick
Northwest Hills UM Church
San Antonio, Texas
The DeLong Challenge
My thoughts on the “DeLong Challenge” are as long as we take a process stand on addressing these offenses they will only continue to multiply. What speaks loudest in any breach of contract or in this case vows is to eliminate one’s financial compensation within a set period of time. I would error on compassion considering today’s economy. Give them thirty days notice.
With the possibility of losing their compensation along with retirement may allow them to rethink how ‘right’ they really think they are. They are playing poker and are doing an excellent job in their bluff. What are they really losing by the most recent example?
Clergy who are casting aside their vows should not be allowed to continue, period. If a further example is needed consider this. Most everyone has a drivers license, right? It comes with responsibilities and accountability. So what would happen if there were people who now felt that speed laws did not apply to them? It may be simplistic, but why is the United Methodist Church rewarding bad behavior with such lax responses. In order to heal a wound one must address what is the cause of the infection. I’m growing tired of the stance that rogue clergy are exempt from accountability.
May we one day regain our unity in Christ’s service,
Gary McCallister
Via e-mail
Gives me hope
I wanted to thank you for your uncompromising article in the latest Good News. I am an ordained minister in the Wesleyan denomination, serving under InterChurch Service appointment as Minister of Youth and Music in a United Methodist congregation. One of my biggest hesitations to taking this position, which I believe to be an assignment from the Lord, was the issue of homosexual unions and homosexual clergy and my perception of how it’s been mishandled in the UM Church in recent years.
Your article gives me hope that there is still a strong voice for doing what Scripture instructs, and what the UM Book of Discipline requires. May the Bishops heed your clarion call for greater accountability and integrity on this issue. I believe that, should the result be numbers of clergy leaving the UM Church, God can and will replace them with men and women who are dedicated to the Scriptural positions to which the denomination holds.
Thanks again.
Name withheld
by Steve | Sep 27, 2011 | Magazine Articles
By B.J. Funk
Realizing that he would soon be gone from this world, Dwight L. Moody said to a friend, “Someday you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody is dead. Don’t you believe it. At that moment, I will be more alive than I am now. I shall have gone out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal, a body that sin cannot touch, that sin cannot taint. I was born in the flesh in 1837. I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of flesh may die; that which is born of the Spirit will live forever.”
When we awake in the morning, we only know we were asleep because we awoke. Explaining exactly what happened is impossible. We cannot explain moving from consciousness to sleep any more than we can explain moving from life to death. We only know that we move out of one life into another life, never dying but continuing to live. In a moment, without knowing how, we discard the jacket called our body. It is no longer useful. We only needed our body in order to live on earth. That’s over now.
Someone put on the grave of Benjamin Franklin, “Here lies all that could die of Benjamin Franklin.”
One of my favorite devotionals concerning death comes from Streams in the Desert. In speaking of his soon coming death, the author wrote, “The owner of the tenement which I have occupied for many years has given notice that he will furnish but little or nothing more for repairs. I am advised to be ready to move. At first, this was not a very welcomed notice. The surroundings here are in many respects very pleasant, and were it not for the evidence of decay, I should consider the house good enough. But, even a light wind causes it to tremble and totter, and all the braces are not sufficient to make it secure. So, I am getting ready to move.”
Watching family members die has given me a new appreciation for God’s plan for us. While the process of death can be excruciatingly painful and sad, death is the only avenue we have for unconquerable pain to end. There is no other way for us to get out of a diseased or broken body other than death. Death is what God uses to transfer us from one life to another. With that in mind, death is another of God’s gifts to us. In a flash, we move our residence from earth to heaven, where complete healing takes place.
Where do we go when this happens? Jesus says we go to his Father’s House. These are some of the sweetest words every recorded. We are given a beautiful illustration of where we will be. Not just any house, but my Father’s house. I wonder if it is something like my grandparent’s big, rambling white house, which had so many bedrooms and interesting places for my sister and me to hide. My favorite place was the large front porch lined with rocking chairs. I was completely content rocking at Grandma’s house.
In John 14:1-4, Jesus says, (paraphrased), “Don’t worry. Instead trust God. There are a lot of rooms in my Father’s house. I’ll go before you and get everything ready. Then, I’ll come back and get you so you can be where I am.”
Added to the enchanting invitation to go to my Father’s house is now the endearing understanding that Jesus is there. He goes before us, as a forerunner. What could be better than going to the Father’s house and finding Jesus waiting for us. I don’t really need to know any more about heaven. If Jesus is there, that’s enough.
William Barclay suggests that “many rooms” means that there is room for all. An earthly house can become overcrowded, but our Father’s house is as wide as the heart of God. Barclay further suggests, “Don’t be afraid. In this world, people may shut their doors upon you. But in heaven, you will never be shut out.”
Near death experiences support our understanding of another life after this one. Reassuring stories are told by some who claim an out of body experience before coming back to earth. A recurring theme includes a bright light and a tunnel. We might question the validity of this. However, there are enough believers to have established a Near Death Experience Research Foundation whose website claims 2500 near death experiences.
Several years ago, a popular country song reminded us to “Live Like We Were Dying.” Truthfully, every day we live, we are dying. It is not until we actually die that we truly begin to live. Our new home will be cozy, joyful, colorful and peaceful, sort of like rocking at Grandma’s house.
by Steve | Sep 27, 2011 | Magazine Articles
By Laura Heikes
My mother became a Christian when I was four. From that day forward, we were in church every Sunday…almost. Stewardship Sunday was the one day Mom encouraged us to skip church. Now that we are both pastors, we hope our people don’t feel the same way we did. But we know they do.
Stewardship has become a dirty word. November brings with it the lurking threat of sermons on giving. At best, people treat it like a trip to the dentist: they sigh and try to imagine they are somewhere else. At worst, they go missing. Why does stewardship feel like a root canal instead of an invitation to deeper faith and worship? And how might we change that?
Last summer, I was appointed to Bee Creek United Methodist Church, a young congregation in the hill country outside of Austin, Texas. What began eight years ago in a living room is now a church of 400, almost half of whom joined through profession of faith. This means that half of the congregation either has no idea what stewardship is, or a vague feeling of unease related to televangelists they have seen weeping mascara and stealing from grandma. The other half thinks they know what stewardship means, but would rather be at the dentist.
So last year we shifted the focus from budget and money to people and discipleship. We asked ourselves how we could help the congregation grow closer to God through practicing generosity. And could stewardship be fun instead of tedious? The solution occurred one day as I listened to NPR. They announced a matching gift for all first-time contributors. The phones lit up.
Our church adopted this “secular” idea. We liked how it promised to draw the congregation together for a common purpose: growth in generosity where everyone took a step together. New Christians were invited to make a giving commitment for the first time. Mature Christians would encourage them by providing a match above their normal pledge.
Seasoned supporters were personally approached to offer a matching gift of $250 for a first-time giver. Of dozens who were asked, not a single person declined. In fact, several matching donors gave more than requested. Others approached us to ask if they could join the matching group.
The response far exceeded our expectations. The previous year, we had 75 individuals and families who returned a commitment card. That number increased to 91 with the new plan. In one year, we saw 18 first-time commitments. In a year when our membership grew by two percent, the number of stewards increased by 23 percent!
Among the new supporters was Ben, who joined by profession of faith in the fall. The match “encouraged me to try to give more,” he said. “I had a set amount in my head I thought I could afford, but when I heard about [the match], I thought I could do a little more.” Jennifer and her husband have two preschool children and a tight budget. They “liked the idea that our first $250 would be matched. So when asked, we decided to put our contributions in writing with a commitment. We now put our cash in an envelope to track our contributions (we never did that before).”
Mature givers also felt involved and challenged. Folks who might be tempted to skip “Stewardship” Sunday were invited to become a part of encouraging the next generation of believers. Deborah and her family provided four matches. “Doing a pledge for the first time can be scary,” she said. “I decided to encourage new pledgers with a match to celebrate their commitment. There is a lot of blessing in giving.” Joe and his wife, who are retired, agreed to match a family. He and his wife realized “the Bible is full of examples where small beginnings lead to magnificent results.”
Would this idea work in your community? There is a danger that it could seem gimmicky and therefore be off-putting. Talk with your leadership about the idea well beforehand, and choose a matching amount that won’t intimidate first-time givers, but still provides an incentive.
Also seek to have the pastor personally invite mature givers into the process. Share with them how people reach their giving potential slowly, and the first step is the hardest. Help them see how they can help, and then ask for their support.
Remember, your mature givers are not always your largest donors. In our church, matches came from families at a variety of income levels, from construction workers and retired teachers to business executives. One told me the reason she gave is “because you asked me. If I had just heard it in church, I probably would have not done anything.” After agreeing to match one person, she ended up sending a check for four!
Stewardship should be an invitation to worship, joy, and thanksgiving. And why shouldn’t it be fun? Last year at our church, it was. May you also find new ways to invite people, at whatever stage they are in their faith, to grow in their generosity.
Laura Heikes is pastor of Bee Creek United Methodist Church in Spicewood, Texas. She participated in the Lewis Center for Church Leadership’s Lewis Fellows leadership development program for young clergy in 2008-2009.This article is reprinted by permission from Leading Ideas, a free online newsletter of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary and available at www.churchleadership.com.
