by Steve | Jun 26, 2023 | In the News
Good News Archive: Methodist Heritage: Peter Cartwright (1785-1872) —
By Edmund Robb III
Good News, March-April 1976
In the fall of 1818, Peter Cartwright was invited by one of the prominent Presbyterian pastors of Nashville to preach in his church on Monday evening. As usual, a great crowd of people gathered to hear the famous frontier Methodist preacher.
Cartwright’s sermon text that night was, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”
As Cartwright was reading his text, General Andrew Jackson walked up the aisle to the middle post and gracefully leaned against it. There were no vacant seats.
“Just then,” Cartwright recalled, “I felt someone pull my coat, and turning my head, my fastidious preacher – whispering a little loud – said, ‘General Jackson has come in! General Jackson has come in.’
“I said, “Who is General Jackson? If he don’t get his soul converted, God will damn his soul as quick as He will a Guinea [slave].’“
The host preacher was, needless to say, highly embarrassed. He tucked his head down low and would have been thankful for leave of absence. But the congregation – General Jackson and all, burst out laughing.
The next day General Jackson met the Methodist preacher and said, “Mr. Cartwright, you are a man after my own heart … I highly approve of your independence. A minister of Jesus Christ ought to love everybody, and fear no mortal man … If I had a few thousand such independent, fearless officers as you were, and a well-drilled army, I could take old England.”
Andrew Jackson had sized up Peter Cartwright correctly: He was fearless and he was independent. In this respect he was right for the times.
Our nation, our church, and Peter Cartwright grew up together. In 1783, the treaty was signed in Paris recognizing the United States of America’s independence. In 1784, the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in Baltimore. In 1785, Peter Cartwright was born in Amherst County, Virginia.
The times were marvelously favorable for the nation, the Church, and the boy. The principles of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” which in Europe were beginning to assert themselves in the mad struggles of the French Revolution, were in America established upon a firm basis of a constitutional democracy.
For the infant Church, also, the times were auspicious. The Methodists, with their missionary spirit and matchless organization, were superbly fitted to meet the needs of those pioneer days – to carry the Gospel message into the remotest hamlets, and to organize the scattered converts into the disciplined life of Christ. And for the boy, born into a home of poverty and hardship, grappling from early childhood with problems of frontier life, these, too, were times of promising hope.
While Peter was growing up, there were two strong influences contending for him. One was his father, who was not a Christian. The other was his Christian mother.
Peter’s father gave him a race horse and a pack of cards and encouraged him into a wild life. “I was naturally a wild, wicked boy,” Cartwright later wrote, “and delighted in horse-racing, card-playing, and dancing. My mother remonstrated almost daily with me, and I had to keep my cards hid from her; for if she could have found them, she would have burned them ….”
In the end, it was his mother’s saintly influence which prevailed. In the spring of 1802, Peter Cartwright “found peace with God.” That same year he received a license “to exercise his gifts as an Exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal Church, so long as his practice is agreeable to the Gospel.”
Speaking of his call to preach, Cartwright later wrote, “If I had been seeking for money I would not have traveled, for I knew that I could have made more money splitting rails than I could traveling a circuit when I started. It was not honor, there was no honor about it. It was to fulfill my own convictions of duty.”
Peter Cartwright rose to fame as a campmeeting preacher. Both Methodists and Presbyterians held campmeetings in those days. They were, in fact, the great events of the entire year. Thousands of people from miles around would gather. Ten, twenty and sometimes thirty ministers of different denominations would come together and preach – night and day. At times these meetings lasted three or four weeks.
Amid such scenes as this Peter Cartwright, as a preacher, was almost without a peer. He had a clear, strong bass voice which he seldom strained even in times of strongest emotion. He could sing, preach, and pray day and night for an entire week. His own soul kindled with the flame of his message, and sinners often fell before him like soldiers slain in battle.
Here is a description of a scene which followed his preaching one Sunday morning: “Just as I was closing up my sermon, and pressing it with all the force I could command, the power of God suddenly was displayed, and sinners fell by scores through all the assembly. We had no need of a mourners’ bench. It was supposed that several hundred fell in five minutes; sinners turned pale; some ran into the woods; some tried to get away and fell in the attempt; some shouted aloud for joy.”
At times strange physical manifestations and self-delusions and even impostures were associated with the revival meetings. Cartwright gives us a quaint description of a violent affliction known as “the jerks,” which at times would sweep through a congregation.
He says: “A new exercise broke out among us, called ‘the jerks,’ which was overwhelming in its effects upon the bodies and the minds of the people. No matter whether they were saints or sinners, they would be taken under a warm song or sermon and seized with a convulsive jerking all over, which they could not by any possibility avoid. The more they resisted the more they jerked … I have seen more than 500 persons jerking at one time in my large congregations. Most usually persons taken with the jerks, to obtain relief, as they said, would rise up and dance. Some would run but could not get away. Some would resist; on such the jerks were usually very severe.”
Cartwright was a thundering preacher, whose bluntness and fervor suited him ideally for the frontier where the pulpit was often a stump, or a rude log platform in a clearing, or even a dance floor!
One Saturday night he stopped to eat at a frontier inn. A fiddler started playing, and a beautiful young woman walked up and asked Cartwright to dance not recognizing him as the preacher who thundered against dancing.
But Cartwright calmly took her hand and walked to the middle of the dance floor. Recalls Cartwright, “I then spoke to the fiddler to hold a moment and added that for several years I had not undertaken any matter of importance without first asking the blessing of God upon it. … Here I grasped the young lady’s hand tightly and said, ‘let us kneel down and pray’ and instantly dropped on my knees and commenced praying ….
“The young lady tried to get loose … but presently she fell on her knees. Some of the company kneeled, some stood, some sat still and all looked curious. … While I prayed, some wept and wept out loud, and some cried for mercy.
“I rose from my knees and commenced an exhortation, after which I sang a hymn. The young lady lay prostrate, crying for mercy ….
“Our meeting lasted the next day and the next night, as many more were powerfully converted. I organized a society, took 32 into the church and sent them a preacher.”
Several of the converts became ministers of the Gospel, and Cartwright later observed, “In some conditions of society I should have failed; in some I should have been mobbed; in others I should have been considered a lunatic.” The reason for Cartwright’s triumph on the dance floor – and, indeed, the triumphs of his ministry: “the immediate superintending agency of the Divine Spirit of God.”
Probably Peter Cartwright is as widely known for the strength of his right arm as for his preaching. His was a muscular Christianity. The great crowds which thronged to the camp meetings included not only the devout and curious but also the lawless. Often scoffers and other ruffians tried to break up the services.
For example, in a campmeeting he was conducting “in the edge of Tennessee” about the year 1824, a group of local hoodlums armed themselves with clubs and vowed they would ride their horses through the camp and break up the meeting.
The next day when they invaded the camp, Peter Cartwright was ready. He recalls, “Their leader spurred his horse and made a pass at me; but fortunately I dodged his blow. The next lick was mine, and I gave it to him and laid him flat on his back.”
The rest of the mounted rowdies, seeing their leader knocked down, wheeled around and fled. Such were the campmeeting battles during those pioneer days.
Like most frontier preachers, Cartwright had little formal education. “A Methodist preacher in those days,” he says, “when he felt that God called him to preach, instead of hunting up a college or Biblical institute, hunted up a hardy pony of a horse, and some traveling apparatus, and with his library always at hand, namely, a Bible, hymn book and Discipline, he started.”
Cartwright, however, was no enemy of education. He was an eager reader of books and was a patron of good reading in the many homes he visited. He claimed that during the first 50 years of his ministry he had distributed $10,000 worth of literature through the scattered hamlets of the frontier.
“It has often been a question that I shall never be able to answer on earth,” he wrote, “whether I have done the most good by preaching or distributing religious books.” Furthermore, he was a supporter of schools. Both Illinois Wesleyan University and McKendree College boast of him as one of their founders.
Peter Cartwright was a constant and earnest student of the Bible. In his early years, especially, he hankered for debates and theological foes. With wit and subtleties of argument he would castigate Arians and Calvinists and demolish Baptists and Campbellites. Cartwright was simply caught up in the times. The robust individualism of the frontier fostered this type of rampant sectarianism.
Looking back 150 years, we realize Cartwright sometimes squandered his energy on petty conflicts. But more often he fought mightily against spiritual deadness prevalent on the American frontier. And on the vital social problems of his day he had no hesitation to speak out and take action.
He was, for example, uncompromising in his hatred of slavery. That’s why in 1824 he moved to Illinois – to “get clear of the evil of slavery” and so his children would not marry into slave families.
But the slavery dispute moved to Illinois, too, so Cartwright entered politics to oppose it. In 1828 he was elected to the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. And in 1832 he beat another anti-slavery candidate – Abraham Lincoln. “I was beaten,” Lincoln later wrote, “the only time I have ever been beaten by the people.”
Cartwright later ran for the U.S. House of Representatives. This time, however, he was defeated by Abraham Lincoln.
For 65 years Peter Cartwright served in the active ranks of the Methodist ministry, 50 of these years as a presiding elder. He was elected to General Conference 13 times.
Within his ministry he had seen in American Methodism growth unparalleled in Christian history. He had also seen an army of Methodist preachers come out of the homes of common people to win the West, societies springing up in the wilderness, and churches rising in new villages. Cartwright had seen the small and despised people of his mother’s church grow to be one of the mightiest of Christian denominations.
Peter Cartwright was Mr. Methodist of the 19th century!
Edmund Robb III was the contributing editor to Good News at the time of this article’s publication. This article appeared in the March-April 1976 issue of Good News. Dr. Robb went on to be the founding pastor of The Woodlands United Methodist Church in The Woodlands, Texas.
Portrait of Peter Cartwright is public domain (unknown artist – A Youth’s History of Kentucky for School and General Reading by Ed Porter Thompson, 1897).
by Steve | Jun 16, 2023 | Home Page Hero Slider, In the News
Facing Your Jericho
By Stephen A. Seamands
Jericho is staring Joshua in the face, with its imposing, impenetrable walls towering over him. This was a fortified city if there ever was one, armed with all the sophisticated weaponry of that day. It was in lockdown because they knew the Israelites were going to attack.
More than any other obstacle, Jericho was standing between Joshua and the people of God, preventing them from taking over and occupying the land God had promised them. (You can read the story in the book of Joshua.) If they could take Jericho, the rest was sure to follow.
What is the equivalent of Jericho in your life today? What’s keeping you from your promised land? We all have them, don’t we? Imposing obstacles that stand in the way. Yours may relate to your job, your finances, your ministry, your marriage, your children, your family, your physical health, your relationships, your stage in life. But we all have them, don’t we?
Well, as the old African-American spiritual said, “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down.” They certainly did. The Bible says, they “fell down flat” (Joshua 6:20) – like a pancake.
But what about your Jericho? The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8 that in all things we can be “more than conquerors” through Christ. What do you need to do to win the battle?
Well, let’s look at what Joshua did.
1. Look up. “When Joshua was by Jericho,” the Scripture says, “he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand.”
The first thing Joshua did was that he “looked up.” But notice where he was when he did this. He was “by Jericho.” It is not looming in the distance, but right there in front of him. Jericho – staring him in the face.
Yet he looked up. Don’t miss that. Because your Jericho is like that too, isn’t it? You can’t get away from it. You can’t help thinking about day in and day out. It gets your attention. It’s in your face.
Ultimately, whatever gets your attention gets you. It has a way of consuming you. The more you think about it and focus on it, the bigger it gets, the more overwhelming it becomes. The more it weighs you down. And the more it keeps you from thinking about anything else.
But now notice, Joshua “looked up and saw.” That means he turned his eyes and his attention away from Jericho. And if he hadn’t done that, Jericho wouldn’t have fallen.
I wonder if that’s what you need to do right now. Is your attention so fixed on your Jericho that you’re not looking at anything else? Turn away from it right now. Look up and see.
The reason I attend worship services, and read the Bible every day, and pray, and meet with other Christians in a small group is because it helps me to look up.
2. Fall on your face. Joshua looked up and “he saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand.” Who was this man, anyway? We’re not told his name, but he was armed and dangerous.
But who exactly was he? As Christians we read the Bible backwards, reading the Old Testament in the light of the New Testament, in the light of Christ. Christian writers and commentators of the Bible have suggested that what we have here is an appearance of Christ, the pre-existent Son of God.
As the Son, the second person of the Trinity, he existed from all eternity, and so he could appear like this to someone. Theologians have a word for this, they call it a “Christophany,” an appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ, that is, before he became flesh and dwelt among us.
Joshua saw a man standing before him. He didn’t know who he was. He just knows this guy is ready to fight. Now he wants to know whose side is this guy on? Is he on our side or their side? But Joshua doesn’t get the answer he was hoping for or expecting. Instead, Joshua gets a push back that stops him in his tracks. “Neither,” says the man, “But as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”
In other words, “Joshua, you wanted to know if I was on your side or their side. And you were hoping I’d be on your side because you know you need help. You’re in over your head and you know it.
“You’ve got Jericho facing you, and you were hoping I would come along and help you with it. Then you could tell me what to do because you’re the commander in chief of Israel’s army and I would help you fix it, make it go away. And we would all live happily ever after.
“But no – that’s not what I’ve come to do. I haven’t come to serve you. I’ve come to take over. Forget about whose side I’m on. The real question is whose side are you on. I haven’t come to put myself at your disposal, so that you can use me to accomplish your agenda. I’m here to accomplish MY agenda. I want you at my disposal. You’re not in charge here, Joshua. You’re not the commander in chief anymore, I am.”
That answer stops Joshua in his tracks. He realizes he’s asked the wrong question.
So what about you? Have you been asking the Lord God to fight for you, to help you with your Jericho. “You need to fix this for me, Jesus. You need to make this Jericho go away. Here’s what I want you to do.”
We do that with Jesus, don’t we? Use him to get what we want. Jesus becomes the divine pharmacist we use to fill our prescriptions when we have aches. He’s the interior decorator we turn to whenever the house needs a makeover.
Jesus stands before us today and he says, “No. That’s not why I’ve come. Not so you can tell me what to do, but so I can tell you what to do. As the Commander of the Army of the Lord I have now come.”
How does Joshua respond to the abrupt, jarring answer he got? Here is what the Scripture says: “And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and he said to him, ‘What do you command your servant, my Lord?’” (Joshua 5:4).
Joshua fell on his face. He surrendered. He said, “Not my will, Lord, but Thy will be done.” His question changed from, “Are you here to help me?” to “What can I do to help you.” Do you need to fall on your face? Your Jericho is before you. Christ, the commander of the Lord’s army is here. You’ve been praying, “Jesus help me to solve this problem, to fix it, to resolve it the way I think you should.”
“Forgive me, Lord. Today, I’m changing my prayer. Not my will, but let your will be done. Take my Jericho. You fix it, you resolve it as you see fit. Use me, Lord to accomplish that.”
Do you need to stop telling God what you want, and start asking God what he wants? Joshua fell on his face. Before the walls of Jericho could fall down, Joshua had to fall down. Do you need to fall on your face, to surrender, to stop praying my will be done and start praying “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”?
3. Take off your shoes. In the presence of the man with the drawn sword, Joshua fell on his face. But notice what he did next. “The commander of the army of the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.’ And Joshua did so” (Joshua 5:15).
First Joshua looks up, then he falls down, now he takes off his shoes. This is interesting. And again, not what Joshua expected. He’s just said, “What do you command your servant, my Lord.” In other words, “I’ll do whatever you ask. Just tell me, I’ll do it. You’re the commander in chief now.”
And if you’re a military man, like Joshua was, and you know there’s going to be a battle to fight, you’re probably expecting to be given an order to carry out that has to do with preparing for battle. But instead of being told to get his boots on and put the troops on high alert, the first order Joshua gets is, “Soldier, take off your boots. The place you are standing is holy.”
Oddly, the commander of the Lord’s army calls Joshua to worship first, not to war – to adore, not to attack. He calls him to wait in the presence of God. “Slow down, Joshua, take your shoes off. I am here. Be still and know that I am God. Jericho can wait.”
This is always the order in spiritual battle. First we ascend into worship. Then we descend into war. Worship causes our God to get bigger. Of course that’s not literally true, but God does appear bigger in our eyes. We see him for who is always is and was and is to come! We are captured by his overwhelming beauty, his loveliness, his power, his goodness, his strength, his love.
And after we’ve been in his presence, gotten a fresh glimpse of who he is, then instead of telling our God how big our problems are, we start telling our problems how big our God is!
4. March and Shout. To conquer Jericho, Joshua had to look up, fall on his face, and take off his shoes. Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See I have handed over Jericho to you” (Joshua 6:2). Now march around the city for seven days, and on the seventh day, march around it seven times, and after you’ve done that have everyone shout – for the Lord has given you the city.
In the face of Jericho, God calls Joshua and the people to exercise faith. As it says in Hebrews 11, the great faith chapter of the Bible, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled seven days” (11:30).
So God says, “I’ve handed over Jericho to you. It’s a done deal. I have given you the city. Take me at my word. So as an act of faith, march around it because the city is in your hands. No, you can’t see it yet. It hasn’t become actual yet, but make no mistake, it’s real, it has happened.
“And keep marching. Be patient – march around for seven days until the circle of time is completed. It may look like nothing is happening. The novelty of marching around the walls may have worn off. The people of Jericho, looking down on you from inside the walls, may ridicule you and tell you you’re crazy. But don’t stop.”
According to Hebrews 11, “faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot see” (NLT). Stay at it until the unseen real (what God’s word says) becomes the seen real (what you can actually see). Stay at it until your faith becomes sight.
And when you’ve marched around the city for the very last time, for the seventh time on the seventh day, shout in anticipation of what God’s going to do. Don’t shout after the walls fall down. That’s what we would expect. We shout after the batter hits the home run or team scores a touchdown. No, do it before in faith as bold anticipation of what God’s going to do.
He’s here with you at this moment, the risen and reigning Lord Jesus – the man with the sword in his hand – standing by your Jericho. So look up and see, fall on your face, take off your shoes, march around the city, and shout.
Stephen Seamands is professor emeritus of Christian Theology at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. He is the author of several books including Wounds That Heal: Bringing Our Hurts to the Cross and Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service. This article appeared in the January/February 2014 issue of Good News. Cover art: Wesley21 Art.
by Steve | Jun 14, 2023 | In the News, May-June 2023
Prison Ministry Transformation
By Joey Butler (UM News) –
“I was in prison and you came to visit me.” — Matthew 25:36
When he was 18, Dusty Merrill decided that he wanted to go to prison. Of course, that decision was made a little easier because he could leave whenever he wanted.
Merrill is part of a team from LIFE United Methodist Church in Fairmont, West Virginia, that participates in Kairos Prison Ministry, an international ecumenical ministry that addresses the spiritual needs of incarcerated men, women, youth, and their families.
After that first experience, he went back twice a year for the next 12 years. “It’s easy once you’re in there to forget that you’re in a prison, then something will happen that reminds you really fast where you are,” said Merrill, a video specialist at LIFE.
Similar to The Upper Room’s Walk to Emmaus, Kairos begins with a weekend of structured talks, meditations, and individual and group activities led by a volunteer team. That introductory weekend is followed by monthly continuing ministry visits from the team while the inmate participants hold weekly group prayer meetings.
“We try to build the groups inside the prison so they can start sharing prayer without us there. A lot of them know more about the Bible than I’ll ever know because they study so much,” said David Merrill, Dusty’s father.
“Kairos was special – just to see the love from those guys and to see them every week, every month,” said Brent, a resident at St. Mary’s Correctional Center and Jail in St. Marys, West Virginia. Brent said he had a Christian upbringing, but he had “one foot in the church and one foot in the world.” He spent the next 17 years in and out of prison and rehab. He recommitted himself to God following a failed suicide attempt – around the same time he was indicted for murder.
He began pursuing a religion degree through Catalyst Ministries, a prison ministry based in West Virginia. In a partnership with Appalachian Bible College, Catalyst was able to establish Mount Olive Bible College, an accredited school inside the Mount Olive Correctional Center.
Upon his graduation in 2020, Brent was transferred to St. Marys, where he serves as part of Catalyst’s peer mentor program. The program sends the incarcerated Bible College graduates into the mission field of West Virginia’s prisons to tend to the spiritual needs of other inmates and administration members.
“Our peer mentors came in and tried to encourage others, which is exactly what we wanted. We hoped they would come in and change the culture, and they’re doing it a person at a time,” said the Rev. C.J. Rider, deputy director of reentry & offender activities for the West Virginia Division of Corrections & Rehabilitation.
Peer mentors have privileges to go into any part of the facility, and may be called to minister to anyone, be it inmates or staff, at any time. They also pray over the administration during daily meetings.
“People are dealing with issues inside here, and I’ve seen Brent get up late at night and talk to someone who’s going through something,” said Anthony, a fellow resident at St. Marys. Though not a certified peer mentor, Anthony tries to serve as a role model for other prisoners and encourage them to attend church. He said he grew up in the church, but after losing his father when he was 13, he also lost his faith walk. At 19, he received a 35-year sentence. Things turned around for him after accepting another inmate’s invitation to a worship service.
Now he tries to reach new inmates and let them know that he once was “that angry guy with the tough persona,” but that it got him nothing but trouble. Anthony said he also benefited from the Kairos weekend experience. “You hear about how good the food is and it attracts people, but by day two, they want to come not for the food but because they enjoy themselves,” he said. “I’ve seen a few affected to where they started going to church. I’ve seen that transformation.”
Brent said his goal as a peer mentor is to help eliminate recidivism. “I used to get out with the best intentions and always wound up back here,” he said. “I want these guys to get it before they come back with a life sentence.”
Brent is eligible for parole in 2025, and feels called to preach and to continue working with Catalyst. He said he’s been in contact with a local pastor in his Ohio hometown and wants to make good on a promise he made to his father before he passed that he was done with the life he’d been living. “I want to come back, just not in (a prison uniform). I want to share my experience with the guys still here,” he said.
The Rev. Tim Meadows, chaplain at St. Marys, considers peer mentorship to be the discipleship process in action. “These guys are highly respected. They carry themselves as Godly men, and they’re genuine,” he said. “People can tell the love of Christ, and that is what attracts them.”
Meadows’ assistant, Thomas, said the atmosphere at the prison makes all the difference in the experience for the inmates. After receiving a 53-year sentence for a serious crime he insists he didn’t commit, Thomas said he constantly had a chip on his shoulder.
“I heard what they were doing at St. Marys and knew I had to get down here,” he said. “I see the impact and the trust the mentors have with others here, crying with them and praying with them. Once you’ve been to the bad places and you get to somewhere decent, you can see the difference.”
Meadows said he credits the “genuine Christian heart” of the administration with creating an environment where these ministries are allowed to flourish. Not all facilities or their administrators have been open to allowing such programs.
The Rev. Mike Coleman* was serving as the acting warden at Mount Olive when Kairos events began at the prison. He said the previous warden he’d served under had approved everything but was forced to retire for health reasons before it could come to fruition. Coleman worked with the ministry partners to get the program off the ground.
“The first weekend was such a success that we committed to doing a new one every six months, plus all the reunion stuff in between,” said Coleman, who is now director of the Division of Administrative Services for the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security. He retired from also serving as a United Methodist pastor in 2022.
He traveled with a leadership group from the West Virginia Department of Corrections to Louisiana to observe the workings of the prison ministries at the state’s maximum-security penitentiary, known as Angola. This led to the formation of the Mount Olive Bible College. “We were making sure that we were using all the tools that God was giving us,” Coleman said. “One of the goals that corrections rehabilitation has is to make you a better citizen, whether you’re leaving or not.”
J.D. Sallaz, superintendent of Lakin Correctional Center and Jail in West Columbia, West Virginia, shares Coleman’s sentiment. “It benefits everybody to send the inmates out a better person than how they came in,” he said. “For those serving life without mercy, this is their home and they’re not leaving. They want things to go smoothly.” Lakin is the only women’s prison in the state, so it has a mix of minimum- and maximum-security inmates, with about 40 members of the population of 540 serving life sentences.
Rebecca is one of those serving a life sentence without mercy (possibility of parole), for murder. She has been incarcerated for 30 years. When she arrived, she frequently acted out of anger and fought with other residents. After repeatedly being sent to a segregation unit, Rebecca said, “God said to me, ‘I told you to be still and since you won’t listen, I’m making you still.’ Now I understand that I’m doing all this time in segregation because God wanted me to listen and I wouldn’t.”
Now, she serves as one of several peer mentors at Lakin. She cites a Kairos weekend as life-changing, saying that “it’s the first time in my life I ever felt loved, and I was probably 35.”
Michelle, another of the peer mentors, said the “unconditional love” from the Kairos volunteers left an impression on her as well. She’s 12 years into a drug-related sentence, and said that pursuing the peer mentor certification taught her to help herself and others. “I have an associate’s degree in human services from before I got in trouble, and I like to teach and help,” Michelle said. Now she leads classes on dealing with depression and low self-esteem. She also leads Celebrate Recovery 12-step services and is studying at the Mount Olive Bible College.
A common theme among the inmates United Methodist News interviewed is the inability to forge or maintain healthy relationships. The peer mentors at Lakin had to learn how to have them and now try to teach those lessons to others.
If you speak to anyone who’s been through a Kairos weekend, you will learn about the “forgiveness cookies.” Kairos volunteers bake many dozens of homemade cookies to send with the teams going to the prisons. One dozen is given to each inmate participant to eat themselves, but they are given another dozen and instructed to give that bag to someone for whom they need to either seek or grant forgiveness. “It’s amazing what God does with a bag of cookies,” said Coleman.
The Rev. Dianna Vinscavich, chaplain at Lakin, said the leadership of the peer mentors helps to create unity at the prison. “I’m seeing those walls come down, and it’s because of the mentors. If they hear of someone with a grievance, they try to help keep the peace,” she said.
Dee, one of the peer mentors, said that two years ago, the prison’s segregation unit stayed full all the time, but “since the mentorship program started and we can counsel and pray with them before they get to that point, segregation stays almost empty. God is really using individuals in here to grow a church instead of a prison.”
Since coming to Lakin, she’s earned associate’s degrees in both Christian leadership and Christian ministry, became an ordained minister and is working on a bachelor’s degree in communication. “My passion is preaching,” she said.
A former nurse, Dee has served almost 20 years on drug charges that took everything from her. She lost her house and because of the length of her sentence, she gave her young children up for adoption so they could have a more stable family environment. She said she felt the anger that many prisoners do, and now she tries to help those she sees struggling with the same issues. Dee is eligible for release in about six years. For now, she said, “My goal is to help change Lakin from the inside out, so I want to get to the ones coming in and start that change in them.”
Amber, a peer mentor serving a life sentence without mercy, said she was one of those who arrived with anger and resentment. “The more I bucked, the worse life got and that led me here,” she said.
Amber is another for whom Kairos was life-changing. “It was great to know people outside our families cared,” she said. After her weekend, she got more involved in church at the prison, and that’s how she found out about peer mentorship. “It’s been rewarding to mentor to ladies who come to you for advice because they see the walk you’re on,” Amber said. “I’ve had girls come to me and ask how I could be so happy, knowing the sentence that I have, and I say, ‘Why not? I’ve got God.’ Just because I’m spending the rest of my life here doesn’t mean that I can’t live a rich and fulfilling life doing God’s work.”
Rebecca sees her life sentence as a sort of mission field. “God gives us a cross to bear, and because we’re gonna be here a long time, Amber and I can reach 500 girls a year,” she said. “Just think how many people we see in five years. You can work through God that way.”
After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, volunteers have begun to return to prisons. David Merrill acknowledged that the Kairos model prepared inmates to continue their ministry in the absence of visits from volunteers.
“They support themselves. They still hold prayer groups, and we’re available to answer questions they may have,” he said, “but there are some ways they don’t get to participate because we’re not there.”
Vinscavich said that when COVID-19 prevented volunteer visits, the peer mentors were able to lead church themselves. “They’re essential parts of our church services. They preach, lead singing, share devotionals – they do it all,” she said.
“When we didn’t have opportunity to have church on the inside, we were out in the rec yard having prayer circles,” Dee said.
Vinscavich sees parallels between the peer mentors and Christ’s life. “Jesus died for something he didn’t do and he embraced it. These girls who’ve had their lives transformed are having to serve a sentence for something done by the person they used to be,” she said.
Not everyone shares this grace-filled view of rehabilitation. There is certainly a segment of society that adheres to the belief that a convicted person is in prison to be punished, not rehabilitated.
Cheryl Chandler, director of offender services for the West Virginia Division of Corrections, understands this view. In her role, she works both with inmates and with crime victims and their families. She’s heard complaints about some of the opportunities available to inmates, such as culinary classes and yoga, that may not be readily available to the general public.
“Sometimes the public will get frustrated that there are all these programs,” she said, “but I have to ask whether they want to live next to a lady who gets out of Lakin who’s angry and been mistreated and kicked down, or one who’s gotten to train in yoga and knows how to control her temper.”
As a pastor, Coleman said he initially got pushback when he encouraged his congregation to become involved in Kairos. “They were like, ‘You want us to do what with those prisoners? Why would I want to bake cookies and give it to a bunch of murderers?’” he said.
However, Coleman said, they bought in once they saw the impact they were having. It even became a competition between churches to see who could bake the most cookies.
Dusty Merrill said he still struggles to speak about Kairos to his congregation because he doesn’t know who in the pews may have been harmed in some way by a criminal act. “It’s a really sensitive thing if you’re not the person who’s experienced this wrongdoing or hurt,” he said, “but if you’re helping people who need to be helped, they’ve probably hurt someone along the way.”
He does try to remind people to consider the life circumstances that may have led someone to commit a crime or surrender to substance use. “I’m blessed that I had all the opportunities to make the right choices. Some of those guys didn’t get that opportunity.”
Joey Butler is a multimedia producer/editor for United Methodist News. Editor’s notes: *The Rev. Mike Coleman, who was interviewed for this story, passed away shortly before it published. UM News offers condolences to his family. By request of the West Virginia Division of Corrections & Rehabilitation, only the first names of incarcerated individuals have been used.
Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News. Anthony (foreground), who is incarcerated at the St. Mary’s Correctional Center in St. Mary’s West Virginia, says he tries to serve as a role model for new inmates at the facility after seeing the transformation brought about by the Kairos Prison Ministry.
by Steve | Jun 13, 2023 | In the News
World Vision for the Church in Crisis
Good News Archive: What follows is condensed from a historic address by Dr. E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973) to the 1970 Good News Convocation in Dallas.
As Christians we have an Eternal Person and an unshakeable Kingdom – the essence of reality and our faith.
Every age has thought itself an age of crisis. The oldest bit of writing in the world is found in a Constantinople museum: “Alas, times are not what they used to be. Children no longer obey their parents. And everyone wants to write a book.”
But our age of crisis is the deepest that we’ve ever had. Everything that we hold is under question. Nothing is sacrosanct. Everything is being challenged.
I believe this is the greatest opportunity we’ve ever had, as a Christian movement. Because men’s minds are fluid. They want something to tie to, something that is unshakeable.
I was in Russia in 1934, and I saw people building a civilization without God. And doing it enthusiastically. It hit me pretty hard. I needed reassurance, and so I went to my Bible one morning in Moscow, and these words arose out of the Scriptures: “Let us be thankful that we receive a Kingdom that cannot be shaken.”
“Oh,” I said, “We have a Kingdom that cannot be shaken. Not only will it not be shaken, but it cannot be shaken. Because it’s ultimate reality.”
The kingdom of communism is shakeable. They have to hold it together by force.
The kingdom of capitalism is shakeable. Eisenhower, when President, had a heart attack, and the stock market dived, $4 billion. But the Kingdom of God is not shakeable. It’s ultimate reality.
I lived on that verse, exultingly, that day. Came back the next day hungry for more. And another verse arose out of the Scriptures: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and forever.” We’ve got an unchanging Person. He’s forcing change, modification upon us all. But he, himself, is unchanged and unchanging.
I came out of Russia with two things in my mind and heart: the unshakeable Kingdom and the unchanging Person.
Now they’ve come together. Coalesced. He is the Kingdom embodied. Absolute goodness looked out of his eyes, and ultimate authority also. God not only redeems through Christ – he also rules through Christ. In him I find absolute authority and absolute love.
One English bishop said, “Stanley Jones seems to be obsessed with the Kingdom of God.” And my reply inwardly was, “Would God that I were! It would be a magnificent obsession. Because Jesus was obsessed with it.”
He went out preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. He used the phrase “the Kingdom of God” a hundred times. And anything that he uses a hundred times is important. He was never misled by a subordinate issue; he never got on the unworthwhile or the marginal. He made the Kingdom of God the center of his message. What did he mean by it?
He said, “When you pray say Our Father, may thy kingdom come, may thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Here is a complete totalitarianism. Demanding total obedience in the total life of all the earth. But, you say, that would be bondage.
Strangely enough, no. Here is a totalitarianism in which (if you totally obey it) you find total freedom. I don’t argue, I only testify that the more I belong to Jesus Christ and his Kingdom, the more I belong to myself. Bound to him, I walk the earth free. Low at his feet, I stand straight before everything else.
This is one of the differences between man’s earthborn totalitarianism and God’s. Man’s totalitarianism is Fascism, Naziism, Communism. If you totally obey them, you find total bondage. But when God’s totalitarianism meets us, it offers us a complete freedom by complete obedience.
When I became excited about this question of the Kingdom of God, it did two things for my faith. First of all, it made my faith very personal. I was not following a system. Nor a movement, an impersonality – I was following a Person. A divine Person. And so I had a personal relationship with a Person. It made my religion personal – but it also made my religion social. For I saw that embodied in this Person was an order. God’s order. And it had relationships with everything that concerned man, nature, life, and destiny.
I was no longer, therefore, interested in a personal Gospel and/or a social gospel. An individual gospel is a soul without a body; a social gospel is a body without a soul. One’s a ghost and the other’s a corpse, you can take your choice. I don’t want either one. I want both.
H.G. Wells, fumbling through history for the relevant, came across the conception of the Kingdom of God. He was shocked as by an electric shock. “Why,” he said, “Here is the most absolutely challenging thing that was ever presented to the mind of man!” And the most relevant!
What happened to this conception of the Kingdom of God? When Jesus spent 40 days with his disciples, after his resurrection, he talked to them about the Kingdom of God. Get this straight, he was saying, for if you get this straight, all the ages will go straight with you. But if you get this wrong, all the ages will go wrong with you.
Did they get it? It was too great for their small hearts. At the close they said, “Lord, at this time wilt thou restore the kingdom of Israel?” His heart must have sunk within him. Here he was offering a world order, a new order, God’s order, the Kingdom. And they said, “Do we get back our self-government?”
They didn’t reject it, they reduced it. And that’s what we’ve been doing ever since. We don’t reject the Kingdom but we reduce it and make it innocuous.
By the time the creeds were written in the 3rd century, what had happened to this conception of the Kingdom of God? The Nicene Creed mentions it once, beyond the borders of this life, in Heaven: “Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom.” The Apostle’s Creed doesn’t mention it. And the Athenasian Creed doesn’t mention it. The three great historic creeds summing up Christian doctrine, mention once what Jesus mentioned a hundred times. Something had dropped out. A vital, vital thing had dropped out. A crippled Christianity went across Europe, leaving a crippled result.
The Kingdom of God was pressed into the inner recesses of the heart, as mystic experience now, and then pushed out beyond the borders of this life, in heaven as a future kingdom. So there were vast areas of life left out, unredeemed: the economic, the social, the political. A vacuum was left in the soul of Western civilization.
Into that vacuum moved the earth-borne totalitarianisms. And they said to us, “Alright, we’ll give you your inner mystical experience now, we’ll give you your collective experience hereafter, in Heaven. But we’ll take over the rest. And direct them to our ends and our means.”
God’s total answer for man’s total need, is his Kingdom. It’s God’s plan and it’s God’s order, and it’s God’s promise. And God’s offer.
I was speaking in Germany, at the close of the second World War. In a cathedral. On the Kingdom of God. On the front seat were very able Germans, Dr. Martin Niemoller among them. And when I was speaking on the Kingdom of God, they kept pounding on their benches with their fists. At the close they came up to me and said, “You seem to sense why we took to Naziism. Life for us was at loose ends. We needed something to bring all life into coherence and meaning and goal. And we turned to Naziism and it let us down in blood and ruin. But now we see that what we were looking for was the Kingdom of God. And that’s where we missed it. And that’s why we were pounding the benches. We’d missed the way. We were looking for the Kingdom of God and didn’t know it.”
Then my eyes were opened. I said, “Is that what men are thinking about? In this crisis? These revolts that are taking place? Are they really wanting the Kingdom of God and don’t know it?”
The answer came back, yes. We can see they are revolting against injustices in the social order. But we can’t see what they’re revolting for. It’s hazy, undefined. But down deep, they are wanting the Kingdom of God.
Jesus taught us there were two ways in which the Kingdom would come. One, by gradualism. “First the blade in the corn, then the full corn in the ear.” The Kingdom of God is like unto a grain of mustard seed. The Kingdom of God is like the leaven which leavens the whole lump. These and other passages teach the Kingdom coming by gradualism. Heart to heart, life to life, mind to mind.
But, he said, there’s another way the Kingdom is going to come. The Kingdom of God is like unto a nobleman who went to a far country to receive a kingdom and return. Depicting Jesus going to the Father and getting the Kingdom and returning to set it up. That’s the apocalyptic coming.
Now some people take the gradualism. Others take the apocalyptic. I can’t do that because they’re both integral parts of the account. And I need both. The gradualism gives me my immediate task. I can be the agent of the coming of that Kingdom, now. And the apocalyptic gives me my hope that the last word is going to be spoken by God – perhaps suddenly when we least expect it. And that last word is going to be victory.
The world’s got a destiny. And that destiny is to be the scene of the coming of the Kingdom of God. That gives me a total answer to man’s total need.
I believe I’m structured to be a Christian. I’m destined to be a Christian. And that destiny is written in my blood, my nerves, my tissues, my organs, my relationships. I can live against that destiny because I’m still free. But if I do, I get hurt.
I listened to a doctor. A great surgeon. He said, “I’ve discovered the Kingdom of God in my scalpel. The right thing morally, the Christian thing, is always the healthy thing physically.”
“Then,” I said, “Morality is not merely in the Bible, it’s in my blood, my nerves, my tissues, my organs. And I can’t run away from it without running away from myself. It’s written within me, and I can’t jump out of my own skin.”
A leading sociologist came to me and he said, “I’ve found that the right thing morally, the Christian thing, is always the healthy thing economically.”
In South Africa, they put up a chemical plant that was going to undercut all the chemical works of the world. They put in a hundred million pounds – not dollars, but pounds. It was put up ten years ago, and it’s never gotten started. There’s sand in the machinery. And what was the sand in the machinery? This: they were going to use cheap African labor. That was the sand in the machinery. We were going to use the black man to enrich the white man. And it’s never got off the ground. They were breaking a law of the Kingdom of God.
And the laws of the Kingdom of God are self-operating.
I had a friend who’s a management engineer. He takes hold of sick businesses and puts them back on their feet again. He said, “You know, I found out that 95 percent of the difficulties in business are not in the business but in the people. They get snarled up with themselves, and others. And they project their snarls out into the situations and co-operation dies and the business turns sick. I can’t straighten out that business until I straighten out these people.”
So he sits till midnight talking executives and heads of departments. And they say, “Yes, we’re snarled up. But how do you get unsnarled?”
He talks to them about God. They say, “Yes, but how do you find God?” And he explains, “By new birth. Conversion.” They sit till midnight talking about how to straighten out a business and run straight into the laws of the Kingdom of God. They’re running straight into the Christian faith written into the nature of things, and inescapable.
I believe that Christianity is realism, not idealism. Something not imposed, but something exposed, out of the heart of reality. And I believe that the Christian way is the only way that will work.
We can go out no longer apologizing for an unworkable, idealistic way. But we can say to the world, Christ’s way is the only workable way there is.
We have an unshakeable Kingdom, the Kingdom of God. We have an unchanging Person, Jesus Christ. Then we’ve got a Gospel. And it’s a total Gospel, for man’s total need.
Modern man is empty, and crying to high heaven for something to fill that emptiness. Nothing can fill that emptiness except the unshakeable Kingdom, the unchanging Person. And the total Gospel.
E. Stanley Jones was a missionary and world evangelist. In the 1930s, Time magazine referred to him as “the world’s greatest Christian missionary.” He is well known for his friendship with Gandhi, his creation of the Christian Ashram Movement, and inspiring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Jones graduated from Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky. His book, The Christ of the Indian Road, sold more than a million copies worldwide after its publication in 1925. More than three million copies of his books have been sold. Photo: Good News archives.
by Steve | Jun 9, 2023 | In the News, Perspective / News
What is a Methodist?
By Thomas Lambrecht –
I have argued before that a consistent Methodist identity has been blurred and obscured in The United Methodist Church. What it means to be United Methodist varies from church to church and conference to conference. A wide latitude in what we believe, even to the point of accommodating teaching that contradicts our doctrinal standards, makes it difficult to say with any confidence what United Methodists believe. Relegating the Book of Discipline to the status of “guidelines” instead of church law to be followed makes it apparent that United Methodists do not even share common practices in many cases.
The launching of the Global Methodist Church signals a desire to reclaim a consistent Methodist identity. While we may express our ethnically diverse faith in different ways based on individual personality, age, culture, or location, there is a hunger for the common thread or the strong foundation of Methodism.
John Wesley, Methodism’s founder, was faced with the need to define what the Methodist movement was all about. Within four years of his heart-warming experience of assurance on Aldersgate Street, Wesley was beset by criticism and misunderstanding (misinformation?) from the established Church of England. In response, he wrote a short pamphlet, The Character of a Methodist, to answer his critics and define his expectations for what is a Methodist. Revisiting his definition of Methodism can help us recover and clarify our Methodist identity.
Wesley argues that a Methodist is no more and no less than a Christian, one who follows “the common fundamental principles of Christianity.” Wesley saw Methodism as getting back to the basics of Christian faith and life, which had been watered down or forgotten by the Church of England. In our own day, we can do no better than follow Wesley’s example and get back to the basics of what it means to be and live as a Christian in today’s world.
Interestingly, Wesley begins his definition of Methodism by reclaiming the authority of Scripture. Methodists believe “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (quoting 2 Timothy 3:16) and that “the written Word of God [is] the only and the sufficient rule both of Christian faith and practice” (emphasis original). Over the decades, the widely-held perception of the Bible has evolved from it being the Word and revelation of God, to that it contains the Word of God, to a document as inspired by God as a pastor’s eloquent Sunday sermon, to being a record of some people’s experiences with God that holds only as much authority as we are willing to give it. Wesley returns us to a high view of Scripture as our only authority for what to believe and how to live as disciples of Jesus Christ, giving us sufficient guidance on matters of faith and life that cannot be overridden by any other source of wisdom or knowledge.
Methodists believe “Christ to be the Eternal Supreme God.” This emphatic statement puts the focus on Jesus Christ as the heart of Christianity. In a day when Jesus is seen by some as only a prophet or moral teacher, and as a human being in need of teaching and correcting by others, it is healthy to return to a high view of Jesus Christ as “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Depart from this foundational belief and one has left Christian faith.
At the same time, while insisting on uniformity of belief on the major doctrines of Christianity (think the Nicene creed), Methodists allow freedom of thought on disputable matters. “As to all opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we ‘think and let think.’” Methodism should therefore avoid endless disputes over lesser theological points. Modern United Methodism has found itself embroiled in vehement arguments over political and social opinions that are not clearly spelled out in Scripture or the creeds. We would do well to find unity in the essentials, while giving each other liberty in non-essential matters. As recent divisions have shown, however, the most important debate may be whether a particular point is an essential tenet of the faith and life of a Christian. (For example, is the definition of marriage and sexual morality essential to being a Christian?)
Wesley made it clear that Methodists are not “attached to any peculiar mode of speaking, any quaint or uncommon set of expressions,” but prefer “the most obvious, easy, common words” to convey our meaning. In a word, everyday language for everyday people. Nor is Methodist identity based on “actions, customs, or usages” that are not commanded in Scripture (e.g., a certain type of apparel, using a certain posture of the body in worship, abstaining from marriage or from certain foods or drink). Our identity is not found in some idiosyncratic way of speaking or acting, but in our common humanity as adopted children of God.
Methodists seek balance in doctrine, rather than “laying the whole stress … on any single part” of faith. We seek to develop a fuller understanding of all aspects of theology, rather than emphasizing some parts and ignoring others. Here, the United Methodist emphasis on social witness seems a bit unbalanced. Social witness accomplishes little apart from personal conversion and transformative discipleship. Social witness does not change individual spiritual lives – only the power of God can do that. Unfortunately, United Methodism has often forsaken seeking God’s power for seeking worldly or political power. The lack of fruitfulness bears witness to the futility of that course of action.
Methodists believe salvation consists of “holiness of heart and life.” It is not just saying the sinner’s prayer but embarking on a life of growing discipleship. This holiness springs from faith alone, not from following a long list of rules. The more time we spend with Jesus, the more like him we become, and it shows in the way we live. Obedience to God’s commandments springs from faith and love, not from human effort. The greater our faith and love for God, the greater our obedience will be.
The Christian life is characterized by love, joy, and hope. We experience the love of God and return our love to God. We experience the joy of knowing our sins are forgiven and we are adopted into God’s family as his child. We belong to God through Jesus Christ. We are hopeful for the future, based on trust in God’s providence. We entrust our life and circumstances into the hands of a loving Father, knowing he will work all things together for good.
The Christian life is a life of unceasing prayer. Not that we are constantly uttering words of prayer to God, but that we are continually “lifting up the heart to God,” with or without words. It is an attitude and alignment of our spirit toward God constantly in all that we are thinking and doing.
The Christian life is a life of active love. Based on God’s love, we in turn love every person with whom we come into contact, even our enemies. “As we have opportunity [Wesley – ‘as time allows’], doing good to all people” (Gal. 6:10).
The Christian life is a lifelong process of spiritual maturing. Through this process, we are continually being purified by God’s love from every unloving desire and every worldly way of seeing or thinking.
The Christian life means being committed to doing God’s will and keeping his commandments, devoting ourselves to God’s glory, not our own, in whatever activity or business in which we engage. At the same time, it is guarding against accepting or approving something that is wrong just because it has become fashionable in the world around us and allowing the “crowd” to determine how we ought to live. This last point is actually our battle in 21st century America. Too often, the church has allowed the ways of the world to influence how we live as Christians, instead of standing apart and allowing our unique way of living to transform the world.
One of our great failures as the Church of Jesus Christ is to allow ourselves to be persuaded by the “sexual revolution” to abandon Christian morality when it comes to sex and relationships. The current controversy over LGBT practices is just the tip of the iceberg. We have allowed infidelity, adultery, pre-marital sex, pornography, and sexual abuse to take up residence in the Christian life. We have failed to winsomely teach not only the “what” of Christian morality, but the “why.” We have failed to hold our leaders accountable to live up to Christian standards. At the same time, we have failed to offer the forgiveness and healing of Jesus for all those caught in sexual sin and brokenness. Surely as Methodists we can and will do better!
Wesley’s purpose was not to distinguish Methodists from other Christians, but to distinguish Methodists from the world. He promoted what he called “primitive religion,” a return to the foundational principles of faith and life found in the Bible and the early Church. Wesley’s dream was to reform and renew the Church of England to live up to its potential as a true and living part of the worldwide Body of Christ. When that proved impossible due to the resistance of the Church of England, Methodists struck out on their own direction to fulfill God’s calling.
In the same way, traditionalist Methodists today hoped and dreamed to see United Methodism spiritually renewed and reformed to live up to Wesley’s idea of what we believe the Body of Christ should be. Now that that hope and dream have proved impossible, many are striking out on their own to form a new part of the Body of Christ – with optimistic humility – where they can live out their understanding of what it means to be a Methodist Christian.
In Wesley’s words, “By these marks, by these fruits of a living faith, do we labour to distinguish ourselves from the unbelieving world, from all those whose minds or lives are not according to the gospel of Christ. But from real Christians, of whatsoever denomination they be, we earnestly desire not to be distinguished at all. … ‘Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother’” (Mat. 12:50, emphasis original).
Thomas Lambrecht is a United Methodist clergyperson and vice president of Good News.
