by Steve | Nov 20, 2024 | Nov-Dec 2024
Let’s Discover What’s Next Together –
By Jim Ramsay –
In 1985, Good News magazine posed a critical question on its cover: “Which Way to the Future?” Photographed against the backdrop of Atlanta’s iconic “spaghetti junction,” two men, Revs. H.T. Maclin and Virgil Maybray, stood ready to lead a new chapter in United Methodist missions.
Maclin, the president, and Maybray, the vice president, had founded The Mission Society for United Methodists – now TMS Global – in 1984. Why? To ignite passion within United Methodist congregations for cross-cultural witnessing.
By design, TMS Global would receive no denominational funding, “rising or falling according to the wishes of the United Methodist people,” as H.T. Maclin stated.
Forty years later, as the current president of TMS Global, I praise God that TMS Global continues to “rise,” thanks in part to support from many of you, our Good News readers. Today, we train, mobilize, and serve cross-cultural witnesses (CCWs), presently living and serving in 29 countries. We also partner with U.S. and international pastors, lay leaders and congregations, helping them discover and fulfill their unique missional calling.
A Changing World, A Renewed Call. With the world constantly evolving, we must continue to ask together, “which way to the future?” While the good news of Jesus Christ remains constant, engaging in missions requires us to adapt to realities like globalization, urbanization, access to travel, digital communication, and the globalized church.
I see three key areas, in this new era of local and global witnessing, where focused prayer and partnership can bring about redemption and reconciliation through Christ.
Offering Christ in our neighborhoods. My doctoral research explored migration and mission. Across our country there are millions of first-generation Americans who are connected with people groups from every corner of the world. How do we equip local churches to connect to these migration streams? One solution is our Who is My Neighbor? small-group study, used by over 400 small groups on RightNow Media. This video-based curriculum teaches the same cross-cultural principles we use globally, equipping Christ-followers to engage effectively with culturally diverse neighbors in their own communities.
Offering Christ in our communities. Churches today face aging memberships, decreased attendance, societal polarization, and shifting demographics. Through our Immerse Project, www.immerseproject.org, the congregation in your church can become equipped to recognize social changes, clarify your church’s unique missional calling, and engage your community with the transformative power of the gospel.
Offering Christ to the nations. Together, we can create innovative ways to share the gospel cross-culturally. Some of our CCWs use outdoor adventure to disciple young people. Others teach sustainable farming methods in drought-prone areas, building relationships and opening doors to
kingdom conversations.
We have CCWs offering trauma training and care for refugees, creating after-school tutoring programs, and helping impoverished women launch micro-businesses. Everything we do is designed to demonstrate Christ’s love, so that individuals, families, and communities can find life in him.
Looking forward with faith. While I acknowledge the challenges ahead, I am confident in God’s faithfulness and see a community of equipped and gifted people committed to his mission.
I recently attended the Convening Conference of the Global Methodist Church (GMC) and was encouraged by its potential to impact the kingdom. The spirit of worship, prayer, and joy resonated deeply, and the Costa Rica location underlined their commitment to being a truly global church.
TMS Global stands ready, as an approved mission partner of the GMC, to collaborate with these and other mission-focused churches and networks “so that the world may know.”
Join Us as We Join Jesus in His Mission. In many ways, this last issue of Good News magazine marks the beginning of a new era. Yet, one constant remains: the world still needs Jesus. I invite you to prayerfully consider how you can partner with TMS Global in this next chapter. Together, we can join Jesus in His mission to bring redemption and reconciliation to the world.
President and CEO Dr. Jim Ramsay has served with TMS Global for 30 years, the first 10 with his family as cross-cultural witnesses in Kazakhstan.
by Steve | Nov 20, 2024 | Nov-Dec 2024
GMC Launches in Costa Rica –
By Steve Beard –
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024 –
Worldwide Methodism has been dramatically overhauled during the last few years. Thousands of local congregations disaffiliated from The United Methodist Church prior to the 2024 UMC General Conference in Charlotte, NC, held in April/May, when delegates formally approved a major shift with LGBTQ ordination and marriage.
Three and a half months later, delegates to the initial General Conference of the more-traditionalist Global Methodist Church met 1,700 miles south – in Central America – to catapult forward the newest branch of the international Wesleyan movement that has steadily been in formation for several years.
With freshly-stamped passports from virtually every corner of the earth, Methodists converged upon San José, capital and largest city of Costa Rica, in late September for a seven-day convening General Conference to launch the Global Methodist Church. With a jam-packed schedule of worship services, work projects, and organizational meetings, more than 300 delegates – with twice that number of alternates and observers in attendance – the assembly finalized a constitution, elected new interim bishops, formalized clergy requirements, adopted a mission statement, and established doctrinal standards – complete with the Articles of Religion, Apostles’ Creed, and the Nicene Creed.
While public comparisons of the two General Conferences were minimal in San José, there were notable differences in the two conclaves. For example, one veteran observer pointed out that the UM gathering in Charlotte celebrated with a conga-line to the O’Jay’s 1960s song “Love Train,” while those gathered in Costa Rica enthusiastically opened with Charles Wesley’s hymn “Captain of Israel’s Host.”
But the differences went deeper than songs. “Jeff Greenway and I strongly asserted that the foundational difference between the UMC and the GMC was – at its core – a doctrinal dispute,” Bishop Mike Lowry (retired) told me in Costa Rica. “The exclusion of the Nicene Creed as a part of the doctrinal heart of the UMC proves our assertion.” (The UMC General Conference in both 2016 and 2024 refused to add the Nicene Creed to the UMC’s doctrinal standards.)
In San José, the international GMC assembly debated and discussed Episcopacy plans – settling on an introductory two-year plan until a longer-term plan would be implemented in 2026. The assembly elected and consecrated a diverse and international slate of new interim bishops.
While there are no Global Methodist Church local congregations in the Central American country, the Evangelical Methodist Church of Costa Rica warmly welcomed GMC delegates and observers to their nation. The Evangelical Methodist Church has approximately 100 local churches spread across Costa Rica, with a membership of 10,000.
There were two joint worship services with the Costa Rican church and the GMC. During one evening service, leaders of the two denominations established a covenant agreement.
Bishop Luis F. Palomo, long-time leader of the Costa Rican Methodists expressed his “absolute joy” that San José was the “site for the first and historic convening General Conference” of the Global Methodist Church. “As the GM Church advances the proclamation of Jesus our Savior around the world, the members of the Evangelical Methodist Church [are] honored participants in such an event and ready to assist in any way.”
Costa Rica has a population of 5.2 million. Large rainforests, dramatic volcanoes, and beautiful coastlines along both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean draw tourists from around the world to the country. For the delegates to the convening General Conference, however, the formation of the fledgling denomination was at the top of their to-do list.
By Steve Beard, editor of Good News.
by Steve | Nov 20, 2024 | Nov-Dec 2024
Continuing the Journey to Maturity
By Tom Albin
In the last issue of Good News, I wrote an article entitled “Life’s Spiritual Journey to Maturity.” In part 1 of this article, I encouraged you to lay aside the mistaken understanding that the Christian life is an educational journey, like the journey from kindergarten through high school. Instead, I urged you to think of it as natural spiritual process of growth and development. Just as a person is “born” into a physical family and grows through the physical nurture of first milk, and then later “baby food” followed by the solid food need to sustain ongoing life and growth toward maturity—the same is true for us spiritually. When we are “born again” we need our spiritual family to give us the pure milk of the Word and then the “baby food” of initial prayer, meditation, and Bible study. Then, when the time is right, we need solid food, meat instead of milk.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9, the Jewish Shema, prayed every morning and every evening by every orthodox Jewish family from before the time of Jesus until this very day, provides the foundation for all that follows:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (NRSVUE)
Here, spiritual growth and development (i.e. discipleship) is natural and relational. Newborns learn from their parents and family—the language (of prayer) and the attitude (of hope) and the character (of love) and the content (of obedience) through daily living of the spiritual life—not in an academic classroom with an instructor who employs the “lecture/discussion” method. The important insight is that God’s plan for faith formation takes place in the normal course of “family life” and our role as spiritual parents and grandparents is to focus on the heart of our children and grandchildren (v.5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.) We are to do this intentionally (vv. 5-6. “Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.”)
Like the Puritan spirituality that John and Charles Wesley inherited from their parents, Methodists believe that every command of God is a promise. Because God commands it – it is possible! We can keep God’s word in our hearts! We can teach our children and grandchildren to love God with all their heart and soul and might! We can because God commands it – we believe it – and therefore we act on it in joyful obedience!
How do we do this? By allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us – and letting them see us love God with all our heart and soul and might! It is as simple and as difficult as “show and tell” – “live it and share it”.
We know that children learn at their own pace – in relation to their natural curiosity, ability and desire. As parents, we help them learn to walk and talk and feed themselves when they are ready to learn. The same is true in spiritual growth and development. We teach them by our presence and example and practice. The more we grow in our love of God and neighbor, the more they will learn from us! This is good news! This is great news! That is why we need to talk about our spiritual lives and our relationship with God daily, naturally, and joyfully!
As we prepared for this experiment to share our lives with our children and grandchildren in 2024, my wife, Maryle, and I identified seven areas of focus that we believed were essential. We asked our adult children and their spouses to review our plan for a 7-month experiment of intentional life-sharing with our grandchildren and give us feedback to improve it. Then we asked for their permission to invite our grandchildren into this experiment. When we asked if they wanted to engage in this experiment of “doing spiritual life together” – they all agreed to join. Below, you will find these seven areas, each beginning with a simple word that started with the letter “F” to make it easier to remember.
1. Faith. I want to grow my faith, and help others grow their faith as well – through scripture, meditation, and prayer.
2. Family. I want healthy, growing relationships with my family.
3. Friends. I will nurture healthy relationships with others outside my family circle.
4. Fun. I believe the joy of the Lord is my strength, and I will live life joyfully.
5. Finances. I want to be a good steward of all that God entrusts to me.
6. Fitness. My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and I will take good care of it.
7. Flourishing. I want to discover my unique talents and gifts—then use them to bless others and make this world God loves a better place. I will also learn one new life skill each month.
Now that we had the “what” (an intentional plan), we needed the “how”, and the “why”. The “how” question is answered in the family agreement we developed to help each of our grandchildren (ages 10 to 17 at the time we began this experiment) understand what was expected.
Family Agreement
Together we agreed to learn and grow spiritually in the seven areas above.
1. We will complete each mutually agreed action project before the next scheduled session. If all the agreed action projects are not completed before the scheduled session, I understand that I will not receive the agreed compensation.
2. We will meet for a 30–45-minute “report back” session, once each month.
3. We can stop at any time without prejudice or penalty, and we understand that this agreement ends if the action projects are not completed two months in a row.
Tom Albin is the recently retired Dean of The Upper Room Chapel in Nashville. In 1999 he joined the staff of The Upper Room. In that capacity, he led the Prayer Ministry for the UMC General Conferences in 2012, 2016, and the “Day of Prayer” before the 2019 Special Session. He was also part of the prayer effort at the 2024 General Conference in Charlotte.
by Steve | Oct 29, 2024 | Uncategorized
Forward in Faith
By Rob Renfroe
November/December 2024
In the airport, on my way to the convening General Conference of the Global Methodist Church in San José, Costa Rica, I had a remarkable conversation with a delegate to the conference. He told me what he hoped the conference would decide on an issue that was very important to him. But he was quick to add that he knew good people who love Jesus and his church saw the issue differently. He concluded by saying, “Whatever happens, I’m going to trust the General Conference.”
I had the same conversation, practically verbatim, with another delegate shortly after arriving, before a single vote had been taken. She ended her remarks with the same sentiment. “But whatever happens, I’ll trust what the General Conference decides.”
Each time I responded by asking, “Did you hear the words you just spoke – that you’re going to trust whatever the General Conference decides?” They both nodded. Then I asked, “Have you ever said those words before in your life – that you’ll just trust the General Conference?” Both smiled, shook their heads, and said, “No, never.”
People ask me what was the convening conference like? That’s a big question that could be answered in many ways. But the greatest difference from the previous eight General Conferences I have attended was the way delegates trusted each other. There were significant differences on several issues, the most emotional ones concerned the episcopacy – what the role of bishops would be and who should be considered for that role. But no one even hinted they were suspicious of the motives of those with different views. The debate was always polite and respectful. And the delegates all evidenced a genuine appreciation for other viewpoints and exuded what appeared to be a real humility as they advocated for their positions.
That was an answer to my prayers, literally. For the past several months when people asked me what I most hoped would come out of General Conference, I answered, “Two things. First, I want us to leave San José unified.” By that I did not mean that we would all have the same opinions but that we would all feel that we were on the same team, that we would all believe the decision-making process had been fair and transparent, and that there would be no reason to suspect that special interest groups were making some kind of play for influence or power.
In the past it was not that way. But in San José, no one questioned whether the bishops had cut special deals with groups they wanted to promote. No one wondered if delegates from outside the U.S. were being blocked from participating. No one wore a special ribbon or button to advance an agenda. No one castigated another delegate for using the wrong language. And no one felt the need to keep track and report if any ethnic group or gender was speaking too much. The entire time was an experience of people simply treating each other like brothers and sisters – and trusting the General Conference.
Good News has encouraged pastors, parishioners and congregations to join the Global Methodist Church ever since its creation over two years ago. We still do. In fact, now more than ever. We have met, we have decided who we are, and we have determined how we will conduct our business. And in complete sincerity, I can tell you, “You can trust the GMC.”
You can trust the GMC’s doctrine – it is centered on Christ and committed to the Bible as the Word of God. You can trust its commitment to inclusivity – the six newly elected bishops included two black men from Africa and two white women, one black man, and one white man from the United States. You can trust that the GMC’s decision-making process is soaked in prayer, open, and transparent.
There’s something else you can trust. The GMC’s leadership. I know all six bishops elected in San José, as well as the two who have been serving actively for the past two years. They are persons of deep faith. They have led growing churches. They love people and they love Jesus. They are mature and thoughtful persons. They are leaders. I respect them. I admire them. I am inspired by them. I can learn from them. And most importantly, I trust them. All of them. That was my other hope and prayer for General Conference – that we would elect leaders who would serve our new church well. I can report wholeheartedly that I believe we did. Thanks be to God, by his grace, we did!
What am I praying now for the Global Methodist Church? First, I’m praying that we will be a humble church. I pray we will never forget that apart from Jesus we can do nothing, that we must remain attached to the vine if we are to be fruitful, that God’s ways are not our ways and we must humble ourselves before his Word and seek him on our knees.
I pray we will be a servant church. During my ministry, I worked hard to be the best preacher of the Gospel I could be. I believe in the power of God’s word proclaimed clearly and unapologetically. But I believe the best way to reach secular people and impact our culture will not be by preaching better sermons, building bigger buildings, or creating slicker social media campaigns. We will reach people when, like Jesus, we empty ourselves and become servants – servants who are willing to go to a cross because we care about people and their needs. When people think of Christians and instead of thinking “those are people who vote a certain way,” “those are people who judge others,” “those are people who tell the rest of us how we should live,” and instead they think, “those are the people in my community who love others,” that’s when people will be ready to hear our message. When they think, “those are the people in our community who care for single mothers and their children,” “those are the people who help addicts get clean,” “those are the people who feed the hungry, bring hope to inmates in prison, and work in homeless shelters” – when that’s what people think of us, I’m convinced they will want to know why we do what we do. And when we tell them the reason is Jesus, I think they’ll listen.
I pray we will be a church that is open to the Spirit of God. Yes, open to the gifts of the Spirit and passionate worship, absolutely. But I’m thinking of something else – being open to however the Spirit wants us to reach the lost. No one was more formal, high church, and proper than John Wesley. But somehow this uptight, Anglican priest was open to the Spirit of God – so much so that he preached in the open fields, in the coal mines, and in the city streets when it made him feel “even more vile” – because the Spirit told him to do so. God needed Wesley to do a new thing because God was doing a new thing. And, praise God, Wesley was willing to follow the Spirit.
What will God’s Spirit call GMC pastors and congregations to do to reach the lost in our time? I don’t know. But this is a new day in the U.S. We live in a secular, post-modern culture that is suspicious and antagonistic to the Gospel and those who proclaim it. So, God will need to do a new thing. And his people will have to listen to the Spirit and follow him into a new way of bringing the Good News to people who will not respond to the same way we have always done things. I pray the Spirit of God will lead us and the spirit of our spiritual father John Wesley will inspire us to follow the Spirit’s call into the new day God has waiting for his church and the world he loves.
As we close down Good News and as I write this final editorial, there is some sadness within my heart. But more than that, I am grateful for how God has used Good News for nearly sixty years. I feel privileged to have been part of its ministry. Most of all, I feel hopeful for the people called Methodist. Hopeful because we can trust the GMC and we can be confident in its leadership. Hopeful because we can be confident that God created the GMC and he will bless our efforts to lift up the saving work of Jesus and to bring grace and truth to the world. Hopeful because I am convinced that if we are a humble church, a servant community, and a people who are open to his Spirit, what God will accomplish through the GMC will amaze us all. To God our Father, to Jesus the Son, and to the Holy Spirit be all honor, power and glory, now and forever more. Amen.
by Steve | Oct 24, 2024 | In the News, Perspective / News
How God Used Good News
By Warren Budd
Many Methodists have believed that the ministry of Good News encompassed just lobbying at General Conference and publishing an attractive, informative magazine. But our family – along with countless others – can attest that it involved much more.
The most visible fruit of the Good News ministry has been its assistance in the formation of the Global Methodist Church. But there were other important initiatives pursued by Good News over the years that had a profound effect on United Methodists searching for a genuine expression of Wesleyan scriptural Christianity. Besides producing Sunday school literature, helping initiate the formation of the Mission Society, and spearheading an alternative women’s mission group, Good News produced numerous books and pamphlets on orthodox Methodist belief. Good News also counseled with literally thousands of United Methodists who were experiencing apostasy in their local church, urging them to remain United Methodist and to remember that they were serving on a mission field.
There was another ministry pursued by Good News that allowed evangelical United Methodists to understand that they were not alone. Up until the mid-nineties, Good News held convocations at venues across the United States that brought inspiring speakers and vibrant worship to orthodox United Methodists seeking a deeper relationship with God. There were programs for children and youth as well as informative breakout sessions.
In 1973 I made what I thought was a commitment to Jesus Christ. Yet I really did not understand the nature of salvation. I struggled for six years to discern what God had in store for me. A spark was ignited in 1979 when a pastor friend, Dr. Charles Boland, gave me a couple of Good News magazines. I devoured them. In one of the magazines was a review of Dr. Robert Tuttle’s book John Wesley: His Life and Theology. After reading it I became fascinated with Wesleyan theology. In the summer of 1980, I saw that the author would be speaking at a Good News convocation in July.
Using all of the persuasive skills I could muster, I talked my wife Courtenay into dragging our (then) four children to a Good News meeting where we knew absolutely no one. She later told me she thought I had lost my mind.
Our oldest child Becky later told me that this convocation had a “staggering” effect on the spiritual lives of our family. The vibrant worship, especially youth-directed outreach led by the New Directions singing group out of North Carolina, and the youth Bible study taught by a godly woman, led our two daughters to give their lives to Christ. God has used both of these women in mighty ways.
At the Lake Junaluska convocation, Courtenay and I had a profound experience with the presence of God, returning home greatly changed.
Becky would tour two summers with the New Directions. Later, as a student at the University of the South, she helped found a chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ and was with them in Russia just after the Berlin Wall fell.
Our younger daughter Dorothy joined Youth with a Mission in Mexico as a high school student. She founded a Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at the high school where she began her career as a math teacher and continues leading the group twenty-eight years later. Courtenay has been a leader in the Disciple study in our church, and I have served the church on a national and local level.
The capstone of my Christian walk has been the five years I spent pursuing a Masters of Theological studies at Asbury Seminary. Last year I graduated at age eighty-two.
The five terms I served on the Good News Board introduced me to many very special friends; Jim Heidinger, Ed Robb, Jr., Bob Tuttle, and James Robb, to name just a few. In the nineties these friendships would meet deep personal needs as Courtenay experienced severe health problems, my finances took a plunge, and, after a two-year ordeal, we discovered that we had lost our precious son Bryant.
On the night that we were given that devastating news, I called Jim Heidinger. He said that he would be right down. Jim drove from Wilmore, Kentucky, to Newnan, Georgia, in order to minister to us. James Robb flew down and Ed Robb III and others ministered to us by phone.
On May 20, 2023, I was packed in the Sherman cafeteria with about three-hundred and eighty other soon-to-be graduates of Asbury Seminary. About twenty African graduates began singing a praise song in their native language. Even though we did not understand the words, we joined in, praising and thanking God for his many blessings. We then marched into the Sherman gym which was packed with well-wishers and family. The Rev. Danny Key led the gathering in a robust, Spirit-filled singing of And Can It Be, what many refer to as the Asbury Seminary fight song. As I sang along, I began remembering the ministries, as well as friends I had met through Good News and Asbury Seminary. I looked in the audience and saw that Courtenay and our two daughters had tears in their eyes.
When God’s Spirit urged us to attend that Lake Junaluska convocation, he blessed us ten-thousand squared.
Warren Budd is a member of Midway Methodist Church in Midway, Georgia. A recent graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary, he has been a General Conference delegate, served on the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries (Theology and Mission Task Force), as well as the board of UMCOR. He has been a board member of Good News and is a Certified Lay Minister in the Global Methodist Church. Warren has taught Sunday School for 38 years. Photo: Good News magazine spread from 1980. Insets: (Center) Warren Budd (Right) Cover of “John Wesley: His Life and Theology” by Robert G Tuttle, Jr.
