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.
by Steve | Sep 25, 2024 | Uncategorized
On Wednesday September 25, the assembly of the Convening General Conference of The Global Methodist Church elected their first slate of Bishops-elect for the period of 2024-2026. The elections took place at its meeting in San Jose, Costa Rica. The Bishops-elect are (left-right) Kimba Everiste (Democratic Republic of the Congo); John Pena Auta (Nigeria); Leah Hidde-Gregory (Mid Texas); Kenneth Levingston (Trinity); Carolyn Moore (North Georgia); and Jeff Greenway (Allegheny West).
by Steve | Sep 6, 2024 | Sept-Oct 2024, Uncategorized
Wesley’s Faith Decision
By Kevin M. Watson
John and Charles Wesley met German Pietists on their voyage as missionaries to a new colony in the Americas, Georgia. John Wesley observed the deep faith and assurance the German Moravians had when their ship encountered storms crossing the Atlantic so serious that their boat almost sank. This near-death experience created a crisis of faith for Wesley, as he realized he lacked the Moravian’s assurance of salvation. The Moravians’ faith showed him that real assurance, real confidence in one’s salvation, was possible even when faced with death. Wesley was so compelled by the Moravian’s faith that he spent significant time during the remainder of the voyage learning German so that he could converse in greater depth with them.
Wesley recorded a conversation with August Gottlieb Spangenberg (1704- 1792) shortly after his arrival in Georgia in his Journal: “I soon found what spirit he was of, and asked his advice with regard to my own conduct. He said, “My brother, I must first ask you one or two questions. Have you the witness within yourself? Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God?’ I was surprised, and knew not what to answer. He observed it, and asked, ‘Do you know Jesus Christ?’ I paused, and said, ‘I know he is the Saviour of the world.’ ‘True,’ replied he, ‘but do you know he has saved you?’ I answered, ‘I hope he has died to save me.’ He only added, ‘Do you know yourself?’ I said, ‘I do.’ But I fear they were vain words.”
Conversations with the Moravians continued when Wesley returned to England in 1738. Wesley’s relationship with Peter Böhler (1712-75) was particularly influential. By Wesley’s account, it was Böhler who convinced him he lacked “the faith whereby alone we are saved.” Wesley raised a variety of objections to Böhler’s understanding of justification by faith and assurance. But Böhler’s patience and persistence eventually convinced Wesley the doctrine represented the truth as taught in Scripture and as experienced by people in the present.
Wesley was humbled by the conviction he lacked saving faith, despite being an ordained priest in the Church of England (he was ordained in 1725) and serving as an overseas missionary. He recorded in his Journal, “Immediately it struck into my mind, ‘Leave off preaching. How can you preach to others, who have not faith yourself?’” Wesley did not think he should preach about something he believed was true but had not himself experienced. Böhler, however, encouraged Wesley to “preach faith till you have it, and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.”
As Wesley’s relationship with Böhler continued to develop, the two of them eventually formed a new religious society, the Fetter Lane Society. Through this relationship and in this context Wesley had his famous heart-warming experience at Aldersgate Street on May 24, 1738.
Wesley recorded his account of his assurance of salvation in his Journal: “In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
Charles Wesley had a similar experience on Pentecost Sunday, three days before John’s.
John Wesley had taken Böhler’s advice and had begun preaching salvation by faith before his experience at Aldersgate. And he continued preaching the doctrine after Aldersgate as well. A key moment for Wesley was when he preached the sermon “Salvation by Faith” at St. Mary’s, Oxford, on June 11, 1738. In the sermon, Wesley confronted many members of the Church of England with their nominal faith. He preached that saving faith “is not barely a speculative, rational thing, a cold, lifeless assent, a train of ideas in the head; but also a disposition of the heart.”
In his sermon he also offered one of his best known definitions of justification by faith: “It is a sure confidence which a man hath in God, that through the merits of Christ his sins are forgiven, and he reconciled to the favour of God; and in consequence hereof a closing with him and cleaving to him as our ‘wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption’ or, in one word, our salvation.”
Böhler and the Moravians not only gave Wesley an ongoing commitment to the doctrine of justification by faith; they gave him a way of pursuing holiness of heart and life after the experience of justification and assurance through the band meeting. In the beginning, the Fetter Lane Society was essentially a band meeting (a small group divided by gender which focused on confession of sin for the sake of growth in holiness).
Böhler and Wesley formed it on May 1, 1738, more than three weeks before Wesley’s famous heartwarming experience at Aldersgate Street, and Wesley advocated for the importance of band meetings like the Fetter Lane Society for the rest of his ministry, even when they were difficult to maintain. He believed this kind of intentional accountability in community was essential for ongoing growth in the Christian life, as well as for the pursuit of entire sanctification.
Oxford temptation. Oxford was where John Wesley received his education and was formed intellectually, but it was also significant to him personally as a source of ongoing temptation. John wrestled with the temptation to pursue respectability and influence over an increased commitment to the uncompromising proclamation of salvation by faith and holiness of heart and life. His ability to succeed in the latter in one of the centers of English cultural power and influence is perhaps best illustrated by the fellowship he was granted at Lincoln College, Oxford, in the spring of 1726. …
Wesley’s fellowship also meant he entered the rotation of preachers at the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin. … One of the questions facing Wesley during his later missionary trip to Georgia related to his changing understanding of salvation by faith: Would he preach what he now believed to be true in an uncompromising way? Or would he compromise his convictions for the sake of acceptance by powers and principalities?
The sermons that Wesley preached at Oxford after his famous Aldersgate Street experience made it clear he would not compromise what he believed. On June 11, 1738, less than one month after Aldersgate, Wesley preached the sermon “Salvation by Faith” at Oxford. His unwillingness to change his message for the audience at Oxford led to decreased invitations to preach. His next sermon at Oxford was “The Almost Christian,” which he preached on July 25, 1741. This sermon further demonstrated his commitment to preaching his newfound convictions. In the sermon, Wesley contrasted “almost” with “altogether” Christians. …
“The right and true Christian faith is” (to go on in the words of our own Church) “not only to believe that Holy Scripture and the articles of our faith are true, but also to have a sure trust and confidence to be saved from everlasting damnation by Christ”— it is a “sure trust and confidence” which a man hath in God “that by the merits of Christ his sins are forgiven, and he reconciled to the favour of God” – “whereof doth follow a loving heart to obey his commandments.”
The final sermon Wesley preached at Oxford University was “Scriptural Christianity.” If his first two sermons after Aldersgate made him less popular at Oxford, this final sermon ended his time in the pulpit at St. Mary’s. His sermon surveyed the rise and spread of Christianity and then shifted to contemporary England, and Oxford in particular. … He concluded with a scathing appraisal of the state of Christianity at Oxford:
“May it not be one of the consequences of this that so many of you are a generation of triflers; triflers with God, with one another, and with your own souls? For how few of you spend, from one week to another, a single hour in private prayer? How few have any thought of God in the general tenor of your conversation? Who of you is in any degree acquainted with the work of his Spirit? His supernatural work in the souls of men? Can you bear, unless now and then in a church, any talk of the Holy Ghost? Would you not take it for granted if one began such a conversation that it was either “hypocrisy” or “enthusiasm”? In the name of the Lord God Almighty I ask, What religion are you of? Even the talk of Christianity ye cannot, will not, bear! O my brethren! What a Christian city is this? “It is time for thee, Lord, to lay to thine hand!”
Although his audience heard Wesley’s conclusion as a harsh and unfair indictment, Wesley himself intended it as a call to awakening and repentance. Despite preaching in a prestigious place in the halls of power, Wesley was determined to awaken his audience to their need for faith in the same way he did when preaching in the fields to common people. …
“Scriptural Christianity” was not well received at Oxford. It was the last time Wesley preached to the University. This series of sermons, culminating here, represents Wesley’s decision to adhere to the logic of salvation by faith no matter where it led, even if it meant increasing marginalization in English society, and even within the Church of England.
Kevin M. Watson is director of academic growth and formation at Asbury Theological Seminary. This article is an excerpt from his new book Doctrine, Spirit, and Discipline: A History of the Wesleyan Tradition in The United States. (Zondervan Academic). Reprinted by permission. Image: The bust of John Wesley was originally displayed at the World Methodist Council Museum at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. It is now at the Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology and SMU Libraries at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Photo by Steve Beard.
by Steve | Sep 5, 2024 | Sept-Oct 2024
A Parting Thank You
By Rob Renfroe and Thomas Lambrecht
September/October 2024
Good News was founded in 1967 to be a voice for scriptural Christianity within what would in 1968 become The United Methodist Church. Now, fifty-seven years later, our board of directors and our executive leadership team have determined it is time for Good News to conclude its work.
So, over the next few months we will be in the process of closing our office and one final edition of the magazine will be published after the first General Conference of the Global Methodist Church this September.
By God’s grace, Good News played an instrumental role in forming the Global Methodist Church and in helping over 7,000 churches leave The UM Church. We need to thank God for how he has used our efforts in the past and now step into the future he has for Wesleyan Christians who are committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of the Bible.
I became president of Good News in 2009. Tom Lambrecht, after many years as a board member, board secretary, and board chair, moved from Wisconsin to Texas and took on the role of vice president in 2011. We are writing this editorial together primarily to say, “thank you.”
Earlier this summer, each of us transferred our ministerial credentials from the UM Church to the Global Methodist Church. We had remained within the UM Church so we might attend one final General Conference and work on behalf of our African and other international friends who wanted the same opportunity to disaffiliate that we in the U.S. had been given.
But each of us has now said good-bye to The United Methodist Church. Given all we have said and written, much of it critical of The UM Church, it may be surprising that what fills our hearts at this time is gratitude. We are immensely thankful for the lives and ministries God has given us and for the opportunities provided to us by the UM Church.
There is no higher calling on a human life than preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and shepherding his people. For some reason that is difficult to fathom, God in his grace gave us the immense privilege of proclaiming his word and serving his church as pastors. For his calling on our lives and the opportunity to minister to his people, we shall be forever grateful.
We were pastors within The United Methodist Church, each of us for over 40 years – Rob in East Texas and Tom in Wisconsin. It was the UM Church that recognized our gifts, affirmed our calling, and allowed us to serve its congregations. Welcoming us with open arms over forty years ago may be a decision some within the UM Church have come to lament. But we are grateful for a church that made a place for us to be in ministry, to do the work of God, and to fulfill his calling on our lives.
Even more, we are grateful for The United Methodist Church because it was there we came to faith in Jesus Christ. For Rob, it was a summer youth director hired by the First United Methodist Church of Texas City, Texas, in the summer of 1972. His name was Eddie Wills. It was the beauty of his relationship with Jesus that showed me there was more to Christianity than going to church and being a good kid – and that caused me late one night to kneel by my bed and ask Jesus to come into my life.
For Tom, it was a confirmation class led by a student pastor serving as an intern in 1968 at Memorial United Methodist Church in Greenfield, Wisconsin, where I grew up. His name was Jerry Cline, who worked at our church one year while studying at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. That confirmation class helped me understand the Bible, the message of God’s love, and God’s desire that I become a disciple. When we sang “O Jesus, I have promised” on confirmation Sunday, I gave my commitment to follow Jesus for a lifetime, and he has never let me down.
There’s a well-known line that a year from now you will be the same person you are today except for the books you read and the people with whom you spend time. What’s true of a year is also true of a lifetime. And we have known the best people. The best – because of The United Methodist Church. Through our work to renew and reform the church we were blessed to spend time with, learn from, be inspired and formed by many of “the greats” – Maxie Dunnam, Bill Hinson, Eddie Fox, John Ed Mathison, Jimmy Buskirk, Ira Gallaway, Ed Robb, Jr., Ed Robb III, Jim Heidinger, Billy Abraham, Kenneth Kinghorn, Gary Moore, Ben Witherington III, John Grenfell Jr., Riley Case, Pat Miller, and a host of others. There was a time when we were in awe to be in the same room as these giants of the faith, sitting in a corner, listening closely to what they said, hoping not to say anything foolish in their presence if called upon to speak. And later as they passed the torch to us, we continued their work, so desperately wanting to make them proud. Many of them have gone to be with the Lord, while others have retired from active ministry, but none are gone from our hearts. For this blessing we will be forever grateful.
How would the story of The United Methodist Church have played out if Good News had never existed? If Charles Keysor had not written that first article “Methodism’s Silent Minority” that gave so many Bible-believing Methodists a reason to stay in the church instead of giving up and walking away nearly five decades ago? If the original board members had not held national conferences that brought UM evangelicals together – in fact, created a movement? If they had not done the hard work for decades at General Conference after General Conference? If they had not been willing to suffer the slings and arrows, the false accusations and the demeaning attacks of liberal and institutionalist church leaders back when the fight was truly difficult and often mean-spirited? If Jim Heidinger, a prince of the church with a gracious spirit and a backbone of steel, had not taken up the work after Keysor? How the story would have gone, we don’t know. But we are sure of this – there would be no Global Methodist Church. The vast majority of traditionalists would have left years ago, the UM Church would have gone radically progressive long before now, and whatever evangelical movement might have come out of it would, at best, be a mere shell of the GMC.
So, we are grateful for Good News. Grateful for its work, its influence, and its successes. And we are beyond grateful that God was gracious enough to allow us to help lead its efforts for the past fifteen years. Following Chuck Keysor and Jim Heidinger – what an honor and a privilege God has given us.
As we leave The United Methodist Church and as we conclude the work of Good News, we look at our lives and we are reminded of the words of the psalmist: “Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely, I have a delightful inheritance” (Psalm 16.5-6).
The lines have fallen in pleasant places for us. We could not imagine better lives than the ones God has given us. Nor could we be more grateful. Grateful to The United Methodist Church that provided us the opportunity to be in ministry, to those who led us to faith in Christ, to our wives and children who upheld us in ministry, to the congregations that blessed us, to the men and women who inspired us, and to all of you who have supported us and the work of Good News. Please know you are dear to us, and we will forever be thankful for you.
This editorial appeared in the Spetember/October 2024 issue of Good News.
