by Steve | Nov 28, 1991 | Archive - 1991
Archive: Charismatics Focus on Worship
By Steve Beard
There were no political pronouncements—no resolutions to bring before General Conference. And the seats in the front were the first to be filled. This was not your everyday, ordinary United Methodist meeting.
Instead, the more than 1,700 charismatic United Methodists at the Aldersgate’91 conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee, enthusiastically worshipped God with uplifted hands and spirited singing, while some even danced in the aisles. Although guitars, drums, and praise choruses are often associated with a younger generation, the primarily middle-aged to older audience seemed to enjoy the contemporary worship as they clapped and shouted “Amen.”
The Aldersgate conference was led in worship by a variety of musical praise groups, including the choir and orchestra from Pine Castle UM Church in Orlando, Florida, and the Made to Praise expressive dance team from the First UM Church in Bedford, Texas.
“The most important contribution that our charismatic renewal has brought to the mainline church is the joyful worship of God, simply for God’s sake,” said keynote speaker the Rev. Dr. Robert Stamps of Park Avenue UM Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. “We worship God in this way,” continued Stamps, “because God desires it, deserves it, and delights in it.”
Stamps also credited the charismatic renewal for encouraging a “healthy anticipation for the miraculous in our midst,” and a “restoration of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially the gift of healing.”
The mid-August national conference on the Holy Spirit, sponsored by the United Methodist Renewal Services Fellowship (UMRSF), also attempted to educate the church on the work of the Holy Spirit in the world today, provide an encouraging environment for the use of spiritual gifts, and promote spiritual renewal in the denomination.
“Renewal can never come to the people called Methodist unless we are serious about prayer,” said Gary L. Moore, executive director of the UMRSF, as he led the conference in prayer over a distributed list of United Methodist bishops.
The participants from 40 states not only prayed for the leadership and direction of the church, but also for one another. Pastors in attendance were asked to stand at the Saturday evening service, as those nearby laid hands upon them and joined in prayer.
At the conclusion of each service, specially trained counselors ministered to the sick by praying and anointing them with oil. Afterward, Moore reported that “there were many testimonies of people accepting Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit; and healings—spirit, soul, and body—were plentiful.”
Aldersgate offered 27 different workshops dealing with subjects such as evangelism, Transforming Congregations, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, emotional healing, and spiritual warfare. Speakers included well-known United Methodists such as evangelists Cecil Williamson and Wesley Putnam, as well as professors Robert Tuttle of Garrett-Evangelical Seminary and Seth Asare of Boston Theological Seminary.
Attendance at this year’s Aldersgate conference was a first of its kind for many evangelicals. In his seminar on “Wesleyan Theology and the Charismatic Experience,” UM evangelist Ed Robb, Sr. said that he was taught that “the gifts were only for the apostolic age.” To the audience’s delight he responded, “This is the apostolic age.”
While Aldersgate offered an encouraging environment for the use of the spiritual gifts outlined in the New Testament, participants were also asked to use discernment. Since there are often misunderstandings about some of the gifts—particularly speaking in tongues and healing—Bible teacher Joe Harding cautioned the charismatics “not to divide the body of Christ in the name of the Spirit.” Instead, Harding, the director of Vision 2000 for the Board of Discipleship, encouraged them to study the spiritual gifts, pray for their pastors, and faithfully serve their churches.
Steve Beard is the editor of Good News magazine.
by Steve | Nov 27, 1991 | Archive - 1991
Archive: Mary
A Model for Us All
By Dick McClain
Growing up, I don’t recall having heard a sermon on Mary, the mother of Jesus. She did get dusted off every December for the Christmas pageant. But apart from her annual appearance reincarnated in the form of a budding young thespian, she hardly existed. Perhaps the folks in my evangelical Protestant circle felt that the Catholics went a little too far.
While I’ve never been accused of tilting toward Rome, somewhere along the line I began to suspect that we were being robbed by our silence about Mary. After all, the woman God chose to become the mother of our Lord just might have something to say to us today.
Which brings up another point. Not only did I not hear much about Mary; I didn’t hear much about any of the women of the Bible. When they were presented it was only in the context of their being a model for women, never for men. The implication was that the male heroes of the faith—Moses, Joshua, David, Peter, and all the rest—were role models for all Christians, men and women alike. But the female heroes of the Bible—Deborah, Naomi, Ruth, and Priscilla—were only models of Christian womanhood.
I ditched that idea.
All of this leads me to suggest two things. First, Mary’s life is worth studying and emulating. And second, she is a good model for my entire family, both male and female. I hope you’ll see Mary in that same light.
Luke offers some fascinating insights into the quality of Mary’s life and faith. Her godliness was evident in a number of traits which we would do well to pattern. (If you want to check the record out for yourself, read Luke 1 and 2.)
1. Faith in God
Who comes to mind when you think of biblical examples of faith? I’ll bet you immediately thought of Abraham. Not a bad pick, considering the fact that he believed some rather unbelievable things God told him. But have you thought about the message Gabriel brought to Mary?
Mary was a teenage girl from a poor family who lived in an obscure village in a tiny nation which itself was under subjection to a foreign power. One day an angel came to her with a message from God. She had found favor with God; she would give birth to a Son whom she was to name Jesus; her baby would be called the Son of the Most High and would sit on David’s throne forever; His kingdom would never end; and all this was going to happen without her ever having sexual relations with a man.
Now, be honest. Would you have believed that?
The remarkable thing is that Mary did! In fact, her cousin, Elizabeth, greeted her as “She who believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished” (Luke 1:45, NIV).
That’s real faith! She was willing to take God at His word, even when what He said didn’t square with anything her experience told her to be true.
We too must choose to believe God if we are to be godly people.
2. A Surrendered Life
Perhaps you have read Mary’s story, sensed the unparalleled excitement of what she was experiencing, tried to put yourself in her place, and concluded, “Wouldn’t it have been glorious to be Mary!”
But stop and think about it. How could she tell Joseph, to whom she was already legally betrothed? Although they had not yet begun living together, they were considered married and could be separated only through divorce. Don’t you think the prospect of suspicion flashed through her mind? It must have. Under similar circumstances, most of us would have asked the Lord to find someone else to do the job.
But not Mary. Her answer to the angel was a model of submission. “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38).
Why was she so ready to submit? Because she understood herself to be God’s servant. Maybe the reason we’re so prone to resist God is that we see Him as Our servant. We’ve got it backwards. We need to come to see, as Mary did, that God is GOD and not just some spiritual genie who we hope will magically fulfill our every whim.
3. A Life of Unassuming Humility
One thing about Mary in those Christmas pageants which always struck me was her willingness to go without complaint to the stable.
Not me! If l had been Mary, I probably would have said, “Listen here, buster! This baby I’m about to have is no ordinary child. He is God’s Son and your King. We deserve better than this!
In Luke’s version of the Sermon On the Mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor” (Luke 6:20). Mary was poor. We know that because of the sacrifice she and Joseph offered when they presented Jesus at the temple. Since they fell below the poverty line, they qualified to give a pair of doves or two young pigeons, rather than bringing the customary lamb, (see Luke 2:24 and Leviticus 12:8).
I don’t buy into the notion that God loves poor people and hates rich folks, or that the impoverished are constitutionally spiritual while the wealthy are hopelessly ungodly. But I do know that amidst our affluence we have adopted an inflated sense of our own importance, rights, and prerogatives. Consequently, we have concluded that the world owes us a lot; other people owe us a lot; and God also owes us a lot. We have a bad case of inflated expectations.
The answer is not quitting our jobs and signing up for welfare. But if we are serious about godliness, we, like Mary, must relinquish our rights, surrender our demands, and accept whatever God gives.
4. Faithfulness in Spiritual Disciplines
Unlike many people today, Mary didn’t treat spiritual things casually.
When it came time to present Jesus at the temple, Joseph and Mary headed for Jerusalem, (Luke 2:22). Only after they “had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord” did they return home (2:39). And when Passover season came, they went up to Jerusalem “every year” (2:41).
The implication is that Mary wasn’t one to shirk her spiritual responsibilities. It’s easy for us to neglect spiritual disciplines. Average annual worship attendance in the United Methodist Church typically limps along at less than half the membership. Many Christians would recoil at the suggestion that we should actually part with 10 percent of our income. I’m reminded of a cartoon that pictured a church sign which read:
“The Original Lite Church … Home of the 3 Per Cent Tithe and the 45 Minute Worship Hour … 50 Per Cent Less Commitment Required.”
Sincerely godly people don’t neglect the Word or worship, prayer or tithing. They don’t treat spiritual disciplines cavalierly.
5. Spiritual Sensitivity
Read Mary’s song, recorded in Luke 1:46-55. It’s more than magnificent. It is the overflow of a heart that was accustomed to communion with God.
How did Mary come to be so spiritually alert? Luke gives us a clue.
Following the shepherds’ visit, we are told that Mary “treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart” (2:19). And when Mary and her family returned to Nazareth from their trip to Jerusalem for Passover when Jesus was twelve, we read that she “treasured all these things in her heart” (2:51).
Mary managed to carve out of her busy lifetime to ponder the deeper significance of what was taking place. She took time to pray, to meditate, and to reflect on what God was doing.
Most of us do not decide one day that we don’t want to be in tune with God. We don’t decide not to pray. We just let the priceless treasure of communion with God slip unnoticed through our fingers.
Spiritual sensitivity is not inherited, it is acquired through spending time with God. To borrow pastor Terry Teykl’s phrase, Mary “prayed the price.” If we want to experience true godliness, we must do the same.
In trusting God, surrendering her life, giving up her rights, and learning to listen to the Spirit, Mary set an example for us all to follow.
Was she a super saint? No. Did she demonstrate sinless perfection? Not likely. But a devoted follower of God? You can be sure of it.
We can be the same.
Dick McClain is the director of missionary personnel for the Mission Society for United Methodists, an elder in the West Michigan Conference, and a pastor for the past 11 years. Dick is a member of the Good News Board of Directors, a husband, and father of three children.
by Steve | Nov 25, 1991 | Archive - 1991
Archive: Communion on the DMZ
By Carroll Ferguson Hunt
We trooped up the barren hill squinting against sun on snow, not yet feeling the cold. Our guides, U.S. Army chaplains, warned us against gestures or loud talk, anything that could be noticed, photographed, and twisted into adverse propaganda by hostile forces stationed on three sides of Guard Post Ouellette crouching on the summit above us.
Sightseeing, we were along the demilitarized zone that sunders the Korean peninsula north from south. Seminary students and their professors peered over part of the parish for which these United Methodist ministers accept responsibility. Solemn-faced young men uniformed in khaki camouflage steered us through their hilltop workplace, but the tour didn’t take long. So much was closed to us, so many questions remained unanswered. They couldn’t even tell us the length of their tour of duty. Security risks? We?
Apparently.
One blond boy, however, who looked as if he should be studying pre-law in California, was a fountain of information compared to the others. We wondered if he was the public relations officer for the post.
“Look through here if you like,” he offered, gesturing at an impressive scope aimed at the North Korean guard house just down the slope from the glassed-in room where we clustered.
We looked and saw more khaki-clad men, North Koreans, looking back at us from just an arm’s reach away … or so it seemed when viewed through the powerful lenses. They looked better, more distant and less threatening, without the scope.
“Part of my job, should it be necessary,” our talkative guide explained, “is to call in coordinates for the artillery. Back south of here are the big guns … ”
We knew. We saw them.
What were we seeing on this snowy hilltop? A military assignment for a handful of men. What kind of men? A tumble of adjectives: brave, vulnerable, stalwart, lonely, friendly, isolated, warm and cheerful, silent and uncommunicative. All these traits were required, it appears, of the soldiers who man Guard Post Ouellette.
What, then, of the chaplains who shepherd these keepers of the line? How do they minister to men whose vigilance and daily choices mean life or death to a nation?
They looked just like any other officer out in the field, which means they don’t look much different from the ordinary soldiers. They were outfitted with khaki fatigues, helmets hung about with webbing, and warm olive-drab layers protecting them from the cold.
Can these chaplains reach through and touch the souls of the young warriors committed to their care—and having reached, touched even—can they warm and nurture those souls in the love of the Lord Jesus?
They can, and they do. We watched it and felt it, for they touched us, too.
As our tour group trooped out of the observation post where we had looked through the telescope, the rising winter wind made us eager to head down the hill toward the vehicles. But no, our chaplain hosts had a better idea. Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Joe Miller, a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary and a member of the West Ohio Annual Conference, herded us up onto what the army calls a marksman’s nest—we would call it an observation deck. Raised, exposed, and visible, we turned our backs to the bitter wind and found ourselves facing an altar.
A tactical map of the demilitarized zone bridged a corner of railing on the marksman’s nest. On it were a small open Bible resting on a brass easel. Flanking the Bible were communion elements; wafers in a small brass container and wine in the curved metal cup that in the field dangles from a GI’s belt.
Curving round these simple items lay a chaplain’s stole; black with gold crosses embroidered near the fringed ends which fluttered in the wind. An altar, a table in the frigid wilderness.
Conversation died away as Chaplain (Captain) Steve Zinzer, another UM minister and Asbury seminary graduate, handed small cards containing a short communion ritual to the visitors and to the dozen or so men of Guard Post Ouellette who gathered with us.
The sun sank low in the sky, its red glow offering no warmth. We could see flags, South Korean, and one across the border in the north, whipping in the wind. North Korean soldiers stood outside their guard posts and watched our gathering through binoculars. What were they thinking as we grew still and bowed to pray? Did they have any idea what we were doing?
As they watched, we—visitors and soldiers together—listened to Chaplain Joe read Psalm 23.
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures … ”
Green pastures? In the midwinter snow? Can anyone dare to “lie down ” in this political hot spot?
“He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul … ”
It’s true, though. The gentle imagery reminds us that green pastures and still waters sometimes have to be a condition of the soul, unrelated to and unruffled by external circumstances. And God is not limited by man’s disputed boundaries. His power to restore, to love, reaches through barbed wire, blunts blades, stills artillery.
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil … ”
For you are with me, Lord. You comfort me.
“Thou dost prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies … ”
We stood before that table spread at the edge of hostility, danger, and death—a table He prepared using the hands and the hearts of His shepherds—and the powerful, almost palpable presence of God closed in around us like heat from a glowing fire.
Then Joe, assisted by Chaplain (Captain) Joe Fleury, a Marianist priest, served us bread and wine, symbols of the Master’s body and blood. The chaplain murmured the blessed old words to each visitor and, more important, to each GI who stood with bowed head. As he repeated “do this in remembrance of me,” he touched and warmed each pair of receiving hands, thereby saying “As He cares, I care. You are not alone.”
One of the students, bursting with joy, could not contain her awe any longer. “I want to sing,” she whispered. “I have to sing!”
Sing she did, into the face of the lowering winter sun, in an overflow of praise and gratitude to God that gave voice to what we all longed to express.
“The blood that Jesus once shed for me,
‘way back on Calvary,
the blood that sets the prisoner free,
will never lose its power.”
Time had come to move down off the mountain, to leave the men of Guard Post Ouellette to their maps, their telescopes, their weapons, and their isolation. We hugged, we wept, we fumbled for words in trying to express our encounter with God that icy afternoon. And we took a last look at the forms of the North Korean soldiers silhouetted against the snow such a few short yards away.
What did they make of our behavior in the marksman’s nest? How will they interpret their photographs, if they took any? When they report our visit to Pyengyang, what will they say about our bowed heads and our loving hugs?
Christianity was once a powerful force among the people in North Korea, even as it is now in the south. Communism claims, however, that all such superstition has been set aside, that atheism reigns. One is left assuming that the young soldiers watching our communion service know nothing of Christian worship and beliefs.
But what about old North Korean grandmothers in their seaside villages who found the Savior as young girls? Though their churches are closed and the government orders them to forget God, who knows how many of them walk along empty beaches with their grandsons teaching them with low voices about the creator God and about the love of His Savior Son, Jesus.
If so, isn’t it possible that one or two of those straight-backed, disciplined, North Korean soldiers understood our love and wept inside with joy at the sight of a fellow follower of The Way?
And if so, the American chaplains who prepared the Lord’s table, did so unaware that they fed and comforted other members of His flock that winter day.
Carroll Ferguson Hunt is a freelance writer and author of Absolutely! and From the Claws of the Dragon. She and her husband were missionaries in South Korea for 20 years with OMS International. Illustrations by staff artist Roselyn Cooper.
by Steve | Nov 24, 1991 | Archive - 1991
Archive: In Search of a Down-to-Earth Jesus
The Meaning of the Incarnation for Today
By Robert G. Tuttle, Jr.
The more that I travel around the country speaking to Christian groups, the more I worry that we are losing track of the biblical Jesus. I get nervous every time someone describes Jesus as if he were Superman, with superhuman strength and X-ray vision. This is not the time to lose sight of our biblical Jesus.
No doctrine is more precious to the Christian than the Incarnation—God become flesh. This is the season to celebrate a God who loved us to the point of being emptied into human flesh so that we might know God and, equally important, that God might know us, save us, and teach us how to live our lives in communion with God’s already continuing intercession. By becoming human, God’s sympathy for humanity was turned to empathy. The Creator experienced creation in a brand new way. For a moment let us take a look at the full significance of a most important aspect of this Advent—an incarnation indeed!
Fully human, fully God
Over the summer I read two books which wrestled with the divine/human aspects of Jesus Christ. One spoke of God and Christ as interchangeable but struggled with Christ’s humanity. The other spoke of Jesus and humankind as interchangeable but struggled with his divinity. Obviously, there is truth in both. Historically the Church has affirmed through her creeds and the consensus teaching of her most influential theologians that Jesus of Nazareth was fully human as well as fully divine. Do not be embarrassed if you cannot get your “gray matter” around that thought. Our brain cells simply begin to short circuit when contemplating such matters. Logically they will not compute. Someone has said that “heresy is born when little minds attempt to solve big paradoxes.”
Nonetheless the doctrine of the incarnation is absolutely essential. I am not asking you to check your brain at the door of the church. I am simply asking you to consider the significance of such a teaching for your own salvation. The alternatives are frightening.
Some have attempted to resolve the issue of the two natures of Jesus Christ with talk of a mutant mixture—the mythical centaur, half and half. Others have painted Christ so heavenly bound that we cannot identify with Him, nor He with us. Please do not give me a Jesus with his feet off the ground! Jesus Christ as God incarnate left behind all the divine attributes fully resident in the pre-existent Son but not available to flesh and blood. He had no “supercharger” while bound to his earthen vessel. He had no fifth gear unavailable to the more conventional human vehicle. Admittedly no analogy will carry the weight of such a thought, so why is it so critical to insist that the part of God that became human flesh was fully human—incarnate indeed? There are several reasons.
The Necessity of the Blood
Some have difficulty with any mention of blood. In my opinion their argument is with Scripture, not with me. “The law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22, NIV). Still, why mention the necessity of the blood in the Advent season; isn’t that a topic for Lent? The answer is fairly straightforward.
The blood became obvious in the very advent of a Messiah who, though fully God, emptied Himself and became as we are in every respect. I once heard a television evangelist exclaim: “Don’t give me a Jesus in a hair shirt and sheep under his arm. He now rules at the right hand of glory.” A glorified and powerful savior is much easier to preach about and rely upon than a poor and peaceful servant.
Don’t give me a yuppified, success-oriented Jesus in a pinstriped suit and Wall Street Journal under His arm. The Jesus Christ of glory still bears the marks of the Incarnation, not only in His bands, side, and feet, but in His navel, because the passion began not on “the night in which He was betrayed,” but in the manger. It had to hurt God to be squeezed into human flesh and implanted in a real mamma, to be born a real baby, who cried real tears, who experienced real temptation, the fatigue of real ministry, the agony of a real cross, the shedding of real blood. All of this was done because our salvation is secured by a real sacrifice sufficient for a real covenant eternal in the heavens.
We must also remember that Jesus was not turned into human flesh. Jesus became human flesh. To use a rather crude analogy, if I were suddenly turned into a frog, I would still have my own mentality (some folks do not think this old frame is far from frog anyhow). If I were to become a frog, however, I would have the frog mentality. Jesus Christ, God incarnate, took on our mentality as well as our frame so that a real atonement for real sin would deliver us from real darkness into forgiveness and light-incarnate indeed!
Empathy, not just sympathy
As a result of that emptying, that identification, God does not have to imagine bow we feel when we hurt inside; God knows because God has been here. Argue with that and again argue with Scripture: “He [God’s own Son] had to be made like His brothers in every way, in order … that He might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because He himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:17-18, NIV). That is the difference between sympathy and empathy. Sympathy can only imagine how one feels because it has never really been there, but empathy knows how one feels because it has been there in every respect.
I once had a neighbor who had been burned badly in a fire but who had survived against all odds. Some years later he was asked to visit a man who was dying of burns. As he walked into the hospital room he simply spoke to the man: “Sir, get your ‘buns’ [rough translation] out of bed; you’ve got no right to die; you’ve not been burned nearly as badly as I was burned.” Within fifteen minutes the man was on his feet and within two weeks he was out of the hospital. Not long afterwards, my neighbor was introduced to the man’s doctor who said: “Without your empathy my patient probably would have died.” My neighbor had been there. God has been here, as well. “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people” (Luke 1:68, RSV)—incarnate indeed!
If Jesus was fully human, how did He perform the supernatural?
If the Son of the living God emptied Himself so that he had no superhuman advantage while he walked the dusty roads of time and space, then how did He do the things that He did? How did He remain sinless? How did He perform the marvelous “signs and wonders”? How could He “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but make himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and become obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6-8, NIV) Again, the answer is fairly straightforward—by the Holy Spirit. This brings us with a rush to one of the most significant points of all this. If Advent celebrates a real Incarnation, then Jesus Christ as fully human had to depend upon the power of the Holy Spirit to sustain and empower Him.
One of the biggest sins mentioned time and again throughout the Bible is the sin of self-reliance. If Jesus Christ had to rely upon God’s Holy Spirit how much more must we rely upon God’s Holy Spirit. Fortunately, the same sustaining power of the Holy Spirit available to Jesus and His disciples is available to us.
In effect, we as the Church are called to do the things that Jesus did (in fact, even “greater works” if we believe the Scripture, John 14:12). As the Church we are the body of Christ. That is no metaphor. We are not like unto the body of Christ, we are “the body of Christ” (I Corinthians 12:27, NIV). Faith in the incarnate Son of God teaches us about God, it saves us as our sins are covered by His blood, and it makes available the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit as we are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ—incarnate indeed. Let God arise!
Robert G. Tuttle, Jr. is the E. Stanley Jones professor of Evangelism at Garrell-Evangelical Seminary in Evanston, Illinois and a contributing editor to Good News.
by Steve | Sep 26, 1991 | Archive - 1991
Archive: Good News Convocation Focuses on Being the Church
“Jesus is not just about stopping things. He’s about building His kingdom! The Kingdom is Christ, His authority and rule in the earth,” evangelist Tom Skinner charged in his keynote address to the National Good News Convocation in Washington, D.C. last month.
Speaking to the Convo theme “The Church: Transcending the Culture, Transforming the Nation,” Skinner, former youth-gang leader in Harlem, urged participants to be the church in a multi-cultural society and especially in the nation’s needy urban areas. This means being a part of the church which is departure from the authority of “called out” to live differently, transcending the culture in this sinful world. “We are to colonize our world and our neighborhoods,” Skinner said. “We’ve got to be willing to go where the people are. We must test the Good News in the crack houses where sinners are,” he added.
Chaired by Good News board member, the Rev. George Anderson and his wife Carol from Mitchellville, Maryland, the national Good News event was held July 22-25 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in the heart of the city. Some 500 persons registered, braving the 101 degree sweltering summer heat in the nation’s capital.
Each morning, Dr. Richard Halverson, Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, dashed from the Senate floor after offering the opening prayer in order to deliver the morning Bible study at the historic Mount Vernon Place UM Church near the hotel.
Halverson, nationally-known Christian leader and long active in the Prayer Breakfast movement, blessed listeners with wisdom from years of faithful ministry, reminding them that Christ promised, “I will build my church.” Repeatedly, he charged that “It is His Church that He is building. Not ours, but His! The entrance into the Church is by acknowledging Him as Savior and Lord. And the Church which belongs to Him is indestructible.”
In a surprise addition to the convo program, Vice President Dan Quayle spoke Thursday morning just before the final session. He urged those in the Good News movement to remain steadfast in their fight for traditional family values and morality in the church.
Citing his roots in a grandmother who was Methodist and a great grandfather who was a Methodist minister, the vice president told convo participants, “It’s not easy being in the minority, but a determined minority can turn itself into a majority.” He added, “Your faithfulness has been a blessing not only to the United Methodist Church, but to the nation as well.”
Following his message, Pastor William Mason, chairman of the Good News board, presented the vice president with a handsome leather-bound Bible and Chaplain Halverson prayed for “Dan,” as he warmly referred to him.
Nationally syndicated columnist Cal Thomas gave a spirited Convo address lamenting the mainline church’s departure from the authority of Scripture. He, along with other speakers, charged that “We’re in a battle of ideas. We must get ours into the marketplace.” Thomas went on to say, “When I minimize the written word, I dishonor the incarnate Word.”
Another nationally-known participant was Dr. Mildred Jefferson, a general surgeon with Boston University Medical Center and assistant clinical professor of surgery at Boston University School of Medicine. She is also president of Right to Life Crusade, Inc.
Dr. Jefferson, a leader for many years in the pro-life movement, challenged participants concerning abortion and other moral issues, saying, “If we don’t make our views known, our silence is viewed as consent.” She added, “There are those who still believe that if you place the label of privacy around some action, you can get away with anything.” Concerning the 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision, the surgeon and candidate for U.S. Senate in 1994, said, “In that decision the Supreme Court acted as a Super Congress giving a woman and her doctor sweeping rights they did not have previously.”
Bishop Felton E. May (Harrisburg Area), one of several leaders giving briefings on special ministries, reported on his work with the Bishops’ anti-drug initiative that he led during his recent, unprecedented year’s sabbatical from episcopal duties in his annual conference. He told of persons being “delivered” from drugs during the joint effort of UM pastors in Washington, D.C. Ministry was carried out in tents erected to serve as “soul-saving stations” in the nation’s capital. That ministry, launched during the summer of 1990, was continued and expanded during the summer of 1991.
Other participants at the afternoon briefings included Robert Dugan, head of the Public Affairs office of the National Association of Evangelicals; and Gary Bauer, president of the Family Research Council, a Washington, D.C. based division of Focus on the Family.
Good News Board Takes Action
Just prior to the convo, the Good News board held its semi-annual meeting and took several actions. First, it clarified that it is not recommending, and has never recommended, that General Conference dissolve the General Commission on Religion and Race (GCR&R). That was erroneously reported in February by UM media as a result of an article by Good News editor, James V. Heidinger II, suggesting the UM bureaucracy be reduced. One way that might happen, Heidinger suggested, would be the elimination of several agencies, such as the Commission on the Status and Role of Women (COSROW), the General Council on Ministries (GCOM), and the General Commission on Religion and Race (GCR&R).
“It was my mistake to include GCR&R as a group that might be dismantled to reduce church expenditures,” said Heidinger. “Neither the Good News board nor I are recommending it be dissolved. We take the sin of racism seriously and affirm an inclusive church; a conviction reflected in the election of two more ethnics to the Good News board, bringing to six the number of ethnics on our board.”
In another action the board called on the General Board of Global Ministries and the Council of Bishops to “discontinue their opposition to the appointment of ordained clergy to serve with the Mission Society for United Methodists.” The action also called on members of the Council of Bishops “to appoint candidates … to the Mission Society on the same basis as appointments are made to other valid ministries beyond official United Methodist structures.”
The board also went on record expressing its appreciation to the commissioners of the Presbyterian Church for their recent 534-31 vote affirming biblical authority and the traditional scriptural standards on human sexuality. They soundly rejected their denominational study panel which had recommended the church open its doors to homosexual practice.
The Good News board noted the completing of the sale of its publishing arm, Bristol House, Ltd., which relocated May 1 in Lexington, Kentucky. Former Good News staffer James S. Robb is serving as editor-in-chief of the new, for-profit corporation. As a part of the restructuring following the sale, the Good News board updated the purpose statement for its ministry. The new statement says in part, “The Good News movement is a voice for repentance, an agent for reform, and a catalyst for renewal within the United Methodist Church. By God’s grace, we will proclaim and demonstrate the power and effectiveness of historic Christianity as emphasized in Wesleyan doctrine and practice.”
by Steve | Sep 25, 1991 | Archive - 1991
Archive: Fire in Ceta Canyon
By Sandi Kirk
Amidst the flatlands of West Texas, nestled in a canyon among cedar and cottonwood trees, hundreds of children gather in an open-air tabernacle. Instruments are sounding, hands are clapping, many arms are rising, tears are streaming, hearts are being lifted toward heaven as fourth and fifth graders worship Jesus Christ.
“It only takes a spark to get a fire going,” sang a group of enthusiastic campers in 1970. Now, some twenty years later, the spark has kindled into a flame and is spreading like a prairie fire through the “One Way” Camps of the Northwest Texas Conference.
An altar call is given. No pressure. No gimmicks. Just a simple call to come and receive Christ or rededicate one’s life. Hundreds flock to the altar.
Look closely. A little girl prays with a counselor to receive Christ for the first time in her life. She goes back to her seat with joy sparkling through her tears.
A boy weeps out his hatred for his alcoholic father who abused his mother. He forgives and is filled with deep peace. He goes home with a call to the ministry burning in his heart.
A group of girls walk arm-in-arm to the altar. They kneel and ask Jesus to fill them with His Spirit and give them a new boldness to tell others about Christ.
The Scene Repeats
Witness the same scene a week later at the sixth and seventh grade camp, then a junior high camp, followed by a senior high camp. Only this time, as hundreds of youth fill the altars, heart-wrenching tears of repentance for deep personal sins are flowing.
See strapping young men walk forward to nail beer tabs to a cross, a silent commitment to give up drinking alcohol forever.
Hear youth director Beth Brown implore both junior and senior highs not to “shatter the dream” of being a virgin on their wedding night. Then see dozens of young men and women flood the altar that night, weeping over sexual sin and rising to live a new life in Christ.
Yes, something is happening in the Northwest Texas Conference, as each summer well over a thousand young people attend “One Way” Camps at Ceta Canyon and Butman—two United Methodist campgrounds. “Each camp term,” reports Jim Terry, “about one hundred receive Christ as Savior, hundreds recommit their lives, and dozens are called into full-time Christian service.”
How Did It All Begin?
In 1969, while the Viet Nam war raged and young people rebelled against the Establishment, a few young pastors had a vision. Jim Smith, Hugh and Wes Daniel, and R.L. Kirk believed that young people needed a camp where they could be inspired to find Christ.
They scheduled Camp Butman and called it “Youth Camp Number One.” The name seemed a little generic to Hugh Daniel. He suggested, half in jest, “Let’s call it ‘One Way,'” referring to Jesus’ words, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” (John 14:6).
By 1974 Butman could no longer hold the camp, and they moved to Ceta Canyon. Jim Smith says that in the 20 years since the senior high camp opened, nearly 2,000 young people have come to know the Lord, hundreds have given their lives to full-time Christian service, and several thousands have rededicated their lives to Jesus Christ.
The Secret of Success
The primary secret is prayer. Robert Kirk, director of the junior high One Way camp, meets all year long with his leaders and counselors. The camp is soaked in prayer, and the Holy Spirit is earnestly welcomed.
Another secret, explained Jim Smith, is the strong emphasis on worship, solid Bible teaching, and a challenge to the youth to commitment to Christ. “We don’t want these kids simply to have an emotional experience, but real substance… . We want to give them something to believe in.”
Still another secret is that many of the campers who were touched by God at One Way return to become counselors, passing along the spark.
But it’s not the counselors alone. It’s the campers as well. When a group of girls discovered that their counselor was skeptical and had come to “check things out,” they began to pray. After the first night the counselor wanted to leave, but the girls kept praying. On the last night this same counselor made her way tearfully to the altar.
“I don’t know what you people have, but I want it,” she sobbed. Though she had been in the United Methodist Church all her life, for the first time she prayed to receive Jesus Christ as her Lord. Then she prayed to be filled with the Holy Spirit. In moments, the presence of Christ flooded her soul. She was overcome as the gentle Spirit of God washed over her. Through tears of joy, she whispered, “Now I know what you people have—it’s Jesus and now I have Him too!”
A Burning New Hope
Some say ours is a “graying church.” Well, take a peek over your shoulder. An army is arising. It’s a ground swell of burgeoning new life. It’s an army of United Methodist youth: their banner is the Cross, their sword is the Bible, their motive is love for Jesus Christ, and their power is the Holy Spirit. A song of praise bursts from their lips and a message of salvation spills from their hearts. It’s new blood we desperately need.
“This is one of the greatest hopes of the entire Methodist Church,” says Pastor R.L. Kirk.
But how will we respond? Will we quench their tender flame, which will result once again in a mass exodus to independent churches? Will churches around the nation catch the spark from these One Way camps and start their own evangelical camps? Will we fan the flame until it spreads throughout the youth of the church?
It started with a spark, but it is now becoming a spreading flame. O come, Holy Spirit! Breathe upon the flame until it burns throughout the entire United Methodist Church.
Sandi Kirk is a freelance writer, Bible teacher, and the wife of R.L. Kirk, pastor of St. Luke’s UM Church in Lubbock, Texas.
