by Steve | Mar 20, 2017 | Magazine, Magazine Articles, March-April 2017
The Rev. Adam Weber is pastor of Embrace Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Photo courtesy of Embrace Church.
By Courtney Lott-
How do you have a conversation with God? Is it the same thing as talking to a friend? Do you have to use certain words? A particular structure? What do you do when it feels like God is silent? These are the questions Adam Weber tackles in his book Talking with God. Weber is the pastor of the multi-site Embrace Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the fastest growing United Methodist congregation in the United States. He didn’t always find prayer particularly easy. In fact, he used to find it painfully boring and figured God felt the same way.
Caught in a cycle of prayers used only to bless meals and protect sleep, a young Weber once participated simply to check a box and move along. It wasn’t until his parents dragged him to a new youth group that his heart began to change.
The Lord used bad motives in order to reach the cynical teen. While Weber only agreed to attend to meet a new group of girls, for the first time in his life, the gospel began to work its way into his heart. But it wasn’t until his youth director referred to prayer as “talking with God,” that Weber’s heart truly responded. “It was as if my heart leapt with me,” he writes. “I felt like I had found something I had unknowingly been searching for my whole life.”
Thus began his quest to learn how to approach a relationship with God. What he’d originally assumed was a complicated and impersonal task, slowly morphed into simple, intimate conversation with a friend. And it is as friends that Weber addresses his audience in the book. With humble, straightforward language, he walks with the reader on a mission to discovering the beautiful grace we have in prayer.
Throughout the book, Weber weaves in examples from his family life to illustrate different aspects of talking with God. From the Easter Bunny – a judgmental jerk according to Weber – to amusing prayers from his children, the stories he tells lift the often intimidating veil from this means of grace. Behind it, we start to see how rich speaking with God can be.
Hardly the dour experience we often make it, prayer is intended to be a celebration. Drawing a parallel between the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable and us, Weber describes the way God welcomes us into his presence: with singing, dancing, and feasting. “When we talk with God, we’re talking with a God who loves to throw parties,” writes Weber. “Knowing this changes prayer. At least it does for me. I don’t need to be uptight and serious when I pray. Yes, it’s good to have a healthy reverence of and respect for God. But you don’t have to be emotionless or somber.”
It is this kind of attitude change toward prayer that sets us on the right track and helps us avoid the temptation to relegate it to a mere item on a checklist. Amidst the chaos and the crazy, this can be an easy thing to fall into. We make excuses. Claim we lack time. Insist we don’t have the energy. Weber lets us in on a little secret: even pastors wrestle with this. “Truth be told, we will always be able to find reasons why we don’t have the time (or energy) to pray,” he writes. “Instead of making excuses, we have to get to the place where we so clearly realize our desperate need for talking with God that it becomes a priority.”
When we’re able to do this, prayer starts to fill us up rather than draw energy. And when this happens, Weber says, we’re then able to pour into others as well. Likening life to a marathon, Weber writes about just how important it is that we pray with and for each other along the way. The toughest miles, he says, are the lonely ones; the stretches trekked without cheerleaders, or worse, those worn down by criticism. As a body of believers, Weber says that we ought to devote ourselves to encouraging one another through prayer. He even offers his Twitter handle in the notes at the back of the book if readers want to send him a prayer request.
“Practically speaking, encouraging others through prayer can look a million different ways,” he writes. “It can be done while grabbing lunch with a friend [or writing] notes to people. It’s amazing how powerful our words to God can be. How powerful our prayers on behalf of others can be.”
This kind of mutual encouragement is vital when we go through storms, when it feels as if God is asleep. During those times, Weber admonishes the reader to do as the disciples did on the boat in Mark 4, to cry out to the Lord. But what happens when you cry out and yet, the unimaginable still happens? When it seems as if God isn’t listening, Weber confesses that he often tends to avoid prayer all together. It is here that the reader might expect a pat, simple answer, a cure-all verse offered to assuage the anxiety and disappointment we so often face. Instead, Weber is honest, vulnerable, sharing his own struggle with unanswered prayer that his father might be healed from a life altering pain issue.
“I could attempt to explain the unexplainable,” he writes. “I could offer reasons and explanations to your questions and mine, but at times there simply aren’t any. None that satisfy. I’ve found that trite answers cause more hurt than good.”
Weber concludes that the storms we face are meant to remind us to focus on what is important, to focus on Christ and keep walking with him. If we do this, he says, we might come to realize that Jesus is all we’ve ever needed. Cry out to him, Weber writes, at any time, in any place, in any way. Cry out when you’re discouraged, when you’re stuck, exhausted, adrift. Cry out. You will be heard.
Prayer is more even than this, to Weber, however. Prayer is not simply a helpline in times of distress. It is beautiful, intimate access to our Father in heaven. It is being with God.
“Yes, it’s important to learn more about God,” Weber writes. “Yes, it’s important to spend time reading the Bible, learning more about who God is. But nothing can replace simply being with God.”
In his final chapter, Weber encourages the reader to “make moments” with God, to move from simple head knowledge about our creator, to heart knowledge. Rather than standing back and observing from afar, Weber says that we are to enjoy him, delight in him, that we are created to be intimate with him. And we can only accomplish this through prayer, through talking with him day by day.
“Whether you find yourself in the middle of a storm, living in Crazytown, or stuck in mud, I hope you’ll talk with God,” Weber writes. “When you’re exhausted or you feel like you’re going in circles out on a paddleboat, speak with him. ‘Jesus, I want to know you. Jesus, I want to be with you. Jesus, I want to talk with you for the rest of my life. Jesus, I love you.’”
When we pray, Weber says that God will respond to us, that we should expect it. Are you listening? Are you waiting expectantly?
Courtney Lott is the editorial assistant at Good News.
by Steve | Mar 20, 2017 | Magazine, Magazine Articles, March-April 2017
By Duane Brown-
The apostle Peter says we must always be ready to explain our Christian hope (I Peter 3:15, NLT). “Always” probably seems like an impossible goal for most of us. Too often that’s true for me.
Several months ago, while I was talking to the woman next to me on the plane, she discovered I did leadership coaching and requested a session. I happily complied. After about an hour of her answering questions and my coaching, we had devised a workable plan for her to take with her.
In the course of our conversation, we learned that we had grown up in the same denomination. She told me, though, that she had since quit on God and church. I realize now that that would have been a perfect opportunity to talk more with her about that. Why didn’t I do it? We briefly talked through her faith journey, but I regret at the end I didn’t go far enough in the conversation to maybe explore the root of her feeling alienated from God. We can be afraid of witnessing. The apostle Paul and John Wesley might have something to say to us about this.
When Paul experienced God’s transforming power, he became, as you know, an unstoppable force for the gospel’s expansion throughout the Mediterranean. During one of his journeys, as he addressed Athenians who had a shrine to an “Unknown God,” this versatile evangelist proclaimed: “This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.” Then he went on, not mincing words: “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone, everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31, NIV).
Founder of the Methodist movement, John Wesley, once said to his church leaders, “You have one business on earth – to save souls.” Wesley expected Christ followers to serve the socio-economic needs of others, but that could never take the lead; evangelism should.
In his book, Growing God’s Church, Gary McIntosh offers a helpful perspective on the church’s evangelistic priority. McIntosh cautions the church against adopting a “holistic view” of mission. In this view God has only has one mission, which may include everything from caring for the environment to preaching the gospel. He argues that when everything is missional, nothing is missional. That ends up meaning that evangelism and soul-winning will never take the lead as the church’s missional priority. Like my experience with the woman on the plane, we help people yet we don’t get to the heart of the matter.
McIntosh believes there is another way besides a holistic view. The church may have numerous and interrelated tasks of missional ministry, but these tasks do not have the same priority. The church’s priority is to reach, baptize, and teach others the way of Jesus. McIntosh supports a church’s involvement in ministries of community transformation, as exemplified by the early church. However, he writes, “While they served the common good, the early church placed a priority on the greater good¸ that of saving souls.”
A way forward is for each person to discern one’s gifts and passions as members of Christ’s body. Then we must accept the tensions and struggles of prioritizing evangelism through creative expressions of our witness in the near, far, and in the hard places of this world.
Duane Brown is a missiologist and serves as senior director of church ministry at TMS Global – www.tmsglobal.org, formerly known as The Mission Society. He is happily married to Patty, and is proud father to Eric, Kathryn, and Elizabeth.
by Steve | Mar 20, 2017 | Magazine, Magazine Articles, March-April 2017
Perhaps grace has been treated unfairly by the church. A powerful word with eternal truths, grace often slips through the cracks when we offer Christian encouragement. We don’t really know how to explain it. Offering grace sounds too simplistic, too incomplete. We want more.
When Paul pleaded for his thorn to be removed (2 Corinthians 12:7-10), he had a genuine need. In Paul’s opinion, removing the thorn would help him serve the Lord more completely. Jesus’ decision to offer grace rather than removal of the thorn is puzzling. Our Lord healed others. Why not Paul?
Grace is the undeserved favor of God. In our very limited understanding of spiritual truths, we think, “I’m all for your favor, Lord. I accept your unconditional love. But, I can’t feel it, see it or taste it, and I’m hurting. I need tangible evidence.” God says, “My grace is sufficient.”
We are left on our own to decipher meaning from these four words, knowing that God never owes us an explanation. Jesus reserves the right not to tell us why he says what he says. When Paul walked away from this conversation with no answer, Jesus was totally and genuinely at peace with his answer.
It was as if Jesus said, “Look Paul, what I give you through my grace is all you will ever need. My grace saves you and keeps you from an onslaught of sin. It helps you get past the mundane of life and live inside of my victory. Isn’t that all you really need?” In the grand scheme of things, Jesus has a point.
What Jesus could have said was, “Paul, get a grip! Man up! Grow up!” Instead, Jesus offered grace, and in that same verse he offers his strength. Jesus not only said his grace was sufficient, but also “my strength will be made perfect in weakness.” It was a grace-filled answer bursting with possibilities for humans who know all too well about our weaknesses.
Paul likely left this conversation with huge question marks all over his heart, thinking, “That all sounds well and good, but if grace is so sufficient, why am I still hurting?”
Maybe our problem is that we see grace from an earthly view while Jesus sees grace from a heavenly view. Jesus is overjoyed to give us grace because he knows we are getting his very best! If, when he hands out grace, we could see the grin of God, we would better understand that we are receiving a gift that makes him smile! If we were allowed into the Throne Room just as he dispenses his grace, we would likely see angels dancing while applauding. We would hear beautiful singing about grace from those who knew grace was amazing before the song was ever written.
Into your personal situation of heartache and pain, Jesus whispers, “Trust me. Grace is the better answer, your very best healing.” Into that relationship that is broken and bruised, Jesus whispers, “Trust me. Grace is the anchor you need to carry you above your pain, not just to help you tolerate your heartache, but to help you gain the victory.”
Into those deep wounds that want to control your thoughts and keep you in the clutches of an unforgiving attitude toward another, Jesus whispers, “Trust me. Grace will be your calm in the midst of your storms. It will come to mean so much more to you than what you think you need.”
As far as we know, Paul’s thorn was never removed. He lived, preached, taught, and healed with the thorn still in his life. He learned first-hand what it meant to have grace as his sufficiency, with strength bursting forth on waves of endurance for the rest of his life.
It is believed, but perhaps not proven, that Paul was beheaded under the rule of Nero, the Emperor. I’m sure he went to his death bravely, still carrying that thorn and thanking God for it. His thorn helped him understand God’s grace, the grace that would now carry him through death. By the time Paul wrote Second Corinthians, he had figured it out. He explained that because he had received an abundance of revelations, he had been given a thorn to prevent him from self-exaltation. In the grand scheme of things, Paul had a point.
It’s all about grace and will forever be about grace. Even when we’re still hurting.
by Steve | Jan 24, 2017 | Jan-Feb 2017, Magazine, Magazine Articles
Rev. Rob Renfroe
By Rob Renfroe-
I guess I got to the party a little late. I became associated with Good News in 2009 when I was honored to be named president. At that point, the ministry had already existed for over forty years.
Immediately after accepting Christ as a high school student in Texas City, Texas, God placed two great desires within my heart. One was to lead people into a personal relationship with Jesus. The other, and where this one originated I have no idea, was to help The United Methodist Church become more faithful to the Gospel and to John Wesley’s original vision of a passionate movement committed to grace and truth.
I went to seminary and began to pastor and had opportunities to preach the Good News and lead people to Christ. The other desire (to reform and renew the UM Church) remained, never far from my mind but not realized in any real way. As I saw the denomination I loved drift further and further from the truth, I began to attend General Conference and work with the renewal movements. I was a good foot soldier – picking up brochures from the printer’s, passing out literature on the streets, standing in a protest line. Nothing big, but at least I was there. I was involved. And I began to organize the evangelical movement within my own Annual Conference.
When I was appointed to be the preaching pastor at the west campus of the First United Methodist Church in Houston, I had the great privilege of serving as one of the associates of senior pastor Dr. Bill Hinson. In addition to serving one of United Methodism’s most dynamic and large congregations, he was also one of the founders of the Confessing Movement and he brought me onto its national board. It was there that I not only learned more about the problems within the church but I came to know many of the evangelical leaders within the UM Church. Their compassion for others, their commitment to the Scriptures, their love for the church, and the sacrifices they had made to defend the faith all assured me that there was a place in the church for me. Over time I became president of the Confessing Movement and became involved in the strategy sessions held before and during General Conference.
It was at the 2008 General Conference in Fort Worth that I found myself working closely with Good News president Dr. James V. Heidinger II, editor Steve Beard, then board member the Rev. Tom Lambrecht who served as the chairperson for the evangelical Renewal and Reform Coalition, and vice president of development the Rev. Walter Fenton. We spent many late nights and early mornings together in the presidential suite of the Fort Worth Hilton – the very room where President and Mrs. Kennedy stayed the night before his assassination – preparing for the next day’s floor fights.
I could not have been more impressed with the Good News team. Their knowledge of the issues, their experience garnered over decades of leading the evangelical effort, their passion and their creativity – they were a remarkable team and they were providing incredible leadership for faithful United Methodists that kept the church committed to the truths of Scripture.
When I was invited to become Good News’ third president one year later, I was overwhelmed by the honor of being considered. But my heart told me this was the fulfillment of the desire God had placed in my young heart decades earlier and that there was no better team to join than Good News.
Of all the mainline denominations, the UM Church is the only one that has not caved to the culture and adopted a progressive, nonbiblical sexual ethic. And the primary reason is the work of Good News.
Chuck Keysor’s original article, “Methodism’s Silent Minority,” in 1966 sent shock waves throughout the denomination. It told evangelical Methodists that they were not alone. There were leaders who understood them, believed what they believed, and were willing to fight for the truth of the Gospel. As a result, many faithful Methodists stayed in their churches. Whereas evangelicals within other denominations felt alone and hopeless and many drifted off to more conservative churches, a strong, committed evangelical nucleus remained within the UM Church, emboldened by Keysor’s vision and courage. It’s not an overstatement to say that the history of United Methodism was forever altered the day his article was published.
In those early years, great work was required to turn thousands of hopeful United Methodists into a movement. But Good News did it. Methodists from every part of the country came together at national convocations to proclaim the faith and to work together to impact the course of General Conference. In those early years, victories were few but Keysor and others persevered. They learned how the system worked. They organized, educated, and motivated delegates to uphold our biblical faith. And they did so, always taking the high road. None better than past president Jim Heidinger who not only provided visionary leadership and backbone after Chuck Keysor, but whose picture, I’m pretty sure, you’ll find in the dictionary next to the entry “Christian Gentleman.”
What attracted me to Good News is that its staff and its board members were in the trenches, doing the work, getting their hands dirty, and fighting the battles that had to be fought. It didn’t always make them popular. The liberals attacked them. And, sadly, some evangelicals criticized them for being too strong in their beliefs. Not everyone, even conservative Christians, understand why we have had to fight to keep the church faithful. And, frankly, some see the need but they don’t have the heart to get into the fray. But that’s OK. Good News did. Long before I showed up to join the party, Good News did. And that has made all the difference.
I feel a huge debt of gratitude to those who fought the battles when they were truly difficult. Men and women who were vilified by many and mistreated by their bishops because they dared to say that The United Methodist Church was in trouble and they were committed to making it better. Shortly after General Conference this past May, I wrote the following to our team:
“I remember going to General Conference twenty years ago and my role was to pass out literature on the streets. I had no knowledge of what went on at late night sessions as our leaders strategized and made decisions. Years passed and I got to sit in the room, off to the side without saying much. More years have passed, and now we are in the middle of the room where men like Ed Robb and Ira Galloway and Bill Hinson and Maxie Dunnam once sat. It’s very humbling. I remember looking up to them – wanting to serve them and wanting them to be proud of me. They’re all gone now except for Maxie and I still feel that way about him.
“It’s our turn now. I want to honor their legacy and build on what they did. I want do what would make them proud. And I want to do it in a way that makes God proud.
“Your brother, Rob.”
It’s our turn now. All of us. The church is still in trouble and it still needs Good News. It’s our turn to work for a better day even if we’re criticized, opposed, and attacked. That’s OK because that’s always what happens when you lead. I shudder to think where the UM Church would be without the efforts of Good News in the past. And I am sure that our future will be better if we continue to believe God and struggle for a vibrant, faithful Wesleyan witness in the days to come.
I can promise you that Good News will not fail you. We will stay in this fight, I pray always taking the high road, but we will not forsake the battle for a faithful church. You deserve that of us. Those who have gone before us deserve that of us. And so does our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Rob Renfroe is the president and publisher of Good News.
by Steve | Jan 24, 2017 | Jan-Feb 2017, Magazine, Magazine Articles
Drs. Jason Vickers and Maxie Dunnam launched Asbury Theological Seminary’s newest campus at Christ UM Church in Memphis.
At its most recent meeting, the Good News Board of Directors bestowed the Ed Robb Jr. United Methodist Renewal Award on the Rev. Dr. Maxie Dunnam, pastor, author, seminary president, and former world editor of The Upper Room.
The award is presented to a person that has demonstrated dedication to the renewal of The United Methodist Church. It is named after the late Rev. Edmund Robb Jr., a United Methodist evangelist and author who served as a Good News director and chairman of the board. Robb was known widely for his tireless efforts to renew the UM Church. He is most widely remembered for joining with Dr. Albert Outler to establish A Foundation for Theological Education (AFTE), a ministry that continues to have a lasting impact on the future direction of the church.
Dunnam was presented with the award on November 3 during Good News’ President’s Dinner, hosted by the Rev. Rob Renfroe, current president and publisher. More than one hundred friends and supporters of Good News turned out for the event at Christ United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.
In his presentation, Renfroe accentuated Dunnam’s commitment to civil rights and education for underprivileged children. “As a young pastor in the early 60s, he was one of the original signers of a document called ‘Born of Conviction.’ In the heart of a bigoted, segregated south, he and 27 others created and had published the document that made it clear that the Gospel and the church were for all people because Jesus died for all and Jesus is the Lord of the church,” said Renfroe.
“A son of the south, Dr. Dunnam refused to be a child of his times, and pointed the people to the timeless biblical truth that in Christ we, all of us, are brothers and sisters.”
The award presentation also celebrated his influence as a five-time delegate to General Conference and his instrumental roles in helping create both the Confessing Movement and the Wesleyan Covenant Association.
“Maxie, by nature, is a lover with a heart of grace. But, there is a commitment to the truth of the Gospel that has propelled him into the fray, at times reluctantly,” said Renfroe. “And for who he is and for all he has done, we honor him.”
– Good News Media Service
by Steve | Jan 24, 2017 | Jan-Feb 2017, Magazine, Magazine Articles
Dr. Thomas Oden
By Steve Beard-
Professor Thomas C. Oden was the prime agitator to the agony and ecstasy of my seminary experience. It was wading through 1,400 pages of his three volume systematic text books that introduced me to his dear friends Athanasius, Basil, John Chrysostom, Gregory Nazianzen, as well as Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine – that’s just to name a few.
To be honest, sometimes it felt like fraternity hazing and at other times it read devotionally, healing the wounds of my worn-out and stretched mind. Looking back on it, I would not have had it any other way.
It was with deep sorrow and great gratitude, mixed with a redemptive joy, that I heard about the death of Dr. Oden (1931-2016), my dear friend who taught me so much about the faith once delivered to the saints. Along with his many other responsibilities, he also served – and we were honored to have him – as contributing editor to GOOD NEWS.
There will be many glowing testimonials to Tom – and none of them will be exaggerations. He was a one of a kind theological mind with a deep spiritual yearning to be faithful to the deep roots of Christianity. Over our 25 years of friendship, there are a few reasons I have always trusted Oden.
First, he was steadfastly committed to the historic teachings of Jesus. He made a professional vow to be theologically “unoriginal,” a counterintuitive move for a brilliant intellect within a culture where newer is always considered better and theologians huff and puff to “keep pace with each new ripple of the ideological river.” Oden was sold out to the witness of the martyrs, saints, and prophets – the faith that has been “everywhere and always and by everyone believed” to be the truth of Christianity.
Second, he had a checkered past. For some reason, I trust those whose skeletons have already been laid bare. He wasn’t always a bleeding heart for orthodoxy. As a “movement theologian,” he dabbled in theoretical Marxism, existentialism, demythologization, Transactional Analysis, Gestalt therapy, humanistic psychology, and parapsychology. Oden liked the bandwagons and everyone winked and nodded. Everyone, that is, except the late Jewish scholar Will Herberg, a brilliant colleague at Drew University who hounded Oden to rediscover his Christian roots.
“The modern philosopher had told me again and again that I was in the right place, and I still felt depressed even in acquiescence,” G.K. Chesterton wrote many years ago in Orthodoxy. “But I had heard that I was in the wrong place, and my soul sang for joy like a bird in spring.”
Taking Herberg’s admonition seriously, Oden incrementally turned his back on trendy movements and “the fantasies of Bultmannianism” he had embraced and ended up being United Methodism’s preeminent theologian.
Third, Oden smiled. Sounds insignificant, but it was not. He was pastoral and deeply concerned about the care of the soul. He was a lover of ideas, an engaged student and teacher. Oden was not bitter – mildly amused, but not bitter. He was actually grateful for his colleagues – feminist, form critical, deconstructionist, and even heretical – who challenged him to be more clear in his espousal of orthodoxy. He only asked for a fair hearing.
One would need a billboard to list all his books. Oden spent 17 years editing the 29-volume Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. My last interview with Oden dealt with his four-volume collection of John Wesley’s Teachings. He described Wesley’s sermons as addressing the “whole compass of divinity” through his deep grounding in ancient ecumenical teaching.
The same could be said of my beloved friend, Professor Thomas C. Oden. He will be sorely missed.
Steve Beard is the editor of Good News.
