by Steve | Jan 19, 2011 | Magazine Articles
By Bob Ladd
No task is too big for God! Or so it seems to the members of a relatively small congregation in rural south-central Pennsylvania. Almost 10 years ago the lives of Lucas and Limi Ndaro intersected with the people of Cornwall United Methodist Church. Lucas came to nearby Evangelical Theological Seminary on a scholarship to seek his Master of Divinity degree. Soon after he arrived, he was invited to attend Cornwall church, and the congregation welcomed him as family. They soon agreed to help bring Lucas’ wife Limi and their two sons to the U.S. and adopted the family as missionaries to Tanzania.
In 2001, a group of 12 people from the church, including Lucas, spent a total of 10 weeks in Buramba, Tanzania, building a new church in this village where Lucas had grown up. When Lucas and Limi returned to Tanzania in 2007 to teach and serve as administrators at Nassa Theological College, they had accumulated four masters degrees. Limi’s degree was in Marriage and Family Therapy. The congregation has been anxious to have an impact on the Ndaro’s ministry in their homeland and the need for a counseling center was soon identified.
A two-year plan was adopted by the mission committee in 2008 and fundraising for the Family Life Counseling Center began almost immediately. An exploratory trip to Africa by the project chairman and his wife in March 2009 led to site analysis, architectural plans, a basic ministry plan, and cost estimates for construction of a building on the shore of Lake Victoria, just off the college campus. The building would be a two-story structure with three separate counseling centers on the first floor—marriage and family, AIDS, and financial. The second floor would be an apartment.
The enormity of the project for this small congregation in a terrible economy became even more evident. The goal was to raise all the money needed to get the building under roof and take a group of 10 or 12 people to the site to help with construction in August 2010. It was estimated the building would cost a total of $120,000 to complete, but for $70,000 we could get it under roof.
In a classic example of underestimating God’s power, the mission committee decided the project should be approached in stages. Fundraising went well and several substantial matching gifts hastened the process.
Late in 2009, the church got a wonderful offer. Jim Gallop, a member of the church, offered a challenge gift in memory of his late brother, Howard. If the church could raise the first $70,000 by May 2010, he would give the other $50,000 to complete the project. Howard had been very involved in the finance ministry of the church and so it was decided that one counseling area would be called the Howard Gallop Memorial Financial Counseling Center.
In May, a Tanzanian gala and dinner was held and the proceeds put the fund for the Family Life Counseling Center over the $70,000 mark.
While all this was taking place, there was a growing group that wanted to travel to the site in August to work on the center. Everyone who wanted to go on the trip had to raise or contribute $2,500 to cover their travel costs. In the end, there were 17 people who went, ranging in age from 15 to 71. The logistics of moving that many people around in Tanzania was challenging, but the project was an amazing example of ingenuity and teamwork.
An advance team arrived three days ahead of the balance of the workers and purchased steel, tools, material, and a generator/welder. In the end, without heavy equipment like cranes, 13 steel roof rafters were fabricated, welded, erected, and covered with roofing material. The heavy rafters were erected with teams using ropes and pulleys and then welded in place. This was a wonderful example of God’s tangible blessing of great teamwork.
While the building project is ongoing, local workers and contractors are doing a great job and the hope is to begin doing counseling there early next year. The real task has just begun, however. Now there is an effort underway to form strategic alliances with Christian groups working in that area of Eastern Africa with which FLCC can partner to do more effective counseling in the targeted areas. There is already a desire among many who experienced this opportunity to serve our friends in Tanzania. It is no mistake that the name developed for the center is plural—Family Life Counseling Centers.
Cornwall United Methodist Church will never underestimate God’s power again.
Bob Ladd is a member of the Cornwall United Methodist Church and served as the mission coordinator for the Tanzania project. He is a member of the Good News Board of Directors and is Director of Special Gifts for Evangelical Theological Seminary in Myerstown, Pennsylvania.
by Steve | Jan 19, 2011 | Magazine Articles
The Good News board of directors presented its eighth annual Edmund W. Robb, Jr. United Methodist Renewal Award to Mrs. Carolyn Elias at its fall meeting in early November. The award, named after long-time Good News board member and renewal leader, Dr. Ed Robb, is given to a United Methodist who has made a significant and lasting contribution to renewal within the United Methodist Church.
Elias was a leader in the evangelical renewal movement in the Central Illinois Conference before she and her husband, Barney, moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1991. She became active in the First United Methodist Church. She worked with the Good News General Conference team in 1988 in St. Louis, 1992 in Louisville, and 1996 in Denver.
In 2000, Carolyn was elected a lay delegate to the General Conference—in fact, she was the first lay person elected in her delegation. “Carolyn’s election as the fist lay delegate in the North Little Rock Conference after a decade of serving as a member of the Good News board and being actively involved with the Renew Network was really remarkable! It spoke clearly about her ability to be a firm and gracious witness to her evangelical faith while also working effectively with others who might not necessarily agree with her theological commitments,” said the Rev. James V. Heidinger II, Good News President and Publisher emeritus, who made the presentation to Elias at the board meeting banquet.
Carolyn served as Chair of the Conference Episcopacy Committee for Bishop Janet Riggle Huey and also was on the South Central Jurisdiction Committee on Episcopacy, the group charged with the important quadrennial task of assigning bishops for the entire jurisdiction. She was again elected a General Conference delegate in 2004.
Ever since moving to Hot Springs, Elias has been an important part of the leadership of the Evangelical Fellowship in the conference, which now is referred to as the Arkansas Confessing Movement. She has had the responsibility of arranging the morning breakfast meeting of the fellowship at annual conference.
In addition to her United Methodist involvement, Carolyn was, for 13 years, a leader in Bible Study Fellowship in North Little Rock. She also started a spin-off of BSF, called Explorers Bible Study, with as many as 300 women involved at one time. That Bible study continues.
“In Carolyn, we see a mature, gracious, theologically-grounded, and discerning United Methodist laywoman. She is highly respected by all who have worked with her. She has a warm, kind spirit but Carolyn can also be firm when firmness is needed,” Heidinger said to board members, family, and guests attending the banquet on the campus of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky.
Good News Media Service.
by Steve | Jan 19, 2011 | Magazine Articles
By Brooks St. Clair Morton
United Methodists working for renewal have a new ally in the fight against doctrinal amnesia and the ever present pull of the post-Christian cultural tide. Wesley Biblical Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, recently launched their new Master of Arts concentration in Apologetics. Classes began in the fall of 2010.
The Methodist movement, not unlike the early church, was forged in the context of controversy and heresy. It was vigilantly defended by John Wesley and many others, such as early Methodism’s greatest theologian, John Fletcher. John Wesley was always an “apologetic Wesley.” His Standard Sermons challenged the established religious institution of the day, the Church of England. They challenge us still. His articulation of plain Christianity for common folk continues to give hope to millions of people around the world. Wesley used logic to tear down the positions of his opponents while building up his own arguments for foundational Christianity and theological distinctives, such as “Christian Perfection.” No one can seriously read the works of John Wesley without encountering John Wesley the apologist.
Dr. Steve Tsoukalas is Assistant Professor of Apologetics and Christian Thought at Wesley Biblical Seminary, and co-director of the new concentration in the M.A. program. I recently asked Tsoukalas how this program could benefit potential United Methodist seminarians, and the rest of the denomination.
Good News: Several years ago, a Doctor of Ministry student boldly proclaimed to me outside of church one Sunday that “The age of apologetics is over.” Do people even care anymore about “evidence that demands a verdict?” Is apologetics practical for helping future pastors “make disciples for the transformation of the world?”
Dr. Steve Tsoukalas: Apologetics is a two-way street. It equips Christians to engage in “pre-evangelism” and strengthens Christians personally, allowing them by the ministry of the Holy Spirit to walk in confidence concerning their faith.
Some people are not comfortable “arguing” with other people, even about their faith. What kind of students are you hoping and praying will enroll in this M.A. concentration in Apologetics?
All kinds, really, because no matter who you are in Christ, the mandate of 1 Peter 3:15 applies to all Christians: “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” We are looking for students who want to go into some kind of “formal” ministry setting, and those who work “9-5” in the secular workplace.
How does this apologetics concentration strategically position Wesley Biblical Seminary to impact the United Methodist Church for renewal and doctrinal faithfulness?
Quite simply, it will equip UM leaders to give a reasoned response and presentation for the importance of orthodoxy and the importance of orthopraxy. The two go hand in hand.
All around us there are those who are lost and who will die in their sins unless they come to know Jesus. From the atheist to the agnostic, from the Jehovah’s Witness to the Hindu, there is a mission field literally on our doorsteps, in our neighborhoods and in our work places. By the grace of the Triune God, from whom all truth comes, we can study together and pray for each other and the world so that we may be prepared, “composed fanatics” for the glory of His name. We at Wesley Biblical Seminary prayerfully hope to be part of the Lord sending Christians into the world to make disciples of all nations.
Brooks St. Clair Morton is pastor of Idalou United Methodist Church in Idalou, Texas.
by Steve | Jan 19, 2011 | Magazine Articles
By Robin Russell
Jon Stewart got a big laugh recently on “The Daily Show” when he said the United Methodist Church “is like the University of Phoenix of religions”—inferring that being a United Methodist is as easy as getting an online diploma.
In other words, you don’t have to show up in person. You don’t have to work very hard at it. And as long as you pay your dues, you stay in good standing.
Please, no e-mails telling me that your church is not like that. I know there are many thriving and healthy United Methodist congregations.
But considering how the joke resonated with Mr. Stewart’s television audience, we all just might have to admit that the United Methodist Church has a bit of an image problem.
Notwithstanding the hip, new “Rethink Church” ad campaign (which doesn’t always translate down to the local congregation experience), the perception of United Methodism seems to be a rather lukewarm version of Christianity.
You know what I mean. The place where you and your spouse from another denomination can find “neutral” ground. The place where no one tells you what to believe. The place where the Christian journey is self-paced, and where questions are better than answers.
Not that there’s anything wrong with those things, as Seinfeld would say.
But if you are seriously seeking Christian faith development and an engaged, authentic community, some of our United Methodist churches would undoubtedly fall short (as would any number of churches in any denomination—but this is about us).
Check out the findings from an exit poll of people who attended a seeker study from 2003-2006 at United Methodist churches, and walked away disappointed. Among their comments:
• “You don’t know your own story. You don’t know who you are and what you believe.”
• “You believe some of the lamest, weirdest stuff and ignore the simple, kind, and helpful stuff.”
• “Methodists are all over the map. I spent almost a year finding out that they don’t have a clue what they really believe.”
• “It feels like a time warp—like 1984, but from the other side.”
Respondents felt the church was lacking in prayer, reading the Bible and spiritual conversation, says Dan Dick, director of connectional ministries for the Wisconsin Conference, who posted these comments on his blog, “United Methodeviations.”
“People are disappointed that we don’t seem to know why we do the things we do; why we believe the things we believe; why we say the things we say,” Dr. Dick said. “People feel we are out of touch, behind the times, and disconnected. People discover that church doesn’t offer them value in their spiritual journey.
“Jon Stewart is not the only person who thinks you can believe and do anything and be a Methodist.”
Straying from roots. So what does it mean to be a Methodist? How many people sitting in the pew could easily answer that question? I am amazed at how many readers of The United Methodist Reporter write in each week to thank our “Wesleyan Wisdom” columnist Donald Haynes for explaining the basics of United Methodism (and in a shameless plug, see www.umportal.org for information on his book, On the Threshold of Grace: Methodist Fundamentals).
This sense of spiritual mushiness is a far cry from John Wesley’s approach when he launched the Methodist revival movement in the mid-18th century. There was no mistaking Wesley’s take on the importance of the spiritual disciplines—fasting, prayer, Bible study, Communion, worship and small-group accountability—and reaching out to those outside the faith.
Can the average United Methodist explain Wesley’s grace theology?
I find it interesting that John Wesley, the father of small-group ministry, is a hero of the faith even to many outside the Wesleyan traditions. Whatever they’re called today—lifegroups, cell groups, home churches—these gatherings for study, fellowship and accountability are a hallmark of most growing nondenominational churches.
But glance at a typical United Methodist church bulletin and you’ll see more announcements for Zumba classes and senior citizen outings than for Bible studies or accountability groups.
So what’s a spiritually minded person to do?
Perkins School of Theology professor William Abraham describes the current malaise as “doctrinal amnesia.” The General Board of Discipleship’s Taylor Burton-Edwards takes it a bit further in a comment on Dr. Dick’s blog: “I’m wondering if it has not advanced to doctrinal and practical dementia.”
Membership vows. Persons who take membership vows promise to “uphold this congregation of the United Methodist Church by [their] prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness.” All too often, however, there are few expectations beyond serving on a committee, showing up on Sunday and making a financial pledge—and certainly no follow-through or consequences.
Yet churches that ask something of their members tend to have a more engaged and active laity who feel empowered for the work of the ministry. Young people, in particular, are eager to invest their lives in something bigger than themselves.
To be sure, it’s not always easy to describe the theological nuances of the Christian faith journey as Wesley understood it. You can’t quite fit it into a neat and tidy gospel tract or a pithy slogan.
But offering a path toward spiritual formation shouldn’t be beyond our capabilities. We’re supposed to be about making disciples, after all.
And isn’t that what people are looking for in a church—a place where they can learn how to become a Christ-follower?
“They want to know how to pray,” writes Dr. Dick. “They want to know how to read and interpret the Bible. They want to be able to talk about Christian beliefs and practices. They want companions on the journey.
“People are seeking depth . . . and they reject those places where people don’t know their own story—the story of the church, the faith and God.”
Can the United Methodist Church rediscover and share its distinctive story? Or will Comedy Central have the last laugh?
Robin Russell is the managing editor of The United Methodist Reporter. Reprinted with permission of The United Methodist Reporter (www.umportal.org).
by Steve | Jan 19, 2011 | Magazine Articles
By Liza Kittle
As we begin 2011, I bring important news regarding the future ministry of Renew. Beginning January 1, Renew will become its own separate 501c3 non-profit organization. Renew will continue to collaborate closely with the ministry of Good News, as we have for almost 20 years. As the Good News office completes its transition to the new location in Texas, Renew will be making some transitions as well.
From our office in Augusta, Georgia, Renew will continue to be closely associated with Good News on your behalf—advocating for reform and renewal in the United Methodist Church regarding women’s issues. We will continue to uplift issues and provide information concerning the Women’s Division through Renew’s monthly column in the magazine and through special reports. Renew will also be a member of the Renewal and Reform Coalition, a partnership of renewal groups that will represent evangelical perspectives at the 2012 General Conference.
With the recently released Call to Action Report adopted by the Council of Bishops and being implemented by the Connectional Table, Renew believes the timing is ripe for change regarding the acceptance of a variety of women’s ministry options in the denomination. Renew will work towards this goal on behalf of the women in the UM Church. With a new mandate on “building vital congregations” and empowering pastors and laity to actively be involved in this process, surely building vital women’s ministry programs would be a priority. Strong women’s ministries are essential to vital congregations.
Renew will still be an avenue of support and encouragement for the women of the church in beginning or restructuring their women’s ministry. We are able to recommend resources, connect you with other network members, and suggest speakers for women’s events and meetings. Renew plans to increase our focus on leadership development and partnering with women’s ministry leaders in the UM Church to highlight and share information on fruitful women’s programs.
Renew will continue to develop the use of internet technologies such as the Renew website (www.renewnetwork.org ), monthly e-newsletters, and our new Renew Network Facebook page. These vital tools are already having a tremendous impact on growing the network, connecting with other women in ministry, and dessiminating information of interest to our members.
While we applaud church leadership for looking honestly at the critical problems facing the United Methodist Church and for recognizing that the church’s current economic state is “unsustainable”, there is much work to be done by renewal groups, clergy, and laity.
Most importantly, we must address the theological drift taking place among our young people, within our seminaries and in our pulpits. Basic truths of the Christian faith are being attacked, maligned, and re-interpreted—striking at the very root of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. According to a recent George Barna report analyzing patterns during the past year, the Christian Church is becoming less theologically literate. The report states, “What used to be basic, universally-known truths about Christianity are now unknown mysteries to a large and growing share of Americans—especially young adults.
We must address the continued partisan political advocacy of our boards and agencies, pastors and bishops. Recently, a United Methodist pastor Rev. Lorenza Andrade Smith was released from a San Antonio jail after staging a hunger strike to support passage of the DREAM Act, a bill that would allow illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. as children to apply for legal status after attending college. The General Board of Church and Society and the Women’s Division push political legislation through General Conference that allows them to advocate in the name of United Methodism on a plethora of issues. There is much diversity of thought within the denomination and these partisan actions have created dissension and contributed to membership loss.
Renew and Good News will continue to inform the church on important issues and advocate on your behalf regarding theological integrity and balanced social witness. Renew will especially concentrate on those issues that affect the women of the UM Church and women’s ministry.
With our change in relationship with Good News, Renew can only be effective as we receive support from our members and partners. In these economic times, we must be financially responsible with our resources. The growth and fruitfulness of Renew will be based on the Lord’s provision through you.
Please stand with Renew as we advocate, encourage, and support the spread of women’s ministry in the United Methodist Church. Please stand with us as we influence the church regarding theological and social issues especially pertinent to women. Vital women’s ministries will help build vital congregations which will in turn build a vital United Methodist Church.
Blessings for a Spirit and hope-filled New Year.
Liza Kittle is the President of the Renew Network (www.renew-network.org), P.O. Box 16055, Augusta, GA 30919; telephone: 706-364-0166.
Gratitude for Renew
By Rob Renfroe
I want to express the deep sense of gratitude that the members of the Good News Board and I feel for the contribution of Renew to the reform and the renewal of the United Methodist Church. Renew has been a genuine gift to the women of the church who have looked for balanced, biblical resources to support their spiritual growth and their ministry in the world. In addition, Renew has served as a vigilant and effective force in exposing the radical political agenda behind much of the work of the Women’s Division.
Other organizations that were once under the wing of Good News have “left the nest,” so to speak, when the time was right and always with even greater effectiveness. I feel sure that will be the case with Renew under the leadership of Liza Kittle and I know that those of you who have supported Renew in the past will continue to do so.
Mrs. Kittle will continue to attend our board meetings and keep us apprised of the issues and events impacting women within the UM Church and how we can support Renew’s efforts for reform. I grow more grateful every day for the efforts of the many orthodox renewal groups within our denomination, each one playing its vital role in the renewal of the church, as Renew will certainly continue to do.
—Rob Renfroe, Good News President and Publisher
by Steve | Jan 19, 2011 | Magazine Articles
By Duffy Robbins
As I confessed in the last issue of Good News, somewhere around the 10 year point in my own youth ministry experience, I began to realize that I was teaching on some of the same topics over and over again, and there was really no plan guiding me. Looking over the messages I had delivered over the previous three years, I discovered that we spent almost six times as much time in the New Testament as we did in the Old Testament; that we spent more time studying general topics than we spent studying specific biblical texts; and that our teaching curriculum was more a reflection of my training and biases than it was a reflection of the whole counsel of God.
I took my concerns to our volunteers and we began with the basic premise that we might have a student in our ministry for three years. On the basis of that assumption, and with input from our pastor and some members of our Youth Advisory Team, we developed a curriculum plan of topics and texts that we wanted our teenagers to be exposed to prior to graduation. For students who were in our youth group from grades 7-12, we decided there was no harm in their repeating the cycle a second time as long as we used different lesson plans.
We intentionally covered some topics (sex and dating) more than once in a three year period, using different curricula, and perhaps, coming at it from a different angle. We kept in mind that good communication and solid biblical education requires some repetition.
We broke all the topics/texts into three broad categories that represented a healthy balance: The three categories were Bible, Life, and Body.
1. Bible – these were topics that were anchored in and suggested by the biblical texts;
2. Life – these were essentially lifestyle issues, a topical way of addressing how to apply what we had heard and studied in the Word;
3. Body–these were some of the core issues that related to “being the Body of Christ,” and living out Kingdom values as a Christian community both locally and globally.
Obviously, we understood that the whole counsel of God is not so easily separated into these neat, tidy and simplistic three categories. But this approach helped us think strategically about what we wanted our teenagers to know and live out. Once we identified the topics and texts, we could plan for them and around them—this became an important foundation as we tried to build a healthy youth ministry.
That process produced the following curriculum plan.
For our 7th and 10th graders, we studied The Gospels, Who is Jesus?, What is a Christian?, the book of Genesis, the life of David, the life of Paul, and How to Study the Bible. These grades also discussed peer pressure, dealing with temptation, friendships, self-image, as well as What is the Church?, Body Life, and our Call to Service.
The 8th and 11th graders studied the Letters of John, Romans, Who is God?, a study of Jeremiah, a study of Exodus, a study of James, and prayer. They also discussed Making Wise Choices, Stewardship and Money, Drugs and Alcohol, Family, Worship, Caring for Others, and Church Membership.
Finally, our 9th and 12th graders studied the Book of Acts, The Holy Spirit, a study of Nehemiah, a study of Jonah, 1 and 2 Timothy, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and the parables of Jesus. They also tackled issues such as Knowing God’s Will, Sex and Dating, Lifestyle Evangelism, the Christian View of Marriage, Spiritual Gifts, Mission, and Counseling Friends.
If you choose to develop a potential curriculum like this, you might want to get input from a wide range of sources: the students, the parents, the leadership who oversees your ministry, the co-workers (paid or volunteer), the peers in youth ministry and others who have walked with God for many years. But, when you gather multiple opinions, don’t feel the pressure to cover every topic that is suggested. It is wise to let people know their ideas are heard and appreciated. And, of course, if you ignore the felt needs of the students and only teach them what you think they should know about Bible, doctrine and theology, you’ll find yourself teaching to an empty room (and, actually, that makes prep and planning a lot easier).
The advantage of this kind of long-range approach to topic planning is that it helps us to avoid three common mistakes in speaking: 1. Teaching on our pet topics over and over again, 2. Teaching on some topic just because we have a cool new media resource, and 3. Trying to determine your lesson week-to-week.
A plan like this (even if it’s held “loosely”) helps us make sure our teaching is guided by long-term objectives and not just short-term whims, current trends or a regurgitation of the last devotion you read.
