![Learning to be beloved]()
by Steve | Jul 10, 2017 | July-August 2017, Magazine, Magazine Articles
Stained glass window depicting Christ’s baptism by John the Baptist. St Luke’s Catholic Church St Louis Park Minnesota USA
By Tish Harrison Warren-
I wake slowly. Even when the day demands I rally quickly – when my kids leap on top of me with sharp elbows or my alarm blares – I lie still for the first few seconds of the day, stunned, orienting, thoughts dulled. Then comes, slowly, the dawning of plans to make and goals for the day. But in those first delicate seconds, the bleary-eyed pause of waking, before the tasks begin, before I get on my game, I’m greeted again with the truth of who I am in my most basic self.
Whether we’re children or heads of state, we sit in our pajamas for a moment, yawning, with messy hair and bad breath, unproductive, groping toward the day. Soon we’ll get buttoned up into our identities: mothers, business people, students, friends, citizens. We’ll spend our day conservative or liberal, rich or poor, earnest or cynical, fun-loving or serious. But as we first emerge from sleep, we are nothing but human, unimpressive, vulnerable, newly born into the day, blinking as our pupils adjust to light and our brains emerge into consciousness.
I always try to stay in bed longer. My body is greedy for sleep – “Just a few more minutes!”
But it’s not just sleep I’m greedy for – it’s that in-between place, liminal consciousness, where I’m cozy, not quite alert to the demands that await me. I don’t want to face the warring, big and small, that lies ahead of me today. I don’t want to don an identity yet. I want to stay in the womb of my covers a little longer.
To be beloved
It’s remarkable that when the Father declares at Jesus’ baptism, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Jesus hasn’t yet done much of anything that many would find impressive. He hasn’t yet healed anyone or resisted Satan in the wilderness.
He hasn’t yet been crucified or resurrected. It would make more sense if the Father’s proud announcement came after something grand and glorious – the triumphant moment after feeding a multitude or the big reveal after Lazarus is raised.
But after hearing about Jesus’ birth and a brief story about his boyhood, we find him again as a grown man at the banks of the Jordan. He’s one in a crowd, squinting in the sun, sand gritty between his toes.
The one who is worthy of worship, glory, and fanfare spent decades in obscurity and ordinariness. As if the incarnation itself is not mind-bending enough, the incarnate God spent his days quietly, a man who went to work, got sleepy, and lived a pedestrian life among average people.
Jesus emerges from water a commoner, wet and messy haired. And suddenly the Spirit of God shows up and the deep mystery of the universe reverberates through the air: this is the Son of God, the Son the Father loves, in whom he is pleased.
Jesus is sent first to the desert and then into his public ministry. But he is sent out with a declaration of the Father’s love.
Jesus is eternally beloved by the Father. His every activity unfurls from his identity as the Beloved. He loved others, healed others, preached, taught, rebuked, and redeemed not in order to gain the Father’s approval, but out of his rooted certainty in the Father’s love.
The wet grace of baptism
Baptism is the first word of grace spoken over us by the church. In my tradition, Anglicanism, we baptize infants. Before they cognitively understand the story of Christ, before they can affirm a creed, before they can sit up, use the bathroom, or contribute significantly to the work of the church, grace is spoken over them and they are accepted as part of us. They are counted as God’s people before they have anything to show for themselves.
When my daughters were baptized, we had a big celebration with cupcakes and champagne. Together with our community we sang “Jesus Loves Me” over the newly baptized. It was a proclamation: before you know it, before you doubt it, before you confess it, before you can sing it yourself, you are beloved by God, not by your effort but because of what Christ has done on your behalf. We are weak, but he is strong.
In many liturgical churches baptismal fonts are situated at the back of the sanctuary. As people walk into church to worship, they pass by it. This symbolizes how baptism is the entrance into the people of God. It reminds us that before we begin to worship – before we even sit down in church – we are marked as people who belong to Jesus by grace alone, swept up into good news, which we received as a gift from God and from believers who went before us.
As worshipers enter the sanctuary and pass the font, they dip their fingers in it and make the sign of the cross. They do this as an act of recollection – remembering their own baptism and recalling that they are loved and approved of because of Jesus’ work. When my eldest daughter was very young, barely able to walk, I’d lift her up to the baptismal font at the entrance of our sanctuary and let her touch the water. I’d whisper, “Remember your baptism.” She didn’t yet know the words of the liturgy or the theology of sacraments but this visceral experience – the hard basin of the font, the cool water on her fingers – was her entrance into worship.
According to Lutheran theologian Martin Marty, Lutherans are taught to begin each day, first thing, by making the sign of the cross as a token of their baptism. In her book Receiving the Day: Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time, Dorothy Bass explains this practice: “For all Christians, baptism embodies release from yesterday’s sin and receipt of tomorrow’s promise: going under the water, the old self is buried in the death of Christ; rising from the water the self is new, joined to the resurrected Christ.” Martin Luther charged each member of his community to regard baptism “as the daily garment which he is to wear all the time.”
We enter each new day as we enter the sanctuary, by remembering our baptism. Each morning Marty crosses himself – what he calls his “non-verbal prayer.” He remembers again that he is forgiven for all that has come before and that there will be grace enough for all that lies ahead.
I was baptized in a little Baptist church in a small town in Texas when I was about six years old. I don’t remember much about it. I remember – at least I think I remember – the odd feeling of my long robe billowing in warm water; I remember enjoying all the hugging and attention from grownups afterward, and being thrilled that I could now drink grape juice in church; and I remember the photographs I’ve seen in an old album of a tiny me with wet hair and a squinty smile in front of a short brick building with a steeple.
But by “remembering our baptism,” I do not mean that we must literally recall historic details of an event in our life, which I personally can barely remember. Instead, I recall that one Sunday morning, as I was plunged under water “in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” I was marked. In the Anglican baptismal liturgy, we tell the newly baptized that they are “sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own for ever.” Galatians tells us that we are clothed in Christ in baptism (Galatians 3:27), clothed in the Beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased. To use Paul’s more chilling image, on that day as a six-year-old, I died and was buried, and then, reversing the whole order of the universe, newly born with Christ (Romans 6:3-5).
As Christians, we wake each morning as those who are baptized. We are united with Christ and the approval of the Father is spoken over us. We are marked from our first waking moment by an identity that is given to us by grace: an identity that is deeper and more real than any other identity we will don that day.
My wet fingers dipped in the baptismal font remind me that everything I do in the liturgy – all the confessing and singing, kneeling and peace passing, distraction, boredom, ecstasy, devotion – is a response to God’s work and God’s initiation. And before we begin the liturgies of our day – the cooking, sitting in traffic, emailing, accomplishing, working, resting – we begin beloved. My works and worship don’t earn a thing. Instead, they flow from God’s love, gift, and work on my behalf. I am not primarily defined by my abilities or marital status or how I vote or my successes or failures or fame or obscurity, but as one who is sealed in the Holy Spirit, hidden in Christ, and beloved by the Father. My naked self is one who is baptized.
This reality seeps out of my soul quickly. Days can pass in a bluster of busyness, impatience, and distraction. I work to build my own blessedness, to strive for a self-made belovedness. But each morning in those first tender moments – in simply being God’s smelly, sleepy beloved – I again receive grace, life, and faith as a gift. Grace is a mystery and the joyful scandal of the universe.
Tish Harrison Warren is a priest in the Anglican Church in North America, serving as co-associate rector at Church of the Ascension in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She writes regularly for The Well, Her.meneutics, and Christianity Today. This excerpt is taken with permission from her book Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life (InterVarsity).
by Steve | Jul 10, 2017 | July-August 2017, Magazine, Magazine Articles
Original artwork by Scott Erickson (www.scottericksonart.com).
By Scott McDermott-
Are your prayers really big enough? And just in case you are wondering, I am not referring to prayers that are motivated by pride or greed. I am referring to the type of big prayer that has one agenda and one agenda only – advancing God’s work in the earth. So I will ask you again, are your prayers big enough? Are you asking God to do big things for you and through you that advance his kingdom’s agenda? Are you asking God to do big things for and through your church to advance his kingdom’s agenda?
It wasn’t long ago that God reminded me of the power and importance of praying big. I was preparing to lead our weekly church staff prayer meeting when it occurred to me, “Hey, why not ask the Lord how he wants us to pray?” It’s amazing what happens when we simply stop and ask God what he wants us to do. I must confess I was surprised by the direction I received.
What did I hear God say? “Tomorrow when you pray, I only want you to ask me for big things.” I don’t ever recall hearing that kind of direction from God about prayer. Yet the more I thought about it, the more challenged I became by that direction. In fact, I began to do some serious self-examination regarding my own prayer life. Were my prayers really big enough for my life, my family, and my church? Was I settling for less when God wanted me to believe him for more?
The next day I introduced this idea to my staff and they were more than gracious to indulge me in this prayer exercise, but as we prayed something extraordinary began to happen. The more we prayed big, the more confident we became that what we were praying was the heart of God for our lives and for our church. The more we prayed, the more we realized we were praying the very heart of heaven over us. Heaven’s agenda always looks for earth’s agreement. When we were finished, I knew why God had given us these instructions. God’s agenda on earth advances through big prayer.
George Mueller said, “Faith doesn’t operate in the realm of the possible.” If you think of it, we don’t need faith at all to live in the realm of the possible. We only need faith to live in the realm of the impossible. And that is precisely our problem. Somewhere along the way many of us pastors, leaders, and regular church goers have given up the quest for the impossible and the content of our prayers show it.
Perhaps you’re thinking, but is it really biblical to ask God to do big things? Well, yes it is! The Bible is filled with big prayer that’s designed to advance God’s kingdom and when they prayed, they prayed expecting God would do it. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray for the kingdom to come, he was praying a big prayer. When the Apostle Paul prayed, he prayed big as well. He prayed for his church “to increase and overflow” in love (1 Thessalonians 3:12). He wasn’t just praying that they would love each other, but that it would be an increasing and overflowing love. That is a big prayer.
Paul also prayed that God would give them “peace at all times and in every way” (2 Thessalonians 3:16). He even prayed that they would be “filled with the knowledge of God’s will for their lives.” Who wouldn’t want to be filled with that kind of knowledge? Big prayers expect big things to happen. When life got tough, Paul expected God to work in a big way (Philippians 1:19) even to the point of believing that God could use him in any situation (Colossians 4:3,4). Paul prayed big and believed big. It’s little wonder that Paul concluded that God is able to do “more than we could ever ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20).
Our God does big things. The Bible describes prayer as “powerful and effective” (James 5:16). It can bring healing to the sick (James 5:16), grant the emotional strength and spiritual strength needed to face any adversity (Ephesians 3:16), set the oppressed and tormented free (Matthew 10:8), raise up the next generation of spiritual leadership (Acts 13:2), empower people to fulfill the calling God has placed upon their lives (2 Timothy 1:6,7), grant wisdom (James 1:5), give guidance (Acts 10:9-22) and so much more. Prayer possesses the power to change everything. Once again, are you praying big enough or have you settled for a faith that only lives in the realm of the possible?
I have come to believe that unless the church ascends to the place of believing God for big things, we will never have the big impact upon the world we hope to have. These times are challenging and they demand big prayer. We must do more than plan our way forward, we must pray our way forward.
So, if we were going to pray big prayers, how would we pray? Let me suggest a few ways we can begin to pray big.
1. Pray for God to take charge. I love this way of praying. In fact, I believe that when Jesus taught his disciples to pray “your kingdom come, your will be done” (Matthew 6:10) he was simply teaching his disciples to pray for God to take charge. Imagine what it would be like if you dared to simply ask God to take charge. Maybe it’s a problem you are facing, a relationship that has gone the wrong way, a church that is in turmoil, someone who is making the wrong choices with their life. Why not just simply ask for God to take charge? Let’s invite God’s kingdom to come. We need to turn our problems into big prayers.
2. Pray that you will be more fruitful in this season of your life than ever before. Once again, I am not suggesting we pray anything that’s rooted in our fleshly desires. I am referring to praying God’s will for our lives. He wants our lives to be fruitful. He wants to use our lives so that they can have lasting kingdom impact (John 15:8, Colossians 1:6). I must confess that this has become one of my favorite prayers. Whenever I pray it for my life or for others, it seems to have a special power to it. I have led a few groups in this prayer exercise and every time it seems to have the same effect – breakthrough! It is powerful! As I have entered this season of ministry, I can tell you this is what I am praying over my own life. I am praying that this season of ministry will be more fruitful than all the other seasons combined.
3. Pray as if your prayers will change things. Most of us pray hoping things will change, but few of us pray expecting that things really will. I think that is why Jesus told his disciples that when they prayed they are to believe that they have received their answer (Mark 11:24). Prayer doesn’t hope things will change, prayer believes things will change.
Just think how this one important insight changes the nature and character of our prayers. What would happen if we not only believe that God could take charge of our problems, but that God would take charge of them? What would happen if we not only believed God could but that God would bring revival to his church? What if we really believed that our prayers empower the church to impact the world? And here is the amazing thing. I am not suggesting anything new at all. I am simply suggesting that we pray the way the early church prayed. They prayed big at every turn, no matter what they faced and they prayed knowing that God was going to do big things.
So, are your prayers big enough?
Scott McDermott is the senior pastor of The Crossing, a United Methodist congregation in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania. He is an ordained United Methodist clergy person and has a PhD in New Testament Studies from Drew University.
![Learning to be beloved]()
by Steve | Jul 10, 2017 | July-August 2017, Magazine, Magazine Articles
The Rev. Kelly Brumbeloe of Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church. Photo by Donna Lachance.
By Katy Kiser-
What should be the business of the church? For the women of the Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church in Marietta Georgia, it is providing women with the opportunity to become Rooted in Christ. Their women’s ministry places equal emphasis on the spiritual and material needs of women, realizing that a poverty of either can be devastating. They actively make Christ known to those in their own pews, their community, and the world. Their women’s ministry is one of the most successful in The United Methodist Church.
Recently, Renew had the privilege to celebrate the women’s ministry at Mt. Bethel at the invitation of the Rev. Kelly Brumbeloe. The evening began with powerful worship led by a young college woman and was interspersed with several speakers. Women from the North Atlanta area came together to worship, share testimonies, pray for each other’s needs, and be taught from the scriptures. They call these gatherings “Home Grown.”
Presence of the Holy Spirit
As Kelly took the stage the music lowered in volume and she began to share from the story of Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones. She reminded us that this was set in a time of deep discouragement; Jerusalem had fallen and with it the temple. It was a time of total destruction, banishment, and national death. The people had been stripped of their identity and their hope was lost; they were in a valley of death.
Kelly continued to describe Ezekiel’s vision and the life that came into the dry dead bones that inhabited the valley. But even after bodies had been formed, they were lifeless, until God commanded something extraordinary. He commanded Ezekiel to speak God’s “ruah,” his breath into the lifeless bodies, the same breath breathed into Adam. 
Having worked with Renew Network the last fifteen years, my mind went to the crisis we face in The United Methodist Church. Unable to agree on God’s intention for human sexuality, including basic biblical teaching and theological truths held for thousands of years, the church is in need of a breath of new life.
But this night was focused on the large number of women who had gathered at Mt Bethel. There were women present there who needed to be reminded that in our difficult and seemingly hopeless situations, God wants to breathe into us his “ruah” – breath that is full of new life, hope, restoration, and transformation. He wants to breathe new life into each one of his precious children, each institution, and, yes, even each nation.
For this story speaks to more than the hopeless situation of Israel who were captives of the Babylonians, or even the great impasse of The United Methodist Church. That evening was alive with women who had gathered to worship and receive a word from the Lord that would speak into the difficult, impossible, desperate places of their circumstances. The places only his “ruah” can heal.
Worship and praise is a major part of the ministry. Photos by Donna Lachance.
And just as the Lord God came through for the Israelites in the hopelessness of their captivity, he was present among us that evening breathing life and hope into each woman. The atmosphere was vibrant with the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Leadership Development
Home Grown is just one opportunity in Mt. Bethel’s women’s ministry known as “Rooted” where all women have the opportunity for spiritual growth. The Home Grown ministry encourages women to share their testimonies and gives them opportunities to teach, lead prayer, praise, and worship.
The women who participate in this ministry come from several United Methodist churches, including Canton First UM Church, McEachern UM Church, as well as from other denominations. By joining forces, they have resources that some of the smaller churches would not otherwise have. They have found that each church brings strengths to bless the whole.
The evening I attended, Eastminster Presbyterian Church brought 26 women and their children from The Garden Church, which shelters women who have been victims of abuse, alcohol, drugs, and sex trafficking.
When the time of prayer came, the women gathered in groups of two to pray for one another. It was touching to see the women from Mt. Bethel and other churches pray and minister to each other. The move of the Holy Spirit was powerful as the women confessed to one another and received the truth of God’s deep love and true purpose for each one of their lives.
Developing women’s prayer life is a key component at Mt. Bethel’s women’s ministry. There is a story on its website about one woman whose young daughter developed a rare form of bone cancer resulting in the amputation of a leg. The church prayed with great intensity for the family and their daughter’s crisis. Today, the mother shares her amazing faith, wisdom, and the biblical truth that sustained her and her family. And her daughter, Grace, is sharing her faith and courage with another young girl also named Grace who is battling cancer.
Women with a vision for ministry. Photo by Donna Lachance.
Women in Mission
Reaching out to the women of The Garden Church is just one of the many mission projects that the women of Mt. Bethel and their partnering churches sponsor.
Notable is their participation in a local ministry they birthed, Faith Bridge Foster Care, which has seen such growth it has become its own 501(c)3. This ministry encourages families to foster children and supports them with practical resources. An eight-year-old girl named Charlotte, whose family has fostered several children, told me all about her experience with the program. She is learning at a young age what it means to share the love of Christ and the blessings of her family with others.
Project 82 is a ministry to the 2.5 million orphans in Kenya. The women of Mt Bethel have responded to God’s call to love and care for the vulnerable children of Kenya who have been orphaned by caregivers wiped out by HIV/AIDS, tribal conflict, and poverty-driven diseases. This ministry nurtures orphans holistically to achieve sustainable family solutions. The women of Mt. Bethel have raised money and numerous supplies to provide for the needs of these displaced children.
Whether it is encouraging and resourcing foster care for needy children or the orphaned in Kenya, the women are focused on strengthening the family and building up women who play such an important role in the family. Nicole Taylor, director of women’s ministry at Mt Bethel, helps women find small group ministry for each stage of her life and the life of her family. Soon to launch is a new mentoring program where older women will be paired with younger women to fulfill Paul’s admonition in Titus for the older women to teach the younger.
Through their multifaceted ministry, Mt. Bethel’s women are committed to being salt and light to a hurting world; and they are committed to helping other churches bring “ruah,” a fresh breath of God into their ministries.
Katy Kiser is the Renew Network Team Leader. If you would like to learn more about the dynamic women’s ministry at Mt. Bethel, please contact the Rev. Kelley Brumbeloe or Nicole Taylor at http://mtbethel.org or Katy Kiser at http://renewnetwork.org.
by Steve | Jul 10, 2017 | July-August 2017, Magazine, Magazine Articles
By James V. Heidinger II-
The Re-Imagining Conference was billed as “A Global Theological Conference by Women, for Men and Women.” Held in Minneapolis on November 4–7, 1993, Re-Imagining was an ecumenical gathering associated with the World Council of Churches for those of the feminist, womanist, or lesbian perspective. With some 2,200 registrants from many mainline denominations, 391 were United Methodist. The Women’s Division (of the General Board of Global Ministries) staff and directors were urged to attend the conference as the quadrennium’s theological workshop with Women’s Division staff and directors’ expenses paid for by the division. In fact, at its spring meeting, the Women’s Division took action to cancel its own staff and directors’ theology workshop and approved in its place involvement of staff and directors in the Re-Imagining event. The Women’s Division acknowledged its full financial support of thirty-six directors, nine staff members, and eleven conference vice-presidents, plus a grant of $2,500 for scholarship support. The Women’s Division’s involvement clearly amounted to official support of the event.
The Good News staff read carefully the transcripts and listened to the recordings from most all of the more than 34 presentations, and we were convinced that this was without doubt the most bizarre, theologically aberrant event we had ever read about, far removed from Christian teaching and tradition. Consider just a few examples:
• Womanist theologian Delores S. Williams said, “I don’t think we need a theory of atonement at all … I don’t think we need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff.” The statement drew enthusiastic applause.
• A United Methodist clergywoman told a workshop, “The Church has always been blessed by gays and lesbians … witches … shamans … artists.”
• Theologian Mary Hunt said, “I have far more hope in substituting ‘friendship’ as a metaphor for family…. Imagine sex among friends as the norm, young people learning to make friends rather than to date. Imagine valuing genital sexual interaction in terms of whether and how it fosters friendship and pleasure.”
• Melanie Morrison, cofounder of Christian Lesbians Out Together (CLOUT), was given time to celebrate “the miracles of being lesbian, out, and Christian,” and invited all other lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual women to come forward, join hands, and encircle the stage. More than one hundred women responded and Morrison said, “I’m pleased and honored to lead you in prayer and to talk to earth maker Mauna, our creator.”
• Nadean Bishop, the first “out” lesbian minister called to an American Baptist church, said that Mary and Martha in the Bible were not actual sisters but lesbian lovers.
• Chung Hyun Kyung, one of the speakers, explained that Asian theology totally rejects the idea of sinful man, propagating the understanding that humans are good and become better from the god within.
• Chinese feminist Kwok Pui Lan told the group “We cannot have one savior — just like the Big Mac in McDonalds, prepackaged, shipped all over the world. It won’t do. It’s imperialistic.” She offered China’s 722 gods and goddesses as an example of “radical inclusivity.”
• Aruna Gnanadason, staff member of the World Council of Churches, said that the church “centered its faith around the cruel and violent death of Christ on the cross, sanctioning violence against the powerless in society.”
• Virginia Mollenkott said, “We would understand Jesus to be our elder brother, the trailblazer and constant companion for us who are here in time and space, but ultimately one among many brothers and sisters in an eternally, equally worthy siblinghood.”
These excerpts reflect the tone and substance of the Re-Imagining Conference. Prayers were offered repeatedly to the goddess Sophia, including the offensive prayer in the communion-like “Service of milk and honey,” which said, “Our sweet Sophia, we are women in your image; with nectar between our thighs we invite a lover, we birth a child.” This blending of sexuality and spirituality seemed more Canaanite than Christian. Not one of more than 34 major speakers represented the orthodox Christian faith as expressed in the classical creeds of the church. The gathering, rather than being ecumenical in terms of focusing on the classic Christian faith, was actually interreligious, with its major emphasis being on non-Christian and other religious traditions.
These excerpts help one understand why the Re-Imagining Conference caused such an ongoing controversy that continued throughout most of 1994. It was a very public conference officially supported by a major United Methodist program agency. It included prayers to and worship focused on the goddess Sophia, as well as the denial of essential Christian doctrinal tenets such as the deity of Christ, his atoning death, the sinfulness of humanity, creation, the authority of Scripture, the church, and the biblical understanding of human sexuality. These doctrines were not only denied, but often done so derisively.
The Good News board took action at its January 1994 meeting, about a month after the conference, asking the Council of Bishops to address this troubling event, believing the conference represented a theological crisis in the church. Our bishops, of course, are charged with the task of guarding the church’s doctrine and teaching. In fact, three retired bishops did speak out. Two invited by Good News (William R. Canon and Earl G. Hunt), wrote articles for Good News magazine. A third, Mack Stokes, penned a lengthy letter to the editor in Good News.
All were deeply distressed about the substance of the conference and its introduction of the goddess Sophia in the worship liturgy. They were retired at the time, but all three went on record publicly, expressing their deep concerns about the conference and Sophia worship.
Unfortunately, the Council of Bishops released no statement about Re-Imagining at its May (1994) meeting but rather created a task force to address the continuing controversy. The task force produced a statement entitled “Biblical Wisdom,” which was adopted unanimously by the Council of Bishops at its November (1994) meeting. The statement noted the existence of considerable theological and doctrinal ferment within The United Methodist Church. Concerning the matter of Sophia, it did state that “Woman Wisdom was never an object of cultic reverence for the Israelites and there are no Biblical warrants for goddess worship.” It went on to affirm that “the worship of Sophia as a goddess is contrary both to the Biblical revelation and our doctrinal standards.” This was a welcomed word for evangelicals to hear. Unfortunately, however, there was no reference to any of the egregious attacks on and denials of the historic doctrines of the church.
Most evangelicals believed that the radical doctrinal views expressed at Re-Imagining were not representative of most United Methodist women in our local church units. Many of them were also distressed by what they heard, but often found it difficult to believe their leadership in New York would be supportive of such a conference. Within two months, UMW leadership released “A Time of Hope – A Time of Threat,” a statement boldly defending the Re-Imagining Conference and claiming critics were denying women the right to do theology.
Then at the November meeting, where the council approved the “Biblical Wisdom” statement, the new president of the council said in his opening address that the bishops needed to help church members get past the “gnat-camel” syndrome (citing Jesus’ rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees for “strain[ing] out a gnat but swallow[ing] a camel” in Matthew 23:24).
He reported receiving hundreds of letters protesting United Methodist involvement in the controversial Re-Imagining Conference — letters expressing concern that some United Methodists had given up devotion to Jesus to worship the goddess Sophia. He went on to say dismissively that he had looked around and did not find one person who had left their devotion to Jesus to worship Sophia. The implication was that the entire matter was of little seriousness, more of a “gnat-camel” kind of issue. His point was that those of us who were upset about Re-Imagining were like the teachers of the law and Pharisees, focusing on minor and insignicant matters while neglecting the more important matters of the law. He said what he did see were drug sales on the streets and children at risk in their schools, concluding: “These are some of the things God is calling us to deal with, but we spend a lot of time fussing within our family. God is calling us to quit that.”
This was a clear example of the trivialization of the role of doctrine in the church: very serious matters, such as goddess worship, the atonement, the incarnation, the sinfulness of humanity, and the deity of Jesus Christ, that resulted in a year-long controversy were viewed merely as “gnat-camel” concerns. According to the president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, these doctrinal concerns were things we really shouldn’t be “fussing” about within our church family. We should not focus unduly on the president of the council about his statement, because the address of the council’s president generally reflects the consensus of the entire council. But to say we shouldn’t be “fussing” about these kinds of doctrinal issues reflects a serious diminution of the importance and place of doctrine in the church’s life and ministry.
Re-Imagining Conference. Photo by Presbyterian Lay Committee.
Again, the statement by the council’s task force avoided any comment or criticism about the numerous non-Christian teachings at Re-Imagining, including the derision and denial of major Christian doctrines. Many wondered at the time, “If our bishops will not address the many egregious denials of Christian doctrine expressed at the Re-Imagining event, is there any aberration or doctrinal denial they would speak out against in defense of our United Methodist doctrinal standards?” This was all the more disappointing when we reflect that our bishops are charged with being the guardians of the church’s doctrine.
This national conference and our leaders’ reaction to it left many of us even more convinced that matters of doctrine have, indeed, been relegated to a secondary, tangential place in the life of our church.
A Candid Admission
In the Winter 1995 issue of Open Hands, the pro-gay/lesbian journal of the Reconciling Congregations program at the time, Tom Griffith, then pastor of Crescent Heights United Methodist Church in West Hollywood, California, wrote a remarkably candid article entitled, “Three Cheers for Our Evangelical Brothers and Sisters.” Why the praise? Because with our evangelical concerns for “belief in Scriptures and the normative creeds and confessions of faith of the church,” they are calling us to be honest, wrote the Rev. Griffith.
Griffith went on to write, “Now it is our turn to get honest. Although the creeds of our denomination pay lip service to the idea that Scripture is ‘authoritative’ and ‘sufficient both for faith and for practice,’ many of us have moved far beyond that notion in our theological thinking.” Griffith’s words reflected a degree of candor that most evangelicals had never heard before. He wrote, “We are truly deceiving ourselves — and lying to our evangelical brothers and sisters — when we deny the shift we have made.” What Griffith wrote helps us better understand why the Towers Watson Congregational Vitality research study found a persistent lack of trust within the denomination. Griffith got even more specific: “We [liberals] have moved far beyond the idea that the Bible is exclusively normative and literally authoritative for our faith … Furthermore, few of us retain belief in Christ as the sole way to salvation. We trust that God can work under many other names and in many other forms to save people. Our views have changed over the years and evangelicals know it. At least they have the honesty to call us to honesty.”
His candor is commendable. He put his finger on what many of us evangelicals have suspected, and witnessed, for many years — that a number of United Methodist clergy who were trained in the liberal theological tradition may not affirm much of the substance of classic Christianity. Actually, it was not a risky thing for Griffith to write so candidly, because he served in the California-Pacific Annual Conference, one of United Methodism’s most liberal annual conferences. But what it makes clear is that for many liberals, the substance of their preaching is not the great doctrinal themes of the faith: redemption, justification, atonement, sanctification, the Great Commission, and the promised return of Christ. It is not “the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3).
It is a trivialization of the church’s doctrine when it can be so casually put aside for something newer, more supposedly relevant and in touch with the times. The claim to have “moved far beyond” Scripture leaves clergy and theologians who do so at liberty to refashion and create a new message free from normative biblical standards. Thus, other things are being preached, much of which would no doubt include good advice, helpful counsel, and words of encouragement and warm religious sentiment. The problem is —these other things are not the faith proclaimed by the church for nearly two millennia. They are not the great doctrinal themes of the great tradition of the church. Nor are these liberal pastors being faithful to the ordination covenant in which they personally affirmed the church’s doctrines to be in harmony with the Scriptures and thus pledged publicly to preach and maintain those doctrines. Griffith knew this, admitting that for many/most liberals, Scripture is no longer “normative” or “sufficient” for faith and practice. That is a notion they have “moved far beyond,” and Griffith was saying it is time for “us liberals” to get honest with evangelicals and admit it.
James V. Heidinger II is the publisher and president emeritus of Good News. A clergy member of the East Ohio Annual Conference, he led Good News for 28 years until his retirement in 2009. Dr. Heidinger is the author of several books, including the recently published The Rise of Theological Liberalism and the Decline of American Methodism (Seedbed). This essay is excerpted from that volume with permission.
by Steve | Jul 10, 2017 | July-August 2017, Magazine, Magazine Articles
Renew leadership, past and present. Liza Kittle (left) and Katy Kiser (right) with Renew founder Faye Short.
By Katy Kiser-
As Dixie Brewster, spokeswoman for the Local Church Committee of the 2016 General Conference of The United Methodist Church, came to the stage to present legislation prepared by the Renew Network to amend Paragraph 256 of the Book of Discipline, women all over the floor of the conference watched with anticipation. An objection was launched by a delegate who did not want the Discipline amended to recognize and encourage alternative ministry in addition to United Methodist Women. But those who spoke in favor had the more cogent arguments. The petition had been fiercely debated in committee yet had passed overwhelmingly without amendments. That day the entire body of delegates in Portland, Oregon, would vote to pass the legislation.
To some, the passage of this change to the Book of Discipline may not have seemed particularly remarkable, but to the women of Renew, this was monumental. As Ruth Burgner of the Mission Society had once written, “If you knew what was going on, this sight might strike you as the stuff short stories and classic tales are made of – the story of a smaller opponent squaring off toe-to-toe with a bigger (and apparently more powerful) one, engaging bravely on behalf of an entire unsuspecting community.”
The passage represented over two and a half decades of conscientious work on the part of women who have played a role in the Renew Network, which is the women’s program arm of Good News.
The network was formed as a two-pronged ministry calling for spiritual renewal for the women of the church and accountability of the Women’s Division (now United Methodist Women Inc.). As founder and president Faye Short remarked in 2002, “These are the ‘grassroots’ of the church, the mainstream Methodists who joyfully embrace and share the great Christian truths that transform lives.” It was by and for these mainstream women that the Renew Network came into being.
Renew traces its roots back to the early 1970s. It was then evangelical women began raising alarms about the resources they were getting from the Women’s Division. Concerns were voiced because the theology, philosophy, and ideology of the Women’s Division were far different from that of the women at the local level. The Esther Action Council and the Good News Women’s Taskforce documented concerns and looked for ways to encourage the grass roots women of the church. These efforts led to the formation of the Renew Network in 1989 under the leadership of Faye Short.
The story of the Renew Network connects to Faye’s story. Many do not realize that Faye was a UMW local, district and conference officer in North Georgia prior becoming president of Renew. She knew first hand the concerns that were arising from evangelical women. When Helen Rhea Stumbo, now chairperson of the Good News board, invited Faye to her first Good News board meeting, Faye told Dr. James V. Heidinger II, then president of Good News, that she had come with a strange burden on her heart for the women of the UM Church.
As the church drifted away from classical orthodoxy, the leadership team Faye had organized began to shine light on the theological error coming out of the Women’s Division. A White Paper titled “Our Basis For Concern” was produced in 2001; it revealed much. Whether it was liberation theology, propagating that all faiths are acceptable ways to God, pro-abortion advocacy, participation in the Re-Imagining movement, tying the mission of the church to the goals of the United Nations, advocating radical feminism, support for a new sexual ethic, or substituting progressive public policy for the proclamation of the gospel, Renew was faithful to report these disturbing developments with the hopes of seeing reform.
Bringing to the conscience of the church that which had the potential of compromising her mission and weakening the proclamation of the gospel was not the only work of the Renew Network. Equally, if not more important, was the development of ministry models and Christ centered program materials. While Renew gave voice to the concerns of evangelical women, they developed alternative resources. These resources encouraged relationship with Jesus and knowledge of Scripture, and a biblical worldview regarding social and political concerns.
A good example of one such resource is the book, Reclaiming the Wesleyan Social Witness: Offering Christ that I co-authored with Faye Short. It put forward a Wesleyan social witness, and proposed a rediscovery of the core of the Wesleyan witness – “saving faith.” Bishop Lindsey G. Davis wrote, “This book offers fresh insights into how our social witness can be transformational and firmly rooted in the Christian faith.”
As we moved out of the late twentieth century and into the next, many churches began Bible studies and alternative women’s ministries. In many parts of the country new forms of vital ministry sprang up; but in other locations innovation was not so easy. Work remained to be done.
In 2008 Faye Short retired as president of Renew and Liza Kittle would take her place and continue the two pronged ministry. Liza was a former radical feminist who came to know Christ in her 30s. She had a real heart for women’s ministry. She wanted all women to experience the life changing transformation that had turned her own life to the Lord.
Prior to becoming president, Liza had served as a press representative, writer and analyst for Renew. Among her reports was an analysis of the Book of Resolutions. After studying the legislation of several General Conferences, it was determined that over 80 percent of the social policy agenda of the UM Church originated from a handful of the liberal boards and agencies in the church. The once six-page addendum of the Book of Discipline had morphed into over 1,000 pages of social justice policy and political agendas that boards and agencies used to fuel their advocacy on Capitol Hill, the White House, and around the world. Her analysis brought important statistical evidence to the eyes of the church.
It was Liza who rewrote and submitted legislation to the 2012 General Conference using language similar to that of United Methodist Men and containing goals associated with the new emphasis on Local Church Revitalization and Growing Vibrant Congregations. Renew’s legislation passed overwhelmingly in the Local Church committee. Unfortunately, due to the late decision from the Judicial Council, time did not allow for the legislation to come to the full floor for a vote. Although this presented a delay of four years, it could not stop the momentum.
After years of involvement with women’s ministry, I became the Renew team leader in 2015. We’ve assembled a team of women pastors and lay teachers to provide devotionals, teachings, Bible studies, and mission ideas. Renew continues to be committed to build and encourage vital women’s programing. Churches and women’s ministries that are making a difference locally and globally are being featured on the Renew website, Facebook page, and in the Good News magazine (see the “Rooted” article in this edition). These stories of authentic women’s ministry are inspiring churches in and beyond Methodism.
The Renew team and all the many women of the network were thrilled when legislation passed at General Conference 2016, amending the Book of Discipline to officially allow alternative women’s ministries. The passage of this legislation represents a new freedom for women within our denomination. With this official endorsement of The United Methodist Church, the hindrances and constraints of the past have been removed. The gates are open for an even brighter future for women’s ministry in the church. The reality for some time has been that churches are offering options that meet the diverse needs of Christian women. We are excited for the days ahead as the Holy Spirit fans the flame of revival and renewal among the women of the UM Church that it may move in ever growing power.
Renew is thankful for having played a part in inspiring biblically based ministries. Yet vigilance remains essential. Renew reported that in 2016 the UMW National produced a spiritual life study on human sexuality that, if embraced, would take the UMW related women and the Church away from the Church’s official biblical sexual ethic.
The Rev. Rob Renfroe, current president of Good News, expressed his appreciation for the contribution of Renew to the reform and the renewal of The United Methodist Church when he said: “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.”
The women of Renew appreciate this assessment. We view the work of Renew as part of the faithful witness of both men and women within the Good News movement whose purpose is to lead United Methodists to a faithful future.
Katy Kiser is the team leader for Renew Women’s Ministries. For a more detailed account of the history of the RENEW Network go to: www.renewnetwork.org or call 832-381-0331.
by Steve | Jul 10, 2017 | July-August 2017, Magazine, Magazine Articles
Carved antique statue from limestone of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion.
By Fleming Rutledge-
“God accepts (or loves) you just as you are” has been one of the most frequently used slogans in the church of our day. It has been uttered frequently enough to almost qualify as Scripture, and is often offered up as the essence of the gospel.
But what exactly is meant by acceptance? What is the love of God in its fullest dimensions?
The “just as I am” language was strongly reinforced in the twentieth century by the powerful hymn that Billy Graham always used for his altar calls, “Just as I Am.” The words of the hymn, however, contain something rather more than what is understood by the phrase in general use today.
“Just as I am, without one plea / But that thy blood was shed for me / And that thou bidd’st me come to thee, / O Lamb of God, I come….”
This specific reference to the blood of Christ puts the phrase “just as I am” in a rather more challenging context. In the hymn, the hospitality — the welcome — of God is indeed extended to the “poor, wretched, blind” sinner, conscious of “fightings and fears within, without,” but always within the confession of Christ crucified. Thus the divine welcome already carries with it the implicit presence of righteous judgment. The crucifixion of Christ is incomprehensible unless we understand it in the context of divine justice. When we are reminded that God’s justice and God’s righteousness are the same thing (dikaiosyne), we can see that there is something more involved here than mere acceptance — or, as we might say today, mere “tolerance.” There is a limit to what can be accepted or tolerated, even by flawed human beings, let alone by God. Something has to be made right, justified, rectified (dikaiosis).
The Crucifixion
A declaration of amnesty does not solve the problem of guilt. Something must be done to rectify the situation in order for justice to be served and redemption achieved, something “commensurate with the crime.” We may extrapolate from this something not entirely unlike what Anselm, [noted philosopher and theologian (1033-1109)], means by “satisfaction” — not in his scholastic, schematic terms, but throwing a spotlight on the correspondence between the ponderis peccatum (weight, or gravity, of sin) and the nature of Christ’s gruesome death.
The Rev. Fleming Rutledge
Even more than this, however, is the promise of a complete transformation of human nature by Christ’s victory over the Power of Sin. “Acceptance” is the least of it. Any serious reading of the Old Testament must point to an understanding of God, not superseded, which cannot benignly coexist with us in our condition under Sin. The distinguished writer Julian Green, the first American ever to be elected to the Académie Française, was a devout Roman Catholic. At the age of ninety, he spoke of aspects of his earlier life as a sort of crucifixion, and told an interviewer that “he could now, after a long struggle, await death with serenity.” He was looking forward, he said, “to standing before God … finally to know exactly who I am, free of all the illusions, the little lies, knowing I am going to purgatory, and knowing I will be very happy.”
We don’t have to believe in a detailed medieval version of Purgatory to respond to this. The essential idea is present in the final, climactic book of the Old Testament; like the corrupt sons of Levi, we will all pass through the refiner’s fire: “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, till they present right offerings to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord” (Malachi 3:2-4).
The placing of Malachi at the end of the Christian Old Testament was a potent move by the early Christian church. The Tanak (Hebrew Scriptures) closes with the Wisdom literature (the Writings), but the Old Testament was shaped in an apocalyptic direction, so that it ends not with the Writings but with the Prophets and, in the very last two verses, “the great and terrible day of the Lord” (Malachi 4:5). The final words of the Old Testament are in the form of promise, though not without a potent reminder of the curse that lies over God’s people. These verses undercut any notion that the human predicament can be resolved by mere “acceptance.” Instead, there is creation ex nihilo, the resurrection of the dead.
The righteousness of God, the dikaiosyne theou, burst forth from the tomb on the day of the resurrection of the Redeemer. “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” The human race is redeemed, not by “acceptance,” but by death and resurrection. This is the fullness of the message of Easter Day.
Fleming Rutledge was one of the first women ordained as an Episcopal priest. She is an author, lecturer, and teacher of other preachers. Her published sermon collections, including And God Spoke to Abraham: Preaching from the Old Testament, have received acclaim across denominational lines. This excerpt is from The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ. Reprinted by permission of Eerdmans Publishing.
