By Rob Renfroe

If you haven’t heard yet, Good News is moving its offices. What’s not changing is our historic, God-given mission to reform and renew the United Methodist Church. That has always been the purpose of Good News. And it always will be.

Decades before I became the president and publisher of Good News, I respected its work—and I was comforted by its voice. Good News assured me that there were committed, Wesleyan Christians who were speaking up for me and for others like me—people who believe that Jesus Christ is the way and the truth and the life; people who believe that the Bible is the Word of God; and people who believe that the Church is meant to change the culture, not be changed by the culture.

In those early years of my ministry, I was greatly encouraged to know that I was not alone. In Good News there was a movement within our denomination that would not let our elected leaders, whatever their titles, go unchallenged if they led our church away from the truth once and for all delivered to the saints.

Recently in my daily Bible reading I came upon Paul’s words to his son in the faith, Timothy. He wrote: “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:2-4).

Even in Paul’s day there were teachers and leaders who did not want to hear the truth, much less preach it. Even in the first century, sound doctrine was difficult for itching ears to listen to—and some in the church preferred to remove the offense of the Gospel and be told what was culturally acceptable. But Paul instructed Timothy to “preach the Word” whether people wanted to hear it or not because the truth of the Gospel is our hope and our salvation.

Good News has always understood its mandate to be similar to what Paul instructed Timothy. Nearly two thousand years later, the time that Paul predicted is certainly here. And we must be Timothy to our generation. We must defend the Gospel from those outside the church who condemn us for being narrow-minded and from those inside the church who would compromise the truth into something that itching ears want to hear.

On the opposite page, you will read about the unanimous decision by our Board of Directors to move our offices to the greater Houston area. Many on our Board have historic, spiritual, and emotional ties to Wilmore. Relocating was not an easy decision. But we are doing so because we are convinced that such a move will make us more effective in defending the faith, holding our United Methodist leaders accountable, and speaking out for people like you and me who believe that the Gospel is the revelation of God and the hope of the world.

Our address may change, but be assured that our mission, motivation, and ministry will not.

Rob Renfroe is the president and publisher of Good News.

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