By Carolyn Moore –
As Annual Conference season approaches, conversations are guaranteed to start heating up. Amidst high emotions, Rev. Carolyn Moore, lead pastor of Mosaic Church in Evans, GA, reflects on discussions she would like to see the United Methodist Church having.
“Let’s talk Christologically,” Rev. Moore writes. “Does the conversation about the future of the UMC begin with Jesus? If my experience is any indication, then the Lordship of Jesus–the exclusive nature of Jesus–is where we in the United Methodist Church part ways long before we ever get to the topic of sexual ethics. In the UMC, there is a great divergence around the nature and role of Jesus Christ; yet, we spend all our energy on other things. We rarely acknowledge what is. What is, for those of us who embrace an orthodox understanding of faith and truth, is that Jesus is the most true being. Those of us who are committed to absolute truth (and that Jesus alone embodies that Truth) also believe deep in our spirits that the people we like and the people we have feelings for and the people for which we have great compassion and the people we want to see living holy lives and the people we want to see in Heaven are not the authors of our faith. The author of our faith is Jesus Christ. In other words, we have a Person-centered faith, not a people-centered faith. Our conversations must reflect this ‘Kingdom down’ perspective while resisting the urge of a ‘humanity up’ perspective. If we start with Jesus Christ, I suspect we will find plenty to discuss and (grievously) much on which we fundamentally disagree.”
Click HERE to read her entire column.
Carolyn, I couldn’t agree more. Keep the most blessed faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And the precious power of the Holy Spirit. We should be teaching and preaching His Kingdom come and His will be done. Sadly, wolves have come into the church and are devouring the true sheep and the true message of our precious Lord.
Thank God for Carolyn Moore, the Wesleyan Covenant Association, Good News, the Confessing Movement, et al who are working to save our church from the evil forces within it.
A Wesleyan view (below).
Should it come to it, could a Wesleyan Covenant Association denomination find compatibility with the Wesleyan Church as a merged denomination?
https://www.wesleyan.org/a-wesleyan-view-of-homosexuality-235
Having just returned from Annual Conference I can say that higher ground was not being sought. It is full on partisan wrangling. We are going to have to ride this roller coaster to the end.
What higher ground can be found than that of Jesus?
Jesus is the authority on Christian marriage. As written in Matthew 19:4-6, while Jesus condemned easy divorce, he strongly and unequivocally pronounced God’s created order for marriage. Progressives cannot honestly disput this fact any more than they can honestly dispute God’s creation of gravity.
It would seem to me that every delegate to the 2019 Special General Conference must decide if voting to liberalize the definition of Christian marriage would align with Jesus or not.
Is it possible to oppose Jesus on the one hand while claiming to be his follower on the other? If so, then what higher authority could one claim in order to do that?
“They Wouldn’t Bend, They Wouldn’t Bow, They Wouldn’t Burn”, From a gospel song “The Fourth Man” by Johnny Cash. We cannot worship false idols, we can only worship God. Gods commandments are a higher concern than the opinions of a leader or leaders who wish for faithful men and women to go the way of the world and forget that we belong to Gods Kingdom. It is better to have a lowly position while working for the right master than to be exalted while serving the wrong master.
Thank you Carolyn. I could not agree more. In the last year of meetings and Senior Pastor Q&As about what is happening in the UMC, our most profound discovery is the great need for discussion of the basics of our faith. We are in the midst of a 13 week series on The Basics, with such focused questions as Why did God become human through God’s Son, Jesus? Your article is right on target.