In this brief video the Rev. Dr. Jeff Greenway, lead pastor of Reynoldsburg (Ohio) United Methodist Church, talks about the formation of the Wesleyan Covenant Association (WCA) and why he will be at the convening conference event in Chicago on October 7. Jeff has been an evangelical leader in the West Ohio Annual Conference, a local pastor, district superintendent, and former president of Asbury Theological Seminary.
In less than 10 days, nearly 700 laity and clergy have registered to attend the WCA launch event.
Earlier this week organizers announced that the Rev. Jorge Acevedo, lead pastor at Grace Church, a multi-site United Methodist congregation in Southwest Florida with six campuses, will be one of its keynote speakers.
Grace Church has grown in its weekend attendance from 400 to over 2600 in the past nineteen years. Rescued from a life of addictions, Jorge’s greatest delight is connecting people to Jesus and the Church. Grace Church is recognized as having one of the largest and most effective recovery ministries in America.
Jorge has become a popular speaker at annual conferences throughout the United Methodist connection. He is the co-author of Sent: Giving the Gift of Hope at Christmas (Abingdon Press, 2015) and the author of Vital: Churches Changing Communities and the World (Abingdon Press, 2013).
People can register for the conference in Chicago by clicking here.
I pray that the WCA will be diligent in dealing with its critics. The left will leave no stone unturned in attempts to portray theis organization as a separation movement. Of course it is the left that is in rebelliion and actually behaving independent of the UMC and acting like a separation movement. Even Bishop Ough has misrepresented this effort — which is reprehensible. WCA will not get a fair shake even with the UM News Service. Please do not fall victim to the many things to come, and continue to pound away at the truth — that being, it is the Reconcilling Ministeries Network and its allies who are causing this schism, and the formation of the WCA is a reaction to that in an attempt to save our Wesleyan heritage church.
It has been well said that “when Truth is not the focus by all, there can be no unity.” It is in this regard that I have known for a long time that our United Methodist Church will never be truly united. It is a mistake to even attempt unity, for hardened division exists. We know what the Apostle Paul thought about a divisive person (Titus 3:10), and we recall what God inspired the writer of Prov. 16:19 to say about divisive people.
Creating the Wesleyan Covenant Association is a good idea, long past due! Separating ourselves from those who fail to uphold the Bible in all respects is required!
Greetings!
In Dr. Christopher Seitz’ gracious endorsement of my new manuscript on the 39 books of the Old Testament, he made this quote: “The Scriptural witness from Israel is the foundational and irreplaceable testimony to Jesus Christ.” The same, I think, can be said of the ongoing witness of United Methodism; its mission is the foundational and irreplaceable testimony to Jesus. The late Dr. Robert Cushman of Duke Divinity School wrote in his last book, “The spectacular decline of membership in the UMC…may suggest that very many are wearied beyond endurance with a church that manages mainly the ‘form of Godliness’ on the one hand and seems doctrinally shapeless on the other.” Dr. Cushman’s major thesis in that book is the imperative of sustaining the Methodist “consensus fidelium” distilled from Wesley’s 52 Standard Sermons, his “Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament,” and his Twenty-Four Articles of Religion.
Here is hope and prayer that the Wesleyan Covenant Association will adopt this as the “consensus fidelium” on which to base UMC’s future. Let those who cannot hold “these sacred truths to be scripturally evident” be the ones to leave. Hold the fort; stay the course!
I do not have a website and caught in the struggle of regular UMC and the Reconciling UMC. Presently we attend Grace UMC< a reconciling church but have become seriously concerned about the fact that we are too involved in doing things but have no time to just sit and worship. We are situated in the vast poor section of Dallas but our members are professors who are very liberal, a tribe of Burundi refugees, LGB members, and a few or us straight Holy Spirit believers, My husband and I have stayed because our son and his partner were there and our son played a lot. One of them has left and the other, our son, threatens. They are tired of the LBGT issue ruling our worship. They go have a worship service. We do have Methodist Liturgy. My husband and I are worship chairs. I am very interested in the Wesley movement. My son and his partner are the ones with whom we live.
The real intent of your semi-code message is clear. You want to stop those from the LGBT community from fellowshipping in the United Methodist Church, especially in the capacity of clergy. It is sad that you who profess to worship the living Christ are making the decision who are the right kind of people to be Christians. Jesus did not preach exclusion, but inclusion. Your group is just the latest group of Pharisees that are attempting to twist the gospel to your perverted political and religious views. All you will enc up acheiving is another schism in Christ’s church which will end up alientating people instead of bringing them to Christ. This is not what my Jesus taught.
Amazing, that the article by Walter Fenton on the WCA, was written by a Christian Brother. Why would Mr. Fenton write, “But here’s the really bad news, according to this analyst, a “prominent theme” of the conference was “submission to authority, whether Biblical or Spiritual.” And to prove it, the participants sang songs that “included, ‘On Christ the solid rock I stand.'”, True, two bishops did celebrate Holy Communion, and one of them brazenly proclaimed, “we preach Christ and him crucified.” So in short, the WCA stubbornly adhered to Scripture and the church’s teachings, which, when decoded, clearly means they’re trying to divide the church., Dear Theophilus, I am sorry if this account is disconcerting, but I just wanted you to beware of a bunch of khaki clad people singing “On Christ the solid rock I stand.”
Oh, I see he was only reporting what he heard.
This is not the time to spread discord. And it is certainly not the time to abandon our mission as a church.
Jim Alward