By James V. Heidinger II,
President and Publisher
GOOD NEWS PERSPECTIVE – No. 19, April 25, 2008
Welcome to this special General Conference issue of Perspective sent from Fort Worth, Texas. We hope you find it helpful and informative. Please feel free to forward it to family, friends, or persons in your local church who might be interested in receiving General Conference updates. To subscribe, send your e-mail address to: perspective@goodnewsmag.org. E-mail addresses will not be sold or shared.
General Conference 2008: “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give to you a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation…” (Ephesians 1:17)
Please continue to pray for our international delegates. They continue to suffer from the exhaustion of both jetlag and the normal conference fatigue of late nights and early mornings. Pray for deep rest for those attempting to navigate language hurdles, dietary changes, and conference responsibilities. They are in need of sleep, energy, and refreshment.
Today, we had another full house at our Briefing Breakfast. The hours have been lengthy and the work has been steady. All the delegates are feeling the effect.
Tomorrow, the special luncheon will feature the Renew Women's Network. Pray for a hearty reception of Renew’s recently published book and fruitful discussion of Wesleyan doctrine and heritage.
Particularly considering the slightly abbreviated conference schedule, legislative committees are struggling to process the amount of material that needs sifted for the plenary sessions next week. As of today, they are behind schedule in making decisions on petitions and resolutions.
Please be sure to especially lift up prayer for committees such as Church & Society 1, Church & Society 2, and Faith and Order.
Good News wishes to advance the fight against malaria today, World Malaria Day. This preventable disease particularly afflicts and kills young children. Pray for those suffering and grieving as a result of this disease, and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s prodding as you consider the plights of sisters and brothers around the world.
The Four Areas of Focus
The Council of Bishops and The Connectional Table are to be commended for the impassioned presentation of the proposed Four Areas of Focus: developing principled Christian leaders for the church and the world; creating new places for new people by starting new congregations and renewing existing ones; engaging in ministry with the poor; and, eradicating killer diseases by improving health globally. The Renewal and Reform Coalition supports these Four Areas of Focus.
In response to these four items, we have a few observations. First, we must not be afraid to significantly pare back our bureaucracy and return resources to the grassroots level where innovation and creativity are fostered. Indeed, we should allow our connectional system to work in a more organic fashion by supporting and promoting local churches with vital ministries and mission opportunities that are growing and attracting young people.
Second, we must make it easier and less costly for young people to enter into Christian ministry. The current ordination process has become so burdensome and costly that it is little wonder there are now only 850 Elders under 35 serving in the U.S.
Third, we must become a high expectations church when it comes to membership. Certainly our hearts, our minds, and our doors must be open, but we must also emphasize the transformed life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Fourth, Methodism has a long and laudable tradition of ministry with the poor and sick. In recent years our denomination has joined with other churches, ministries, and organizations to alleviate the terrible suffering of those with HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Much has been accomplished in just the last several years, but much more can and should be done, especially in those instances where simple, but life-saving, solutions are readily at hand. The Nothing But Nets initiative requires no costly research, only the compassion and drive to provide protective netting to the thousands who live in high-risk areas for contracting malaria.
As today we observe World Malaria Day, the Renewal and Reform Coalition is committed to shedding light on this deadly, but preventable, disease. In sub-Sahara Africa, one-fifth of children under kindergarten age die of malaria.
Who was not inspired by seven-year-old Katherine Commale, who was introduced to the General Conference yesterday? She raised $40,000 to send insecticide-treated sleeping nets to Africa after hearing that children were in need. What a magnificent witness!
As we reflect on the church’s proposed Four Areas of Focus, we believe that making effective long term progress towards the latter two areas of focus hinges on making substantial progress in the first two: developing principled Christian leaders and creating new places for new people by starting new congregations and renewing existing ones.
Continued dependence upon God
By John Baillie (1886-1960)
“I am the vine; you are the branches… apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
O God my Creator and Redeemer, I may not go forth today except you accompany me with your blessing. Let not the vigor and freshness of the morning, or the glow of good health, or the present prosperity of my undertaking, deceive me into a false reliance upon my own strength. All these good gifts have come to me from you.
Let me then put back into your hand all that you have given me, rededicating to your service all the powers of my mind and body, all my worldly goods, all my influence with others. All these, O Father, are yours to use as you will. All these are yours, O Christ. All these are yours, O Holy Spirit. Speak in my words today, think in my thoughts, and work in all my deeds…let my life today be the channel through which some little portion of your divine love and pity may reach the lives that are nearest to my own.
From A Diary of Private Prayer (Walker, 1986). Baillie was well-known and highly-respected as a theologian, teacher, and author. He served as the moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1943.
Conversion and the Mission of the Church
A General Conference petition to expand the mission of the church would add the words “for the transformation of the world…” so that the mission statement would read, “The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”
The petition comes from the Council of Bishops with the rationale that it reflects more adequately our understanding of the mission of the church. The bishops also link this expanded definition with mission initiatives adopted by the Connectional Table. The initiatives are leadership development, congregational development, ministry with the poor, and global health.
One certainly cannot speak against the idea of transforming the world but one might raise the question as to how the world is to be transformed. One hundred years ago the church spoke about the “conversion” of the world and “the salvation of the human race.” A few years later the language shifted so that instead of seeking the conversion of the world we were working for the bringing of God’s kingdom on the earth. This reflected a theological shift away from personal evangelism toward communal social justice.
Either way our sights were high. A couple of world wars and the rise (and fall) of communism tempered our vision. Never mind. We’re back again with a big vision, a vision of transformation. But the question still remains: Are we about social betterment or conversion?
The Africans might come to our rescue. There is evidently a petition coming from one of the African conferences (this material was not in the Advanced Christian Advocate) to insert a phrase something like “for the conversion of eternal souls” to the transformation phrase. The Africans have the most to gain by an emphasis on leadership development, work with the poor, and dealing with global health. But they are also very much aware that these emphases must not be considered separately from the salvation of souls. It will be interesting to see how General Conference deals with these proposals.
By Riley B. Case, a retired member of the North Indiana Conference, assistant executive director of the Confessing Movement, and a lifetime member of the Good News Board of Directors. He is also the author of Evangelical and Methodist: A Popular History (Abingdon).
Scientific Research, Sexual Identity, and Sanctification
Transforming Congregations Lunch,
Crystal Ballroom,
Hilton Hotel
Scholar Timothy George has identified the debate over human sexuality as the “watershed issue of Christ and culture in this generation.” Unfortunately, there has often been more heat than light in the deliberations, particularly when addressing homosexuality. And there has also been a misguided reliance on “conventional wisdom” or personal experience that passes itself off as scientific fact.
What does the research really say? Which findings are reliable and significant? How does any of it relate to the church’s moral debate? And how should the church best minister “truth in love” to those who experience same-sex attraction? For almost a decade, Dr. Mark Yarhouse of Regent University has addressed these questions with honest inquiry and a heart of compassion for those who struggle to live sanctified sexual lives.
His book with co-author Stanton Jones of Wheaton College – Homosexuality: The Use of Scientific Research in the Church’s Moral Debate – thoroughly reviewed the various studies that have addressed the prevalence and cause of same-sex attraction, concluding that a cluster of possible biological and environmental factors may play a role. In Sexual Identity: A Guide to Living in the Time Between the Times, he and co-author Lori Burkett offer wise and practical help to those who experience same-sex attraction but nonetheless choose not to self-identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual. Still “on the way” to sexual sanctification, these men and women are some of the most marginalized persons in the church today.
Their stories are told in Dr. Yarhouse and Jones’ latest book Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation. For three years, their research team followed 98 men and women involved in a variety of Christian transformational ministries. They found that a significant number were able to change their orientation from homosexual to heterosexual to some degree and that the group as a whole was not harmed by the process of attempted change, a claim often made by pro-gay activists.
Transforming Congregations invites you to hear Dr. Yarhouse speak about scientific research, sexual identity and sanctification at our complimentary luncheon on Friday, April 25 at 12:45 PM in the Crystal Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel. Through keynote address and Q&A, we’ll explore with him how we approach the issues that confront our church. Seating is first come, first serve.
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