November/ December 2008 Contents
FEATURESMeeting People Where They Live
Boyce Bowdon offers a tour of one of America’s
robust Methodist churches.
Hot Metal Offers Dramatically Different Worship James Melchiorre travels to see a Pittsburgh church in action.
Mercy Ministries: Healing HospitalityFounder Nancy Alcorn describes the crises of today’s young women.
God’s Call to Ministry Chris Bounds presents the mystery — and marks — of the call.
Notes on Spiritual Warfare: Bulletin from the Front Lines David Campbell shares lessons learned as a chaplain in Iraq.
The New Abolitionists: Call + Response Catherina Hurlburt pursues the mission behind a compelling new film.
The Church’s Need for Godly Administration John Grenfell urges ordained ministers to know their rights.
COLUMNS
Editorial Appreciation for a Remarkable Ministry
RENEW Women’s Network A Bittersweet Goodbye
The Great Commission The Headlines We Never See
From the Heart Alpha and Omega
DEPARTMENTS
Straight Talk
Bonhoeffer achieves
martyr status
African bishops issue renewed call
against poverty
Wisdom through the written word
Culture in View
Spiritual formation and imagination:
Q & A with Sarah Arthur
Worth Reading: volumes of value
Although Dietrich Bonhoeffer has been dead for more than 60 years, the well-known German theologian has been a role model of faith for many Christians, including the Rev. Charles Sigman.
That’s why Sigman, the 42-year-old pastor of First United Methodist Church of Newport, Arkansas, has helped make Bonhoeffer the first martyr officially recognized by the United Methodist Church.
A Lutheran pastor, Bonhoeffer was a member of the resistance against dictator Adolph Hitler and was executed by the Nazis in 1945, during the final months of World War II. “I always find myself quoting him because of the way he lived his faith and because he really teaches us all that there are things in this world worth dying for,” said Sigman.
The musicians, actors and athletes that today’s youth idolize are all going to fail in some way, he reasoned, but Bonhoeffer “rose above our basic human instinct to proclaim a love that is worth dying for.”
The resolution he submitted to the 2008 United Methodist General Conference, the denomination’s top legislative body, was simple: “In keeping in line with the Church of England and the Church of Wales, we, as United Methodists, should also recognize Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a modern day martyr for the cause of Christ.”
It was approved.
Rebellion against Nazis. Born in Breslau, Germany, in 1906, Bonhoeffer received his doctorate from Berlin University in 1927, where he lectured as part of the theology faculty in the early 1930s and was ordained a Lutheran pastor in 1931.
In rebellion against the Nazi-controlled state church, some 2,000 Lutheran pastors organized the Pastors’ Emergency League in 1934, which later became the Confessing Church. Bonhoeffer was head of the independent church’s seminary at Finkenwalde. It was one of five seminaries closed by the Nazis in 1937.
A member of the resistance, he communicated with the British government and also worked on his book, Ethics, from 1940 until his arrest in 1943.
Bonhoeffer’s fellow resisters tried to kill Hitler but were unsuccessful. Executed with him on April 9, 1945, were Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of German Military Intelligence, General Hans Oster, and Hans von Dohnanyi, who was married to Bonhoeffer’s sister, Christine. On April 23, two other members of the conspiracy, Bonhoeffer’s brother, Klaus, and a second brother-in-law, Rudiger Schleicher, were executed, seven days before Hitler committed suicide.
In his rationale for the General Conference resolution, Sigman wrote: “During a time of grave darkness in Nazi Germany, Bonhoeffer shined the light of Christ all the way to a hangman’s noose. Nearly every clergy has studied him and used him in sermons and theological discourse. It is time we recognize his accomplishments and martyrdom of the highest calling.”
Sigman believes it is important for the church to show how people sometimes die for their faith. “I hope it will start a precedent,” he said. “I personally think we, as a denomination, need to start recognizing these people.”
By Linda Bloom, a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
Describing poverty as a “scourge to human dignity” that “robs people of hope,” United Methodist bishops in Africa have issued a church-wide call for renewed ministry to bring hope and greater prosperity to poor people on their continent.
Meeting for their second time, the 13 bishops that make up the church’s African College of Bishops outlined new actions to combat poverty in a September 11 letter sent from the campus of United Methodist-related Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe.
The bishops expressed “righteous indignation at the current plight of our continent” and resolved to work with professional, community and nongovernmental organizations to alleviate poverty in Africa. They view Africa University as a vital resource toward that goal.
“Poverty robs people of hope, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a call to hope, salvation and abundant life,” they wrote. “In Africa, we see poverty manifesting itself in environmental degradation, disease, hunger and malnutrition, inequitable access to education and even the exposure of some of the most vulnerable among us—the girl child, for example—to sexual and economic exploitation.”
While appreciative of the Holy Spirit for bringing peace and stability to areas of conflict in Africa, they expressed concern for those displaced and still suffering as a result of the violence. They called upon churches in Africa and across the world to “continue to advocate for tolerance and understanding of differing views, cultures, ethnic and religious affiliations as well as for the equitable sharing and use of God’s gifts for the common good.”
Since they began meeting as a college of bishops two years ago, the African bishops have collectively focused on poverty and its manifestations. During their most recent meeting, they shared individual progress and action plans being implemented in their respective conferences.
“It is our belief that Africa has all that it needs to build a future with peace, greater prosperity and hope,” they wrote in their letter.
By Linda Green, a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tennessee. Andra Stevens, director of Africa University’s Office of Public Information, contributed to this report.
Some conventional wisdom has it that women haven’t contributed much to the church’s intellectual coffers over the centuries. Paul Chilcote knows that’s not true. His volume of excerpts, Early Methodist Spirituality: Selected Women’s Writings (Abingdon Press), contains passages of startling beauty and depth, penned by the mothers of Methodism.
Consider these words by Mary Hanson (1786-1812): “Prayer, by which only that mysterious communication between the Creator and his creatures can be maintained; prayer, which has sometime introduced a very heaven into the soul; the most exalted and blissful employment of finite creatures; that which angels behold with delight and devils tremble to view.”
In her new book Is Believing in God Irrational?, apologist Amy Orr-Ewing responds to the kind of queries one hears in coffee shops and barber shops, on airplanes and busses. Chapters provocatively titled, like “How can you say you have found the truth if you haven’t tried all of the alternatives?” represent the rubber-meets-the-road element in Christian witness and apologetics. She respectfully responds to these heartfelt questions, using clear reason and dissecting the confusions around the “big” questions of life. Having given brief summaries of topics and names that crop up in religious discussions, her book is a great ground-floor introduction to removing intimidation from conversations about faith, suffering, tolerance, and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. lume.
—By Elizabeth Glass-Turner, Good News editorial assistant
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