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Clergy renewed at Epworth Institute
By Ray Nothstine

At the Confessing Movement's annual Epworth Institute for young clergy at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, prominent United Methodist pastor Bill Bouknight declared, "I am more optimistic about United Methodist renewal than any other time in my forty years of ministry."

"We are going in a Bible-centered, Wesleyan theological direction now," Bouknight declared. "The authority of Scripture, the seriousness of sin, and the centrality of the cross are on the rise now."

Bouknight, who pastors Christ United Methodist Church in Memphis and is a leader in the Confessing Movement, said, "I give the prayers of the people in the pews the credit for opening the way of change in our church."

He also reminded the audience of pastors to be "humble and winsome with opponents who do not see things in the same biblical priority as us."

"We come into the world with a spiritual virus that we cannot fix," Bouknight warned. "The doctrine of original sin is almost lost in our culture." He also spoke passionately about the purpose and importance of the atonement during his brief remarks.

Jonathan Holston, a North Georgia district superintendent, shared a message similar to Bouknight's: "Salvation is more essential than social programs, and social programs will flow out of a spiritually healthy church."

"There is power in the blood of Jesus Christ, that is what's going to get us through, and that's what's going to be the saving power of the United Methodist Church," Holston declared. He called the Confessing Movement supporters "the conscience of the church."

Holston said: "I'm not going to get caught not telling the message of Jesus Christ. We need people who are willing to go out and share the gospel of Jesus Christ." He challenged the pastors: "Are you asking people, 'Do you have the love for Christ in your lives?'"

"Sometimes you've got to work through your pain to get to the power God has for you," Holston said. He reminded those struggling in pastoral appointments: "You can't allow yourself to be put down; you have to be open to God's change. You have to be open to the salvation of God. You have to ask for the salvific power of God every single day."

Echoing the advice of John Wesley, Holston insisted: "You have to preach it until you believe it. Don't worry about your circumstances, because our God is in control. God specializes in sick souls. God specializes in making men whole." At the end of his sermon Holston, prayed for healing in the United Methodist Church.

Bishop Robert Hayes of Oklahoma closed out his remarks at the Epworth Institute by telling the clergy, "God is about to do a new thing in the church, and I am so blessed God has chosen us to work, to improve, and to take the church forward." He urged the pastors, "Don't ever compromise your integrity on what you believe in, stand firm in God's word, and never compromise who you are and what you believe."

"I've told my pastors in Oklahoma that I am not coming to a dead church," Hayes said. He continued, "Because if I come to a dead church, something's going to happen on that day."

The bishop noted the immensity of the stakes involved in United Methodist renewal: "It's going to take radical discipleship to transform the church." He added: "The next 30 or 40 years is our time under God. If we don't walk through the Red Sea now, we will never get through."

"Part of what we are about is changing the internal language of the church," Hayes said. "Eventually this material and work will bear fruit. What is crucial is a deep reorientation of the church." When the church returns to its evangelical roots, "Our church will be renewed in such a way we won't even recognize it."

Sandra Richter, professor of Old Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary, was also a featured teacher. "Your whole job is to represent God to his people," she said. "We don't need new and fancy, but old and true." Richter noted, "Many of the members in your audience have advanced degrees and have a wonderful ability to understand this material."

"We live in a society where there are so many messiahs and the church must know our story and be able to defend and articulate it," Richter said. She described Adam in Genesis as the image bearer of God and Christ as the answer for the failure of the original image bearer. "We were meant to be the image bearers, but Christ is the one who conforms us to be like the image of the Son," she asserted.   Richter told of Israel's hope of restoration after judgment: "Judgment is never the final word. Repentance is more important-repentance that leads to restoration, reformation, and transformation." She passionately insisted, "This is not just about the rescuing of Israel, but it extends to the Garden of Eden and the fall of man."

In attendance at the Epworth Institute were several pastors from the liberal-dominated Pacific Northwest Annual Conference who were struggling as they proclaim the biblical faith. In response to their questions, Bouknight said: "I do not believe there will be a schism. Homosexuality is a settled issue and there are those on the West Coast who genuinely believe they are right." Explaining the suggestion for church separation by the Confessing Movement's then-president last year, Bouknight added, "Bill Hinson was saying some will go in peace because we cannot force them to change their conscience."

Also speaking at Epworth was Billy Abraham of Perkins School of Theology in Dallas. "At this point in the history, you cannot renew [the church] if you separate from it," Abraham said. "We are committed to the future of the church, and that it is a serious denomination in the twenty-first century."

"The most difficult [area] for renewal will be through the seminaries," Abraham admitted. "We need to be extraordinarily realistic, provide band-aids, some stuff [that] will bear fruit." He stressed that "this renewal business is a long haul" and "inter-generational." But "stay on board," he urged.

Abraham lamented that in the past the seminaries had been "handed over" to the secular academies, adding, "We have been sending our officers to institutions that have abandoned the crucial doctrines of the church." In some good news, he noted that orthodox believers have filled recent openings at Perkins.

The primary purpose of divine revelation is to "find God and ultimately go to heaven," Abraham observed. "Within the process of redemption, God has provided specific knowledge for redemption." Abraham said that John Wesley "readily accepted" the Apostles Creed as a summary of Scripture.

Ray Nothstine is a student at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, and an intern at the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

 

Surfing pastor helps others find God on beach

The Rev. Leonard "Len" Ripley III may preach from Psalm 23, but "still waters" are not ideal when he's ready to surf.

The 54-year-old pastor of Folly Beach (South Carolina) United Methodist Church spends much of his free time riding the waves.

"When the church members can't find me, they know there's good surf," he says. Ripley took up surfing as a teenager but abandoned it when he went to college. When he was appointed to the Folly Beach-St. John charge, he got back into it by accident.

"My first week here, I found out two members of my church ran a surf shop," Ripley says. "I walked in for a visit, and by that afternoon I was in the water with them."

Ripley was a police officer before entering the ministry at age 40. He had always been drawn to public service jobs, he said. "I had an aching in my bones to serve the Lord but didn't know how best to do so."

That same year, he became a full-time local pastor, and in 1997, he arrived at Folly Beach.

Part of Folly Beach's tightly knit surfing community, Ripley says he leads devotions before surfing competitions and has been known to hold informal worship services for two or three gathered together on surfboards just beyond the breakers. His two passions work well together, he says.

"It's become another way to evangelize," he says. "Sometimes you get one-on-one with people and make connections. They understand you're not out there to beat them over the head with the Bible. They need to see that religion is not this strict set of rules that you have to live by; it's more of a lifestyle."

He also sees a spiritual side to surfing. "Look around at the beauty of it and the power of nature. It's unbelievable to me that you could come to a place like this and not feel something. I have little problem finding God on Folly Beach."

A visit to a Folly Beach worship service isn't unlike a service at any small church. An organ pipes out traditional hymns, accompanying a choir that barely numbers in double digits. But folks dressed in their Sunday best share a pew with pony-tailed surfers sporting earrings and wearing flowered shirts and flip-flops.

Ripley fits in, according to Bettie Sue Cowsert, Ocean Surf Shop co-owner and Folly Church member. "He's not your idea of (a 'typical' pastor), but if he was, he probably wouldn't fit in. This community's got all kinds of people in it. You've got to be really adaptive. The most successful ministers here probably are."

Ripley says, "People need to see that you can do ministry wherever you are, be it doing something you enjoy or when you're called to a situation where something bad has happened."

Too often, the latter is the case when Ripley is volunteering for the Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy, an interdenominational support group for 33 public safety agencies in the area. The chaplains ride along with police, fire or emergency service workers to offer pastoral care and counseling for accident or crime victims and their families, as well as the officers and their families.

"As a former police officer, Len knows the mindset of what cops go through and the pain of always being called to tragedies," says the Rev. Rob Dewey, the group's founder, adding that Ripley was named Chaplain of the Year in 2003.

"When I was a police officer, I didn't have this type of support, but I would've loved to have (had) it," Ripley says.

Ripley recalls helping a young female surfer who was found unconscious on the shore. He worked with the police to learn her identity and then traveled to her parents' home to tell them of her condition. Though initially hospitalized in critical condition, the teenager recovered and began attending Ripley's church. Later, the minister was asked to marry her mother and stepfather.

"We help people in many different types of situations," he says. "Oftentimes they do not belong to a church, so I become their pastor."

This story was reported by Joey Butler, Heather Peck Stahl, and Reed Galin. Butler is managing editor of Interpreter magazine; Stahl is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tenn.; and Galin is a freelance producer in Nashville.

 

Good News calls removal of
Virginia pastor a serious error

The Executive Committee of Good News, an evangelical renewal ministry within the United Methodist Church, decries as a serious error the action taken by the clergy session of the Virginia Annual Conference last month when it placed Rev. Edward Johnson on "involuntary leave of absence." The complaint against Johnson by the Cabinet and Board of Ordained Ministry was that he refused to receive into church membership a practicing homosexual who is in a relationship with another man and who is unrepentant about his practice.

The Rev. Johnson had been pastor of the South Hill United Methodist Church for six years and a clergy member of the denomination for 24 years. The full story about this troubling action has been carried in the South Hill Enterprise (see link on Good News' web site) and in the Mecklenburg Sun, both regional papers in the South Hill, Virginia area.

"I have received numerous emails and phone calls from pastors across the United States who have learned about this egregious action," said the Rev. James V. Heidinger II, President and Publisher of Good News. "They are deeply distressed, as are we, that a faithful pastor who was seeking to enforce the policies of our Book of Discipline was summarily removed from his church and left with no appointment and no pay. The matter screams with injustice," Heidinger added.

The Mecklenburg Sun article reported that Bishop Charlene Kammerer (Virginia) insisted that no Methodist minister, including Rev. Johnson, "has the authority to exclude anyone from joining the church." The bishop was quoted as saying that the church bars practicing gays from being ordained clergy, but not from being laity.

"What was being denied to this individual was membership in the church, not being among laity in attendance," said Rev. Tom Lambrecht, senior pastor of Faith Community United Methodist Church in Greenville, WI and chairman of the Good News board of directors. "Does the pastor of a local church no longer have the freedom to be discerning about who is ready to be received into membership of a United Methodist Church? This is a pastoral matter which has always been left to the discretion of the minister who is leading the congregation," said Lambrecht. "This is a tragic mistreatment by Virginia Conference leadership of one of its pastors." he added.

The Good News leaders see a series of negative consequences from this action: A seasoned pastor has been suddenly removed from his congregation and from an appointment for upholding the Discipline; a congregation is angry at the sudden and unjust removal of its pastor; a practicing homosexual is feeling justified in his sinful behavior; other United Methodist clergy feel threatened by possible, similar action; and the unity of the denomination has been made even more fragile as a result of this unjustifiable action.

It is reported that three questions of law about the matter were asked of Bishop Kammerer during the clergy session. Her answers to those questions, due within 30 days, will go automatically to the Judicial Council for review

-Good News Media Service.

Aldersgate nurtures United Methodists hungry for the Holy Spirit
By Jan Woodard

For some United Methodists, the hardest thing about going to the Aldersgate National Conference on the Holy Spirit can be returning home. The 27th annual event drew hundreds of families from scores of churches who were hungry for a Spirit-filled atmosphere in which to worship and grow.

Held in July at the Overland Park Conference Center outside of Kansas City, the 1,300 people who attended the 2005 conference were treated to some of the denomination's best preaching, worshipping, and teaching on the Holy Spirit. Safe and fun activities were also offered for children and youth, including an inflatable carnival one afternoon on the conference center grounds.

It was sponsored by Aldersgate Renewal Ministries (ARM), a branch of the Upper Room Ministries under the General Board of Global Ministries. The ministry is led by the Rev. Gary Moore, executive director.

Moore said on the opening night of the conference that he wasn't content with an abstract knowledge of an omnipresent God. "I want the manifest presence of God to show up," he said. "We want you so filled and empowered with the Holy Spirit that you make a difference when you go home.so ruined you'll never be happy with the way things are or have been again."

The Rev. Tyrone Gordon of St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Dallas built on Moore's theme. He said God is tired "of lukewarm, powerless, cold, dead, dry churches.of church folk who are all talk and no walk."

Preaching from Acts, he told the largely United Methodist audience, "You shall receive power, not because you know the Discipline. We too often equate Pentecost with a denomination. But any church that knows Jesus saves should have a Pentecostal experience."     

The Rev. Tommy Hays, a United Methodist evangelist based in Lexington, Kentucky, taught an afternoon session where he defined the manifest presence of God as "the glory of God." He said the Aldersgate conference is about renewing and sanctifying minds, about a change in perspective. "God wants us to grow to the point that we think like Jesus," he said. "God's ways are not our ways but he wants us to grow into his ways.God wants us to know him more intimately in every dimension of our being."

Hays said the book of Acts describes the heart of who we are to become in Christ-baptized, immersed, totally saturated in the Holy Spirit for ministry. "If we get 'the doing' before 'the willing' (a change of desire) it leads to death and burn-out," he cautioned.

United Methodists need the Spirit
Among the nationally recognized speakers addressing the general sessions was the Rev. Adam Hamilton, senior pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection outside Kansas City. A new church "plant" in 1990, COR now hosts about 15,000 weekly worshippers.

He said he became a Christian as a teenager at a Pentecostal church. He went there because someone knocked on his door and invited him to a service. He stayed on, initially, because of the pretty girls seated in the front row. As a youth who became passionate to share Christ, he once tried to organize a mission trip to a United Methodist church, Hamilton said with a grin.

When he became a student at Oral Roberts University, however, Hamilton was drawn to United Methodism by the opportunity to grow both spiritually and intellectually, and by an emphasis upon the social gospel, which he found lacking in his Pentecostal roots.

He said he was grateful for the liberals in the United Methodist Church, but that no one can be a "good liberal" without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Hamilton told his listeners to go home and love their pastors. Changing them is the job of the Holy Spirit, he said.

Hundreds took Hamilton up on his offer to visit COR, where they viewed multiple ministries of the thriving congregation and attended a Saturday evening worship service in the new 3,000-seat sanctuary before returning to the Aldersgate Conference to hear Bishop Violet Fisher preach.

Bishop Fisher's power-packed message unapologetically called those present to "turn the power on!" Like early believers, Christians today can and should experience the continual infilling of the Holy Spirit's power, Bishop Fisher said, asserting her audience already knew what she was talking about. "We understand the continual empowerment of the Holy Spirit.again and again and again."

The bishop of the Western New York Area, she added, "There's an anointing here, can you feel it? If your pastors don't preach on this, go home and tell them that United Methodists are tired of 'drinking milk from a bottle,'.teach me what 'the word says,' what God expects of me."

Bishop Fisher said she believes ARM is the vehicle God is using in the United Methodist Church to usher in the fullness of God's kingdom. "We will see a renewal of signs, wonders, healings. God's doing a new thing through this ministry," she said.

"I'm bringing 20, next year!"
 This was second time lay woman Donna Zeigler of Harmony-Zelienople Church in Zelienople, Pennsylvania, attended an Aldersgate Conference. She's determined to bring 20 people from her home church with her to next year's conference in Springfield, Illinois.

Zeigler, who designed the 2004 General Conference Prayer Room in Pittsburgh, said, "I knew it would be a good conference, but it was so much more than that. It changed my life. When Bishop Fisher said on behalf of God, 'Will you hold my people in your hand?' I felt a call upon my life. I could feel it in my belly. I sobbed and sobbed. Now I have to take that call back to the greater United Methodist Church-I want to say, 'Wake up, Church!'"

Zeigler was one of many Aldersgate Conference participants who also visited Kansas City's International House of Prayer. Led by Mike Bickle, who addressed the pre-conference session on prayer, IHOP has organized an unbroken, round-the-clock prayer and worship meeting for the last six years.

"What IHOP does is my dream come true. That's what I want for my church, for all churches," Zeigler said. "I really think it was the spiritual preparation of 24-hour prayer that made Aldersgate such a powerful conference." (see page 9)

Although the other speakers at this year's conference were United Methodists, ARM is open to hearing from those outside the denomination who, like Bickle, move in the flow of God's Spirit.

ARM's mission is to bring the life of the Spirit into the life of the church through worship and prayer. It is named for Aldersgate Street in London where Methodism's founder, John Wesley, experienced his own transformational renewal one evening while attending a Moravian Bible study.

Jan Woodard is a staff writer for the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. A woman with a passion for prayer, she is also a consultant and speaker for her conference and for two human service agencies. She is available to speak or to pray and can be reached at prayercafe@hotmail.com.

 

Hollywood deals with demons
By Steve Beard

Do you believe in demons? The Exorcism of Emily Rose may have you up half the night pondering that question. The new spooky movie is based on a true story of a 19-year-old college freshman (Jennifer Carpenter) who dies during an exorcism. The story unfolds as the priest who was praying for the girl stands trial for negligent homicide. Through a series of horrifying flashbacks, the priest (Tom Wilkinson) must defend his actions in a court room. While the state claims the girl was merely schizophrenic and epileptic, the priest believes he must take the stand in order to clear his name, as well as speak truthfully about the realm of spiritual darkness.

People love frightening movies, and there does not seem to be anything creepier than a movie dealing with the devil and demons. With Emily Rose, audiences are going to see a scary movie that is done with intelligence and seriousness. Imagine an episode of Law & Order for the demonically harassed. Actress Laura Linney (pictured above) plays the defense attorney who attempts to defend the priest (this was his first exorcism). The prosecution forcefully argues that the girl was merely mentally ill. The defense makes a case for the legitimacy of her possession. The jury has to decide if the priest acted responsibly.

"I don't think you can watch this film without asking yourself what you believe about the existence of the demonic, the devil, and the spiritual realm. Ultimately it forces you to question what you believe about God," co-writer and director Scott Derrickson told me. "I don't think you can watch this film without grappling with your own perspective and beliefs about those things."

Derrickson is an interesting talent in Hollywood: an orthodox Christian who works on horror movies. He and his writing partner Paul Harris Boardman have co-written scary movies such as Urban Legends: Final Cut and Hellraiser: Inferno.

When asked how all of his work on the demonic effected his faith, Derrickson had an interesting response. "In the course of doing the research I absolutely became much more convinced of the actuality of [the demonic], not from a theological perspective, but from a rational perspective," he said. "The evidence that's out there is quite overwhelming." He heard testimonials, watched video-tapes of exorcisms, read two-dozen books on the subject, and interviewed those involved in the unique ministry of deliverance. Derrickson concluded that "you have to be very committed to an anti-religious dogma to deny this religious phenomenon."

Although he came out of the research phase more convinced of demonic possession, it was a spiritually grueling process. "The research phase was incredibly unpleasant and I'll never do it again, for that length of time," he said. "'Spooked out' is probably not even the right term. I definitely would say that it was incredibly oppressive. I really felt the weight and the gravity of the subject matter. And I would get a little freaked out at times. It was not fun."

Although Derrickson has a spiritual point of view (and it is not necessarily the same as his writing partner), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (rated PG-13 for the graphic exorcism scenes) is not meant to be a theological treatise on demonic possession. Some will walk away believing that the girl was mentally ill. Others will be convinced that she was demonized. Ultimately, everyone will have to ask themselves whether or not they believe in a unseen realm that contains spiritual entities that can affect us in the corporeal world. That's a giant topic for discussion because it cuts to the very nature of reality and the world we live in.

For Derrickson, his goal is simple: "Entertain the audience. Give them a very scary, very cinematic experience. When it's all said and done, let them leave with something significant to ponder."

 

Steve Beard is the editor of Good News.

Filmmaker focuses on fatherhood and family

But now I'm down here in God's country / Safe from Satan, he won't find me / Though I know he will try / In the East, backslidin's easy / The sun came up, and evil seized me / But now I'm right here in God's country

-Louden Wainwright III

 

Those lyrics were written while Wainwright was in Lexington, Kentucky, for his cameo appearance in Cameron Crowe's new film Elizabethtown. Although he leaves the songwriting to others, Crowe definitely would agree with Wainwright's assessment of central Kentucky-the backdrop for his new romantic comedy. Crowe's roots are buried deep below the rolling bluegrass. His father grew up in the small town of Stanton in Powell County before he moved to California. Crowe's dad unexpectedly died in Lexington in 1989 of a heart attack while visiting family in the area. Elizabethtown is a tribute to his dad, and to the region.

"It was a shock to our family and took many years for us to come to grips with that," Crowe told Good News, referring to his father's death. "Years passed and I always wanted to write something about my dad." The creative juices began to boil over several years ago while he was driving through Kentucky on the tour bus with his wife Nancy Wilson, a musician with the rock group Heart. Crowe had an overwhelming urge to spend time where his dad grew up. Elizabethtown unfolded before him as he drove around the area.

The movie relates the story of Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom), a designer on the verge of suicide, who must return to his hometown to attend his father's funeral. En route, he meets Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst), an effervescent flight attendant who helps Baylor realize that life is worth living. In the wake of his father's death, the son discovers so much about the dad he hardly knew.

"As a younger person, you never think you are going to miss the opportunity to know your parent as an adult," Crowe told me. "You take it for granted that later you are going to talk about all that stuff." There is so much he didn't get a chance to talk to his dad about. "I felt like a real loss of that opportunity. But the cool thing is that over time the story of learning about a parent and turning loss into positivity became a comedy."

By spending so much time on his dad's stomping grounds, Crowe ended up discovering why "family roots are so important-hilariously important and deeply important." He has a new sensitivity to family roots ever since his twin boys were born five and a half years ago. Crowe wishes he could ask his dad for advice. He would have such a different perspective. "My dad never knew the internet. He only wrote letters," Crowe says.

The Academy Award winning writer-director of Almost Famous, Jerry Maquire, and Say Anything, had a big perspective shift when he spent time with his dad's best friend. "They knew each other as guys," Crowe recalled. "He showed me letters. I got to feel so much closer to my dad when I found out what he was like at my age-talking guy to guy to one of his best friends..That was wonderful."

Crowe is sold on family. "There is so much to know and learn and feel from a family tree," he says. "And I came to know most of that family tree after his death." His dad would have loved that, Crowe believes. "He almost would have considered it the greatest gift of having to leave our family that he loved so much, in that it would present us with more family-the family he knew."

Steve Beard is the editor of Good News.

Elizabethtown is rated PG-13 for some language and some sexual references.



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