|
Conference
highlights
- Spirited
worship
- Biblical
preaching
- Christ-focused
ministry reports
- Announcement
of a new prayer initiative
- Excellent
speakers
- Insightful
Bible study sessions
- Increased
use of Conference prayer room
- More
than $216,000 raised to support
transitional housing
ministry
The
details
The theme
of the 2001 Annual Conference Session was
"All Who Hunger, Gather Gladly," from a
hymn text based on Jesus' declaration that
all who come to Him will find sustenance
and life: "Then Jesus declared, 'I am the
bread of life. He who comes to me will
never go hungry'" (John 6:35).
This
biblical truth regarding the sufficiency
and provision of Christ was reinforced
throughout the week in worship services,
ministry reports, and special
events.
All
who hunger gather gladly.... Jesus Christ
is living bread.
Come from loneliness and longing.
Here in peace, we have been
led.
|
from
All Who Hunger, by
Sylvia Dunstan
|
Tuesday,
June 12
The annual
gathering of delegates from North
Georgia's United Methodist congregations
began Tuesday afternoon with a formal
opening
worship
service,
featuring excellent choral music by the
choir from Athens First UMC, aided by
additional singers from several other area
churches.
Using
Acts
2:42-47
as her text, featured preacher
Bridgette
D. Young,
associate dean of the chapel at Emory
University, noted that God has called a
diversity of people into the Church to
reach a diversity of people in world.
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|
Bridgette
D. Young
|
Even though we in the Church may disagree
on many secondary matters, we can choose
to come together in Christ, she
said.
This
unity-in-diversity is visibly represented
as we gather at the Communion
table.
"It is
Jesus who brings us to the table, Jesus
who calls us not in spite of our
differences but in light of our
differences," she noted in sermon titled,
"Will You Come to the Table?"
The
Tuesday afternoon business session
included attention to a variety of
administrative matters related to standing
rules and nominations. We also heard a
progress report on construction on the new
United Methodist Center in Gwinnett
County, slated for opening in November
2001. Currently, the project is on
schedule and within budget.
During
this session, Athens-Clarke County Mayor
Doc Eldridge, a member of Athens First
UMC, welcomed the Conference to Athens and
thanked the delegates for their civic
involvement in counties and cities across
North Georgia. "I can't tell you how
important good strong Christian leadership
is to the success of your community," he
said. "You are the backbone of your
community."
After the
mayor spoke, Bishop Lindsey Davis and his
wife Jennifer received a copy of a
commendation
from Georgia Governor Roy Barnes,
recognizing their service to the State and
commending the Bishop for his
reappointment to serve a second term as
residing bishop for North
Georgia.
Tuesday's
most important business came late in the
afternoon, as delegates voted on eleven
proposed
amendments
to the constitution of the United
Methodist Church. Under our rules, any
such amendment requires approval by
two-thirds of all the United Methodist
delegates meeting in Annual Conference
sessions around the world.
With many
conferences yet to meet this year, the
outcome of the vote won't be known for
several weeks. Results of the voting are
not announced by individual
conferences.
The most
controversial amendment was Amendment IV,
which seeks to substantially change the
membership provisions of the United
Methodist Book of Discipline, our
book of denominational rules and
principles.
Such a
change would be needed to have the
Discipline conform to language in
By
Water and the
Spirit,
a document approved by the 1996 General
Conference which seeks to set forth an
official United Methodist interpretative
statement on baptism. (The General
Conference, a gathering of United
Methodists from around the world, meets
every four years to set denominational
policies and priorities.) By Water and
the Spirit states that a person "who
is baptized becomes a member of. . .the
[United Methodist Church] and of
the local congregation."
But in
1997, the United Methodist
Judicial
Council,
our denominational equivalent of the
Supreme Court, ruled
that making baptism the door to United
Methodist membership isn't consistent with
language in our Discipline which
says that persons are eligible for
membership "when they take the appropriate
vows."
Amendment
IV, sent to the Annual Conferences for
approval or disapproval, seeks to alter
the Discipline to conform to
By
Water and the
Spirit.
If approved, all baptized persons,
whether they have taken vows or not, would
be considered "members" of the United
Methodist Church and of local
congregations.
Several
speeches were made both for and against
Amendment IV. I found myself in strong
agreement with remarks
made by the Rev. Joe Peabody, senior
pastor of Marietta
First UMC,
who noted that "we in the Protestant
tradition lay claim to the thought that we
are justified by faith and not by works. .
. . United Methodism is fundamentally a
Protestant church in which members become
members by profession of faith, personally
experienced and witnessed to."
As your
lay delegate, I spoke
against approval of Amendment IV as well.
Quoting from the Judicial Council
ruling
itself ("The General Conference enacted
legislation. . .without thoroughly
anticipating the full ramifications of the
changes"), I urged the delegates to reject
the amendment.
|
|
Dr.
Russell
Richey
|
A Service
of Ordination and
Commissioning
was held Tuesday evening, with preaching
by Dr.
Russell
Richey,
Dean of the Candler School of Theology at
Emory University. He challenged the
congregation to pursue Christlikeness in
daily living.
During the
service, many conference clergy were
either commissioned or ordained, depending
on their status as probationary members,
deacons, or elders.
To be
commissioned or ordained, a candidate must
answer the following question
affirmatively: "Are you persuaded that the
scriptures of the Old and New Testaments
contain all things necessary for salvation
through faith in Jesus Christ, and are the
unique and authoritative standard for the
Church's faith and life?"
Each
candidate also pledged to uphold the
"doctrine and discipline" of the United
Methodist Church, and commit themselves to
accountability within the
Church.
Wednesday,
June 13
Each of
the morning sessions (Wed., Thurs., Fri.)
began with a time of praise and worship,
followed by Bible study and
prayer.
Our
worship leader this year was the
enthusiastic Lisa Allen of
Andrews
Chapel
UMC
in Jonesboro.
This
year's Bible teacher was Dr.
Richard
Hays,
professor of New Testament at Duke
Divinity School, and author of the highly
acclaimed book, The
Moral Vision of the New
Testament
(HarperCollins, 1996). In 1999, Dr. Hays
was commended by Christianity
Today
for "articulating an unapologetically
orthodox faith" within the
often-unorthodox academic
community.
His
teaching at the Annual Conference session
largely mirrored his 1997 work,
First
Corinthians: A Bible Commentary for
Teaching and
Preaching
(Westminster John Knox). He helped us
understand the pagan cultural influences
in first-century Corinth that shaped the
views and practices of the Corinthian
church. Dr. Hays also demonstrated, by
careful examination of the text, how Paul
repeatedly challenged those views and
practices, thus helping the Corinthian
believers understand God's model for godly
living, individually and
corporately.
"Here are
some of the problems they had [in the
Corinthian church,]" Dr. Hays noted:
"Confusion about sexual behavior and
marriage, neglect of the poor by those who
were rich and well educated, a tangle of
lawsuits, fights in the church about
proper ways to worship together, and the
splitting of the community into factions."
Of course, these are all issues we
struggle with into today's church, making
the teaching of 1st Corinthians especially
relevant to our day.
"Someone
has said that the Corinthians had all the
same problems we have in the church today,
save one: they're meetings were never
dull," Dr. Hays remarked.
The
Wednesday morning business session opened
with Marjorie Kimbrough, a faculty member
at Clark Atlanta University and wife of
the pastor of Atlanta's Cascade
UMC,
offering a prayer based on the
prayer
of Jabez,
found in 1 Chronicles 4.
Later in
the morning came a special time for
recognition of retiring clergy. Each
retiring clergy person had the opportunity
to come to the lectern and make a few
remarks about his or her years of
ministry.
Sadly,
several retiring preachers, rather than
focusing on how they have seen God at work
during their years of service, used their
farewell remarks simply to tell funny
stories. But a number of retiring clergy
seized the opportunity to say something
substantive about God's grace, His power,
and the sufficiency of Christ.
I was
especially taken by the remarks of the
Rev. Dan McFarland, retiring after serving
eight churches in the North Georgia
Conference since the mid-1960s. He
challenged his fellow preachers to read,
study, and preach the Bible. "A
[key] Scripture for all of us who
are in ministry. . . is Isaiah
55:11,
where God says, 'My word will not return
to me void, but will accomplish that for
which it is sent forth.' Believe that. It
is true," Mr. McFarland urged.
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|
Bil
and Marti
Slife
|
On a personal note, my mother, Marti
Slife, retired at this Annual Conference
session, after more than 40 years of music
ministry in the Methodist
connection.
Mom was
consecrated as a minister of music in the
North Georgia Conference in 1960 (about
six months after I was born). In 1977, she
was consecrated as a diaconal minister,
and then ordained as deacon in
1997.
"I
celebrate all that is past," she said,
"and I look forward to a terrific future.
Hallelujah!"
On
Wednesday afternoon, the Conference held
its annual Service of Celebration and
Remembrance, noting the passing of
Conference clergy members who have died
since the previous year's Conference
session. The Rev. Dr. Ed Tomlinson,
executive assistant to Bishop Davis, read
the names of the deceased, followed by a
bagpipe solo of Amazing
Grace.
Among
those who have died this past year was the
Rev. Delma Hagood, who served as pastor of
Boggs Chapel Church (now Gateway Church)
in the 1930s.
The
highlight of the Wednesday afternoon
business session was the announcement of a
new Conference prayer ministry,
Prayer
Force,
headed by the Rev. Roger Vest, pastor of
Shiloh
UMC
near Covington.
"It is has
been my privilege, as I have met and
befriended many of you, to see the heart
for prayer alive in church after church
throughout this Conference," he said.
"[The Prayer Force is] for all of
us who yearn to draw closer to Christ, for
all of us who yearn to see our family,
friends, and neighbors come to know
Christ, and for all of us who long to see
the United Methodist Church in North
Georgia be mightily used of God in the
years to come."
One of the
goals of the Prayer Force is to ensure
that each local church and extension
ministry in our Conference is prayed for
on a regular basis.
"We are
praying for three things," Mr. Vest said.
"One is revival in our local churches....
We are praying for the unchurched in our
communities... by name.... And we're going
to pray for the needs of specific
congregations."
(On a
related note, for the past several years
the North Georgia United Methodist Men has
set up a prayer room for use during the
Annual Conference session. I observed much
more use of the prayer room this year than
in previous years. Almost every time I
went to the prayer room this year, someone
else was there or was just
leaving.)
The
Wednesday afternoon session continued with
a report from the Office of Church
Development, which is responsible for
overseeing the planting of new churches
and the redevelopment of existing churches
that need a helping hand. Church
Development is launching several new
churches this year, including several
Spanish-language congregations. One by
one, we were introduced to the pastors who
are planting those churches.
Bishop
Davis then prayed for the evangelistic
success of these new congregations (his
prayer was simultaneously translated into
Spanish): "Gracious God, give us a vision
for winning persons for Jesus Christ. Help
us to support and encourage these pastors
and their families. . . . Protect them and
guide them as they, on behalf of all of
us, spread the gospel."
Wednesday
evening's worship service was termed a
"laity celebration," aimed at emphasizing
and recognizing the ministry of lay people
in our Conference.
The
service featured wonderful music by a
men's group called the Disciples of Song
from Mt.
Pisgah
UMC
in Alpharetta, as well as by a women's
trio from Hartwell First UMC.
The
preacher for the evening was James Smith,
a certified lay speaker in our Conference,
who at one time served as the
lay
pastor of Flint Hill
UMC
in the Rome-Carrollton
District.
Using
Acts
2:17-18
as his text, Mr. Smith preached about
having a dream and vision from God.
"People of vision are focused on Jesus
Christ," he said.
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James
Smith
|
The early Methodist movement was driven
by a vision of proclaiming Christ and
saving souls by the power of the Holy
Spirit, Mr. Smith reminded his
listeners.
Today,
both lay people and clergy in our
connection are reclaiming that
vision.
"Because
of the vision of Methodist people here in
north Georgia. . . you're going see God do
some things," he preached. "The anointing
of the Lord is going to flow like a river
through our churches. . . .
"The fire
of revival is going to fall and you're
going to see greater things than you've
ever seen before, because God's people
have a dream and a vision for our United
Methodist Church!"
Thursday,
June 14
Gateway's
own Beverly Varnado provided music for the
early morning Communion service on
Thursday. Afterward, several youth
delegates thanked her for playing and
singing contemporary worship songs as the
Communion meal was being
served.
In his
Bible teaching Thursday morning, based on
1
Corinthians 5 and
6,
Dr. Richard
Hays
pulled no punches in calling for the
Church to exercise its God-given authority
to hold members accountable for unholy
behavior.
"Church
discipline is necessary," he said. "Our
failure to exercise. . .discipline in our
churches is simply a sign of our
unfaithfulness. Our appeal to tolerance
becomes a cover for indifference and a
simple lack of moral courage. . . .
"The
Church ought to step up and claim this
responsibility [toward] people who
flagrantly, willfully, repeatedly violate
the norms of Scripture and the will of
God," he urged.
But Dr.
Hays explained that the goal of church
discipline isn't simply punishment; it has
a redemptive purpose. "Without clear
discipline, no healing is possible, either
for the offender or for offended," he
said.
We must
toss aside the unbiblical notion that
holding our church members accountable to
a holiness of behavior is somehow harsh or
unloving, he declared. "We have deluded
ourselves into thinking that the loving
thing to do is to be infinitely
nonjudgmental and inclusive. This is quite
simply a demonic lie. . . .
"It is a
strange irony that we as Wesleyans should
find the idea of community discipline so
difficult and foreign," Dr. Hays noted.
"The very thing that distinguished the
Wesleyan movement in its origins was
an insistence on accountability
to one another and living a disciplined
life, pursuing sanctification."
In the
morning business session, Conference Lay
Leader Joe Whittemore, representing the
Board
of Laity,
challenged the delegates to move to a new
paradigm of shared ministry between clergy
and laity. "We are now at a crossroads in
the history of Methodism," he said. Rather
than continuing to propagate situations in
which either clergy or laity "control
everything" in a local church, "we have
the opportunity to begin truly sharing
ministry and leadership."
At the
noontime Laity Luncheon, the Rev.
Dick
Wills,
senior pastor of Christ
Church United
Methodist
in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida explained how
his church has moved to a "New Testament
model" of shared ministry between clergy
and laity.
After
running his church for years based on
clergy-centered authority structure, "I
had a very novel idea!" Mr. Wills said. "I
thought, 'I wonder what the New Testament
says about the church?'"
Applying
principles drawn from Acts
2:42-47,
Acts
6:1-6,
and 1
Peter
5:1-4,
Christ Church gradually moved to a
biblical paradigm of ministry.
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Dick
Wills
|
"[There
was] a big shift in how we understood
the church," Mr. Wills
explained.
"Before
the people would come to church, sit in
the pews, serve on a committee, give the
money, hire me and I was going to do their
work. But that's not what the New
Testament says."
Christ
Church began training lay people to be
"lay pastors," each overseeing an area of
the church's ministry. Each small group
leader, for example, is considered a lay
pastor.
"We have
now about 130 lay pastors, and my task
really is to be the key spiritual leader
who simply leads and does spiritual
nurturing and prays," Mr. Wills said.
Mr. Wills,
who has written about the transformation
at Christ Church in his book,
Waking
to God's
Dream
(Abingdon, 1999), noted that adopting a
model of shared ministry requires both
clergy and laity to give up
something.
"[To]
have this kind of church, a New Testament
church, the pastor must give up control of
the ministry. . . . But on the other side,
laity have to give up control of who is
the spiritual leader," he said.
"The
church was never meant to be run by
committee. . . . We're not a democracy,
we're a theocracy -- which means it
doesn't matter what you think, it doesn't
matter what I think. It only matters,
'What is God's will?'"
The
Thursday afternoon worship service focused
on the Church's mission of evangelism.
Music for this service was led by a
excellent praise band and worship
team.
Bishop
John
Hopkins,
residing bishop for the Minnesota
Annual
Conference,
preached without notes from
Matthew
16:13-20,
the passage in which Peter responds to
God's revelation and declares that Jesus
is the Christ.
"If you
want to introduce somebody to Jesus
Christ, you've got to be keenly aware of
Jesus Christ yourself," Bishop Hopkins
said, after giving his own testimony of
recognizing the reality of Christ in the
sixth grade. "You can't introduce anyone
else to something you don't know
yourself."
After the
sermon, Bishop Davis reminded the
delegates that "we live in a world where
most people don't know Jesus Christ as
Lord and Savior. . .and we have a story to
share."
The
service closed with the worship team
leading the congregation in
"Jesus
is the
Answer."
Thursday
afternoon's business session included an
extensive report from the Conference
Council
on
Ministries,
with the theme "Focus on Jesus and All
Becomes Clear." In explaining all the
ministry outreaches of the North Georgia
Annual Conference, Council director Mac
Brantley stressed that "Our main mission
to keep the focus of our Conference on
Jesus Christ."
Bishop
Hopkins
of the Minnesota Conference preached again
on Thursday evening at a worship service
emphasizing missions.
More
than
$216,000
was given at this service for the
Bishop's
Initiative Offering for Transitional
Housing.
Friday,
June 15
In the
Bible teaching session on Friday morning,
Dr. Richard
Hays,
teaching from 1
Corinthians
15,
focused on the implications of the
biblical promise of the resurrection of
the dead.
"[Some
in the Corinthian church] denied the
resurrection of the dead, and by denying
the resurrection they also denied the
importance of the world God created," he
explained.
"They
denied, whether they meant to or not, that
these flawed bodies of ours are loved by
God and will be redeemed. And therefore,
whether they meant to or not, they denied
that we do with these bodies is in
ultimate significance," he
said.
Dr. Hays
stressed that we must set aside unbiblical
cultural notions in the Church and start
thinking Scripturally about moral issues
that involve the body. "The word's way of
thinking has seeped into our thinking. We
have a deep sense of entitlement to what
'we want.' . . . [But] Paul's call
is [for us] to recognize that we
are not our own, that we were bought with
a price. Our self-constructed world has
ended," he said.
"We are
members of Christ and members of one
another, and our calling is to glorify God
in our bodies -- and in our corporate
Body."
The
Conference then turned its attention to a
number of resolutions submitted by various
groups and individuals.
The
following resolutions were among those
approved:
- A
resolution
calling for expanded
cooperation with Christians
"not affiliated with the World
or National Council of
Churches." The resolution
noted that "the growing areas
of Christianity are largely
found among denominations and
church movements that have no
affiliation [with the two
councils]."
- A
resolution,
from the Task Force on Persons
Living in Poverty, encouraging
local churches "to extend
ministries of pastoral care
and social and legal
assistance" toward
immigrants.
- A
resolution,
from Powers Ferry UMC, asking
Bishop Davis to appoint a task
force "to study the impact of
cult activity on... college
campuses."
- A
resolution
supporting alternatives to
abortion and calling upon the
United Methodist Church's
General Board of Church and
Society and the Women's
Division of the General Board
of Global Ministries to
withdraw from the
Religious
Coalition for Reproductive
Choice.
- A
resolution
on faith-based charitable
work, calling for "our
churches to redouble their
efforts on behalf of the poor
[and to integrate]
these programs with an
evangelistic emphasis that
clearly makes Jesus Christ
their central focus." The
resolution also endorsed
"partnerships between
government programs and church
ministries that allow those
ministries to assume their
fair share of responsibility
for anti-poverty efforts
without compromising their
spiritual mission."
- A
resolution
adopting the "Christian
Delcaration on
Marriage,"
endorsed last year by the
National Association of
Evangelicals, the Roman
Catholic Church, and the
Southern Baptist
Convention.
- A
resolution
calling "upon all our churches
to pray for those enduring
[religious]
persecution, to participate in
the International Day of
Prayer for the Persecuted
Church, to inform their
congregations about the plight
of persecuted religious
believers; to evaluate
church-owned stock portfolios
to avoid investments
supporting governments that
conduct religious persecution,
to challenge the media to give
more attention to the issue of
religious persecution; and to
urge public officials to
develop policies that will
promote full religious freedom
around the world."
- A
resolution
from the Conference Board of
Laity calling for the "total
and complete banning of video
poker in our State as well as.
. .increased enforcement of
current anti-gambling
laws."
|
The
conference session then moved toward a
close, with a series of routine reports
and resolutions.
Just
before adjournment, Bishop Davis read the
list
of clergy
appointments
and each district lay leader prayed an
appropriate prayer of blessing for the
clergy appointed to serve in his or her
district.
I am
pleased to report that our pastor, the
Rev. Jerry
Varnado,
is returning to us for a 17th
year.
May the
LORD bless us indeed, in this year and in
years to come!
|
