The following prayer by the Rev. Tim Whitaker was published in the January/February 2001 issue of the The District Beam, newsletter of the Virginia Conference’s Norfolk District. At the time, Mr. Whitaker was serving as superintendent of that district.
On Feb. 28, 2001, he was elected to be a bishop and was assigned to United Methodist Church’s Florida Annual Conference.
Though not originally written for Pentecost Sunday, the prayer is certainly fitting for that occasion.
Eternal God, by the outpouring of your Holy Spirit you have established your church to be the visible body of Jesus Christ on earth and chosen us to be members of Christ’s body.
Bishop Timothy Whitaker
Build up your church in faith upon the foundation of the teaching of the apostles, with the proclamation of Christ as the cornerstone.
Deliver your church from the blindness of heresies and from the cowardice of acquiescing to the principalities and powers of this present age.
Give us courage to raise the sails of the ark of salvation, which is your holy church, so that we may be blown forward in mission by the wind of your Holy Spirit.
Deliver us from the temptation to steer your ship into safe harbors to protect ourselves from the bracing breezes of that Spirit who would send us into uncharted waters where we do not want to go.
Preserve your assemblies from profane strife, weariness of spirit, and fear of holy boldness.
May your church experience anew the freedom of obedience, the joy of adventure, and the satisfaction of being employed in your great work in the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
The following reflection on Pentecost was written in 2000 by Bishop G. Lindsey Davis, now episcopal leader of the Kentucky Annual Conference and the Red Bird Missionary Conference.
In many of our United Methodist churches, Pentecost Sunday will be observed only casually. For still others, no mention of Pentecost will be made at all.
It wasn’t that way in the early church! For the first 200 years of the Christian faith, there was only one major season of celebration — and it wasn’t Christmas.
Instead, it began around Easter and culminated 50 days later with the festival of Pentecost!
Pentecost was a day to stand amazed at the grace of God. It was a day to embrace a new Spirit — a time to allow the Holy Spirit of God to energize all their worship and their living.
For the early church, Pentecost was a highlight of the year — a day of excitement and sheer joy.
It was the same on the first Pentecost, when the disciples of Jesus gathered in Jerusalem. Acts 2 tells us they experienced a dynamic outpouring of God’s presence that day that all but catapulted them into ministry — witnessing, proclaiming, loving, caring, teaching, baptizing, and sharing with one another.
That first Pentecost was God’s trumpet blast to the world, birthing the church of Jesus Christ.
Becoming Christ-bearers
The kind of wind-and-flame Christianity that flows from Pentecost isn’t safe. It is radically unsafe — and uncomfortable. It will cost you everything.
What difference did it make in the lives of the early believers to have the Spirit upon them? Read about it in the Book of Acts. They sold whatever they owned so they could make sure that each individual need was met; they followed a disciplined routine of worship, prayer, and Bible Study; they lived together in wonderful harmony.
And everyday God added to their number those who were being saved.
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses,” Jesus proclaimed to His disciples. To be a witness for Him is to be a “Christ-bearer” — to bear the image of Jesus Christ at the deepest roots of who we are, what we do, and where we go.
To that end, may God’s Holy Spirit come and fall afresh on us!
Lindsey Davis was elected to the episcopacy at the 1996 Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference, after serving as a pastor and district superintendent in Kentucky. He served as the bishop of the North Georgia Conference from 1996-2008.
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Look down and see this waiting host,
And send the promised Holy Ghost;
We need another Pentecost.
Send the fire today!
Stopping in for a brief visit last week at a United Methodist Church in Indiana, I was pleased to see a poster in the narthex indicating the congregation would be participating in this Sunday’s Global Day of Prayer. This international prayer event represents one of the most remarkable spiritual movements of our time.
The Global Day of Prayer had its beginnings in 2001, when a Day of Repentance and Prayer was held at Newlands Rugby Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa. In 2002, similar prayer events took place across South Africa.
In 2004, Christians throughout the African continent — in 56 nations — participated in a continental Day of Repentance and Prayer for Africa.
The first Global Day of Prayer took place on Pentecost Sunday 2005, with believers in 156 nations — including the United States — taking part. By Pentecost Sunday last year, the movement had spread to 214 nations.
Use the video player below to see excerpts from last year’s Global Day of Prayer observance, the largest prayer gathering in history.
GDOP_2008
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Global Day of Prayer gatherings will be held this Sunday in stadiums, parks, local churches, and private homes.
Because this year the event falls on a “fifth Sunday,” the Day of Prayer will be observed in some communities as part of regularly scheduled “Fifth Sunday Community Services” that bring together several congregations for joint worship.
Each local Global Day of Prayer event will be unique, as believers in different parts of the world worship and pray according to their own cultures and customs. But at some point each gathering of believers — across all 200-plus nations — will pray the 2009 Prayer for World (PDF), a prayer of unity rooted in a common desire to see the unfolding of God’s purposes. In English, it reads in part:
King of Glory,
Come and finish Your work in our cities, our peoples and our nations.
We lift our voices in unison with believers from Africa and Asia,
from the Middle East and Europe, from North and South America,
and from Australia and the Pacific Islands — together we cry:
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Be lifted up ancient doors
so that the King of glory may come in!
As Your deeds increase throughout the earth,
and as Your blessings abound to all the nations,
they will seek You, asking, “Who is this King of glory?”
Together we will answer:
He is the Lord Almighty!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
Come fill the earth with Your glory as the waters cover the sea.
The Spirit and the Bride say:
Amen! Come Lord Jesus!
Many (but certainly not all) Global Day of Prayer events in the U.S. are shown here.
After serving as a pastor in the North Georgia Conference for more than two decades, Tom became one of North Georgia’s General Evangelists in 1994.
Since that time, he has preached at revivals, camp meetings, and special services in nearly 30 of the UMC’s annual conferences.
Tom Atkins is also a member of the Francis Asbury Society, founded by former Asbury College president Dennis Kinlaw. The society is a group focused on “liv[ing] and proclaim[ing] the truth that complete Christian salvation involves not only forgiveness but also… transformation through the Holy Spirit’s power.”
The sermon on this week’s podcast, “We Need the Power of the Holy Spirit,” was preached in January 2009 at an evangelism rally sponsored by two districts of the North Georgia Conference.
To listen, use the audio player below (22 min.) — or download an mp3 (10MB).
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This edition of the MethodistThinker Podcast concludes our current season. Lord willing, the podcast will resume in September.
The Rev. Dick McClain has been chosen as the next president of The Mission Society, the Methodist-led missionary-sending agency founded 25 years ago. The Society now has more than 225 missionaries serving in 32 nations around the world.
The Rev. Dick McClain
Mr. McClain, who has served as The Society’s vice president for church ministry since 2000, will succeed Dr. Phil Granger, who is retiring at the end of this year.
“Dick brings [to the presidential post a] total commitment to Christ and the mission entrusted to the church to…bring God’s message of salvation and eternal life to the world,” Dr. Granger said of his newly named successor “He [also] brings his love for The Mission Society, as evidenced by more than 20 years of service to this fantastic ministry.”
Mr. McClain, the son and grandson of missionaries, was born in China and was raised in India and Hong Kong. Later, after earning a degree from Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky (USA), he served as a United Methodist pastor in West Michigan.
He began his career with The Mission Society in 1986 and became vice president for mission ministries 1995, with responsibility for overseeing the agency’s international ministries. Nine years ago, he was named vice president for church ministry, with the task of mobilizing local churches (PDF) for global outreach (related video here).
Mr. McClain will assume his duties as The Mission Society’s new president on Dec. 1, 2009.
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Use the audio player below to listen to a 2008 interview with Dick McClain, produced by Mission Network News (11 min.).
The Mission Society was founded in January 1984 under the name, The Mission Society for United Methodists.
In celebration of 25 years of ministry, The Society is sponsoring an open house on Sept. 11 at the agency’s headquarters in Norcross, Georgia, followed by a reception, banquet, and program at nearby Norcross First United Methodist Church (registration details here). Seating for the banquet is limited to 350.
“I believe…Jesus Christ…ascended into heaven,
and stitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”
These words, from the Apostles’ Creed, are spoken in many United Methodist worship services almost every Sunday. Regrettably, few people who speak them understand why the Ascension is one of the key doctrines of the Christian faith.
I hope many pastors and teachers will seek to remedy that this Sunday — Ascension Sunday.
Not long ago, I stumbled across a passionate presentation on the Ascension by well-known Southern Baptist author and speaker, Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
[T]he writer of the book of Hebrews says to us that [Jesus] is our mediator — but he is not only our mediator, he is our great high priest. He understands us….
Dr. Albert Mohler
It’s common to hear evangelicals say, “We don’t need a priest…because Christ did it all. It’s all done. Nothing needs to be mediated for us now….”
And that’s so right, it’s horribly wrong. We need no earthly priest — but we are desperately dependent upon the great high priest who intercedes before the throne of God, intercedes for the saints. We are desperately, in every single moment of our lives, absolutely dependent upon the active intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ for His own….
We need a priest — oh, how we need a priest. And what a priest we have!…
Every single breath we take, we take because Jesus Christ is our mediator and great high priest. Everything we do in the name of Christ is undergirded, is sustained, is blessed and promised by God because of the intercession of Jesus Christ….
The fact that He ascended to heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty is the only reason we can…say — as we sing in the words of Charles Wesley:
Bold I approach th’ eternal throne,
and claim the crown, through Christ my own.
What kind of boldness could we possibly have in approaching the throne of God if Christ Himself were not sitting at the Father’s right hand?
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Use the audio player below to listen to Dr. Mohler’s remarks (six minutes), excerpted from a series on the Apostles’ Creed presented last year at Southern Seminary.
Though the cloud from sight received him
when the forty days were o’er
shall our hearts forget his promise,
‘I am with you evermore’?
— William Chatterton Dix
In his role as director of World Evangelism, he oversees the efforts of 16 regional evangelists worldwide. His efforts at linking Methodists through the “Connecting Congregations” program have resulted in 149 partnerships between established churches and newly formed congregations.
The sermon on this week’s podcast was preached in February 2009 at Calvary UMC in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Fox’s text is 2 Corinthians 5:16-21.
To listen to the podcast, use the audio player below (17 min.) — or download an mp3 (7.9 MB).
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Next week, as Pentecost Sunday nears, the MethodistThinker Podcast will present sermon titled, “The Power of the Holy Spirit,” by Methodist evangelist Tom Atkins of the North Georgia Conference.
For previous podcasts, click the podcasts tab at the top of this page.
Jerry P. Kulah, superintendent of the United Methodist Church’s Monrovia District in Liberia, is urging defeat of a series of constitutional amendments aimed at restructuring the denomination. If passed, the amendments likely would result in the structural segregation of United Methodists in Africa, Asia, and Europe from United Methodists in the U.S.
The Rev. Jerry Kulah
The amendments, proposed by the Task Force on the Global Nature of the Church (Task Force report—PDF), were approved by last year’s General Conference.
To be enacted, an amendment to the UM Constitution must be ratified by two-thirds of the aggregate “voting members” from all the Annual Conferences. Members may debate amendments, but cannot alter them.
In a video posted to YouTube on May 7, Mr. Kulah said the amendments were written without an appropriate level of consultation with African leaders or with “grassroots” Methodists from across the denomination.
“We should have been consulted on this matter,” he said.
Mr. Kulah noted that “most United Methodists in Africa are not [even] aware” of the proposed amendments, much less have an understanding of the changes that could result if the amendments are passed. For that matter, he is “not sure that [most] United Methodists in America are [aware] either.”
All 135 UM Conferences (62 Annual Conferences in the U.S. and 73 Conferences in Africa, Asia, and Europe) have begun voting on 23 amendments relating to the structure of the denomination. Those votes will take place over the next several months (schedule of Annual Conference sessions—PDF).
In the video, the Monrovia District Superintendent said he was open to a well-considered proposal for restructuring the UMC at some time in the future, but noted that “many of us who are leaders of the church in Africa do not favor passing these amendments right now.”
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In a December 2008 address to a session of the West Africa Central Conference (meeting in Paynesville, Liberia), Jerry Kulah offered an extended critique of the current restructuring proposal. He expressed concern that it could “create division and segregation within the global community of believers called the United Methodists.”
Excerpts from his address are below.
At the most recent General Conference, some leaders of the United Methodist Church in America proposed an amendment to the Constitution of the UMC for the creation of “Regional Conferences.”… [Related amendments call for renaming the] Central Conferences [as] Regional Conference….
[It is said] that we need to change our name from Central Conference to Regional Conference because this name has had a racial overtone in the U.S.A. It is also alleged to have had a racial overtone outside of the U.S.A., including Africa, since it was the white missionaries who established Central Conferences here, thereby creating a paternalistic relationship between the Church in America and the Church in Africa….
While this argument, on the surface, looks appealing and unifying, there is a serious problem with it.
In the first place, the African Central Conferences are not the ones putting forth this proposal…. The African Church is not complaining for bearing the name “Central Conference.”…
Besides, ever since the Church transitioned from missionary leadership to African leadership several decades ago, the African Central Conferences became African institutions: self-governing, self-sustaining, self-theologizing, and largely self-supporting….
Our Central Conferences, just like any American Jurisdictional Conference, enjoy the same representation commensurate with its membership — have the same authority, same responsibility….
[Some have argued that ultimately there should be a Regional Conference just for America, saying,] “We need to create the possibility of a regional Conference in the U.S.A. to deal with cultural issues and other questions that do not concern the rest of the world.”…
Certainly, this proposal, as it stands, has the propensity to create division and segregation within the global community of believers called the United Methodists….
If this [idea of creating a] Regional Conference [in the U.S.A.]…is pursued and sustained, we are most likely to have a fractured church. In addition, we might not have a common [Book of] Discipline and a unified way of doing the business of the United Methodist Church. Regional Conferences doing their own things could keep going their separate ways until new denominations eventually evolve…. The pursuit of Regional Conferences is not likely to enhance our unity but to divide us….
[Another argument for restructuring the UMC] surrounds the financial sustainability of the boards and agencies of the General Church. As the financial situation currently stands, it is a fact that almost all of the money to run the agencies comes from the United States. Therefore the unpublicized but vehement argument amongst some of the leaders of our American Methodist church is: “Let the people who pay the money make the decisions about church structure.”
Based upon information we often gather from various UMC web sites, African Central Conferences are not alone in their struggle to become financially self-sustaining. The Western Jurisdiction [in the U.S.] is also being subsidized by other jurisdictions, particularly the Southeast[ern] Jurisdiction. When one therefore uses this argument against the African Church, it has the tendency to be prejudicial and racist because the same argument is not being raised [in regard] to the Western Jurisdiction.
Besides, our financial challenges are not due to rapid loss in membership, as [is the case in] the Western Jurisdiction, but [stem from] civil crises, wars, diseases, coupled with institutionalized corruption of some African leaders that affects every institution, including the Church. However, in my opinion, this argument should serve as a wake-up call to all African Central Conferences to face up to the reality of becoming more and more financially sustainable….
Leaders from the American UMC cannot plan for us in isolation and tell us what is best for us. The period of colonization and paternalism is over for the people and Church in Africa. Any decision regarding the future of the Church must involve leaders of the Church in Africa — from its conception stage to the time it becomes a finished product. In this way, such a decision would be understood, owned by the people, and sustained by them….
Methodist missionaries from the U.S., before leaving for Liberia circa 1898
The…missionaries who came to us in Africa…a hundred years ago brought to us a biblical faith. Our [African] delegates going to General Conference are going there with a biblical perspective.
Because of our biblical perspective and continued growth, the liberals within the Church see their African brothers and sisters as threat to the control of the Church — just as about 140 years ago, whites Methodists in America saw black people as a threat to the control of the Church.
Certainly, this divisive spirit should not be encouraged amongst brothers and sisters who claim allegiance to Jesus Christ….
As I end this presentation, I wish to call to mind a concern raised by John Wesley five years to his demise. He had entertained the fear that, the people called Methodists would “not cease to exist” across the globe but that they would “exist as a mere sect,” having the form of godliness but having no power to live for Christ. And that would certainly be the case unless they held to the “faith, doctrine, and discipline with which they first set out.”
I am afraid that the current trend within global Methodism, wherein some are calling for segregation within the Church in the name of Regional Conferences, might well be confirming Wesley’s fear.
Let us recommit ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and to an undivided commitment to the supremacy of the Holy Bible as our final authority for faith and practice. We must ensure that after our labor on earth is done, we shall leave behind positive legacies that future generations would build upon.
The May 9 WORLD magazine has an update on the work of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling — recently re-christened StopPredatoryGambling.org.
The Rev. Tom Grey
The long-time field director of the anti-gambling group is United Methodist clergyman Tom Grey.
“Grey…still runs mini-marathons at the age of 67 but wants to encourage a younger generation to join a movement often dominated by Methodists because of John Wesley’s social reform legacy,” writes reporter Russ Pulliam (full article available to subscribers only).
With a new bill in Congress to repeal the ban on online gambling, Pulliam notes that Stop Predatory Gambling “could capture more public attention, similar to the way Mothers Against Drunk Driving grabbed the public eye in the 1980s and 1990s.”
[I]t’s clear that the anti-gambling movement needs help. Legal gambling has expanded by leaps and bounds since the 1960s, with new state lotteries, Indian casinos, and electronic machines in bars and restaurants…. It has a corrupting political influence that is hard for public officials to resist.
The other scandal is quiet. The consequences of addiction spread slowly. Marriages break; consumer debt soars; bankruptcies climb. White collar crime emerges, as addicted gamblers steal from small businesses and schools.
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., is proposing the repeal [of the internet-gambling ban] and plans to hold hearings this month…. The outcome of Frank’s proposal is uncertain because gambling doesn’t necessarily divide by political party. Some strong opponents have been liberal Democrats….
The Stop Predatory Gambling movement doesn’t have millions of dollars. But the moral authority behind the opposition sometimes wins battles even when predatory gambling advocates have more money and power.
Of course, moral authority doesn’t carry the weight it once did. A 2008 study by Ellison Research found that 70 percent of Americans don’t consider gambling to be a sin.
“The church’s opposition to gambling has not been widely effective,” Mr. Grey told Religion News Service last year, because religion-based moral arguments are considered “not relevant in an irreverent age.” That is why Mr. Grey now couches his case against gambling primarily in economic and quality-of-life terms, using abundant statistics on gambling-related bankruptcy, crime, and addictions.
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The United Methodist Book of Discipline (¶163G) describes gambling as “a menace to society, deadly to the best interests of moral, social, economic, and spiritual life, and destructive of good government.”
The 2004 UM Book of Resolutionsnotes that “gambling is bad economics; gambling is bad public policy; and gambling does not improve the quality of life.” (This resolution was first passed in 1980 and readopted in 2004.)
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Last month, Tom Grey was in Indiana, speaking against a proposal to bring casino gambling to Fort Wayne.
This week’s MethodistThinker Podcast features a sermon by the late Methodist missionary, Dr. E. Stanley Jones.
E. Stanley Jones
Born in 1884, Eli Stanley Jones responded to the call to missionary service in his early 20s. He spent much of his adult life in India, although as an “evangelist at large” for the Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he preached and taught in many nations.
E. Stanley Jones also was the founder of the international Christian Ashram movement, a retreat ministry focused on creating an environment in which people could get away from their normal routine and seek the Lord.
We have sinned and done wrong. All this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not given attention to your truth. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. O LORD, forgive!
Instead, it began around Easter and culminated 50 days later with the festival of Pentecost!
The Global Day of Prayer had its beginnings in 2001, when a Day of Repentance and Prayer was held at Newlands Rugby Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa. In 2002, similar prayer events took place across South Africa.
The Mission Society was 
While this argument, on the surface, looks appealing and unifying, there is a serious problem with it.
