On this edition of the MethodistThinker Mini-Podcast, Bishop Lindsey Davis of the Kentucky Annual Conference says the United Methodist Church must repent of its missional lethargy and re-commit itself to the purposes of God in Jesus Christ if it hopes to have renewed life.
Bishop G. Lindsey Davis
In his remarks, recorded last fall at a meeting of the Christian Educators Fellowship, Bishop Davis references Deuteronomy 30:19 (“I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life…”) and Zechariah 9:12 (“…you prisoners of hope”).
To listen to a five-minute excerpt from that October 2010 address, use the audio player below — or download an mp3 file (5MB).
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Before being assigned to the Louisville Area, Bishop Davis served for 12 years as the episcopal leader of the North Georgia Conference.
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What really needs to be done? Seems vague.
Choose life? What does he mean?
A message not only for the UMC, but a message for dying denominations everywhere.
God bless,
Greg
Funny thing is, the Holy Spirit is doing fine all across Asia, Africa and South America. The USA version of the UMC has become a social institution, not a spiritual force as it once was. We collect cans or walk three miles to raise money instead of setting up prayer-warrior meetings and handing out Bibles.
The UMC also has forgotten that there must be “repentance” with the shedding of blood for the remission of sin (Hebrews 9:22). We look more and more like the outside world. It’s all OK because “Joe is a nice guy; St. Peter will surely let him in.” Well it ain’t OK! Ten years of prison ministry showed me what a changed heart looks like. That’s not it!
We have the greatest gifts ever offered to anyone: eternity plus abundant life — and we can’t even break even on membership. May God have mercy on us! Maybe we should start with the repentance part.
@ Jim Henderson, I just finished reading your post about the UMC in America today and it troubles me. I have no idea what area you’re from and I can only speak my own personal experiences inside our local UMC churches, but I wholeheartedly disagree with you about the direction we are going.
Locally we are growing. I go and see new people who are loving and caring getting exposed to how mighty and incredible God’s love can be. We have people reaching out to expose new people to God’s love and the saving grace it offers. No sir, the UMC here is doing powerful, wonderful, incredible things that you just can’t expect to hear about from our mainstream media.
P.S. Those fundraisers and walkathons are necessary. They get a lot of people who would never tithe anything to donate to causes that would otherwise go unfunded.
Editor’s note: The writer of this comment is in Alabama-West Florida Conference.