ok, so let me tell you a sad story.
A few years ago I wanted to know which UM churches grow by profession of faith (people recieving Jesus for the first time, not transfers). So I thought surely I could call the General Board of Discipleship of the Methodist church. Surely their evangelism wing would know. Alas. They did not know. I called a number of people, emailed others. The answer was finally to contact the General Council on Finance and Administration. Thes guys have all the info on every UM church. Theoretically, they could tell me which churches grow by profession of faith. When I called and asked if they could tell me, they laughed. I mean, really, who is going to sift through the reports of 43,000 churches? Maybe the evangelism team?
I got some anecdotal information from the Bishop who started the Foundation for Evangelism. No doubt we had to start a foundation for Evangelism because the evangelism people on the Discipleship Board ARE NOT DOING EVANGELISM.
Anyhoo, I am back at it. Looking for good Methodist resources that would help people on their journey to faith in Jesus, growing in grace, etc. Folks, the UM church does not have any resources for this. We could write it ourselves, and we may, but the Wesleyan Church and the Free Methodist Church have good resources, so we'll probably go to them.
Oh, and get this. I'm reading Sojourners, adn they have an ad for Adam Hamilton's new book. It's called Seeing Gray in a World of Black and Whites. I almost puked, crapped, and sneezed at the same time. I know for sure I found a hernia. Folks, it's true, the people will believe a big lie sooner than a small one. Do we really think this is a world of black and whites? My goodness, isn't the whole point of this so-called post-modernism that it's all good? And finally, Jesus is pretty black and white. He did not say, "I am sort of the way if you dig it, or if you grew up in a part of the world under the Christian hegemony, otherwise, let's talk and see if there's some congruence with what you believe...."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
maggot? seriously? you know, when i was a freshman in high school there was a guy who was a junior who called me maggot, and everyone told him how mean he was. thanks for allowing me to re-live that fun memory. =)
I agree with Maggie...I mean really Aaron, what woman wants to be called Maggot??? I'm going to have to tell her she's good enough, smart enough and people like her forever just to heal the open wound. How about Magnificent Middleton, Majestic Maggie, Marvelous Maggicita....Do you see where I'm going here Mansfield??? Work with me.
You could always come over to the seminary library and go through all the conference journals to find that info out.
But yeah didn't you know that our missions agency does not do evangelism.
Yeah, go to the library and search 66 Annual Conference Journals! Sounds like fun! I think the real problem is that no one knows of any Methodist churches that grow by profession of faith. Altho, COR does, or at least does better than most, so props to Adam Hamilton. I worry about the day I realize we're a sinking ship, adn the smart rats are gone...
If there are no churches that have claimed the title "#1 in conversions w/in UMC Church", we can always do it and wait to be proven wrong.
It is one way to find out...
dudes, seriously... not only this kind of thing, but false teaching! this "American church" thing is really really dangerous and wack.
i just preached the gospel about the real Jesus of scripture at a skatepark, and dudes had never heard it in the keepin it real of life that God's on our side!
seriously, there's nothing for a man of God in these wack institutions, unless he's really supposed to be there.
You, aaron, cause the ruckus God sent you to cause. Keep it up and keep it strong. Just like you're doin. makes me proud of the Jesus we serve... (there are just so many jesuses lately)
and y'alls readin' this: pick your jesus carefully. there are far too many to choose from.
Post a Comment