Okay, so if you read my blog every other day or so, you’ve probably grown weary of my patting myself on the back for ordination. I’m done for now.
It happened only as a small part of a larger coming together of the Gateway Conference of the Free Methodist Church. We celebrated the work that has been done towards the Kingdom, and mourned people/things that we have let go of over the past year. It was also a time to encourage and inspire God’s calling to another year of serving together in our various capacities.
There were many things throughout the conference that were inspiring. Three things specifically I plan on sharing with you over the next few days: 1 to 10, Supernatural, and Questions. I suppose you’ll have to return to hear more.
But overall it was a great time, and reminder of the work God has been doing, and has called us to join Him in towards His Kingdom. There was a great reminder from Bishop Kendall, which he has also blogged about lately. We realize especially in recent years, Christianity is so much more than simply “salvation” or even the focus on “saving souls”, etc. But it is definitely NOTHING LESS. A very disappointing number of churches solely within our own denomination reported NO new followers of Christ over the past year. As churches with a Wesleyan heritage, but even greater – as churches with a heritage of following CHRIST, this is unexcused.
Especially with a greater understanding of salvation as being beyond simply “asking Jesus into my heart, and signing a paper that I did it”, one would think it would be easier to find people stumbling over, and being attracted to, the love and transforming life found in following Christ. Perhaps, and hopefully, it is attributable largely to a language (labeling) problem, and too many “hip” pastors not wanting to conform to some sort of “number reporting” system.
But let’s get past our reservations, and recognize that being able to say “____ people stumbled over, and began moving towards Christ through the work God is doing here” is probably a good thing. Even if our number is a bit off in one direction or another. (cause it won’t be a problem of whether we had 1, 2, or 0…..it will be a problem of whether we had 10, 13, or 100, right?) 🙂
words from wick 