Tag: Free Methodist

Posted in Different Scriptures, Different Thoughts

a humbling season

Posted on by Wick

With new “political seasons” starting pretty much weekly at this point, it’s always a good reminder for us to take a deep, slow breath. Unplug from the barrage of posts telling us what we should think about who. Locally, our church has been reminded recently that disciples of Jesus (especially in our political contexts) should be regularly growing in both hope and humility. As Paul left Ephesus in Acts 18:21, he obviously had hope in God using Priscilla & Aquila for the ministry there, but also had humility enough to know it didn’t depend on him staying to sustain the work.

Yes, we want to be those who engage the world with hope. Yes, we want to participate in justice coming, love transforming, and healing wounds both personal and systemic. But we are limited beings. At the end of our abilities, the moments where we have to leave, turn off the lights, or go to bed – we purposefully lay it at the feet of God – who has it all in His hands already. Some of us, without realizing it, believe that we cannot do what we see Paul doing here. News feeds tell us we have to stay plugged in for updates at any moment. Our push notifications draw us constantly out of being physically present with others in order to discover new details about something not in the room with us. We feel like unplugging from all these things might convey that we don’t care enough. We’ve been told to turn away from anything we care about, even for rest, is a betrayal. We feel like – if we don’t make a public statement, or send an email about every topic we care about – the important thing that should happen or be known might not happen or be known.

Here’s an important thing to tell yourself: I am not God. (say that with me)
You know what that means? We can unplug, and probably should often. We don’t have to comment on everything, to show others we know it all. You know what knowing it all is called? “Omniscient.” You know who is omniscient? God. We don’t have to have a presence on all the different apps – you know what that’s called? Omnipresence. You know who is omnipresent? God. You are not God. (say it again if needed) The more we feel like we need to know all things and be in all places, the more we are trying to be God.

Now this doesn’t mean we don’t care. We’re not stoics, who believe all things are predetermined and so we just do the best we can. We’re also not hippies that sing “If it’s meant to be, it’ll be, it’ll be.” (Sorry not sorry, Bebe.) Just like Paul, we dedicate ourselves to the task. We vote and get involved however we’re able to live out the prayers we offer. We sacrificially offer the resources available to us. We empower and trust others to do their part of the work that is much bigger than us.

Paul does end up coming back to Ephesus, by the way. You know how he gets there? It’s not by a magical tornado labeled “Will of God”. He chooses to travel there, and as we can read (Acts 19), he stays quite a while. Because he actually desires to be there. He leaves Ephesus in Acts 18:21 not saying “whatever happens, happens”. Saying “if God wills it” confesses that even in his deepest desires, he is still a limited being. Saying “if God wills it” does not abdicate our response-ability, but humbly confesses our limited nature. We do what we can, but we daily lay all things in the hands of our God who is working to accomplish His will.

There is peace found in this practice, worth incorporating such “laying things down” into our daily lives. But we may have to stop consuming new things long enough to do so…

ps. If you’re willing, make plans to join us & and entire Free Methodist Church USA as we pursue a month of Prayer and Fasting throughout September 2024. Check out their website to learn more!

Posted in Different Thoughts

important Free Methodist updates…

Posted on by Wick

I’d recently shared these with others, and this seems like a great place to post some updates the Free Methodist Church has made to it’s most recent “Book of Discipline“. These give us important guidance on topics of capital punishment, the criminal justice system, and creation care. A few other updates were made, but I wanted to share these three specifically. (The links for each will direct you to the full text of the resolution, giving the background/Biblical foundations for each.) I’m thankful to be part of a global movement that continues to seek a faithful response as we pursue the arrival/revealing of Jesus’ Kingdom here and now by the power of His Spirit…

“The Free Methodist Church is deeply grieved when any life is taken by murder. We believe that persons who commit these or other horrendous crimes should be justly punished by just laws. Nevertheless, we believe that all human life is sacred, created by God, and therefore we must see all human life as significant and valuable. When governments implement the death penalty (capital punishment), then the life of the convicted person is devalued and all possibility of change in that person’s life ends. In well documented studies innocent people have become condemned and executed, in which cases a sentence meant to bring justice becomes an additional and irreversible form of injustice. For these reasons, the FMC deems the death penalty as currently applied to be inconsistent with our commitments to the sanctity of life.” (Pp. 3222 D)

“A criminal justice system plays an important role in securing peace and order for a society, protecting innocent people from harm, punishing wrongdoers, and delivering some semblance of justice for victims. Such systems, however, do not always perform these tasks justly. While victims of crimes ought to receive special moral attention, victimizers should receive fair treatment, and the opportunity to repent and be rehabilitated.
Although Free Methodists submit to the justice systems of their time and place, we do not unwittingly affirm their understanding of or approach to justice. Such systems should be in a continual process of review and revision toward achieving justice that is equitable and seeks the common good. We especially lament the ways in which such systems incarcerate, target, and treat particular demographics disproportionately. Free Methodists oppose any system that demeans, abuses, depersonalizes, or enslaves human beings, treating them as less than human. We are accordingly committed to justice systems that protect and defend victims of harm without violating the dignity of those punished. God is our Redeemer. It is not the job of the state to redeem those who commit crimes, but the state’s criminal justice system must conscientiously preserve space, time, and humane conditions for the restoration of all to human community. The church, including the Free Methodist Church, plays a central role in this restorative aspect of justice through our chaplains, local church ministries, and similarly focused ministries. Remembering that all people are created in the image of God and for fellowship with God, Free Methodists will actively pursue criminal justice system reforms that recognize and protect the dignity of all persons.” (Pp. 3221 D)

“The Lord God brings salvation to earth through a series of revealed covenants, culminating in the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus Christ. The first of these covenants, God’s covenant with the earth (Gen 9), is instituted following humanity’s fall into sin and after the flood. The rainbow is the visible sign of this covenant. God thus has an everlasting covenant with the earth (Gen 9:8-17), as well as His saving covenant with people. As God’s stewards on earth, called to “cultivate and care for it” (Gen. 2:15, NABRE), we affirm that God’s covenant with the earth constitutes our stewardship commission.
Therefore:
A. We affirm the goodness of God’s creation, the value—physical, emotional, social, and spiritual—of engagement with it, and our responsibility to care for it as an integral part of our Christian discipleship and God’s Creation mandate (Gen 2:15).
B. We lament the ways in which humanity has failed to fulfill these responsibilities, polluting our environment, damaging ecosystems, and harming other species. The consequences of such failures are borne the most by the poor and marginalized.
C. We affirm and seek to support effective ministries of creation care such as reducing our consumption, tree-planting and reforestation, sustainable agriculture and energy production, drought prevention and relief, environmentally sustainable transportation, appropriate recycling, and the minimization of waste.
D. We commit ourselves to be faithful stewards of God’s creation, engaging in practices that reflect God’s covenant with the earth and our commission to care for it, especially in our preaching, teaching, and spiritual practices; the sustainable stewardship of our church buildings and properties; global and local missions work and ministry; and civic efforts to care for our environment.
E. We, along with the whole of Creation, groan in anticipation of the time when “the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Rom 8:21). We eagerly look forward to the renewal of the whole of creation when God through the work of Jesus Christ finally “reconcile[s] to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by
making peace through His blood, shed on the cross” (Col 1:20).” (Pp. 3232)

Amen. 🙂

Posted in Spoken Word

resurrection

Posted on by Wick


The dawn arrives, bursting through clouds which were
allowed their moment to shine, but now was time for revealing
All the healing now possible as Christ has become Lord
A sword piercing death right through the heart, a start of something
So much greater than the rebels had in mind
Those who thought they’d find themselves at head of table
Find the man born in a stable has now made all able to dine
On food and wine from an age which is to come
The only begotten Son, firstborn from among the dead
Crown of thorns scar still visible across His head
Reminders to we for whom He bled…of Love.

Love that submitted to the worst of our munitions
His mission finally fully revealed, All Creation healed
And we, sealed by the Spirit for a Kingdom now beginning
Done with sinning, and not looking forward to winning
But having won, sun still setting on a past we’re letting go
Nurtured seeds now grow in fields of promised land
Standing on the shoulders of those who’d come before
Great clouds witnessing not about some yonder shore
But this world transformed, where what we see is not the norm
But a storm of redemption, flooding all we’ve ever known
Kingdom seeds now fully grown and bearing fruit
Corrupted systems moot, blown away from stem to root

As New Creation takes its place even now
His whole life was spent showing us how not to bow
Any longer to the patterns of this world, He hurled His gravestone into
The middle of an ocean of status quo – rippling out tsunamis long ago
Peeling back the layers of facade, in a world creating its own god
And failing, still today to fill our deepest void, annoyed when we can’t
Be charged by our own devices, and our vices lead only to crisis
That reveal the price is too high for us to pay the cost
Nowhere to turn, we look again to the cross
We see a life laid down, and a crown not seeking to control
But seeking to take our pieces and make all things whole
Starting right now, right here, within your soul

Letting you know you’re known, and dearly Loved
And He’s less concerned with getting you “up above”
As letting you know, in Him, you’re enough
That Kingdom would come on earth as where He is
And helping others see this, is why you are now made new
Not just to do, but to be
One brought to New Life completely
One who is not only glad to Live
But quick to forgive, slow to anger
Quick to find reasons to welcome the stranger
One whose life flows from their King born in a manger
One who Loves instead of hating
One fully participating in proclamation of Life made New
Looking through the lens of resurrection
Not just some day to come
But revealed now, as all else is undone
We look to the Son, rising
Realizing in this world where so many seek to be thriving
His Kingdom has already begun arriving.