Good News board to sponsor Alpha Conference
8/18/2000 By United Methodist News Service The board of directors of Good News, an evangelical renewal movement in the United Methodist Church, will sponsor a national Alpha Conference in October 2001 as part of its commitment to leadership development.
Alpha is a 10-week practical introduction to the Christian faith being recommended by evangelical leaders such as Chuck Colson, according to an Aug. 17 release shortly after the board's semi-annual meeting. More than 400 United Methodists attending a recent Alpha Conference in Pittsburgh were enthused by its potential to help the denomination renew its evangelistic outreach, said Steve Beard, executive editor of Good News magazine.
The Good News board met Aug. 9-11 in Wilmore, Ky., where the organization is based. In other business, the 40-member board:
· commended the United Methodist Publishing House for its new "Faith Files" curriculum;
· expressed concern about "schismatic" statements concerning sexuality made at the New England Annual Conference and the Western Jurisdictional Conference; and
· established an annual mission award.
The board commended the United Methodist Publishing House and Bristol House Ltd. for cooperatively producing "Faith Files," new curriculum resources to serve children and adults in local evangelical United Methodist churches. The Rev. Phil Granger, senior minister at College Avenue United Methodist Church in Muncie, Ind., and chairman of the Good News board, expressed appreciation to the leadership of the two organizations for their willingness to work together on the new resources. Bristol House, an offshoot of Good News, is headed by John Stumbo, an attorney from Fort Valley, Ga.
The Rev. James V. Heidinger II, president and publisher of Good News, said board members have "deep concern" about the New England Declaration, signed by several hundred lay and clergy participants at the New England Annual Conference in June. The declaration objects to official positions of the church that hold the practice of homosexuality "incompatible with Christian teaching," forbid same-sex unions, and prohibit the appointment or ordination of homosexual clergy. Heidinger said the New England Declaration reflects a "total disregard of our United Methodist standards and deny what it means to be in a covenant community." Such statements are schismatic because individuals "affirm a position completely contrary to that of their church," he said.
Board members also expressed concern about a declaration by members of the Western Jurisdictional Conference titled "We Will Not Be Silent." In their statement, delegates said they "cannot accept discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons and, therefore, we will work toward their full participation at all levels in the life of the church and society."
In the release issued following their meeting, Good News board members stated concern about the issue of accountability of bishops, particularly the leadership of Bishop Melvin G. Talbert in the California-Nevada Conference. Pointing to the departure of about nine United Methodist evangelical pastors in the conference and "rumors that others may be leaving," Heidinger said: "The sense of oppression and despair has driven out not only highly gifted pastors but entire congregations as well. The issue of accountability surfaces once again. This is unconscionable."
The board also objected to inaction related to charges that were filed against Talbert in the spring and, in an unrelated case, the reinstatement of the Rev. Dan Sailer, a United Methodist pastor in Seattle. Sailer was suspended after being charged with perjury in a civil court but was later reinstated. He has entered an Alford plea, not admitting guilt but acknowledging that if the case went to trial, he'd likely be found guilty. The case is to be settled early in September.
United Methodist clergy or lay people who make extraordinary contributions to the work of missions outside the United States will be honored with a new award established by the Good News board in honor of the late Paul Morell, who died July 23. Morell was a former chairman of the Good News board and a charter board member of the Mission Society for United Methodists, an unofficial mission-sponsoring agency headquartered in Norcross, Ga.
At the time of his death, Morell was serving as president of MEDICS International, a new medical arm spun off from the Mission Society. Morell will be recognized with the inaugural award posthumously at the board's next meeting in January.
In other business, Granger was re-elected chairman for another year.
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