The fastest growing ethnic group in United Methodism are Spanish-speaking Methodists. North Alabama Methodists have invested huge resources in establishing nearly a dozen new congregations in the past few years. These new churches have become spiritual dynamos of our conference, leading our conference in baptisms and professions of faith – until HB56, our state’s notorious immigration law.

For the next few weeks I’ll be focusing on some of our distinctive Wesleyan beliefs from my book on that subject.

This week, I continue to focus on some of our distinctive Wesleyan beliefs from my book on that subject.

No motif in the Wesleyan tradition has been more consistent than the link between Christian doctrine and Christian living. Methodists have always been strictly enjoined to maintain the unity of faith and good works, through the means of grace… The coherence of faith with ministries of love forms the discipline of Wesleyan spirituality and Christian discipleship…. Discipline was not church law; it was a way of discipleship. (The United Methodist Book of Discipline)

Our Lord Jesus preached peace, but “not as the world gives.” Peaceful Jesus was from the first a disturber of the status quo. Alas, too often Jesus’ followers have been on the side of peace at any cost, peace as the world gives in opposition to Jesus.

For the next few weeks I’ll be focusing on some of our distinctive Wesleyan beliefs from my book on that subject.

A Christmas story, can’t remember where I heard it, but I tell it to you as you begin your own celebration of Christmastide.

Christmas is a time of giving. One of the great gifts of the North Alabama Conference is Urban Ministry. This year we celebrated the 35th Anniversary of this vital ministry to the community (West Birmingham) that has the lowest median income in the entire state with a poverty rate of over 40%. Urban Ministry serves more than 7000 each year through the Community Kitchen, Food Pantry, Homelessness Prevention and Emergency Services programs. Then there’s the Urban Kids after-school and summer learning program, the Joe Rush Center for Urban Mission (which offers exterior house painting), and West End Community Gardens (17,000 volunteer hours were given by people this year!).

Pastor Christopher Herbert is leading some dramatic changes at Union Chapel UMC. Most of our small membership churches are in serious decline – but not all! A key to the small congregation having a viable future, from my studies of our small congregations, is the pastor’s leadership toward growth. There is nothing amiss in a congregation being small – there is everything wrong with the idea that churches have no part to play in the growth of the Kingdom of God. After seeing some of the great growth at Union Chapel, I asked Christopher to comment on what is happening there and he gave testimony to a church where “the light shines.”

Will Willimon
 

This is the story we Christians name as “Incarnation.” It is a strange, inexplicable story that we happen to believe is true, the story that explains everything, the key to what’s going on between us and God. It is the story that we encounter each year at Advent, that season of reflection and penitence before Christmas.

S.T. Kimbrough, a great treasure of our Conference, is the foremost living scholar on the hymns of Charles Wesley. S. T. called my attention to Wesley’s hymn, “Happy the Multitude,” in which Wesley says that we Christians should banish “mine” from our vocabulary. On this week of Thanksgiving, pray with me this prayer, Wesley’s poetic response to Acts 4:32, “The multitude of them that believed, were of one heart, and one soul; neither said any of them, that aught of the things which he possessed, was his own, but they had all things in common. Neither was there any among them that lacked.”

At the Council of Bishops meeting this week, the bishops heard a report from the Vital Congregations Initiative. Vital Congregations is an inititiave of the bishops to identify the most vital congregations in Methodism, to publically share data on the indicators of vitality. I was thrilled, when Bishop Schol announced the initial results of this program, to hear that North Alabama was in the top ten Conferences in United Methodism in our number of vital congregations and indicators of vitality. We also shared with the Zimbabwe Annual Conferences (with whom we are partnered in mission) the distinction of being the leaders in congregations reporting goals and data to the Vital Congregations Initiative. I wanted to share with you Bishop Schol's letter.

I appointed Mike Edmondson to our Helena congregation in 2008. Since then, the church has experienced a remarkable turnaround. I have been studying Mike’s leadership and the moves that this congregation has made in the past few years and wanted to share some of what I have learned by observing Helena by asking Mike to describe some of the most important leadership moves.

Christians are made, not born,“ said Tertullian.  No Christian virtues are innate.  Nothing about following Jesus comes naturally.  Therefore, so much that the church does for us is formational, educational, and transformational.

Take the virtue of gratitude. Don’t let anybody tell you that gratitude is innate.  Why else would parents need to instruct their child, “Say thanks to the nice lady for the candy – or you will be punished?”

A primary task of the church is to take otherwise normal, innate, American tendencies and to re-form them in the light of Jesus.

A reflection on one of the most relentless figures of the Civil Rights Movement, the Reverend Fred Lee Shuttlesworth, who died this week in Birmingham.

While leading the rebuilding of our beloved Woodlawn Church in Birmingham, The Reverend Matt Lacey has also led a revitalization of our Conference mission work, a vibrant tradition of the North Alabama Conference. I have marveled at all of the ways Matt, a true missionary among us, has led us. Grateful for Matt’s work in immigration ministry, I asked him to be our representative in the work of Dream Sabbath. Here is how your congregation can be part of this ministry this October.

Most mainline protestant churches are in decline, the churches of North Alabama are no exception. But not all. I’ve made it my business to visit our growing congregations in order to learn more about why they are thriving.

Our own S.T. Kimbrough, master theologian, historian, poet and missionary, shared with me a hymn that he wrote to think about and to pray after 9/11. I share it with you as an offering from one of our Conference's most distinguished pastors.

I couldn’t be more proud of the way that the churches of our Conference not only responded to the Eastertide storms in our state but have, throughout the summer, kept responding. It is one thing to respond in the heat of a crisis; it is another thing to keep on responding for the long haul.

One of the joys Patsy and I have had is the establishment of an endowment for the Bishop’s Lectureship at our Huntingdon College. I am thrilled that this year’s lecturer on September 20 is Dr. Wayne Flynt. I encourage all of our people, particularly our clergy, to be present for his 7:30 p.m. lecture on the timely Christian topic, “The Lord is the Maker of Them All: Black, White, and Poor in America."