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Symposium
on Free Methodist Identity Held in Indianapolis
by Helen Kaufmann
Small
group discussion played a major role in the symposium. |
"What does it mean to be a Free Methodist?"
was the focus of a recent symposium in Indianapolis sponsored by
the FM Historical Center. The Historical Center Committee is chaired
by Dr. Howard Snyder of Asbury Seminary. At the symposium Free Methodists
from across the country considered questions like, "How can
the intentions of the founders be applied today?" and "How
can we make the history of the church come alive for young people?"
Titled "Search for the Free Methodist Soul: A
Cross-Generational Conversation on Free Methodist Identity"
the symposium was held at the World Ministries Center on March 22-23.
The sessions opened with worship songs and meditations from Bishops
Joe James and Les Krober and continued with presentations by key
leaders and reflections from respondants.
Doug
Newton served as one of the keynote presenters. |
Presenter Doug Newton, Light and Life editor, highlighted
the need for the church's story to be told. "History recedes
from view along a curve," he said. Facts "sink below the
horizon of memory." In other words, the farther in time we
get away from events in the past, the less we know about them. Therefore,"
for a religious community to perpetuate identity and mission there
must be a collective commitment to the recital of its history."
The question, others agreed, is who will tell the story, because
"we don't tell stories in our culture today."
Stan Ingersol, Church of the Nazarene historian, was a special
guest. |
Another presenter, Stan Ingersol, archivist and historian
for the Church of the Nazarene, described the trajectories of several
reform movements parallel to that which birthed the Free Methodist
Church. He catalogued the central concerns for early Free Methodists
as
1) to preserve a religion of the warm heart
2) to preserve a more democratic spirit in Methodism
3) to free African slaves and educate them
4) to establish urban churches where the poor were welcome
5) to establish a "true believers'" church in the Wesleyan
tradition
Opposition to slavery was critical, Ingersol said,
in the rise of Free Methodist sentiments in 1860, the founding year
of the church. He reminded listeners that identification with the
poor was significant in the earlier rise of Methodism in England.
"Wherever the poor came together," he said, "there
Methodists were found." Early Free Methodists revived this
concern, "deliberately planting churches among the poor."
Pastor Linda Adams of the Rochester, NY, New Hope
FMC spoke of how her commitment to urban ministry grew out her association
with the Continental Urban Exchange (later Free Methodist Urban
Fellowship). In her early days of ministry with Dwight Gregory and
others in inner city Passaic, NJ, CUE represented passionate worship,
intercessory prayer and a place for diverse types to worship who
didn't fit the mold.
Kalamazoo
(MI) Pastor Jennifer Star-Reivitt served as one of the respondants. |
We must shape the tradition by deciding what to keep,
she pointed out, and added that one thing that must define us is
a commitment to prayer. Too often we visit ministries like the large
churches of South Korea and try to copy their programs, forgetting
the hours of daily prayer that are the foundation for these programs.
Respondants to the three main speakers included Jennifer
Starr-Reivitt, pastor of the Kalmazoo church plant called Sanctus;
Professor Jon Kulaga of Spring Arbor University; and pastor Bob
Cannon of Oklahoma, who filled in for Oklahoma City pastor Albert
Poteat. Starr-Reivitt emphasized that young adults with no church
background want to learn about holiness, about working with the
poor and about what the Bible and the Free Methodist Church say
on the subject of women. Kulaga said that among the "arrows
in our quiver" are our doctrines, the benefits of being a connectional
church and our historic concern for the disenfranchised.
Professor
Jon Kaluga of Spring Arbor University also brought a response. |
The concluding event of the conference brought attendees
back from small-group sessions to report the two or three important
insights that had emerged from their discussions, as summarized
below:
- The cornerstone of what we believe includes a high doctrine
of Scripture, concern for the poor, the deeper life and reaching
people that are not like us
- The issue of santification should be embraced as a central
doctrine
- We need a renewed commitment to prayer
- Holiness and justice are central
- We must find the disenfranchised and minister to them
- We are released from sin and we extend grace to those around
us without judging. We have a message of love and forgiveness
- We stand for holiness, not elitism
- Our worship music and prayer should flow out of our theology
The group was reminded that we should not focus only
on Free Methodist distinctives, but also on what we have in common
with other groups. More than once during the conference there was
mention of John Wesley's invitation, "If your heart is as my
heart, then give me your hand."
Moderator, Bishop Emeritus Gerald Bates |
Retired bishop Gerald Bates, moderator for the conference,
in his concluding remarks spoke of the radical optimism of God's
grace, which transforms us so that through grace we can transform
the society around us.
This initial conversation on the "Search for
the Free Methodist Soul" was planned as the first of three.
Further conversations will be held in March 2005 and 2006.
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