With all of the stuff going on in our denomination, including disobedient clergy, conferences and jurisdictions, I still have hope that God is not done with the UMC yet.\u00a0 In fact, I believe that the best years of our denomination are still ahead of us!<\/p>\n
How can I say this?\u00a0 Because I see the signs of hope gathering on the side of biblical orthodoxy and biblical orthopraxy (belief and action).\u00a0 Unlike the Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Lutherans, United Methodism is a world-wide denomination, not just an American one.\u00a0 And the growth edge of our denomination is outside of America, in places like Asia and Africa (where United Methodism is growing faster than it is declining here).\u00a0 And I see holy people rising up and taking their place in the leadership of the denomination such that the future looks faithful, orthodox, and traditionally Wesleyan.<\/p>\n
In addition, the Wesleyan Covenant Association is gaining strength here in America and elsewhere.\u00a0 The Fount is a member congregation, I am a member, and we are starting a chapter of the WCA here in the Cal-Pac Annual Conference. This will be a group where traditional, orthodox Methodists can gather for support and encouragement, as well as strategizing for the future.\u00a0 The Bishops Commission on a Way Forward will complete their work within the year, and a special General Conference is called for February 2019.\u00a0 We should have some answers and resolutions to our current dilemma at that time.<\/p>\n
So I have hope, and I encourage all of us to stay the course.\u00a0 Pray for our church, for our conference and for the denomination.\u00a0 There will be many who have hoped the denomination will change its stance on sexuality and marriage who will find the results of this process disappointing.\u00a0 But we need to keep faith with God and with each other as we go forward.<\/p>\n
I am proud to be your pastor during these tumultuous times, and I covet your prayers and support as I try to provide leadership for other evangelicals in our conference.\u00a0 The Fount is strong in the Lord, and for that I am extremely grateful!<\/p>\n
Peace,<\/p>\n
Pastor Glen<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With all of the stuff going on in our denomination, including disobedient clergy, conferences and jurisdictions, I still have hope that God is not done with the UMC yet.\u00a0 In fact, I believe that the best years of our denomination are still ahead of us! How can I say this?\u00a0 Because I see the signs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1169,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,113,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-outreach","category-newsletters","category-pastoral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefount.church\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefount.church\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefount.church\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefount.church\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefount.church\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2995"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thefount.church\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2996,"href":"https:\/\/thefount.church\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2995\/revisions\/2996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefount.church\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefount.church\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefount.church\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefount.church\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}