Browse category by 2020

THE ART OF SUPERINTENDENCY

June 25, 2022 By dwayman

Denny Wayman – October 2020

Forward 

For over forty years I have supervised persons in ministry.  From the more formal structure of the Free Methodist polity to the informal conversations of counseling and friendship, these relationships have taught me what is and is not effective in supervising local church and conference ministries.  I learned most of these principles through direct experience as a lead pastor for 40 years, an Assistant Superintendent for 20 years and a Conference Superintendent for 10 years.[1] But I also learned other valuable insights through embarrassing and often debilitating failures.  The Southern California Conference is an extremely complex multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-lingual ministry with varying sizes and styles of churches and with vast differences in pastoral training and experience.

I present these thoughts in service to God in fulfilling His call on my life and what I hope to be a gift to those who have similarly been called to superintend His church.  The unnecessary pain in so many of our pastors, pastoral families, congregations and conferences grieves us all.  It is my desire to help give the eyes to see the opportunities and dangers long before they come upon us.  To do this we need each other’s insights and experiences.  My thoughts are conversation starters.  It is my hope that each of us will bring our own experiences and unique situations into this discussion as together we can develop a robust understanding of the art required in effective superintending.

Charles Wesley’s Hymns Refute the Calvinist Doctrine of Limited Atonement

August 9, 2020 By dwayman

 

 

“Ye Need Not One Be Left Behind/For God Hath Bidden All Mankind”:

Charles Wesley’s Response to the Doctrine of Limited Atonement

Charles Edward White

Spring Arbor University

 

When John Wesley collected his brother’s hymns for the use of the people called Methodists, he opened the book with his brother’s birthday anthem, O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.  This song serves as an overture for the hymnal, introducing many of the characteristic themes of Methodist belief.  Beginning with overwhelming gratitude and praise for Father and Son, it quickly moves to the proper human response of spreading God’s honor throughout the world.  The intense personal experience of forgiveness, liberty, and cleansing comes next and then the declaration that all is of grace by faith fills out the first six verses.  With verse six, however, Charles subtly moves from proclamation to argumentation.  It is not by accident that against his Roman Catholic opponents he sings, “Look and be saved by grace alone/Be justified by faith.”[1]  Nor is the message of verse seven any less controversial:

See all your sins on Jesus laid:

The Lamb of God was slain,

His soul was once an offering made

For every soul of man.[2]

With the introduction of the word “every” Charles arguably fires the first shot in a battle against Calvinism that will rage for the rest of his life.

VIRAL TRANSFORMATION – What could change due to COVID-19 by Dr. Norman Wetterau, M.D.

April 30, 2020 By dwayman

There is no doubt that the Covid-19 virus will change the world.  The question in everyone’s mind is:  How will we change?  The Free Methodist Healthcare Fellowship (FMHF) offers these thoughts as a way of opening that conversation among us.  The author of this article, is the President of the FMHF, Dr. Norman Wetterau, M.D.

He says, in part:

“At this point, everything seems negative: staying at home, worried that we or a family member might die from the virus, and the economic collapse that our nation seems to be entering into. This epidemic is uncovering some weaknesses and unaddressed problems in our land. Will we decide to address these? So far it appears we might…”

Dr. Wetterau then explores several issues that he thinks may change as we now recognize both the need and the solutions. Of those possible areas for change is the need for medical care for those who are not insured, the need for equity in resources for homeschooling with everyone having internet and computer access, and the difficulty of those without homes when sheltering is the only solution to viral mortality.

The physician ends with an issue of preparedness for disasters and diseases such as this pandemic.  He says in part:

“…our basic economic system is fine in good times but not for a crisis such as this one. Dr Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University and 2001 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics wrote an opinion piece in the April Time magazine: Vol 195,