Dear Global Methodists:
Behold, God is making all things new. The year 2024 calls us into being made new. We are a part of the new Florida Conference of the Global Methodist Church, and delegates will meet for the first time as the Convening Annual Conference for the Florida GMC on January 19-20, at Living Hope Church in Clermont, Florida. Go to floridagmc.org to find out more…
I am encouraged to live into the new, and invited to grow beyond the limitations of the past because Jesus is making all things new in the here and now, because we serve a miracle working God. I’d like to share some of what Dr. Luther Onconer, Professor of Global Wesleyan Theology at Asbury Theological Seminary has written, for your encouragement and understanding of what the new movement of the Holy Spirit and the revival of the people called Methodist is really all about. As Dr. Onconer writes:
‘….[G]enuine revival cannot prosper in old wineskins. The church’s overall culture and institution must be ready to accommodate the fermentation process of the Holy Spirit or else it will have to be content with stale wine. Just like what the Asbury (Revival) Outpouring early this year has taught us, institutions that persist to remain as new wineskins, like Asbury University, will receive new wine, just as it had experienced several times in its history. Accordingly, Methodism is long due for a rebirth, and this is what I mean when I say, “Methodist revival.” It is less about recovering the prestige of its glory days, but more about becoming once again a movement of the Spirit, just as it always has in different generations. Just like when Wesley and his Holy Club friends fanned out across England and the British Isles after experiencing an outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Fetter Lane Street on New Year’s Eve of 1739. Just like when the young Methodist circuit riders blazed the trail filled with the Spirit to bring the glad tidings of salvation in Jesus to communities in the American frontier in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Just like when Spirit-baptized Methodist missionaries led powerful revivals in Asia, Africa, and Latin America at the turn of the 20th century.
“We are on the cusp of the next rebirth of Methodism. This is why I don’t see the GMC as a mere default destination for those who have made the exodus. I am in the GMC because I believe that God is not yet done with Methodism, otherwise, I would have gone elsewhere. I believe Methodism is not yet a spent move-ment, or to use the words of Wesley, “a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power.” Methodists still have so much to offer to this unbelieving world that has become more antagonistic to a Christianity that has been marred by scandals and materialism. This is why I believe the Wesleyan vision of the Christian life, especially the doctrine of entire sanctification or holiness, which Wesley called “the grand depositum which God has lodged with the people called Methodists,” is still very much relevant for our time.
“But I am under no illusion that this resurgent Methodism will come to us easily. For new wine to happen there will always be a crushing and pressing of the grapes. We too will have to go through a period of crushing and pressing, whether corporately or individually. Perhaps the birth pains—the challenges, frustrations, and persecution—we are experiencing in this season are part of that crushing and pressing. We too had to contend with these in the Philippines and yet I also do know they are necessary if we are to receive new wine! Our task may be difficult, and the road is rough, but let us remain a people of hope as the season of Advent reminds us. As we reflect on the anticipation of the Old Testament prophets for the coming Messiah and wait on his Second Coming as the New Testament writers encourage us, let us also thank God for bringing us into the GMC. For he has enabled us to dream big once again for Methodism, renewing our hope for a genuine Methodist revival in our lifetime.”
(The Rev. Dr. Luther Oconer is a Professor of Global Wesleyan Theology at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. Dr. Oconer has also served local churches in the Philippines and in the United States, and he will be with us at our Convening Florida Annual Conference in Clermont).
I look forward to fully embracing this new revival movement of the Holy Spirit in the Florida GMC. I hope you will pray with me for the next rebirth and genuine Methodist revival that the Holy Spirit is bringing to change hearts and lives for Christ in both of our First Methodist Churches of Clewiston and Moore Haven. Invite all the people you know and love to come and discover how God makes all things new in Christ…
In the Joyous and Spirit-filled NEW Life in Jesus our Lord and Savior,
Pastor Jonathan Singleton