…I stood up and shared my agreements with the ethos of the WCA, but then asked, “Why is the WCA preparing more for the breakup of the church than for victory?… It seems that our common spiritual enemy would be very pleased to see the noisy few kick out the faithful many. But Jesus Himself said that the gates of hell cannot prevail against His church. So if the United Methodist Church is a church of Jesus Christ, why is no one preparing for victory? Is not the UMC a church of Jesus?”

The following ideas obtained from prayer are a sample and a standard of what God might prompt you to do both individually and corporately. When each of us rebuilds the part of the wall we occupy, we will together be amazed at what God accomplishes in a short time.

Protecting my immediate interests before investing in the renewal of the church might seem prudent, but prudence is not a listed fruit of the Holy Spirit. My own life and my closest friends might turn out to be fine, but that never was the point of being the church anyway.

At stake are the souls of the retreating bulwark of traditionalist leaders, the bully allowed to reign, and the vast innocents exposed to the dangers of the bully. This battle is not about one human “side” “winning” over the other. God uses conflict for growth on both sides, but retreat on the part of God’s people fuels death on both sides. Were you not placed here to testify to the reality of the Gospel in this generation?

Jesus accepts you and loves you just as you are. You won’t stay the same in His presence, but He loves everyone right where they are. Read Romans 5:6. The question for the whole world riled up about LGBTQ is not whether Jesus accepts you for who you are, but whether you accept Him for who He is.

We think that so long as the battles for our own souls are won, we can leave everyone else to God’s hands. But God has called His church to lay down our lives for those who don’t know Him yet. If our lives are truly secure as we say we believe they are, we can give up comforts and even our lives here on Earth so that others can come to God for themselves. That’s love.

We must be mustered. God must accomplish something different in each of us to know there is a war and to be called to enlist. Have you heard from God what is the next act of obedience He needs to finish this process in you?

Repent, Pray, and Stand for the UMC No matter your position of influence in the United Methodist Church, your hope in Christ is needed now. Today the Wesley Covenant Association's Unashamed conference was held. As the watering hole of the fractured,...

The Lord and His people will win the war in the end. But the sooner there is open warfare between light and darkness, the better the battle will go for the light.

“Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not.” – Aragorn, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers