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.

Evangelism can seem canned and mechanical, Schaeffer said, like a sales pitch. But when evangelism is pursued as part of a larger whole, as a part of something beautiful, it will be convincing, even captivating. What then is that larger whole, embodied in a beautiful church? Two contents and two realities, he proposed.

“When there are the two contents and the two realities, we will begin to see something profound happen in our generation.”

If the UMC cannot clearly and lovingly put this issue to rest, then we’re not capable of doing anything else by God’s power. This crisis occurring in our own house where we have the most authority is elementary compared to the battles we’re born to win in the kingdom of darkness. Playtime is over. It’s time for Methodists to shout like David, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

Cowardice is as much a sin as homosexuality. Running from battle is as much a sin as murder. “Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.” Poor stewardship of our leadership responsibilities is equal to one who intentionally leads others astray.

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,...

After a long chain of events, ultimately all of us are responsible for this wrenching halt in the work of God’s Kingdom through the UMC. I am responsible for this mess, and I am required to fight at my expense to see God graciously pick up the pieces and make something beautiful, whole, and useful again. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is inherently a leadership issue. Not many are calling for repentance because we’re not living holy lives ourselves. We must repent for taking actions to protect our interests and let collapse God’s interests in preventing the imminent demise of many people.

The key action to the UMC’s victory is not teaching “our side” better, but prayer and repentance. And the key issue of repentance in this battle in not for what we are as humans, but for leaderlessness of who we are individually and corporately in Christ.

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?

A salvific response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the crisis of the church in our day demands a verbal declaration of the following principles from all of us leaders at all levels, whether privately with accountability and/or publicly with culpability, as the Spirit leads… [Application of declarations made from 1 and 2 Peter]