Remember way back in 2022 during a period called “Discernment” at our local United Methodist Church?

There isn't much about that season that I want to remember, but a few things are burned in my brain.

Remember how our pastor assured the conservatives that we were overreacting to the notion that the next UMC General Conference would abandon biblical, orthodox Christianity in favor of worldly, heterodox views on sexuality and biblical authority?

Remember how a couple of very vocal schoolteachers raised their angry, condescending voices at us to charge us with fear-mongering and spreading rumors?

Remember how the pastor and several 'insiders' recruited by him smeared our names, saying we were liars and divisive because “clearly” none of these things would happen?

Yeah, I remember that, too.

As it turns out, everything that traditionalists / conservatives said would come to pass at the next General Conference happened over the last two weeks as if being performed from a script:

• the UMC removed the prohibition on LGBTQ clergy
• the UMC removed a ban on contributing church money to pro-LGBTQ causes
• the UMC removed disciplinary measures for clergy officiating LGBTQ weddings
• the UMC reversed its biblical, orthodox position on human sexuality to chase after the affirmation of the unbelieving world

According to the UM News, the official news agency of the UMC:

The United Methodist Church’s condemnation of homosexuality — which sparked a half-century of conflict — is now no more. By a vote of 523 to 161 after about an hour and a half of debate, General Conference delegates eliminated the 52-year-old assertion in the denomination’s Social Principles that 'the practice of homosexuality… is incompatible with Christian teaching.' In the same vote, delegates affirmed 'marriage as a sacred, lifelong covenant that brings two people of faith (adult man and adult woman of consenting age or two adult persons of consenting age) into a union of one another and into deeper relationship with God and the religious community.'

And just in case you're foolish enough to think the UMC won't continue to follow the same trajectory into continued heterodoxy, the Council of Bishops president appealed to Psalm 46 and reminded United Methodists that their call is be still before God, but that “Being still is not God’s call to rest, but it is God’s call for us to get out of God’s way.” (As a sarcastic aside, what I find even more ironic than the bishop finding something in the bible she says she still believes is her hateful refusal to call God by His 'preferred pronouns' that He clearly stated in Scripture, something that would most likely bring her under UMC disciplinary measures if she were talking about anyone other than God.)

“God is with us,” she asserted confidently, “God is with this United Methodist Church leading us, and guiding us, and sustaining us, and preparing for us a future with hope.”

Good luck with that. Seriously. You'll need it.

As I pointed out in September 2022, “I suspect that at the next General Conference, when progressives/liberals have the majority of delegates, the UMC will change their views on paper also (i.e. the Book of Discipline) and then join the apostate bodies [i.e. the ECUSA, PCUSA, and ELCA) as church bodies in name only but not by any objective, historic measure. At that point, the post-split UMC will no longer be united, nor any longer meaningfully Methodist, nor any longer truly a church in any historic sense.”

Well, I'm not a prophet or a prophet's son, but it didn't take a prophet to see this coming. It didn't even take a remarkable amount of foresight. It only took liars and the blind (willfully or otherwise) to pretend like it was anything but Satan snickering while lighting a match...well, we told 'ya so.

#TFCC #theology

Yesterday during divine service we sang the familiar hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” After worship, several folks came and asked me about the line that says, “Here I raise mine Ebenezer hither by Thy help I'm come.” In essence asking, “What on earth is an Ebenezer anyway?”

Gold star for those of you who wondered enough about this to come and ask—you know who you are!

So what on earth does this line refer to? It's an Old Testament reference from 1 Samuel 7 that is lost on many of today.

Here's the story...the Ark of the Covenant had just been returned to Israel from the Philistines, who sent it back as quickly as they could after seeing the havoc God was wreaking among them. After twenty years (yes, you read that right!) of lamenting and wallowing in sin, Samuel called the people back from their idolatry to faithfulness to God. He reminded them that their oppression by the Philistines was a consequence of their faithlessness. Israel responded by getting rid of their idols and turning again to God. They gathered together at Mizpah to pray, fast, and seek the Lord—then the Philistines attacked!

Now when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel had gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. So the children of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the LORD our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.”

As one who regularly interceded to God on behalf of the people, Samuel responded.

And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. Then Samuel cried out to the LORD for Israel, and the LORD answered him. Now as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the LORD thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day, and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and drove them back as far as below Beth Car. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”

There it is, right at the end! In Hebrew, 'Ebenezer' means 'stone of help.' This Ebenezer was a stone memorial, set up for the people as a physical reminder of God's aid in their time of need. It was something they could see, touch, talk about, and use in the future to teach others about God's gracious deliverance.

Robert Robinson, the hymnwriter of “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” calls us to remember God's gracious redemption, provision, and protection, through good times and through trials. Those reminders, those Ebenezers, give us confidence that “by Thy good pleasure” we will safely arrive at our home in heaven. We each have episodes in our lives that can serve as Ebenezers for us, but Robinson calls us to Christ—the most sure and certain sign of God's grace love and grace for us. Right after that puzzling line we sang, “Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God; He, to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.” As the Good Shepherd, while we were separated from God and without hope, Christ sought us, shed his blood for us, and reconciled us to God (Eph 2.12-13).

This is one example of why our hymnals are such great devotional tools! Lyrics stick in our heads much better than prose, and great hymns merely restate God's word and remind of us of Christ's work for us that we grasp daily by faith. Sing on, saints!

#devotional #hymnody #TFCC

(Note: this went out as a church-wide email, but I wanted to post it here also to those who aren't part of our seedling congregation but might be interested in God's work in Santa Fe)

In case you missed it, this past Sunday was the one-year anniversary of True Faith Community Church! As mentioned before, I think it's wonderfully appropriate and providential that we will celebrate our anniversary each year on All Saints' Day when we celebrate all the faithful in Christ who have gone before us.

Thinking back over the last year, I'll riff a little bit on the old jazz tune—what a difference a year makes!

A year ago, many (most? all?) of us were exhausted (physically and spiritually), angry, heart-broken, frustrated, confused, bitter, disappointed...and a whole lot of other things. More than anything, we were hurt and in desperate need of God's grace, healing, and rest. We were wandering in our own wilderness, not sure where God would lead us or what he had planned. But we were hopeful.

Early on, we gathered on the Coleman's back porch to sing Advent and Christmas hymns. We heard the old promises of Emmanuel (God with us). We came to the table weekly, remembering and experiencing Christ's promise of forgiveness with all our senses. We encouraged and took care of each other. It didn't take long until we found our rhythm, meeting at the Thelma Webber center, starting Bible studies, and creating our own traditions of reading Scripture together, praying together, and eating together, to name a few. By early summer, we were getting deeply involved in mission work from Santa Fe, to the greater Houston area, and all the way to Ethiopia!

In less than a year, we'd gone from the chaos of the wilderness to truly BEING Christ's church in Santa Fe, clinging to the Word, offering those who join us a place of rest from the world and a foretaste of the joy to come in heaven...all without any experience in church planting or desire to start something new. Surely we are a testimony to the grace of God in Christ in spite of ourselves, ha ha ha!

It's been an honor and a joy to be involved with our work and ministry at TFCC, and I'm encouraged that everyone I talk to feels the same. Be proud of your labors and continue to be quick to point to Christ as the source of our strength and successes so far. As we come to the close of the church year and spend several weeks thinking about Jesus' return, keep looking to the future and prayerfully considering how we can continue to get involved in our community, sharing the hope we have in Christ and rejoicing in the grace God lavishes on us every single day.

Yours in Christ's service,

T.C.

#TFCC

Here is a running list of all the tags used at “Taking Thoughts Captive.” Clicking on any of them will take you to a page with all the posts having that particular tag, just like an index.

#Bradbury #culture #devotional #Evangelicalism #festivals #history #hymnody #Lent #Lewis #Luther #Lutheran #life #links #miscellanies #OConnor #philosophy #politics #prayers #psalms #quotes #reading #Reformed #sacraments #TFCC #theology #Tolkien #worship