General Superintendent Jo Anne Lyon

On June 9th,The Wesleyan Church come into a new chapter of life. Since our planting in the 1800's we have supported women in ministry and women having equal rights in life and society, but never a woman in the highest leadership position of the church. That has changed, Jo Anne Lyon CEO and Founder of World Hope International has become our first woman General Superintendent.

After "accepting her new assignment, Dr. Lyon challenged the church to go places it never has gone before. 'I believe the Lord is positioning The Wesleyan Church to have a voice in the 21st century like never before, ' she said." (take from http://www.wesleyan.org/doc/news#bk95)

After attending the whole General Conference, I was challenged by Dr. Lyon's words and her passion for a social holiness that flows out of a deep personal holiness. This will be a great new chapter in The Wesleyan Church. I am ready to go into the local church and live out holiness of heart, powered by the Holy Spirit.

General Conference ‘08

It is time again for another General Conference of The Wesleyan Church. It is my first time attending and it is in a great location sunny Orlando, FL. Over the next few days we will hear about the past 40 years of ministry and a vision for the next. There are some very interesting items coming to the conference floor; that will be voted and discussed. It should be a great time in Orlando for The Wesleyan Church.

The Search . . .

Over the past six months I have been seeking God’s will and guidance on which church I will be going to. During that time doors have opened and closed, I have been discouraged but I have also learned a lot about who God has created me to be. The last church I visited was a nice church with a deep passion for the Bible and loving people. I interviewed for a youth and college position, through the weekend God really laid a deep passion for discipleship and spiritual formation on my heart. This is not new, but it did help me see a little more of the direction God is leading me down.

While the Saturday afternoon of my graduation has come and gone. And I now hold a master’s degree of divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary, and it is great to be done with all the class work and assignments. I find myself seeking God more and more, asking those questions of where and when. What does the future hold and what direction do I walk. I know it is connected with spiritual formation and discipleship, but is it as a small group pastor or a small church pastor? I am not sure, but I know God is still God, and He has not brought me to this open for nothing.

What are Spiritual Disciplines?

Many of you know that my connection group on Wednesday nights is studying spiritual disciplines using Coach Drury's book. Each week we study a different discipline, but we always come back to asking what the purpose of spiritual disciplines are? Susanne Johnson says, "Spiritual Discipline is not a program of self-improvement, not an ideal to be striven for, not a set of tasks to be accomplished. It is, rather, a way of posturing ourselves to receive God's work 'for us' through Israel and in Jesus Christ."

Many times as Christians we see spiritual disciplines as something we do in order to grow spiritually, but since it is 'spiritual' it follows out of who God is. Spiritual Disciplines become ways that we partner with God in His work in our lives. Spiritual disciplines are less about what we do and more about who we are and becoming.

Confession . . .

James 5:16, “therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” through a proverbial wrench into our Protestant Christian. Confession is often seen as a personal issue between God and the Christian. Coach D and the Apostle Paul take a totally different approach to confession, confession is not just letting God know, it is about becoming an authentic people within a community.

During this chapter Coach D recounts John Wesley’s thoughts on confession and how it was apart of the weekly small groups or class meetings. I wonder what the American Church would look like if every small group and Sunday school class would ask the following four questions: “What known sins have you committed since our last meeting?” “What temptations have you met with?” “How were you delivered?” “What have you thought, said, or done of which you doubt whether it be sin or not?” Confession of sins and temptations leads a Christian to deeper accountability and humility, it would appear that in the place God is able to form and shape the Christian more into the likeness of Christ.

This week I don’t want to just ask how you are practicing the spiritual discipline of confession, but how are you being formed through your practice of confession?

Trip to HQ

Last Sunday afternoon and evening approximately twenty Asbury Seminary students from the Wesleyan Church headed north to Fisher, Indiana. The reason for this trip was to visit The World Headquarters of the Wesleyan Church. Every two years the Department of Education and the Ministry hosts the seniors to Seminary Day. This is a day that is designed to help graduating students to connect with different church leaders and exposes them to the ministries that HQ has to offer students graduating from seminary.

Secrecy . . .

This past week our group studied the spiritual discipline of secrecy. Author Coach D says, “the discipline of secrecy is abstaining from taking credit for the good deeds we do. When we practice secrecy, we arrange to do good things in such a way that others can’t even find out who did them.” He goes on to say that like other disciplines secrecy really calls us to explore and focus on our relationship with God through the light of total dependency.

I found myself even today as I write these comments asking some hard questions about “Whom I seek affirmation or recognition from?” There are times over the years I have stayed late after church or event to talk with people and I think I wanted the pastor or leader to take notices. One of the hardest parts of practicing the discipline of secrecy is to examine our motivations. Coach reminds his readers, “It is our motivation that makes the deed either praiseworthy or hypocritical.” Paul takes about this in Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing our of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interest, but also to the interests of others.”

After reading the chapter and Philippians I am left thinking about my own personal motivates and propose this question to us all, have you checked your motivations this week? And what will you do to being practicing secrecy this week?