Jesus is Healing: Day 1 of the Convening General Conference

               The first day of the Global Methodist Church Convening Conference was a day of celebration. Countless hours or planning and prayer have culminated in nearly 1,000 people gathering to watch God launch a new Methodist movement. I say God is launching the GMC because that has been our prayer and because the Holy Spirit has been palpable in this global gathering. Our fellowship, worship, and even business have been acts of celebration for what God has done and what God will do in the future. Above all, I believe Jesus is healing this part of the Body of Christ that we now call the Global Methodist Church.

               I started reading Stephen Seamand’s recent book, Follow the Healer, on the way to Costa Rica. In his book, he identifies five ways Jesus heals: supernatural, medicine, the body’s natural self-healing, God’s sufficient grace in suffering, and victorious dying. Naturally, Follow the Healer is focused on the way Jesus heals people, however I have not been able to escape the idea that Jesus, too, is healing the “body” of the GMC. The road has been tough, but the grace of God has been sufficient to sustain us.

                No one who has walked through the exodus of a former denomination and the formation of this new one denies the need for healing. My experience has not been as long or as treacherous as others who have been leading over the last decade or so, but none of us have made the journey without pain and grief. This new body of the GMC bears the wounds of this journey, but just as God’s grace has sustained us Jesus is now healing his church.

               Our Convening General Conference could have been clouded by fear. Instead, it has been hopeful and joyful. Our first gathering may have been characterized by skepticism, but I have experienced love and goodwill among the leaders and delegates. Those with various ideas about the work to be done might have approached the work with cold manipulation to produce desired outcomes. Yet, I have encountered a genuine spirit of discernment and cooperation. Delegations and leaders have begun the work over the preceding months to culminate in this gathering in the name of Jesus, and he has been faithful to heal. One day will not complete the healing needed for this new season, but I am convinced that Jesus is healing and will continue if we are faithful to follower the healer.