The Global Methodist Church is holding its Convening General Conference in San Jose, Costa Rica. Thousands of people have gathered to celebrate the formation of this new denomination, and to deliberate on how it will be established. This is the fulfillment of many years of prayer and hard work.
We are sitting down in our studio to watch the conference together. As is the case with any gathering of people, it is difficult to understand what is happening if one does not know the history, theology, and personalities involved. We know some of these things and will be trying outline helpful things for an audience to watch with us.
This watch party is NOT an official ministry of the Global Methodist Church. The GMC has not extended permission to us to restream the proceedings. Rather, you need to find the official GMC live stream at https://www.sotheworldwillknow.org/live. You can watch them and watch us at the same time (most people have the bandwidth and processing power for this, nowadays, but we are sorry if you don’t). We are hoping to correspond with people on site in Costa Rica, to offer insights and analysis, and make it a rich viewing, praying, and thinking experience for all who join us.
This is an extension of the ministry of the Nowata Methodist Church. If you want to convey gratitude for this service and provide for a future platform on which we can offer quality content for the worldwide church, then you can either mail a check to PO Box 129, Nowata OK 74048, or you can give online at https://tithe.ly/give?c=2198808.
If you would like to be a part of special gatherings for supporters, then join my Locals community, go to plainspoken.locals.com and become a supporter! We will hopefully be doing special things there in the coming week.
If you would like to subscribe to my pastoral Substack, where I publish articles on topics pertaining to pastoral ministry and Methodism, you can go to jeffreyrickman.substack.com.
If you would like to subscribe to the PlainSpoken Podcast Substack, where I publish articles, video, and audio pertaining to Methodism and the culture war, you can go to plainspokenpod.substack.com.
If you need to grow in familiarity with and knowledge of the scriptures, I would urge you to sign up for my daily scripture reading at https://nowatamethodists.substack.com/.
God bless you, and God bless the Global Methodist Church!
Debra Baty is the head of Resources 4 Redemption, which is an effort aimed at spreading good information about sexual orientation and gender identity. She recently published an article about “sexual fluidity” and how it impacts our sanctification in Firebrand Magazine. It is a good piece, and Debra does worthy work. All believers in the West have to contend with the artificial ideas of the sexual revolution. There is nowhere we can go that these issues do not impact us. The only way out is through.
Debra has a personal story that is quite compelling. She is a trustworthy, thoughtful, and conscientious resource. All covenant Christian bodies need to know where they stand on these things, lest the evil one sow confusion. Now is the time to reflect upon these things. Days are coming when what we believe will be put to the test. If we have not prepared, then we cannot expect to prevail.
Resources 4 Redemption can be found at https://substack.com/@resources4redemption
If you would like to ...
I didn't realize until I finished this morning's live stream that it got cut off pretty early in the stream. It should have made me suspicious when the viewer count stayed the same and I wasn't getting any more comments. Anyway, I recorded the whole thing and have reposted it here for you. I'll clip up the two main portions and post them on YouTube later today. Sorry for the snafu, y'all. There was a small power surge and something about that threw Rumble off. Tomorrow should be normal. God bless you all!
The issue of identity, while being ubiquitous in our most divisive politics, is also central to the Christian concern. I wanted to speak to these things a bit for the sake of fellow believers who perhaps are not quite so sure how to navigate these things…
https://open.substack.com/pub/jeffreyrickman/p/the-harsh-reality-of-identity?r=17brpc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
No live stream this morning. Was up all night with a sinus infection and need to get in gear for annual conference session. I'll just plan on Monday. God bless you folks!
