
(2 Timothy 4:2 NIV) Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of
season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction.
The South Georgia Confessing Association
invites all Annual Conference attendees, family and friends to an evening of
Praise and Worship For Revival at:
St. Mark UMC, Columbus, GA Map
6795 Whitesville Rd
Columbus, GA 31904-3049
Phone: 706-327-3376
Date: June 13, 2000
Time: 8:00pm
Purpose: Revival in the United Methodist Church
Annual Meeting 2000
The South Georgia
Confessing Movement Fellowship will hold its post-General/pre-Annual Conference briefing
Thursday, May 25, 11:00 am til 3:00 pm at St. Mark UMC in Columbus. The schedule for the
day is as follows:
| 11:00 am |
Worship |
| 12:00 pm |
General Conference/Annual
Conference reports |
| 1:00 pm |
Lunch |
| 2:00 pm |
Plenary Discussion |
Please make every effort to attend this important meeting.
James Gibson
Annual Meeting 1999
The South
Georgia Confessing Movement Fellowship met Thursday, May 20, 1999 at Marshallville United
Methodist Church. David Carter (Crossroads UMC) led us in a time of praise and worship and
John Horton (Macon D.S.) gave a challenging message entitled, "Small the Gate, Narrow
the Way." He assessed the problem with mainline Protestantism as being one of wanting
to "have our cake and eat it, too." He quoted Yogi Berra who once said,
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." That is what the church has
done. By making no choice, we have made the wrong choice. Worship concluded with the
celebration of Holy Communion.
The first business session opened with John Warrener (Palmyra Road
UMC) giving a presentation on the various issues facing the church and concluded with the
disturbing assessment that we as evangelicals are to blame for the sorry state of affairs
in the UMC because we have compromised our preaching of the Gospel for matters of
expediency. He cited the example of "evangelical" preachers who are overly
conscious about time and always try to end worship services within an hour. He contrasted
this to John Wesley's willingness to preach to angry mobs who were eager to run him out of
town. The challenge before us now is to be willing to risk telling the truth and stand up
for the Gospel, regardless of the consequences.
Following lunch, the second business session began with a discussion
of an evangelical slate for General Conference.
Concern over the direction of the Annual Conference
was discussed and it was decided to hold a prayer meeting at the Savannah Civic Center on
Sunday, June 13 at 6:45 pm. Details will be forthcoming in another e-mail letter.
We next discussed various strategies for insuring
that voters at Annual Conference are informed about the issues which will be decided at
General Conference. It was decided that we would buy a one-quarter page ad in the Wesleyan
Christian Advocate emphasizing the important issues before the church and urging voters to
learn where candidates stand on those issues. In addition, a fact sheet will be prepared
for distribution at Annual Conference and several letters to the editor of the Advocate
will be written. John Horton suggested phoning potential GC delegates and asking them how
they intended to vote on such issues as homsexuality, apportionments and CPT.
The final portion of the meeting focused on internal
matters. To help centralize operations, St. Mark UMC in Columbus was chosen as conference
headquarters. John Warrener and James Gibson (Marshallville UMC) have been serving as
co-coordinators for the fellowship for the past two years and will continue to serve as
part of the executive committee which will also include Paul Buckhiester (St. Mark UMC)
and Bill Huddle (Andrew UMC).
Despite concerns over a perceived lack of direction
from the national Confessing Movement leadership, the decision was made to move ahead with
plans to connect evangelicals in South Georgia, first at the district level and possibly
through an association of Confessing Churches once everything is in place at the district
level.
The meeting concluded with a prayer by Vance Mathis
(Thomasville D.S.).
Next year's gathering will be held at St. Mark UMC in Columbus. Time
and date to be announced.
James Gibson Marshallville UMC
Paul Buckhiester Paul@pjsol.com
James Gibson jagibsn@ibm.net
Bill Huddle billhuddle@aol.com
John Warrener jwarrene@surfsouth.com
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