Jesus was a refugee, at least in a sense. This was not a controversial statement until the last few decades when illegal immigrants began pouring across the American border with a growing number taking advantage of amnesty laws to extend their stay. The left, seeking to allow the illegal immigrants to stay, claimed not only that they were refugees, but Jesus was too and scripture says to take care of the refugee.
When they hear 'Jesus was a refugee' many Christians reply, "He wasn't a refugee. They had to go to Bethlehem for the census." They just remember Joseph "being warned in a dream" and leaving in the middle of the night. They forget the part about them fleeing to Egypt.
I'm glad I left the UMC years ago. They're an embarassment.
Having grown up in the Methodist church the government of the Methodist church has always lived in a different universe than the membership. When they started accepting gay folks into the ministry I was long gone into the LCMS Lutheran church. The minuet I heard what Methodist Church was doing I knew
it would split. The congregation that I grew up in took there building and property and just became a Community Church. My Mom was not happy she said,"I have been a Methodist all my life". That is not a problem now she is with Jesus. Dan
Their timing is terrible as woke is increasingly recognized as a campus injected parasitic mind virus exploited by the globalist corporatist Uniparty that wants to open the borders and remake the US into a collectivist ATM for the rest of the world. They are trying to appeal to something that is dying.
Amen Erick, I grew up in the UMC my father was a Pastor in the UMC and i have been so dismayed at the direction that denomination has taken since the 90's when i left with half of our entire church to start a new one. So sad to the see the decline in all major denominations in the US.
Nearly all human endeavors, with varying degrees of success, ultimately seek the truth, and they seek to communicate the truth. For certain, religion seeks the truth, but so does mathematics, science, medicine, etc. Heck, even astrology seeks the truth. But politics does not. Politics seeks power. Its not that all political communication is false; it is that in the quest for power, political communication flows through the infinite spectrum between absolute truth and vile falsehood with reckless abandon. In its desperate quest for power, in order to try to feign some level of credibility, politics infiltrates the fields of endeavor that seek truth. For example, we have seen how politics, in its quest for power via credibility, has badly damaged science. Now our basic perceptions of scientific truth are deeply filtered through our politics, and that is destroying the truth value of science. But particularly disturbing is politics's foray into religion. This is how we get the insanity - if not heresy - that Erick describes - if you do not support the government's open border policy, you spit in Jesus's face. Another disgusting example is the "Jesus is a socialist" tripe. They argue that government acts as the proxy between man and God, and if you do not support the government's redistributionist policies, you cannot attain salvation. In the end, the Lord never turns His eyes from us, but our society is turning its eyes from God. Where is Jeremiah when you need him?
Fact is, almost all of the Methodist Church's growth in the United States has come from the South for about 30 years now. But the church is based out of California. I do expect to see at some point an organized push from Methodist churches in the South to break away. You can push your own doctrine all you want, as long as you control and have the money to do so. The Methodist church does not. When I was a young man, my wife and I felt more comfortable in the Methodist Church and brought our boys up in. In short - we loved it. Short version - both boys grown, are both at non-denominational churches. We left a few years back and still struggle to find the right church home. But will not go back to the Methodist Church with how it sits today. Which is quite sad.
I have found Methodists to be extremely community-minded and missional. Most churches have food pantries, meals, and various other local efforts to help the poor regardless of denominational affiliation.
The fact that someone doesn’t care for a particular ad campaign to raise the name of Jesus doesn’t necessarily make it “silly.”
Many people who don’t like a particular style of evangelism are the same ones who don’t do it at all. It’s possible to both conduct evangelism and feed the poor, not either or.
I’ll put it this way: I’d rather have “silly” ads about Jesus aimed at secular audiences than an appeal for believers to buy an evangelist a new jet so he can fly around to win souls.
Thank you. We are huge NFL fans, and seeing these ads left bad taste in our mouths. Well put Erick. He got me when He took my place after my sins nailed Him to a cross. Let's just play football.
I've lived it. I am a United Methodist. I have watched the leadership of the North Georgia conference ignore and eschew the Book of Discipline, the voices of the congregations, and the votes from the majority of Methodists. It is NOT just the African conferences. It's not. However, that doesn't matter. UM leadership has planted their flag with the woke politics of the world. The problem is, the Traditionalists created a plan that would have let everyone go their own ways to continue spreading the gospel, because that's what the Progressives said they wanted. They said Traditionalists were "Hurting our message of love in Jesus Christ." So, we said, "Okay, here is a way we can separate in grace so you can go spread the gospel in your way, and we'll do it in our way." Accept once again, you will be made to care. Leadership of the UMC at first accepted this but ultimately is sabotaging it so it won't pass. Because, they know it will and then they'll have their financial arm cut off because all the tithers are in the Traditionalist camp. They cannot let us go our own way with an equal division of assets and liabilities because they have watched memberships decline. They already know what will happen. Enter the Global Methodist Church. Look into that. It is the new Methodist denomination founded by Traditionalists for bible-believing people who just want to share the gospel of Jesus Christ to a wounded and hurting world. Sorry for the TL:DR there.
"...they have planted a flag in a culture war issue that will immediately turn off some people." Saw the commercial and that's exactly how I responded.
Well put!
A good read.
Wow!
When they hear 'Jesus was a refugee' many Christians reply, "He wasn't a refugee. They had to go to Bethlehem for the census." They just remember Joseph "being warned in a dream" and leaving in the middle of the night. They forget the part about them fleeing to Egypt.
I'm glad I left the UMC years ago. They're an embarassment.
Having grown up in the Methodist church the government of the Methodist church has always lived in a different universe than the membership. When they started accepting gay folks into the ministry I was long gone into the LCMS Lutheran church. The minuet I heard what Methodist Church was doing I knew
it would split. The congregation that I grew up in took there building and property and just became a Community Church. My Mom was not happy she said,"I have been a Methodist all my life". That is not a problem now she is with Jesus. Dan
Let's not forget, that Jesus also went back to his country once the threat of death was over and when God commanded Joseph to return.
Their timing is terrible as woke is increasingly recognized as a campus injected parasitic mind virus exploited by the globalist corporatist Uniparty that wants to open the borders and remake the US into a collectivist ATM for the rest of the world. They are trying to appeal to something that is dying.
Amen Erick, I grew up in the UMC my father was a Pastor in the UMC and i have been so dismayed at the direction that denomination has taken since the 90's when i left with half of our entire church to start a new one. So sad to the see the decline in all major denominations in the US.
Nearly all human endeavors, with varying degrees of success, ultimately seek the truth, and they seek to communicate the truth. For certain, religion seeks the truth, but so does mathematics, science, medicine, etc. Heck, even astrology seeks the truth. But politics does not. Politics seeks power. Its not that all political communication is false; it is that in the quest for power, political communication flows through the infinite spectrum between absolute truth and vile falsehood with reckless abandon. In its desperate quest for power, in order to try to feign some level of credibility, politics infiltrates the fields of endeavor that seek truth. For example, we have seen how politics, in its quest for power via credibility, has badly damaged science. Now our basic perceptions of scientific truth are deeply filtered through our politics, and that is destroying the truth value of science. But particularly disturbing is politics's foray into religion. This is how we get the insanity - if not heresy - that Erick describes - if you do not support the government's open border policy, you spit in Jesus's face. Another disgusting example is the "Jesus is a socialist" tripe. They argue that government acts as the proxy between man and God, and if you do not support the government's redistributionist policies, you cannot attain salvation. In the end, the Lord never turns His eyes from us, but our society is turning its eyes from God. Where is Jeremiah when you need him?
As a life-long Methodist I couldn’t agree with you more.
Fact is, almost all of the Methodist Church's growth in the United States has come from the South for about 30 years now. But the church is based out of California. I do expect to see at some point an organized push from Methodist churches in the South to break away. You can push your own doctrine all you want, as long as you control and have the money to do so. The Methodist church does not. When I was a young man, my wife and I felt more comfortable in the Methodist Church and brought our boys up in. In short - we loved it. Short version - both boys grown, are both at non-denominational churches. We left a few years back and still struggle to find the right church home. But will not go back to the Methodist Church with how it sits today. Which is quite sad.
I have found Methodists to be extremely community-minded and missional. Most churches have food pantries, meals, and various other local efforts to help the poor regardless of denominational affiliation.
The fact that someone doesn’t care for a particular ad campaign to raise the name of Jesus doesn’t necessarily make it “silly.”
Many people who don’t like a particular style of evangelism are the same ones who don’t do it at all. It’s possible to both conduct evangelism and feed the poor, not either or.
I’ll put it this way: I’d rather have “silly” ads about Jesus aimed at secular audiences than an appeal for believers to buy an evangelist a new jet so he can fly around to win souls.
Thank you. We are huge NFL fans, and seeing these ads left bad taste in our mouths. Well put Erick. He got me when He took my place after my sins nailed Him to a cross. Let's just play football.
I've lived it. I am a United Methodist. I have watched the leadership of the North Georgia conference ignore and eschew the Book of Discipline, the voices of the congregations, and the votes from the majority of Methodists. It is NOT just the African conferences. It's not. However, that doesn't matter. UM leadership has planted their flag with the woke politics of the world. The problem is, the Traditionalists created a plan that would have let everyone go their own ways to continue spreading the gospel, because that's what the Progressives said they wanted. They said Traditionalists were "Hurting our message of love in Jesus Christ." So, we said, "Okay, here is a way we can separate in grace so you can go spread the gospel in your way, and we'll do it in our way." Accept once again, you will be made to care. Leadership of the UMC at first accepted this but ultimately is sabotaging it so it won't pass. Because, they know it will and then they'll have their financial arm cut off because all the tithers are in the Traditionalist camp. They cannot let us go our own way with an equal division of assets and liabilities because they have watched memberships decline. They already know what will happen. Enter the Global Methodist Church. Look into that. It is the new Methodist denomination founded by Traditionalists for bible-believing people who just want to share the gospel of Jesus Christ to a wounded and hurting world. Sorry for the TL:DR there.
"...they have planted a flag in a culture war issue that will immediately turn off some people." Saw the commercial and that's exactly how I responded.
As a recovering United Methodist I “get you” Erick. Good grief what a waste of tithes 🤦🏻♀️