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Good News board seeks to defeat CPT plan


From NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>
Date 03 Feb 2000 08:46:37

Feb. 2, 2000  News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.   10-21-71B{043}

By United Methodist News Service

The governing board of an evangelical renewal movement in the United
Methodist Church is urging delegates to the church's General Conference in
May to defeat "transformational directions" being proposed by a 38-member
Connectional Process Team (CPT).

Good News board members meeting in Wilmore, Ky., Jan. 26-28, also
established the new Edmund W. Robb Jr. United Methodist Renewal Award. The
first award was presented to Robb, a United Methodist evangelist from Texas
who helped found the Institute for Religion and Democracy.  Annual awards
hereafter will be given to other individuals  "whose life and ministry have
made a significant contribution to renewal within the United Methodist
Church."

Good News was founded as a "Forum for Scriptural Christianity within the
United Methodist Church" in 1967. Chairman of the board is the Rev. Phil
Granger, pastor of College Avenue United Methodist Church in Muncie, Ind.
President and publisher, with offices in Wilmore, is the Rev. James V.
Heidinger II.

In response to a recent survey conducted by the church's General Council on
Ministries, the overwhelming majority of U.S. delegates bound for General
Conference ranked the CPT as the most important issue facing the legislative
body. General Conference, the church's top lawmaking body, will meet May
2-12 in Cleveland.

The CPT was created by the church's 1996 General Conference to "manage,
guide and promote a transformational direction" for the denomination,
continuing the work begun by the Connectional Issues Study of the General
Council on Ministries and the Global Nature of the Church Study of the
Council of Bishops. Chairwoman of the team is Bishop Sharon Brown
Christopher of the (central and southern) Illinois Area.

In a release issued after the Good News Board meeting, the directors said
there is "growing opposition to the CPT plan across the church." They are
urging delegates to "question the wisdom of spending a major amount of time
on the plan" and said it has "no chance whatsoever of passing." 

A central feature of the CPT plan is the creation of covenant councils at
every level of the church, where "spiritual and prophetic lay and clergy
leaders" would gather for "discernment, discussion, decision-making and
disciple-making."  

While new organizational designs in the church are yet to be determined and
developed, the CPT is calling for United Methodists in the United States to
become a central conference like those in other countries. The General
Conference, as it is known today, would be reconstituted as the United
Methodist Global Conference.  The 500-member Global Conference would meet
six days every four years, beginning in 2008, after which the U.S. Central
Conference - with no more than 1,000 members, would meet for six days.

The CPT document recommends that during the 2001-2004 quadrennium the
General Council on Ministries be replaced by a Covenant Council to "help us
move toward collaborative work among the global and central conferences."
Among its many assignments, the covenant council would be asked to redesign
and align the work of the general agencies and provide implementing
legislation to the 2004 General Conference.

In their report, CPT members said their work and recommendations have been
guided by a central question: "Will this help us invite, nurture, and
empower disciples of Jesus Christ through local churches and faith
communities throughout the world?"

Regarding the new award established by Good News, Heidinger praised the
evangelist after whom it is named. 

"Ed's life and ministry have had a profound impact on behalf of renewal
within the United Methodist Church," he said. "In 1976, he established a
Foundation for Theological Education, which has helped more than 90 John
Wesley Fellows earn terminal degrees with a commitment to teach in United
Methodist colleges and seminaries."

Robb helped found the conservative Institute on Religion and Democracy in
1981, was pastor of churches for 20 years and has been an evangelist for 28
years. He "has probably preached in more United Methodist churches than any
living pastor/evangelist today," Granger said.

During its meeting, the Good News board spent considerable time discussing
new proposals coming to the General Conference from the 18th plenary of the
Consultation on Church Union (COCU), which met in January 1999, Heidinger
said. Board members expressed concern that some of the recommendations
"sound more and more like union, less and less like merely covenanting."

The board also received an update on plans for a "major prayer initiative"
before and during the General Conference. Groups participating in the effort
in addition to Good News are Aldersgate Renewal Ministries, the Confessing
Movement and Terry Teykl's Prayer Ministry.

Board members viewed a video dealing with homosexuality issues facing the
General Conference. A copy of the video has been sent to each of the nearly
1,000 delegates. 

The Good News board approved a $1.2 million budget for 2000 and welcomed
eight new board members: Terri Miguel, Arizona; the Rev. John Motz,
California; Andrew Pearson, Virginia; the Rev. Norman Coleman, Ohio; Steve
Rankin, Kansas; Dwight Yoder, Oklahoma; Larry Morris, Florida; and the Rev.
Bradley Knepp, Pennsylvania.   

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*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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