Do No Harm, Do Good, Keep Loving God

These three simple rules from John Wesley for how Methodist's ought to live, seem to be the mantra for General Conference 2008 (GC `08). We've heard them refered to several times. They have been applied to how we ought to treat each other, in spite of our diiferences. So much emphasis has been made on "Unity in the midst of Diversity," that the stage has been set (thanks primarily to the leadership of our Bishops) for either something amazing to happen at GC `08, or something tragic. The tragedy could come if we (the UMC) try to take the path of forced unity. The amazing will come, if we finaly decide that "All Means All" and everyone is finally invited to be a part of a powerful ministry in Christ's name!

Where are the signs of hope? On Thursday, April 24th, they were most clearly seen among our young people:

The entire General Conference was blown away by Katherine Commale, who at the age of 5, decided she needed to do something about children dying from Malaria in Africa. After watching a special with her mom, Lynda, and learning that a child dies from mosquito-borne malaria every 30 seconds, she said, “Mom, we need to send them bed nets right away.”

Now at age 7, Katherine and her family have collected more than $40,000 to send insecticide-treated sleeping nets to Africa as part of the Nothing But Nets campaign. When Bishop Hopkins asked her how much money she hoped to raise, without hesitation Katherine replied, "when everyone who needs one has a bed net." Finally, a United Methodist who realizes that the only true "final goal" is met when everyone experiences God's love. You can see and hear Katherine when she was six at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk7ZnEE9MkI.

The other sign of "A Future with Hope" for the UMC came from the mouths of some of our youth and young adults. The "Young People's Address" was an honest, at times prophetic, but completely inspiring look at our present UMC through the eyes of our young people. They didn't hold anything back and personally, I wish we could play excepts of their words oer and over again during the many deliberations that are coming in the days ahead!

To see and hear parts of the "Young People's Address" click here to go to a site that contains several clips; and be prepared to be moved!

Three simple rules:"Do No Harm, Do Good, Keep Loving God." They are good rules for living! I want to end this post here, on a positive note, but in my next posting I want to explore the difficult question of "how do these rules apply when someone else is doing harm in the name of God?

For now, thanks to our young people, our future seems a lot more hopeful than it did just a few hours ago.

Blessings!
Steve