Making Disciples the Wesleyan Way
News

“You all must be the A-team, because you’re here,” he said. “You could be at a coffee shop downtown, or drinking a craft beer.”

Charles Hawkins stepped up and told how he came forward and accepted Jesus as his savior at age seven, feeling a tug on his heart at the end of the sermon, after having slept through the first part. A little over a decade later, he found himself in combat in Vietnam, asking himself how he might strengthen his relationship with God. Upon arriving back the U.S. he was at a Fourth of July festival, and when the first fireworks went off, he found himself on the ground, a reaction ingrained in him from dodging mortars in Vietnam. Some college students from the Baptist Student Union helped him up and walked him home, extending God’s grace to him in a real way.
When he got back home to Shelbina, a Methodist minister that he didn’t know knocked on his door and said God had been speaking to him about asking Hawkins to lead music at the church. Hawkins said if God was speaking he wanted to know what he had to say, so he prayed about it, and ended up leading music there 13 years. He’s had challenges with post-traumatic stress from the Vietnam war through the years, but is now glad to be back to the place where he can talk to people about Jesus.
Thie said for a year he and a pastor friend asked each other the 22 questions that members of John Wesley’s Holy Club asked each other when they met for private devotions. Questions like: am I enjoying prayer, when did I last speak to someone about my faith, do I complain and can I be trusted.
“This was very helpful for us, and I would encourage you to do this with a sister or a brother,” Thie said.
The list of 22 questions can be found at https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/ resources/everyday-disciples-johnwesleys-22-questions.
Churches shared ways they are working on their discipleship pathways, which included adding a discipleship component to their food pantry, doing a spiritual gift assessment of their congregation and using it to match members to new visitors, initiating a home based Bible study and starting a day care for adults.
Leading in Mission
By Susan SneedKathy Rolen, Conference president of the United Methodist Women/Missouri Conference noted that in 1869 a group of eight women raised enough money to send a woman doctor overseas, marking the first action of the Women’s Foreign Mission Society.
“We are still transforming the world for Christ,” she said. “Down the street and around the world we continue to our mission of transformation.” She highlighted activities of mission learning and business in Stoney Creek in Columbia, a Houston training and the annual meeting September 29-30 in Lebanon.
“As we prepare to celebrate our 150th anniversary, we can report our giving in 2016 was $337,500 and with addition gifts, a total of $432,472.” Rolen concluded her report with a video highlighting Mission U, the annual School of Missions.