Free Methodist News

Prayer is key to bringing spiritual growth and change in the church, the Free Methodist Church USA bishops said on a recent episode of “The Light + Life Podcast.”

Host Brett Heintzman — who serves as both the denominational communications director and the co-director of the National Prayer Ministry — asked the bishops, “How would you like to see the culture of the FMC change in regard to prayer?”

In our local churches and our small groups, Bishop Kenny Martin said, “Prayer should be our driving force to guide us in our meetings, and it begins with personal prayer. … If we’re going to see change in prayer, it begins with us as individuals.”

Martin encouraged local church members to pray for one another — including in prayer bands or accountability groups. He pointed to the biblical command to: “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10 NIV).

“A lot of times, I think we make decisions, but we don’t be still and really spend time with God,” said Martin, who encouraged a deeper level of prayer by meditating on God’s Word day and night (Psalm 1:2). He added that spending time in prayer will lead to agreement within the church (Amos 3:3). “Prayer is the highest priority for us to move forward as the church.”

Bishop Kaye Kolde echoed Martin’s call for decision-making to flow from prayer. She said that as bishops spend time in different Free Methodist settings, “we recognize that prayer needs to be more than the cursory beginning of a gathering. It needs to be a time when we really are pausing to listen.”

Kolde said she increasingly hears people teach about listening prayer, “but very rarely do I hear that groups in the church — leadership groups —  are practicing group discernment where listening to God is a beginning point.”

It may be uncommon for groups to discern God’s will by coming together to discuss what the Spirit is confirming among the group members, but Kolde said, “I would love that to be really who we are and how we go about pursuing our leadership, and I’m always disturbed when we gather and we’re more of a business meeting than the people of God.”

She said we should be “beginning in prayer, bathing things in prayer, learning to grow in prayer with one another, and also one thing that I hope to see in the culture of the Free Methodist Church is that when we pause and take time to praise God, that we could do that for more than three to four minutes. … We so infrequently just pause and praise God for His character, because very often we’re going right to our needs, and so there are certain ways in which I think our holiness is reflected in how we pray as a larger denomination.”

Some local churches may only give a brief time for prayer near the beginning or end of a worship service, and church board meetings may include a scheduled moment of prayer. In contrast, Bishop Keith Cowart said prayer should be “a part of the culture of everything we do” — not something “we only think of as an agenda item.”

Cowart explained, “Prayer is not simply us lifting up our needs or concerns to God. It truly is seeking the heart of God and seeking the voice of God and what God wants to speak to us.”

God-Given Revelation

Heintzman asked the bishops to share a passage on which they have been meditating and how that passage relates to the church.

“The one passage that has been in my heart is 2 Chronicles 7:14, and it says, ‘If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sins and heal their land,’” Martin said. “It’s about restoration. It’s also evident that we need a healing in our land and around the world. There are a lot of hurting people around the world.”

Cowart referred to John 17 “when Jesus prays for His disciples, but He makes it really clear that He’s not just praying for the Twelve. He’s praying for all who will believe because of their message, which very much includes us, and it is a prayer for the people of God. It’s a prayer for the church, and the heart of it is unity.”

Kolde said she loves “how the worship in the Spirit and in truth through prayer actually strengthens our unity.” She discussed Luke 11:1–13 with its mention of “shameless audacity” (v.8 NIV) and added, “I want to be a person who prays with shameless audacity. I know I can ask the Father for anything — anything in His will — as impossible as it might seem.”

She also prays the Psalms and sometimes does so with the other bishops. She pointed to the reminder in Psalm 145 “that the Lord is righteous in all His ways and faithful in all He does. The Lord is near to all who call on Him.”

Words for the Church

Heintzman asked the bishops if there have been moments in their times of personal prayer where they “heard from the Lord a word, and that word was for the church at large. … How have you been hearing from the Lord, and what is He saying? What words has He given you?”

Cowart replied that he recently sensed the Lord giving him the word boldness: “I heard it more as a word for me, but perhaps it could be for the denomination as a whole. … These are days where we need to be courageous, and we need to be bold. We need to be bold in  who we are and what we’re asking God to do, what we believe God wants to do, and bold in leading out of that. … The urgency and the need for boldness that I’m sensing is not one that’s fear-driven. It’s not an urgency that’s coming out of crisis. It’s an urgency that’s coming out of hunger and yearning for a deep, profound move of God — a deep desire for more. … It’s a time for boldness in our leadership and in our prayers.”

Kolde said she “was really struck in prayer one day” with a word for her and “potentially a word for us” regarding the biblical account of the feeding of the 5,000. She noted Matthew’s version of the miracle (Matthew 14:13–21) “says Jesus had compassion on these crowds, and He began healing them. In one of the other versions, the compassion is also tied to the fact that these people are hungry.” She considered that we could decide we don’t have enough resources and answers to help all the hungry people in the world, “but I want to follow the example that Christ gave, which is bring what you do have and bring an offering. … The word for me was: Do not throw up your hands and say, ‘There’s nothing we can do here.’ Instead bring the offering, and ask God to bless it and multiply it.”

Martin said he is reluctant to share a prophetic word unless he clearly hears from the Lord, “but in my heart, for such a time as this, you know we’re called to be people of faith. Especially in this transition [as] we talk about networking of conferences, we have to trust in the Lord.” He added, “When we say that this is a prophetic word from the Lord that has been seasoned in times of prayer and consecration … we’re not just saying it because we’re bishops. We’re saying it because we’ve been with God.”

The bishops have called the church to faithful prayer and “seeking together,” including a  monthlong time of prayer and fasting last year.

“It’s my prayer that as we talk about ‘seeking together,’ we will hear a prophetic voice from our Lord,” Martin said. “It’ll come to you individually and maybe in a small group where we are really seeking God.”

Seeking Together Gatherings

This year, the Free Methodist Church USA will host three Seeking Together Gatherings in August: Aug. 7–8 at The Arbor Church in Spring Arbor, Michigan; Aug. 21–22 at Christ Community Church in Columbus, Georgia; and Aug. 28–29 at Commission Church in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

“I am hoping and expecting that we experience the powerful presence of our loving Father, and that there would be breakthroughs for people in that space, and that we might see healings in that space and reconciliation in that space where we seek God together,” Kolde said.

Martin said the bishops do not want the gatherings to just be “another event.” They instead want the gatherings to be “communing with God.” He added, “For me, it’s not this onetime gathering, but it will continue in our local churches.”

Plans for the gathering “began to come together for us as we recognized we’ve been saying now for several years we want to see a Spirit-fueled movement in our denomination, and we are deeply, deeply aware that that’s not something we can create in our own strength,” Cowart said. “We recognize there’s a cost to that. There’s a challenge to that, but we would invite you to really pray about coming to one of these and being physically present. … We believe that these gatherings really could spur activity in the spiritual realm that would reveal areas of where we need to repent, that would expose idols and would give us vision for what God wants to do.”

Click here for more information and to register for the Seeking Together Gatherings.

Click here to listen to the full podcast episode, “Regarding Prayer – A Conversation With the FMC Bishops.”

The Free Methodist Way serves to inform us of what we stand for as members of the Free Methodist Church. But it also informs the world of our legacy as members of this historic denomination. Nowhere is that more evident than when a group of African American pastors and leaders were assembled in Indianapolis in 1999 to strengthen the presence of leaders of color in the FMC. Over 25 years later, the African Heritage Network (AHN) continues to gather every year for a time of worship, prayer, encouragement and the equipping of one another for the ministries we’ve been called to by God.

This year, the AHN Conference convened in Columbus, Georgia, at Christ Community Church. In attendance were FMC pastors and leaders from all over the United States gathering around the theme, “Healthy Leaders, Healthy Churches & Healthy Communities.” Main speakers addressed areas where we can be more effective as believers by attending to areas of self-care and sabbath, making our churches places where the Holy Spirit can move freely and loving our neighbors in our communities as we are commanded by Jesus.

“You cannot lead well if it isn’t well with your soul,” said Derrick Shields, the lead pastor of Christ Community Church and conference host. During this opening session, Pastor Shields shared his growth journey toward healthy leadership. As he further encouraged us to seek silence, solitude and sabbath as means of taking care of our souls, this session launched us into this year’s conference where we heard from panels discussing how to be healthy leaders and to promote healthy communities.

Also for the first time at our conferences, we heard from Greenville University students who shared from their perspectives how the church can be more effective in reaching younger generations.

For more than 25 years, the African Heritage Network of the FMC has served as a safe space where African American pastors and leaders find support and encouragement and also discover ways to help the church realize its goals of equity and diversity. The vision of the network is to help lead the Free Methodist Church USA to be established in its roots of inclusiveness of all people to know God as revealed in Jesus Christ and to make Him known. From an initial gathering of less than 20 pastors to a conference that is attended by 80–100 pastors and leaders from diverse backgrounds, the AHN serves the FMC to helps us understand the cultural distinctives important with communities of color so that we might truly experience the diversity and multicultural kingdom of God as expressed in Revelation 7.

Across our nation, we are witnessing the dismantling of programs and policies designed to correct the continued harm done by hundreds of years of slavery, segregation and discrimination. Now more than ever, it is important that those of us in the kingdom of God declare the value of all peoples. The FMC has an even greater opportunity today to commit to the inclusion of all in moving forward to be what God desires. We must never forget the importance of every believer and church body for the health of the whole FMC.

What is our part in seeing this vision come to pass? Simply put, we wrap our arms around marginalized groups and boldly declare that the kingdom of God is not healthy, whole and complete without them. In 1 Corinthians, Paul uses the analogy of a physical body to show us the importance of the body operating as a cohesive unit as well as what threatens the health of that unit. In 1 Corinthians 12:21, we see where one body part cannot say to another body part that it’s not valuable. In the body of Christ, we have to value the contributions and gifts of all believers of all backgrounds and experiences.

No one in the FMC is making any statement that we don’t need those who are a part of marginalized groups such as African Americans, Latin Americans, women or others. In fact, we say just the opposite! It’s hardwired into our DNA as a denomination founded by those opposing oppression. However, now is an ideal time to make our voices louder and bolder in our support of those who find themselves under great scrutiny and even persecution.

If we are going to truly see a Spirit-fueled movement flow throughout our FMC churches and communities, we need to value the voice of God as it is revealed through us all.

Fred TenEyck is the lead pastor of The Bridge in Kent, Washington, and the director of the African Heritage Network. He has also served as the church planter in residence at Rainier Avenue Church in Seattle and as the pastor of New Vision Fellowship Church in Forestville, Maryland.

More Time Given for Discussion, Discernment

In a special sitting March 3, General Conference 2023 delegates voted 161-59 for the Free Methodist Church USA’s next General Conference to be held in July 2029. The two-year delay from the normal four-year cycle gained the approval of 73% of the delegates. The approved resolution also states that, “as a consequence, the term of the Board of Bishops elected in July 2023 will be a six-year term.”

In response to a recommendation from the Unleashing Missional Momentum (UMM) group, the FMCUSA Board of Administration (BOA) introduced the resolution last October to allow more time for discussion and prayerful discernment regarding anticipated structural and organizational changes in the denomination.

After the resolution’s approval in the special sitting held online via Zoom, BOA Chair Eric Logan told the delegates, “Thank you so much for your diligence and your sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and for your discernment. I personally — and I know all of us — appreciate all of the arguments, both for and against, and we appreciate the heart of the church and the discernment of what we’re doing.” At the beginning of the meeting, Logan noted, “Our standing rules call for three people to speak for and three people to speak against” the resolution. He invited BOA member Al Sones — the senior pastor of Good News Church in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania — to begin the discussion. “Our priority always is to see that the church is led by what happens in the prayer room, not as a result of what happens in the committee room,” Sones said. “It became very apparent to us at our last Board of Administration meeting that one of the key results of the concerted season of prayer and fasting that swept across the church was that the Holy Spirit was calling us to a sense of urgency, so the urgency for change to be made now does not come out of a sense of fear or crisis, but simply a prompting of the Holy Spirit.”

Sones said the BOA members saw the need “to create time and create a space for the servant leaders of the Free Methodist Church and the frontline Free Methodists … to work together to create a kingdom culture. ”

Wendy Seyfert, a lay delegate from the Free Methodist Church in Southern California, said that despite being “very grateful for our bishops’ desires to address the opportunities within the North American church and to bring a new, fresh spirit to the work,” she spoke “against the resolution, though after much prayer and inner turmoil, because I do not believe that the work undertaken by the UMM is of the highest caliber level possible for success. The UMM is comprised of and was selected by a small group of elders whose vocation is ministry. … The lack of representation by laity — a key pillar of our polity in almost every area of leadership — as well as the lack of diversity of women and young leaders — does not fill me with enough confidence in the ideas and execution that need to be generated to take us into the future. ”

UMM member and Pacific Northwest Conference Superintendent Cathy Tastad described the resolution as being “about stepping back, taking time to prayerfully discern what needs to change in our institution so that the Holy Spirit can be free to move among us. The superintendents, the bishops, the delegates, the pastors and boards, and others need space to do the necessary work to process the needed changes thoroughly, to have open dialogue in our conferences, to hear other voices, and to position the Free Methodist Church for long-term health and mission. … We have elected leaders, elected again by equal balance of lay and clergy. These people love Jesus. They love the church, and, if we do believe in our system, we also need to trust those we’ve chosen to lead us.”

Isaac Wilson — the families pastor at River City Church in Lawrence, Kansas — questioned whether extending General Conference to 2029 would ensure continuity because some leaders may not intend to stay in their positions until then. He said holding General Conference two years from now would increase “our opportunity for accountability and a structure that we operate well within to say, ‘We are midway through a plan, so let’s elect these leaders again to lead us for, in fact, another four years.’”

BOA member Cindi Newman, a lay delegate from the Genesis Conference, said, “The single purpose of this resolution is to provide undistracted time for our bishops to pray over and discern a path towards increased fruitfulness for the FMCUSA. Extending the current term by two years gives our leaders time to discern and articulate a vision for returning the FMCUSA to abundant fruitfulness, which is the heart cry of our desire to be a Spirit-fueled movement, and when we begin preparations for the next General Conference, passing this resolution would also give the delegates more time to pray and to consider the vision and the resolutions needed to walk out that vision.”

In speaking against the resolution, Central Region Conference Superintendent Bruce Cromwell emphasized, “In no way am I against the necessary changes that may help us better align with how the Holy Spirit is moving and what God is calling us to do and to be. … The reason I’m speaking against the resolution is because I have not heard sufficient reason to delay a General Conference. There are challenges facing our churches, to be sure, and most are due to the rapidly changing culture in which we serve. To delay four years from now puts us even further behind the adjustments we need to make to minister to women and men today.”

After the resolution’s approval, Logan asked BOA member Alex Soto, a lay delegate from the Acts 12:24 Churches, to close the special sitting in prayer. “Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for including us, with clarity, in the matters that have to do with the business of Your church. Lord, I pray that we can come together as a Board of Administration, as a Board of Bishops, as delegates to support these leaders that are going to be working towards kingdom expansion and leaning on us as a body as well to hear Your will, Father. Be with us tonight as we join our families and go about our business, and I thank You for the team in Indianapolis that orchestrated this. Thank You for each and every one of them for their willingness to serve and for the willingness to everyone on this call that is obedient to Your call, and we’re all here to help expand Your kingdom, Father. En el nombre de Cristo Jesús te presentamos estas peticiones. Amen. ”

Expect big changes to the Free Methodist Church USA in the coming years. These changes are needed to unleash missional momentum so the church can become a movement again, the FMCUSA Board of Bishops explained in a conversation with Brett Heintzman on a recent episode of “The Light + Life Podcast.”

Bishop Keith Cowart said that Free Methodists in different parts of the country have caught “this idea of being a Spirit-fueled movement. We’re not just treading water. We are moving forward with great vision and conviction that we have the incredible privilege of working alongside God to expand His kingdom, so this is growing more out of a desire to see us thriving, not just surviving. ”

Bishop Kaye Kolde said denominational leaders understand that “some of what we do and how we do it might actually be more of an impediment than a benefit to the local churches where the disciples are being made.” The bishops “were reminding ourselves what’s going to outlast us for the benefit of the church when none of us are in these roles, so that it’s not about a personal preference for how things might work, but really seeking the Lord for how His church might flourish.”

FMCUSA leaders created the Unleashing Missional Momentum (UMM) group, which has met several times in person for periods of two or three days with Zoom sessions in between. The group has recommended significant changes to the denominational structure.

“This is a major shift,” Bishop Kenny Martin said. “This has never been done before on this level.”

The bishops emphasized that prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit are key aspects of the process.

“We sense through prayer that this is what the Lord wants us to do,” Martin said. “And so it’s about unity, trust, obedience to what the Holy Spirit is calling us to do — the direction of the Holy Spirit. ”

In assembling the UMM group, the bishops asked superintendents “to choose among themselves six of their number that would work with us, because the Book of Discipline gives us the responsibility of vision and direction,” Cowart said. “We recognize that we humbly accept that responsibility, but we don’t believe that means that we have to operate in isolation. Vision is best created in collaboration, and so we wanted to get clarity about where we need to be going. ”

The bishops also asked Free Methodist World Missions area directors to select “one of their own” to join UMM, Cowart said, “in order to make sure that the things we do here are both informed by the global church and don’t create obstacles for the global church. ”

Instead of the UMM’s recommendations just being another concept that’s discussed and set aside, Cowart said denominational leaders are “actually deeply committed to making these changes. ”

Churches and Conferences

Kolde said the bishops are aware that human and financial resources need to be aligned with the work being done at the local church level to make disciples.

“Some of the things that we’re talking about like a new network of U.S. annual conferences, that vision is really driven by this desire to better equip and resource local churches,” Kolde said. “One of the things that I am very excited about is saying, let’s take some of the resources that currentlyare split between 21 annual conferences in the U.S. and instead bring them together and use them to equip local church pastors through teams in our conferences. ”

Kolde said some of the conferences do not currently have the people and financial resources for a team approach.

“We recognize that the church is designed for each of us to function in our gifting and work together as a body,” she said. “We keep using the word teams, but it’s really about being the body of Christ, and so part of what we’ve been doing is reenvisioning how we work together as a body, even at the conference level. ”

UMM recommendations include reducing the number of conferences and reconfiguring boundaries.

“People are looking very closely at the whole creating a new network of new conferences, and what that’s going to mean,” Cowart said. “Creating new annual conferences is not the vision. It’s the means to a vision. ”

The bishops understand that some Free Methodists may question how reducing or changing conferences would benefit the denomination.

“We recognize profoundly that just changing the boundaries of our conferences is not going to create movement,” said Cowart, who noted that reducing the number of annual conferences from 21 to 10 or 12 may seem like a step backward. “But what we want to emphasize is what we’re truly after is developing a healthy culture throughout our church family, where we are moving together in agreement around our core sense of our identity in The Free Methodist Way.”

Although denominational leaders are concerned with significant differences in how conferences operate, Cowart stressed that “we’re not looking for 10 to 12 conferences that look exactly the same, but what we are saying is we cannot be a movement if we are not all committed to a core mission, core values and a core identity.”

Apostolic Leaders

Martin compared the reconfiguration discussion to going to our Great Physician and asking for the Lord’s help in determining areas that aren’t healthy. He noted that health includes vision.

“We need visionary leaders, right? What we call apostolic leaders. We need to be pioneers for taking new territory,” Martin said. “We can’t be happy just where we are because there are lost people out there. For this to happen, we have to come together in unity.”

Martin said the change must be Spirit-led, and the heartbeat behind the effort is “about the lost and

raising up visionary leaders.” He added that apostolic leaders are visionary thinkers who can discern: “What is God saying to the Free Methodist Church? What is the vision that God has for us?”

Being an apostolic leader is “a calling from God that changes cultures” with “a passion to bring the body of Christ together,” Martin said. These leaders understand “the heart of God where He wants us to be the body of Christ, and an apostolic leader sees that and can communicate that to the church at large. ”

Kolde said the Free Methodist Church has already looked at Ephesians 4 to determine whether a person is an apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd or teacher.

“With the apostolic leader, they have the ability to see the new thing, or to see the thing that needs to be brought to good health and then equip a team and unleash them, and then sometimes move on to the next thing,” Kolde said. “You have leaders who are able to see, cast vision, bring others around them, and those people are the ones who actually continue doing those things well.”

Cowart said that our conferences need people with a variety of gifts.

“Those who work out of an apostolic gifting understand the power of building culture — culture around kingdom values, culture around a kingdom mission,” Cowart said. “It’s more than just putting out a mission statement. It’s more than just stating, ‘This is what we want to be.’ It’s building the kind of culture that actually results in that reality, and those are the kind of leaders that we want to see in every single annual conference.”

Delaying GC?

The UMM proposed to the denominational Board of Administration that the next general conference be delayed two years from 2027 to 2029. General Conference 2023 delegates will meet online March 3 for a “special sitting” to discuss and vote on a resolution that would change the date.

“The idea of extending two years was not ours as bishops,” Cowart said. “That did not come from us, and quite frankly, initially, we were pretty resistant to that idea, but the word that came so strong from our superintendents was: ‘We believe this is the right direction, and we don’t want to see it fall short of full implementation.’”

The special sitting is not intended as a discussion of annual conference changes or other UMM recommendations.

“What is being proposed for the vote on March 3 is not about these specific changes. It is about time,” Kolde said. “It’s about having the opportunity to have many more conversations, to actually be with our leaders in different areas of the country, to look for the best way to move toward this preferred future where we have really vibrant networks, equipping local churches and then working together with the Board of Bishops.”

A general conference is typically held every four years, and planning the event requires a considerable mount of planning and resources.

“A big chunk of our leadership is working toward the next general conference within a year of the last one,” Cowart said. “We need more time to actually implement the things that happen at general conference. So many things don’t ever get implemented because we’re already getting ready for the next general conference.”

Some of the UMM’s recommendations can be implemented without going before general conference delegates.

“There are some things that we have already done that the UMM discussed, and we’re not bringing them before the church for a vote,” Kolde said. “That’s not our polity or the practice.”

Other matters would require a vote, such as a proposal to simplify the Book of Discipline by separating portions that need to change frequently.

Leadership Pipeline

One of the bishops’ priorities is developing a pipeline of new leaders who are equipped to serve in ministry.

“We have to think and prepare at a young age,” Martin said. “We have to prepare this next generation of leaders by mentoring them, preparing them, training them.”

Kolde said that in one area where leaders are exploring the creation of a new conference, “they feel encouraged and hopeful that a new conference with a greater critical mass of different types of ministries and different types of leaders will help them attract more leaders into the conference.”

New conferences could include “the creation of conference teams — a structure where more people are invited into the leadership of the conference,” Kolde said. “There would be regional structures. There would be people who could have positions working on coaching and pastoral formation for instance, or multiplication, and so that would allow a leadership pipeline where many of our gifted pastors could have opportunity to serve at the conference level in addition to pastoring or instead of pastoring a local church.”

Cowart said the bishops are having “deep discussions” about the leadership pipeline, because “we must find ways to connect better with our emerging generation.” He added that we need to recognize God is working in a unique way, “and rather than constantly trying to force them into old models, let’s find ways of unleashing what God’s put in them that might lead us into brand new territory.”

Click here to listen to the full conversation on “The Light + Life Podcast.”

What do you do when you’re actively walking in what God called you to do, and His still small voice disrupts what you thought was His way for this calling?

That is the question myself and a few key leaders wrestled with two and a half years ago. At that point, we had been following God’s call to plant Hope Springs Community Church in an urban area of Columbus, Georgia. By God’s grace, we had witnessed a couple of salvations, had seen the start of outreach initiatives to our community, received a good amount of property to use for a low cost, and saw a church plant project grow into an attendance of about 30 people. 

A Different Way?

Yet something started to feel oJ. This grew day by day. The call to make disciples who make disciples and reach those who won’t go to church had started to fade into an attractional model, a concern about “how to pay the bills, ” and a pastor who was juggling the weekly worship service, working full-time as an educator while leading a family. Burnout was knocking on the door.

In comes the Lord’s voice: “What if my way is different?”

It didn’t take long for us to realize that we should heed this call and this question. After days in prayer, it became clear: What if we stripped the church of the focus on a building, of the focus on programs and initiatives, and truly leaned into discipleship? What if we poured into the “few” to allow the Holy Spirit and everyday people to reach the many? This is exactly the journey we have been on.

Missional Multiplication

Two and a half years later, we are seeing the early glimpses of a missional multiplication network. We have been blessed to learn from NewBreed through the Southeast Region Conference, and to connect with the Church Development Network, which has been a great partnership and resource to activate people.

Since then, we have witnessed six of our people say “yes, Lord” to being sent out into the harvest. One has established a missional church in one of the hard-to-reach areas of our city.

A woman — who once said, “Who am I to do this?” — now leads a growing weekly missional gathering of 10+ people whose lives are being changed.

A young man who never heard of discipleship or evangelism beyond what he saw in the Scriptures now prayer-walks a park weekly, serves the teens of a local recreation center, and has started a weekly discovery Bible study at this rec center.

My wife and I host a weekly gathering in our home — pouring into a group of 13 adults and six children to seek growth and transformation in the Lord and to send them out. Two older adults are starting a community at a local Starbucks that is seeking to reach and grow people. Funds are freed to pour into a local school, a summer camp ministry for kids at risk, and into missionaries who are doing missional work in Argentina. Salvations and baptisms are happening, everyday people are saying “yes, Lord, ” and transformations are plenty.

I, for one, am beyond grateful to have listened to the still small voice and to serve a God who lovingly disrupts. Whatever the call, we still say “yes, Lord.”

A patient is in their hospital bed. Their family is around. The machines have all been turned off. A soul is about to pass from this world to the next.

A senior military leader is about to make a decision that will determine if the mission succeeds and if the leader’s troops will perish. The pure weight of this decision will follow the leader for the rest of the leader’s life.

A prisoner has been incarcerated for several years. They have recently started to attend church services at the prison and are on the verge of making a decision about faith.

Closed communities. Sacred spaces. Places where a select few are allowed to go. Moments where life and death, past and future are all hanging in the present. These are the spaces where chaplains exist and are needed.

While these spaces and places are vitally important, they are often overlooked by the greater church body.

“Since this specialty ministry takes place beyond the structure and eyes of the church, little is written about it in church publications,” E. Dean Cook explained. “Chaplains, out of respect for confidentiality and the institutions they serve, traditionally have not written a great deal about their work, except in professional magazines. All of this has led to a serious gap in the church’s understanding and awareness of this ministry.”[1]

Think of your conference. How many chaplains are elders within that conference? Do you know? Did you have to look it up in the Yearbook? Have you talked with those chaplains about the unique community they serve?

In most of Matthew 24 and 25, Jesus is addressing the disciples on the Mount of Olives. He provides a few parables and lessons about the coming days. Then, in Chapter 25, he starts to describe the Judgment:

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” (v.34–40 NIV)

This passage is one of the primary scriptural references for the basis of chaplain ministry. People in need often do not seek out help, requiring those who serve Christ to go to them. Chaplains go where there is need, standing in the gap with those who would not otherwise receive help from the church. In my personal experience, many of the warriors I serve would never walk through the doors of a church. In fact, coming to talk to the chaplain is their answer when everything else has failed. They know that they need something: confidential counseling, sound advice, a person to listen to their struggles, but they don’t know what that need is. Chaplaincy is truly an incarnational ministry, where you often live, work with, rub shoulders with, and eat with those you serve.

“The roots of Free Methodist Chaplaincy can be traced back to World War II and the nation’s urgent call for chaplains to minister to our troops.”[2] There were several young clergy members from our denomination who served during the Second World War, having impacts across multiple continents and aspects of that war. Since that time, Free Methodist chaplains have served in a variety of positions and ministry spaces. Hospital, hospice, law enforcement, prisons and jails, the military, retirement communities, sports teams, colleges and universities. Chaplains in all of these different places have three primary things in common.

 Calling

Calling is one of the most, if not the most, pivotal parts of chaplaincy. Serving in these closed communities is seldom easy and requires a special type of calling. Os Guinness tells us, “Our passion is to know that we are fulfilling the purpose for which we are here on earth.”[3]

No one person’s calling to chaplaincy looks exactly like another’s. My call to chaplaincy came, to paraphrase J.R.R. Tolkien, from the most unlikely of people. I was working nights at UPS after graduating from college. I had graduated with a degree in ministry focused on worship arts. Unfortunately, I graduated in 2009, right in the middle of a recession.

To help provide for my family, I was a stay-at-home dad during the day, and loaded trucks at UPS in the evenings. After working there for a few months, and getting to know my co-workers, one who had previously served in the Marine Corps asked me if I had ever thought about being a military chaplain. I politely told him, “No,” that I had just finished my bachelor’s degree and didn’t want to go back to school and that I was happy to work with youth or lead worship but didn’t think that being in charge of what I perceived to be a bigger responsibility was something I aspired to. However, as I thought, prayed, and asked my mentors about this, it became apparent that God was calling me to this unique ministry.

“To be called by God is to be one who has heard and answered the call that God makes,” according to Carey H. Cash. “In the end, not all men respond to that call. But for those who do, nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate them from God’s providential plan working out in their lives.”^[4]

Like Jonah, I was being called to what was to me a foreign land. Within a few months, I had enrolled in seminary and started the process of joining the U.S. Army Reserve as a chaplain candidate.

 Preparation

The next important step in becoming a chaplain is preparation. The requirements for every type of chaplaincy vary to some degree. Almost all require an endorsement from a denominational endorsing agent (for Free Methodists, this is currently Tim Porter). Candidates for this are often presented to whichever current bishop oversees our chaplain ministries (currently Bishop Keith Cowart). Both also usually require ordination as an elder within your current conference. According to Richard M. Budd, “Traditionally the triumvirate of occupations accorded professional status in America has included ministry, which is the eldest, plus law and medicine.”[5]

Some forms of chaplaincy require an M.Div. or equivalent seminary degree, the military being one of these. Many hospital and hospice chaplain settings require Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), which can be earned either through a residency or through individual credits. Other chaplain settings may require still other accreditations or trainings to serve that community.

 Opportunity

Once a person has discerned a calling and done the necessary preparation, that person is able to seize the opportunities provided by all the work they have put in. Very few ministry settings have opened opportunities to see large change happen like chaplaincy. In my current assignment of working with basic trainees, I have been able to work with multiple trainees who have accepted Christ, baptized over 200 of them, and worked with many drill sergeants and other cadre members as they struggle through difficult life situations. 

If you think that exploring a call into chaplaincy could be a part of your future, reach out to FMCUSA Co-Directors of Chaplain Ministries Tim (timothy.porter@myfmconnect.org) or Patricia (patricia.porter@myfmconnect.org) Porter.

Chaplain Captain Andy Baird is an ordained elder in the North Michigan Conference of the Free Methodist Church and is currently stationed at Fort Moore, Georgia. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in ministry from Central Christian College of Kansas and a Master of Divinity degree from George Fox Evangelical Seminary, and he is currently working on his Doctor of Ministry degree from Wesley Theological Seminary. He and Allison have four children, who constantly keep life moving. They enjoy spending time with their family, and (when able) doing things without kids.

[1] E. Dean Cook, Chaplaincy: Being God’s Presence in Close Communities (Bloomington, IN, AuthorHouse, 2010), xi-xii.

[2] Ibid, 9.

[3] Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life (Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson, 2003), 1.

[4] Carey H. Cash, Table in the Presence: The Dramatic Account of How a U.S. Marine Battalion Experienced God’s Presence Amidst the Chaos of The War in Iraq (Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson, 2009), 41.

[5] Richard M. Budd, Serving Two Masters: The Development of American Military Chaplaincy, 1860-1920, (Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska, 2002), 3.