News

Good News Board Meets, Renewal Award, Opposes CPT, Approves Million Plus Budget

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: James V. Heidinger II (606) 858-4661

• Good News Establishes Edmund W. Robb, Jr. UM Renewal Award
• Seeks Defeat of CPT Plan
• In additional action, the board:

Good News Establishes Edmund W. Robb, Jr. UM Renewal Award

WILMORE, KY - The board of directors of Good News, an evangelical renewal movement within the United Methodist Church, held its annual meeting here January 26-28, and took action establishing "The Edmund W. Robb, Jr. United Methodist Renewal Award." The award was presented to Dr. Robb initially and will be presented annually thereafter, in his honor, to a United Methodist person whose life and ministry have made a significant contribution to renewal within the United Methodist Church.

"Ed's life and ministry have had a profound impact on behalf of renewal within the United Methodist Church," said James V. Heidinger II, President and Publisher of Good News. "In 1976, Ed established `A Foundation for Theological Education' which has helped more than 90 John Wesley Fellows earn terminal degrees with a commitment to teach in UM colleges and seminaries," Heidinger added. Robb also was involved in the founding of the Institute on Religion and Democracy in 1981, has pastored UM churches for 20 years and has been an active United Methodist evangelist for 28 years.

"Ed Robb has probably preached in more United Methodist churches than any living pastor/evangelist today," said Dr. Phil Granger, chairman of the Good News board and senior minister of College Ave. United Methodist Church in Muncie, Indiana. "No one is more deserving to be honored with such an award than Ed Robb," Granger added.

Seeks Defeat of CPT Plan

The Good News board also reaffirmed its call for the defeat of the Connectional Process Team Report which will be presented at the 2000 General Conference in Cleveland. Good News notes the growing opposition to the CPT plan across the church and will urge delegates to question the wisdom of spending a major amount of time on the plan if it comes before the delegates with no chance whatsoever of passing.

Good News also spent considerable time discussing the new proposals coming out of the 18th Plenary of the Consultation on Church Union (COCU), which will bring to the 2000 General Conference new substance in the proposal that was approved in concept in 1996. In the Report of the 18th Plenary which met in January of 1999, there is new language that needs careful study and response from delegates, such as the statement, "the life of these churches will be visibly intertwined as never before," and a phrase that speaks of "binding community." This sounds more and more like union, less and less like merely covenanting. There was concern about having church representatives involved in "key decision making groups" of the local church, something not even done now with our denominational representatives. Concern was expressed about the commitment to oppose marginalization and exclusion in church and society "based on such things as race, age, ....sexual orientation." A task force from Good News' Theology and Evangelism Committee will prepare a response to the new proposal and share it with delegates.

In additional action, the board:

• heard the exciting report about "Prayer Ministry for General Conference 2000," a united prayer effort in which Good News will be sharing with Aldersgate Renewal Ministries, the Confessing Movement, and Terry Teykl's Prayer Ministry for a major prayer initiative leading up to and during the 2000 General Conference in Cleveland;

• heard the enthusiastic report from "Leadership Impact `99," a national, Good News-sponsored leadership conference featuring John Maxwell that drew some 650 persons to Wilmore in early December for leadership training;

• viewed a new video prepared by Good News that has been sent to General Conference delegates concerning the volatile homosexuality issue facing the delegates in Cleveland;

• approved a budget of $1,212,400 for the year 2000;

• welcomed seven new board members attending for the first time: Mrs. Terri Miguel (Arizona), Rev. John Motz (California), Mr. Andrew Pearson (Virginia), Rev. Norman Coleman (Ohio), Dr. Steve Rankin (Kansas), Mr. Dwight Yoder (Oklahoma), and Mr. Larry Morris (Florida). An eighth new board member, Rev. Bradley Knepp, from Pennsylvania, was snowed in and unable to attend.