{"id":547,"date":"2012-04-26T13:55:35","date_gmt":"2012-04-26T20:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/gc2012\/?p=547"},"modified":"2012-04-26T15:35:54","modified_gmt":"2012-04-26T22:35:54","slug":"gc2012-king-preaches-message-of-inclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/gc2012-king-preaches-message-of-inclusion\/","title":{"rendered":"GC2012: King preaches message of inclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bishop James King (left) and the Revs. Motoe Yamada (center) and Kim Reisman sing during evening worship on April 25 at the 2012 United Methodist General Conference in Tampa, Fla. King is episcopal leader of the South Georgia Annual (regional) Conference. Reisman is a delegate from the Indiana Conference, while Yamada is a reserve delegate from the California-Nevada Conference. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Kara Witherow*<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

After an intense plenary session that included the report of the Call to Action committee, a much-welcomed evening service was ushered in by General Conference worship director Marcia McFee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are the things you need to let go of to hear Jesus Christ more clearly?\u201d she asked those attending in person and online as the conference moved into the event closing the first full day of the April 24-May 4 meeting in Tampa, Fla.<\/p>\n

Full of pageantry and symbolism, a dance of hospitality and a song and prayer of thanksgiving helped usher delegates and General Conference attendees into a state of worship on April 25. The Unity Praise Team from Valley Faith United Methodist Church in Sunnyvale, Calif., and Creation Dance Production from Genesis United Methodist Church in San Jose, Calif., joined the General Conference worship team to lead the service.<\/p>\n

After readings from Isaiah 55:1-5 and Mark 2:13-17, Bishop James R. King, Jr., episcopal leader of the South Georgia Annual (regional) Conference, greeted the General Conference session with his trademark, \u201cHello, beautiful people!\u201d<\/p>\n

Bringing energy and enthusiasm to the crowd, King preached a message of inclusion, invitation and love.<\/p>\n

Come one, come all<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe doors to the Kingdom of God are wide open,\u201d he began. \u201cOnce we\u2019re in, it\u2019s our job to invite others in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Too many United Methodist churches sit almost empty, he said. There are many reasons for the lack of vitality and growth, but the answer is simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no shortage of people in the world, but there is a shortage of love.\u201d<\/p>\n

As people of faith, he preached, the potential is great and the possibilities are limitless because God\u2019s harvest is plentiful.<\/p>\n

King challenged believers of every nationality, every race and every language to heed Jesus\u2019 call to \u201cmake disciples of all nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInvite in sign language, invite in English, invite in French, invite in German, invite in Korean, invite in Portuguese, invite in Russian, invite in Spanish, invite in Swahili,\u201d King admonished while naming the languages into which the General Conference sessions are being simultaneously translated.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome one, come all!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Recounting Levi\u2019s calling into ministry as told in Mark 2, King said that Jesus saw Levi \u2014 a tax collector \u2014 and said to him, \u201cFollow me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHear this message,\u201d he said. \u201cAll means all.\u201d<\/p>\n

As United Methodists, he asked, how many times have Christians heard the saying, \u201cChrist invites all, all to his table?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe invite the Levis of the world because we understand that all means all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The paralytic who was lowered into the house from the roof by his friends, Levi the tax collector, David the shepherd boy \u2014 all were outsiders who were brought in by the love of Christ, King continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus claimed the blind, the prostitute, the poor, a thief on a cross,\u201d he said. \u201cOutside, but brought in. Why? Because all means all. All means all!\u201d<\/p>\n

Apply the Golden Rule<\/strong><\/p>\n

Loving others changes the world. Centering on Jesus\u2019 commandment to love others, King urged his United Methodist congregants to focus on their mission to love.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we forget the mission, it\u2019s easy to forget the people,\u201d he said to applause. \u201cLike the Pharisees, we can replace people with rules and laws. If we do, our Discipline will get thicker while our membership declines.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key to remembering the mission, he said, is to write it down, make it plain, teach it, practice it and make it a holy habit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will destroy what we do not understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

The action point of the message is to apply the Golden Rule with every person.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s simple but it works,\u201d Bishop King said. \u201cDo unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you apply this rule, it will change your behavior. It will change the local church. It will change the annual conference. It will change The United Methodist Church \u2026 and yes, it will transform the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeautiful people \u2014 love works!\u201d<\/p>\n

Reminding attendees and thousands of online viewers that Jesus said to \u201cgo and make disciples of all nations,\u201d King asked if they were going to follow Jesus\u2019 commandment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your answer is ‘yes,’ let us go to all the corners of the world, inviting everyone into a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ. So, beautiful people, invite! Come one, come all!\u201d<\/p>\n

*Witherow is editor of the South Georgia Advocate, official news source of the South Georgia Annual Conference.<\/em><\/p>\n

News media contact: Tim Tanton, Tampa, Fla., (813) 574-4837, through May; after May 4, Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470, newsdesk@umcom.org<\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bishop James King (left) and the Revs. Motoe Yamada (center) and Kim Reisman sing during evening worship on April 25 at the 2012 United Methodist General Conference in Tampa, Fla. King is episcopal leader of the South Georgia Annual (regional) Conference. Reisman is a delegate from the Indiana Conference, while Yamada is a reserve delegate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[31],"class_list":{"0":"post-547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-umns","8":"tag-umns"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/bishop-king.jpg?fit=640%2C427&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-8P","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":551,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions\/551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}