by Rev. R. Randy Day, General Secretary

R. Randy Day, General Secretary, General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church Image by: GBGM Administration

John and Charles Wesley, in the year 1746, published a small collection of Pentecost poems and hymns celebrating the promise of God’s constant presence and love.* Pentecost, fifty days after Easter, is the birthday of the Christian Church, marking the coming of the Holy Spirit to early followers of Christ in Jerusalem. The Wesley brothers wanted the young Methodist Society fully and firmly to believe in the steadfast living power of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.

One of the Pentecost hymns of 1746 attributes to God’s Holy Spirit the power and pleasure to restore a ruined race (humanity) and “new-create a world of grace, in all the image of Thy love.”

The goal of the Christian mission has nowhere been better stated.

Christians are called individually, and as the community of the Church, to be God’s means of new-creating a world of grace, reflecting the fullness of God’s love; a world of peace, justice, and friendship.

Pentecost Sunday, the seventh Sunday after Easter, is one of the greatest mission festivals of the Christian year. The first Pentecost, described in Acts 2, was the day when the earlier followers of Jesus received through the Spirit the vision and the energy to fulfill the mission given to them by the Risen Christ in Acts 1: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

The men and women present were from many lands, speaking different languages; it was as though flames of fire burst from the air. The fire in the United Methodist symbol of the cross and flame represents Pentecost.

United Methodists, heirs of the Wesleyan witness and zeal, are today servants of God’s Spirit in expanding God’s love around the earth. A new mission map shows our Church at work in 125 countries. A new Global Praise III hymnal contains songs in 64 languages, from 109 countries, and is a strong reminder of the first Pentecost.

We help to new-create a world of grace in the image of God’s love in:

• the newly reopened New Bethlehem Center in Augusta, Georgia, working with children and teenagers;
• the new medical facilities we provide at the site of our old Ganta Hospital in Liberia;
• new congregations in Honduras and schools in Brazil;
• leadership education for Christian women in Nepal;
• a new class of short-term US-2 missionaries;
• expanding seminary education for Eastern European pastors;
• the rebuilding of schools and clinics in Afghanistan;
• programs and prayers for peace in many troubled lands; and
• new church members through confirmation classes and baptisms around the globe.

Pentecost is also linked to baptism-it being a favorite time in some cultures for new disciples to confess their faith, symbolize their rebirth in the Spirit, and join the church. Baptism is the sacrament in which we are new-created and welcomed into the household of believers.

At Pentecost 2004, as we celebrate the birthday of the Church, as we remember our baptisms, and as we rejoice in the presence of God through the Holy Spirit, let us also commit ourselves to become stronger mission witnesses to God’s new-created world of grace and love.

R. Randy Day
General Secretary
General Board of Global Ministries
The United Methodist Church

* John and Charles Wesley, Hymns of Petition and Thanksgiving for the Promise of the Father (1746).

	See Also... Topic: Christian love |  GBGM news |  GBGM programs |  Jesus Christ |  John Wesley |  Missionaries |  Music |  Partners/partnerships |  Methodism |  Geographic Region: World |  Source: GBGM Administration
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Date posted: May 26, 2004