World Methodist Evangelism’s Order of the FLAME (Faithful Leaders as Mission Evangelists) is a covenant community within the Methodist Wesleyan family that exists to form, nurture, and encourage young clergy and their spouses. Each year members of the Order of the FLAME gather for four days of inspiration, sharing, learning, and fellowship, and welcome a newly invited class into membership. As a community extending across the entire Wesleyan Methodist family, the Order of the FLAME transcends the boundaries of tradition, and seeks to be a witness to the fullness of God’s kingdom and the whole creation nature of salvation.
This year’s Order of the FLAME met from the 12-16th of March at Epworth by the Sea, St. Simon’s Island, Georgia USA.
The following recap is from the World Methodist Evangelism website:
The Order of the FLAME brought me “new insight into the work of the Spirit in our midst.”
My experience at the Order of the FLAME encouraged me “to take a hard look at our ‘process’ for evangelization and make sure that it reflects the love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.”
“I’m thankful for a theological reshaping of evangelism.”
Regarding preaching: “The world whispers in my ear, ‘it’s all about the show,’ but I found my way back to scriptural foundations.”
These are just a few of the comments received about the 2018 gathering of the Order of the FLAME. The Holy Spirit was powerfully present in our midst and we were blessed with strong teaching and wonderful fellowship. Additional highlights included (but were certainly not limited to!):
Inspiring preaching by Rev. Kelcy Steele, Bishop Sharma Lewis, and Bishop Ivan Abrahams.
Meaningful bible teaching from David Smith.
Holistic training in the core values of evangelism from Kim Reisman.
Perceptive insights into preaching and media communication from Joy Moore, Adam Lipscomb, Jeremy Steele, and Kaloma Smith.
Practical tools for connecting evangelism to other community ministries from Zach Szmara, Roz Picardo, Luigi Peñaranda, and Mindy Mays.
Empowering discernment about the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit from Pete Bellini, Jean Watson, Winston Worrell, and Lyle Pointer.
The entire 2018 FLAME leadership was a tremendously gifted group of individuals who gave passionately of themselves as we welcomed a new class into the FLAME community.
The newest members of the FLAME join us from Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Kenya. Each came with expectant hope and left spiritually renewed and energized to do the work of an evangelist, and carry out their ministries fully.
Nominations for the Order of the FLAME class of 2019 are now open. If you are a FLAME member and would like to nominate a young clergy under 45 years old or in their first 5 years of ministry, click here. If you are a Flame member and would like to register for our 2019 gathering, click here.
SAVE THE DATE:
Order of the Flame 2019
March 11-15, 2019
For questions about this event, email Shirley Dominick at shirley@worldmethodist.org.