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Dear Network Friend,
As the RENEW Network celebrates the season
of Advent and the reality of God with us, we also celebrate our own
beginnings as a network and how God has been with us for these
fifteen years.
In December 1989, RENEW, then called the
Evangelical Coalition for United Methodist Women (ECUMW), sent out
its first mailing. We published our first article in Good News
magazine in January 1990. From that humble beginning, the network
has grown to include thousands of United Methodist women and men who
desire renewal for women at the local level and accountability on
the part of the Women’s Division.
RENEW’s concern that evangelical United
Methodist women be supported and represented provides our
motivation. We desire to see the women of The United Methodist
Church grow in their commitment to Christ and fulfill their call to
discipleship in the world in ways compatible with their
convictions. We hold that the Women’s Division should be
accountable to its constituency for all programs and spending, and
that the theology and philosophy of the paid staff and elected
directors should reflect that of the grassroots UMW membership.
RENEW has produced many Christ-centered,
Biblically-based supplemental program resources over these 15 years
to help balance UMW resources that often address issues from a
singular perspective. We issued a Call for Reform of the
Women’s Division that has evoked widespread participation on the
part of local women. Most recently, RENEW developed “Inspiring
Models for Effective Women’s Ministry,” drawing upon successful UMW/women’s
ministries across the United Methodist Church. We have qualified
teams available to hold “Inspiring Models” events for churches of
all sizes.
Over our 15 year history RENEW has resourced
our network members with documented information, providing
credibility for their findings. We have sent representatives to
Women’s Division board meetings, UMW Assemblies and other
conferences sponsored by or participated in by the Women’s
Division. At these events, we have reported accurately what was
seen and heard, documenting all reports. We have provided reviews
for hundreds of UMW mission studies, reading program books and
program resources.
We are acutely aware that the RENEW Network
is YOU. Without our network members at the local level
educating themselves, speaking out gently but boldly and
undergirding this ministry with their prayers and financial support,
we simply would not exist.
Join us in celebrating 15 years of renewal
ministry! While we receive many unsolicited notes of
appreciation and encouragement from our network friends, may I
invite you to drop us a note and let us know why you are a member of
the RENEW Network and what this ministry means to you. Take a
few minutes to jot those comments on the back of the response card
enclosed with this letter, and return it in the envelope provided.
It would be a joy to hear from you and to note your comments in a
file commemorating our 15th birthday.
As you purchase gifts for your family and
friends at this Christmas season, we hope you will remember RENEW in
your giving. The months after General Conference have been rather
lean, and we need your help to bring us current, to provide funds
for ongoing programs and to launch new program ministries in 2005.
Please consider celebrating our 15th
anniversary by giving an amount in increments of fifteen or five:
$15; $50; $150; $500; $1500. For your gift of $50 or more we
will send you a copy of the book Streams of Renewal: Welcoming
New Life Into United Methodism.
With you we celebrate Advent—the coming of God
into the world through Christ. His coming did not just
provide a social construct for our political actions and works of
justice. His coming did not just provide the assurance that
we can be saved from divine judgment. His coming did not just
call us to “act like Jesus.” His coming was with great power—the
power of the all-sufficient creator-sustainer-redeemer God. With
the coming of Christ came the power to redeem humankind from the
curse of sin and death and to transform our pathetic lives into
abundant lives—lived in the power of the Holy Spirit—to the honor of
God in our everyday behavior and to the praise of His glory in our
acts of mercy and love.
Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!
In Jesus the Christ,
L. Faye Short
President
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