Good News Magazine, the prominent theologically conservative publication that influenced the United Methodist Church since 1967, has announced that it’s ceasing operations.
Good News President Rob Renfroe and Good News Vice President Thomas Lambrecht issued a joint statement on Monday, saying that “our board of directors and our executive leadership team have determined it is time for Good News to conclude its work.”
“So, over the next few months we will be in the process of closing our office and one final edition of the magazine will be published after the first General Conference of the Global Methodist Church this September,” they said.
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“We will continue to publish the weekly Perspective into the fall, and our website will continue to be available as an archive of Good News’ ministry and history.”
Renfroe and Lambrecht noted that they had both transferred their membership to the Global Methodist Church, a theologically conservative denomination launched in 2022 as an alternative to the UMC.
Although giving credit to Good News for having helped thousands of congregations leave the UMC due to its theologically liberal direction, the two former UMC pastors spoke well of their former church.
“We are immensely thankful for the lives and ministries God has given us and for the opportunities provided to us by the UM Church,” they continued. “It was the UM Church that recognized our gifts, affirmed our calling, and allowed us to serve its congregations.”
“Welcoming us with open arms over forty years ago may be a decision some within the UM Church have come to lament. But we are grateful for a church that made a place for us to be in ministry, to do the work of God, and to fulfill his calling on our lives.”
When assessing what ultimate impact Good News had on the UMC, Renfroe and Lambrecht believed that were it not for their publication’s witness, things would have been different.
“The vast majority of traditionalists would have left years ago, the UM Church would have gone radically progressive long before now, and whatever Evangelical movement might have come out of it would, at best, be a mere shell of the GMC,” they said.
“We could not imagine better lives than the ones God has given us. Nor could we be more grateful. Grateful to The United Methodist Church that provided us the opportunity to be in ministry, to those who led us to faith in Christ, to our wives and children who upheld us in ministry, to the congregations that blessed us, to the men and women who inspired us, and to all of you who have supported us and the work of Good News.”
Over the past several years, the UMC was embroiled in an intense debate over whether to amend its Book of Discipline to remove measures banning the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals.
While Good News and other like-minded entities within the UMC were able to keep the measures within the Book of Discipline, many theological liberal leaders refused to follow or enforce the rules.
At a 2019 special session of the UMC General Conference, delegates approved a temporary measure that allowed more than 7,500 congregations to leave the denomination over the ongoing debate, with most of that number joining the GMC.
Earlier this year, after these congregations had departed the UMC, delegates at General Conference overwhelmingly voted to remove the measures from the Book of Discipline.
In February, before the changes were made, Renfroe told The Christian Post that the upcoming General Conference would be the last time his group would take part in the churchwide legislative gathering.
In 2022, the Confessing Movement, another unofficial conservative advocacy group within the UMC, announced that they were shutting down, as they saw GMC as fulfilling their mission.
“We feel that our goal has been accomplished,” said Patricia Miller, executive director of the Confessing Movement, in an earlier interview with CP. “We believe, with the launching of the Global Methodist Church, our goal for a faithful denomination has been met.”
“Our goal has been to bring the United Methodist Church into a faithfulness with our doctrine, with our belief about Jesus Christ the Son, Savior and Lord. And so, now, the Global Methodist Church is faithful to that. So, the Global Methodist Church does not need a renewal group.”
