Cal-Pac 2010 Announcement

Transcript of the Announcement at the Cal-Pac 2010 Annual Conference at Redlands, California.

My name is Eaar Oden and I am the Lay Leader of Fountain Valley UMC and I am here to introduce to you Cal-Pac Prayer and Repentance Conferences.

“The ability to repent is a gift of God. The responsibility to repent is man’s.”

243 years ago in 1767, John Wesley preached a sermon titled “the Repentance of Believers”, where he preached on the continual need for repentance, beyond the initial repentance unto salvation.

These are his words: there is also a repentance, which is required after we have believed the gospel, and in every subsequent stage of our Christian walk, or we will not be able to run the race which is set before us. And this repentance and faith, is as necessary to continue to grow in grace, as the former faith and repentance were, to enter into the Kingdom of God”

3 years ago in 2007, Bishop Swenson lamented in these words:

“In the mid-1850’s Methodism was known as a movement, known for being strong in the Holy Spirit. By the 1950s and since then, we have been known instead for the strength of our institution.”

I connected with those words and asked the Bishop, as the whole conference, if we could begin a process to Repent of that, as I believe that Revival in its truest form, springs through the doorway of repentance.

Well it has been 3 years in the making, but you have experienced the beginning of that process in the early morning prayer time, led by Rev Hong. Now, we have an opportunity to take the spirit of that movement from Redlands and spread it to all the Districts of our Annual Conference.

One of the exciting things about these events, is that brothers and sisters from all aspects of our Methodist faith are coming together as one body. Cal-Pac Renewal, the Methodist Federation for Social Action and the Conference Board of Evangelism are all participating.

We may be but a remnant of the numbers we once were in Cal-pac, but through Prayer and Repentance, as Rev Hong will testify to, from much smaller numbers than are even here in this chapel today, God has moved entire nations to glorify His name!

Bishop Swenson, this is where the Healing Begins!