Rev. John T. Hucks, Jr., Ph.D.

President of The Southern Methodist Church

The President’s Report

Introduction
“Praise the Lord! Praise the name of the Lord. Praise Him, O you servants of the Lord! You who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good.” (Psalm 135: 1-3). I desire to begin my second President’s report by giving testimony to God, and specifically to His Son, my Lord Jesus Christ, for His wonderful salvation and for His many blessings. God is good, His faithful love is ever present with us, and He is doing great and wonderful things in our lives and in our Church.

It is hard to believe that I am completing two years in the office of General Conference President. Time has flown by! I accepted the election two years ago, not because I necessarily believed that I was the best candidate available; we have many gifted leaders in our denomination. But I accepted with the conviction and peace at the time that it was His will for me to step into this important position. Since assuming office, I have worked diligently, seeking to give to the Southern Methodist Church my best, and will continue to do so as long as God chooses for me to remain in this office. I have asked for your prayers in the past and will continue to ask for your prayers that I might always do just as God instructs me, with His wisdom and the power of His Holy Spirit, and that I might be the leader that God wants me to be when He called me at the last General Conference.

Last Year’s Report and a Present Assessment
In last year’s report, I mentioned the challenges that President Bedford Landers gave to the annual conferences when he left office two years ago. If you remember, he left us with a challenge of “facets that I see that the church needs to address.” The list included the following:

1. Seeking to be more unified in order to work better together
2. Teaching and helping our people to know the doctrines of the church
3. Seeking revival in order to overcome complacency
4. Emphasizing the need for church growth, and specifically in the areas of church planting and programs to retain our youth
   

I agree with these challenges and continue to believe that his vision for our denomination was important when he first gave them, and just as important now. His vision has become my vision, and the vision that I ask you also to embrace. I find joy in the fact that God is raising up leaders throughout our denomination that are in agreement with these ministry priorities – leaders on the general conference, annual conference, and local church levels.

Last year I reported to you that we have 100 churches in the denomination, 97 active and 3 inactive churches: Claiborne, Homer, LA; First, Springhill, LA; and Friendship, Aynor, SC. These churches exist only as property held by an annual conference or by the general conference. One additional church has become inactive temporarily: the First Southern Methodist Church of Greenville. However, there is new property in Greenville for a Southern Methodist Church and plans to begin building soon. Pray for Rev. William Dean as he leads this endeavor. The Florence Southern Methodist Church withdrew from the denomination, but has been replaced by the Southern Methodist Mission of Florence. I am happy to report that three churches in India, two churches in Haiti, and one church in Florida have applied to join our denomination. There are two other churches seriously considering joining us. There is also a fraternal conference of 30 churches in the Philippines that we are actively involved in through prayer, financial support, and ministry support.

On the other hand, there are several other churches holding on with very small congregations that may end up closing soon if we are not able to help those churches survive and begin growing again. I do not mention this to discourage you, but to give you a realistic snapshot of where we are presently as a denomination.

In assessing the state of the denomination, I see many positive things happening. I have visited in many of our churches that are accomplishing significant things for the glory of God and are excited about the future. I have seen a number of pastors and lay leaders step forward volunteering to help meet the needs of the denomination, especially in the areas of home missions and outreach programs. Despite the pessimism of some, I have seen many more express optimism that we can reverse our numerical decline and begin growing again in the number of souls saved, the number of members added, and the number of churches increasing. More than one person has mentioned to me that bad news spreads much more quickly throughout our denomination than good news. Because of human nature, this is true, and we need to make sure that positive news is sufficiently communicated throughout the denomination for the encouragement of us all.

When asked throughout this past year to give a denominational report, I have asked the question of the listeners and sought to answer the question for the listeners: What is needed for the Southern Methodist denomination to grow? The answer is actually more simple than what many realize. The only way for a denomination to grow is for each local Southern Methodist church to grow. The role of the denomination is to provide pastors, administrative personnel, programs, and resources to assist each local church. There is a certain aggressiveness, in a positive way, that pastors, lay people, and denominational personnel need in order to pursue the mandate given by our Lord to reach souls for Christ and to build His church in the world in which we live. You have heard it said that the future is as bright as the promises of God. Do you believe this? We must believe this!

As of the writing of this report (June 9, 2008), I have visited 93 of our churches since being elected as your president, with just 7 remaining for a first-time visit. I hope to have these churches visited by July 31st. I have attended 270 local church services and special meetings; I have also attended numerous board and committee meetings. I have traveled approximately 90,000 miles (80,000 by car and 10,000 by air) to carry out my responsibilities during my first two years in office. In addition I have given significant time to Southern Methodist College to help meet the need for teachers there. I do not report statistics to brag in any way, but to let you know that I have sought to be faithful to carry out the ministry that you have entrusted to me.

Our 2007-2008 Theme – Following the Faithful
I chose for our theme for this past conference year – Following the Faithful, based on Hebrews 6:12, “Be … followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (KJV). I shared a message based on the conference theme approximately forty times during the present conference year. Let me remind you of a few key points.

1. God has called us to follow, literally imitate, the saints of the past who were able to inherit God’s promises. We can look to the Bible for examples of men and women who were able to inherit the promises of God and accomplish great things for His kingdom; we can also look to John Wesley and the Methodist movement for the same.
2. In order to do so, we must overcome any tendency to become slothful. Slothful means lazy or sluggish, either physically, mentally, or spiritually.
3. We inherit the promises of God through faith. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb 11:6 NKJV).
4. We inherit the promises of God through patience, literally long-temperedness or the ability not to quit or react sinfully when tested. We must be willing to address the enemies of both soul and spirit that can render us sluggish or even totally ineffective.

I challenged you to join me in a commitment to follow or imitate the faithful men and women of God of the past in order to address the needs of the present and future.

Our 2008-2009 Theme – Choosing to Love God
For this conference year, I have chosen the theme: choosing to love God, based on Jesus’ question to Peter in John 21:15, “Peter, do you love Me?” Our Lord asked this painful question to Peter three times after the resurrection as His way of reaching out to Peter and restoring him after his denial of the relationship in the hours just before the crucifixion. Jesus wrote the church at Ephesus (Revelation 2) challenging them as to their love for Him. He acknowledged their defense of the faith and their good works, but nevertheless rebuked and challenged them because they had left their first love. I will be sharing a message at the annual conferences making these important points.

1. Love is a choice, and we must choose to love God.
2. We must love God first and foremost, and with all our innermost being.
3. We must see our love for God as the means by which we will keep His commandments and please Him in our lives (Matthew 22:38).
4. We must see our love for God, as John Wesley did, as the means to Biblical holiness and to establishing a godly testimony in an ungodly world.
5. We must recognize that we will face competition for that love in three ways: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. I am not sure that we really understand what these competitors represent and the degree to which we are consciously or subconsciously affected by them, even as Christians.

As the hymn writer stated many years ago, we love Him because He first loved us.

Our Administrative Team
Our denomination is organized into four areas of responsibility and we have organized our denominational administration accordingly. Rev. Cecil Clark will lead the Department of Administration and Finance, assisted by Ms. Yvonne Martin. Rev. Marvin Clark will lead the Foreign Missions Department, assisted by Mrs. Judy Battle. Rev. Jim Jones will lead the Christian Education Department, assisted by Rev. Gary Briden. Rev. Dan Plunkett will serve as coordinator for our Home Missions and Evangelism Department. These are gifted and talented leaders who are doing a good job carrying out the administration of our denomination and it has been and continues to be a pleasure working with them.

We have three important auxiliary organizations on the General Conference level who are blessed by gifted and talented leaders: Rev. Gary Briden, President of Southern Methodist College, Rev. Thomas Owens, Manager of Foundry Press and Editor of The Southern Methodist paper, and Mrs. Carolyn Holland, President of the General Conference Woman’s Missionary Society. Let us pray for and support these important ministries. Let us pray specifically and earnestly for Southern Methodist College at this hour. The College has been a valuable ministry in our denomination for over fifty years, but has faced serious financial stress in recent months. Let us work and pray for more students and financial resources for our College.

I will also continue to be assisted by our four vice-presidents: Rev. Ellison Evans (Eastern Conference), Rev. Joseph Hallman (MidSouth Conference), Rev. Ira Schilling (Southwestern Conference), and Rev. Bob Waites (AFG Conference). These are also capable and gifted individuals who care about the denomination and the conference in which each has been assigned to work.

In addition, we have been blessed and will continue to be blessed with a good number of general and annual conference board and committee members, and annual conference officers.

Conclusion
Let us join together to accomplish the important work that God has called us to do. Let us pray for one another! Every local Southern Methodist church needs our prayers and every Southern Methodist church pastor. Let us love one another, forgive one another when we need to, work together, and go forward by God’s grace to build His kingdom!

Sincerely in Christ,
John T. Hucks, Jr.
President
The Southern Methodist Church