May 20, 2022
The Rev. Rob Renfroe wove together words from the Apostle Paul and Mary Bethune to challenge an audience of over 2,000 people who attended More Than Conquerors, the Wesleyan Covenant Association’s Sixth Global Gathering at Kingsway Christian Church in Avon, Indiana, on Saturday, May 7, 2022.
Noting that Bethune was the daughter of slaves, Renfroe shared her remarkable story and the impact she had on young African Americans around the turn of the 20th century when she founded what would become Bethune-Cookman College.
Renfroe shared how Bethune would challenge her graduates, telling them, “Faith ought not be a puny thing. If you believe, have faith like a giant. And may God grant you not peace, but glory.”
He then asked his audience, “What do you think God created you for? Peace and comfort? Or greatness and glory?”
“I’m convinced the only way we will impact our culture significantly is when people see Christians whose lives are about love and compassion and service, when the one thing that a secular society knows about Christians is not that we are judgmental, or angry, or condemning or arrogant and self-righteous, or that we vote a certain way,” said Renfroe. “But when the one thing they know about us for sure is that we are a community of compassion, and that we care more and love more and serve more and sacrifice more than anyone else on the planet. I think then people will listen to us, then people will come to believe in the One we proclaim, and just maybe, then we will have done something glorious with our lives.”
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