The Intentional Peace Movement

Read: Colossians 1:9-14

John Wesley is said to be the founder of a Movement for the people called Methodists in search of the Scriptural way of salvation and a life of holiness. As a member of the holy club, he studied in the tradition of piety, so as to find inner peace and divine grace. He lead a movement for peace in the world by the grace of God through Christian Perfection.

In America, they have too often been identified in a negative light as the "Moonies." Why? Because they follow the vision given to the founder of the Unification Movement, Sun Myung Moon, who at the age of sixteen was said to have heard from Jesus that he had been chosen to fulfill the special mission of establishing God's Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Led by Moon the Unificationists have a movement for world peace through the Divine Principle of Holy Marriages in God-centered families.

Another controversial project in ministry is that of Dr. Hans Kung of Chicago, a Swiss Catholic priest, theologian, and prolific author, who has been President of the Foundation for a Global Ethic. I wrote Professor Kung in 1991 seeking permission, which he granted, to use his work on a new world ethic as I found and developed a new congregation within the United Methodist denomination. An intentional start of a racially inclusive congregation for the purpose of racial reconciliation. Professor Kung leads a movement of peace through the new world ethic establishing unity in the midst of diversity.

The calling on my life for a ministry of reconciliation came at the age of five while in Hartsville, SC, and again at the age of 12 in Bowman, SC, then finally at the age of sixteen in Kingstree, SC. However, beyond the personal is the reality of the urgency of now in our lives to lift high the cross of the 2nd Adam - Jesus Christ, and recall the fall of the 1st Adam, so that we can impact the world with the need to join the intentional peace movement. It is a movement for the establishment and maintenance of world peace, in accordance with the will of God. It is not new with my calling or your calling or the works of Hans Kung or Sun Myung Moon or John Wesley. With every paradigm shift worth following is the core esentiality of the will of God.

What is the willl of God for your life? Discover it and you may abide in the intentional peace movement. Ignore it and we may never know peace with justice.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and grant us peace. Amen