Hearts Strangely Warmed: Order of the F.L.A.M.E. 2023

Rev. Corwin Malcolm Davis

It was John Wesley, the progenitor of our shared Methodist faith, who once penned after his 1738 experience at an Aldersgate group meeting that he felt his “heart strangely warmed.” Wesley wrote in his journal that he felt in that London gathering the “change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ.” And in the spirit of his own experience, which ignited a flame known now as Methodism, it was a joy to share with Methodists from around the globe at the Order of the F.L.A.M.E. Conference, where many can attest, hearts were strangely warmed again.

The Order of the F.L.A.M.E. (Faithful Leaders as Mission Evangelists) conference is held annually by World Methodist Evangelism, and it was held this year from March 13-17, 2023, at Epworth by the Sea on St. Simon’s Island, Georgia. The conference posits itself as a diverse community within the global Wesleyan tradition that seeks to equip and nurture clergy and their spouses in mission and evangelism. The conference gathered Methodists from across the world and across denominational lines, where members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church were able to learn alongside leaders from the African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Christian Methodist Episcopal, United Methodist Church, and even sister Methodist churches from South Africa and the Philippines. The 2023 Conference featured a host of workshops and presentations on topics ranging from biblical literacy to church planting and even a series on the unique Methodist relationship with the Holy Spirit.

The week-long event also included nightly worship services where the music ministry was comprised of conference attendees and highlighted preachers ranging from seminary professors to emerging pastoral voices. A particular highlight for the AME Church was the invitation to preach for the Rev. Dr. Marcellus A. Norris, our denomination’s executive director of Church Growth and Development. Dr. Norris offered a powerful sermon from Luke 22:44 titled “This Is a Bloody Ministry,” which was followed in the moments of invitation by a poignant and mighty time of prayer and worship as attendees yielded to the move of the Spirit. As the conference was aimed at the work of missions and evangelism, it was of particular interest to Dr. Norris as he reflects on how it was a “privilege to be trained and empowered to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Norris continued to share that “the breath of the Holy Spirit swept through, and lives were transformed, and ministries were revived in real-time. The Methodist movement proves that Pentecost and the Holy Spirit are real in the church of Allen!”

Many pastors and leaders from the African Methodist Episcopal Church attended the conference, and the reflections attest to the strangely warmed hearts that Dr. Norris articulates that the conference evoked. The Reverend Andrea Lewis, Ph.D., special assistant to the pastor at Big Bethel, Atlanta, experienced the Order of the Flame as “an amazing spirit-led opportunity of reflection and personal growth. The ability to connect over similarities rather than differences is a Christian principle that needs to be practiced in churches within our connection, Methodist denominations, and ecumenical communities around the globe.” Furthermore, the Reverend Nicole Slater, pastor at Payne Chapel, Birmingham, experienced “a fresh encounter with the Holy Spirit that was transformational for my life and my ministry. The liberated atmosphere fostered freedom for worship along with that gentle nudge to embrace inward reflection, demanding that we allow God to heal what was found.”

The Reverend Slater summarizes the conference: “Our time shared cannot be adequately explained; it must be experienced.” The experience of hearts strangely warmed at the conference will, hopefully, continue to affect hearts in the pulpits and the pews of our denomination and lead to many more experiences with the Spirit that propels us onward. ❏ ❏ ❏