The Movement

MISSION STATEMENT
The Recovery Movement is a deliberate, concerted effort to renew commitment of the African Methodist Episcopal Church to the foundational principles and values that gave rise to its existence, that have sustained it for more than 200 years, and that remain critical to its vitality.

WE SHALL RECOVER IT ALL!
“And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Ephesians 4: 11-12 (KJV)

“My name is Clement Fugh, and I want to recruit you!”

If you are a movie buff, then you will recognize these words as a paraphrase from the movie MILK, with Sean Penn in the starring role.

I want to recruit you to be a part of a team that I am calling The AME Church Recovery Movement! The object of this movement is to recover those things about the African Methodist Episcopal Church that rise to the top, that we associate with her finest hour!

In our reflection, I caution each of us to resist becoming hopeless romantics who recall a perfect church.

• Hopeless romantics who remember a time when the church was filled to the rafters with saved, sanctified and Holy Ghost filled saints;
• Hopeless romantics who remember when preachers preached with an eye single to the glory of God and when the judgment of the Bishops was always godly;
• Hopeless romantics who recall the days when tithes and offerings met and exceeded every expectation;
• And hopeless romantics who remember how in the face of sin and injustice, our leaders stood up and declared, “I’ll go, (even) if I have to go by myself!”

If you remember those days, then I must respond in the words of the late comedian Moms Mabley, “I was there! There were some good ole days, but they were far from perfect.” And at no better season is that truth realized than during the season of our Lord’s passion, when the Church, in its formative years, was rift with bickering over power, jockeying for position, money issues, betrayal, denial, and fear of speaking truth to power!

We have never been without schisms, inflated and deflated membership rolls, a shortage of operating capital, and leadership that sometimes seemed a little ambiguous about who was truly their master.

But what has prevailed, and what should be accentuated are the core values and the foundational principles that have allowed us to continue to be a viable force in the world in spite of our imperfections. Among those foundational principles are:

The faith to believe that with God, through what God has accomplished on our behalf through His Son, Jesus Christ, even in our imperfect state, we remain a resurrection people!

“Vainly they watch his bed, Jesus, my Saviour
Vainly they seal the dead, Jesus, my Lord
Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph over His foes
He arose the victor from the dark domain
And He lives forever with His saints to reign.”

A genuine love and concern for each other as individuals and as members of the larger faith community is paramount. It was not enough that Richard Allen worked in his spare time to secure his own freedom, but he worked just as untiringly to buy his brother’s freedom as well.

A heritage of reformers and overcomers who have led the way in public policy, in affirmative action, in religious freedom, in benevolent enterprise, in global evangelism, and in building an institution to the Glory of God whose impact and resourcefulness defy our comprehension.

Truly, “The lines are fallen to us in pleasant places. We have a goodly heritage.” (Ps 16: 6)

We must possess a willingness to adjust to change, to “metamorphosize,” to adapt that we might be of service to the age in which we find ourselves. At the recent General Conference that met in St Louis, MO, the African Methodist Episcopal Church changed its motto from, “God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, Man Our Brother,” to “God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, The Holy Spirit Our Comforter, Humankind Our Family.” I asked Dr. Dennis Dickerson, Historiographer, to write a short statement that would put the change in perspective before I posted it on the official AME Church website. He wrote, “The evolvement of our motto demonstrates that African Methodists engage in ongoing assessments of our theology and how God speaks to us in changing circumstances.”

This task is too big for one person to perform alone, so, I recruit you!

I am recruiting men and women, young and old alike, who love African Methodism, who are willing to look beyond the fray, to “accentuate the positive, to eliminate the negative, to hold on to the affirmative, and not mess with Mr. In-Between!”

I want to recruit you, not to work in a campaign, but to be a part of an ongoing movement that carries a message of HOPE, a message of RENEWAL, a message of CONFIDENCE THAT GOD HAS NOT WRITTEN US OFF, and who are willing to MAKE THE PERSONAL COMMITMENT AND PLEDGE not to exploit or to pillage or to squander what remains, but to secure it, to enhance it, and to build upon it!

I want to recruit you!

“Faithful, faithful, faithful is our God!
We are reaping the harvest God promised us,
Taking back what the Devil stole from us,
We rejoice today,
WE SHALL RECOVER IT ALL!”
(Words by Hezekiah Walker, “Faithful Is Our God”)

AMEN!