Bishop Julius C. Trimble is the Resident Bishop of the Indiana Area of the United Methodist Church.

Bishop Trimble has the personal mission to encourage all people with the love of Jesus Christ to rise to their highest potential. It is his commitment to his personal mission that led Bishop Trimble to create the “To Be Encouraged” Podcast along with co-host Rev.Dr. Brad MIller.

Bishop Trimble says, “I am compelled by Jesus to share with you an encouraging word or two about Jesus, theology, the Bible, the pandemic, the environment, racism, voting rights, human sexuality, and the state of the United Methodist Church.”

To Be Encouraged with Bishop Julius C. Trimble is to be published weekly and is available at www.tobeencouraged.com and all the podcast directories.

https://www.inumc.org/bishop/office-of-the-bishop/

https://www.inumc.org/bishop/bishop-trimble-on-being-united-methodist-while-refuting-misinformation/

If you believe that there's a spiritual warfare thing going on, and that there's been some misinformation causes us to kind of look inward, and we'll look, we'll look what's wrong with us. Do you also think that when there are churches that are active in mission in, in our community and in an atmosphere of people helping Afghan refugees, for instance, you know, among other things, that people are displaced, but people aren't engaged actively in mission, that they don't really have time to be thinking about what is wrong with us, they are getting right, what's right with us, and what we can do to share the good news. I'm talking about churches in action in mission and going forward.

Absolutely, Brett, I think we first look upward. Yeah, the Psalmist says, I look to the hills from whence cometh my help. My help comes from the Lord churches that are able to look upward, both in their worship, and they're witnessing their commitment to Christ and their membership vows. If you look at our membership vows, you once you look upward and you focus on Jesus Christ is our North Star, then then, then you can look out, then you can work outward. So I think churches that are able to look upward, can then work and witness outward churches that look inward, you know, then you can only find reasons, you know, that argue about, you know, whether it's church use of the building, or, or something we disagree about, or whether or not gays should be welcomed fully, or whether you know who's going to help and and who's going to hell, if we look inward, then then we lose some of that energy and that power. And that strength that comes from the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to be able to witness outwardly, the church was the only organization that was created by God, from people that are not already in the building, who are not already part of it. You know, so the church came into being a diverse body if we look at Pentecost, and it was, it came into being because of the those who are gathered in prayer, looking up with a god in order for God to empower us through the Holy Spirit to work outward as you talked about an initiative. Sure.

And how much time Bishop do we spend in local church board meetings arguing about painting the bathroom different colors, or what have you, or at annual conference, or a general conference, about things that don't matter all that much in the sense, you know, it's kind of the reg, we chase our tails, that kind of thing. And we got to keep after the main thing, and you mentioned one of your articles. Recently, we touched a little bit about refugees, people were feeling kind of lost in the midst of this upheaval that we're in, you know, where's upheaval in the world and our people in our church, and helping people find find their way, I think that's a part of the story, helping refugees find a place to go,

Yeah, some people were critical, a bit critical, I don't think maybe rightfully so, of the use of the term refugees. And I recognize that, you know, they're refugees that are that are, you know, suffering, refugees, who are who are fleeing violence in Central and Central America. They're refugees who are who are fleeing war torn areas in Ukraine, Somalia, Sudan. So I recognize they're refugees are fleeing famine. But but the term refugees are persons who have been displaced, and are seeking safety, in this case, United Methodist refugees when there's a split in the church, or there's division. And this often happens when churches have internal splits, some people are left that left on their own, no one's caring for those persons. And I'm suggesting that me as a bishop, and those of us who I work with, we've got to be concerned about people who are who may find themselves in United Methodist deserts, if you will, where they're, maybe their churches or several churches in a county have decided no longer to be United Methodist, but some people may say, I still want to exercise my, my spiritual muscles, if you will. And I still want to find community in the church that I had been part of The United Methodist Church. So it's a difficult time. It's a time that I think we need to be compassionate, but also be committed to those persons. So so that of the Navy, the refugees that said Jesus left that said, Let the 99 to go find the one. So whether we whether we a church or my vote 80% to leave, and 20% say, hey, we still want to stay, or even more than that, and we want to, we still would like to be part of the United Methodist witness.

Well, if memory serves from my Biblical Studies, there is a time when Jesus himself was a refugee, and certainly welcoming to the refugees was a part of the biblical message and our Christian message and it's believe it should be a part of what we were about as Churches now to help find new people who are displaced to find a place and those who find comfort and soccer in the United Methodist Church can continue to do so. You agree?

Absolutely absolutely.

Yeah yeah. But Bishop What's your you know, we've had some good conversation hear about some deep spiritual matters which are warfare and so on and about the situation misinformation, which is not only a church deal, that's a, you know, and the body politic and everything else out there. And yet God Is still God. Yeah. Now you'd like to share that a lot. So what is your encouraging word today to a world that does deal with misinformation and things that are want to divide us?

I think we ought to be reminded, Jesus says, I have come that you may have life. So Jesus is a life giver, and a death destroyer. So Jesus is a life giver in which says, I may have that you come at life and as you said, bread abundantly a lot of translations say or, or life in its fullness. So I think we can really experience the fullness of life with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, but we also ought to be transmitters have the joy that comes from walking alongside others, you know, I don't have enough energy, to be enemies with people. I need to reserve my energy in order that I might be really a light reflector. You know, Jesus said, You know, we are to be salt and light, but I think we really ought to be light reflecting the light of Jesus Christ. So my prayer is that as I walk this journey of life, and as others who are hearing this podcast as we walk the journey of life, we might be light reflectors, and we might we might exemplify and multiply. I heard a gospel song that just was inspired me it was called positive, positive and how we might we might reflect the positive light of Jesus Christ.

What a place to conclude our conversation here today about being reflectors of Jesus Christ and so always a good word from Bishop Julius see trouble here on the to be in courage podcast, which is all about giving an encouraging word to a dis courage world. Thank you for joining us today. Close. Awesome. We got to the end, before your top of the hour here. Just real quick. I would miss the bishop Bishop beard and Bishop Palmer have indicated an interest to be on the podcast and trying to work out the schedule and that type of thing. And so we'll work on that.

All right. Hey, listen, my wife just call while we were on and I need to follow up she sees in Virginia. Alright. So let me do that. Go ahead.