Beeson Podcast, Episode # Reverend Mike Shafer Date >>Announcer: Welcome to the Beeson podcast, coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University. Now your host, Doug Sweeney. >>Doug Sweeney: Welcome to the Beeson Podcast. I'm your host, Doug Sweeney, and I'm joined today by the Reverend Mike Shafer, Connectional Operations Officer for the Global Methodist Church - and one of our Fall 2025 Chapel Speakers as well. As most of our listeners know by now, Beeson is an official approved seminary of the Global Methodist Church, so we're talking about a key ministry leader who is partnering with us as we try to serve his denomination well. Thank you, Pastor Shafer, for joining us. >>Shafer: Thank you. It's my privilege to be on here with you and look forward to sharing with you what's going on in the GMC and my world of leadership there. >>Sweeney: Let's go ahead and introduce you to our podcast, folks. I don't think you've ever been on the program before. So, if you don't mind, let me just begin by asking you to tell us just a little bit about how you came to faith in the Lord Jesus and how you got involved in Christian ministry? >>Shafer: I grew up in West Texas, out in the semi-desert region of Texas, near New Mexico, that area in the panhandle of Texas. When I came into this world, my parents were not in the church. My dad had probably never been in church in his life. My mom was Methodist, but kind of, I think, her family on the fringe. And so when they got married, started having their kids, there were five boys in my family, and one right after another. And so I'm the second of the five. And when I came into the world, the only time we ever went to church was when we visited with my grandparents and we might be there on Easter or Christmas or some other time. So we were in church a few times a year. But when I got into elementary school, I think my mom started feeling convicted that she didn't have her boys in church. And so she started taking us to Sunday school at the local United Methodist Church. And it was not a place on fire for Jesus at that point in time and not much life, not much Jesus really at all. But one of those Sundays in a Sunday school class, we had a guest speaker who came and it was the first time I'd ever heard the gospel. And I thought this is the most amazing thing I've ever heard in my life. I honestly believe I responded that day, but was not in a context to know how to grow in that faith or what it meant or a little bit but not consistently. And then my family moved when I was in middle school, and it was then that God did something amazing in my life. My mom decided we were going to start going to church consistently as I entered high school and that little church revival broke out among the people there and God got a hold of my life in the midst of what he was doing in the adults of that church. And before I left high school, I had felt the call into ministry and the rest is history kind of from there. So I was not someone who grew up in the church who had the generational influence of church people or anything like that. And so I was a little bit the leading edge in my family in terms of spiritual life. And God later did amazing things in my family and my parents' lives and in my brother's. It was just really cool to watch what he did as we have moved through the years. >>Sweeney: That's wonderful. So did you go to college then thinking that you were going to be a pastor? >>Shafer: I went to college knowing I was called into ministry. I was trying to discern, was that local pastor? Was that mission field? What was that going to look like? My second year at college, I got asked to become a student pastor at two little country churches. And one of those churches, they believed their mission was pouring into the lives of the student pastors that God brought to them. And it was there that I fell in love with pastoring and God really confirmed for me, “Hey, this is the path for your life. This is where I wanna use you.” And those people were so encouraging to me. And it was just amazing to me ... guidance and direction through that little church family. >>Sweeney: Wonderful. Well, our listeners have heard a couple of times before about the formation of the Global Methodist Church. They're not new to the story about the split from the UMC and so on, but maybe we could get just a little bit from you as one of the most important leaders of the Global Methodist Church about how you think things are going these days. You're a brand new denomination. I'm a church history teacher. People like me someday are going to be teaching classes in which students are going to learn about the things you're working on right now. So what are you working on right now? What are you seeing? What's going on in the Global Methodist Church. >>Shafer: I just want you to know what you just said puts the fear of God in my heart every single day I walk into my office. I realize that the decisions we are making now are establishing DNA. They are setting the course, you know, for this new movement of where we're gonna be and someday people will be writing about this and I just want to be faithful to listen and to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit to move with God each day and move in His path. It is incredible to watch what's going on in the global Methodist Church right now. Explosive growth, over 5,000 churches scattered around the world now and new ones being added almost daily. For example, let me tell you what has just happened this week in the last two or three days of my life. I sat in on a Zoom meeting of the first GMC church in Finland getting organized. As they were organizing the movement in Finland and what that's going to look like they're going to be a part of our Western Europe emerging area. We just completed the convening annual conference for Thailand so they are now officially an annual conference in the Global Methodist Church. I had an email from an independent church in the Bahamas wanting to know more about the GMC and how do we find out what you believe we might be interested in joining you. So that those are the kind of things taking place in my life almost on a daily basis and it's just mind-boggling to watch what God's doing. We've had explosive growth in Africa, South America is starting to take hold, people contacting us more and more in European countries, which is just fascinating to me. And then of course in Asia, throughout Asia, different parts. I mean, I jotted down some new areas we're working in right now. India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan. I mean, places I never dreamed or imagined that we might have a global Methodist present. So it's just incredible to watch what God's doing right now. We also just recently announced we picked up four new conferences who withdrew from the United Methodist Church in Eurasia with Bishop Edward Kigay who lives in Moscow. He and those four conferences have come to unite with us in the last month or two, and so that's been a very exciting development as well. >>Sweeney: You know, it might help our listeners who don't have a lot of history with Methodism to learn what it means, what's practically significant for these churches in various parts of the world to become part of the Global Methodist Church? What does the connection do for those congregations? And what does their participation in the GMC do for the GMC? >>Shafer: Now, that's a great question, because what we're seeing, we are really focused on not being a top-down movement. We wanna get away from, you know, having all the decisions made at the top and then telling people what to do. We really want to be focused on the local church and the annual conference level. So our goal is to develop partnerships between conferences in the United States who may have more financial resources that could be used in other parts of the world with a conference or conferences in different parts of the world. But it's not just a one-way relationship. It's not just being there so a US conference maybe can help them with some projects financially. It's to learn from each other. I can tell you churches in Africa are much better at church planting than churches in America. The pastors there have much more passion for that. We need to learn from them. Our churches in Asia have very much that same passion for church making disciples of Jesus. So as we develop these partnerships, my own GMC annual conference, which is West Plains here in West Texas and New Mexico, has developed a partnership with Thailand. And so there are a team of leaders from my conference that were in Thailand just this past week for their convening conference and are there to visit their churches and to develop that partnership to see what they can learn from each other and to grow their community and their relationship where really it's the body of Christ functioning as a nation that kind of tells the rest of the world what we're going to do. >>Sweeney: You have me as a dean wondering, just as I listen to you talk these last few minutes, so I wonder what his days are like, what a week is like for this guy. Because you've got stuff going on all over the place, and it's a brand new operation, and you're sort of the operations man. What's your schedule like these days? >>Shafer: It is crazy. I tell people this story. My wife, Sandy, we are very, very close. As a matter of fact, just celebrated our 44th anniversary just a few days ago. And so Sandy and I will sit and visit before I leave the house and talk about my day. And she'll say, “Well, what's on your schedule?” And usually there's three or four or five or more Zoom meetings or Teams meetings or phone calls or different things. But then when I come home, it's like, “Okay, now what really happened?” You know, in between the meetings. So my day consists of a lot of time on Zoom or Teams calls. A lot, a lot of emails answering questions. People trying to provide guidance to people on different issues or direct them to the people they may be in touch with. I am very passionate about trying to keep things off of our bishops so they can really focus on being spiritual leaders, defenders of the faith, teachers, and really investing in people. So I'm trying to keep all that operational stuff as much as I can off of them and on to either our staff or other places where it needs to be. So yes, I will say this, there is never a dull moment in my days. I promise you that. It is crazy and it usually from the time I walk into the office till I walk out, it usually never stops. And it's exciting, but it's also very chaotic. I tell people it's like a startup on steroids, you know, and the Holy Spirit is doing all these incredible things in the midst of it. And I just have this gift from God to be a very tiny little part in some of what's happening and all of that. >>Sweeney: Wow. Well, I can relate a little bit. I'm somebody whose day is full of meetings and emails and chaos as well. And we're just getting to know each other, so I don't want to presume the wrong thing about you. But if you're like me, you didn't get into this kind of work for the emails and the chaos in the meetings. You got into this for the ministry. >>Shafer: That's exactly right. >>Sweeney: So tell me how you sort all that through. When you get home at the end of the night and you're debriefing with your wife and you're talking about what really matters to you that was going on - are there enough things day to day that you just get to see the Lord doing that are just so special that it just it makes all the meetings and the chaos worthwhile? >>Shafer: I would say most days, yes. There are some days I go home and wonder where is ministry in all of this because it's a lot of administrative type things. Bishop Greenway calls it a “ministrivia” and at times it seems like that so I tell people I keep a little, let me see if I can hold it up here for those who are on camera, but I keep a little Jesus figure right underneath my computer screen to remind me all the time, “Hey, all these emails, all these meetings, this is all about Jesus.” This is helping facilitate ministry and keeping Him at the center of what we're doing. And so some days are easier than others because you celebrate victories, you see God do amazing things. Some days are just full of problems and fixing things and trying to solve things. But it really is a challenge for me to keep that perspective because it's not like pastoring. It's not like other ministry positions I've held. And so I have to work very hard and really keep my eyes on the Lord to stay centered in that this is important stuff, and it's going to produce fruit in the kingdom. >>Sweeney: I'm thinking now about prospective students. I'm told on a regular basis that prospective students thinking about coming to Beeson Divinity School listen to the podcast from time to time just to get a feel for what Beeson is like, to learn about the school. And so with those students in mind, and knowing full well, as you and I both know, that Beeson has a small but growing Wesleyan program here where we serve the GMC and some other Wesleyan denominations, let me ask the GMC leader while I got him on the line, what's your advice for students like that? And maybe let's think about two kinds. I'll try not to make this too complicated. But some of these students are in a Wesleyan or a Methodist church now. Others are not, but they might well be. And they might get to Beeson Divinity School and move into the GMC. With those sorts of people in mind, thinking about seminary, what's your advice to them? How should they prepare, especially if there is the possibility of being ordained for ministry in the GMC? >>Sweeney: You know, I would say this, first of all, it's an incredible moment in history to walk into this movement, especially for young leaders, because there are opportunities unlike any other time. My experience of being in, you know, in the United Methodist world for decades, literally, in the last few years in the Global Methodist Church, there are opportunities right now for young pastors like there never have been. And part of that is because of the shortage of clergy everywhere across all denominations. But we especially in the Global Methodist Church, we need pastors. And so we're seeing young pastors have opportunities that would have taken years when I first came out of seminary to get to those kind of ministry opportunities. So there are more opportunities, but the thing I would also say to them, a lot of our churches are small, rural, traditional churches. They're not the cutting edge, you know, new ministries that a lots of young leaders want to lead. And I think sometimes it's hard for young leaders today to understand, hey, if God's called you to this, he has a path and a purpose and he will guide your steps. It's not you choosing just where you want to be. Some places where I've served in ministry have been some of the most rewarding and they were places I might not have wanted to go or I wasn't that excited about them, you know? What I've found no matter where God takes me, there are amazing people who love Jesus, want to serve Him. And going with that perspective. But I think also for your students, I would say, get a hunger for God's Word. Man, get a hunger for God's Word. You want to dig into His Word on a regular basis, that when you stand up to preach, nobody doubts this is coming from God and not from you. So I just think we need a new generation of preachers who really know how to connect the Word with their audience and with the people who are listening, whether they're preaching or teaching or whatever context it is. There are some amazing opportunities for young leaders in the GMC right now, and they get to shape the future of where we're headed. >>Sweeney: That's great advice. And speaking of preachers, I mentioned at the top of the show, we have a well-known preacher named Pastor Mike Shafer coming to the Beeson Divinity School and preaching in chapel this fall. It's a little bit of an unfair question because this is probably about 10 or 12 preaching assignments in the future for you. But I want to kind of give our listeners a teaser, if we can, about what they're going to hear from you if they tune in and listen to the recording of your sermon. Have you thought a little bit yet about what you might say as you're preaching to the students? >>Shafer: I have started thinking about it. It's still a few months off for me as we're recording this, but I have the biblical character, David, and this series of some of the great people of faith in Scripture and what they have to teach us. And where God is leading me with David is his broken heart. What separated David ... David did some really stupid, sinful things in his life, and so did other leaders who then disappeared from the scene, but David didn't. And what separated him from those leaders was how he approached his mistakes, his sin, when he literally failed as a leader, what he did with that and what he did with God after that, and how God continued to use him. So that's a little bit of a teaser and what I'm working on right now. >>Sweeney: That sounds great. I can't wait to hear it. We're about out of time. Sorry to say, we always like to end our podcast interviews by asking guests how we might pray for them. Our listeners do enjoy praying for people, even people they only get to meet on the podcast. You're certainly in a situation these days where there's a lot of pressure on you. There's a lot of things going on in your life, your ministry, your work. If you could present maybe just one, two, three prayer requests for our people, how could they be praying for you? >>Shafer: So first I would start just with the GMC in general. One of our greatest challenges, because we are becoming a global movement, is working cross-culturally where people do things differently, they do church differently, they lead differently, and being sensitive to all the different cultures that we're moving in and out of, and for us to really function as one and to really respect and honor what we can learn from each other. So that global challenge would be probably one of the number one things I would ask people to pray for just for the GMC movement. For me in my ministry, man, I would just ask people to cover me in prayer that I stay close to Jesus, that I stay sensitive to the Holy Spirit and really don't get lost in all the busyness and craziness of just going through the motions of religious work and forgetting the heart and soul of what this is really all about and not being led by the Lord and instead just relying on knowledge or wisdom or whatever. I really would like for people to pray for me to be dependent upon God and just on my face before Him daily, relying on him for strength and wisdom and guidance. >>Sweeney: All right listeners, this has been the Reverend Mike Shafer. He is the COO of the New Global Methodist Church. He's becoming a friend of Beeson Divinity School. We cannot wait to welcome him this fall. Listen to him preach in chapel. Please pray for him and his walk with the Lord and his leadership of the new Global Methodist Church. We love you, friends. We're praying for you, too. We say goodbye for now. >>Mark Gignilliat: You’ve been listening to the Beeson podcast; coming to you from the campus of Samford University. Our theme music is by Advent Birmingham. Our announcer is Mark Gignilliat. Our engineer is Rob Willis. Our Producer is Neal Embry. And our show host is Doug Sweeney. For more episodes and to subscribe, visit www.BeesonDivinity.com/podcast. You can also find the Beeson Podcast on iTunes, YouTube, and Spotify.