Monday Thoughts: Jo Anne Lyon at IWU Graduation

I don't know what I would do if someone ever asked me to give a graduation speech somewhere. Does anyone ever remember what the speakers say? Isn't everyone always thinking, "How long till this is over?" And yet you've probably forked out some significant money to bring this person to speak--maybe you're even going to give them an honorary doctorate. They have to say something.

Not Jo Anne Lyon this past Saturday! Wesleyans will know her as the founder of World Hope and perhaps the leading candidate to replace Earle Wilson as General Superintendant. By the way, Yes, she would take the office if elected. Yes, she is at a point where she is ready to leave World Hope (they have a well laid out succession plan already set up for whenever she would leave).

I did wonder how the crowd reacted when she mentioned she was ordained in the Wesleyan Church. But I thought she demonstrated the kind of Spirit-filled presence that confirms her place in the kingdom. I celebrate all women ministers, but also recognize that some do not help the cause politically because they fit a certain kind of stereotype that is unappealing.

Not so with her. She has a disciplined appearance and is commanding but not abrasive. She has already earned our respect--she doesn't have a chip on her shoulder, as if she is overcompensating to try to get it.

What held my attention so well was the picture she painted of a Zambian woman with AIDS, four children, almost vainly trying to break the soil because of the way the climate has already changed in that part of the world. Her children are prime candidates to be sold into slavery, a growing world phenomenon Lyon is a leader in addressing. And because this Zambian woman is a woman, she could not even own land if she wanted to.

The address ended with what World Hope has done for this woman's village. Now she and others in her village like her collectively own a plot of land that they now are able to irrigate from a local lake. A school is set up for her children, who will now be protected from slavery after she is gone.

Lyon's point was to inspire these graduates to go let God change the world through them in every way, both physically and spiritually.

Here is a person who is really changing the world. I felt very small. Ooo, ahh, Ken's a blogger who teaches Greek and knows who Rudolph Bultmann was.

It would be hard to think of a Wesleyan through whom God has done more for the kingdom of God than through this woman. Did even Orange Scott and Luther Lee really do more? John Maxwell has more trophies, but not a chance.

I can't think of anyone more appropriate to elect as General Superintendant.