Wesley Outside of His Comfort Zone

quotation from Ministry in the image of God : the trinitarian shape of Christian service / by Seamands, Stephen A., 1949-

Soon he was preaching in the open air all over England. And that’s what [John Wesley] did for the next fifty years, traveling some 225,000 miles on horseback, preaching 40,000 sermons, winning perhaps as many as 144,000 converts and establishing a vast network of Methodist societies within the Anglican Church. Yet . . .[he] never became fully comfortable with field preaching. As late as 1772 he admitted, “To this day field preaching is a cross to me.”

‘Melted Ice Cream’ Grace

OBSERVATION FROM A SEMINARY STUDENT

(By Dr. Bill Bouknight - 2012, Confessing Movement Newsletter)

Recently I had the privilege of speaking at a United Methodist seminary. My subject was: “Five Truths about Evangelism that I wish I had learned in Seminary.” Those five truths are the following:

• All people can be divided into two categories: lost and found, and some of the lost are in every congregation.

• The Word of God is the only real authority we have.

• Until a person faces his sin, he/she cannot really comprehend or receive the grace of God.

• The Gospel always has a cross at its center.

• A Bible-based, Spirit-filled sermon has enormous, mysterious power.

A few days later I received a letter from a seminary student who was in that audience. Here are a few of his comments:

“I regret to say that today was the first time in my seminary experience that words like ‘sin,’ ‘Hell,’ and ‘the lost’ have been employed. As a consequence, I think we have celebrated grace that a favorite pastor of mine termed ‘melted ice cream.’

In short, today was the first time since I have been at seminary that the Gospel of Christ was acknowledged unapologetically, and for that I am most grateful.”

I am curious if other seminary students at United Methodist seminaries are having similar experiences. Are you being taught the cross-centered Gospel or some other version? John Wesley listed the following as essential doctrines of the Christian faith: original sin, the atonement of Christ, justification by faith, the Holy Spirit, the new birth, Christian assurance, and holiness. Are you being taught those doctrines? Please email your reaction to me at bgbouknight@aol.com I promise to keep your names confidential.

Authentic Christianity in the Wesleyan Understanding

“Authentic Christianity, in the Wesleyan understanding, is a Christianity of radical transformation.  It has nothing to do with straightening out one’s life, cleaning up damaging addictions, or taking the moral high ground.  These will likely be some of the consequences of that transformation, but they are not the source of it.  Christ alone is that source. When people come to him in repentance and faith they enter a new relationship with God and a new life in Christ.”

 -Daniel L. Burnett, In the Shadow of Aldersgate: An Introduction to the Heritage and Faith of the Wesleyan Tradition, 2006  (quote found in Michael Pasquarello III’s John Wesley a Preaching Life, p. xiii)

Don’t Make Light of Reading the Old Testament

Don't make light of reading the Old Testament.  St. Paul did not! John Wesley did not!

Excerpt from John Wesley's sermon on "The Means of Grace" Sermon 12:

8. And that this is a means whereby God not only gives, but also confirms and increases, true wisdom, we learn from the words of St. Paul to Timothy: “From a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim. 3:15.) The same truth (namely, that this is the great means God has ordained for conveying his manifold grace to man) is delivered, in the fullest manner that can be conceived, in the words which immediately follow: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God;” consequently, all Scripture is infallibly true; “and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness;” to the end “that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17.) 

9. It should be observed, that this is spoken primarily and directly of the Scriptures which Timothy had known from a child; which must have been those of the Old Testament, for the New was not then wrote. how far then was St. Paul (though he was “not a whit behind the very chief of the Apostles,” nor, therefore, I presume, behind any man now upon earth) from making light of the old Testament! Behold this, lest ye one day “wonder and perish,” ye who make so small account of one half of the oracles of God! Yea, and that half of which the Holy Ghost expressly declares, that it is “profitable,” as a means ordained of God, for this very thing, “for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness;” to the end, “the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

John Wesley's Mission Statement

“We look upon ourselves, not as the authors or ringleaders of a particular sect or party—it is the farthest thing from our thoughts—but as messengers of God, to those who are Christians in name but heathens in heart and life, to call them back to that from which they are fallen, to real, genuine Christianity.”

—John Wesley in A Preservative Against Unsettled Notions of Religion, (1758), quoted in John Wesley ed. By Albert C. Outler, Oxford University Press, 1964, p. 20