It is a blessing to be a preacher in a time when many churches stream their worship services and post videos of their sermons. I find it helpful as a preacher to tune to 3-5 other sermons each week and watch and listen for things that I can incorporate to my own practice of preaching. There is a lot out there to appreciate. But I’ve also been reminded of something well known in the church for centuries. The texts in the Bible are meant to be heard within the context of the whole Bible and within the context of an overarching theological framework. John Wesley called this “the analogy of faith ..read more

Every elder in the United Methodist Church has to write about their understanding of justification and sanctification in order to get ordained. Wesleyan Methodist preaching has always included both, or, at least, it was intended to include both. We believe that all human beings are dead in sin and need to be made alive in Christ. Everyone falls short of the glory of God and needs to be receive the pardon that has already been won for us on the cross. But the story does not stop there. By the work of the Holy Spirit, all of those who are born from above are called to bear the fruit of their new ..read more

I’ve been reading again John Wesley’s account of his own search for faith, a journey that began when he was 10-years-old and continued until his Aldersgate experience shortly before his 25th birthday. In his journals, Wesley recounts the seriousness and sincerity of his desire to serve God. Looking back, he sees himself in the same state of many Christians in his day and ours. He was seeking salvation through his own works rather than through faith in Jesus Christ. The consequence of this was that although he experienced many blessings, he had neither the experience of peace with God nor the p ..read more

In my last two posts, I’ve been looking to John Wesley’s “A Plain Account of the People Called Methodist” for clues to what animated this movement at its start and what constituted the central concerns of its preaching and teaching. In my last post, I observed that the first point insisted upon by the early Methodists was that Christianity is a religion of the heart. Its primary aim is to give us hearts formed in the likeness of Jesus Christ and filled with righteousness, joy, and peace. The next three points Wesley said defined the core of Methodist preaching were these: The only way to this ..read more

John Wesley began his ministry with no actual plan in place. He simply had a desire to preach about true Christianity to anyone who would hear. That desire would eventually blossom into the a movement of the Holy Spirit that we know as Methodism, but what exactly did the early Methodists preach? What did they mean when they talked about the true Christianity? Today, I want to begin to answer these question. In his “A Plain Account of the People Called Methodist,” Wesley explains the four primary points he set out to make. The first point is that to be a Christian means that we have inward righ ..read more

The United Methodist Church is deeply wounded right now. Rehoboam has answered Jeroboam with scorpions. Shechem has been fortified. Kings and prophets and priests are hard to work repairing and establishing their rival kingdoms. In these days, I find myself a shepherd far from the places where decisions are made. There is this little flock that I’ve been tasked to care for. There go the prophets on their donkeys and armies on the march. Here I am, wondering how to tend to the maladies of this ewe or how to get that ram to stop wandering over the hills where the wolves stalk the night. And so ..read more

If anyone refrains from reproof and correction of ill-doers because he looks for a more suitable occasion, or because he fears that this will make them worse, or fears that they will hinder the instruction of others … in such case their action seems to be prompted not by self-interest but by counsels of charity. What is culpable is when those whose life is different and who abhor the deeds of the wicked are nevertheless indulgent to the sins of others, which they ought to reprehend and reprove, because they are concerned to avoid giving offense to them, in case they should harm themselves in ..read more

Our main doctrines, which include all the rest, are three — that of repentance, of faith, and of holiness. The first of these w account, as it were, the porch of religion; the next, the door; and the third, religion itself. John Wesley, Principles of a Methodist Further Explained With the exodus of a great bulk of traditionalist clergy from the United Methodist Church, we are in a season of people making claims about what it means to be Methodist and what the future of the United Methodist Church should be. I write now as I did much when I began this blog, mostly for myself. There was a brief ..read more

In the wake of our great division, the United Methodist Church is struggling to find its identity. We have lots of voices projecting visions of the future of United Methodism and articulating the things that unite us after division. A number of people are planting flags in various places and inviting the church to rally around this or that set of priorities or shared values. For me, the place to look for the answer to the question “What is a Methodist?” has always been John and Charles Wesley. United Methodism, I believe, has always struggled to hold on to its Methodist identity. The pull of M ..read more

In the new year, I’ve been reading the Psalms each morning. I don’t have a program or reading plan. Some days I read 1 or 2. Some days, I read more. Reading the Psalms — at least the early ones — is a bit like peaking inside the spiritual notebooks of David. You get his ups and his downs. In one Psalm he is full of confidence, and in another he is full of despair. I find myself wondering how I would respond to David if he were to come to me, as members of the church I serve do sometimes, and shared some of the thoughts and prayers that he has scribbled into his journal. Psalm 26 was one that r ..read more