While countless individuals talk about leaving the United Methodist Church or splitting it in two, seminary students at Wesley Theological Seminary are being invited to (re)examine the greatest gifts of our denomination. In the following essay, Rachel Keller, our MVP ministry intern, shares why she's committed to continuing to find her place in the United Methodist Church.
8 Reasons Why the UMC
is the Place for Me
I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t
a part of the United Methodist Church.
At two months old, my father, a United Methodist pastor, baptized me in
my family’s first parish. At age 14 I was confirmed and haven’t
changed my denomination since. I was
raised in a home where Sunday mornings were only for church, no exceptions. I
never questioned why my parents chose to raise my sister and I in the United
Methodist church. I knew who John Wesley was, but I had no idea what he
believed or why I was following his beliefs. Then I dated a guy in college who
was a fellow United Methodist pastor’s kid.
He loved the concept of prevenient grace and would be shocked and
disappointed if a Charles Wesley hymn wasn’t played on a
Sunday morning. I was surprised that we
had similar upbringings, yet he knew so much more than I did about our church.
But I’ve never left, because it’s home to me. Over time (and with the help of theological
education), I learned why I had chosen to remain in the United Methodist Church
and why I am still there today.
8 Reasons Why the UMC is the Place for Me (With the help of John
and Charles Wesley):
1. We
believe the Bible shows us how we can be in right relationship with God
How do we know if something is the truth or not? Who or what
holds the ultimate authority in the truth? How much truth does the Bible hold?
Christians stand on many different sides of this issue. In his sermon on “The Means of Grace,”
John Wesley talks about the importance of the scriptures in helping us
find the truth:
“And, in fact, (God) hath not left us undetermined; he hath
shown us the way wherein we should go. We have only to consult the oracles of
God; to inquire what is written there; and, if we simply abide by their decision,
there can no possible doubt remain.”
(109)[i]
Wesley believed the most important truth is how to be in right
relationship with God, and that the Bible holds this truth. Today, I appreciate how the church also
carefully uses Christian tradition and our own human experiences to find truth,
but the Bible is our ultimate authority.[ii]
2. We
love free will
Does God choose specific people to love, only predestining
certain people to salvation? United
Methodists would undoubtedly answer this question with a resounding NO! God desires relationship with every single
person in this entire world. However,
God also created every human with free will.
God never forces us to love God back.
We have every right to reject God’s love toward
us. If we accept God’s
love, then we continue on in becoming closer to God. If we reject God’s
love, we will feel distant from God.
But, God never stops loving us.[iii]
When we have those days when we feel like we’re
not good enough - God is next to us, accepting us where we are, ready to
forgive and keep loving us even when we feel unloveable.
3. Grace
This free will fits in well with our view of salvation as it
relates to God’s grace. We may know “Amazing Grace”
so well we could sing it in our sleep, but what does grace really mean?
As I said before, God longs to be in relationship with us. Grace
is God’s favor on our lives that draws us closer into that
relationship. While there are not different types of grace, John Wesley found
different ways to describe grace and different names for grace. So here’s
a run down of four different ways that we describe grace:
Prevenient grace: God’s love that comes
to us before we know or understand God.
Therefore, prevenient grace is bestowed on everyone, believing or
unbelieving. It shows us the love that
God has for each one of us and the desire that God has to be in relationship
with God’s creation. This grace leads us to the knowledge of our
sinful hearts and our need for God’s
love and forgiveness. It pushes us to repent so that we can be in right
relationship with God.
Justifying grace: grace that puts us in right
relationship with God when we acknowledge our need for God’s
love and forgiveness
Sanctifying grace: grace that enables us to grow in
our relationship with God as we strive to continue on in right relationship
with God[iv]
Grace doesn’t always work in everyone’s
life in an orderly fashion like it is listed above. We may feel prevenient
grace pushing us to repent after we’ve already been justified. All of these types of grace work together and
even simultaneously for our ongoing salvation.
4. Our salvation isn’t
just about what happens when we die
One of the reasons I love
Wesley’s view of salvation is because it’s not just about
what happens when we die, it’s about restoring us back to who we
were created to be in this life, right now. As one of my past professors, Scott
Kisker, once said, “God is extending God’s
love to us, not so that the Trinity will have more company in heaven. God
extends God’s love to us so that we might grow into the mature character
of the free love that has embraced us.”[v]
Salvation is not a one time thing, or a “once saved always
saved” type of deal. Salvation is a lifelong process and part of
our relationship with God enabled by grace through faith. We never outgrow our repentance, but as we
repent, we come to depend more and more on God, and we desire to live in
communion with God and in service to others. This gives us a great assurance of
peace.[vi] Charles Wesley describes the change that
happens in our heart when we receive salvation in his hymn, “How
Can We Sinners Know”:
We who in Christ believe that he for
us hath died, we all his unknown peace receive and feel his blood applied. Our
nature’s turned,
our mind transformed in all its powers, and both the witnesses are joined, the
Spirit of God with ours.[vii]
5. We
love community
Methodism started as a very social movement. Before there was a
traditional denomination, the people called Methodists were organized into
small groups called societies, which helped them to grow in love. In 1743 John
Wesley wrote about the first society formed in London:
“Such a society is no other than ‘a company of men having the form and seeking the power of
godliness, united in order to pray together, to receive the word of
exhortation, and to watch over one another in love, that they may help each
other to work out their salvation.’”[viii]
The societies kept general rules that are still used in the UMC
today. The three basic rules are: do no harm, do good, and attend to the
ordinances of God. Attending to the ordinances of God means keeping key
practices and Christian disciplines that help us grow in our life of faith.
United Methodists still strive today to hold one another accountable to these
general rules through community and small groups. I love being part of a church
that recognizes the need for each other as we strive to grow in our faith.
Charles Wesley describes church community in the hymn, “Jesus
United by Thy Grace”:
Help us to help each other, Lord,
each other’s cross
to bear; let all their friendly aid afford, and feel each other’s care.[ix]
6. We
have 2 sacraments that bring us closer to God and closer to each other
Methodists celebrate two sacraments: Baptism and Holy
Communion. We believe that baptism is an
outward sign of God’s grace that claims us before we are
even able to comprehend God’s love. Baptism is an initiation into
the body of Christ, the church. Because of this initiation and grace that
claims us before our knowledge or understanding, the Methodist church
traditionally practices infant baptism.
The congregation makes a beautiful promise to love and support the
infant and to do all in their power to help raise the child in a life of faith.
When the child is older and mature, they can make the choice to respond to
their baptismal covenant through a life of Christian discipleship.[x]
The sacrament of communion is also an outward sign of God’s
invisible grace. Wesley saw communion as a means of grace, and as such should
be taken as often as possible. To refuse communion is to reject Jesus Christ
and the grace that is available through communion. In his sermon, “The Duty of
Constant Communion,” John Wesley wrote:
“If, therefore, we have any regard for the plain command of
Christ, if we desire the pardon of our sins, if we wish for strength to
believe, to love and obey God, then we should neglect no opportunity of
receiving the Lord’s
Supper; then we must never turn our backs on the feast which our Lord has
prepared for us.”[xi]
Methodists also practice an open table; we believe that God can
work through communion to change the lives of those who partake, so it should
not just be for those who have been baptized or those who believe. As a means
of grace, communion is all about what God does for us, not what we do.
7. We
all are called to serve
Our Book of Discipline states,
“Ministry in the Christian church is derived from the
ministry of Christ, who calls all persons to receive God’s gift of salvation and follow in the way of love and
service. The whole church receives and accepts this call, and all Christians
participate in this continuing ministry.”[xii]
We believe that clergy and laity are of equal importance in the
church. I love being part of a church where everyone plays a part and everyone
is called to serve! The church is the people, not the pastor.
8. We
have hope in the future that makes us want to work now
We place a large emphasis on living in hope for the new creation.
Our central affirmation is that God offers full redemption to all of God’s
creation. But we don’t have to wait until the Second Coming
to receive that redemption. We are called to live in the Resurrection now and
work for the Kingdom of God on earth. Through the Holy Spirit we can begin to
embody the redeeming work of Christ now, and the Holy Spirit can work through
us to bring about change in the world.[xiii]
Our hope is here now and in the future.
Charles Wesley’s hymn, “O For a Thousand
Tongues to Sing”describes this hope in the last verse:
“In
Christ, your head, you then shall know, shall feel your sins forgiven;
anticipate your heaven below, and own that love is heaven.”[xiv]
[i] Campbell, Ted, ed. A Wesley
Reader: Writings of John and Charles Wesley. Dallas: Tuckapaw Media,
2008. p.109
[ii] Campbell, Ted. Methodist Doctrine:
The Essentials. Nashville: Abington Press, 2011. p.36-37
[iii] Campbell, Ted and Craig Hill ed. The
Wesleyan Studies Project Series II: Methodist Doctrine. Wesley Ministry
Network, 2010. Session 4, Scott Kisker
[iv] Campbell, Ted. Methodist Doctrine:
The Essentials. Nashville: Abington Press, 2011. p. 60-65
[v] Campbell, Ted and Craig Hill ed. The
Wesleyan Studies Project Series II: Methodist Doctrine. Wesley Ministry
Network, 2010. Session 4, Scott Kisker
[vi] Campbell, Ted and Craig Hill ed. The
Wesleyan Studies Project Series II: Methodist Doctrine. Wesley Ministry
Network, 2010. Session 7, Sondra Wheeler
[vii] The United Methodist Hymnal. Nashville:
The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989. p.372
[viii] Campbell, Ted, ed. A Wesley
Reader: Writings of John and Charles Wesley. Dallas: Tuckapaw Media,
2008. p. 96
[ix] The United Methodist Hymnal. Nashville:
The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989. p.561
[x] Campbell, Ted and Craig Hill ed. The
Wesleyan Studies Project Series II: Methodist Doctrine. Wesley Ministry
Network, 2010. Session 9, Henry Knight
[xi] Coyle, Jason, ed. “Sermon 101: The Duty of Constant Communion.” The Wesley Center Online. Wesley Center for Applied Theology, 1999. http://www.wesley.nnu.edu
[xii] The Book of Discipline of the
United Methodist Church. Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House,
2012. Paragraph 301.1, p. 217
[xiii] Campbell, Ted and Craig Hill ed. The
Wesleyan Studies Project Series II: Methodist Doctrine. Wesley Ministry
Network, 2010. Session 12: Randy Maddox
[xiv] The United Methodist Hymnal. Nashville:
The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989. p.57
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