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Whenever Wesley wrote about 1 John, he did so with remarkable enthusiasm. On 18 July 1765, he noted in his journal: “In the evening I began expounding the deepest part of the holy Scripture, namely, the first Epistle of St. John, by which, above all other, even inspired writings, I advise every young preacher to form his style.

In Global Methodist circles, we are still rejoicing over the glory and grace that bathed our recent General Conference (GC) in Johannesburg. Even for those of us watching from afar, the beauty of holiness was palpable.

When times become difficult, we have a natural tendency to turn inward. We focus on ourselves, our families, our churches, and the communities closest to us. Our circle of concern begins to shrink.

Spent gunpowder hung in the air as Soldiers packed equipment after a long day on the range. Machine guns echoed in the distance, radios chirped, and the rumble of military vehicles moved in and out of the training area. "Chap, do you have a minute?"

The modern church cannot hold. Not attendance or budgets or programs but people. In many congregations there is a growing sense of ecclesial thinness: communities that gather but do not form; worship that inspires but does not sustain; institutions that speak of belonging but often cannot bear the weight of people’s stories, wounds, callings and questions.

In Global Methodist circles, we are still rejoicing over the glory and grace that bathed our recent General Conference (GC) in Johannesburg. Even for those of us watching from afar, the beauty of holiness was palpable.

Across the Christian landscape, people are naming the same ache: life feels too fast, too loud, too fragmented. Churches are busy but thin. Leaders are exhausted. Communities feel unmoored.

Philip Jacob Spener died in 1705. He was perhaps the most important figure in German Lutheranism in his day. In 1666, as lead pastor in Frankfurt, he began meetings with lay people to discuss the previous sermon.

At the time of his death in 1770, George Whitefield was one of the most well-known people in the American colonies. Though virtually unknown outside of religious circles today, he has been regarded by many historians as perhaps the greatest religious figure of the 1700s.

You could be a saint. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus and the work of the Spirit, every single person is not only called to holiness but capable of it. C.S. Lewis argued forcefully in his classic Mere Christianity that the whole purpose of the church was to make us “little Christs.”

The idea of Christ’s presence in the Lord’s Supper is deeply significant for the Wesleyan theological worldview. Everything that we as Methodists believe about Communion emerges from that idea—the real presence of Christ at the table.