Hopes for a Renewed Methodism

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Recently I was invited to speak at an event on the renewal of Methodism. Because we are facing the likelihood of division in the United Methodist Church next year, all of us in this denomination, regardless of our theological leanings, have the opportunity to think about how we might like to do things differently. On this occasion, then, I was able to share some of my hopes, which I’ve recounted in this short essay. 

I should clarify a couple of things from the outset, though. First and foremost, I speak only for myself. I don’t speak for the Wesleyan Covenant Association. I don’t speak for a new denomination. I don’t speak for United Theological Seminary. The ideas I will share here represent my hopes and vision, and nothing more. 

Additionally, while I wish the United Methodist Church had done and would do some things differently, the point of this post is not to denounce United Methodism. The UMC is the denomination of my baptism, confirmation, upbringing, seminary education, and ordination. It has formed me in important ways. I have friendships in this denomination that cross the lines that mark out our theological camps and caucuses. Yes, I have stood in support of what is often called a “traditionalist” vision of Methodism, and I continue to do so. I also ask God’s guidance, wisdom, and blessing for progressive and centrist brothers and sisters, even as we go down different paths. 

Having offered this brief preamble, then, I submit these six hopes for a new expression of Methodism: 

First, I hope for a church that insists upon a scriptural and creedal vision of the lordship of Jesus Christ. 

I want the church unfailingly to affirm Jesus as the eternal Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, the incarnate God, the Messiah, the Holy One of Israel. I want the church to proclaim Jesus who was foretold by the prophets, born of a virgin, and who lived without sin. I want us to proclaim Jesus the perfect high priest and perfect sacrifice, who through his death atoned for our sins and gave us new life through his blood....

Who rose in body from the dead after three days…

Who ascended into heaven…

Who will come again in glory…

Who will judge the living and the dead…

I hope for a church that will hold on to these beliefs for dear life, because our dear lives, new life in the present and eternal life with God, are what is at stake when we talk about Jesus. 

We made a critical error early on in the UMC. We tried to ground our denomination in religious pluralism, rather than in the particularity of the Wesleyan Christian witness. Yet a church cannot thrive that does not insist upon the uniqueness of Christ, his singular role in our salvation, his eternal nature, his incarnation, his lordship, and his messianic office. Such a church will not understand its identity or mission. A church that does not insist upon the proclamation of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God in three eternal persons, will make idolatry all too easy. 

If we do not guard those precious truths handed on to us from the days of the apostles and preserved by the blood of the martyrs throughout time and across the nations, we have given up the very thing that makes us a unique people of God. We are defined by whom we call “Lord” and our adoption as children into the household of faith that is centered on him. Our proclamation anticipates the day when every knee will bend and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. 

Second, I hope for a renewed commitment to the Bible.

When John Wesley wrote his Complete English Dictionary, he described a Methodist as one who lives according to the method laid out in the Bible. He famously called himself a “man of one book.” Of course he didn’t mean that he read only one book, but that there is no book except for the Bible that can show us how to be saved. God gave us the Bible for this very purpose. 

There were then and are now many good books, but the Bible is different. Through the writings of Scripture, God has spoken to us and given us a canon, a rule or measuring rod, for Christian faith and practice. Without the Bible we don’t know how to live. We don’t know what to believe. We don’t understand all that God has done for our salvation. 

In the mainline, and increasingly in evangelicalism, we have become very proficient critics of Scripture. Most often, however, we have not articulated a clear doctrine of Scripture. We have leapt into criticism before we have established the object of our critical gaze. What is Scripture? How does it teach us? What does it mean to trust Scripture? How do we deal with its more difficult passages? We need to think about the Bible in much more disciplined, rigorous, and theological ways. 

I hope that in the days to come, we will care enough about the Bible to develop a clear, coherent, and shared vision of Scripture that can guide our reading and help us as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. 

Third, I hope for bishops as shepherds of their people and defenders of the faith. 

My point here is not to criticize the actions of particular bishops. Rather, it is to suggest that we recover intentionally the ancient concept of the bishop as a shepherd of God’s people and a defender of the faith. Our expectations of the office of bishop have often been too low. We’ve expected them to be, more than anything, high-level managers. But from Ignatius of Antioch to Irenaeus to Athanasius to Augustine, bishops of the early church understood that what Christians believed and the ways in which they ordered their lives came to bear on their salvation. Their beliefs and lives came to bear on their proclamation and witness, and thus on the salvation of others. And the role of bishops was to lead those in their care more deeply into life in Christ and guard the proclamation of the gospel from those who would co-opt or corrupt it. 

The Greek word for bishop is episkopos. It means “overseer.” But what do bishops oversee? Yes, in our Methodist system they oversee appointments, itinerancy, and other supervisory matters. They preside at annual conferences. But in a renewed Methodism, I hope we will say to our bishops, “You are shepherds--you are pastors--you are defenders of the faith. First and foremost, you are these things. Guard the treasure that has been entrusted to you. Protect those in your charge from false teaching, sowers of dissension, and capitulation to worldly values. Oversee the saving work of the clergy and laity with whom you are entrusted.”  

Fourth, I hope for Methodism with a vibrant social witness. 

John Wesley was committed to the poor. He provided for the education of poor children. He provided for widows and others who faced financial need. He vocally opposed slavery. He was concerned with the abuse of alcohol in his day, especially distilled liquor. He had a public voice, and people listened to him. 

What about Methodists today? Yes, we do a lot of good, but our public voice is negligible. Part of the problem is that we cannot agree upon shared values or identity. Are we in favor of same-sex marriage, or do we affirm traditional marriage between one man and one woman? Is gender simply a social construct, or does it relate somehow to biological sex? What is our position on abortion? What do we think about assisted suicide? We have no unified witness to the world around us because we have no unity within ourselves. We are a house divided. 

Of course there will always be disagreements, but we at least need to agree on basic principles. If we cannot do that, then any kind of unified social witness will become impossible. 

I teach at a school that’s about fifty percent African-American in its student body. I am intentional to remain in ongoing dialogue with African-American Christians. Some have expressed concern about the commitment to witness and action on race in a new traditional denomination. This concern is entirely rational. The evangelical track record on race is a mixed bag. Sometimes it has been admirable. Sometimes it has been negligent. Sometimes it has been appalling and tragic. What will our witness be? Issues of race are before us today. We cannot--indeed must not--ignore these issues. What are we going to do? What is our calling in these circumstances? 

In confronting the evils of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Wesley, in his Thoughts Upon Slavery, drew first upon natural law, and then upon Scripture and doctrine to speak into a crucial ethical debate in his day. What are we going to do in ours? Are we willing to concede the important discussions about race in the U.S. today to secular voices, or even entirely to progressive voices? As theologically traditional Christians, we have an abundance of resources at our disposal: Scripture, a Christian vision of personhood, the universal redemption available through Christ, the moral witness of Wesley, theology of natural law, and other resources. We are well equipped for vibrant social witness. 

Christians must think, speak, and act differently, both in our private lives and in public. Whether we are talking about sexuality, the beginning and end of life, race, immigration, war or some other issue, if we don’t speak and act as Christians, we will fail in our duty to brothers and sisters in Christ, and we will abdicate the public sphere to people who do not know our God or the new life he promises. 

Fifth, I hope for a renewed commitment to personal holiness.

Salvation, for Welsey, wasn’t just being forgiven of sin or going to heaven. Salvation meant that we are changed by God. We’re sanctified. By the grace of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we become the people God always meant for us to be. Sanctification is at the core of Methodism. We should pray for it each day. 

People used to think the Methodists were odd because they believed in this thing called “entire sanctification.” In other words, God’s love could so transform the heart of a Christian that his or her will would come into consistent agreement with God’s. This, said Wesley, was the grand depositum of Methodism, the reason that God had raised us up. (I highly recommend Kevin Watson’s blog post on this.)

The EUB Confession of Faith describes entire sanctification as,

a state of perfect love, righteousness and true holiness which every regenerate believer may obtain by being delivered from the power of sin, by loving God with all the heart, soul, mind and strength, and by loving one’s neighbor as one’s self. Through faith in Jesus Christ this gracious gift may be received in this life both gradually and instantaneously, and should be sought earnestly by every child of God.

We don’t hear this very often today. We have forgotten what makes us most distinctively Methodist: we can be made perfect in love in this life. Would that people might consider us odd even today. 

Sixth, I hope for a  renewed commitment to social holiness. 

John Wesley once said that there was no holiness but social. This is often misconstrued as a call for social justice. As I just noted Wesley was in favor of positive social action and witness, but that’s not what he was talking about when he referred to social holiness. He meant that one cannot become a holier person in isolation. God did not call us to be, as Wesley put it, holy solitaries. God called us to be part of the body of Christ, part of the church. It is within faithful community that we become holier people. 

This is why Wesley began very early on in the Methodist movement to organize his followers into classes and bands. These weren’t just small groups. They weren’t book studies. They were communities formed for the purpose of watching over one another in love. They were places where people would have candid conversations about the state of their spiritual lives, their relationship with God, and their need for repentance. 

George Whitefield once remarked that while Wesley‘s movement continued with strength, his own followers were “a rope of sand.” What was the difference? Wesley had organized his followers into groups of mutual accountability, love, and support. Whitefield did not. He was a great preacher, but after his preaching, there was no clear process for discipling those who were moved to give their lives to Christ. Hence Whitefield is remembered for his preaching, and Wesley for the movement to which he gave rise, and which continues among millions around the world today. 

If the new Methodism does not take seriously the importance of class and band meetings, we will once again lose our Methodist distinctiveness. We will become another form of generic American evangelicalism, and, eventually, a rope of sand. I hope for a new emphasis on social holiness that restores this crucial part of our heritage as Methodists. 

I believe God has a great future for the people called Methodists. Across the globe, Methodists are planting churches, proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, and reaching the lost. Even in the United States, where the church grows smaller every year, I believe God has an abundant future for us. It is not inevitable that the United States will fall into secularism. It is not a foregone conclusion that the church will collapse. I believe that God is going to bring revival, and a renewed Methodism is going to be a part of that. I have a good friend who’s a pastor in Cuba, and one of his favorite things to say is, “The best is yet to come.” I believe that. For the people called Methodists, the best is yet to come. God is faithful, and the best is yet to come. May God lead us forward, guide our steps, correct us when we go astray, and teach us how to be faithful disciples in the crucial days ahead.

David F. Watson is Lead Editor of Firebrand. He serves as Academic Dean and Professor of New Testament at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.