by Steve | Aug 18, 2025 | Juloy-August 2025
Growth in Grace
By Stephen Rankin
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).
In our home, affixed to the wall of the entryway from our garage into the kitchen, hangs an oversized yardstick that our son-in-law made for us to measure the heights of all our grandchildren as they grow. As you might imagine, it is full of marks that climb ever higher and higher on the numbered hash marks. Joni, my spouse and family matriarch, marches each grandchild to that board every year as close to her or his birthday as possible. Each grandchild is as excited as we are to see how much she or he has grown. One grandson, now five inches taller than my smallish 5’9”, towers over me. Those of you who do something similar know the feeling. The mystery of human growth is amazing.
Measuring biological growth is a straightforward, understandable process. Gauging spiritual growth? Not so much. Most Christians recognize the need for growth. Most of us have some general, but probably too vague a notion that God expects us to grow. We know that being a mature Christian is obviously better than being an immature one, but do we have any way of making an honest and accurate assessment so that we can tell the difference? Candidly, I think the answers to these questions for most believers is no. We need to remedy this situation.
The author of the book of Hebrews hits this point hard. “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food … but solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore, let us go on toward perfection…” (Hebrews 5:12-6:1a, NRSV).
According to Albert Outler’s introductory note in the new edition of The Works of John Wesley, Mr. Wesley preached on Hebrews 6:1, “Let us go on to perfection,” more than fifty times in his long ministry. We’ll return to the idea of “going on” in relation to growth in a moment, but, first, let’s deal with that most intimidating word, “perfection.”
Most people, including many in the Wesleyan tradition, struggle with perfection because it seems to point to a flawlessness that no human can reach. True, and Hebrews isn’t asking us to hit this mark. Similarly, perfection smacks of perfectionism. Biblical perfection in Christianity is not the perfection we are called to seek. What, then, is it?
It’s a call to grow into the fullness of adult, mature discipleship. In other words, to aim at, yes, Christlikeness; that is, to have the mind of Christ and to walk as Christ walked. The Bible doesn’t mess around. It doesn’t soften this call. It is only possible by God’s grace, and God makes this very grace available to us all.
As many scholars of Wesley have pointed out, going on to perfection (or entire sanctification, or being made perfect in love, or several other expressions Wesley used) is the chief reason for the existence of Methodism. It’s especially important for us in the Wesleyan tradition to hold fast to this vision.
What is Grace and How Does It Work?
People in the Wesleyan tradition have learned from numerous sources about prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace. We know the words and some perhaps have some basic understanding as to how these different expressions of grace work. If you already know what I’m talking about, then consider this little exposition a refresher. If you don’t know, then I hope it inspires you. Either way, may it provoke you to action.
John Wesley, in his sermon, “The Witness of Our Own Spirit,” helps us see the needed perspective for growing in grace:
“‘By the grace of God’ is sometimes to be understood that free love, that unmerited mercy, by which I, a sinner, through the merits of Christ am now reconciled to God. But in this place it rather means that power of God the Holy Ghost which ‘worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure.’ As soon as ever the grace of God (in the former sense, his pardoning love) is manifested to our soul, the grace of God (in the latter sense, the power of his Spirit) takes place therein. And now we can perform, through God, what to [humanity] was impossible.”
Most Christians have a decent grasp on the first part of this description. We know that grace means God’s gift, God’s unmerited favor in forgiving and adopting us as his children through faith in Christ. But awareness of the second part — the part that Mr. Wesley emphasizes — pales by comparison.
To be sure, the Bible is consistently clear regarding God’s unmerited favor, and we thank God for it. What if, however, we also grasped further that God’s grace is God’s action for our full salvation, like the actions of a great coach who has a purpose in our training and a goal for our growth? Who is totally committed to our becoming, so to speak, an outstanding athlete? Who guides and corrects and insists and inspires? The coach metaphor falls short, of course, because God does more than teach and correct. He also literally provides what a coach cannot. God’s very own Spirit supplies the energy, the power, to grow us into Christlikeness. And here I think of another of Mr. Wesley’s sermons, “On Working Out Our Own Salvation,” based on Philippians 2:12-13. This text reads in part, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you…” As Wesley says in this sermon, because God works in us, we can work. But also, because God works in us, we must work, that is, engage our energies to grow and to serve.
What Does Growth Look Like?
Let’s assume that you have committed to this vision of becoming a fully-grown, spiritually mature, on-to-perfection disciple. How do you gauge whether you are actually growing?
Assuming the desire to grow, the process starts with appropriate self-awareness. I stress that word, appropriate. The kind of self-awareness we need follows Jesus’ first Beatitude in Matthew 5: “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” To recognize our spiritual poverty, our tendency toward self-indulgence, therefore our need for grace, is the place to start.
Then, avail yourself of the means of grace. They are indispensable aids to growth. We can call them spiritual disciplines, as many traditions do, but recognizing them as means of grace helps us remember that God supplies the energy we need. Prayer (public and private), searching the scriptures, fasting, receiving the sacrament, meeting together in small groups for mutual edification (watching over one another in love), and serving others in Christ’s love all serve as means of God’s grace to grow us into mature Christians.
Next, develop a useful way of measuring growth. This process does not need to be overly formal. It simply needs to help you see what is actually happening in your efforts to grow. Make a list of ways that you sense the need to grow. You can modify the list as you give more thought to this work. Keep some notes for future reference. Do this work with trusted fellow travelers. You could start with any of several spiritual maturity assessments available online (do an internet search for “spiritual maturity assessment” and choose one that seems appropriate). A tool like this one gives you some food for thought.
In your assessment, while you consider attitudes, dispositions, and behaviors (in other words, character), don’t overlook the critical category of knowledge. For example, one area of serious concern has to do with discerning sound from unsound doctrine. To be sure, mere conceptual knowledge does not make one a mature Christian, but neither does ignorance! Sound doctrine leads you into deeper union with Christ. If you want to grow in grace, do not overlook serious study. Again, if you search online, you can find tools for helping you assess doctrinal and scriptural knowledge. Remember, it’s just a way to get started, it’s not the final judgment.
Christian character flows from the heart and the heart is made up of thoughts, feelings (desires, affections) and actions. So, do the same inventory with character qualities. Consider how, for example, the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 provides a template. Start with a study of each of the virtues listed there. Again, it’s best to do this work with a group committed to the same goal. Think about situations where you feel vulnerable or afraid or frustrated or angry or hurt. Conversely, where might you be a little too comfortable, too self-assured? Think of relationships in which you need to exhibit Christlikeness in your demeanor.
Finally, consider whether or not you regularly give away your time and love to others in service. In what ways do you show that you love your neighbor? Once more, let me cite John Wesley. In his sermon, “On Visiting the Sick,” he makes it clear that engaging in this ministry (all Christians, not just pastors) is a means a grace for the visitor every bit as much as the visited.
And, with friends in Christ, stop every six months or year (not too often) and look back. Have I grown? Can I testify to real victory in certain areas of my life? What changes does my small group see in me? Am I gaining ground in feeling the love of God and showing Christ’s love toward others?
In getting practical, I want to stress that you need more than a checklist of behaviors. We’re good at checking boxes. Did I read my Bible? (Check) Did I attend worship? (Check) Did I tithe this month? (Check) And so on. But checking boxes, merely going through the motions of behaviors does not a mature Christian make. Once more, thinking of these actions as means of grace keeps them in the framework of God’s goal of our growing to maturity
Keep in Mind
Finally, a couple of cautions. First, God doesn’t walk on and override our agency. We’re not little automatons that God manipulates. In The Faith Once Delivered, a good resource for growth in grace, you’ll find reference to the “cooperant grace, of God and humanity working together with God by grace.” God won’t run over your desires and prerogatives to get you where he wants you, but you can receive his grace and he will work with you to grow you up.
Second, we don’t need to feel strong to be strong in Christ. It’s the same with growth. We don’t always feel like we’re growing when we’re growing. Don’t wait around until you feel inspired or somehow adequate to the task. I repeat, you don’t have to feel strong to be strong in Christ. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul testifies about his weakness and what Christ said to his request for healing: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.” Therefore, Paul could boast, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”
Spiritual growth is often an up-and-down experience. It’s not a straight line. It’s not automatic. It takes effort. We hit plateaus. We grow listless. We get tired. A season of difficulty can cause us to doubt. But we press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ! We don’t settle for anything less than Christlikeness. This is the goal of the Christian life, and, by God’s grace, we can arrive at the goal.
Stephen Rankin pastors Arkansas City United Methodist Church in Kansas. He also serves as executive director of Spiritual Maturity Project. He is author of Aiming at Maturity: the Goal of the Christian Life.
by Steve | Aug 18, 2025 | Front Page News, Home Page Hero Slider, Juloy-August 2025
Unfolding Salvation
By Ryan Danker
This issue of Good News is dedicated to the work of God in Christ to make us whole, otherwise known as salvation. It is my hope that the articles contained here will help us to better understand the process, or order, or even way by which God calls each and every one of us to new life in him.
God’s saving work has always been at the heart of the Wesleyan revival. The early Methodist leaders weren’t launching revivals wherever they went. They were trying to keep up with the outbursts of revival, the restorative work of God. God was at work and they wanted to catch up with what he was doing. And his work involved the salvation of souls. He who created us, loves us, and wants us to live victorious lives. And ever since we turned from him, God has gone out of his way to bring about our restoration.
Just think of Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son. It has many meanings, but one of them is that the parable is a picture of God’s constant desire for us to return home, to return to him, even when we’ve insulted him, squandered our inheritance, and lived self-centered lives. In the parable we learn that when the father, even after all that the son had done, sees him from a distance, he runs to him and takes him into his arms. This is the loving embrace that awaits each of us. This is a picture of salvation.
From the moment of the Fall, when humanity sinned and brought death and corruption into the world, from that very moment, we begin to see God’s plan of salvation unfold. Look at the account of the Fall in Genesis, even there we catch small glimpses of God’s plan of salvation. Adam and Eve had broken the covenant that they had with God and the repercussions were disastrous for them and for the creation itself. God responded to their faithlessness by sending them away from the life that they were intended to live, a life that sin made no longer possible. But when God cursed the serpent that had beguiled them he spoke of the “seed” of the woman who will ultimately “bruise” the serpent’s head. The church fathers read this as a reference to Christ, born of Mary, the second Adam and the second Eve, from whom and through whom salvation would come.
The plan of salvation unfolds throughout the rest of Scripture. Even after the Fall, God continued to walk with his people, ultimately calling on Abram to become Abraham and Sarai to become Sarah, whose decedents would be a chosen people, a holy people set apart as a beacon of God’s work of restoration. He called the people of Israel to be his own so that they might cooperate with his work to bring wholeness and healing to the world.
Only in Christ, though, do we see the work come to fulfillment and completion. Only God incarnate, God with us, God as one of us, would the full healing begin, a new creation. Made one of us, he lived and died as one of us, saving us by his full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice on the cross.
Sin entered the world through our disobedience, but Christ’s death conquered sin. And the same victory that he won on the cross can be applied to your life and to mine. Sin doesn’t have the last word, even on this side of death. Christ’s resurrection by the Spirit of God, a new life, can also be ours as we receive a share of that ultimate life awaiting the general resurrection when we will be made fully like him.
The beauty of the Wesleyan tradition can be seen in its hope-fullness. Wesleyans have a sure hope that we can experience the saving work of God in our lives now. In fact the word “now” is a very Wesleyan word — and arguably a scriptural one. Once when writing to an early Methodist, Wesley — who was talking about the fullness of salvation — said, “Be a Methodist still! Expect perfection now!” The promise of salvation is not just a promise for a future time, but a promise that can be fulfilled and experienced now. Holy love, the life God intended for us from the beginning, can reign in our hearts now.
We can see this in the words of Charles Wesley in one of his striking hymns,
“O for a heart to praise my God
A heart from sin set free!
A heart that always feels thy blood
So freely spilt for me!”
Salvation is something that we can experience in this life and expect now, but it is also a process. There are certainly moments of great change within that process, but wholeness in Christ is a work that we must dedicate ourselves to, by grace, for our entire lives. We are to grow from grace to grace.
Wesley once talked about the process of salvation by using a house as an analogy, a picture of God’s work. He said, “Our main doctrines, which include all the rest, are three, that of repentance, of faith, and of holiness. The first of these we account, as it were, the porch of religion; the next, the door, the third, religion itself.” Salvation is driven by grace — the power of the Holy Spirit — and faith, our response to God’s offer of love.
What we describe as prevenient grace — which means the grace that goes before — is in reality God’s desire to be in relationship with all people. He calls to us like one seeking the lost. He is constantly seeking a loving relationship with each and every one of us, even when we’re not seeking him. This call or grace awakens us, takes the blinders from our eyes, and we begin to see our present situation, a situation where sin has the upper hand. This is sometimes called an awakening. One of the earliest names of people in the Evangelical Revival was actually “the awakened.” They knew that they needed God, and that only in him could they find true wholeness and peace.
When we are awakened to our need for salvation, seeing the depths of our sin and the mess we have made, we experience the need for God’s mercy and we are given a desire for God. And so by grace we turn to him in faith, which can also be understood as trust. Faith is the key, even as grace is the engine. In justifying grace we receive by faith the pardon of God who justifies us, forgives us, placing our trust in what Christ has done for us on the cross. And we’re not just seen to be justified, we are justified as the life of God becomes our own.
The Book of Common Prayer describes God as one “whose property [character] is always to have mercy.” He longs to set us free. And once we receive God’s pardon, we begin to experience the power of God’s cleansing work. The past is gone and we start anew. This is called the new birth and it is when we first experience the freedom we have in Christ. Its name alone should tell us how vital this is as a new beginning, a new life. It’s not just a name, though; it’s an actual change. We are born again by the power of God.
New birth is the beginning of the process of sanctification; a process propelled by the means of grace such as prayer, fasting, meditating on Scripture, partaking of Holy Communion, and serving one another in love. A true Christian life should be filled with these opportunities to encounter God’s grace. In the process of sanctification, walking hand and hand with Christ, we learn his ways. For a moment, think of it just as you would any relationship. It takes time to get to know another person. But after spending enough time with someone, you know what that person likes, what they think about things, even some of their better, or lesser qualities. Now apply that to Christ. And unlike a relationship with another person like ourselves —even one we love deeply — Christ has no lesser qualities. He is the very embodiment of perfect love, or as Charles Wesley wrote “pure unbounded love.” To walk with him is to walk with God. And no one who spends time with God remains unchanged.
This walk, or process, enables us to experience what Wesley called Christian perfection. Don’t be frightened by the word “perfect.” The word is used regularly in Scripture such as in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus commands us to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” As with any command of Scripture, it is also a promise. God doesn’t just give us commands from on high; he gives us the grace to actually live this way. His commandments are promises of his grace.
But what does Scripture mean by “perfect”? Scriptural perfection is not static as though any change would undermine it; it’s actually dynamic. It is perfection in love (think of that loving father from the parable again) that breaks the power of sin and enables us to live a life of holy love that looks and sounds and is a life shaped by Christ’s own life. The point is to be like Christ, because in him we see God’s vision fulfilled and he wants to see that vision fulfilled in us. Salvation, in so many words, is the freedom to be who God always intended us to be.
The hymns of early Methodism were organized by Wesley in a hymnal to describe this ordering of salvation. The hymnal has a wonderfully long title — very common at the time — A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists. It was published in 1780 and until the recent publication of Our Great Redeemer’s Praise in 2024, this hymnal was the only truly pan-Wesleyan hymnal, one that the whole family can use.
My doctoral advisor, David Hempton, has said of the 1780 hymnal: “If one were to choose one single artifact of Methodism somehow to capture its essence, the most defensible choice probably would be the ‘Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists.’”
And the hymnal is organized according to the Scripture way of Salvation taught by the early Methodists. We can see in it sections “for those groaning for full salvation,” for “those backsliding,” for those who are walking with Christ and one another in the early Methodist bands (small groups), and for those who have reached perfection in love.
Poetry has a unique way of communicating the faith. And so I leave you with one of Charles Wesley’s hymns from the 1780 collection.
“Saviour of my soul, draw nigh
In mercy haste to me;
At the point of death I lie
And cannot come to thee;
Now thy kind relief afford
The wine and oil of grace pour in;
Good Physician, speak the word
And heal my soul of sin.”
Let us pray for this blessing in our own day, in our churches, our communities, and in our own lives.
Ryan Danker is the publisher of Good News.
by Steve | Jul 22, 2025 | May/June 2025
An Anglican Reflection on the Nicene Creed for Fellow Wesleyans —
By W. Brian Shelton –
Among the many types of Wesleyans who commemorate the 1700th anniversary of Nicaea this year, those in the Anglican Church may be easy to overlook. The emergence of Methodism within the eighteenth-century Church of England led to a swelling of its ranks and a separation from its original church. However, their common roots meant that these two branches would share theological similarities and ensured that they could always be closely connected.
Methodism was a renewal movement within Anglicanism, bringing a new energy centered on personal repentance, salvation, and sanctification to the established church. As a Methodist in my youth and my middle age, I now find myself Anglican, having here experienced a form of personal renewal that reverberates with the energy of the eighteenth century. Central to this experience has been worship steeped in theology, including the Nicene Creed. While it is not surprising that a theology professor at worship would appreciate this quality, the creed offers a theological experience that can remind Wesleyans everywhere of our core beliefs, such as the Trinity, incarnation, salvation, church, and an eternal hope. These common beliefs orient us, inspire us, and unite us, and when they are appropriated to the heart, they can renew us. As a Wesleyan in the Anglican Church of North America, an Anglican appreciation of the Nicene Creed in the life of the church is offered here.
Article 8 of the Thirty-Nine Articles states that the Nicene Creed is one of three creeds that “ought thoroughly to be received and believed: for they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture.” The phrase “received and believed” embodies how all Christians treat this ancient creed — accepting it from a historic church (received) and professing it for our generation (believed). This very act of saying the creed together is akin to the Wesleys’ vision to practice faith in community. Before striking out into good works, we begin with this foundation for belief that motivates and justifies our own spiritual formation, as well as the ministries to one another and to the world. Three reasons strike me for why an Anglican view of the Nicene Creed has been valuable to me and can be to Wesleyans everywhere.
First, it is said. I have been a member of Methodist churches that say no creed. My own formative years as a teenage Christian saw me thrive spiritually without any creedal element. I have been a member of one Methodist church that regularly said the Apostles Creed. This habit grew on me as a congregational member, as I joined fellow-believers in worship to confess what we all believed. However, the Nicene Creed is rare in Methodist circles. Now, I am a member of an Anglican Church that faithfully says this confession every Sunday. Like saying other parts of the liturgy with regularity, such as the Lord’s Prayer and “the peace of Christ to you,” one can become immune to its significance by uttering the same words, time after time. However, for the one who thinks on the words, internalizes them and lifts them up in a confession of praise, the Nicene Creed remains powerfully inspirational. By stating out loud, “I believe” in the person and work of God, one joins a profession of believers throughout time that uttered this same profession. By stating out loud, “I believe” in the qualities and accomplishments of God, one gets refamiliarized and reoriented to the One we worship. We can become amazed when spoken words make a claim about something more wonderful and epic than ourselves.
Second, it is profound. The words of the Nicene Creed describe the nature of God and the work, summarizing the narrative of the biblical story that makes application across all sectors of worship practices. It tells of the Father creating “all things visible and invisible.” It tells of the Son being sent by the Father, “God from God.” It tells of the purpose of this wonderful work for sinners, “For us and for our salvation, he came down to earth.” It tells of “the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life,” reminding us of our created status and our reliance on the Creator for life itself. Finally, it tells of our place on this great timeline, participating in “one holy, catholic and apostolic church,” a place in which we “look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” The Nicene Creed captures the dynamics of the Trinity who delivered for us the promise of a new life. It offers an intellectual dimension that accompanies the affectual experience so common to contemporary evangelical churches. In saying the creed, one is confronted with the profound story of a limitless God who accepted limits to free a sinful people from their limits—those very people saying the creed. The profundity of this reality is almost too hard to believe.
Third, it is renewing. This element may be the most surprising, as the same words are professed in Anglican churches week after week until they engrain habitually into the mind. In fact, the same words have been professed, over and over, leading up to the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea this year. Just as the wonder of God continues to bless us in life, the profound reality of the creedal words continues to inspire us to realize and hope for such blessings. The creed holds a promise that the God of the bible, with all the miracle stories, all the stories of changed lives, and all the stories of hope are available to us. A reminder of that biblical promise gets delivered in the saying of the Nicene Creed, where we recite words that can be renewing to us. This is no truer than in the prayers of the people in the Anglican service: “For the peace of the world, for the welfare of the Holy Church of God, and for the unity of all peoples, let us pray to the Lord.” The God of the Nicene Creed can unite his people in common belief, renewing them individually even as they say together, “I believe in one…Church.” After all, spiritual renewal is an important component of worshipping on the Lord’s day.
An Anglican perspective on the Nicene Creed offers still more. This confession is a boundary to human teaching. It is no surprise that in our worship service, the Nicene Creed and the reading of scripture surround the homily. The scripture and its creed bracket the sermon—the only part of the worship service that risks being humanly manufactured. This confession is also a contemporary profession of faith, stated in the present but also grounded in a historical reality. It offers a connection to the past, reorienting our generationally-centered “us” and “now” to a historic participation with believers who went before us. In turn, this invites us to join something bigger than just our church in our present lives. This confession also invites all to believe its contents, welcoming a diversity of denominations without allowing any diversity of unorthodox beliefs to corrode its foundation. This confession thus allows Wesleyans to find a synthesis with their own distinctives on universal salvation, the pursuit of holy living, and a focus on community service in a context of a deeper, precise, and historic Christianity.
However, all this optimism around an Anglican appreciation for the Nicene Creed along Wesleyan lines does not come without two concessions. First, in guiding American Methodists along the Anglican-Methodist way, John Wesley omitted Article 8 of Thirty-Nine Articles cited above and he removed the Nicene Creed in his condensed service for communion. Scholars often speak of his unsystematic writings and his propensity for a lived faith. In Methodists in Dialog, Geoffrey Wainwright describes how Wesley had “no quarrel with the substance of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed” (191) and that orthodox doctrine was “not so much unnecessary as insufficient — if it was not believed, experienced, and lived” (195). Second, saying the creed weekly can take some conditioning for Wesleyans who may not be used to consistent liturgical patterns of worship. Appreciating both its contents and the power of a united confessions can require some exposure. As Anglicans live in such a worship culture, that conditioning is developed to appreciate the value of the Nicene Creed in worship.
With such a confessional commitment comes a chance for personal and corporate renewal. Perhaps one of the best ways to discover and anchor a renewal movement like Methodism — whether in the eighteenth century or as its renewal is underway these days — is in the profession of the Nicene Creed. After all, the God worshipped there is the one who enables us to live as “one, holy” church of God, renewed by “the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.”
W. Brian Shelton, PhD is Dean of the School of Christian Studies, Professor of Theology, and Wesley Scholar in Residence at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky.
by Steve | Jul 22, 2025 | May/June 2025
Roots of Free Methodism —
By Bruce N. G. Cromwell –
The Free Methodist Church was birthed in 1860 when Benjamin Titus Roberts, a pastor in the Methodist Episcopal Church in New York, recognized that he could no longer serve in harmony with that denomination’s practices. Speaking out against slaveholding (and being heavily involved in early abolitionist movements), as well as against the practice of renting seats within churches, withholding women from full service in congregations, and the formulaic approach to the Holy Spirit in public worship, he and other like-minded Methodists were expelled and gathered to form the new Church. With “freedom” a common theme in many of their concerns, the name “Free Methodist” was adopted.
Quickly spreading from New York to Illinois, Kansas, and across the country, early Free Methodists rallied around the dual call to “spread Scriptural holiness across the land and to preach the gospel to the poor.” Today, Free Methodists continue to live out seven contemporary expressions of our historic freedoms. These include:
• Freedom of all races to worship together in unity.
• Freedom for the poor to be treated with dignity and justice in every church around the world.
• Freedom for women and men to be treated respectfully and to use their gifts equally in every church, in the home, and in the world.
• Freedom for laity to be fairly represented in the governing bodies of all churches.
• Freedom from spiritual, political, social, or conceptual alliances that compromise or subvert the exclusive allegiance we profess to Jesus Christ.
• Freedom to engage in worship that is moved and inspired by the Holy Spirit.
• Freedom from sin’s power through full surrender to God.
Today the Free Methodist Church is found in 106 countries around the world, with over 1.6 million members worldwide. And it continues to expand. Only 4 percent of total world membership is found in the United States. With the population of the US being 4 percent of world population, we rejoice that the FMC reflects this worldwide reach and representation. Women and men continue to be called into the mission field, and the expansion of the denomination reflects both workers who go into new fields as well as those who send them with support in prayer and giving. In 2024 our churches in the United States gave 3 percent more to Free Methodist World Missions than was given in 2023. Certainly not a large increase, but growth, nonetheless. And in an increasingly skeptical and secular society, we rejoice at how God is continuing to shape and guide the Church!
Across the nation and around the world, Free Methodists trust in the power of the Holy Spirit to visit our churches and communities as we seek an ongoing Spirit-fueled movement in our day. With a passion to see the wounded healed, the broken-hearted encouraged, the lame walk, the dead in spirit brought back to life, and the darkness overcome with the light of Christ, we work together with God’s Spirit to see the Kingdom of God advance.
That said, the Free Methodist Church desires to not focus so much on inward, institutional momentum, but rather outward to a hurting world. We know that whenever any church begins to focus on its own existence it has already lost its way. Rather, we strive to see all Christians and all communities of Christ seek to give themselves away in service to the Lord, wherever they may be in the world. We know that if we seek first the Kingdom and God’s righteousness, other things, including perhaps momentum and movement, may be added to us as well.
United in our vision and mission, though not uniform in the make-up of our congregations, Free Methodists are diverse in locations, contexts, and cultures, and we seek to welcome and engage women and men from every language and nation. Our churches are knit together in a connected identity, yet different in every town, village, and city. That identity is referred to as “The Free Methodist Way.” This is summarized in five distinct expressions: life-giving holiness, love-driven justice, Christ-compelled multiplication, cross-cultural collaboration, and God-given revelation.
Life-giving holiness reminds us that our call to be holy as God is holy was never meant to be a burden, nor an impossible task, but rather a gift that frees us for life that is truly life by delivering us from the destructive power of sin. As part of the Holiness tradition, we continue to preach sanctification as something that God can work in an instant but yet is also a process of continually submitting to and being conformed to the image and likeness of Christ. And though sanctification can often slip into legalistic moralization, we preach that it is not about perfection in every action and thought as much as perfection in love.
Love-driven justice refers to the way in which we demonstrate God’s heart for the world, valuing the image of God in all women, men, and children. It calls us to act with compassion to the oppressed, resisting such oppression, speaking out against bigotry, prejudice, and hatred, and working to steward well creation. Believing that life is sacred, from conception to death, we welcome the immigrant and the stranger, as well as all people regardless of race, culture, sexual orientation, gender identity, or even religion. And though we have a sexual ethic and believe there are certain ways to live that honor God, as well as ways that devalue life and elevate personal preference over God’s will, we do not tolerate any behaviors that shame or devalue any people whom God loves.
Christ-compelled multiplication reflects the redemptive movement of Jesus Christ, destined to fill the whole earth. His life, ministry, and approach to discipleship was incarnational and relational, pouring His life into a few with the expectation that they would follow His example and pour into others. Such exponential growth happened, then, when women and men had their lives transformed and empowered for service. This expectation continues to drive the Free Methodist Church, as we believe the redemptive movement of Jesus should permeate every level of every church, with the found reaching the lost, disciples making disciples, leaders mentoring leaders, churches planting churches, and movements birthing movements. Ordinary people can still do extraordinary things when we trust in the power of God.
Cross-cultural collaboration responds to increasing suspicion of “the other” in our world with a desire to see people from every nation, culture, and ethnicity united in Christ and commissioned to carry out His work. We hold fast to the promise that we have been made one in Christ, even as we dedicate ourselves to becoming a more diverse Church that looks like the Kingdom of God, moving beyond colonialism and ethnocentrism in favor of collaborative partnership in God’s global work. Freely sharing our own gifts and resources, we in the United States are challenged and inspired by the faithfulness, perseverance, ceaseless prayer, theological insights, and spiritual wisdom of our sisters and brothers around the world.
God-given revelation recognizes that the Bible is our final authority in all matters of faith and practice as the inspired word of God. Though Free Methodists draw on the Wesleyan heritage of discerning truth through the lenses of Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience, we keep Scripture primary. We do not subjugate the Bible’s timeless truths to cultural norms or social trends, even while we try to authentically communicate and apply its truths with sensitivity to current cultural dynamics.
John Wesley focused on the doctrine of salvation and the relationship between grace, faith, and holiness of heart and life. Current Free Methodist Bishops Keith Cowart, Kaye Kolde, and Kenny Martin continue this focus, desiring to fully align our lives and our movement on the unshakable belief that the Holy Spirit is guiding our steps. Our ongoing prayer is that everything from our structure to our service would be led by God’s will, for God’s glory, and we are willing to follow God’s Spirit wherever it would lead us.
Bruce Cromwell is a superintendent in the Central Region Conference of the Free Methodist Church. He has over 3 decades of pastoral experience, serving 7 Free Methodist Churches in 4 states. Dr. Cromwell has been an ordained elder since 1996.
by Steve | Jul 22, 2025 | May/June 2025
Faith, Love, and Praise: The Nicene Creed and Liturgical Formation —
By Jonathan A. Powers –
Words matter. Think of the old saying: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” We may want that to be true, but deep down we know it isn’t. Words do hurt. They also heal. They shape how we see the world, how we understand ourselves, and how we relate to others. Words have power. They can tear down or build up, distort or clarify, wound or bring peace.
Words matter when it comes to the Christian faith, too. The words we use as Christians aren’t just filler. They guide us, encourage us, and form us. When words are placed on the lips of the church, they help shape identity, anchor faith, and express devotion to God. The prayers we pray, the songs we sing, the Scripture we hear, and the creeds we confess all aid in forming what we believe about God and how we live in response.
God-given revelation recognizes that the Bible is our final authority in all matters of faith and practice as the inspired word of God. Though Methodists draw on the Wesleyan heritage of discerning truth through the lenses of Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience, we keep Scripture primary. Rooted in the early church’s response to heretical teachings, the creed clarifies orthodox belief and provides a theological foundation for Christian discipleship. In addition to its importance as a doctrinal statement, the Nicene Creed functions as a foundational liturgical act. When practiced faithfully, saying the words of the creed together as the church can be a means for forming hearts, grounding worship, and uniting the church in the shared story of God’s redeeming love.
Across the centuries of the church, the Nicene Creed has remained an indispensable component of its liturgical worship. As a liturgical act, the Nicene Creed embodies the church’s living memory and theological inheritance. When recited in the liturgy, the creed serves not merely as a reminder of past controversies or as a dogmatic exercise, but also as a formative practice through which the church proclaims its faith anew. Rooted in the trinitarian grammar of Scripture, the creed reflects the church’s understanding of God’s nature and work — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — in creation, redemption, and sanctification. It safeguards the central confession that Jesus Christ is both fully divine and fully human, upholding the mystery of the Incarnation and the unity of the Godhead. In affirming these truths, the words of the creed invite the church to rehearse the gospel story and to participate in the church’s mission as it bears witness to the God who has made Himself known in Jesus Christ and who continues to dwell with His people by the power of the Holy Spirit. Through the creed, the church enters a divine mystery, aligning heart, mind, and voice in shared confession and praise.
It is important, therefore, to understand the value of the creed as a liturgical act that gives voice to the church’s faith in the context of gathered worship. Spoken as prayer, the creed does more than communicate theological content — it forms the hearts and minds of those who confess it. The words of the creed, repeated in worship across generations, become a shaping force in the life of the church, binding belief and practice together in a rhythm of faithful devotion.
A proper appreciation of the creed as a liturgical act must begin with a clear understanding of what liturgy is and why it holds significance in the life of the church. The word liturgy comes from a Greek term meaning “public work” or “the work of the people,” reminding us that worship is not a private activity but a communal offering, something we do together as the body of Christ. Liturgical theologians often point to an ancient Latin phrase to highlight the deep connection between worship and belief: lex orandi, lex credendi, or “the law of prayer is the law of belief.” This well-used axiom captures the idea that how the church prays is inseparable from what it believes. Theology is not developed in a vacuum but is shaped and reinforced through the regular practices of prayer and worship. Put simply, what the church prays, it ultimately believes, and what it believes must be faithfully reflected in its worship.
The language of worship is not incidental. As mentioned earlier, words form the very contours of Christian faith and practice. The repeated prayers, hymns, and creeds of the liturgy train the church’s spiritual imagination and inform the church’s understanding of God. Consequently, if worship is incoherent or theologically shallow, it does more than reflect doctrinal weakness — it actively cultivates and perpetuates it. N.T. Wright underscores this point in his book For All God’s Worth, observing that the way we worship directly impacts our understanding of who God is. Poor liturgy can distort divine truth, while robust, theologically grounded worship enables the church to know and love God rightly.
It is therefore essential that liturgy faithfully portray the character and nature of God. This conviction lies at the heart of the church’s historic commitment to creedal worship. The recitation of the Nicene Creed is not a mere intellectual exercise but a spiritual discipline, one that forms the faithful by engaging both heart and mind in worship. Through it, the church rehearses the truths of the gospel, nurtures theological clarity, and fosters a collective identity rooted in God’s self-revelation.
Within the context of Christian worship, therefore, the Nicene Creed occupies a vital role as both a theological anchor and a doxological witness. As an act of proclamation, it gives voice to the church’s shared confession and invites the gathered community to publicly affirm the core truths of the faith. As a liturgical act, it points to the redemptive work of God in history and anchors the present worship of the church in the eternal reality of the Triune God. As a doctrinal standard, it safeguards the church from theological drift, ensuring that its worship remains centered on the apostolic faith. In an age when worship can become overly emotive, individualistic, or culturally captive, the creed offers a necessary corrective. It prevents the church from slipping into self-referential spirituality by continually directing its gaze toward the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Similarly, because the reading and preaching of Scripture stand at the heart of Christian worship, the creed serves as a theological lens that guides and shapes faithful interpretation. Without such a framework, preaching risks becoming fragmented or driven by contemporary trends rather than rooted in the historic faith. The creed thus offers continuity and clarity amid the ever-shifting landscape of ecclesial discourse. Its enduring formulations resist distortion and novelty, keeping the church grounded in the apostolic message. In this way, the Nicene Creed is not only a statement of what the church believes but a guide for how it speaks and lives out that belief in the world.
The creed also protects against theological fads that may arise in different historical moments of the church. As new movements, ideologies, or interpretations emerge, the Nicene Creed remains a steadfast witness to the apostolic faith. As a safeguard, it prevents the church from being swayed by novel teachings that stray from the gospel. In this sense, the creed functions as both an anchor and a compass, keeping the church grounded in the core of the faith while guiding proclamation toward the eternal truths of God.
One further key liturgical strength of the creed is its role as a communal declaration of the church’s steadfast faith and allegiance to the Triune God. In a time marked by theological pluralism, denominational division, and doctrinal confusion, the Nicene Creed offers a unifying center. Despite differences in ecclesiology or sacramental theology, the creed is a common heritage embraced by Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions alike. Its continued use across these diverse communities testifies to the enduring power of shared confession in binding the church together.
This unity is not superficial or abstract. It is grounded in a robust theological vision of the Triune God and the redemptive work of Christ. When the creed is confessed in worship, it transcends individual preferences and cultural differences, reminding the church that its foundation is not novelty or personal interpretation, but the unchanging truth of the gospel. Such unity is vital in an era when subjective experience often trumps theological fidelity. The Nicene Creed orients the church around truths that do not shift with the cultural tide.
Finally, the creed serves as a living act of worship that draws the church into the ongoing story of God’s saving work. It provides a theological grammar for the church’s worship and witness, rooting the gathered church’s praise and proclamation in the truths revealed through Scripture and affirmed by the historic church. Reciting the creed is thus both a formative and performative liturgical act: it not only communicates belief but actively shapes it, embedding the faith in the lived practices and participation of the community.
Notably, the creed is not something the church simply reads but something it prays. The act is a moment of participatory proclamation where believers collectively remember and re-enter God’s redemptive narrative. Lines such as “For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven” are not abstract propositions but confessions of praise, saturated with the drama of divine love. The creed thus becomes what Robert Webber describes as a way for the church to “do God’s story” in worship, mutually rehearsing the gospel narrative and inhabiting its truth with awe and gratitude. This act of remembrance is deeply formational, calling to mind the story of God’s redeeming love while drawing the church into deeper affection and trust.
Remembering is at the heart of worship. It is through remembering God’s saving work that the affections are stirred and faith is deepened. The words of the liturgy help us remember. The Nicene Creed, when regularly prayed and internalized, thus plays a crucial role in shaping the affections of worshipers. It cultivates reverence, love, and assurance, orienting the hearts of believers toward the living God.
By rehearsing the truths of the creed, worshipers are invited into the story of redemption. The confession of God as “Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth” evokes trust and wonder in the Creator’s providence. The proclamation of Jesus Christ, “true God from true God… who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven,” draws the congregation into the mystery of divine incarnation and the profound love it reveals. The affirmation of the Holy Spirit as “the Lord, the giver of life” reminds the church of God’s continual presence and work in the world.
The creed offers not only cognitive affirmation but also emotional stability. In moments of doubt, suffering, or confusion, it provides a constant reminder of the enduring truth and faithfulness of God. Its repetition embeds these truths in the heart, reinforcing the gospel’s power to comfort, sustain, and transform.
In this way, the creed nurtures rightly ordered love — orthodoxy (right belief) while fostering orthopathy (right affections). It reinforces that the purpose of right doctrine is not to win arguments but to love God more deeply and worship Him more fully.
Certainly, the Nicene Creed is far more than a theological relic or liturgical formality; it is a living confession that continues to shape the church’s identity, worship, and mission. It forms faithful Christians through repetition, anchoring doctrine in the liturgical life of the community, uniting believers across time and space, and stirring the affections toward deeper love and devotion. In praying the creed, the church not only remembers what it believes but becomes what it confesses: a people rooted in the truth of the gospel and oriented toward the glory of the Triune God. As the church continues to proclaim the words “We believe” in its worship, it does so as an act of ongoing formation — faith seeking understanding, worship expressing truth, and belief embodying love.
Jonathan A. Powers is the Associate Professor of Worship and Interim Dean of the School of Mission and Ministry at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky.
