by Steve | Jul 28, 2023 | Jul-Aug 2023, Magazine Articles
Our Primary Calling —
By Stephen Seamands —
I was a young pastor in my mid-twenties, just three years out of Asbury Theological Seminary, attending a day-long continuing education event for pastors. But before they introduced the main speaker I was looking forward to hearing, they trotted out a retired, white-haired Salvation Army officer to lead us in a time of prayer and worship.
His name was Lyle Rader. He was in his late seventies. Years later I would get to know his son, Paul Rader, who became the first American-born General and world-wide leader of the Salvation Army, who also served on Asbury Theological Seminary’s Board of Trustees for a number of years.
In his devotional talk, the elderly Lyle Rader began reminiscing about his relationship as a young Salvation Army officer with Samuel Logan Brengle (1860-1936). Brengle was a spiritual giant and a great leader in the Salvation Army during the early decades of the twentieth century. He was a powerful preacher and prolific author as well as a close friend of Henry Clay Morrison, the founder of Asbury Seminary. When Lyle Rader was a cadet in officer’s training school, Brengle became his friend and mentor. They developed a close Paul-Timothy type of relationship.
One day, Rader asked Brengle a question that had been on his mind for a long time. “Sir, over the years, what have been your greatest temptations in ministry?”
Brengle was silent for a few moments. “Actually, I’ve only had one great temptation in ministry,” he said. “And I’ve learned that if I win the battle with this temptation, then it seems as if everything else in my life and ministry falls into place. But it I lose the battle here, it’s as if all hell breaks loose, and I find myself wrestling with lots of other temptations.”
Lyle Rader wasn’t expecting an answer like that. His curiosity was piqued so he asked, “Well, then tell me, Sir, what has been your one great temptation.”
I’ll never forget what Rader told us Brengle (pictured right) said: “It’s the temptation to want to do something for God each day, before I’ve spent time with him.”
I needed to hear that because in my first few years after graduation from seminary, as I plunged into to my work as a pastor, doing things for God had become my focus, not spending time with him. Moreover, when I did spend time with him – like a car pulling into a gas station when its running on empty – it was mainly so I could get fueled up to get back on the road again to do ministry. Spending time with him, deepening my relationship with him, rather than being an end in itself, was essentially a means to the end of furthering the work of ministry.
I had forgotten what my primary calling was. So, what Brengle said convicted me. And that conviction only grew deeper as shortly thereafter I found myself drawn to study Jesus’ words to his disciples about ministry in John 15:1-16.
“I am the vine, you are the branches,” Jesus said (John 15:5). Branches, of course, exist to bear fruit. In fact, Jesus warns us that if they don’t bear fruit, they will be pruned away and thrown away. Bearing fruit matters, but branches can be fruitful only if they abide in the vine. “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
According to Jesus, what matters most is abiding. In fact, ten times in this passage, Jesus commands his disciples, “Abide in me.” Don’t miss the fact that it is a command. Even though fruit bearing is important, there’s no command in these verses to bear fruit. The command is to abide. That is our primary calling. Bearing fruit is not an end in itself; it is a consequence of abiding.
In My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers expresses it like this: “The main thing about Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain, and the atmosphere produced by that relationship.” Elsewhere in his book, Chambers writes, “The greatest competitor of devotion to Jesus is service for him.”
No one understood this better than Mother Teresa. She is famous for her incredible sacrificial ministry among the poor and the dying in Calcutta. But it is interesting what she said to Henri Nouwen when he was visiting with her in the 1970s.
“Mother Teresa,” Nouwen asked, “How can I best go about fulfilling my vocation as a Catholic priest?” His question, in a way, was like the one that Lyle Rader asked Samuel Logan Brengle and not surprisingly, he got a similar answer.
“Oh, Henri,” she said smiling, “Just spend one hour a day in adoration of your Lord, and never do anything you know is wrong. And you will be alright.”
At first, Nouwen thought Mother Teresa’s response was a bit simplistic, but as he reflected upon it, he recognized its wisdom. “Like all great disciples of Jesus,” he writes in The Way of the Heart, “Mother Teresa affirmed again the truth that ministry can be fruitful only when it grows out of a direct and intimate encounter with our Lord.”
Often when we consider Christian calling, we immediately focus on what we are sensing Christ is calling us to do. But first and foremost, Jesus calls us to be with him, to abide in him. That is our primary calling.
In his book The Call, Os Guinness reminds us that we are called first to Someone, not to Something or Somewhere. Those callings, as significant as they are, are secondary. Eventually, they will pass away. Our relationship with Christ is eternal. So, the most important thing Christians are called to do each day is to abide in him, to deepen our relationship with him, to be a branch that abides in the vine.
In 2009, I was privileged to accompany a group of Doctor of Ministry students from Asbury Seminary to Korea. We had been invited by Bishop Sundo Kim, a long-time member of the seminary’s Board of Trustees. In fact, the single men’s dormitory on the Asbury seminary campus in Wilmore, Kentucky, is named in his honor.
While we were in Korea, we spent a good deal of time at the Kwanglim Methodist Church, the church in Seoul that Bishop Kim had pastored for many years and that had grown under his leadership to become the largest Methodist church in the world.
One day we went to visit Bishop Kim at his office up on the 6th or 7th floor of the office complex that’s part of the Kwanglim campus. He was such a gracious host to us and shared with us profound wisdom borne out of his years of fruitful ministry.
But let me tell you what impressed me most during my time at Kwanglim. It wasn’t the vital worshipping congregation, state-of-the-art campus, gifted pastoral staff, or Bishop Kim’s beautifully decorated, spacious office. Rather, it was the small 4`x6` room connected to his office – the simple, unadorned “prayer closet” where Bishop Kim spends at least an hour each day reading scripture, praying – often on his knees – as he seeks to abide in Christ (pictured on the left).
I still have the picture I took of his prayer closet. Because – and Bishop Kim would be the first one to tell you – that’s where ministry begins and ends. As he emphasized in speaking to us that day, “Without a prayer life, you will not know the will of God.”
Throughout his ministry, Bishop Kim, who passed away last year, understood what matters most. He understood his primary calling. And you cannot understand the abundant fruitfulness of Christ’s ministry through him apart from that. As Jesus said, “Those who abide in me and I in them, bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Stephen Seamands is professor emeritus of Christian Theology at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. He served as the Professor of Basic Christian Doctrine at Asbury Seminary for close to 40 years. In addition to that class, he taught Introduction to Spiritual Warfare, Introduction to Healing Prayer, and a class studying the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Dr. Seamands has authored numerous books, including Wounds That Heal, Ministry in the Image of God, and The Unseen Real: Life in the Light of the Ascension of Jesus.
by Steve | Jul 28, 2023 | Jul-Aug 2023, Magazine Articles
The Changing Shape of Methodism —
By Thomas Lambrecht —
As many churches considered the option of disaffiliation, there has been a focus on the contrast between a traditional understanding of our Methodist doctrines and practices compared with how The United Methodist Church has evolved over the past couple of decades. Now that the disaffiliation process is moving forward with the current wave of annual conference votes, it is appropriate to look at how the structure of Methodism will be changing as a result.
As of the end of May, 1,931 congregations have disaffiliated from the UM Church in 2023. Added to the 2,017 that disaffiliated before this year, that means 3,948 churches have disaffiliated, representing 13 percent of all U.S. congregations.
There have been arguments about whether this constitutes a “schism” or a “split” or instead a “splintering” of United Methodism. Some are unwilling to call it a schism or a split until it reaches half the denomination separating. (That is a somewhat arbitrary definition of schism or split, which simply refers to a division in the body.) It should be noted that five annual conferences have experienced the loss of more than 40 percent of their congregations. Even under the arbitrary definition, for those conferences it is a schism.
It is estimated that at least another 2,100 congregations will complete the disaffiliation process over the rest of this year. It will probably be more than that, as some conferences do not publicize the number of disaffiliating churches until right before the annual conference meets to vote on them. Even with this conservative projection, over 6,000 churches total will have disaffiliated by the end of 2023, which represents 20 percent of all U.S. UM congregations.
Although exact numbers are not available at this point, it appears that at least 80 percent of disaffiliating congregations are aligning immediately with the Global Methodist Church (GMC). Others are remaining independent for a time while they discern their future and heal from the wounds of disaffiliation. It is expected that many of these churches will eventually choose to align with the GMC. In addition, many new GMC churches are starting with the core members of congregations that did not reach the required two-thirds vote to disaffiliate.
Based on these projections, the GMC should have well over 4,000 congregations and nearly 1 million members in the U.S. when the current wave of disaffiliations is completed and churches work their way through the discernment and application process to join the GMC.
An international GMC
Of course, the GMC is a global denomination not limited to the U.S. The very first congregational members of the GMC were in the Bulgaria Annual Conference, which officially joined the GMC on its launch date of May 1, 2022. Last Fall, Slovakia also joined the GMC. Since that time, Estonia and four conferences in Russia and Eurasia have voted to leave the UM Church to become autonomous, and they may become part of the GMC when that process is completed.
In the Philippines, UM congregations are moving to the GMC, and new congregations have been planted there. One or more Philippine annual conferences are in the process of being formed. One of the first GMC church plants last year was Good News of Life Church, planted in Antipolo City, a part of Greater Manila.
The GMC has been registered in the Democratic Republic of Congo for former United Methodists who have been evicted from their UM membership by some of the bishops there, and new congregations are being planted there. Preparations for registering the GMC in other countries of Africa are also taking place. It is believed that at least half of the African annual conferences will eventually join the GMC if the language in the Book of Discipline regarding marriage and ordination is changed. That would make African members the largest block of members in the GMC.
In addition, Methodists in other parts of Europe, Asia, and Latin America are exploring deeper relationships with the GMC as a way of linking with a theologically like-minded global denomination. Just this week, the Spain provisional district was formed with seven congregations centered around Barcelona. These explorations hold the potential for making the GMC a truly global denomination with a strong presence on each of five continents. Since the U.S. part of the GMC may not be a majority of the church, it will be an opportunity to explore what it means to be truly global, with voices from other parts of the globe giving leadership to the church and counterbalancing some of the “bad habits” U.S. Methodists have fallen into. There will be challenges and a learning process for all, but the end result promises to be a different kind of Methodist denomination that truly represents what the Kingdom of God will look like someday – people of every language, nation, and tribe!
Impact on United Methodism
While a new GMC denomination is growing up, rampant disaffiliation will have a serious impact on the structural reality of The United Methodist Church, as well. A recent UM News story begins, “The United Methodist Church will look and operate very differently going forward.”
That structural change impacts two particular areas: the general church budget and the number and allocation of bishops.
The recent meeting of the UM General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) and the Connectional Table agreed upon a proposed 2025-2028 budget that would be 40 percent lower than the 2017-2020 budget for the general church. The budget would decrease from $604 million to $371 million, the lowest amount in absolute dollars since 1984. Of course, with inflation, a $370 million budget in 1984 would be equivalent to over $1 billion today! Needless to say, the general church budget has not kept up with inflation over the years.
The membership of the church has declined in those 40 years, as well – from 9.2 million members to 6.1 million. Whereas, in 1984 the budget amounted to roughly $40 per member, today it would amount to over $60 per member. When adjusted for inflation, however, today’s number is about half what it was in 1984.
The recommended 40 percent decrease in the budget is prompted by the disaffiliation of an estimated 17-20 percent of church members, plus the “normal” decline in membership that has been averaging 3-5 percent per year. With the pandemic, local church expenditures have also decreased 7 percent from their normal levels. Until all the dust settles on disaffiliation, it is unclear what the financial ramifications will be, but there is no question there will be dramatically less money to work with at the general church level. That will undoubtedly mean reductions in the size and number of general church agencies and a reduction in the programs the general church can offer.
Number of Bishops
Council of Bishops President Thomas J. Bickerton is quoted as saying, “I don’t think that there’s anyone who is wanting to preserve the episcopacy in its current form. The numbers speak for themselves.” The budget proposal includes a 25 percent cut to the Episcopal Fund that pays bishops’ salaries and expenses.
The U.S. jurisdictions have already cut the number of bishops from 47 to 39. The Northeastern Jurisdiction cut four bishops to go from ten bishops to six. The South Central Jurisdiction cut two bishops to go from ten bishops to eight. The Southeastern Jurisdiction cut two bishops to go from 13 bishops to 11. In total, that represents a 17 percent reduction to the number of U.S. bishops.
Under the Discipline’s formula for determining the number of bishops, what will each jurisdiction be entitled to after this round of disaffiliations is complete?
The North Central Jurisdiction would be entitled to seven bishops, meaning they would have to cut two bishops from what they currently have. One possible scenario would have Wisconsin and Michigan sharing a bishop and Northern Illinois and Illinois Great Rivers sharing a bishop.
The Northeastern Jurisdiction would be also entitled to seven bishops, one more than they currently have. Currently, New England has no resident bishop and Susquehanna is sharing two bishops with other conferences. Some form of realignment would allow New England to have its own resident bishop, probably shared with another conference.
The South Central Jurisdiction would be entitled to eight bishops, the number it currently has. Realignment of conference boundaries will have to account for the fact that 80 percent of the Northwest Texas Conference will have disaffiliated, half of the Texas Conference, and one-third of both the Rio Texas and Central Texas Conferences. Five previous Texas annual conferences will probably become four, and may include New Mexico, as well, which could be down to 16,000 members.
The Southeastern Jurisdiction would be entitled to ten bishops, one fewer than it currently has. South Georgia and Alabama-West Florida currently share a bishop, as does Holston and North Alabama. Perhaps Mississippi and Tennessee-Western Kentucky will also share a bishop, or another alignment may be proposed.
The Western Jurisdiction will keep its five bishops, since a minimum of five bishops per jurisdiction is guaranteed by the Constitution. Reducing the number of bishops in the West would require a Constitutional amendment. This creates an inequitable situation, since each bishop in the West would have only half as many members and congregations to care for as bishops in the rest of the U.S.
Reducing the number of bishops according to the Discipline’s formula would result in 37 bishops, a reduction of 21 percent in the number of U.S. bishops. That is still short of the 25 percent reduction in budget proposed to the General Conference.
The reduced budget also does not appear to have room in it for the additional five bishops promised to Africa in 2016. Without further reductions in the number of U.S. bishops below the number allowed by the Discipline’s formula, it would appear that additional bishops for Africa will be off the table.
The changing alignments within Methodism will result in significant structural changes. The Global Methodist Church will be navigating how to structure itself as a truly global church with equal and mutual contributions from all geographic areas of the church. The United Methodist Church will be navigating how to restructure within the limitations imposed by a dramatically reduced budget and reduced number of bishops. Those looking to keep things the same as they were at the denominational level will find comfort in neither camp. But such changes hold the possibility of inspiring new ways of doing ministry that make the church more effective at reaching a lost and needy world.
Thomas Lambrecht is a United Methodist clergyperson and the vice president of Good News. Photo: Lay people and pastors of the Bulgaria Annual Conference of the Global Methodist Church. Photo courtesy of the Global Methodist Church.
by Steve | Jul 28, 2023 | Jul-Aug 2023, Magazine Articles
Timothy Keller’s Apologetic Legacy —
By David F. Watson —
On May 19, Timothy Keller went home to his eternal reward. The church is richer for his ministry and poorer for his passing. Keller was a man of remarkable gifts. He was faithful to his calling, and he left an intellectual and spiritual legacy that will bear fruit for generations to come.
It seems like every week there is some new megachurch pastor or other Christian celebrity who has fallen into disgrace. Indeed it is almost surprising now to see someone as well-known as Keller who traversed a life of ministry with honor and humility. Yes, there were many who did not agree with him, even those who didn’t like him. Princeton Theological Seminary initially selected Keller to receive the Kuyper Prize but then reversed its decision when an uproar arose over Keller’s conservative theological positions. He responded with admirable Christian character, demonstrating dignity and grace, and he still gave the Kuyper lecture that year.
As a minister of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), Keller was shaped by and committed to the Reformed tradition. Put differently, he was a Calvinist. There are some significant differences between Calvinists and Methodists, including our doctrines of grace and election and our views on Christian perfection. One difference in practice is that the PCA does not ordain women. Generally speaking, Methodists do – even very conservative Methodists – and I fully support this practice. Nevertheless, the areas of agreement between Methodists and Calvinists far exceed those of disagreement. In fact John Wesley declared there was but a “hair’s breadth” between Calvinists and Methodists. Keller brought many people into a living, saving faith, and there is much that we Methodists can learn from his example.
Remarkably, Keller established a successful ministry right in the belly of the secular beast: New York City, Manhattan no less. Many of his congregants were young professionals. His preaching was straightforward, thoughtful, and engaging. He combined the gifts of an evangelist with the gifts of a teacher. Some might call Keller “winsome,” but he was more than that. He was compelling. He had that rare gift of making difficult concepts accessible and presenting hard truths with grace and gentleness. This is an age in which many confuse abrasiveness with truthfulness. A stereotyped hyper-masculinity is held up as the ideal of Christian manhood and family life, particularly in some Reformed circles, to the extent that one wonders whether Jesus’ teaching “blessed are the meek” has been excised from the canon. In a theological world where the loudest, most obnoxious voices often get the most attention, Keller showed restraint and maturity. He was a gentleman, one of a disappearing breed.
He was also prolific. Keller authored too many books to mention here, and I have not read all of them. I will, however, mention one: The Reason for God: Belief in An Age of Skepticism (Riverhead Books, 2008). In the first part of this book each chapter takes on a difficult question or contention he undoubtedly encountered in the work of pastoral ministry. Chapter one, for example, is called “There Can’t Be Just One True Religion.” In chapter two he addresses the question, “How could a good God allow suffering?” Later in chapter six he refutes the contention that science has disproved Christianity. In the second part, rather than addressing criticisms, Keller makes a positive case for the truth of Christianity. Chapters eight and nine look at evidence for and our ability to perceive God. Other chapters deal with sin, the meaning of the cross, the resurrection, and other topics. I have recommended this book on several occasions.
Since the earliest days of the faith, Christianity has had its cultured despisers. Many Christians have undertaken to confront the critics and demonstrate the reasonableness of the Christian faith. This type of literature is called “apologetic.” When used in this way, “apologetic” does not refer to an admission of wrongdoing but to an intellectual defense. We might think of the writings of Justin Martyr, the Letter of Athenagoras written to the co-emperors Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus, or Origen’s Against Celsus. In more recent years, C.S. Lewis, Peter Kreeft, William Lane Craig, and Bishop Robert Barron, among others, have produced important work answering the critics of the Christian faith and providing a reasonable account of what we believe. Keller made fine contributions to this body of modern apologetic literature.
We Methodists do not have a strong apologetic track record. Yes, we have had our apologists, but who is our C. S. Lewis? Who is our Tim Keller? It’s hard to think of one of our own since Wesley who fits the bill. Let’s face it: apologetics is not our strong suit. One reason for this may be that Methodists have often relied on the inner witness of the Holy Spirit to confirm the truth of the Gospel in the lives of the faithful. Why make rational arguments for God when God himself will confirm his own reality in our lives? This approach misses a crucial aspect of apologetics, however: people may never become receptive to the work of the Spirit if they are convinced beforehand that Christian beliefs are untenable. I suspect that another reason also lies behind our apologetic deficit: since at least the mid-nineteenth century, Methodists have been more likely to ape the surrounding culture than to confront it. Rather than transforming the world, too often we ourselves have been the ones transformed.
Apologetics, of course, can only take us so far. Generally speaking, we are not going to convince people to become Christians through argument. What arguments can do, however, is remove obstacles to belief. They can clear out the intellectual clutter that may prevent our embrace of the gospel. They can address our nagging doubts. They can help us to understand that there is no sacrifice of intellect in becoming a Christian, and even that our faith describes reality more truly and meaningfully than the alternatives. In my own faith journey, an important work was The Historical Christ and the Jesus of Faith: The Incarnational Narrative as History, by C. Stephen Evans (Oxford, 1996). In this book, Evans offers a powerful philosophical defense of the historicity of the church’s story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. I read this book while I was a graduate student, when so much of what was being published in biblical studies argued exactly the opposite – that Jesus was not who the church said he was, that ancient myths would not suffice for modern people, that to believe what the church has always taught about Jesus was naive and intellectually deficient. Evans didn’t convince me that Christianity was true. Rather, he helped me to navigate the intellectual obstacle course that I had encountered in my scholarly vocation. I needed that. It deepened my faith.
We are going to miss Tim Keller. He was a person of remarkable skill and insight. He was much more than a Christian apologist, but his apologetic work was important. In each generation, we need people who can help to bridge the gap between the heart and the head. We need people to address our cultured despisers and offer an account of the hope that is within us. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us that when we do offer our account, we should do so with gentleness and respect. No one is brought to the faith after a verbal beating on Twitter. We do not lead people to Christ by embarrassing them or insulting their intelligence. Rather, we engage them with gentleness and respect and ask God to be in the midst of our conversation. I pray that God will raise up for coming generations more people like Keller, whose considerable intellect was matched by the Christian character he demonstrated.
David F. Watson is Academic Dean and Professor of New Testament at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. He is the author of Scripture and the Life of God: Why the Bible Matters Today More Than Ever and the editor of Firebrand Magazine. Dr. Watson is an elder in the Global Methodist Church. He blogs at www.davidfwatson.me. Photo: Timothy Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Photo: Nathan Troester/Icon Media Group.
by Steve | Jul 28, 2023 | Jul-Aug 2023, Magazine Articles
Compassionate Conviction —
By Kimberly D. Reisman —
One of my regular reads is a substack called The Free Press. It has essays that range from one end of the social and political spectrum to the other and is always a refreshing break from mainstream media. Earlier this month there was an essay by Katherine Boyle on the topic of purpose. She talked about how all kinds of values are on the decline these days – at least in the U.S. – things like religion, community involvement, and even having children.
Boyle describes this decline as replacing “Love thy neighbor” with “Get off my lawn.” She asserts that these diminishing values are creating a void and one of the things she believes is moving to fill that void is a relentless focus on the self that tells us “You are enough.”
You are enough. What a pervasive thought that is these days! Just google the phrase and you’ll get a gazillion memes that are perfect for posting on Facebook. I’ve even texted things like this to my kids when I know they’re having a difficult or stressful time in their lives.
You are enough. You are so enough it is unbelievable how enough you are.
It sounds great, doesn’t it? And from a Christian perspective it’s true. We are enough. God’s love for us is unconditional. We don’t have to earn it. We don’t deserve it. We are enough, and God loves us exactly as we are. Of course God doesn’t leave us that way – but, that’s a talk for another day.
Sadly, though, that’s not the world’s understanding of “you are enough.” The world would have us believe that everything we need can be found within ourselves. We simply need to “trust our feelings.” There is no greater truth than our own truth. There is nothing greater to believe in outside of ourselves. A little self-love and self-care and we’ll be fine.
And yet, we’re not fine. We’re in a thrashing time, a time marked by our breathtaking ability to do violence to each other. We hurt those we love with our words and our deeds. We let others down by the things we do and the things we don’t do. Our lives are marked by anxiety and depression, broken relationships, and damaged hearts.
Did you know that teenage depression began trending upwards in a dramatic way around 2012? Coincidentally (or not) that was the same year Facebook bought Instagram and the word “selfie” entered the popular lexicon.
Did you also know that around that same time, young people’s negative understandings of themselves began to grow in a significant way. More and more began to agree with these kinds of statements:
- I feel I do not have much to be proud of.
- Sometimes I think I am no good at all.
- I feel that I can’t do anything right.
- I feel that my life is not very useful.
Friends, we are currently eleven years into the largest epidemic of adolescent mental illness ever recorded. One in ten adolescents say they have made an attempt to kill themselves.
We aren’t enough. Everything we need cannot be found within our own selves. We need to discover something bigger – something greater – beyond our own selves.
And yet, amidst all this mess, I still find it amazing how God works so tenderly with each one of us – meeting us right where we are.
About 10 years after we graduated from college, a Jewish friend of mine was in the hospital recovering from an illness. He ran out of things to read so he randomly opened a Bible to the Gospel of John. He had never seen a Christian Bible before, and when he was growing up, talking about Jesus had been forbidden in his family. But by the time he finished the book of John, the Holy Spirit had moved him so deeply he accepted Christ right then and there – all alone, in the quiet of his hospital room.
I have other friends who have had much different experiences of the Holy Spirit. Theirs have been powerful, public experiences – in the context of worship or in response to preaching.
I’ve also spoken with people whose experiences were different from either of those. They have been visited by Jesus in dreams and visions and have come to recognize Jesus for who he truly is only through conversation with patient friends.
How amazing it is that God reaches out to us in just the way that we need! Calling to us in exactly the way in which we can hear.
And now we have the Asbury Outpouring that happened just a few months ago. What a wonder! I love how consistent all the descriptions of that incredible time were. Over and over people kept using words like joy and peace and tenderness. My favorite was from Dr. Suzanne Nicholson of Asbury University. She described “a sweet gentleness” that permeated the entire chapel where everyone was gathered.
She talked about young people publicly confessing addictions to porn, anger at God, bitterness of heart, despair because of difficult family situations. And yet, these same students went on to proclaim healing, joy, and a deep love of God like they had never before experienced.
How awesome, that amidst all this thrashing, the Holy Spirit chose to move with a sweet gentleness. In an age of anxiety and violence, depression and deep woundedness, God is reaching out to us with tenderness and peace.
Friends, we follow a God who opened his arms to us while we were yet sinners. While we were still broken. While we were still thrashing. While we were still depressed and anxious and trying to convince ourselves we were enough – God was there.
That’s tremendous news. God loves us first. Before we get our acts together. Before we fully understand how God wants us to live, Before anything and everything else, God loves us first. That’s one of the deepest convictions we hold as people who follow Jesus in the company of the Wesleys. God loves us first.
One of my dearest mentors, Billy Abraham, once told me something that profoundly affected how I came to understand evangelism. He said, “Some things cannot be said until after other things are said.”
As Christians we hold a lot of convictions – and that’s a good thing! But sometimes we think we need to tell people about all those convictions right from the start.
Well, we don’t.
Billy was right. Somethings can’t be said until after other things are said.
And all our other convictions can’t be said until we share this first one: the conviction that God loves first. Before anything and everything else – God loves first. That’s one of our foundational convictions and one of the most important messages our hurting world needs to receive.
So the question is, how are we carrying this deeply held conviction of ours? Are we holding it with open hands so people can see it? Or are we holding our conviction with a closed fist? Gripping so tightly that people confuse it for self-righteousness and anger?
Jesus calls us to live out compassionate conviction so that people can come to understand that yes, they are enough. They are enough because God already loves them more than they could ever imagine.
And no – they aren’t enough. Everything they need cannot be found within themselves. They aren’t enough to carry all their burdens alone; to shoulder all their anxiety and bitterness and anger by themselves.
But! There is one who is greater than they are, greater than all of us. One who knows the weight of our burdens and the depth of our pain. And loves us anyway, offering healing and mercy and grace.
In this thrashing time, our convictions alone will convince the world of very little. Especially when we hold them in a tight fist. But when we hold them lightly, with compassion and grace, in an open hand, that’s when the Holy Spirit moves with the sweet gentleness our world so badly needs.
Kimberly Reisman is Executive Director of World Methodist Evangelism (worldmethodist.org), a ministry that equips the global Wesleyan Methodist family of Christians for the work of evangelism. This article is adapted from her presentation at the “Beyond These Walls” conference held earlier this year. Image: Shutterstock.
by Steve | Jul 28, 2023 | Jul-Aug 2023, Magazine Articles
Thunderstruck: John Wesley and the Ministry of Deliverance —
By Peter J. Bellini —
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12, KJV)
John Wesley not only believed demons exist and encountered them as well, but he also practiced deliverance in his ministry through what he would call “ordinary means.” The father of Methodism employed the same ordinary-extraordinary distinction regarding the work of the Spirit to the practice of deliverance and exorcism.
In his “Letter to the Lord Bishop of Gloucester,” Wesley lists “casting out devils” as one of the chief extraordinary or spiritual gifts. Casting out demons by “extraordinary means” involved the gift of faith. Elsewhere, Wesley separated ordinary, saving faith from the gift of extraordinary faith that works miracles (“Letter to the Rev. Dr. Conyers Middleton”). In his comment on Matthew 12:20, Wesley called this mountain-moving faith “a supernatural persuasion given a man, that God will work thus by him at that hour” (Notes on the New Testament). Consequently, by extraordinary faith, demons may be expelled directly.
Although he did not lay claim to this extraordinary gift, Wesley was convinced that ministers could also expel demons by ordinary means, such as hearing the Word, repentance, prayer, and worship. Wesley would employ these ordinary means in his deliverance ministry.
In his sermon “A Caution Against Bigotry,” Wesley identified two of the ordinary means by which all ministers of Christ may cast out devils: hearing the Word and repentance. “By the power of God attending his word, he brings these sinners to repentance; an entire inward as well as outward change from evil to all good. And this is, in a sound sense, to cast out devils out of the souls wherein they had hitherto dwelt” (Notes on the New Testament, Matthew 12:20).
Striking demonic manifestations would accompany Wesley’s deliverance ministry. Frequently, people under conviction were “thunderstruck” and dropped to the ground in spiritual combat by the power of the Spirit. “Thunderstruck” refers to God’s ‘thunder and lightning’ judging sin and Satan. These encounters were attended by all sorts of peculiar demonic manifestations, such as howling, groaning, roaring, convulsing, speaking in strange voices, and other eerie expressions. However, the result in most cases was repentance, deliverance, and peace with God.
In an April 17, 1739, journal entry, Wesley was preaching from Acts chapter 4, when he asked the Lord to “confirm” his Word. At that very moment, an individual cried out in “the agonies of death.” Wesley and the others present continued fervently in prayer. Two others then joined in, “roaring for the disquietness of their heart.” Not long after, all three found rest. The latter two broke out in praise, and the former was “overwhelmed with joy and love, knowing that God had healed his backslidings.”
While Wesley was preaching at Newgate, several people “dropped on every side as thunderstruck. One of them cried aloud. We besought God in her behalf, and he turned her heaviness into joy. A second being in the same agony, we called upon God for her also; and he spoke peace into her soul. In the evening I was again pressed in spirit to declare, that ‘Christ gave himself a ransom for all.’ And almost before we called upon him to set to his seal, he answered. One was so wounded by the sword of the Spirit, that you would have imagined she could not live a moment. But immediately his abundant kindness was showed, and she sang of his righteousness.”
Thunderstruck! Wesley perceived that the Spirit of God, human will, and demonic powers were all active and engaged during these conflicts. He understood these occurrences as primarily a work of the Holy Spirit, battling against the enemy to claim the person’s soul. Through the preached word, the sword of the Spirit exposes and penetrates the shackled heart. The blow to the stronghold of darkness causes the persons to drop to the ground, or as Wesley frequently described it, they were “thunderstruck,” which is quite a graphic description for an even-tempered man not prone to hyperbole. The battered enemy refuses to release the soul from its clutches. After much convulsing (demonic) and supplicating, the individual finds repentance and relief. Wesley identified these struggles as the “chief times at which Satan is cast out.” With that clear, succinct statement, Wesley acknowledges what is occurring is actually deliverance.
Wesley also often used an image of the sword of the Spirit ‘wounding and healing’ the sinner. One was “struck through, as with a sword, and fell trembling to the ground” (Journal, July 19, 1759). As Wesley would preach, “God was present, both to wound and to heal” (Journal, July 30, 1739). Wound sin and Satan! Heal the soul! The imagery is graphic and violent but appropriate for a battle account.
In his letter to the Bishop of Gloucester, Wesley quotes the Bishop, who is quoting Wesley recounting an instance of a “mass deliverance” during Wesley’s preaching. ‘Mass deliverance’ was a phenomenon that frequently occurred during Wesley’s field preaching: “those who had lately cried out aloud during the preaching. I found this had come upon every one of them in a moment, without any previous notice. In that moment they dropped down, lost all their strength, and were seized with a violent pain. Some said they felt as if a sword were running through them; others, as if their whole body was tearing to pieces. These symptoms I can no more impute to any natural cause, than to the Spirit of God. I make no doubt it was Satan tearing them as they were coming to Christ.”
Wesley speaks directly: “Those outward symptoms which I had met with before, bodily agitations in particular, I did not ascribe to the Spirit of God, but to the natural union of soul and body. And those symptoms which I now ascribe to the devil, I never ascribed to any other cause.”
Wesley’s commentary on the violent dynamics of being thunderstruck suggests that the Spirit of God works conviction through the preached word. The sword of the Spirit pierces the heart and strikes the devil. The person attempts to turn to Christ in repentance. The devil violently digs his clutches into the heart of the person, desperately attempting to maintain his stronghold. Since the body is connected to the soul, in Wesley’s view, there are collateral effects in the body. The person shrieks in pain, cries out, loses balance, and drops to the ground while shuddering, until eventually they are delivered.
While Wesley witnessed deliverance through preaching and repentance, he also witnessed deliverance through other ordinary means of grace, such as prayer and worship. In a journal entry for October 1, 1763, Wesley records a powerful four-and-a-half-hour deliverance session that ended with a woman being set free through corporate prayer and singing. For years, the woman was haunted by a demon that tormented and tempted her to kill her father and herself. She unsuccessfully attempted to commit suicide on several occasions. She would often throw raging, violent fits until her brother had her fitted for a “strait waistcoat” that meticulously bound her limbs together and to her bed. Nonetheless, with uncanny strength, she often broke free effortlessly with a mere twisting of her limbs. Her doctor concluded that her condition was “partly natural, partly diabolical.”
One day Wesley came to visit her. He interviewed the woman. She claimed to be possessed of the devil and did not want prayer. Wesley prayed anyway. She convulsed and began to scream in agony, swearing, cursing, and blaspheming God. Wesley did not stop praying until the convulsion and screaming ceased. Two days later, he followed up. Although more lucid and able to pray, the woman still insisted that the devil was going to kill her. Wesley exhorted her to have faith and continued to intercede.
Later, Wesley led a group from 10:30 in the evening until 3:00 in the morning to pray for her deliverance. She was once again restrained and strapped to the bed. She began to roar, convulse, and “bark like a dog.” Wesley painstakingly described her demonic manifestations. Her face was grossly distorted. Her mouth stretched from one side of her face to the other, and her eyes were crossed and bulging out of the sockets. Her convulsing throat and body were swollen as if she would burst. The intercession went on into the morning. Several individuals left, unable to sustain the exhausting battle. Along with the straps of the waistcoat, four men sought to hold the woman down with all their strength (reminiscent of the Gadarene man).
The more that they prayed, the more violent she became. Suddenly, she had a vision of the tormenting demon and began to cry out to God. Then, the group felt led to worship and sing. The Spirit fell mightily. She continued to cry out for deliverance and the power to believe. Immediately, she became quiet. Wesley invited her to sing a hymn with the words,
“O Sun of Righteousness, arise With healing in the wing/ To my diseased, my fainting soul Life and salvation bring.”
At 2:30 a.m., the demon said he would kill the woman, but “instead of a tormentor, he sent a comforter. Jesus appeared to her soul and rebuked the enemy … and she mightily rejoiced in the God of her salvation,” Wesley exclaimed!
She was fully delivered, set free, and saved through the power of intercession and song. Praise God!
Peter J. Bellini is Professor of Church Renewal and Evangelization in the Heisel Chair at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. He is the author of several books, including, Thunderstruck! The Deliverance Ministry of John Wesley Today. This adaptation is taken from that book by permission. It is available through Amazon. Photo: John Wesley statue outside Wesley Church in Melbourne, Australia. It was sculpted by the British sculptor Paul Raphael Montford in 1935. Photo: public domain.
