by Steve | Mar 7, 1991 | Archive - 1991
Liberalism: A Faith of Freedom
By John B .Cobb Jr.
March/April 1991
“For freedom Christ has set us free, stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:13). Freedom is the heart of liberal Christianity. But Christian freedom is not license. “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Gal 5:13). For liberal Christianity this text is as important as the first.
From what are Christians free? Paul’s emphasis is on the law. The specifics of the Jewish law of his day concerned him most. But we are not freed from that law in order to be placed under another one. Yet again and again in Christian history, being a Christian has been defined as obeying certain moral rules and believing certain doubtful assertions on someone else’s authority. Paul asks, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Gal 3:3).
For what are Christians free? We are free to love one another and in love to serve one another. We are free to be members one of another in the Body of Christ. We are free to witness to others of the freedom we have been given in Christ Jesus and of the love we now experience for the least of those for whom and in whom Christ has suffered. We are free to invite others to join in the fellowship of freedom.
But what about the Bible from which, and from which alone, we learn the good news of Christ Jesus? Must we not take it as the final authority, obeying all the laws we find there and believing all it says? No! Does the rejection of an authoriatarian view of the Bible entail that we put our private human reason above it, treating that as absolute authority? No, that would be even worse I The only final or absolute authority is God, present to us in the Holy Spirit. Nothing creaturely – whether writing, human being, or institution, congeals the living, ever-creative and ever-redemptive, work of God.
Christian freedom is expressed in disciplined living and disciplined thinking. The problem does not arise from strong commitments and wholehearted convictions. The problem arises when the commitments, obedience, and convictions that arise as authentic expressions of Christian freedom are imposed on others as bondage. Against this, “liberal Christians” protest in the name of Christian freedom.
John B .Cobb Jr. is emeritus professor at the School of Theology at Claremont and professor at Claremont Graduate School.
by Steve | Mar 7, 1991 | Archive - 1991
Liberalism and Modernity
By Edward P. Wimberly
March/April 1991
Liberalism has been understood as an effort of thoughtful Christian theology to embrace the values of the freedom of thought, tolerance, and humanitarianism. There has been an emphasis on expressing the diversity of thought and western democratic values within the life of the church. It seeks to make itself relevant to the scientific and rational understanding of life. While condemning the doctrine of total depravity, it has embraced a positive doctrine of human possibility and fulfillment. It has also emphasized the ethical demands of the Gospel, the infinite value of each human being, and the command for love. There has been the effort to emphasize social sin and salvation over personal sin and salvation. There has also been a rejection of the tendency toward individualism and personal piety or devotion in Christianity. There has been a concern to apply scientific and historical methods to the Bible in order to bring it in line with modern rationality.
There have been a host of problems identified with theological liberalism. It has been accused of leaching a shallow view of sin, which gives liberalism a naive optimism about history. Critics have also charged that liberals place too much hope in the progress of science to alleviate human suffering. They do this by reinterpreting traditional Christian beliefs, and ultimately all of life, in light of technological and scientific categories.
In recent years I have been on a pilgrimage to recover the evangelical dimension of my faith. I am trying to hold in tension some positive aspects of liberalism with my evangelical background. I am convinced that our inhumanity towards each other is so basic to our human condition that we dare not abandon the personal dimension of sin and salvation. I also believe that the liberal emphasis on social responsibility, respect for the dignity of each person, and the command of love need to be central to our faith as Christians. I believe the way in which the mind of the early church worked is not that far removed from how our minds work today. We need to see clearer how biblical faith can inform us, particularly in light of the new attitude of science.
Edward P. Wimberly is associate professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois.
by Steve | Mar 7, 1991 | Archive - 1991
Liberalism and Miracles
By Jerry L Walls
March/April 1991
In his classic critique of liberalism, written over a generation ago, J. Gresham Machen held that the common root of all liberal theology is a denial of the supernatural. As Machen pointed out in Christianity and Liberalism, this involves the rejection not only of the biblical miracles and the deity of Christ, but even the existence of God as a personal being. It was thought by many liberal churchmen that a radically reinterpreted Christianity, shorn of the miraculous, would be easier to believe for “modern man.” While this may be true, Machen noted, “the trouble is, it would not be worth believing.”
There are signs among some contemporary liberal leaders that they have acquired a sense of this. Some are suggesting that one of the reasons oldline churches are languishing is because they have been offering a faith not worth believing. A good example here is Leonard Sweet’s recent call for “reconstituted supernaturalism.” This is a top priority, Sweet thinks, if oldline Protestant churches are to be revitalized, Thus, he urges the readers of Liberal Protestantism: Realities and Possibilities to “venture into a world dense with magic, mystery, and miracle.” For a faith which is open to such “threshold experiences” is much more satisfying than a mundane faith which is not.
At first glance this appears to be a positive development in liberal theology. But on closer inspection it may not be much of an improvement, for it is not at all clear what sort of miracles Sweet wishes to affirm. He does not, for instance, encourage his fellow liberals to accept those miracles which are central to historic Christianity, such as Jesus’ miraculous conception and bodily resurrection. Rather, he cites as an example of a “true miracle” the instance of a family who was able to keep going with “joy, grace, and dignity in the face of tragedy.” While I do not wish to downplay the inspirational value of such a case, I doubt if it represents much of an advance beyond the sort of liberalism Machen criticized.
So liberals face a dilemma. On the one band, if they remain unwilling to affirm the miracles central to historic Christianity, they cannot offer a faith really worth believing. On the other hand, if they are prepared to open the door to these miracles, they will have a faith worth believing, but it will be the orthodox faith rejected by their liberal forebears.
Jerry L Walls is assistant professor at Asbury Theological Seminar in Wilmore, Kentucky.
by Steve | Mar 7, 1991 | Archive - 1991
The Limits of Liberalism
By William H. Willimon
March/April 1991
In The Nature of Doctrine: Theology in a Post-Liberal Age, Yale theologian, George Lindbeck notes that if you are a modern, Western Christian, you are a liberal. You may call yourself conservative or evangelical, but Lindbeck bets that you are a liberal. That is, current Christian theology underwrites the sovereignty of the individual consciousness, the notion of individual rights, the subjectivity of truth, the suspicion of tradition and community, and a host of other values which are dear to classical liberalism. Particularly in our industrialized, constitutional democracy, liberalism is the air we breathe, the water we drink. If one is a United Methodist Christian, one is even more in the grip of liberalism. In our hands, evangelical experience degenerated into subjective feeling, personal engagement with the Gospel mutated into making up my mind about Jesus. Liberalism is us all over.
I have come to the reluctant conclusion that what we liberals believe, and the way we believe it, is incompatible with the Gospel. Contra most liberal preaching that I do and hear, being Christian is not synonymous with being a good human being. Jesus comes preaching a new way which is counter to innate human expectations, a narrow path of life which does not come naturally. This Jew from Nazareth comes, not to express the highest of human aspirations, but to transform human aspirations, to refashion human thinking and action in such a way that necessitates conversion from our innate liberalism to a countercultural way of living called discipleship.
Liberals preach and teach as if this conversion were unnecessary, as if what’s needed is some minor fine-tuning of an already good personality, as if the Gospel makes perfectly good sense apart from initiation into the peculiar community (church) which makes it make sense. Having defined the individual as the most important human commodity, liberalism cannot understand what it means to be a church; a family; a traditioned, disciplined community which believes that wisdom comes, not by my expression of the best that is within me, but rather by my being transformed and detoxified by baptism. Believing that I am unaccountable to anyone but myself, it cannot understand what we mean by the notion of Scripture.
We bought into liberalism because it was the philosophy of the dominant new world order after the European Enlightenment. Determined to get power, we exchanged Gospel foolishness for worldly wisdom. When Jews or Native Americans would not forsake their traditions, their communities, their stories and integrate into our liberal societies and become “rational” (as we defined rationality as individual, detached, abstraction), we exterminated them. Liberal “humanity” was a means of imperialistically overriding everyone’s community, tradition, and stories in order to unify the new nation state. Now that this old order is being discredited, now that we have a better understanding of the limits of liberalism, we can lay it aside and rediscover how much more interesting is Jesus than Kant.
William H. Willimon is dean of the chapel and professor Duke University , Durham, North Carolina
by Steve | Jan 23, 1991 | Archive - 1991
Archive: Paul Morell: Treading Firmly Where the Lines Are Thinnest
By Martha Davis
It’s Sunday morning at First United Methodist Church of Carrollton, Texas. A crowd of 500 or more area-Dallasites is seated for the first of two morning services; the choir has sung the morning anthem. It’s time for the sermon, but the distinguished Rev. Paul Morell is not in his place behind the pulpit.
Instead, cradling his Bible, he preaches as he paces a narrow carpeted area in front of the speaking podium. It’s a mistake, he believes, to cling either timidly or tiredly to the elements of office, be they pulpits or policies, when those elements become serious barriers to effective ministry.
Not an easy man to understand, predict, or even engage in conversation, this United Methodist minister of more than 40 years can be described as a man of vision rather than vernacular. His face, most often serious, gives no indication of his years. His manner, at times, and his slim build give the illusion that he is taller than his actual medium frame.
He observes about himself “a willingness to meet the need without measuring the cost.” Few who know him would argue. “I have to remember what God told me when He called me into the ministry: “Paul, go where the line is thinnest.” And so his lifetime walk has been much like his Sunday morning paces—Christian service neither confined to the traditional, nor conformed to the ordinary.
Dr. Morell has been since 1983 senior pastor of the 3000-member First United Methodist Church of Carrollton. The 20 years previously he served as senior pastor of Methodism’s largest inner-city church, Tyler Street United Methodist Church in South Dallas’ Oak Cliff area.
According to UM Bishop Richard Wilke, “Paul has an uncanny sense of what time it is … where the church is, where God has placed him, spiritual needs and hungers. [He has] an awareness of shifting needs and an ability to discern and pursue unique opportunities.” Wilke, noted author of And Are We Yet Alive? and developer of the “Disciple” Bible study program, has been a colleague and friend since 1948 when the two were students at Southern Methodist University.
“Paul has always had an unwavering commitment to family and a commitment to reach the unchurched,” he continues. “Today when bishops are focusing on the local church, it is evident to me that Paul’s entire life has been devoted to generating vitality and power through the local church for missions and ministry. There is no question he has tried to follow Jesus Christ in ministry and in life.”
Wilke’s accolades are well-founded. Along with the energy Brother Paul (as he prefers to be addressed) devotes to his local church, and the priority he puts on being in the pulpit (or rather in front of it) on as many Sundays as possible, he has been a leader in national religious agencies.
He’s a pathfinder of sorts. When he becomes aware of a need and an organization does not exist to address it, he has at times helped begin one himself. Dr. Morell is a founding member of the advisory board of the Institute of Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C., and he has served several years as founding president of World Encounter Gospel Organization (WEGO), based at Tyler Street UM Church.
As executive secretary and founding member of John Wesley Creative Ministries, he helps provide scholarships for Wesleyan seminary students pursuing a doctorate degree. The foundation also financially assists missionaries, including the legendary Columbian missionary Bruce Olsson.
It’s easy to see this man is committed to spreading the Gospel of Christ. Morell remembers what he describes as “a decisive and incisive event” in his call to evangelical ministry. It was the summer of 1948. The Oklahoma district superintendent had asked him to pastor for the “small but wonderful” Wheatland United Methodist Church. “All summer I visited people, played croquet with the older men, worked with the youth, and encouraged those of my age to help me minister. But two weeks before returning to SMU, 95-year-old Mr. Love of the congregation passed away.
“I held the service and afterwards went to the tiny office, took the membership book, and scratched his name from the roll. Suddenly it occurred to me—instead of 95 members, I now had 94. I was going to give back to the bishop and the superintendent a congregation smaller than they had given me. I had been so busy caring for people, but not leading them to Christ. I perceived very clearly that I must always be about the business of evangelism and seeking the unchurched, of saving and recruiting for Christ…otherwise we die.”
In addition to a Master of Sacred Theology degree (cum laude) from Perkins School of Theology, Dr. Morell holds a Master of Arts degree in evangelism. In 1987 he was nominated for the Phillip Award for evangelism in the United Methodist Church.
Dr. Morell’s passion for evangelism extends beyond the U.S. borders. He serves on the executive committee and board of directors for the Mission Society for United Methodists. Earlier he was chairman of Good News’ Evangelical Missions Council. He has promoted mission work and led trips to Panama, Latin America, South and Central America.
“If I had 10 lives, seven of them would be spent on the mission field. Need is everywhere; money is lacking; commitment is better but still in short supply,” Morell says.
“Since I have only one life, I’ll spend it where it ought to be spent, and that’s where I am. I choose to believe I’m where God wants me to be for now—in the local church. Our highest calling is not to hold an office, but to simply be extensions of Christ in our given circumstance.
“Almost every United Methodist minister has to fight the desire to succeed and be applauded by his peers—to be district superintendent, bishop, or pastor of the largest church,” he continues. “I’ve not always been pleased at the level of victory I have achieved overcoming these desires, but I have learned it is more important to be faithful to what is entrusted to us than to abandon ministry for awards our system can give.”
Currently the noted pastor is involved with writing and editing his first book, Living In The Lion’s Den, which he explains, “takes a look at fear, insecurity, failure, grief, guilt, lust, and pride: the lions which tend to devour our life and happiness, and must be tamed.” He names pride a “fierce lion” for most pastors. “It’s so easy for us to feel we do not get what we deserve.” Living In The Lion’s Den is scheduled to be released by Abingdon Press in February of 1992.
Brother Paul describes his ministry as a “pulling of self and resources together toward the objectives God has laid on my heart: evangelizing; being an encourager to others; calling the church leaders to higher accountability than I see being practiced; developing a servant’s heart; doing church planting; and calling church-accountability to Jesus Christ rather than to the esteemed opinions of other educators and philosophers.”
Those who know him might say what is so distinctive about this man is his candor. To him, so many issues are black and white, and he’s nearly fearless about pointing to wrongdoings—even those within the church he loves dearly.
His disagreements with the United Methodist Church are serious and, at times, have provided a less-than-comfortable relationship between him and officers of the denomination. Still he is unwavering in his convictions.
“The churches I’ve pastored in the last 25 years have not always paid their full apportionments,” he reports matter-of-factly. “So many other ministries are so much more effective than those mandated by the United Methodist Church.
“There ought to be priorities by local related schools and other institutions to churches instead of blind payment. Today we live in a forced system. We consider dialogue a virtue, but what we do is minimal and our people give too little.”
With riveting frankness, he continues, citing the “absolute failure of seminaries to do the job the church has entrusted to them; and the inability of our colleges and universities to express strong Christian convictions of morals in faculty and student life.”
He cites the “radical left posture of many of our general boards and agencies.” His tone is steady, his voice never rises, his manner is almost casual as he relates his impressions, which he has obviously long pondered and surrendered to prayer.
“We have not discovered the difference between institutional, liberal, and evangelical effort,” he explains. “The Board of Global Ministries has little conviction that Jesus is the only way. In our mainline denominations, for practical purposes, universalism [the idea that all persons will be saved] is the norm.”
He is grieved by the denomination’s “flirting with homosexuality as a God-approved lifestyle; the hundreds and hundreds of divorced clergy in our denomination; radical feminism; and the absence of evangelism—the lack of concern for those who do not believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.”
Even with all the church’s obvious blemishes, Morell is hopeful. He looks to the reasonably strong world connection in Methodism and the denomination’s size—“up to two and three times larger than other well-known denominations”—as definite strengths. “We have a good balance historically between head and heart, between vital faith and caring for people in vital ways. Much of the current-day Pentacostalism has its root in the evangelical wing of the Methodist Church of 80 and 100 years ago…we need the spread of scriptural holiness and Pentecostal convictions. Methodism has mild but definite moral and spiritual structures that reflect Catholic origins. Many of the positions and attitudes we hold are compatible with most branches of Christianity.”
His vision for the church is this: “That we be a willing instrument of the Holy Spirit to be used by God for exhibiting what the Kingdom of God truly is; that our institutions promote and expect the kind of moral and social behavior that the scriptures call forth from believers; that we see the church not so much as what it will do for us, but what the members will do for Christ through the church.
“I look forward to the day when the Council of Bishops and the general agencies of the church will spend most of their time, energy, and money, on matters that extend beyond the current leftward social and political agenda… . There are a good number of groups who have joined together, and in their effort to do much good are also doing much harm because they fail to call each other to accountability in matters beyond oppression issues.”
Of society, Morell’s talk is pointed. “We have forgotten how to love and we love not church or state, friend or family, or God. We treat one another as things rather than Christ’s sacred creations. The elderly are often not wanted.”
As is typical of him, Morell doesn’t wait for others to make the changes. He served as founding superintendent of Tyler Street Manor in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. The 14-story home for the elderly, built in 1972, is one of the finest elderly care homes in the Southwest.
He cringes at the lack of care of children he observes from parents and communities…and a “callousness with which so many teachers view their students… . Many, many children are neither loved nor cared for today. They are an inconvenience, an embarrassment to career objectives.”
While at Tyler Street, Dr. Morell helped establish a fully-accredited academy for students in kindergarten through high school. He currently serves as superintendent of the Carrollton Christian Academy, a ministry of the church be pastors. With his support, the academy, which enrolls more than 600 students, has added a junior high school, gained elementary accreditation, and is building a gymnasium and additional classroom and laboratory facilities to provide for expansion through the high school grades by 1993.
In addition, the Carrollton church has opened a Christian Child Care Center to provide for the hundreds of community families needing toddler and before- and after-school care for their children. Dr. Morell’s commitment to family and the church is most evident in the love he shares with his wife, Ann, his three married daughters and their families. They are closer than most families living under the same roof. “We’re all United Methodists together—serving, working, praying… .”
After much discussion of such heavy, heartfelt issues, Paul’s face relaxes as he speaks of his four grandchildren. His eyes widen and his face crinkles in an uncharacteristically lopsided, boyish grin. He takes his role as a grandfather as seriously as the rest. “I try to love them, help them to have a positive image about mankind, Christians, church. I try to challenge them to be their best. I am a pal on one side and an example on the other.”
Only a grandchild could get the distinguished Rev. Dr. Paul Morell to break away from the serious Christian business at hand to host an annual birthday party at a Dallas pizza and game restaurant or take in a baseball game at Arlington stadium.
In the last of the eight or so trips to the Holy Land Brother Paul and Ann have led, the trip of 1988 was perhaps the most memorable. Grandson Rocky, 11, accompanied the couple. “It was a great experience for him and me. It strengthened his faith, gave him insight beyond his years, and continues to help him do his best in all areas of his life.”
Morell gestures proudly to a framed letter hanging behind his desk—a note from Rocky’s teacher expressing how important that experience was to the boy.
And to a grandfather, the cherished memory of the boy’s sweet, clear voice, echoing the words of a German song (his mother taught him) through the Shepherd Caves just outside of Bethlehem makes this pastor’s steps a little lighter as he treads firmly where the lines are thinnest.
Marcia Davis, a freelance writer/photographer and former newspaper reporter/photographer and government information officer, has served as communications specialist to First United Methodist Church, Carrollton, and Carrollton Christian Academy for more than six years.
by Steve | Mar 23, 1989 | Archive - 1991
Archive: Great Expectations
By Sandi Kirk
A young man walked slowly along a cobblestone pathway toward Oxford. As he walked, his heart burned within him, for he was reading Jonathan Edward’s absorbing narrative of revival in America.[1]
The whole town of Northampton “seemed to be filled with the presence of God,” wrote Edwards. Beer taverns closed down; the church was flooded with new converts; and even young people talked continuously of the dying love of Jesus Christ. Like a spreading flame, the power of the Holy Spirit had come and was sweeping through New England with the fires of revival.[2]
A brisk autumn wind whipped through the young man’s coat as he walked; golden leaves tumbled across his feet. But he was unaware, so rapt was he in the wonder of revival. The fires of his own faith had been kindled at a place called Aldersgate, but now those fires were being fanned into flame as he read of revival in America.
That young man, of course, was John Wesley.
As Wesley read the heart-stirring words of Jonathan Edwards, he thought to himself, “A revival in North America? If God is one God, then surely He will bless this people as well.”[3]
From that moment on, says Dr. Robert G. Tuttle, John Wesley began to expect revival. Less than three months later it happened. In his own journal, Wesley writes:
“About three in the morning as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of His majesty, we broke out with one voice, ‘We praise Thee, O God; we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.’”[4]
Now, at last, the revival had come. This would be a revival that would sweep like a wildfire through all of England, becoming one of the greatest outpourings of God’s Spirit since Pentecost.
What has happened to us?
This is our Methodist heritage. John Wesley was a man who lifted up the message of salvation through the Cross of Jesus Christ and prayed down the power of the Holy Spirit.
But what has happened to us today? Why are we no longer seeing such powerful demonstrations of the Holy Spirit in our church? One of our bishops has suggested that the United Methodist Church is like a great, beached whale, languishing on the shores of extinction.
Then why don’t we get back in the water? Why don’t we plunge back into the great ocean of God’s Spirit? Why don’t we boldly pray for a deluge of the Holy Spirit that will bring us back into the waters of revival where the great beached whale may come alive again?
We need a fresh visitation of the Holy Spirit in the church today.
We saw it coming
We’ve heard such admonitions many times before. But does revival sound too idealistic now? Have we lost all real hope of ever experiencing the fresh touch of the Holy Spirit?
Let me share how we saw revival come to a women’s group at St. Luke’s UM Church in Lubbock, Texas.
It all started in a weekly women’s meeting; we didn’t study the Holy Spirit. We studied the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the exaltation of Jesus Christ. But in every meeting we asked the Holy Spirit to come and open our eyes to help us see Jesus more clearly.
Week by week we were aware that as we were beholding Christ, the Holy Spirit was coming upon us. Gently, almost imperceptibly He came. We knew that as we were looking at Jesus, the Holy Spirit was coming, for as Charles Spurgeon has said, “There is Life in a look at the Lamb.”[5]
All this time my husband, R.L., who is pastor of the church, and I knelt every night by our bedside and earnestly asked God to send the power of His Holy Spirit to our people.
Then it happened
Women had gathered for a retreat. It was 11:45 a.m. One of the speakers had just completed a beautiful message, mentioning our need to repent of unbelief. The leader led the group in a prayer of repentance over unbelief and invited the Holy Spirit to come. Then we waited.
Suddenly, like a soft summer breeze, the Holy Spirit came. He had been with us before, but not like this. We knew He dwelled in our hearts, but this was different. This was something more. It was power from on high. It was streams of divine glory. It was the breath of God blowing in gentle majesty into our midst. Every woman there knew she was standing in the holy presence of God.
Yet there was no emotionalism. There was no loud singing or clapping. We had simply repented, asked Him to come, and waited. In the holy stillness of complete silence He came. Each of us knew it was an awesome visitation from God.
Tears flowed. Hard hearts softened. Women who had longed to know God personally knew they had met Him face to face. Those who had yearned to be filled with the Holy Spirit were undeniably filled. Those with hidden sins were broken in deep, cleansing repentance. Guilt and sin melted away like morning dew in the rising sun, as hearts were cleansed and filled and set aflame for Jesus Christ.
One woman who had for years hidden the agony of two abortions, while under the Holy Spirit’s conviction, confessed her sin to one of the leaders. She cried tears of deep remorse as she repented before God and received His complete forgiveness. With her heart cleansed, she asked Jesus to fill her with His Holy Spirit—and He did, beautifully. Now everywhere she goes, people remark about what a radiant Christian she has become.
This was only a taste of a spiritual outpouring. We barely got our toes wet in the waters of revival. But it was a start, and we all knew we would never be the same.
Have we welcomed the Holy Spirit?
It all began as we invited the Holy Spirit to come. In the process we learned something vitally important about the Holy Spirit: He only comes when He is wanted. He is a Gentleman. He waits to be welcomed.
But have we truly made the Holy Spirit feel welcome in the United Methodist Church today? Have we invited Him into our church services, our Sunday school classes, our Bible studies? Or have we been afraid?
If so, have we grieved Him away with our fear?
If we have grieved Him from the church, then perhaps true repentance could be the gateway to a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit—a prelude to revival.
Interestingly, the Holy Spirit didn’t come to our women’s group until we sincerely repented of our unbelief, which is the real root of fear. Perhaps we need to humble ourselves at the foot of the Cross and tell God we are sorry. If we would deeply repent of our fear and unbelief and welcome Him back to our church, I believe He would come in a powerful new visitation.
Let’s give the United Methodist Church “back to God!”
In a time of thickening spiritual darkness in England, John Wesley lifted his voice and thundered: “Enemy beware! If I could find 30 men totally committed to Jesus Christ…I would give England back to God!”[6]
In a time of increasing darkness in Methodism today, can we not say the same: “Enemy beware!” We have many more than 30 men and women totally committed to Jesus Christ. Let’s return to our Wesleyan roots; let’s invite the Holy Spirit to come—and let’s give the Methodist Church “back to God!”
Sandi Kirk is a freelance writer from Lubbock, Texas.
[1] John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1872), p. 160.
[2] Jonathan Edwards, “A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundreds of Souls…,” The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1834), Vol. I, pp. 347-349.
[3] Robert G. Tuttle, John Wesley, His Life and Theology (Orlando, Florida: University of the Air, 1941), p. 214.
[4] Wesley, Works, p.170.
[5] Charles H. Spurgeon, “On the Cross After Death,” Spurgeon’s Expository Encyclopedia (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1988), Vol. Iv, p. 362.
[6] Tuttle, Wesley, p. 196.
