Angels: God's messengers, Our guardians

22 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by admin in Angels, Arkansas Conference, John Wesley, Liturgical Year, United Methodist Church

We’re in a season of angels.

It all began with Advent. One of Advent’s most beloved Scripture passages is the angel Gabriel’s visit to the Virgin Mary. Joseph had his own angelic encounter, of course. An angel visited him to assure him that Mary’s child was from the Holy Spirit.

So it was through angels that news of Jesus Christ’s coming into the world was first revealed.

Then after Advent, on the holy day of Christmas itself, angels were everywhere around the birth of Jesus. An entire host of them visited the shepherds in the fields outside of Bethlehem. They sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace amongst those whom he favors!” (Luke 2:14).

Around the time of the Epiphany, an angel shows up again. Joseph is visited by an angel in a dream. The angel warns him to take Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt following the visit of the Wise Men.
We don’t talk that much about angels these days. Perhaps we should.

In the Bible, the presence of angels in our world is a given. Angels are God’s messengers. Hebrews 1:14 speaks of angels as “spirits in the divine service” that are “sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation.”

Hope for spiritual revival
One of the chief hopes of Bishop Gary Mueller is that the United Methodist Church in Arkansas would experience a great spiritual revival. I share that hope as well. I also believe that one thing that needs to be in place in order for spiritual revival to happen is a deep awareness on our part that we live in a profoundly spiritual world.

A feature of modern life very damaging to Christian spirituality is the tendency we have to artificially segment our lives into different parts. We think spiritual things when we go to church. When we’re out in the world, we are much more likely to act as if the material world is all that exists. Our faith can become something like a hat we wear when we are expected to act in Christian ways. Otherwise, we’re happy doing our own thing. How might we think about ourselves and our world differently?
A mentor who has had a great impact on me is Richard P. Heitzenrater, one of the leading historians of John Wesley and early Methodism. I once heard Dr. Heitzenrater describe what it was about Wesley that he found so fascinating.

Here’s what he said: Among all historical figures he has ever come across, John Wesley had a greater sense of God’s abiding presence in the world than anyone else. Wesley was keenly aware that he was living in a Spirit-drenched world and that God was literally everywhere. He didn’t just know this in his mind, of course. Wesley felt it deeply in his soul, and it directed everything about how he lived his life.

That Wesleyan awareness of the world as a Spirit-drenched place is exactly what we need in order to be prepared for the Spirit’s work of revival among us.

Angels in our midst
Angels are spiritual beings, of course, so it should not surprise us that Wesley was deeply interested in them. His interest began at a young age. One of the very first sermons that we have from his hand was written in 1726. Its title: “On Guardian Angels.”

In the sermon he cites Psalm 91, which reads, “For he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways” (verse 11). Wesley sees this biblical promise as meant by God for all faithful Christians—evidence of the “peculiar care he hath taken for their protection.”

In a later sermon, “Of Good Angels,” Wesley gets very specific about the ways that he believes angels minister to human beings. He says that they surely enlighten our understanding and warn us subtly against danger. Wesley believes that angels also come to us in our dreams and reveal things to us that we need to know. He even believes that they intercede in the physical world to protect us from harm and to heal diseases. Because he sees the world we live in as so deeply spiritual, Wesley even thinks that good angels regularly do battle against evil angels that would seek to harm us.

These views might make a modern Methodist blush. Should we put stock in such things that seem so unsophisticated or unscientific?

That all depends on how seriously you take the biblical worldview of how God interacts with the world. Does God use angels for divine purposes? Wesley had no doubts, and I think there is a great deal to learn from that.

I yearn for a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our church. Lately, I’ve been wondering if there are angels beckoning us to prepare for that. If you wonder the same thing, you might from time to time pray this prayer that was important to Wesley himself:

“Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen” (Collect for Saint Michael and all Angels, Book of Common Prayer).

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This article originally appeared in the Arkansas United Methodist newspaper’s January 2, 2015 edition. Reprinted with permission. You can read the article in its original form at this link.

Pastoral leadership in a Wesleyan framework

16 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by admin in Christianity & Culture, John Wesley, Leadership, Local Church Ministry, Wesleyan Theology

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How should we think about leadership in a Christian context? Given the popularity of leadership as a topic in print and online media, it is something work thinking about. Is Christian leadership any different than leadership in general? For those of us in the Wesleyan tradition, is there a particularly Wesleyan form of leadership?

Here are four approaches to leadership that are common in our culture:

1. Natural genius — the “born leader”
2. Bureaucratic manager — the “cog in the wheel”
3. Master of effective techniques — the “guru”
4. Leader of noble character — the “master craftsman”

No approach to leadership is perfect, but some can be viewed as better than others in a given context. The first approach — which is a charismatic leadership model — is great if you were born with natural charisma. The problem is that such a thing can really be taught. The second model worked well in the mid-twentieth century (the heyday of big institutions) but is seen as distasteful by most people today.

Probably the most common leadership approach is the third one — which we might call the entrepreneurial model. You see this a lot in the realm of business and finance. It is concerned with a leader having the right kind of skill set to apply to a given task (and by extension to the persons the leader is leading).

The only problem with the third model is that a leader can be talented without being good. You could be the CEO of a multinational corporation, the head coach of an NFL football team, or the mayor of a large city and have a fantastic skill set for the job in each instance. Yet you could also be positively wicked, carrying out your job in Machiavellian and fashion. It might work in business or politics (although even there people can get fed up with it) but it isn’t going to work in a Christian setting where the heart of a person is seen as truly important (and often a marker of the authenticity of that person’s faith).

I think the best conception of pastoral leadership in a Wesleyan framework is the fourth model: the approach to leadership that is grounded in the right kind of character. This is a virtue-based approach to leadership, where the leader is seen as needing to have the right sort of formation in order to lead well. In fact, I think this kind of approach fits best with any conception of Christian leadership — in the church, business, education, politics, or non-profit work.

If you read the New Testament epistles that are focused on pastoral leadership — e.g., 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, 1 and 2 Peter — you find that they are very concerned with qualities of character in church leaders such as faith, humility, and gentleness. John Wesley embraced this biblical concept of good leadership, both in his own person and in every level of Methodist leadership under him. He believed that the fruits of the Spirit would be borne out in persons whose lives were being transformed by grace and that these were the same persons who could be entrusted to guide others.

In the sermon, “The Circumcision of the Heart” (1733), Wesley focuses on the formation of the virtues of humility, faith, hope, and love as markers of a Christian’s growth in grace. He sees these virtues in progressive fashion, as building upon one another as the believer is transformed by grace. It is a wonderful example of a particularly Wesleyan appropriation of the virtue tradition. And while that particular sermon is a meditation on sanctification in general, I think it can be read with profit for those who want to think about the intersection of faith and leadership.

The cultivation of the virtues is never easy, but neither is leadership itself. For those who want to respond to the call to serve as Christian leaders, dedicating themselves to formation in virtue is an absolute necessity. There are no shortcuts to mature, authentic discipleship.

Note: Part of this post is drawn from a presentation I did at a Residency-in-Ministry retreat in the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church earlier this week. My thanks to the Board of Ordained Ministry in that annual conference for the invitation and the opportunity to work with the conference’s provisional elders & deacons. We had a great day together at Camp Sumatanga near Gallant, AL.

From Wesley's pen — May 12, 1759

28 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by admin in Christianity & Culture, John Wesley, JW Journal, Pastoral Care

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John Wesley had a lifelong interest in medicine. He made medical advice and pharmaceuticals available to the poor in a number of ways during his ministry. He also believed that a human being was fundamentally a union of body & soul, so he thought that salvation should have to do with both the material and spiritual aspects of human life.

One of the areas that Wesley showed real foresight was the way in which he grasped the psychosomatic aspects of illness. That is, he realized that the mental and emotional parts of human experience could often play a role in physical symptoms. If we want to treat the body, Wesley knew, we have to treat the soul as well. There is a deep interconnectedness between body and soul.

Take this entry from Wesley’s journal as an example, where he comments on the condition of a woman he met and the limitations of the standard medical treatments of his day:

“Reflecting today on the case of a poor woman who had a continual pain in her stomach, I could not but remark the inexcusable negligence of most physicians in cases of this nature. They prescribe drug upon drug, without knowing a jot of the matter concerning the root of the disorder. And without knowing this they cannot cure, though they can murder the patient.”

The problem with most physicians, Wesley argues, is that they want to treat the body like a broken machine. They don’t have an adequate understanding of the way in which stress, anxiety, depression, traumatic experiences, and the like can manifest themselves through bodily ailments. A proper diagnosis—and treatment!—requires a deeper understanding of illness. Wesley goes on:

“Whence came this woman’s pain? (Which she would never have told, had she never been questioned about it.) From fretting for the death of her son. And what availed medicines while that fretting continued? Why then do not all physicians consider how far bodily disorders are caused or influenced by the mind? And in those cases which are utterly out of their sphere, call in the assistance of a minister—as ministers, when they find the mind disordered by the body, call in the assistance of a physician?”

This is a good example of Wesley’s concern for holistic health and healing. Today, of course, we’d add to his two examples of the physician and the minister: nutritionists, psychologists, pastoral counselors, strong friendships, and a supportive faith community all play a big role in how we can be healthy and whole persons. The Wesleyan insight into the body-soul union is not always appreciated even today, though, and that’s a good reason to take his pastoral wisdom to heart.

Do you have thoughts on this issue? Experiences of your own that relate to it? Feel free to share below.

[This post is part of an ongoing series that highlights important themes that emerge in the Journal that John Wesley published throughout his adult life. For other posts in the series, click here.]

Care for Children: A Wesleyan Calling

10 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by admin in Arkansas Conference, Evangelism & Mission, John Wesley, Local Church Ministry, United Methodist Church

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The ministry of early Methodists impacted the lives of men and women in remarkable ways. Under John Wesley’s leadership, the Methodist revival in the British Isles emphasized a gospel that included concerns for both body and soul.

The Methodist preaching of the time called for a renewal of the heart through faith in Jesus Christ. But it also taught that those whose hearts had been renewed would be changed in their outward lives. So for people of that time, it was only natural that powerful preaching services and prayer gatherings would go hand in hand with social outreach to feed the hungry, heal the sick and educate the unlettered.

One part of the early Methodist movement that often gets overlooked is the Methodists’ deep concern for the welfare of children. When John Wesley and other young men met to organize their spiritual lives in the way that would eventually be called “Methodist,” their Irish friend William Morgan led them in gathering together a group of poor children for instruction. The project was so successful that they eventually had to hire a local woman in Oxford to take on the role of schoolteacher.

The commitment to the wellbeing of children would become a hallmark of the Methodist movement when it began to expand in 1739—a point made by Richard Heitzenrater in his excellent book, Wesley and the People Called Methodists. One of the first major projects that John Wesley undertook after he committed to field preaching was the Kingswood School near Bristol, England, which was founded to provide education and Christian instruction for the poor children of the area.

Wesley also gathered the children in the places where Methodism spread so that they could form “little societies” similar to the societies intended for grown-ups. One of the questions Wesley began asking new Methodist preachers in 1766 reads, “Will you diligently and earnestly instruct the children, and visit from house to house?”

Wesley at times admitted that he found ministry with children to be difficult, but he never let that stand in the way of pursuing it at every opportunity.

Ministry with children in Arkansas

Many of our local churches in the Arkansas Conference see ministry with children as one of their primary activities. I think it’s encouraging to recognize how deeply embedded that commitment is in the Methodist DNA.

Wesley himself defined Methodism first and foremost as the “religion of the Bible.” And in that sense, it’s also true that the Methodist devotion to ministry with children is an outgrowth of Jesus’ own teaching: “Let the little children come unto me and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14).

This past June our annual conference approved a Childhood Hunger Initiative that will seek to address food insecurity among children across the state of Arkansas. The hope is that every local church in Arkansas will participate in some way to help end childhood hunger across the state.

There is already good work being done on that front through various agencies, of course, and it is important to publicize and support it. Our local churches represent a huge resource to start new projects addressing children’s hunger in their own contexts, as well. So congregations ought to think creatively about what they can do to spread the gospel by caring for hungry children.

‘With utmost care’

We’ll be hearing more about this new initiative in the weeks ahead. As we prepare in prayerful and practical ways to commit ourselves to this good work, drawing on some Wesleyan wisdom might be helpful.

Wesley once referred to children in a sermon as “immortal spirits whom God hath for a time entrusted to your care, that you may train them up in all holiness, and fit them for the enjoyment of God in eternity.”

He believed children were gifts of God, as we all do. His point here is not just about the value of children, though. It is about the profound responsibility of Christian adults to guard them, protect them, provide for them and raise them as followers of Christ.

That’s an issue of faithful stewardship—care for the little boys and girls God has placed in our midst. So I think Wesley’s pastoral advice serves as a fitting word for us to consider as we embark together on a great missional ministry:

“Every child therefore you are to watch over with the utmost care, that when you are called to give an account of each to the Father of Spirits, you may give your accounts with joy and not with grief.”

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This article originally appeared in the Arkansas United Methodist newspaper’s October 3, 2014 edition. Reprinted with permission. You can read the article in its original form at this link.

Wesleyan Accent: Discipleship in the Wesleyan Way

25 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by admin in Christianity & Culture, Discipleship, John Wesley, Sanctification/Holiness, Spiritual Formation, Wesleyan Accent, Wesleyan Theology

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The church today puts a lot of focus on the need to make disciples of Jesus Christ. But do we take seriously what that work requires of us?

I’m not so sure. I am very sure, on the other hand, that we’re living in a culture that does us no favors when we even begin to approach the work of disciple-making.

Think about it. In the West, we live in a world where most things we want are within reach. We’re not good at delayed gratification. We think we have a right to gratify every felt need we have. We don’t like to suffer.

Discipline isn’t easy. That’s particularly the case when we’re talking about a discipline beyond what it takes to make it to work on time, get through the day, keep the kids fed, and pay the mortgage.

So what about the discipline required to become a disciple? Click here to continue reading…

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Wesleyan Accent provides free and subscription resources for Christian spiritual formation, catechesis, and discipleship in the Wesleyan way. By clearly articulating the Wesleyan understanding of Christian faith, WA seeks to strengthen discipleship, empower mission and evangelism, cultivate ministry gifts of young leaders, and nurture the professional and service life of young theologians.

Andrew C. Thompson joined the writing team of WA upon its launch in the Fall of 2013. For the full catalog of his articles on the WA site, click here.

Holy Conferencing: A Means of Grace

21 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by admin in Discipleship, John Wesley, Means of Grace, Sanctification/Holiness, Wesleyan Theology, Wesleyan Tradition

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John Wesley considered some of the means of grace to be formally established by Jesus Christ in the gospels. One of those is the means of grace he called “Christian conference” at some points and “Christian fellowship” at others.

These terms take some explaining, because Wesley used them in technical ways that would not be apparent to us at first glance.

Conference does refer to the formal body of the annual conference for Wesley. But it is also the term that describes any activity where Christians “confer” in a self-conscious way about important matters of faith. So it has a broader meaning than we might ascribe to it in our own usage.

Fellowship, on the other hand, has a narrower use in Wesley’s view than it does with us. We use that term very loosely, but Wesley only uses it when he thinks something spiritually significant is going on amongst Christian believers who are gathered together in community—again, to confer with one another about their faith.

Lesson from John Wesley’s Instructions for Children

In recent years, the term holy conferencing has emerged as a contemporary term that describes the Wesleyan original. Emily Snell wrote about this topic in Interpreter Magazine just recently, in fact.

The video above was produced by the Arkansas Conference of the UMC recently as a teaching session on Christian conference. In it, I share the Wesleyan background on holy conferencing and offer some guidance about how it can be utilized in congregations and small groups today.

I hope this video can be useful as a resource for pastors and congregations—not just in the Arkansas Conference, but anywhere that groups of Christians have reason to gather in serious conversation and discernment about their faith and discipleship.

From Wesley's pen — December 4, 1746

16 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by admin in John Wesley, JW Journal

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One of the extraordinary commitments of John Wesley’s leadership of the early Methodist movement was a deep concern for bodily health. It’s a topic that Randy L. Maddox has written about recently in Divinity Magazine, a publication of Duke Divinity School.

Wesley’s popular Primitive Physick, a manual of medical advice and remedies, is probably the best known example of his holistic concern for health of body & soul. But evidence of that commitment shows up in many places in Wesley’s writing.

A great example is Wesley’s Journal entry from December 4, 1746, which reports the Methodists’ establishment of what was the first free pharmaceutical dispensary in London. Check this out (and note that “physic” is an 18th century term for medicine) —

Thursday, December 4. I mentioned to the society my design of giving physic to the poor. About thirty came the next day, and in three weeks about three hundred. This we continued for several years, till, the number of patients still increasing, the expense was greater than we could bear. Meantime, through the blessing of God, many who had been ill for months or years were restored to perfect health.

The very popular (and hence relatively short-lived) London medical dispensary is a testament both to how much Wesley was in tune with the needs of London’s poor and the degree to which the volume of need overwhelmed the local society’s ability to sustain the ministry.

The London medical dispensary is also a reminder that the church once understood healthcare as one of its primary responsibilities. That commitment has been largely lost—although not entirely, as an organization like the Church Health Center here in Memphis, Tennessee, demonstrates well. I recently heard Dr. Scott Morris (who leads the Church Health Center) speak about the church’s calling to healthcare ministries. He pointed out that Jesus’ own ministry was made up of the three activities of preaching, teaching, and healing. Then he said, “So if you want to be a faithful follower of Jesus, you have to do three things: preach, teach, and heal. And you don’t get a pass on the healing! If you ignore that, you’re ignoring 1/3 of the gospel.” That is a thought to chew on—and a wonderful reminder of the gospel’s calling to care for both souls and bodies.

[This post is part of an ongoing series that highlights important themes that emerge in the Journal that John Wesley published throughout his adult life. For other posts in the series, go here.]

Discipleship Formation: A Wesleyan Approach

11 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by admin in Discipleship, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, John Wesley, Means of Grace, Practical Theology, Spiritual Formation, United Methodist Church

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My annual conference road show continued this week at the Tennessee Annual Conference at Brentwood United Methodist Church in Brentwood, TN. I taught a session on ‘Equipping’ for Discipleship as a part of Bishop Bill McAlilly’s four-part teaching series covering the themes of:

Discover | Equip | Connect | Send

The spirit both in Brentwood this week and in Paducah, KY, last week at the Memphis Annual Conference has been wonderful. Indeed, it seems the Holy Spirit is at work amongst the folks of these two conferences. It is also tremendous to see how much the annual conference sessions seem geared toward making conference a real means of grace. (The difference between how annual conferences are run now compared to those of my early years in ministry is remarkable.)

The great tech crew at the Tennessee Conference have already uploaded the teaching session I led. For anyone interested, here’s the link (w/ my part starting at about the 14:45 mark):

I’m trying to capture something of the scope of engaged discipleship in a Wesleyan framework in this session. Within Wesleyan spirituality, we can never separate what we are doing as disciples of Jesus Christ (including how we’re being equipped!) from what it means to grow in holiness of heart & life. That means that discipleship is really about sanctification—how our hearts are being transformed by God’s love and how our spiritual gifts are being cultivated towards real fruitfulness.

Feel free to leave comments or questions below. The material here is part of what I think is of most importance in the life of the church today. I’d love to hear your thoughts, too.

A Wesleyan View on Equipping for Ministry

04 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by admin in Discipleship, Evangelism & Mission, Holiness/Sanctification, Jesus Christ, John Wesley, Means of Grace, Wesleyan Theology, Wesleyan Tradition

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Earlier this week I was privileged to speak at the Memphis Annual Conference meeting in Paducah, KY. The teaching theme for the conference was fourfold and focused on engaged discipleship: Discover—Equip—Connect—Send. My session was on ‘Equipping’ and used Ephesians 4:10-16 as a springboard.

The video of my teaching session is below for anyone who would like to see it. There is some preliminary material on the front end (including a great storytelling presentation by Marilyn Thornton!). My part begins at around 18:00. Here’s the link:

Other videos from the annual conference are available through the conference’s website at this link.

Prayer before reading the Bible

26 Monday May 2014

Posted by admin in Bible, John Wesley, Means of Grace, Prayers

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How can Holy Scripture be a means of grace in our lives?

That is a question I’ve been thinking a lot about the past few months as I’ve led a Bible study at my church. We read the Gospel of Luke, meeting weekly on Sunday evenings for about 3 months to discuss the biblical text together. Reading the Scripture in community can be an amazing experience—the insights and experiences of a group can convey a power to what John Wesley called ‘searching the Scriptures’ that is hard to match when reading alone.

One of the points Wesley makes about the use of Scripture as a means of grace that has always struck me is his focus on the active process of receiving the word of God. For instance, Wesley never says that the Bible is a means of grace. His phrase ‘searching the Scriptures’ is meant to emphasize the need to actively engage the biblical text in the rhythms of reading, hearing, and meditating upon it.

Wesley published a translation of the New Testament together with his NT commentary that differs in some respects from the Authorized Version (or KJV) that was the standard English-language translation in his day. Later in life, Wesley republished his New Testament separately. In that later 1790 edition, he included a prayer drawn from the Book of Common Prayer together with this advice: “I advise every one, before he reads the Scripture, to use this or the like prayer.”

Here’s the prayer itself:

Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning, grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou has given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ.

It’s a beautiful prayer. The net effect of what he’s encouraging—to hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest—is to truly embrace Holy Scripture in its fullness, that we might be transformed in the process.

We do not read the Bible so that we can master it. We read it so that, over time, it comes to master us.