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Andrew C. Thompson

Category Archives: Seedbed

New Room Conference brings new life

19 Wednesday Oct 2016

Posted by Andrew C. Thompson in Seedbed, United Methodist Church, Wesleyan Theology

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The Methodist revival began in earnest in the spring of 1739. Along with London, the city of Bristol was one of the early centers for revival activity. That activity was so significant that it soon became clear that land needed to be purchased and a building erected to house Methodist activities.

What would come to be known as the New Room in Bristol was the first structure built by John Wesley and his fledgling movement. He describes its beginnings in his Journal on May 9, 1739:

“We took possession of a piece of ground, near St. James’s churchyard, in the Horsefair, where it was designed to build a room large enough to contain both the societies of Nicholas and Baldwin Street and such of their acquaintance as might desire to be present with them at such times as the Scripture was expounded. And on Saturday the 12th the first stone was laid, with the voice of praise and thanksgiving.”

We can interpret the name of the new building—the “New Room”—in a couple of different ways from the standpoint of history. The most obvious is that it was literally a new thing, a building newly erected to house preaching gatherings and meetings of the Bristol bands.

The other way to interpret the New Room’s name is that it provided new room for Christian believers to practice the means of grace. It offered a space within the lives of mostly hardscrabble people to gather together that they might hear the word of God preached and share conversation and prayer about their faith journeys.

If you fast forward 275 years, then you’ll discover that there is yet a third way that New Room can be interpreted: as the name adopted by the fastest growing conference of Wesleyan Christians in the world.

Two years ago, Seedbed Publishing began hosting a three-day gathering called the New Room Conference as a way to bring together Wesleyans with a deep passion for revival, worship, prayer and mission. Seedbed’s own motto is “Sowing for a Great Awakening.” The Christian publisher knows that it can’t bring about revival under its own power, but it does believe it can plant the seeds that will provide for revival’s beginnings when God chooses to grant the growth.screen-shot-2016-10-19-at-5-39-19-pm

The New Room Conference takes place each September in Franklin, Tennessee. As an attendee at each of the first three conferences, I can attest to its electric growth. The initial New Room in 2014 attracted a little over 300 people. In 2015, that more than doubled to almost 800 people. At the New Room Conference held just a few days ago, there were more than 1,500 people present. In just two short years, New Room has witnessed a 500 percent increase in attendance.

Why is this significant? For a couple of reasons.

The turmoil that the United Methodist Church is currently undergoing is no secret to anyone. The failure of bishops, pastors, and congregations to abide within our common covenant is threatening to rip the church apart at the seams. One spillover effect of all of this tension is that our official conferencing—in Annual Conferences, Jurisdictional Conferences and General Conference—tends to discourage more than encourage.

In short, we’ve seen very little of what Wesley meant by “Christian conferencing” in our official gatherings over the past few years. When Christian conferencing is a means of grace, it emphasizes testimony, prayer, conversations about faith and the sharing of a common witness.

What we lack in our official gatherings the New Room Conference has in spades. The preaching, teaching, prayer and worship I witnessed a few days ago in Franklin was one of the most enlivening and encouraging experiences I’ve had in 15 years of ministry.

We are at a turning point in the life of our connection. What we desperately need is new room—to rediscover our Wesleyan evangelical roots and recommit ourselves to the deeply Methodist mission with which we first set out.

No single conference is going to do all of the work needed to gain a course correction in our common life. But the New Room is certainly a start.

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This essay also appeared in the Arkansas United Methodist newspaper’s October 7, 2016 edition. You can read it in the online version of the AUM newspaper at this link.

Discipleship and the Means of Grace

15 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by admin in Means of Grace, Practical Theology, Seedbed, Seven Minute Seminary, Wesleyan Theology, Wesleyan Tradition

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The Seven Minute Seminary video series that is produced by Seedbed is one of the best ways to get familiar with Wesleyan thought related to the Bible, theology, and ministry. It features prominent Wesleyan scholars and pastors speaking on topics related to their areas of specialty. I’ve been lucky to record a few of the video presentations myself.

In the following video, I speak on the Wesleyan understanding of the means of grace. The means of grace are those practices of worship, devotion, and discipleship which lie at the very heart of Wesleyan spirituality. Click below to learn more:

For my other Seven Minute Seminary teaching presentations, go to this link.


 

Means of Grace notice in the Ark. United Methodist

07 Wednesday Oct 2015

Posted by admin in Arkansas Conference, Means of Grace, Practical Theology, Seedbed

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The Arkansas United Methodist newspaper very thoughtfully posted a notice about my new book, The Means of Grace in its October 2015 issue. I have been serving as a regular columnist for the AUM since 2011, where my Practical Divinity column appears quarterly.

For those of you in the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church, check out the Arkansas United Methodist if you don’t already have a subscription here. There’s no better way to keep abreast of the ministry and mission of our annual conference!


 

The Means of Grace — a new resource!

25 Friday Sep 2015

Posted by admin in Discipleship, Means of Grace, Practical Theology, Seedbed, United Methodist Church, Wesleyan Theology, Wesleyan Tradition

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Cover Art_The Means of Grace_High ResMy new book, The Means of Grace, hit the digital bookshelves a few days ago. As you can imagine, this is exciting for me personally. I wrote this book because of how strongly I believe in the importance of its subject matter. And I think it could be a real benefit to Christians who are looking for a way to bring a disciplined pattern to their discipleship.

I wanted to do a little writeup on The Means of Grace for anyone who might be interested in it for personal use or for small group study. I’ll do that below in Q&A format. If you have any questions after reading it, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below this post!

What is The Means of Grace about?
This is a book about those practices and habits that bring us closer to Jesus Christ by opening us up to the power of his grace. They are drawn, either directly or indirectly, from the Bible. My own understanding of them is deeply shaped by the way that John Wesley taught about them. That comes through in some significant ways in the book. At times the means of grace are called by other names: spiritual disciplines, practices of discipleship, and the like. Those are good terms, but I  believe that embracing the term means of grace is important because it reminds us that the source of their power is indeed the grace of God.

Who was it written for?
The Means of Grace is geared toward a broad reading audience. My hope is that churches will find it to be a fruitful book for small group or congregational use. It can also be read profitably on an individual basis.

How is it organized?
The book begins with an introductory chapter that lays out a Wesleyan understanding of grace. Thereafter it is divided into three sections: instituted means of grace, prudential means of grace, and general means of grace. While these terms may sound technical, they are explained easily enough in the text. And the individual means of grace ought to be familiar to people with any familiarity with the Christian faith: prayer, searching the Scriptures, fasting, the Lord’s Supper, etc.

Most of the book’s chapters are arranged in similar fashion. Each of the means of grace is explained as it appears in the biblical witness. The way in which they are framed in Wesleyan spirituality follows. Finally, each of the means of grace is described as it can find a place in daily discipleship. The point is to show how the means of grace are grounded in a biblical and Wesleyan framework, while also showing how practical they are for day-to-day use.

Why did you write it?
I wanted to offer Christians a practical guide for how the means of grace can become the “pattern of the Christian life.” I believe this the way that John Wesley envisaged them, and I think it is the way they can be most effective in our lives today.

Does it have a study guide?
Yes it does. There is a “Discussion Starters” section at the back of the book intended to facilitate small group study.

Are there any other resources to go along with it?
The book is put out by Seedbed Publishing. Later this year, Seedbed will be producing a video series that will accompany the book as another tool for small group and congregational use. I’ll update my readers on this blog when those videos have been published.

Where is it available?
Currently, the books is available directly from Seedbed and from Seedbed’s Amazon marketplace store. The Kindle edition can also be ordered direct from Amazon.

That’s all for now. Let me know if I’ve left anything out that would be helpful to share. And if you check it out, let me know what you think!

The John Wesley Collection

25 Tuesday Aug 2015

Posted by admin in Discipleship, Doctrine & Theology, John Wesley, Local Church Ministry, Practical Theology, Seedbed, Spiritual Formation, Wesleyan Theology, Wesleyan Tradition

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John Wesley Collection_From Almost to AltogetherHere’s a development that holds great promise for readers interested in Wesleyan spirituality and ministry: The John Wesley Collection.

The John Wesley Collection (or “JWC”) is a new venture by Seedbed Publishing. Its purpose is to gather together and publish the writings of John Wesley and other early Methodist figures. These writings are collected into volumes aimed at people hungry for solid theological material related to how we should understand God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, grace, discipleship, salvation, and much more.

As the folks at Seedbed put it themselves: “Seedbed believes these writings are as relevant to our context today as they were in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Consequently, we consider it a sacred calling to join with those who are recapturing John Wesley’s publishing vision for the twenty-first century.”

Several months ago I took over as executive editor of the JWC. I’m truly excited about this project! So far, we have published volumes by Wesley that contain his discourses on the Sermon on the Mount and his Plain Account of Christian Perfection. We’ve also published The Tongue of Fire, a work on the Holy Spirit by a 19th century Irish Methodist missionary and pastor named William Arthur. Most recently, we have come out with a volume of nine sermons by Wesley on the nature of faithful discipleship called From Almost to Altogether: Sermons on Christian Discipleship.

Check out this video on the JWC:

 

It’s true that there a number of ways people can access much of John Wesley’s writings these days: student editions of Wesley’s sermons intended for seminary use, Wesley texts offered in online formats, and the scholarly Bicentennial Edition of the Works of John Wesley.

Yet none of these formats is really designed for reading and study with an eye to spiritual formation. Seedbed’s hope is that the volumes of the JWC will be used in churches: by pastors, youth ministers, laypeople in small groups, etc.

I recently gave a copy of From Almost to Altogether to every staff member of my church. Within a few days, two of those staff members had asked if I’d be willing to help guide them through a few of the sermons included in it. As you can imagine, my answer was an enthusiastic yes!

The great thing about the JWC is that it is an ongoing project. Seedbed will be producing new volumes of Wesleyan material in it for years to come. And I’ll do my best to keep you updated on it!

 


 

New Room Conference 2015

30 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by admin in Discipleship, Evangelism & Mission, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Practical Theology, Seedbed, Wesleyan Theology, Worship

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What if such a meeting place could be arranged today, where our collective paths could cross for a few days of hearing some new voices, engaging in some new conversations and seeing some new horizons of possibility for a movement whose time has come to move again?

That’s the question posed by the organizers of the New Room Conference, scheduled for this upcoming September 16-18, 2015, in Franklin, Tennessee.

If you are looking for a gathering that is deeply Wesleyan in tone and practical in aim, then you should really check out the New Room Conference. I attended the first New Room gathering last year, and it was one of the most encouraging, invigorating meetings of Wesleyan pastors and laity that I’ve experienced in a long time.

This year’s New Room gathering promises to be even better. Speakers include Jo Anne Lyon, Kevin Watson, Lisa Yebuah, Stanley John, and more. They’re even going to let yours truly take the stage at some point. There’ll be great music, great worship, and great conversation.Seedbed Logo 1

The New Room Conference will be held at Christ Community Church in Franklin, Tennessee. Since the Nashville International Airport is nearby, travel shouldn’t be too much of a problem even for those who live far off.

Seedbed Publishing is the host of the New Room Conference, and they see it as part of their larger mission to assist the Wesleyan movemenet with vital resources in print, online, and conference formats. (Or as they put it, “Resourcing people, communities, and movements to love the whole world with the whole gospel.”) You should check them out, and even more importantly — check out the New Room Conference this fall.

 

Evangelism and Discipleship: A Wesleyan Connection

28 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by admin in Discipleship, Evangelism & Mission, John Wesley, Means of Grace, Seedbed, Seven Minute Seminary, Wesleyan Theology, Wesleyan Tradition

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One of the more interesting developments in Wesleyan theological education over the past few years has been the advent of Seedbed’s Seven Minute Seminary video series. The series features prominent Wesleyan scholars and pastors speaking on a wide range of topics related to the Bible, theology, and ministry. Here’s the Seven Minute Seminary launch announcement by Seedbed’s Chief Sower J.D. Walt.

I got to record my first Seven Minute Seminary teaching video awhile back. My topic in the video is the connection between evangelism and discipleship in Wesleyan practice. Here’s how it turned out:

For my other Seven Minute Seminary teaching presentations, go to this link.


 

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