John Meunier

Paragraph 135 of the Book of Discipline is the clearest articulation I can find of what we United Methodists mean when we speak of disciples.

Christians experience growth and transition in their spiritual life just as in their physical and emotional lives. While this growth is always a work of grace, it does not occur uniformly. Spiritual growth in Christ is a dynamic process marked by awaking, birth, growth, and maturation. This process requires careful and intentional nurture for the disciple to reach perfection in the Christian life. There are stages of spiritual growth and transition: Christian beginnings; Christian birth; Christian growth; and Christian maturity. These require careful and intentional nurture for the disciple to come to maturity in the Christian life and to engage fully in the ministry of all Christians.

Unfortunately for me, this paragraph does not really nail down too much. It does not explain what a disciple is so much as speak of a process of discipleship. So, my best surmise for the moment is that a disciple is someone who is in this process somewhere. To be a disciple is to be somewhere on this line of development and growth and moving toward maturity and perfection.

If that is the case, I wonder what we mean by saying our mission is to “make disciples”?

I find myself longing for John Wesley’s mission statement – spreading Christian holiness. I have a pretty idea what that means and looks like. I struggle a great deal more with being able to define or explain exactly what we mean when we say we are in the business of making disciples.

The Call to Action report says vital congregations have topical preaching.

I’m not convinced that I am cut out for topical preaching – and I’m not convinced that there is a cause-and-effect relationship demonstrated here – but I’m willing to give it another try in the interest of getting God’s work done.

Can someone point me to a good “how-to” book on topical preaching? Most of what I have teaches preaching that starts with the text rather than a topic.

Dear T.,

I know you won’t talk to me. I know you won’t listen. I’m not even certain when or if I’ll see you again, so I’m writing this more for myself than for you.

You said if she threw you out, you’d end up back in prison. That was the only other place to go. It was the only world you really understood.

T., I pray you do not end up there, unless it is the only option that keeps you alive. The devil’s got a hold on you right now, and he wants you dead.

God wants you alive. Not alive in that way you’ve been living, smoking cigarettes and sitting around all day – getting angry at B. and storming off to the bar. That is no life.

You told me you were afraid you don’t know how to love. Well, T., it takes time to learn. It takes more time than it feels like you can stand it. It takes patience. And it takes putting up with stuff that feels unfair and hurts your pride.

You can’t do it on your own T. I can’t do it for you. B. can’t do it for you.

Only God can do it. God wants to do it. God wants more than even you do for your life to stop spinning out of control and being such a wreck. God wants you to be happy. God loves you.

But this is the hardest part.

You gotta let go of you. You gotta stop talking about your self-esteem. You gotta stop insisting that it happen on your terms.

You have to get down on your knees and ask for it. Beg for it. Like the tax collector in the parable last week. “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

And you need brothers and sisters to help you get back off your knees and walk with you along the way. If they love you, they’re going to say things you don’t always want to hear. They’re going to lay down the law from time to time. But they’ll hold you up when you let them, and they’ll cheer and clap when you walk in God’s footprints.

T., God loves you. I pray you find a pastor who can explain that to you better than I have.

This post is one in a periodic series of reflections raised for me by reading the Call to Action report released by a committee of United Methodist leaders.

Gaps always get me interested. When I read quotes that leave out parts, I always want to know what was left out. So, when I read the following paragraph in the Call to Action report, I ran to dig out my copy of John Wesley’s “Plain Account of the People Called Methodists.”

John Wesley was not afraid to identify the loss of spiritual vitality and true effectiveness in the Church. He knew that only plain speaking about and commitment to address the hard problems of his day would change the situation: “Where is [Christian fellowship] to be found? Look east or west, north or south; name what parish you please. . . . What Christian connexion is there between them? . . . What watching over each others’ souls? What bearing of one another’s burdens?” (“Plain Account of the People Called Methodists” in The Works of John Wesley, Bicentennial Edition, 9:259).

It is an odd quote if you just take it as it is. It is not the most stinging thing Wesley ever said about the state of the church in his day, and – to my ear at least – it does not really make the point the introductory sentence is trying to make.

In the report, the quote comes in a section about needing leaders who will take bold action and shake up systems.

In Wesley’s letter, it came in a section defending the rise of Methodist societies against the charge that they were schismatics. He is trying to rebut the charge that the Methodists are separating from the church. His argument is  that most of the Methodists had no connection at all with the church before they became Methodists. As such, the leaders of the church could not call people schismatics who had never had any connection with the church before the Methodists came preaching and organizing.

Here is the longer version of the quote with the left out parts restored.

If it be said, “But there are some true Christians in the parish, and you destroy the Christian fellowship between these and them;” I answer, That which never existed, cannot be destroyed. But the fellowship you speak of never existed. Therefore it cannot be destroyed. Which of those true Christians had any such fellowship with these? Who watched over them in love? Who marked their growth in grace? Who advised and exhorted them from time to time? Who prayed with them and for them, as they had need? This, and this alone, is Christian fellowship: But, alas! where is it to be found? Look east or west, nor or south; name what parish you please: Is this Christian fellowship there? Rather, are not the bulk of the parishioners a mere rope of sand? What Christian connexion is there between them? What intercourse in spiritual things? What watching over each other’s souls? What bearing of one another’s burdens? What a mere jest is it then, to talk so gravely of destroying what never was! The real truth is just the reverse of this: We introduce Christian fellowship where it was utterly destroyed. And the fruits have been peace, joy, love, and zeal for every good word and work.

Isn’t Wesley’s fuller quote a much more stinging description of the state of too many of our United Methodist congregations? Are not many of us little more than ropes of sand – not fit for helping anyone climb to the higher reaches of Christian life and love?

The steering committee’s unfortunate editing of Wesley’s quote makes it read as if he is chiding parishes for not being connected or watching over each other, but what he was doing was noting that the people in the parishes do not exhibit fellowship within the parish. This is a subtle but important difference, particularly given the overall thrust of the Call to Action report.

I find Wesley’s full quote a challenging word to the United Methodist Church today. I hope the steering committee and all the other leaders of our denomination who will be considering the report take the full quote to heart as they pray and discern.

If the Call to Action report could help us as a body reintroduce the kind of Christian fellowship Wesley describes above, what a great work of God that would be among us.

This is one in a series of periodic reflections based on questions raised for me by the Call to Action report.

Imagine you run General Motors. The company has been in a long slump. It needs a big jolt to get it going the right direction again.

Someone stands up in a board meeting and says that what the company really needs to do is set up some action plans and guidelines for building first-rate car factories.

This gets many nods around the table.

Then someone else stands up and says, “I’m all for excellent factories, but shouldn’t we start by talking about cars? How can we design a factory to build incredible cars if we don’t even agree on what makes a car incredible?”

As I read the Call to Action report, I feel like it is urging us to build first rate factories while setting aside the question of what a first-rate Christian looks like. All the urgent, muscular, and emphatic prose clamors for “vital congregations,” but why not start by talking about what a vital Christian looks like?

Maybe such a first step is too old fashioned. It was certainly good enough for John Wesley.

Seriously, you should go read my daughter’s blog. It’s much more interesting than this one.

Grace is not something you grab, seize, claim, capture, invite, or demand.

Grace is something you are given.

It is not something you give God permission to give you.

It is something you say “thank you” for getting.

If you are talking about grace and using an active verb, the word “God” should be the subject of the sentence.

If you are talking about grace and a human is the subject of the sentence, the verb had better be passive.

Grace is a gift – and not one of those you go out and buy for yourself, wrap in a box, and pretend you are surprised when you open it.

Dan Dick says the United Methodist Church has a choice.

Our short term future is going to be a continued loss of members. The main decision we have to make is this: do we lose those with a heart for Jesus Christ and a desire to become Christian disciples by pandering to the less engaged and try to attract more warm bodies (hopefully will warm wallets), or do we raise the bar, get serious about transformative discipleship at the risk of losing the Sunday pew-sitters and the Christian consumers and the “what-have-you-done-for-me-lately, what-will-you-do-for-me-next” pay-as-you-go, spiritual but not religious crowd?

I will refrain from comment since I do not know the circumstances, but this story certainly caught my eye in my news reader.

Methodist Minister Charged With Assaulting Neighbors

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A Methodist minister was arrested Tuesday night on multiple counts of aggravated assault following a months-long dispute with his neighbors.

67-year-old Horace E. Wilkinson was indicted by a grand jury on ten counts of aggravated assault for allegedly carrying and handling his pistol in such a way that put the persons next door to him in fear.

Police said Wilkinson and his neighbors on Russell Street in east Nashville have had issues going back to at least June.

Neighbors told police that Wilkinson had carried the gun in his hand while making lewd gestures toward them. They also said that he had patted the pistol in his waistband while looking in their direction.

The neighbors installed a video system and recorded at least some of Wilkinson’s conduct. After reviewing the video, detectives consulted with the District Attorney’s Office and presented the matter to the Davidson County Grand Jury.

Wilkinson’s bond was held on $50,000 bond.

Wilkinson is the minister at Bethlehem United Methodist Church in Lebanon.

 

Jeremy Smith bit the bullet for us and read the 44-page Call to Action report released this week.

His reaction to its major themes is a good starting point for discussion about the vision it casts.