Browsing by Subject "John Wesley"

Within the current cultural milieu of eclectic pluralism the Western Church currently finds itself in, innovation must be a central focus within all aspects of ministry in the Christian Church. With the focus that the local church must put on innovation, one aspect that will continually be an important factor is how the Church understands, interprets, and utilizes failure. The challenge for the local church is to rethink its notion of failure which will allow for creativity, new life, and ultimately, transformational innovation. By establishing a proper framework and definition of failure, the Church will be able to embrace good failure and the benefits it can offer. Calling the Church to embrace failure is also a call to embrace innovation and Design Thinking. Good failure is not fully beneficial without these two essential and creative tools. For every church struggling to muster the confidence to dive into creative exploration and experimentation or the minister who wrestles with sustaining a culture open to change and new ideas, applying the principles of innovation and Design Thinking aid immensely on one’s journey towards success. This path towards success will not be simple. At times, the path will be consumed with failure and disruption. Still, good failure must be embraced in order to foster adaptive learning, growth, and mastery. By adopting an innovative culture and leaning into good failure, the Church embraces culture that generates change, pursues excellence, ensures vitality, makes a difference in the world, and seeks to meet the needs of people. As the Church wrestles with failure as a means to produce and promote innovation, the local church responds to God’s call and partners with God in God’s creative and redemptive work throughout the world. Thus, as the Church seeks to continue its impactful work in the world, the Church must establish a sound methodology for innovation and untap the creative fountain of Design Thinking. Throughout the history of the Christian Church, there have been countless extraordinary saints who have innovated, revolutionized, and championed fresh expressions and aspects of the Church. However, while it is important to remember the Church’s noteworthy saints and their significant contributions, we should not forget that there were failures along the way, and these should not be ignored. For the majority of United Methodist ministers, John Wesley is one of the most esteemed and highlighted saints who dynamically revolutionized, innovated, and restructured the Church. Nevertheless, he too experienced failures throughout his life and ministry. Still, with each moment of failure, Wesley pressed on and pivoted to innovate in successful ways that changed the world forever, even birthing and shaping the people called Methodists. In today’s rapidly changing world, local churches need to follow the example of John Wesley – embrace good failure, practice innovation, and restore imagination to ensure their future. Regardless of how fast the world continues to spin, churches must recognize profound changes must be made to establish a sound framework for failure and innovation, foster an innovative culture, and evoke an operational model change that allows the Church to be better than it was yesterday. Ultimately, local churches must awaken its innovative spirit and join God in God’s ministry throughout the world.

Within the current cultural milieu of eclectic pluralism the Western Church currently finds itself in, innovation must be a central focus within all aspects of ministry in the Christian Church. With the focus that the local church must put on innovation, one aspect that will continually be an important factor is how the Church understands, interprets, and utilizes failure. The challenge for the local church is to rethink its notion of failure which will allow for creativity, new life, and ultimately, transformational innovation. By establishing a proper framework and definition of failure, the Church will be able to embrace good failure and the benefits it can offer. Calling the Church to embrace failure is also a call to embrace innovation and Design Thinking. Good failure is not fully beneficial without these two essential and creative tools. For every church struggling to muster the confidence to dive into creative exploration and experimentation or the minister who wrestles with sustaining a culture open to change and new ideas, applying the principles of innovation and Design Thinking aid immensely on one’s journey towards success. This path towards success will not be simple. At times, the path will be consumed with failure and disruption. Still, good failure must be embraced in order to foster adaptive learning, growth, and mastery. By adopting an innovative culture and leaning into good failure, the Church embraces culture that generates change, pursues excellence, ensures vitality, makes a difference in the world, and seeks to meet the needs of people. As the Church wrestles with failure as a means to produce and promote innovation, the local church responds to God’s call and partners with God in God’s creative and redemptive work throughout the world. Thus, as the Church seeks to continue its impactful work in the world, the Church must establish a sound methodology for innovation and untap the creative fountain of Design Thinking. Throughout the history of the Christian Church, there have been countless extraordinary saints who have innovated, revolutionized, and championed fresh expressions and aspects of the Church. However, while it is important to remember the Church’s noteworthy saints and their significant contributions, we should not forget that there were failures along the way, and these should not be ignored. For the majority of United Methodist ministers, John Wesley is one of the most esteemed and highlighted saints who dynamically revolutionized, innovated, and restructured the Church. Nevertheless, he too experienced failures throughout his life and ministry. Still, with each moment of failure, Wesley pressed on and pivoted to innovate in successful ways that changed the world forever, even birthing and shaping the people called Methodists. In today’s rapidly changing world, local churches need to follow the example of John Wesley – embrace good failure, practice innovation, and restore imagination to ensure their future. Regardless of how fast the world continues to spin, churches must recognize profound changes must be made to establish a sound framework for failure and innovation, foster an innovative culture, and evoke an operational model change that allows the Church to be better than it was yesterday. Ultimately, local churches must awaken its innovative spirit and join God in God’s ministry throughout the world.

This dissertation examines the historical and theological context of the means of grace in the theology of John Wesley with the aim of identifying its central role in his soteriology. Examining the means of grace in its historical context requires locating the emergence of the means of grace in the English theological lexicon prior to Wesley and tracing Wesley's own inheritance of that tradition. The task of placing the means of grace within the context of Wesley's broader theological framework involves explaining how the means of grace, as disciplined practices engaged within the community of faith, lie at the heart of his soteriology as it finds expression in the Christian life. It is argued that the best way to conceive of the means of grace in Wesley's theology is as the "sacramental grammar" of his thought, grounded in the Wesleyan idea of social holiness, which names both the communal arena in which the means of grace are practiced and the salvific reality experienced by those joined together in such practice.

Chapter 1 introduces the topic and explains the thesis. It describes the plan and scope of the dissertation, which is to locate John Wesley's doctrine of the means of grace in its historical and theological context. It lays out the approach, method, and sources for the project with reference to major scholarly texts that are engaged as well as the primary source material utilized. The chapter concludes by noting that, in addition to elucidating aspects of John Wesley's understanding of the means of grace not present in scholarship up to this point, it also intends to serve as a way to bring discipline to the use of Wesleyan language for the means of grace in contemporary Wesleyan scholarship.

Chapter 2 - "The History of the Means of Grace: 16th and 17th Centuries" - analyzes the emergence of the language of the means of grace in the Church of England after the period of the Reformation. The chapter argues that the concept of the means of grace emerged as a way to describe the way God can be experienced through activities of devotion and worship, specifically after the loss of the full Roman Catholic sacramental system. It traces the particular use of the means of grace in Puritan practical divinity and examines its inclusion in the Book of Common Prayer. The chapter concludes with a study of John Norris' use of "means of grace" as an example of doctrinal development at the beginning of the 18th century.

Chapter 3 - "The Reception and Development of the Means of Grace in John Wesley" - demonstrates Wesley's reception of the means of grace during the period of Oxford Methodism. It then goes on to trace Wesley's development of the means of grace specifically in relation to the influences of mysticism and Moravianism. The period it covers is from 1731 to 1746, at which time, it is argued, Wesley's doctrine of the means of grace had reached a level of maturity as embodied in his publication of the sermon, "The Means of Grace."

Chapter 4 - "The Content of the Means of Grace in John Wesley's Theology" - analyzes the means of grace in Wesley's theology with respect to two main considerations: the nature of grace and the nature of the means themselves as "practices." It also examines Wesley's categories of instituted means, prudential means, and general means, noting aspects of Wesley's distinctive understanding of each category.

Chapter 5 - "The Character and Context of the Means of Grace" - brings the preceding work of the dissertation into a consideration of the nature of salvation in Wesley, specifically in relation to Wesley's understanding of present salvation as the recovery of holiness of heart and life. It then argues that Wesley's doctrine of the means of grace is best characterized through an intersection of the notion of "social holiness" as the environmental context in which the means of grace are practiced and holiness becomes manifest in the Christian community.

Conclusion - The dissertation ends with a conclusion that summarizes the preceding chapters and underscores the significance of social holiness in understanding the context of the means of grace in Wesley's theology and practice of ministry.

Abstract

This dissertation queries the ongoing significance and fruitfulness of Augustine of Hippo's insight that the Holy Spirit is the Love of God. Rather than turning to the standard text, his De Trinitate, this project examines closely the earlier Tractatus in Epistolam Joannis ad Pathos, a set of sermons on 1 John delivered mostly during the Octave of Easter.

The study of the Tractatus is offered in conjunction with a much later interlocutor, John Wesley. A close reading of Augustine's sermons of the Tractatus is synthesized with a close reading of Wesley's five extant sermons on texts from 1 John. The principal argument in this dissertation is that a synthesis of Augustine and John Wesley on the Holy Spirit produces a nuanced understanding of the Holy Spirit as the Love of God that enriches contemporary systematic theology. Furthermore, instead of either a purely archeological retrieval or genealogical study of these two theologians, this dissertation demonstrates the potential for enrichment by offering constructive proposals concerning the systematic coherence between a theology of divine desire and a theology of Christian initiation made possible by this Augustinian-Wesleyan approach to the Spirit.

The opening chapters, one through three, form an exegetical and synthesizing foundation, establishing the basic building blocks of the constructive proposals of chapter four, a theology of divine desire, and chapter five, a theology of Christian initiation. In the early chapters, the dissertation draws on the recent insights into systematic theology of Sarah Coakley and A.N. Williams in order to approach systematics in a way that brings coherence to a disparate set of homiletical texts. The conclusion of the dissertation is that Augustine's naming of the Holy Spirit, far from being an ancient relic best abandoned, resonates strongly with Wesley's own insights into the Spirit's person and work and that an Augustinian-Wesleyan pneumatology suggests possibilities for further cross-centuries examination of these two significant Christian preachers.

In the not-so-distant past, the language and theology expressed variously as theosis, deification, or divinization was relegated to Eastern Orthodoxy. Scholarship over the past fifty years, however, has moved deification from disgrace or quiet indifference to a place of active dialogue. Not only has theosis gained the attention of Protestant and Catholic theologians alike, it has also generated a host of literature exploring how figures in the West embody this once-considered Eastern concept.

This dissertation adds clarity and specificity to how John Wesley’s theology reflects deification. Wesleyan theologians, in their exploration of John Wesley’s interest in the “primitive church” and Eastern tradition, frequently gesture to the similarities between Wesley and theosis. Yet these studies, while adding rich specificity to Wesleyan-patristic studies, are often focused on parallels between Wesley and a particular figure. While tracing the lines of direct attestation and probable influence, they are not focused on theosis in particular, and as a result can only gesture toward possible resonances with Wesleyan theology.

Bypassing the question of Wesley’s sources and influences, this project focused instead on identifying the content of theosis within Wesley’s writings. By creating a “lens” of what constitutes the doctrine, as gleaned from recent scholarship, the way was paved to examine in detail what ways Wesley might reflect those core components of theosis in a large swarth of his writings, including the entirety of his sermon corpus. This adds meaningfully to Wesleyan scholarship in at least two ways: 1) it is both an explicit study of deification and John Wesley; and, 2) more than merely gesturing to parallels, it traces how those emphases are present throughout Wesley’s ministry by a close reading of a large representative selection of Wesley’s writings.

The close study of what constitutes deification reveals at least three theological axes which must be firmly established for the doctrine to be intelligible: 1) an understanding of God as desiring true union with humanity; 2) a theological anthropology which sees the telos of humanity as true Godlikeness; and 3) a soteriological thrust that points to redeemed humanity as participating in the Godhead. There is a deeply Trinitarian structure to this understanding of soteriology, which has corresponding anthropological implications. With an understanding of God and humanity in place to support the doctrine of deification, the final core idea is the means by which one is deified, an area that touches upon ecclesial context, sacramentology, and grace-enabled ascetic practices such as fasting and prayer.

When applying this lens to John Wesley’s theology, the results of my study overwhelmingly support not only the presence of deification within Wesley as a theological theme, but it has structural significance for understanding Wesley’s theology. The Trinitarian structure of Wesley’s soteriology is a rich interplay of both an understanding of God as desiring and empowering true union with humanity on the one hand, and a theological anthropology that sees the telos of humanity as true Godlikeness on the other.

Abstract

Wesley’s systemic model of discipleship through Societies, Bands, and Classes provides the foundation for a uniquely Wesleyan model of recovery. John Wesley’s early methods of psyches therapeia, “a spiritually-based psychotherapeutic method for healing the human soul and producing real soul-change” is still relevant today and is a proven method for transformation as is evidenced in both the Holy Club, the Oxford Group, and Alcoholics Anonymous.

Addiction is known to cross all ethnic, gender, and socio-economic lines. Addiction permeates and affects every segment of society. Today addiction extends beyond drugs and alcohol and can include many other deeds, actions, and conduct. Despite the widespread proliferation of addiction, it has traditionally been relegated to the shadows as a topic of conversation. What is conspicuously absent in most conversations involving addiction is any mention of the church and its role in the process of rehabilitation and recovery.

This is surprising given the clarity of Jesus’ mission as defined in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” Rather than live out the messy incarnate mission and message of Jesus Christ “to seek and to save the least and the lost,” the church has remarkably outsourced recovery to drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers. The church, for the most part, has relinquished any role it might play in recovery to secular players, and in doing so, a much-needed voice on the topic of recovery has been silenced. In remaining silent and abdicating it’s calling, the church has forced persons to rely on mere behavioral modification programs. As a result, recovery programs advocate sobriety from a substance or behavior without addressing the real need for change and transformation of the soul itself. Consequently, one’s current addiction is frequently exchanged for a different one. Programs that do not treat addiction at a spiritual level will continue to graduate participants that simply trade one addiction for another, and this will continue until the underlying issues of sin, brokenness, attachment, and denial are appropriately and thoroughly addressed.

The United Methodist Church and its congregations do not know how to effectively address issues of addiction and recovery within a Wesleyan framework. Consequently, the United Methodist family is left to use recovery materials developed by other denominations that simply do not match the ethos, culture, and theology of the United Methodist Church. Restoration: A Wesleyan Model of Recovery seeks to rectify this and offer a unique Methodist resource, to be used as a means of salvation and healing based upon the rich culture and heritage of the people called Methodist. The text is supported by an abundance of resources including videos, sermons, and a daily workbook.

Today the United Methodist Church faces a sharp decline of spirituality in general, and of church attendance in particular. Attendance at Sunday worship service has steadily decreased. In addition, those who consider themselves “spiritual but not religious” has certainly increased. Compared with the 1900s, it is more difficult for people today to believe in God because of the wide-ranging effects of secularism. Modern people find truth within themselves, rather than from a transcendent source.

Many small groups in the United Methodist Church aim to overcome this condition of secularism. Examples of such groups are the Covenant Discipleship group, the Disciple Bible study group, and the class meeting. To better understand whether these groups are able effectively to respond to contemporary needs, I conducted a survey of twenty-one churches in the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church that sponsored Covenant Discipleship groups or Disciple Bible study groups. This thesis investigates whether small groups (a Covenant Discipleship group and a Disciple Bible study group) are effective in spiritual growth and church growth. In addition, it uses the theory of the class meeting, which Kevin Watson reclaimed in his book The Class Meeting and the concept “mutual accountability” to present the direction for small groups in todays’ United Methodist Church.

As this thesis argues, a Covenant Discipleship group somewhat helps to recover the language for speaking of a living, breathing relationship with God. A Disciple Bible study group is also an effective way to change the locus of the authority from the self to the Word of God. However, these groups have limitations. While they are effective for supporting discipleship, they are seldom willing to foster conversation about deep matters such as a person’s relationship with God, with one another, and with the world. On the other hand, a class meeting deals with the basic question “How is it with your soul?” By sharing our spiritual status and being accountable for the growth of the relationships—as the class meeting seeks to do—our faith will grow into maturity in the Lord.