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| Mike imitating John Wesley |
On this day. June 28, within the
United Methodist Church, we recognize the birthday of our accidental founder,
John Wesley. I say accidental because he did not set out to create a new denomination.
Instead, he hoped to revive the Anglican church and spiritual growth of disciples
through small group Bible study and accountability to each other in those small
groups.
This “method” seems to
have worked so very well that as Methodism crossed the Atlantic into a young,
recently Independent United States it became successfully embedded into the
fabric of American identity. So much so that Article XXIII of the
Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church states “The President, the Congress, the general assemblies, the governors, and
the councils of state, as the delegates of the people, are the rulers of the
United States of America, according to the division of power made to them by
the Constitution of the United States and by the constitutions of their
respective states. And the said states are a sovereign and independent nation,
and ought not to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction.”
As we move
forward into this week and further into the Independence Day weekend let us
know that the United Methodist church is a particularly patriotic denomination,
acknowledging this independence from Great Britain.
And as we
move beyond July 4, 2021, let us revive the Methodist church with a refocus on
small group Bible study. I believe it is through the comfortable personal interaction
of such small groups that we have the best opportunity to attract the
unchurched, dechurched, and otherwise church-inhibited.
There are
many people out in the world who seek “belongingness” with people who care to
listen and provide their faith stories.
The
transformation of the world begins with a few people making a difference in
each other’s lives.
A we revive
Methodism, we revive America.
