A letter to Mrs. Bennis

Came across this in my research yesterday and wanted to share it:

A woman named Mrs. Bennis wrote to John Wesley in March of 1766 to ask about her religious experience and to seek advice. Wesley wrote back in a letter dated March 29th, with encouragement to share her experience with others. He also included some advice about Christian perfection.

One of the things most characteristic about Wesley's understanding of salvation is its progressive character. In fact, he didn't think it was possible to receive saving grace and then just sit still. The justified sinner either pushed forward in holiness of heart & life after receiving the new birth, or else he would backslide and lose the gift given to him. You can see that in Wesley's advice to Mrs. Bennis on the importance of sharing our faith and pressing on towards salvation:

"One reason why those who are saved from sin should freely declare it to believers is because nothing is a stronger incitement to them to seek after the same blessing. And we ought by every possible means to press every serious believer to forget the things which are behind and with all earnestness go on to perfection. Indeed, if they are not thristing after this, it is scarce possible to keep what htey have: they can hardly retain any power of faith if they are not panting after holiness."

Wesley's talking about sanctification here. And when he speaks of "perfection," he's talking about the character of entire sanctification, where the believer has been so transformed by the love of God that she no longer commits intentional sins.

His doctrine of perfection was controversial in Wesley's own day, and it has remained so ever since. But there are two important things to remember that can clear up most of the misunderstanding over Christian perfection: First, perfection is not a static state. It is a mark along the way of salvation, but it does not mean that a person will not keep growing in grace in this life. And second, perfection does not mean a person is free from ignorance, error, or unintentional sin.

Wesley makes this second point in spades in the letter to Mrs. Bennis:

"A thousand infirmities are consistent even with the highest degree of holiness, which is no other than pure love, an heart devoted to God, one design and one desire. Then whatever is done either in word or deed may be done in the name of the Lord Jesus."

The Christian character he's describing is, in terms of his own moral psychology, one marked by liberty. A person who is sanctified to the degree that, "whatever is done ... may be done in the name of the Lord Jesus," is one who is truly free. And the freedom possessed is the freedom to orient one's life toward God; it is exactly for this freedom that Christ has set us free (Galatians 5:1).

The doctrine of Christian perfection is not something Wesleyans should shy away from. In fact, our neglect of it has probably contributed to our loss of a full understanding of holiness of heart & life. We should pay attention to it, particularly since it is eminently biblical. Entire sanctification is, simply put, that form of life to which the whole New Testament points.

Coming across little gems like the letter to Mrs. Bennis is one of the real joys of graduate work. Does that make me sound like a complete nerd? Oh, well.

[If you're wondering, the letter to Mrs. Bennis can be found in the Telford edition of The Letters of John Wesley, vol. 5, p.6.]

Wesley on Kempis

I read a couple of months out of John Wesley's Journal every morning - a part of my daily reading discipline that is both spiritual edifying and helpful to my academic work. Last week I came across a reference by Wesley to Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ. Wesley quotes Kempis as he reports his pastoral engagement with some struggling members of one of the Methodist societies:

Friday, May 5, 1749 - "This day and the next I endeavoured to see all the rest who were weary and faint in their minds. Most of them, I found, had not been used with sufficient tenderness. Who is there that sufficiently weighs the advice of Kempis, 'Noli duriter agere cum tentato'? - 'Deal not harshly with one that is tempted.'"

The reference comes from Book I, Chapter 13, of the Imitation of Christ. Kempis goes on to say the following in that same chapter:

"Some suffer great temptations int he beginning of their conversion, others toward the end, while some are troubled almost constantly throughout their life. Others, again, are tempted but lightly according to the wisdom and justice of Divine Providence. Who weighs the status and merit of each and prepares all for the salvation of His elect."

"We should not despair, therefore, when we are tempted, but pray to God the more fervently that He may see fit to help us, for according to the word of Paul, He will make issue with temptation that we may be able to bear it. Let us humble our souls under the hand of God in every trial and temptation for He will save and exalt the humble in spirit."

"In temptations and trials the progress of a man is measured; in them opportunity for merit and virtue is made more manifest."

"When a man is not troubled it is not hard for him to be fervent and devout, but if he bears up patiently in time of adversity, there is hope for great progress."

As I continue to read through both Wesley's Journal and Kempis' Imitation of Christ, I can see why the former was so drawn to the latter's meditation on the Christian life. He seemed to see not only a spiritual writer who spoke to his own life & ministry, but also one who offered a keen insight into the joys and struggles that all followers of Jesus face in this life.

Old friends in a new venue

Before Emily and I moved to Durham so I could pursue a Doctor of Theology degree at Duke University, I served as an associate pastor back home in the Arkansas Conference.

My appointment was at the First United Methodist Church in Searcy, Arkansas. Our time in Searcy was way too short, but we made lots of great friends and have many wonderful memories from our years there. I saw a couple of days ago that my former church has launched a new website, which you can find here.

I did some work to help launch a new site when I arrived in Searcy at the end of 2003, but this is light years ahead of where we were then. It looks inviting, eye-catching, and user-friendly - which is exactly what a church website should be.

Kudos to FUMC Searcy!

Swine Flu fears

Apparently, the fears over a swine flue epidemic are really affecting relationships down at Pooh Corner.

I wrote not long ago about my own thoughts on how we react to looming threats. You can find that story at this link.

E.T. - The Sequel

I woke up at 4:40 am this morning with a movie script in my head. This will work, I tell you. Check it out:

E.T. 2:
E.T. Skype Home

Plot: E.T. returns to earth to find out what has happened to his friends Elliott, Gertie, and their family. His spaceship accidentally crash lands, once again stranding him in northern California. Remarkably, he finds himself in the backyard of a now-grown Elliott, who now has a wife and a son named Elliott Jr. The whole setup makes for 2 hours of hilarious-and-heart warming hijinks in a world far technologically superior to the one E.T. experienced in the early '80s.

Scene 1: E.T. waddles into a familiar-looking backyard at night and tries to figure out a way to reveal himself to his old friend Elliott. Trying to sneak in the backdoor of the house, E.T. sets off the ADT security system, leading to 10 minutes of hilarious child-screaming, dog-barking, pot-and-pan crashing pandemonium. When the dust settles, E.T. is disappointed to see that Elliott - by now 35 years old - is a Silicon Valley workaholic who has no time for extra terrestrials. He pawns E.T. off on his son, Elliott Jr., who is about as old as he was when E.T. showed up the last time.

Scene 2: At the Elliott family home. Elliott Jr. spends about 6 hours a day playing Sega and Wii, munching on Reese's Pieces and looking like the poster kid for child obesity. E.T. seems immediately disappointed with his decision to return. He starts repeating, "E.T. phone home, E.T. phone home" over and over again in a croaky voice.

Scene 3: At Elliott, Sr.'s, high profile tech company in the Valley. Elliott Sr. mentions that an alien showed up at his house the night before over a working lunch with other hip young executives. Most of them laugh it off, but a particularly nervous-looking woman with a fear of extra terrestrials and a desire to move into Elliott Sr.'s job calls the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. A guy in a Hazmat Suit answers the phone but explains that the CDC is way too busy battling swine flu to worry about a wrinkly, somewhat toadish alien in northern California.

Scene 4: Back at the Elliott family home. E.T. uses his magic glowy finger to make Elliott Jr.'s Wii crash, forcing Junior to listen to his croaky pleading about phoning home. Junior impatiently explains that the family recently cut their landline because they couldn't justify the expense with everybody having cell phones. When E.T. digs through Junior's dirty clothes pile to find his cell phone, Junior explains that Dad cut off his service last month after he sent over 900 text messages to friends. E.T. is almost apoplectic.

Scene 5: Driving around San Francisco in a sporty BMW convertible. Elliott Sr.'s wife, who spends most of her days at various gyms and spas, finds the idea that the family is harboring an ugly, squattish alien to be distasteful in the extreme. To compensate, she starts telling her friends that they've taken in a child with special needs and orders physical and occupational therapy to help E.T. cope with his strangely enlongated neck and overly short legs.

Scene 6: At the Elliott family home. E.T. spends several miserable months at the Elliott home, neglected by Elliott Sr., tormented by Mrs. Elliott Sr., and annoyed by Elliott Jr. He finds solace in starting a blog, where he writes everyday about the challenges of living as an alien in today's America.

Scene 7: In a rundown trailer somewhere in the desert Southwest. Gertie (Elliott's little sister in the original E.T., played by an adorable six-year old Drew Barrymore), who has been living her entire adult life near Roswell, New Mexico, running a fringe shop for alien enthusiasts, happens across E.T.'s blog while researching government conspiracies on the Internet one day. She immediately drives to California in a beat-up VW van, where she rescues E.T by distracting Elliott Jr. with a king-sized bag of Reese's Pieces. A day later they are back in Roswell, where Gertie introduces E.T. to the almost Star Trek-like awesomeness of Skype. E.T. is able to locate his alien friends in short order, and they are reunited in cyberspace amidst lots of strange gurgling noises, glowy fingers, and neck stretches.

Scene 8: Inside Area 51. E.T.'s friends arrange to pick him up - ironically - inside the Area 51 military base near Roswell. He and Gertie arrive in Gertie's old VW, just ahead of both the Elliott family (angry at Gertie's deception) and the local military police. The spaceship descends, E.T. boards, and at the last minute, all the E.T. creatures gesture to Gertie that she is welcome to join them. She does, with tears in her eyes, and the spaceship flies off into the night. Roll credits.

I'm telling you, this thing's got "Oscar" written all over it. Am I missing anything?? Is there any sane reason why Stephen Spielberg shouldn't be casting for this film right now??

Privileging People over Process

A few days ago I posted about how the church can often be its own worst enemy when it comes to the ordination process.

Posts about ordination candidacy tend to generate a lot of response - both in terms of e-mails and reader comments. I've always seen that as an indication of the level of frustration people often experience in the process itself. Having received a call from God to enter ministry, it can be exasperating to navigate a bureaucratic maze that seems designed to frustrate more than facilitate.

As I wrote about in my last column, there is a momentum in the UMC at large to reform the structure of the ordination process. That's good news! Significant changes were made at the 2008 General Conference, and I expect there to be more in 2012.

But we need more than just structural reform. We need a reform of personal attitudes as well. I take up this subject in my current column, where I talk about the importance of personal concern and attention on the part of candidacy mentors, DCOMs, and BOMs. You could add to that list, of course, with seminary professors, pastors, district superintendents, and bishops.

I firmly believe that any complicated process is made easier with the right attitudes on the part of the people in authority. The church as a whole should be constantly aware of the vulnerable and often uncertain position that ordination candidates find themselves in. They need the love, care, and wisdom that mentor figures can provide. And with that, I think a lot of the deep frustration that they often experience can be avoided.

The trend in our culture is, on the whole, toward greater bureaucracy. As that happens, we tend to think processes can take over in systems where people used to be the integral parts. That may work for shopping online and self-check outs at the grocery store, but I don't think it will ever work in the body of Christ.

We are members, one of the other! And as we try to respond faithfully to the Holy Spirit's work in raising up shepherds, we need to make sure that we're personally involved to help, assist, and encourage.

Thinking about death

Live each day as if it were your last.

That's a slogan as likely to appear on an inspirational calendar as it is in anything connected with Christianity. But the idea is one that is rooted in Scripture. "The end of all things is near," Peter instructs us (1 Peter 4:7). We know that the eschaton is upon us, for, as the Apostle Paul teaches, "The present form of this world is passing away" (1 Corinthians 7:31).

Our youth-obsessed culture doesn't help us be very honest with this fact, though. We do everything we can to escape death - from avoiding the topic in conversation to avoiding the reality by separating it from regular daily life.

And yet, for all of us death is very close. "Life is but a passing shadow," Shakespeare wrote. We would all gain a clearer focus about the things of most importance if we would be clear about the brevity of life.

I say all that as a way to introduce another section of Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ, which I wrote about a few days ago. Kempis offers powerful counsel about death in Book I.23:

"Very soon your life here will end ... Therefore, in every deed and every thought, acts as though you were to die this very day. If you had a good conscience you would not fear death very much. It is better to avoid sin than to fear death. If you are not prepared today, how will you be prepared tomorrow? Tomorrow is an uncertain day; how do you know you will have a tomorrow?"

"Blessed is he who keeps the moment of death ever before his eyes and prepares for it everyday."

"The present time is very precious; these are the days of salvation; now is the acceptable time. How sad that you do not spend the time in which you might purchase everlasting life in a better way. Time will come when you will want just one day, just one hour in which to make amends, and do you now whether you will obtain it?"

"Learn to die to the world now, that then you may begin to live with Christ. Learn to spurn all things now, that then you may freely go to Him. Chastise your body in penance now, that then you may have the confidence born of certainty."

A key to appreciating such passages, I think, is for us to stop seeing the contemplation of death as a morbid activity and instead to see it as a way to properly orient the lives with which God has blessed us in these days.

Christians on Campus

I've been around a lot of college and university campuses over the past 15 years - as an undergraduate student, seminarian, campus minister, and now as a doctoral student.

University life has always been exciting to me. The people there are bright and earnest, pursuing dreams and developing abilities. The exchange of ideas is stimulating. And the monotony of the work-a-day world never really seems to play a role in an environment where people are constantly testing new theories, developing arguments, and advancing scholarship in every area of human knowledge.

That's the academic side of things, anyway.

But what about the place of faith in a modern college or university setting?

This is a complicated issue, which is perhaps best understood by the difference between a "Religious Studies" curriculum and a "Seminary" or "Christian theological studies" curriculum. The former represents an attempt to justify the study of religion within a secular academic environment. The latter seeks to hold on to the traditional place of the theological curriculum within the university without apologizing for the unavoidably confessional aspects of its content.

A place like Duke University has both, of course. One is housed in the Religion Department of Trinity College (the undergraduate College of Arts & Sciences) and the Graduate School. And the other is housed in the Duke Divinity School (which, as you probably know. is a seminary of the United Methodist Church).

The complexity of how Christianity is perceived on university campuses is difficult to describe to people who haven't been around it. And beyond all these faculty and curriculum issues, it extends to the practice of faith.

The very environment of college can be hostile - implicitly or explicitly - to Christian men and women who want to grow in their faith as they grow in other areas of intellectual and social life. That's a shame, and I don't think it has to be that way. In fact, one of the ways I'm trying to help our seminary students at Duke to ground their discipleship as they prepare for ministry is through encouraging participation in Covenant Discipleship groups.

I write about this experience in the new issue of Covenant Discipleship Connection, which is available here. CD groups are small groups encouraging growth in discipleship through the practice of weekly mutual accountability. They've been an important part of my own discipleship for a decade now, and I think they are ideally suited to help college and university students who want to stay grounded as Christians as they explore new academic heights as students.

CD groups are just one avenue, of course. If you have ideas for how to help students focus on faith during their college, seminary, or grad school years, please share!

The Imitation of Christ

I've been re-reading some books from the "holy living tradition" that were very influential for John Wesley during his early adulthood. They're good sources for understanding how Wesley was influenced in his thinking about holiness of heart & life. But the real joy in reading them is that they are all spiritual classics that offer great insight into the way of holiness for Christians today.

One of the best is the meditation of Thomas a Kempis called, The Imitation of Christ. (That's him in the picture, by the way.) Kempis was a 15th-century Dutch monk who was a member of the Brothers of the Common Life. His masterpiece, The Imitation of Christ, has inspired countless people in their devotional lives since he penned it in the early 1400s.

John Wesley talks about its influence on him in the opening paragraphs of A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, where he writes, "In the year 1726, I met with Kempis's 'Christian's Pattern.' The nature and extent of inward religion, the religion of the heart, now appeared to me in a stronger light than ever it had done before ... I saw, that 'simplicity of intention, and purity of affection,' one design in all we speak or do, and one desire ruling all our tempers, are indeed 'the wings of the soul,' without which she can never ascend to the mount of God."

I would encourage you to pick up a copy of The Imitation of Christ, which is available in a number of different versions. (The Thomas Nelson edition is good for devotional reading; it's not currently in print but is available for next to nothing from used booksellers). Keep in mind that it should be read slowly and savored. It's best read meditatively along with your morning Scripture reading, which allows you to reflect on its words throughout your daily tasks.

I'll also share a few passages from it over the next few weeks. Here's one from the opening section:

"The teaching of Christ is more excellent than all the advice of the saints, and he who has His spirit will find in it a hidden manna. Now, there are many who hear the Gospel often but care little for it because they have not the spirit of Christ. Yet whoever wishes to understand fully the words of Christ must try to pattern his whole life on that of Christ" (I.1).

Words of wisdom.

And words by which to focus our spiritual lives.

The Long Road to Ordination

What if the biggest obstacle in responding to God's call to ordained ministry turned out to be the church itself?

And what if, with the very best of intentions, the church was ironically hampering its own witness and compromising its own future in the way it had laid out the path to ordination?

For a lot of candidates for ordination in the United Methodist Church, this worst case scenario seems anything but far-fetched. I've heard scores of stories over the past few years about the difficulty of pursuing ordination as an elder or deacon in the UMC.

I am convinced the ordination process can be reformed. And the change that have been made in the past couple of years only reinforce that conviction.

In my current column in the UM Reporter, I look at reform of ordination candidacy in two forms: the need for a change in structure and the need for a change in personal attitudes.

The willingness to change our structure - as outlined in the Book of Discipline - seems to finally be underway. Last year's General Conference legislated a number of long-needed changes, some of which I mention in the column. There are more changes that need to be made, and it's my hope that the 2012 General Conference will continue that crucial work.

The willingness to change attitudes (which I'll look at in the next column) is no less needed but also a bit more difficult. We've allowed ourselves to shift focus from people to process, a move that largely reflects the wider culture's growing belief that virtues of bureaucracy. But layers of organization and piles of paperwork cannot do the very human work of discernment, and the Holy Spirit doesn't work as well through standardized tests and surveys as he does through personal mentoring relationships.

I know a lot of this blog's readers have personal experience with the UM ordination process. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on what is needed the most to improve our ordination candidacy.

Also, here are some other ordination-related articles and posts I've done in the past:

"Can't we simplify" (UM Reporter, September 9, 2009)

"Reflections on the ordination process" (blog post, July 9, 2008)

"The devil's in the details with ordination process" (UM Reporter, October 3, 2007)

"Ordination problems ... uh, process" (blog post, August 15, 2007)

'Graced response' and pro-vita faith

I've used the term pro-vita for the past few years to describe the view of many Christians I encounter - particularly Gen X'ers, but others as well - who are dissatisfied with the conventional liberal and conservative positions on "life issues," such as abortion and capital punishment.

Those positions tend to be insufficiently theological in their expression, and hence, insufficiently consistent.

More and more, Christians want consistency on how we view God's desire for the life of all his creation. I've written about how this affects my own positions on abortion and the death penalty a couple of times before (see posts here and here). I am "pro-life" in both cases, meaning that I am both anti-capital punishment and anti-abortion.

There are some elements of the pro-vita position I have wanted to develop but just haven't had the time to do. For instance, I understand creation care - the theological approach to our stewardship of the earth - as a pro-vita position (see this post, for instance). And without a doubt, our outreach and ministry with the poor is a core commitment of a pro-vita faith.

None of these positions are duties, undertaken out of a sense of bare obligation. They are, instead, the graced response of Christian men and women who have seen their own lives redeemed by Jesus Christ and thereby understand God's desire for the flourishing of all life on this good earth.

To that end, I want to share some online interviews and articles by Prof. Amy Laura Hall, who teaches theological ethics at Duke, that I think speak profoundly to the pro-vita understanding of our moral lives. Dr. Hall, an elder in the Southwest Texas Annual Conference, often takes the time to write "for the church," meaning that she takes the fruits of her research and theological reflection and presents them in a way that those outside the academy can really engage them.

Check out these links, and note how Dr. Hall is writing to that part of the pro-vita ethic that seeks to embrace vulnerable women and children into the body of Christ:

Articles by Dr. Hall:
"For Shame? Why Christians should welcome, rather than stigmatize, unwed mothers and their children," Christianity Today (September 2006)

"'Designer baby' option raises ethical concerns," UM Reporter (April 15, 2009)

A 2004 interview in CT:
"Unwanted Interruptions: Why is our culture so hostile to children inside and outside the womb?" Christianity Today (July 2004)

A 2008 review in CT of Dr. Hall's newest book, Conceiving Parenthood:
"Unplanned Parenthood," Christianity Today (July 2008)

A part of my own sense of calling is to do what Dr. Hall is doing in these links - that is, speak to both academy and church about important matters of our faith. That means I'm particularly interested in pastor-scholars who seek to do the same. In my mind, her approach is exactly what both academy and church need.

What's up, awesome wave?

"Not much. Just crashing the beach party."