Pioneering Methodists: Accused of Being Irregular, Boisterous, and Innovative
Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 119:1-7; I Corinthians 3:1-9
We’ve all had times when we’ve faced a dilemma. There are two or more choices before us, and we must decide what we’ll do. I have a video for us to watch in which an older man has a dilemma. The decision he makes looks simple, but its impact is extraordinary.
(Click here to view the video)
Did you like this commercial for IKEA? It began with a dilemma: three old men sat on a park bench, listlessly tossing breadcrumbs to pigeons. A fourth older man arrives who wants to do the same but there’s no room to sit. He could have stood up to feed the birds, or gone home and returned another day. He also could have asked them to squish together so he could sit. He solved the dilemma in a unique way. He left and came back carrying a bright red folding IKEA chair. He sat nearby and joined them in feeding the pigeons. That was an innovative choice… a bit irregular, but it worked.
I thought that was the end of the commercial and the pitch was, “buy IKEA chairs, they’ll help you live the life you want to live”. End of scene. That’s a wrap! But there was more, a larger message IKEA wanted their audience to get excited about – it was that they could help people live a far better life.
We watched the old man carry around his red IKEA chair everywhere he went, not just close to home but on travels around the world. Sometimes he was shown alone and happy, other times he pulled up his red chair to be with people. We sense he was on the move, meeting people from different cultures, often participating in whatever was going on. It looked like he had a lot of fun! Did you notice him leaving his cane against a wall at one point? He no longer needed it. As time went by, he became more fully alive. He had a whirlwind of experiences that brought him joy.
I’m hoping most of you caught a glimpse a woman on the side of the road; she was carrying her own red IKEA chair. This suggests that the idea’s catching on. We’re meant to get excited when we spot this second person carrying a red IKEA chair; it implies that she’ll have adventures, “a far better life” than she’d been living before.
The old man finally returns to his neighborhood park, carrying his red chair. It’s visibly beat up from living a full and busy life. He sets it in front of the three men feeding the pigeons; they are as lethargic as ever. He leaves the chair as a gift, a possibility for a different and better future for any of them that will make that choice. That was a terrific ending, I thought. But there’s a last scene showing him happily walking toward an IKEA store. We know he’s going back to get a new chair (I wonder what color!); we have no doubt in our mind, he is going to keep on living the “far better life” he’s discovered.
What if… what if wherever we went, we imagined having by our side not a red IKEA chair, but Jesus? When we watch kids playing sports on a field, Jesus - the one who loves children - is there with us. If we’re taking pictures on a bridge or going on a hike, we’re aware that Jesus is with us. If we’re sitting by the beach or playing a game with others, can we imagine Jesus’ presence with us? Jesus is with us, in as real a way as the red chair was with the older man. From the time our alarm clock rings, until we fall asleep at night, Jesus is right there with us. He is the one who helps us “live a far better life”.
I believe that many of us who are in church today are indebted to the example, teaching, and good works of Christians we knew growing up. The presence of Christ was in them. Their lives modeled the full and satisfying life one can have when Jesus is your Lord and Savior. They didn’t boast, or call much attention to themselves, but their commitment was steady and their faith real – we witnessed that up close. We may not have realized it at the time, but now we better appreciate that it was Jesus, filling and using them. He was as real as, but far better than, a solid red IKEA chair being carried around.
I want to highlight that this is our last Sunday in the season of Epiphany. I’ve been intentional in choosing this time of year for a preaching series on the church universal, church life in America and our local church. Epiphany is when we celebrate the light of Christ which shines brilliantly in the pitch darkness of our world, and it shines on our lives. You and I are called to walk as children of the Light. Jesus’ own presence is within us, giving us all we need to be his followers and His church. Christ makes us fully alive!
With this in mind, I want to turn our attention one last time to John Wesley. He, and the men and women who served God alongside him – with the help of the Holy Spirit – began a renewal movement in England that made its way over to America. It was an exciting time to be a Christian. But what most people don’t know is the sad state of affairs the church was in before revival began. In the words of a Methodist scholar, in Wesley’s time, “it looked like Christianity was on its way out”. Church attendance everywhere was sparse. Church buildings were in terrible disrepair. Wesley once visited Saint David’s cathedral, a remarkable house of worship, but an entire section of the church had fallen down and there were no funds to repair it. There were similar conditions in churches across the country. People had drifted away from the faith and stopped coming. Many worked menial jobs. There was also a growing interest in humanism and atheism. Taken together, things were bleak for Christ’s Church in England; it was discouraging for the remnant of Christians living at the time.
The phrase that’s played through my mind this week has been, “It looked like Christianity was on its way out”. That’s a shocking and terrible thing to hear. We know churches in America have had low attendance, high costs for repairs, and many people drifting away from the faith or rejecting it altogether.
I can’t help but think about the three old men on the bench in the IKEA commercial, so lifeless. In England John Wesley and a band of others began to come alive in their faith; they were aflame with a love for God and a desire to help all they could in Jesus’ name. How very small it was at the beginning.
I want to encourage us all this morning with some of the ways John Wesley and others became part of a spiritual awakening across the land. It began with an inner transformation: Wesley immersed himself in prayer, Scripture, and faith conversations with other Christians. What followed was a sincere desire to serve others who were in any sort of need. I’m not telling you anything new here; doing as Wesley did will make any person a vital Christian. Faith formation, on one’s own and with companions, and a commitment to meet the needs of neighbors is the definition of a faithful disciple. So what was the secret, the method, the genius that seeded a sweeping movement across one country, then across an ocean to another?
Wesley did two things that were very effective in his ministry. First, he was, to use a modern term, contextual. He paid attention to what was happening in people’s lives and in their communities. When he sent lay preachers out, he required them to first take the time to talk with those in the crowd, and make notes on who lacked food, medicine, or fuel so it could be delivered to them. Once that was done, then he could stand before them and speak about God.
Wesley learned all he could about health crises, working conditions, food insecurity, lack of medical care, and housing. He did this so he and others could meet the specific needs of people. There are many ways in which Wesley and those who partnered with him were intentional about understanding the community they wanted to serve. They understood that they were the experts on what was lacking, which needs should be prioritized, where in the community help was most needed, etc. To contextualize ministry then, and to do so today, is one of the most important things a church can ever do. When this is a shared process, with mutually agreed-on ministries, it becomes a partnership – neighbor helping neighbor. That exchange, by the way, the giving and receiving, goes both ways when it’s done well. Everyone is blessed.
A second way Wesley was wise was in his synthesis of old and new. He was well aware of the church’s earliest traditions; he knew the creeds and doctrine; he knew what was timeless and he made it timely. He was willing to try new things, to innovate in ministry. He opened the way for Christian women to minister, to preach, and to lead in other ways. That decision, to send out the other half of the population, expanded the reach of the revival.
There was also an entrepreneurial aspect to Wesley. He wanted to “provide a religion that is every bit as gripping as anyone else can offer”. Can you sense the competitive spirit there? It’s a given that he’d take full advantage of the newest technology, the printing press. The tracts and other materials he continually had printed went across the land. There was always fresh material from Wesley – people were eager to get hold of it and read it, then it was a topic discussed by many in the mainstream.
These two examples, using women in ministry and giving out free, frequent spiritual material, were just two of the ways Wesley was able to accelerate revival. There were many other times when he was open to changing his method or re-thinking a plan. He was ahead of his time, doing then what is now known to be highly effective. He was contextual in his ministry and open to innovation.
I believe our church can absolutely be about the same sorts of things done in Wesley’s day. I’d love to have us begin to pray and dream and do. Here are the building blocks and the special genius that is distinctively Methodist.
(Click here to view the video)
Did you like this commercial for IKEA? It began with a dilemma: three old men sat on a park bench, listlessly tossing breadcrumbs to pigeons. A fourth older man arrives who wants to do the same but there’s no room to sit. He could have stood up to feed the birds, or gone home and returned another day. He also could have asked them to squish together so he could sit. He solved the dilemma in a unique way. He left and came back carrying a bright red folding IKEA chair. He sat nearby and joined them in feeding the pigeons. That was an innovative choice… a bit irregular, but it worked.
I thought that was the end of the commercial and the pitch was, “buy IKEA chairs, they’ll help you live the life you want to live”. End of scene. That’s a wrap! But there was more, a larger message IKEA wanted their audience to get excited about – it was that they could help people live a far better life.
We watched the old man carry around his red IKEA chair everywhere he went, not just close to home but on travels around the world. Sometimes he was shown alone and happy, other times he pulled up his red chair to be with people. We sense he was on the move, meeting people from different cultures, often participating in whatever was going on. It looked like he had a lot of fun! Did you notice him leaving his cane against a wall at one point? He no longer needed it. As time went by, he became more fully alive. He had a whirlwind of experiences that brought him joy.
I’m hoping most of you caught a glimpse a woman on the side of the road; she was carrying her own red IKEA chair. This suggests that the idea’s catching on. We’re meant to get excited when we spot this second person carrying a red IKEA chair; it implies that she’ll have adventures, “a far better life” than she’d been living before.
The old man finally returns to his neighborhood park, carrying his red chair. It’s visibly beat up from living a full and busy life. He sets it in front of the three men feeding the pigeons; they are as lethargic as ever. He leaves the chair as a gift, a possibility for a different and better future for any of them that will make that choice. That was a terrific ending, I thought. But there’s a last scene showing him happily walking toward an IKEA store. We know he’s going back to get a new chair (I wonder what color!); we have no doubt in our mind, he is going to keep on living the “far better life” he’s discovered.
What if… what if wherever we went, we imagined having by our side not a red IKEA chair, but Jesus? When we watch kids playing sports on a field, Jesus - the one who loves children - is there with us. If we’re taking pictures on a bridge or going on a hike, we’re aware that Jesus is with us. If we’re sitting by the beach or playing a game with others, can we imagine Jesus’ presence with us? Jesus is with us, in as real a way as the red chair was with the older man. From the time our alarm clock rings, until we fall asleep at night, Jesus is right there with us. He is the one who helps us “live a far better life”.
I believe that many of us who are in church today are indebted to the example, teaching, and good works of Christians we knew growing up. The presence of Christ was in them. Their lives modeled the full and satisfying life one can have when Jesus is your Lord and Savior. They didn’t boast, or call much attention to themselves, but their commitment was steady and their faith real – we witnessed that up close. We may not have realized it at the time, but now we better appreciate that it was Jesus, filling and using them. He was as real as, but far better than, a solid red IKEA chair being carried around.
I want to highlight that this is our last Sunday in the season of Epiphany. I’ve been intentional in choosing this time of year for a preaching series on the church universal, church life in America and our local church. Epiphany is when we celebrate the light of Christ which shines brilliantly in the pitch darkness of our world, and it shines on our lives. You and I are called to walk as children of the Light. Jesus’ own presence is within us, giving us all we need to be his followers and His church. Christ makes us fully alive!
With this in mind, I want to turn our attention one last time to John Wesley. He, and the men and women who served God alongside him – with the help of the Holy Spirit – began a renewal movement in England that made its way over to America. It was an exciting time to be a Christian. But what most people don’t know is the sad state of affairs the church was in before revival began. In the words of a Methodist scholar, in Wesley’s time, “it looked like Christianity was on its way out”. Church attendance everywhere was sparse. Church buildings were in terrible disrepair. Wesley once visited Saint David’s cathedral, a remarkable house of worship, but an entire section of the church had fallen down and there were no funds to repair it. There were similar conditions in churches across the country. People had drifted away from the faith and stopped coming. Many worked menial jobs. There was also a growing interest in humanism and atheism. Taken together, things were bleak for Christ’s Church in England; it was discouraging for the remnant of Christians living at the time.
The phrase that’s played through my mind this week has been, “It looked like Christianity was on its way out”. That’s a shocking and terrible thing to hear. We know churches in America have had low attendance, high costs for repairs, and many people drifting away from the faith or rejecting it altogether.
I can’t help but think about the three old men on the bench in the IKEA commercial, so lifeless. In England John Wesley and a band of others began to come alive in their faith; they were aflame with a love for God and a desire to help all they could in Jesus’ name. How very small it was at the beginning.
I want to encourage us all this morning with some of the ways John Wesley and others became part of a spiritual awakening across the land. It began with an inner transformation: Wesley immersed himself in prayer, Scripture, and faith conversations with other Christians. What followed was a sincere desire to serve others who were in any sort of need. I’m not telling you anything new here; doing as Wesley did will make any person a vital Christian. Faith formation, on one’s own and with companions, and a commitment to meet the needs of neighbors is the definition of a faithful disciple. So what was the secret, the method, the genius that seeded a sweeping movement across one country, then across an ocean to another?
Wesley did two things that were very effective in his ministry. First, he was, to use a modern term, contextual. He paid attention to what was happening in people’s lives and in their communities. When he sent lay preachers out, he required them to first take the time to talk with those in the crowd, and make notes on who lacked food, medicine, or fuel so it could be delivered to them. Once that was done, then he could stand before them and speak about God.
Wesley learned all he could about health crises, working conditions, food insecurity, lack of medical care, and housing. He did this so he and others could meet the specific needs of people. There are many ways in which Wesley and those who partnered with him were intentional about understanding the community they wanted to serve. They understood that they were the experts on what was lacking, which needs should be prioritized, where in the community help was most needed, etc. To contextualize ministry then, and to do so today, is one of the most important things a church can ever do. When this is a shared process, with mutually agreed-on ministries, it becomes a partnership – neighbor helping neighbor. That exchange, by the way, the giving and receiving, goes both ways when it’s done well. Everyone is blessed.
A second way Wesley was wise was in his synthesis of old and new. He was well aware of the church’s earliest traditions; he knew the creeds and doctrine; he knew what was timeless and he made it timely. He was willing to try new things, to innovate in ministry. He opened the way for Christian women to minister, to preach, and to lead in other ways. That decision, to send out the other half of the population, expanded the reach of the revival.
There was also an entrepreneurial aspect to Wesley. He wanted to “provide a religion that is every bit as gripping as anyone else can offer”. Can you sense the competitive spirit there? It’s a given that he’d take full advantage of the newest technology, the printing press. The tracts and other materials he continually had printed went across the land. There was always fresh material from Wesley – people were eager to get hold of it and read it, then it was a topic discussed by many in the mainstream.
These two examples, using women in ministry and giving out free, frequent spiritual material, were just two of the ways Wesley was able to accelerate revival. There were many other times when he was open to changing his method or re-thinking a plan. He was ahead of his time, doing then what is now known to be highly effective. He was contextual in his ministry and open to innovation.
I believe our church can absolutely be about the same sorts of things done in Wesley’s day. I’d love to have us begin to pray and dream and do. Here are the building blocks and the special genius that is distinctively Methodist.
- Methodists commit to growing in their Christian faith. This happens privately, but there’s also a commitment to a small group for spiritual growth, prayer, and accountability.
- Methodists worship together. In Wesley’s day those who gathered loved to sing, loudly and with excitement – they were called boisterous! Methodists have a liveliness in worship.
- Methodists have everyone serving. A spiritual revival spread quickly across two countries because people were ready to step up and go out in whatever ways God could use them – clergy and laity, men and women. It didn’t matter whether you could read or not, were well-off or poor, in the prime of health or getting on in years. It’s important that each one of us find where God is waiting to use us.
- Methodists were contextual. With a spirit of humility, they listened to their neighbors, learning about their greatest needs before partnering to serve them. They met many practical needs but also openly shared their love of God. They committed to serve for years, a lifetime even; there were never brief stints volunteering.
- Methodists are good at standing on tradition but finding fresh expressions for faith in modern times. Technology, and whatever else can be used to spread the Good News about Jesus, should be put to good use. In Wesley’s own words, we cannot be a dead, dry religion.
- Methodists were called irregular. They stood out and were described as “strangely captivating”. I like that! Wouldn’t you like to be known as a “strangely captivating” Christian? I would. It reminds me of the old man who carried a red chair – you couldn’t take your eyes off him. He was joyful, alive, on the move… you wanted to go along with him. Let’s be “strangely captivating” Methodists.