logo

RENEW
Reclaiming the Wesleyan Social Witness: Offering Christ

By Faye Short

For the past year, I, along with Katy Kiser, a member of the Renew leadership team, have been working on a book with the working title, Reclaiming the Wesleyan Social Witness: Offering Christ. The book is scheduled for release at year-end. There are several components of this work that we believe will make it a valuable resource for United Methodists.

First, it explores our Wesleyan heritage in depth. The book begins with a close look at the family legacy of the Wesleys, the outside influences that shaped the faith of John and Charles, their personal conversion experiences, and their ensuing ministries. I have come to a new appreciation for John Wesley who was so steeped in Scripture that his writings are almost scriptures linked together by connecting phrases. Wesley wrote, “I want to know one thing—the way to heaven…God himself has descended to teach the way; it is for this very purpose that Christ came from heaven. He has written the way in a book. O, give me that book! At any price give me the Book of God! I have it, and it contains knowledge enough for me!”

Second, this book examines the Wesleyan social witness comparing it to the social witness of the United Methodist Church today. We, liberal and conservative alike, are weighed in the balance and found wanting.

Reclaiming the Wesleyan Social Witness: Offering Christ explores the priority of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. John Wesley was first and foremost an evangelist, calling men and women to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ he had so powerfully found for himself on Aldersgate Street on Wednesday, May 24, 1738. Wesley recounted his experience: “In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away ‘my’ sins, even ‘mine,’ and saved ‘me’ from the law of sin and death.”

Out of this saving faith experience, and the burning desire to share Christ with all, came a love for humanity that compelled the Wesleys and early Methodists to care for the needs of those to whom they ministered and to work for justice on their behalf. Wesley held this balance of faith and works in perfect tension. He explained, “Saving faith is resting upon Christ as our atonement and our life—a savior who gave himself for us and lives in us. The result of saving faith is uniting with Christ, and adhering firmly to him ‘who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.’ In a word, Christ is our salvation. [I would trust it is understood]…we are speaking of a faith that is the foundation of all good works and of all holiness…It is crucial to keep in mind that the kind of faith which fails to produce repentance, love, and good works is not genuine living faith.”

Third, this book speaks to all United Methodists, regardless of their theological perspective, calling them to reclaim their Wesleyan heritage and to offer Christ to the world as our Methodist forebears did, and as United Methodists still do in many places. The recommendations for reclaiming this social witness founded on gospel proclamation are practical and clearly mapped out in the final two chapters of the book. United Methodists are called to new beginnings and to an application of the “means of grace” Wesley advocated for Methodists.

Katy and I, and all of the Renew and Good News family are excited about the potential of this book to assist United Methodists in the reclamation of our heritage and the application of that heritage for the 21st century. This book is realistic in its assessment of our denomination, and positive in its challenge for change. Pray that the finished product will contain all that it should and that those working with us to refine its message will provide insightful and helpful guidance.

Let me close with an excerpt from the final chapter: “It is time for those who are alive in Christ to reclaim the level of commitment that was instrumental in ‘spreading scriptural holiness across the land.’ Methodism was the early bearer of this message of salvation and sanctification of heart and life. If our witness in this area is to be effective, it must go beyond a local church, beyond a jurisdiction or a conference, to encompass the whole denomination, calling it to reclaim the Wesleyan social witness—by first and foremost offering Christ. Oh the potential for United Methodism to recover its heritage and to bring spiritual awakening and a powerful social witness to the nation and the world.”

Lord, make it so!

Renew is the women’s program arm of the Good News movement. Visit us at www.renewnetwork.org or contact us at renew1@hemc.net; P.O. Box 889, Cornelia, GA 30531; 706-778-4812. Your contributions to this ministry are appreciated.



Click here to send your response plus the title of this article to us at Good News.

Good News | 308 East Main St. | P.O. Box 150 | Wilmore, KY 40390 | 859-858-4661 | 1-800-487-7784
info@goodnewsmag.org | About Us | ©2007 Good News magazine