As some of you know, we will soon be looking for someone to head up our Discipleship ministries at Good Shepherd. After five years on staff, James-Michael Smith will be leaving us at the end of April to prepare for and then pursue his PhD.
But I’ll blog more on that and on him later.
As part of our search for a new leader in discipleship, we’re working with some volunteers from Good Shepherd who consult with companies around the world in the areas of recruiting, interviewing, and hiring. You can read about their firm here.
Anyway, as we were talking about the kind of person we’d like to hire, we moved to the subject of beliefs. What kind of theology and values do we want this person to have?
So I immediately popped up: “I want someone who is a Wesleyan evangelical.”
Huh?
I realized that, even in a room full of people in the “know” in this church, I was speaking jargon. So we went through a very brief exercise to define “Wesleyan evangelical.”
Wesleyan: Candidates for this (or any) position on staff will need to embrace the notion that God gives people free will to accept or reject his offer of grace. This is as opposed to our Calvinist friends who believe that God predestines individuals either to heaven or to hell. Both views are firmly in the Christian family; it’s just that one works much better here, in what is after all a Methodist church.
When it comes to end times theology, Wesleyans by and large reject the dispensational theology made popular by the Left Behind novels and instead embrace either amillenialism or historic premillenialism. I personally lean amillenial while my good friend James-Michael is more of an historic premillenialist.
Evangelical: Calling oneself “evangelical” in the first part of the 21st Century can come with some baggage. We hope not here. When we identify ourselves as an evangelical congregation it boils down to two core beliefs: 1) that heaven and hell are real and urgent concerns; and 2) that the bible is, in a mysterious way, uniquely inspired by God.
These views are in contrast to those held by many in mainline denominations — namely, the idea of universalism (all people will ultimately be saved) and that the bible is merely a human document with no compelling authority over our lives today.
So that’s how we summarize what it means to be a Wesleyan evangelical. I hope we can have a church — and a staff — worthy of the label.
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Good morning Talbot.
Can you explain your comment regarding universalism? Which churches profess this belief? I thought most ‘mainline’ churches saw the bible as God’s word, either directly or indirectly. Maybe I just don’t understand what a ‘mainline’ religion is. Thank you for further my journey.
“Universalism” is the belief that all people, regardless of their stance towards Christ, will ultimately be “saved” or go to heaven . . . essentially, that a God of love would never send anyone to hell.
While of course that view has a lot of appeal, I feel it is well out of alignment with the clear teaching of the bible.
Not many churches or denominations would explicitly profess this belief, but there are pastors, teachers, and members within a number of churches & denominations who hold to it. This includes leaders in my own United Methodist denomination, as well as numbers of Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and United Church of Christ. Those denominations, most of which have been around in the US since the 1700s, are what we refer to as the “mainline churches.”
The Unitarians or Unitarian Universalists do openly profess a belief in universal salvation. However, that church also does not identify itself as specifically “Christian” . . . you are as likely to hear teaching from the Hindu Upanishads at a UU Church as you would from the bible. But that’s whole different story.
Hope this explanation helps.
Talbot, when we went through First Step, I thought you explained it extremely well – remember the chart showing subjects that where “eternally important” and then then subjects that are “nice to talk about” (descriptions are my own)? Being raised in the Cary-Grove Evangelical Free Church and then going to Calvin College, I got a good dose of both sides. In many respects, I would say it is a very circuitous arguement (predestination vs. free will), better left to the Philosophy Dept and Seminary students. I, however, agree with you on Free Will but it sure makes for interesting discussions…and someday, it will all be made clear to us, won’t it? Posts lately sure have been drawing great comments – keep it up! Now, about that cage match… -Ben S.
So if you are an Universalist, believing is not a prerequisite for salvation?
Even I don’t buy into that.
An excellent post and I liked the explanation of Universalism vs. the more traditional Christian view of our final dispositions. It did seem as though the “Wesleyan” part could have been filled out a bit; Mr. Wesley was about more than predestination and eschatology. In a Discipleship Ministry a healthy dose of prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace would probably be helpful. 🙂
This is a great summary of what Wesleyan Evangelicals generally believe and I hope the person who takes over my position is exactly this. I think all of us within the collected body of evangelical Christians could really benefit from a better acquaintance with the Wesleys themselves and how God used them (along with their Calvinist best friend, George Whitfield) to light a fire within a denomination on the verge of dying out (Church of England in the 1700s). Every generation of believers needs a Wesley, in my opinion.
And to clarify a bit, I think I’m right in the middle on the Amill, Premill issue…but I probably lean toward Amill a bit more than Premill overall. I think it has less problems than Premill…but don’t tell Ben Witherington–I may end up applying to his Ph.D program!! 🙂
And I hope that the person to take over JMS’s position does share a few qualities with him.
1. Age
2. Marital Status.
I think the two most important things about being Wesleyan you left out.
First, that by God’s grace we can–and are expected to–go on to perfection in Christian love in this life. A kind of “realized eschatology” that allows us to stand theologically firm as amillenialists or historic premillenialists.
Second, that there is an inner witness of the Spirit by which we can be assured of our salvation.
If you miss these two points, you may fairly call yourself United Methodist, but are far from being Wesleyan.
Oh, nearly forgot, the inner witness of the Spirit separates us from many (not all) of our Calvinist friends.