When I think about the one thing needed for church renewal, I believe it must be something defining for the Church, properly ordering and informing all essential aspects of life in the Body of Christ, as well as overcoming all conflicting obstacles. It must be “big enough” to bring together every element of the Church into a cohesive whole and keep the Church properly directed. Following Augustine’s teaching, I believe that this “one thing needed” must be a desire, an all-consuming Holy Spirit given desire in the Church. I believe the one thing needed for Church renewal is a “hunger and thirst” for righteousness.

John Wesley in his sermon “Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount: Discourse Two” defined this righteousness as renewal in “the image of God, the mind that was in Christ Jesus,” possessing “every holy and heavenly temper in one, springing from, as well as terminating in the love of God, as our Father and Redeemer, and the love of men for his sake.” Wesley taught that once this “hunger and thirst” after righteousness has been awakened in human hearts, it becomes the strongest of all spiritual appetites “swallowing up” all other desires into this one “great desire.”

How can this consummate longing for righteousness be the one thing needed for Church renewal? First, righteousness as described by Wesley is the chief purpose of humanity and is the ultimate end of the Church. We are created to love God with our entire being and to love our neighbor as ourselves in the bonds of holiness. When godly righteousness becomes our driving desire, realization of the Church’s true purpose becomes a possibility. In contrast, when the Church is driven by any other desire, she loses her way.

Second, it confronts us with our greatest problem – human sin and sinfulness. When we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we recognize immediately the disparity between our internal motivations, outward actions and the holiest desires of our heart. While we may see love as our life’s purpose, we see increasingly the apparent impossibility of fully walking in that love. Because of human sinfulness, the natural bent or tendency of our heart is to love ourselves more than God and neighbor. While we may have a desire to love and serve God, our desire to please ourselves is persistently stronger. We balk at the righteous requirements of love.
In the end, we find that we do not have the internal power and resources to truly follow Christ and his righteousness. No amount of human will power can bring about the love for which we are made. We may desire to truly be the Church, but not have the power to live the life to which we are called. When the Church “hungers and thirsts” for righteousness, it recognizes sooner or later that no program, organizational plan, or human resource is able to bring true righteousness in the life of the Church.

Third, an overwhelming desire for righteousness drives us to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. One way or another, this holy longing leads us to the realization that only God can liberate the Church from her bondage to sin and set her free to truly love God and neighbor. The good news of Jesus Christ is that through Christ’s redemptive ministry and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, those who “hunger and thirst” for righteousness are given the promise of satisfaction. Finally, when righteousness is unleashed in the people of God through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are able to embody love for one another, even in trying circumstances, evangelism becomes a passionate response of the Church as we seek to see the world reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, ministry to the marginalized of society becomes our nature response, and the expansion of God’s Kingdom drives our ministry through the Church.

May the Holy Spirit cultivate in Christ’s Church an overwhelming “hunger and thirst” for righteousness, an overwhelming desire that will lead to renewal in today’s Church.

I have been formed by the liturgical theology of John Wesley. In his sermon, “The Means of Grace,” Wesley defined worship this way: “By ‘means of grace’ I understand outward signs, words, or actions, ordained of God, and appointed for this end, to be the ordinary channels whereby God might convey to all people, preventing, justifying, or sanctifying grace.” In his writings, Wesley included among the means of grace the Word of God, prayer, the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, fasts, and Christian fellowship that included music. All of these activities communicate the whole grace of God that most Christians experience at least weekly in congregational worship. All of these means of grace have the divine potential to change the lives of every woman, man, and child present.

Unfortunately, too many pastors have adopted a perspective that worship is first and foremost about God. We use the images from Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and others about God being the audience and the people of God being actors on the stage offering a performance that pleases God. I fundamentally disagree. In the Wesleyan/Arminian tradition, worship first and foremost offers everyone the grace of God for the transformation of human lives and renovation of the world.

Too many pastors and worship leaders agonize over whether their worship is historically accurate, theologically sound, and faithful to established prayer books, all of which are valuable perspectives. Often, however, the principal audience consists of the pastors and musicians. Yet, if the gathered congregation leaves worship – having heard the Word of God read and preached, prayed, sang, and celebrated the sacraments – and are still the same people, the worship leaders have failed.

Persons come to worship hungry to be in communion with one another and God. Spiritual seekers yearn to catch a glimpse of a different vision of reality. God’s children are thirsty to experience the preventing, convicting, justifying, and sanctifying grace of God that changes who they are. If we send them home hungry, visionless, and thirsty, worship leaders have missed the opportunity to serve God’s people and our God.

How can we shape our worship to offer the full riches of God’s grace to persons? A few ideas may spark the interest of worship leaders.

When pastors choose, or are chosen by, the Word of God to read and preach, they should prepare the Word read and spoken with the needs of their specific congregations in mind. They should then let that Word determine every other act of worship. When they read the Bible, they should do so with conviction and power and let the living Word speak. They should choose hymns, prayers, and acts of worship that respond to that Word. When they preach, they should specifically address real and immediate needs of the congregation through the lens of the Word. Before they compose their sermons, they should write out a specific list names of people in their congregations who need to hear that Word. If the list is blank, they should start the sermon anew.

When they pray, pastors should ask the same question: who in their congregations needs this prayer this day? The answer “everyone” is never sufficient. Let the prayers be clear, specific, and be a Word of God for the people of God.

When pastors choose music for worship, they should ask whether the music is for the transformation of the singers and hearers? Do the words match the Word? Does the music match the tone of the Word? When we sing, we pray twice. Make sure the music touches the soul.

When pastors share at the Holy Table, they should do so in ways that communicate by word, action, and sign, the holy mystery that brings the living Christ present in the congregation. How the presiding officer stands, speaks, and uses his or her body often communicates more than the words that he or she utters. How people receive the holy elements can be either mechanical or a true call to grace. Choreograph the sacraments in such a way that everyone participates.

In summary, pastors should let the worship in their congregations offer the full riches of the grace of God. Do not waste your time or that of your congregation by throwing together a hodge-podge of acts that do not have content or direction. And when your “worship works,” the whole congregation will be brought into the presence of God, the holy dance of salvation experienced, and the Church renewed.

We are living through the most profound change in the relationship between the church and Western civilization since the fourth century. In this new post-Christian age, the church must discover an identity other than that of being the religion of the culture. The resources for finding a new identity are the ways of being church practiced in primitive Christianity and the foundational description of the church in the Scriptures.
Moreover, because the church in the West is undergoing a radical and permanent shift in its relationship to the culture, genuine renewal must be grounded in a theological vision rather than merely in technological approaches, whether they are programmatic of organizational. Technological approaches are necessary, but they are no substitute for a theological reformation which must begin with the recovery of a biblical ecclesiology.

Also, I assume that all long-term fundamental change occurs because of big ideas. The big idea most needed today is a biblical understanding of what the church of Jesus Christ is.

What is this biblical understanding of the church that is needed today? There are several images of the church in the New Testament and in the tradition of Christendom. I think there is warrant for choosing as the most comprehensive image (which is inclusive of both Testaments and perhaps most of the other images of the church in the New Testament), “the messianic pilgrim people of God” (for more on this, see George Lindbeck, “The Church”, in Keeping the Faith by Geoffrey Wainwright, ed., Fortress Press and Pickwick Publications, 1988, Pp. 179-208).

The understanding of the church as the messianic pilgrim people of God does not view the church as the religion of the culture, or even as a religion, but as a distinctive people in all of the nations of the world. Such an understanding views the church as a missionary community that witnesses to the world by word and deed. Because it sees the church as a people on a pilgrimage through history, it enables the church to be liberated from its captivity to a settled place in society and to adapt to change. It is centered in Jesus Christ as the crucified and risen Messiah of Israel declared by God to be the Lord of the world by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ is known as the climax of the story of Israel which continues in the form of the church for all the families, tribes, and nations of the world. It is not individualistic, but it is a corporate understanding of the church in which all members are joined together in the on-going story of the people of the Messiah. It learns from the experiences of this people in the past, beginning with Israel in the Old Testament, but it is also oriented toward the future God intends for all creation.

As a bishop, I attend many anniversaries of congregations where the history of the congregation is narrated. Nearly all of these histories are stories of buildings constructed and programs instituted. These histories are indicators of the congregations’ self-understanding of themselves as institutions settled down in society. Rarely is the history of the congregation a narrative of the witness and mission of the congregation in its community and the world.

To claim a biblical identity of the church as a messianic pilgrim people of God would be the work of at least a generation of theological education, pastoral leadership, congregational transformation, and denominational reform. It is not the only thing needed by the church today, but it is what is most needed for the church to arise out of the wreckage of Christendom.

The one thing most needed for church renewal is practical preaching. In an age when some have proclaimed the impending “death” of preaching, where so many have found preaching useless and dated, in a time where throngs of even the most devout church going population questions if preaching is worth their taking the time to listen, this practice, as old as the Faith itself, remains the one thing that has the power to draw the hearts of worshipers, transform the lives of its devotees, capture the attention of seekers, and provide hope for a dying world.

Even in Paul’s day, the merits of preaching were discounted by the elites. But what others called “foolishness,” Paul called powerful. Could it be that we have neglected the very aspect of ministry that sets us apart? The church must always be the community of love, witnessing to our faith through acts of justice and kindness in the world; however, one can argue that such expressions of love and community can be found in alternative places. The one unique aspect of the Christian Church is that it is the only place where the proclamation of Jesus Christ as Lord is central.

The example of the Apostle Paul reminds us that we cannot be timid or reserved in our preaching. We must boldly proclaim that we are “not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). Practical preaching must be unapologetically grounded in scripture, while speaking to the contemporary issues people encounter daily. We, as preachers, must speak to the holistic needs of our audiences, both churched and unchurched, in ways that are relevant yet timeless, passionate yet authentic, and accessible yet substantive.

As a result of powerful, practical Christ-centered preaching, the church experienced growth, cultivated intimate worship, witnessed in the face of persecution, and formed communities of faith and love in a hostile culture. This is the preaching that must be reclaimed in the life of the church, preaching the resurrected Christ, not as a metaphor, but as a living reality, active in transforming and renewing our world, our lives, and the church.

This manner of preaching is Spirit led and Spirit empowered to provide clear insights on the person, work, and message of Jesus and seeks to offer practical applications for all who would be like Christ. Paul explains: “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Cor. 2:4-5).

Practical preaching, preaching which speaks with clarity to the needs, hopes, spirits, hurts and pains of people, is what is most needed for church renewal.

The one thing that is most needed for the renewal of the church is the restoration of Scripture to its rightful place in her teaching and preaching ministry. Major renewals experienced by the church in its history have all been inspired by the Holy Spirit and they have been based on fresh understandings of the word of God. When God speaks and the church listens, things happen. New understandings of the word of God is usually made possible by the Holy Spirit opening the eyes of those who hunger and thirst after truth. They receive new insights and are willing to pay the price to see the outworking of those truths in the lives of God’s people. Two the major renewal movements in Christian history have been the Reformation and the Wesleyan revival and both called for mainstreaming Scripture in our ecclesiology. Indeed, in my judgment, part of the reason for the decline of Christianity in the West is the gradual ‘demystification’ of the Bible as the word of God in the life of the community of faith, the church.

The historical-critical approach to Biblical studies has been helpful in enabling us to understand the historical contexts and contents of Scripture in many ways. However, in many seminaries biblical studies, using that approach treated Scripture as an ‘ordinary textbook’ rather than as the word of God that must be revered. Unlike in Islamic theology in which the Qur’an is seen as the very words of Allah, Christians believe that men and women inspired by God the Holy Spirit wrote the Bible. One of the most important Scriptural texts used to explain this Christian understanding of Scripture is II Timothy 3:16, ‘All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.’ The King James Version from which a lot of evangelical Christians like to quote this Scripture renders the expression ‘inspired by God’ as ‘God breathed’. The breath of God is the source of life and this we see at creation when he hovered over the face of the waters, made man into a ‘living being’, and when he entered the dry bones in the deep valley in Ezekiel 37 and restored them to life.

If the breath of God is the source of life and that breath inspired the writing of Scripture, then it follows that the Scriptures contain life. To have life is to be alive and active and this implies hope both for the present and future.  The church needs hope in both its existential and eschatological situations. What will inspire the renewal that restores hope to the life of the church is the Spirit of God who must be active within the Church in the same way that he restored life to dry bones in a valley. In Ezekiel 37, the author uses terms and expressions like ‘the bones were very dry’. As a situation that referred to the physical and spiritual condition of Israel then, we encounter the nation lamenting: ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely’ (vs. 12). Subsequently, the prophet is mandated by God ‘to prophesy’ life into those dry bones that had lost hope so that life would return to them. It is revealing that to ‘prophesy’ amounted to uttering words but these were not the words of the prophet. Rather, they were words granted on the authority of God, the author of lie because it was only he who could bring life into bones that were under curse.

Thus on the basis of the prophesy, God makes the following promise: ‘I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you will know that I am the LORD’ (vs. 6). God’s people did indeed return to life and it is important for us to know that in coming to life they also came to ‘know’ that the Lord was the Lord. It is a process in coming to a new understanding of the place of the Lord in the life of Israel and that new understanding inspired by the Spirit always leads to worship and submission to God’s will and purpose.

This is a process of renewal that begins with God speaking into the lives of people just as he spoke life into the lifeless model of man at creation. Renewal then comes when the word of God is kept alive in the hearts of his people by the Spirit. If the living power behind the word of God is anything to go by, then the one thing that is most needed for the renewal of the church is the restoration of the word of God, that is, Scripture to the heart of church life and ministry.

While no one thing is most needful for church renewal, one practice that could go a long way toward that goal is for churches to fall in love with their communities again.

The longer a church has been in existence, the less knowledgeable it is likely to be about its community and the less connected it becomes with that community. Although that sounds strange, it is rare that a long-existing church is more aware of the trends, demographics, and movements of its community than a new congregation in that same place.

How does this happen? In the early years, a congregation gives careful attention to the community, its people, and their needs. Otherwise, it does not survive. Then the congregation reaches a point of critical mass. Weeks or months go by without new members joining, and the congregation continues to stay alive. But there tends to be a shift in focus from reaching new disciples to caring for current members.

Many congregations then become worlds unto themselves, lacking active engagement with the changes in their surroundings. This movement from external sensitivity to internal focus occurs in virtually all organizations. Without a careful plan to stay close to the heartbeat of one’s surroundings, internal considerations dominate. Good leaders seek to link the internal life of the congregation and its external context.

During hard times especially, churches can forget their purpose and heritage. Forgetting our original mission can easily happen under the pressure to survive. Churches conduct a financial audit each year. What if your church conducted a mission audit once a year to assess its faithfulness to the Wesleyan tradition of serving others? You only need to ask one question in this audit. I first learned this question from United Methodist pastor Don Haynes:

If your church closed today, who would miss it other than your members?

Think about that question for a moment. Make a list of the people and groups in your community outside your membership who would miss your church. What would they miss? Repeat the exercise a year later. Is the list longer or shorter?

It is in answering such a question that we may discover clues about the current state of our church. We may come to see some of the reasons for our strength or weakness as a faithful community of fruitful disciples.

A lesson for leadership in the Wesleyan tradition is, “If you want to thrive, serve.” Despite shortcomings and limitations, the Wesleyan movement produced social reform and service of massive proportions. The spirit of revival sparked fires of change.

Albert Outler describes evangelism in the Wesleyan spirit as Wesley teaching his followers to be a “band of martyrs and servants,” emptying themselves as servants, giving themselves freely for others. For the early Methodist movement, there was a close connection between what happened in the pew and what happened in the jails. What happened in the class meetings connected directly with what happened in the homes of the widows and orphans.

The Wesleyan movement began not for itself but for others. Thriving and serving were indeed linked. The growth of the Wesleyan enterprise is directly related to its identification with the needs of all God’s children.

Is this happening today? Are people saying that because our church is in the community, there are no hungry people? Are people saying that because of our church’s presence in the community, there is no bigotry or discrimination? Are they saying because we are in the community, there is no one homeless? Such questions continue to be the test for heirs of the Wesleyan spirit.

First, there was the rushing sound of violence (v. 2). We sometimes think the Holy Spirit works in a very ordered (Victorian, even!) manner, when perhaps we lack renewal in our churches because we have domesticated the Holy Spirit!

Second, there was definitely a multiplicity of languages. But this assumes a willingness to open our doors to embrace “the other,” the “alien,” the exile, the refugee, the foreigner, which begs the question: can renewal take place in just one language? Or is renewal catalyzed in part by the cacophony of tongues that constitute our human existence?

But, third, it’s not just about pluralism but about the particulars involved in that: there were Cretans present at Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. These were well-known by the civilized as those who were undesirable as neighbors, associates, or partners: “Cretans are always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons” (Titus 1:12). Might it be possible that the presence of liars, barbarians, and sinners is precisely what precipitates renewal?

There were also Arabs present. Wait a minute – those from the lineage of Sarah and Esau?! Aren’t these now dominated by Islamic cultures, values, and religious sensibilities? Yet why might it not be possible that these turn out to be not just those we need to missionize and evangelize but those from which we can learn how to be a revitalized people of God?

In fact, it might get messier. Even after Luke gets done cataloging various ethnicities and nationalities present, he records Peter’s explanation which simply explodes any supposition that we might be able contain renewal. Rather, renewal happens because of God’s intention to “pour out my Spirit upon all flesh” (v. 17). Ouch – I don’t feel too comfortable with my enemies next to me – but isn’t that what the Good Samaritan also felt as he wound his way down the road?

And for those evangelical (gender) complementarians among us, it is potentially even more threatening since the gift of the renewing Spirit enables sons and daughters to prophesy (v. 17). For those of us comfortable in our middle class lifestyles, there is the additional admonishment: “Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy” (v. 18, again, emphasis added). Renewal included not just women prophets but those who didn’t have a seminary education to boot!

In the end, the promise is that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (v. 21, emphasis added), no matter who they are, how far away they live, or how far removed they are in space and time from this site of the Spirit’s renewing work (v. 39). Is God really serious? Aren’t there some boundaries to this renewing work of the Spirit?

Maybe one of the main reasons why we are not experiencing renewal is because we are really not ready to appear as drunks before a watching world. We have too much status to keep up, too much acceptance to compromise, too much respect to preserve. We have too many assumptions that get in the way. We have too many achievements to protect. After all of our hard work of building up the church, why would we now want to turn things loose to aliens and strangers who don’t even speak our language, not to mention women, the poor, and those who are uneducated?

Maybe that is precisely why we need more drunkenness, although not as the world supposes. Rather, we need a fresh outpouring of the Spirit that can shake us free from our inhibitions and renew us and the world along with it. Even so, come Holy Spirit.

The movie The Notebook is a beautiful story of love and faithfulness centering on the long life of an older couple. The woman has Alzheimer’s and the movie unfolds as her husband reads her a story. It’s the story of their life together, but she doesn’t recognize it. She doesn’t remember; and his whole goal is to help her to remember her first love. At the risk of spoiling the ending, she finally does remember that love.

It’s amazing how transformative it is to get in touch with your first love. When the woman remembers, it’s as though for a brief time she suddenly becomes more fully herself and her husband recognizes it and suddenly he becomes more himself as well.

First love is a powerful thing. It’s powerful in human relationships, powerful in spiritual relationships. Have you ever been around a person who has just encountered Jesus? A person who has just discovered the life-transforming aspect of a relationship with Christ? They’re on fire! There’s real joy there and they want to talk about it! Sometimes you have to kind of say whoa! Settle down just a bit! It’s a relationship for a lifetime so you don’t have to get excited all at once!

That’s a very United Methodist thing to do – whoa! Don’t get too excited; remember things like decorum and sophistication. We’re United Methodists after all – not Pentecostals – so don’t go getting too excited on us!

In Revelation Jesus sends an angel to John with instructions to write a letter to seven churches. The second one is to Ephesus but it could be written to the United Methodist Church today:

I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. Rev 2:4-5

I believe that the thing that is most needed for church renewal is the ability for people of faith to be able to share their faith with grace and integrity – graceful articulation. The problem is that we seem to have forgotten what that’s all about.

Reclaiming an understanding of faith sharing isn’t about some new fangled strategy or skill; it’s about getting back in touch with your first love. It’s doing just what the angel said to John: turning back to God. The interesting thing about faith sharing is how easy it becomes when you’re in touch with your first love. How many people enjoy talking about their kids? Or grandkids? It comes easy doesn’t it? Don’t ask me about my kids unless you’ve got some time on your hands because I love to talk about them – the way they’re growing into really interesting young adults; their talents and strengths, quirks and idiosyncrasies. I love talking about them because I love them and my life completely changed the minute they entered picture.

Do you love Jesus? Is your life different because of that love?

If you answered yes to those questions, then what is it about Jesus that drew you to him? What is it about your relationship with Christ that brings meaning to your life?

Do you remember when you encountered Jesus for the first time? Do you remember what that encounter meant for you then? What does it mean for you now?

When we get in touch with those first love details, then sharing faith becomes natural because it’s not about theology or doctrine (even though there’s an important place for those things). It’s just about sharing what it is about Jesus that makes a difference in your life.

In our culture things can get intimidating when it comes to sharing faith. We think we have to have all the answers. We think it’s about arguing a particular point or asserting a particular doctrine – or worse we think it’s about being responsible for converting everybody else. But really it’s all about getting in touch with our first love.

I like Ephesians 3:18-19, because of what Paul wants for the people there, He writes:

May you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Sharing faith with grace and integrity is about getting in touch with how wide, how long, how high and how deep God’s love for each of us really is. Are you in touch with that? Or have you fallen from your first love? Do you need to turn around and rediscover it? Do you need to experience or re-experience the love of Christ, though it’s so great you’ll never fully understand it? Do you need to experience it again so that you can better share it with others?

DAYTON, OH – In October 2012, United Theological Seminary’s Academic Dean, Dr. David Watson, published Wesley, Wesleyans and Reading Bible as Scripture with Dr. Joel B. Green, Associate Dean for the Center of Advanced Theological Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in California, that consists of a collection of diverse essays to understand John Wesley’s approach to read an interpret the Bible as scripture.

“It came about because there was a meeting of the Wesleyan Theological Society, and the theme was set up by Rob Wall, who is one of the contributors in the book,” said Watson, noting Wall is a biblical scholar at Seattle Pacific. “The theme was The Future of Scripture, and it got me thinking about the way in which people in Wesleyan traditions interpret the Bible and what it might mean to think across a few different Wesleyan traditions about biblical interpretation. So I approached Joel about co-editing with me, and he graciously agreed to do that, and then we began to solicit authors.”

Featuring 17 contributors – including United’s Associate Professor of Theology and Wesleyan Studies, Jason E. Vickers, as well as William J. Abraham, Elaine A. Heath and Laceye Warner, who have lectured at United – the text is a piece in the church renewal puzzle, the authors noted.

“It’s important for Wesleyans to be intentional about the way in which we teach the Bible in our churches,” said Watson. “In my opinion, the options presented by evangelicalism and liberal Protestantism haven’t served the church well. So, I think it’s important to open up a conversation among Wesleyans about how to read Scripture from within our own tradition.”

Green also echoed the need for those conversations and reflections in reference to church renewal.

“Historically, genuine church renewal has been tied to getting Scripture into the hands of God’s people, and getting Scripture into the hearts and heads of God’s people,” said Green. “Whatever else this entails, it highlights the importance of reading the Bible together for the purpose of forming, reforming and transforming God’s people. And it underscores the importance of reflecting with Scripture on the full range of the church’s practices — its evangelism, its pastoral care, its worship, its hymns, its engagement with the marginal, its educational ministries, its sacraments, its common meals and so on.”

Watson said his goal with this text is that he hopes readers engage the Wesleyan theological tradition and grow in their faith.

“I hope they get a better sense of the riches of the Wesleyan theological tradition and its breadth, and the way in which that theological tradition interacts with our reading of Scripture to help us grow in the life of faith,” said Watson. “I also hope they get the sense that the Wesleyan tradition is widely varied from the United Methodist Church to Holiness Churches to Asian Methodists to African American Methodists and Latinos and Latinas, that this is a tradition with a lot of breadth to it. We usually only encounter the Wesleyan tradition in our own church content but understanding different ways in which the cultures have appropriated the Wesleyan tradition can help us as we grow in the life of faith.”

Green has had previous experience describing what he believes it means to read the Bible as a Wesleyan – it was a concept featured in his earlier book, Reading Scripture as Wesleyans, which was published by Abingdon in 2010.

“In some ways, the practice of reading the Bible as Wesleyans presses us simply to read the Bible as Christian Scripture — so, for example, in our reading of the Bible we seek to hear God’s address, we regard the creeds of the church as a help rather than a hindrance to our efforts to understand God’s Word, we embrace the hard work of reading texts closely, we seek enlightenment from the Holy Spirit as we engage the Scriptures, and we seek in our reading of Scripture to become more Christ-like as persons and as communities of Christians,” said Green. “Reading as Wesleyans presses a bit further, though. We Wesleyans emphasize theological conversation and deliberation (“conferencing”), for example, as well as the importance of progressing along the path of salvation through new birth to holy lives, and these emphases help to shape our reading of Scripture.”

Green noted the text would “make a marvelous Christmas gift for any thoughtful Wesleyan / Methodist Christian” but would also be useful for different groups.

“And in fact, it would be wonderful to find that groups of church leaders, including pastors and teachers, gathered over time to work through and discuss the book,” said Green. “I am already aware that it is being looked at as a textbook for college and seminary classes.”

Watson said he could also see the text being adopted in seminary education.

“So much of biblical and theological scholarship over the last two or three hundred years has urged approaches to the Bible that hold the Bible at arm’s length, so to speak,” Green added. “Modern biblical studies generally encourages a dispassionate, neutral reading of the biblical materials. This doesn’t reflect very well what it means to be a Wesleyan Christian! So we hope that this book will get into the hands of leaders of Methodist / Wesleyan churches so that it might help to stimulate both faithful reflection on the nature and role of the Bible among God’s people as well as renewed engagement with the Bible.”

Wesley, Wesleyans and Reading Bible as Scripture is available at any online bookstore, at Cokesbury and from the Baylor University Press website.

Joel B. Green is Professor of New Testament Interpretation and Associate Dean for the Center for Advanced Theological Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is an award-winning author or editor of more than thirty books and serves as Teaching Pastor at La Canada United Methodist Church. He lives in Pasadena, California.

David F. Watson is Academic Dean and Associate Professor of New Testament at United Theological Seminary and author of Honor Among Christians: The Cultural Key to the Messianic Secret. He lives in Dayton, Ohio.