Thank you. And Peter is my my boss.
He's my district superintendent.
And I just want to say publicly how much I
appreciate all the support you've given to my family and to the work that we've
pioneered in Winnipeg and for my studies and a whole lot of other things.
So thank you, and I'm delighted to have
the graveyard shift this afternoon, so I hope not to keep you too long.
Title of my paper is Nothing Stands Alone the Means of Grace and Mission in John
Wesley's Theology my research in my PhD seeks to demonstrate
how an understanding of the means of grace in Wesleyan theology
serves as a methodology to engage in mission with immigrant Christians.
Whereas ideological and policy changes enacted by the government of Canada since
1971 indirectly created the opportunity for a new era of diaspora mission,
established churches in Canada have not yet deeply embraced the potential for
partnership with the growing Christian diaspora population.
Moving here, Howard Snyder characterized
Wesley's theology as a theology of mission.
Fundamentally, my research focused on
Wesley's methodology to nurture that mission.
Wesley believed the practice of the means
of grace as works of piety and of mercy formed Methodists to fulfill their mission
to reform the nation, especially the church,
and to spread scriptural holiness across the land.
For these comprised the entire connected system of Christianity, in his words.
And I'll just skip down to that overview of my research.
So this paper is based on chapter four of my research, which is a critique of the
interpretations of Wesley's means of grace.
The substantive interpretations
situate the means of grace in Wesley's sateriology, and I don't refute that.
However, I consider how Wesley's conception of the means of grace as the
entire connected system of Christianity equipped Methodists for their mission.
Wesley's theology of grace, or the means
of grace, extends beyond their location within his superiorology,
to his expansive missiological aim, and therefore informs ecclesiology.
Nothing stands alone in the role that the
means of grace played in Wesley's theology of mission.
Wesley's interpretation of the means of grace emerged from his view of the nature
and tea loss of God's grace as pervenient, justifying and sanctifying.
God is the author of Universal grace who relates to humanity on the merits of
Christ as God seeks to spread his love imperceptibly in human hearts.
But grace also awakens and empowers that response in us, making it possible for us
to desire and to do that which pleases God.
And we appreciate this through the means of grace, which broadly encompass those
practices that facilitate the reception of grace.
God's grace works progressively in the
believer's life, and this is sustained by the works of piety and the works of mercy.
By this, Wesley did not mean that the
means of grace serve only the end of nurturing personal piety or corporate
worship, but also a forming Methodist for their holy mission.
The works of piety serve to conform and
nurture the believer in love for God, but through works of mercy, believers
demonstrate their love for God as they love their neighbor.
Methodist mission sought to cooperate with God's reconciling interests by forming
believers in holiness and equipping them to practice Scripture holiness so that
they reach out to those not yet awakened to God's reconciling interests.
Those who are awakened and justified are drawn into the formative process of
Methodist community and become new partners in faith and mission.
And this course is vitalized and sustained
through the practice of the means of grace.
So trust is essential to this process.
Trust in God's universal reconciling intentions and trust in fellow believers
as scriptural holiness is pursued together in a community of mission.
The different categories for the means of
grace in Wesley's writings and so the practices within his theology of the means
of grace are identified by the interpreters through the broad focus of
our folk eye of worship, spiritual formation and social outreach.
The mythological implications of the means of grace become acute when Wesley's stated
goal for methodism as a movement to renew the unity of piety and service within and
beyond the Church of England is incorporated.
The major interpreters locate the means of grace within Wesley's satiriology.
Wesley refers to the means of grace as
instituted and prudential general rules to guide the believer in scriptural holiness
and as works of piety and works of mercy, depending on where you're reading him.
So the interpreters argue that for Wesley,
the atonement is the wellspring of all God's gracious action to restore the Emago
day in human lives within the community of faith.
Consequently, participation in the means of grace is the ordinary means by which
the believer relates to God's grace across the discipleship process.
Ollie Borgen sees in Wesley's system of the means of grace a prioritization
of the instituted means of grace over all others.
Borgen later maintains that Wesley defined the correlation and relative worth of the
means of grace, love and holiness in terms of works of piety and works of mercy.
And this indicates that the purpose of the means of grace extends beyond the
satiriological implications for the individual worshipper to the mythological
consequences that the means of grace nurture toward holiness of heart and life.
Wesley insisted that the means of grace
formed Methodist to carry out their holy mission as a community
stipulating that instituted means of grace may appropriately be delayed when one's
neighbor is in need so that works of mercy may be shared.
This demonstrates that for Wesley and I'm
going to throw my binder away again a second time, the means of grace assume a
missiological priority, not only a devotional imperative.
Wesley distinguished methodism by this connection.
Richard Heinzen Rodder asserts that for
Wesley, works of mercy constituted real means of grace because through them God's
active relational presence and power is known and felt.
This expanded the early Methodist experience of God's grace through various
prudential means, drawing the believer into the mind that was in Christ.
Growth in grace within the Order Salutus requires an integrated framework
undergirded by the instituted means of grace and a disciplined Christian
fellowship where various works of mercy are practiced.
Wesley viewed methodism as facilitating
this movement of grace within and beyond the Church of England.
Dean Blevins posits the mythological
implications of this movement within Wesley's eschatology.
The Methodist experience of heaven below is not only personal, but communal.
For Wesley, the means of grace, therefore,
are engaged communally and facilitate the present renewal of humanity.
Kenneth Collins argues that prudential
means of grace are the dispositions by which the works of mercy are practiced.
This enables believers to see others and the world as it is before God and increase
our love for and mercy toward our neighbor.
The works of mercy are real means of grace
because by practicing them, one's neighbor and the poor benefit from grace, even as
the one ministering them, also grows in grace.
So the focus here is to identify the means of grace, as Wesley did in his Sermon on
Zeal, which represents his later and more fully integrated topography.
He characterized the works of mercy, the
works of piety, and the holy dispositions required to practice them with true
Christian zeal as the entire connected system of Christianity.
Interpreters examine Wesley's theology of
the means of grace within the worship of the Church and the centrality of
sacramental worship in the Wesleyan revival.
Andrew Thompson asserts that Wesley's overarching interest in the means of grace
is to discover and apply the best form of Christian devotional practice.
And this is similar to Borgen's conclusion that Wesley comprehended all the means of
grace as the ordinary channels whereby God meets his people and saves humanity.
Borrigan describes the vital connection Wesley made between faith and the use of
the outward means of grace as that which constitutes the Church.
In other words, the Church exists that the means of grace may be administered.
They are given as AIDS to the reception of
God's grace, and God's blessings may be quenched by neglecting to use them.
They also must be joined with faith, mercy, love and holiness.
For love leads to all the ordinances of
God and also is the end of all the means of grace.
Borgen insists that sacramental grace
serves the purpose of entire sanctification.
This is demonstrated in love of God and
neighbor and by God's grace, making the believer's offering of himself
as a living sacrifice with Christ at the Lord's Supper wide reaching and its
consequences for the believer's way of life.
Wesley's conception of social holiness facilitated this experience.
Social holiness is the communal context for the experience
and practice of scriptural holiness, and for him it necessarily issues admission.
Borgen contends that as God's grace is given to those being renewed in God's
image, the outward and visible sacraments exemplify the indispensable role of the
Church in God's reconciling intentions in the world.
However, neither Thompson or borgen extend
the implications of this renewal beyond personal assimilation toward the
missiological ends that Wesley had in view.
John Bomer explores the explicit
connection between Sacramento worship and its implications for Methodist mission.
He stipulated that Methodism, by preaching
the redeeming love of God, influenced the renewal of sacramental worship and
evangelical enthusiasm within the latent vigor of the Church of England.
Bomer adopts Ernest Rattenbury's synthetic analysis that the revival was eucharistic
as well as evangelical, with Wesley successfully holding both together.
Within early methodism, Methodist
preaching on the love of God demonstrated that evangelism must be grounded on
worship, with the Lord's Supper as central to stimulating this.
Theodore Runyon said that Wesley saw the
Lord's Supper as the quintessential proclamation of the Gospel, presenting to
the spiritual senses a visible, tangible, tasteful form of God's comprehensive
redemption for all persons and all creation.
As such, the Holy Spirit works through the Eucharist to convert and to sanctify, and
this conviction led Wesley to take this ordinance to people in field communions.
Rattenbury records the fantastic attendances at eucharistic services to
quantify the nature of the revival as eucharistic and evangelical.
For Wesley, the Eucharist is more than a
memorial ritual, because Christ is present in the Eucharist by the Holy Spirit to
communicate grace through the elements of bread and wine.
His eucharistic theology is one of reconciliation, making it the genesis of
Methodist mission and illustrative of the mythological implications of all other
means of grace as practices of the new creation.
So although eucharistic worship held
primary significance for Wesley, it is vital to set it within the framework of
all the means of grace if we are to keep his integrated methodology for nurturing
the goal of holiness of heart and life in mission.
The most voluminous interpretations of the
means of grace assert their role in Methodist spiritual formation.
Henry Knight, in his book The Presence of
God and the Christian Life, is a reference point for all other interpretations.
Knight argues that for Wesley, the means of grace formed an interrelated context.
Within the Christian, life is lived and
relationships with God and neighbor are maintained.
Christian affections and the means of
grace are essential to the maintenance and growth of these relationships, for they
counter the real dangers of enthusiasm, formalism, despair and presumption.
Knight argues that in the communal
practice of the means of grace, dispositions are evoked and ordered in
response to the identity and presence of God, and the resulting practice is
imitation of Christ and service to God's larger purpose of new creation.
This is related to Wesley's application
of the means of grace as practices that formed Methodists for their mission, but
it is not one that Knight specifically made.
Knight insists that in Wesley's theology,
the means both to the presence and identity of God are tightly held together,
means that evoke openness to the presence of God or Christian community,
extemporaneous prayer, fasting, the general means of grace and works of mercy.
Those which encourage the experience of the identity of God, include Scripture,
preaching, the Eucharist and a liturgical prayer.
So these constitute two sets of interaction, one concerning the
relationship between Christians and God through the means of grace, and the other
providing a dynamic ethos within which the Christian life is enabled and formed.
The outward means of grace are means to
inward religion, but they also are its fruit, manifested as acts of piety and
mercy relating us to God and to our neighbor.
Salvation was understood to happen in a community of mutual support and love, one
that stood over against life in the larger society.
Knight calls the classes bands and select societies and their accompanying
discipline prudential means of grace that nurture a community of mutual
accountability and service to a world in need of love.
This was integral to the purpose of the Methodist movement itself, which was
designed to open persons to the reality of God in the church.
Wesley conceived the means of grace within this context, indicating their
mythological role in the Methodist movement.
Kevin Watson also argues that the bands were the locus of Wesley's efforts to
organize social holiness as a means of grace.
Watson confirms Wesley's belief that the
essence of Methodism is, quote, holiness of heart and life, and that was achieved
through participation in the banned meeting.
In other words, the band meeting as a
means of grace was tied directly to the Methodist mission.
Frank Baker describes the mythiological role of the elements of the love feast
within early band fellowship as that which supported the goals of Methodist mission.
Methodism's, class, band and society structure continually made the members
aware that their lives were lived in the presence of God, in juxtaposition to the
indifference or hostility of the world around them.
And so these nurturing groups,
marked by mutual spiritual edification, confession, forgiveness, love, and the
social realization of the Christian life, strengthened faith and gave renewed
clarity for the faithful practice of discipleship.
Dean Blevins further clarifies that
Wesley's vision for the renewal of humanity included shaping a particular
community via the practice of the means of grace because these most clearly identify
who God is and because by their use, the Christian life is evaluated.
And although David Henderson asserts that
these disciplined communities were built upon a hierarchy of interlocking groups
whose purpose was behavioral change, spiritual growth, personal instruction,
and community transformation, he may not have adequately situated them within
Wesley's larger vision of their missiological role.
Steve Harper more directly argues that Methodist classes provided the basis for
early Methodist stewardship and mission, including field preaching.
Knight maintains that evangelism as
proclamation was central to Methodist mission, but that the mechanism for
supporting people in the process of conversion and sanctification was through
participation in the means of grace, of which Methodist classes were central.
And this is an important link to Wesley's mythology.
Knight argues that Wesley's theology of the atonement is eschatological, holding
the present and future in view in the Christian life.
Therefore, Wesley's individual sateriology
must be understood within this broader eschatological context.
Knight utilizes Howard Snyder's assessment that the select societies were
eschatological communities embodying the social relationships of the age to come.
Christianity, for Wesley, is a way of being in the world which is rooted not in
the world as it is, but in the kingdom of God.
The means of grace in the Methodist
movement encourages an expectant hope in God's promise to make all things new and
facilitate active participation in that new creation.
Presently, Christian formation in the
Methodist mission precedes conversion and then follows from it.
The practice of the means of grace
facilitates critical self awareness and counter presumptive claims by encouraging
accountable discipleship within a community of forgiveness and love.
Dean Blevins implies that the means of grace form Christians to express love for
God through love and service to one's neighbor, but he does not extend the
argument to include preparation for holy mission in the world.
His topology of mediating grace puts scriptural holiness within Wesley's
satiriology without considering at length Wesley's broader mythological ends.
Andrew Thompson validly demonstrates that
the means of grace are the means to the end of communion with God.
But Wesley's mystiology goes further to view the end of holy living as vital
engagement of the church in the communal practice of holy mission.
And one final section, the means of grace also have been
interpreted in relation to the social outreach of Methodism.
Ted Campbell claims that in contrast to
Anglican church leaders who saw themselves as administering the Christian religion in
an essentially Christian culture, wesley viewed himself as proclaiming the gospel
to people whose profession of Christianity was dubious.
Methodism's energetic social activism was
the outcome of the synthetic practice of the means of grace.
Heights and Rotter asserts early Methodist commitment to the mythological ends that
the means of grace cultivated was required for continued membership in the society.
Charles Rygolan argues that in Wesley we
find a holistic approach to mission that aims at spiritual maturity, evangelistic
action, and the transformation of the social conditions in which people live.
The disciplined use of the works of piety fit the believer for and send the believer
to practice works of mercy in mission to others in the name of Christ.
Runyon similarly avows Wesley's insistence
that the love that flows to us from the Savior must also flow through the believer
to all God's people, society at large, especially those in need or distress.
Albert Outler argued that evangelism for
Wesley barely begins with conversion and a profession of faith in Christ.
It always must lead beyond this to a
lifelong mission of witness and service in the world for which Christ has died.
Furthermore, Rygoan insists that Wesley's
holistic approach equips the believer to truly love God and neighbor.
But as Yorg Rieger demonstrates, works of mercy are not merely, quote, good deeds
done by the believer, but are channels of God's grace working to
sanctify the one receiving them and the one doing them.
Early Methodists believed that service to the poor was a means to their own
sanctification as well as the sanctification of those being served.
Campbell cites the earnest appeal to men
of reason and religion and the general spread of the gospel as evidence of
Wesley's assertion that England was no more genuinely
Christian than the people Wesley encountered on his mission in Georgia, nor
that to be found among followers of Islam or heathens generally.
End quote.
Campbell argues that Wesley viewed methodism as the means by which God was
reforming the nominally Christian people of England.
Marcourt concludes that because Methodists believe sanctification to be God's will,
it follows that it was most fulfilled and enjoyed by obeying the commandment to love
one's neighbor as passionately as one loved God.
The means of grace were the effectual practices by which Methodists were
equipped for this holy mission as works of piety.
Wesley affirmed that miraculous signs
sometimes accompanied and validated the role of intercessory prayer.
The employment of the laity to spread the
gospel through preaching, the enlistment of seekers and new believers into
societies for cataciesas the use of penitential.
Bands to restore the spiritually fallen
the revival of primitive worship services and customs such as love feasts to
strengthen Christian community and stimulate mission.
The role of infant baptism to initiate persons into the way of salvation and
adult baptism as the culmination of the catacle process and, of course, the
rigorous observance of the Eucharist as works of mercy.
Wesley insisted that visiting the sick and imprisoned,
serving the poor, educating children, the provision of housing for widows, and
sharing surplus wealth were as integral works of mercy for Methodists as they were
among churches in the primitive era of Christianity.
Methodists were warned that the accumulation of wealth often devastates
the desire to do works of mercy, hindering the giving of oneself and resources to the
service of one's neighbor, thereby destroying mission.
This is undergirded by the conviction that
human redemption is a communal experience and that the church is tasked with sharing
the possibility of that redemption with all of humanity.
George Eli avows that Wesley's
interpretation of social holiness is likely his most distinctive contribution
to the practice of Christian faith and social engagement.
Christian community is the foundation for
personal piety and corporate mission, not the other way around.
Wesley's conception of social holiness is
a framework that characterizes the distinctive nature and mission of
Christian corporate character as redeemed community in human society.
This highlights the mythological aim of
the means of grace and not only their satiriological value.
Based on the implicit communal prerequisite in Wesley's writings, eli and
Rygowan both argue that social holiness is the authentic context for discipleship
engagement with and spring from which to seek transformation in society at large.
The works of mercy equipped Methodists to
convey God's compassion and formed holy affections and tempers.
They gave expression to God's identity, allowing methodists to experience God's
reality and keep focused on love of neighbor.
This enabled them to overcome the barriers
which human society placed between groups of people, which is vital to the
maintenance of holy love, vibrant faith, and transformative mission.
It is only as we maintain the works of
piety and of mercy in a tight nexus of faith and action that works of mercy may
also become acts of solidarity through which we experience as much transformation
into the image of Christ as those we seek to serve in the name of Christ.
Conclusion so this paper assessed the interpretations of Wesley's conception and
use of the means of grace, and whether they confirm that the practice of the
means of grace formed Methodists for their mission.
The argument is that the categorization of
Wesley's theology of the means of grace may appropriately be expanded beyond their
superiorological orientation to Wesley's expansive mythological aim.
Within a missiological framework.
Nothing stands alone in the role that the
means of grace played in the mission of Methodism.
I have sought to show that all the means
of grace as works of piety and of mercy formed Methodists for their mission and
are vital practices in Wesley's theology of mission.
The secondary material does not sufficiently consider that Wesley viewed
the means of grace mythiologically as well as satiriologically.
Although liturgical worship held primary
significance for him, it is vital to set it within the framework of all the works
of piety and mercy if we are to keep his integrated methodology for nurturing
holiness of heart and life which issues in mission.
Wesley did link the means of grace, especially his small group system, to the
unfolding process of salvation in the believer's life.
However, the disciplined use of the works
of piety fit the believer for and send the believer to practice works of mercy
together with other believers in mission to the wider community.
In Christ's name.
The mission of the societies was shared in early Methodism, thereby curbing
complacency in the pursuit of scriptural holiness.
A mythological interpretation
would include a stronger and necessary connection between satiriology and
ecclesiology, because the Church also is part of the Gospel.
As David Rainey has argued.
Wesley's understanding of the practice of
mission was grounded in an ecclesiological theology of mission, and the following
chapter of the thesis will develop this further.
These themes are relevant if we are to embrace missions to with and through
the many diaspora Christians God is sending to Canada.
My own experiment with this in Winnipeg verifies that trust in God's universal
reconciling intentions and trust in immigrant Christians is vital as
scriptural holiness is pursued together in a community of mission.
Recent qualitative research confirmed how
readily one focus group of diaspora believers sees the connections between the
works of piety, the works of mercy, and the necessity of social holiness for
stimulating and nurturing shared mission in the community.
Subsequently, the group participants eagerly partnered with settled Canadian
Christians to form life groups based on the Methodist class model.
Their feedback indicates a passion to embrace Wesley's vision of the means of
grace, to encourage an expectant hope in God's promise to make all things new.
Thank you.