In 1726, as John and Charles Wesley, along with a handful of other enthusiastic Anglicans, banded together at Christ Church in Oxford, their zeal for Jesus and his gospel was unmistakable. So passionate were they about striving for more than mere religion that their Christian critics, threatened by their fervor, branded the Wesley brothers and their friends with tongue-in-cheek nicknames like “The Holy Club” and “Method-ist”.
Such aspersions failed to distract the Wesleys from their stated mission “to reform the nation, and in particular the church, and to spread scriptural holiness over the land.” (a) Well aware that his critics intended the Methodist moniker to be an insult, John embraced it and mobilized a movement called Methodism which, three centuries later, now claims over eighty million members worldwide across several denominations.
Two essential features made the Methodist movement great. First, the Wesleys and their associates held fast to historic, biblical Truth. While it was surely tempting to compromise core principles for the sake of drawing larger crowds, the first Methodists tirelessly aspired to meet the biblical standard of holy living. Second, as the institutional Anglican Church increasingly lost touch with ordinary folks, the Methodists employed modern means of communication to share the gospel with the world beyond the walls. In 1739, in a legendary act of holy rebellion, John Wesley broke with Church law and came down from his sanctioned pulpit to preach the gospel in the open air for all to hear. Later that day he wrote, “At four in the afternoon, I submitted to be more vile and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation…” (b)
This unique blend of orthodox theology and unorthodox strategy fanned the flames of Methodism westward across the Atlantic where, in its first hundred years, it developed into a church-planting juggernaut. It was said that the Methodists were building two new churches a day, but the golden age of Methodist expansion feels like ancient history in 21st Century America.
These days, the world’s largest Methodist denomination – the United Methodist Church – is fast approaching an ugly schism, and the future of the Wesleyan movement seems unclear. Recent studies have predicted that, far from building two churches a day, the UMC in the United States will likely be closing two churches a day between now and 2030 – thirty percent of all UMC congregations in America – and these figures do not include the many local churches and annual conferences that will certainly be leaving the UMC in the coming schism.
With all of this in mind, the obvious question is What will The Story do at the end of this year when our time as part of St. Luke’s is up? Should we remain part of the UMC? Join another denomination? Or maybe go our own way as a fully independent, non-denominational church?
The fact is, we’re not entirely sure. Our Board of Directors, including Pastor Geo and I, have consulted with UMC leaders, and we are prayerfully weighing all of the options before us (we’ll discuss these options in more detail at our Town Hall meetings later this month). There are a few things, however, that we know for sure. First, we care less about joining a denomination and “doing missions” than we do about joining a disciple-making movement and being on-mission. Second, we will not compromise on the core, biblical truth of our historic, apostolic faith. And third, we insist on keeping the main thing the main thing by clearly communicating the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
1. Replace Methods with Movement and Missions with THE Mission
For a long time in Western churches, missions have been done overseas, far from home, but in the 21st Century, our mission field is wherever we are. As Winfield Bevins writes:
“Many Christians and churches teach that missions are something we support or do, such as supporting missionaries in other countries…but in the twenty-first century, the mission field has come to us. We live in a post-Christian world where people simply don’t know the gospel anymore. Therefore, we are all called to be missional and share in the mission of God.” (c)
In the United States, more than half of the population (over 180,000,000 people) has no meaningful connection to any church. It used to be the case that Christians were outnumbered, unwelcome, and even unsafe in faraway, foreign lands, but now the same can be said of many cities and regions throughout America and the Western world – a trend which is likely to continue well into the future. There is no longer any distinction between the world of Christendom, and the wild, outer regions where Christians once traveled to do missions. People everywhere need Jesus, perhaps more than ever, so we insist on being a church on a mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ, plain and simple. This clear Christian mission was perfectly articulated by John Wesley many years ago:
You have one business on earth – to save souls.
We want God’s saving work to be our one business on earth at The Story Church!
2. Never Apologize for the Bible or the Historic, Apostolic Faith
In her book, Another Gospel, Christian apologist Alisa Childers outlines four absolute convictions the earliest Christians held without compromise: they believed (1) that Jesus died for their sins, (2) that Jesus was buried and raised from the dead, (3) that Jesus’ atoning death, burial, and resurrection were inseparable from the Scriptures, and (4) that their core belief in the resurrection could be verified by evidence. (d) It cannot be denied that the Methodist movement has suffered in recent decades due to its tolerance of openly rebellious clergy, laity, and Methodist-affiliated institutions of higher learning that publicly (and in many cases, proudly) deny these fundamental, apostolic creeds.
As we look ahead to a massive transition at The Story, I pray that we will keep our eyes fixed on the foundational, historic tenets of the Christian faith. I also pray we will avoid the temptations and traps to which so many Christians, churches, and denominations are falling prey – such as the temptation to teach about God’s love but not His wrath, the temptation to invite Jesus to be your wingman instead of your Lord, and the temptation to pick-and-choose which parts of the Bible are true, and which parts can be discarded.
Having spent thirteen years deep in the sort of deception I’ve just described, I can attest to the real dangers of compromising Christianity’s core convictions. In the Christian worldview, some ideas are immutable, such as the divinity of Jesus, his atoning sacrifice for our sins on the cross, his bodily resurrection, and our salvation by grace through faith in Christ, as well as our belief that every word of the Bible was and is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
As we prepare for The Story’s exciting new season ahead, I pray that we’ll be a church where both the grace AND the truth of God are proclaimed.
3. Clearly Explain the Gospel
For years, we in the West have been hearing about how our societies are becoming less religious, as if our neighbors are all becoming atheists in droves. Growing a church in such irreligious contexts would be as simple as demonstrating how life with faith, hope, and love is better than life without those things. That would be an easy sell in a truly irreligious society, but how would our evangelistic approach have to change if our neighbors who no longer go to church are actually becoming more religious, but in some dark and surprising ways?
In her fascinating book, Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, Tara Isabella Burton suggests that rising numbers of Americans “aren’t rejecting religion, but rather remixing it…more and more Americans…envision themselves as creators of their own bespoke religions, mixing and matching spiritual and aesthetic and experiential and philosophical traditions.” Seventy-two percent of religious “Nones” say they believe in some kind of God or gods, 47% believe that physical objects can hold spiritual energies, 40% believe in psychics, 38% believe in reincarnation, and 32% believe in astrology. Surprisingly, almost half of so-called nonreligious people pray every day and claim to experience a sense of “spiritual peace and well-being.”
Far from becoming cold, materialistic atheists, Millennials and Gen-Zers may represent the most spiritual generations in American history. In numbers that many older folks may not believe, young adults are finding religious meaning and supernatural purpose in everything from political movements like Trumpism and Woke-ism to self-care trends like Soul Cycle and Essential Oils. More extreme examples of these new religions include fandom (of any particular show, movie, band, or books, etc), sexual identities and lifestyles, witchcraft, and New Age rituals such as crystals, tarot readings, and cleansing sage.
In the marketplace of worldviews, the Church’s competition is not irreligion, but new religions that promise more immediate, highly customized deliverables to young consumers. The good news for us is that, in every time and place, the empty tomb of the risen Jesus is far more compelling than the empty idols of this fallen world. Still, if we are going to be a church that thrives in our increasingly pagan mission field, we must learn how to clearly and unabashedly communicate the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
People need to know that Jesus was perfect, so they don’t have to be! Jesus is different from every religious leader, and his movement is remarkably distinct among all other religious movements. The difference Jesus makes is that, while religious high priests – no matter whether they’re Jewish, Hindu, or Wiccan – will always require more from you (devotion, works, and money), Jesus doesn’t need more from you. He only wants more of you – your heart, your trust, and your love. Priests hope you fear them enough to stay loyal. Jesus hopes you love him enough to stay true, and even when you fall short, he’s right there to pick you up again. This is the heart of the gospel, and the world needs to hear it.
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…
1 Peter 3:15
The good news is that the world is ready for a new Jesus revolution. People everywhere are starving for something that only the grace of God can satisfy!
I’m not yet sure what all of this means for The Story’s denominational identity, but I know this: if we continue to faithfully follow Jesus, the Holy Spirit will show up in a mighty way, and many of our friends and neighbors will encounter the life-changing reality of Jesus and his Gospel!
(a) Wesley, John. 2011. The Works of John Wesley (Bicentennial Edition), vol. 10: The Methodist Societies – The Minutes of Conference. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. p. 845.
(b) From John Wesley’s personal journal entry dated April 2, 1739.
(c) Dr. Winfield Bevins, Church-Planting Revolution: A Guidebook for Explorers, Planters, and Their Teams (Franklin, TN: Seedbed Publishing, 2017), p.28.
(d) Alisa Childers, Another Gospel: A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2020), pp.59-61.
