RE-INVENTING CHURCH AND SOCIETY TOGETHER
"I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.” - John Wesley
Breaking away from the church of one’s baptism, even of one’s youth—the church in the wild wood--does not necessarily mean breaking up with loved ones, friends and church mates. However, in no time at all, Hebrews 10:25 would start whispering...softly at first...but getting louder and louder every passing fellowship day... And those who remained behind would form moving shadows...raising silent screams...ultimately turning many a church in the wild wood into churches in the windmills of the mind. Hence, some form had to rise from the ashes of unpleasant memories of the unwanted separation to heed the call of fellowship.
And memories became flesh... 
...full of grace, faith, hope and love!
And The People Called Methodists would sing again –
Come to the church in the Wildwood Oh, come to the church in the vale
No spot is so dear to my childhood As the little brown church in the vale
As the little brown church in the vale
Indeed, we have received back our DNA...we have received back our sacred charge...
In grateful celebration of our redemption in Jesus Christ and in sincere recognition of John Wesley’s legacy, let us affirm our distinctive identity and our distinctive mission –
When at the Methodist Conference it was asked, “What may we reasonably believe to be God’s design in raising up the people called Methodists,” the answer was, “To reform the nation, particularly the church, and to spread scriptural holiness over the land.” (The Works of John Wesley, vol. 8, ed. T. Jackson Baker, 1978)
Further, let us claim to our hearts’ comfort the prophetic words of John Wesley :
You are a new phenomenon in the earth – a body of people who being of no sect or party, are friends to all parties...Now this is utterly a new thing, unheard of in any other Christian community...This is the glory of the Methodists and them alone. They are themselves no particular sect or party, but they receive those of all parties who “endeavour to do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with their God.” (John Wesley, The Ministerial Office, Sermon No. 115)
Finally, let us revisit John Wesley’s untitled sermon, give it a title, and commit ourselves to preach it with all our hearts and with all our minds and with all our strengths –
A Charge to Keep...An Account to Give
“The Gospel of Christ knows no religion but social religion, no holiness but social holiness.” John Wesley
We suggest this title following a reading of Dean Snyder’s article on “Social Holiness,” which we excerpted here as follows -
In Dublin, Ireland on July 2, 1789, when he was 86 years old, less than two years before his death, John Wesley completed the writing of a sermon that he had been brooding about for some time.
By most standards, John Wesley‘s life would have seemed to be a remarkable success. His early career as an Anglican priest had been shaky and troubled, but at 35 years of age John Wesley had by the grace of God, turned his life and ministry around.
He had begun a movement that had grown dramatically throughout the British empire. It had spread to America where it had become the largest church in the new nation at the time. He was one of the most widely published authors of his day. He was an outspoken and respected critic of slavery, war and economic policies that he believed caused poverty. But now, an old man, visiting the Methodist society in Dublin, he was asking himself hard questions about his own life and his life’s work. He never gave the sermon a title. But his text was Jeremiah 8:22 : “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?”
The question he was asking himself was, if the Methodist movement he had begun was so successful, as it was, why wasn’t the world a better place? In his sermon he asks this question: “Why has Christianity done so little good, even among us? Even among the Methodists?” This sermon that John Wesley wrote, when he was an old man, contemplating the significance of his own life’s work, is a window into his deepest beliefs. For John Wesley, the measure of the success of a minister, of a church, of a spiritual movement, of his own dearly beloved Methodism wasn’t the number of members who joined the church, or the quantity and size of buildings the church owned, or the size of its budget, or its status at Parliament and Buckingham Palace.
The measure of Methodism’s success was whether the world was a better place, a more just place, a more compassionate place, and he felt that Methodism had accomplished much less than it should have. John Wesley taught Methodists three rules about money : “Earn all you can; Save all you can; Give all you can.”In his Dublin sermon, written when he was 86 years old, he said that most Methodists had learned well the first rule, “Earn all you can. Some had learned the second, “Save all you can.” But few had learned the third...
Wesley said: “The Gospel of Christ knows no religion but social religion, no holiness but social holiness.” You cannot be holy except as you are engaged in making the world a better place. You do not become holy by keeping yourself pure and clean from the world but by plunging into ministry on behalf of the world’s hurting ones... Our calling is not to be a church; it is to heal the world: to be a balm in Gilead, to be a physician to the poor, the enslaved, the imprisoned, the addicted, the oppressed, the victims of violence and those denied access to education... (Dean Snyder, 2003)
After this manner we hope to re-invent church and society together...
So help us God !