What the church has believed, taught and confessed

Every Sunday throughout much of the church, you will hear confessions from the Apostles’ Creed or Nicene Creed being confessed. This is one of the standard “orders” in a worship service, whether the church is liturgical or non-liturgical, traditional or contemporary. You will hear it in Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox churches. I have actually been impressed by how often one encounters the creeds even in non-liturgical, contemporary worship services, which tend to embrace all things modern.

The reason these creeds continue to be confessed is that they represent a major link of continuity between all churches, across all denominations, across all time, and around the world. We live in a time when diversity and “options” are all the rage. It is increasingly common for Christians to choose between a “traditional” and “contemporary” service even within their own church. Christians may drive long distances, passing many churches, to get to an Anglican church, or some other liturgical expression, because they feel deeply connected to ancient liturgies. Others may drive out of their community to attend a charismatic or Pentecostal church because that better reflects their worship style. Yet, in all of these expressions, one often encounters the ancient creeds of the faith.

There is a very important phrase in the Nicene Creed which is also found in seed form in the Apostles’ Creed, but is explicit in the Nicene Creed. It is the phrase, “I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” This is a reference to what is known as the four marks of the true church: oneness, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity. Oneness refers to the fact that although there are many denominations around the world, there is only one church of Jesus Christ. We sometimes refer to this as the “church universal.” Paul frequently uses the word “church” to mean not just a particular local expression of it, but all Christians everywhere (1 Cor. 12:12, 15:9; Eph. 4:5, 6). The word holy refers to the importance of the church embodying an ethical beauty which is marked by holiness (Rom. 12:1; 1 Cor. 3:17; Eph. 1:4). The third word catholic does not refer to the Roman Catholic Church per se, but to our union with all believers (including Roman Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, and Independent) throughout all time and place. In other words, we do not believe that our particular denomination has a corner on truth, but we share a basic common confession with all true churches, even if we disagree about some particulars such as the mode of baptism, the way churches are governed, or whether Christians speak in tongues, and so forth. The word also implies that the whole gospel should be fully proclaimed by all expressions of the church. Finally, the word apostolic means that we embrace the core teachings of the Apostles which we have received and are obligated to “pass on” to new generations of believers (Jude 1:3).

For centuries, the church has discussed how these four marks of the church can best be kept and effectively passed on to each new generation. In other words, how exactly do we best “pass down” the truths found in the Apostles’ Creed and the ethical mandates of the New Testament? Traditionally, this question has been asked in a certain way. The church has asked, “What should be believed, taught, and confessed?”

For most of church history, this question has been answered by a deep commitment to catechesis, including three elements: doctrine, practice, and ethics. However, the meaning of these terms has suffered much. The term “believed” did not simply mean “things you know in your head, or trust in your heart” but all the ways faith extended itself, whether through worship, service in the world, or our own life and witness. The word “taught” did not simply mean what you may have learned in a “new members” class, but the whole structure of Christian teaching, preaching, and proclamation which would resonate with biblical, apostolic faith. The word “confessed” was far more than a document such as the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed. It referred to the role of the church in defending the faith against attacks, protecting the church from false teachings, and maintaining our unity with the historic faith.

We are in a period of rebuilding and reclaiming historic Christianity in the life of the church today. The books which should captivate all Christians today are books like Ezra and Nehemiah, since they, like us, lived in a time of rebuilding. We sometimes only think of those books as the record of rebuilding the temple, city, and the walls around Jerusalem. But, in a deeper sense, these books are dedicated to rebuilding the very life of the people of God after years in exile. Ezra 7:10 beautifully captures this period in Israel’s history when it records that “Ezra set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach his statutes and decrees in Israel.” It is vital that we be attentive to this deep calling to all Christians to fully embrace the faith, to learn it, to embody it, and to pass it on to others.


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Global Methodist Church and a CEU requirement

These are exciting and thrilling days for the new Global Methodist Church as a new body of Wesleyan believers are coming together to “worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly.” Thousands of churches have joined the new denomination, and over time, it will become the largest Wesleyan movement in the world. The convening General Conference will take place September 20–26, 2024 in San Jose, Costa Rica. This conference will be an important milestone in setting the trajectory of the denomination in exciting and promising ways. It is vital during these formative days that the founding DNA of the denomination be set right.

Central to the future prospects of the GMC will be our commitment to train pastors to be lifelong learners and adaptable to the ever-changing contexts which face us today. This begins, of course, with a well-trained clergy who are fully trained in historic faith, deeply rooted in biblical truths and understand the distinctives of Wesleyan theology. This, in turn, must be effectively applied to the particular challenges we face. But we can no longer view seminary training of clergy as an isolated time of study where you “pack your bag” for a lifetime journey in ministry. There is, of course, no replacement for a solid theological education as a foundation for effective ministry.  But we also need ongoing training for both clergy and laity which will help us all to effectively navigate the difficult cultural and theological challenges which the church in every generation faces. Spiritual formation in the Wesleyan tradition has always been about the formation of the heart and the mind for effective ministry. We need to “learn extravagantly” as one expression of what it means to “worship extravagantly” since we are called to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Indeed, if our tradition teaches us anything, it is that Sanctification transforms the whole of who we are.

I recently had the privilege of participating in a meeting of the Resource Development Team of the GMC, which is exploring a wide range of strategies to bring together multi-lingual resources to equip the GMC around the world. I am very encouraged by these initiatives. It demonstrates the commitment of the GMC to life-long training, equipping and resourcing the church here and around the world.

One way this strategic initiative could be strengthened is for the GMC to consider some form of a Continuing Education Unit (CEU) or a ministry effectiveness plan (MEP) for all clergy in full connection with the church. Currently, the Transitional Book of Doctrines and Discipline of the GMC does not require any ongoing training for clergy beyond the requirements set forth to become a Dean or an Elder in the church. This means, if I am understanding the Discipline correctly, no minister will be required to engage in any life-long learning or education once they are ordained. Would it not be advisable to seriously consider a life-long learning component for all ministers in the church? This could be provided through in-person training sessions, approved podcasts and “master classes” which could be made available to all conferences of the GMC for their clergy. Contextualized learning has been proven to be one of the most effective ways for people to learn. Let’s create a culture of ongoing growth in the GMC, not just in numbers of members or churches, but growing as men and women committed to giving ourselves fully to Jesus Christ.


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Becoming Champions for the Lost

We all love champions. As a tennis fan, I have followed Novak Djokovic for years, and it was so exciting when he landed his 24th grand slam. He is a real champion. The last few years another exciting athlete has entered the big stage of NCAA women’s basketball. She is Caitlin Clark, the point guard for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Sometime in February (barring injury) she will pass Kelsey Plum’s all-time scoring record of 3,567 points in a college career. She is a real champion. However, the Bible has a different idea of what it means to be a “champion.” Hebrews 12:2 envisions Jesus as a champion, but a different kind of champion than the ones we are familiar with. Hebrews calls us to “look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Notice that Jesus is called the “founder and perfecter” of our faith. The two Greek words used there are “archégos” and “teleiótés.” The latter word is the word for “perfecter” or the one who brings us to perfection. It is obviously an important word in the Wesleyan world because part of our faith is the confidence that God will bring us to perfection, not meaning the absence of sin, but “perfect in love” meaning that we have a new orientation towards God such that the gravity of sin gives way to the gravity of holiness. The new “pull” on our life has been changed. That’s the second half of the gospel. Sin is no longer our secret lover, but our mortal enemy. That is what we mean by being “made perfect” and, like all Christian growth, it is only possible through being united with Jesus Christ.

The first word, “archégos,” is translated by the ESV as “founder.” Jesus is the “founder” of our faith. However, if you survey a range of modern translations, you will quickly discover that this word is very difficult to translate. In fact, it (archégos) is translated by a range of words including “founder” (ESV), “author” (KJV/NKJV), “pioneer” (NIV/CEB), “champion” (NLT), “initiator” (JB), “leader” (Darby) and “source” (GWT). The reason for this is that the Greek word has a wide semantic range, and it is very difficult to nail down to one specific word.

It was my daughter Bethany who first pointed out to me the power of the translation “champion.” Jesus came as our “champion” in standing against all the powers of evil and hell and death, by defeating them. We then join in His victory by being united with Him. However, as champion, Jesus does not come with power and strength but through weakness and humility. The greatest powers of hell are defeated through the greater power of love.  2 Cor. 12:9 declares, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Jesus lays down His life and suffers death on the cross for our salvation. That is how Jesus exhibits being a champion!  It is not a figure like Novak Djokovic, or Patrick Mahomes, or Catlin Clark. Jesus becomes our champion through weakness and laying down His life. Likewise, we are called to join in union with Jesus and lay our lives down for a lost world, that they might come to know the true Champion of their Salvation: Jesus Christ!


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The Roman Catholic Blessing of Same-Sex Couples

Headlines around the world this week have declared that Pope Francis Approves Blessings for Same-Sex Couples, hailing it as a major shift in Vatican doctrine.  This refers to a 5,000 word document entitled Fiducia Supplicans, which was issued as a “declaration.”  In the Roman Catholic world, statements from the Vatican fall in four different categories, and this represents a significantly expanded teaching from the Papacy regarding the theology of blessing.

Like all such controversial statements, the global headlines do not always give the deeper nuances in a theological position so, from a PR or “optics” point of view, the general impression, which countless headlines have reinforced, is that the Roman Catholic church is now blessing same-sex arrangements, thus taking a step towards normalizing same-sex marriage in the church.  The reality is that the statement is far more limited.  A few points will make this clear:

  1. The document clearly retains the church’s position that Christian marriage is between a man and a woman.
  2. Any blessing given to a same-sex couple cannot be given in a formal “liturgical” setting, which would mirror the kind of ceremony we associate with Christian marriage.
  3. Any blessing given to a same-sex couple is not intended to extend moral legitimacy to same-sex unions.

The blessing the document envisions is what is known as a “spontaneous” blessing.  It may not be fully appreciated by many Protestants, but it is very common for Roman Catholic priests (identifiable by their clerical collar) who may be found in malls, airports, places of pilgrimage etc. to be approached by someone asking for their blessing.  The document now allows priests to bless same-sex couples in these “spontaneous” non-liturgical situations.

In my view, the theological problem with this position is three-fold:

First, it tacitly implies that the Catholic church is now blessing what it has historically taught (and continues to teach) to be an irregular arrangement that is inherently sinful.  The idea that the church can “bless” a same-sex couple as long as it is not called marriage ends up being, practically speaking, a distinction without a difference.  Rank and file Catholics will regard this as a kind of back door “moral equivalency” for same-sex unions since in the eyes of the law (since 2015) the state regards these unions as a legal expression of marriage.  By “blessing” these unions, the church is tacitly affirming the legal status of same-sex couples as a married couple.

Second, it opens up a “third way” between the state of Christian marriage and the state of Christian celibacy.  The church has historically taught that men and women are either “married” or “celibate.”  If married, then the couple (theologically speaking) stands as an icon or “sign” pointing to the mystery of Christ and the Church.  If single, then the person stands as a living icon of the Incarnation and an eschatological pointer to the New Creation where people will “neither marry, nor be given in marriage” (Matt. 22:30).  There is no biblical space for a “third way” between marriage and celibacy, since only the first two find biblical sanction.  For more on the theology of marriage and celibacy, see chapters 3 and 5 of my book, For the Body:  Recovering a Theology of Gender, Sexuality and the Human Body (Zondervan/Seedbed, 2020).

Third, the document emphasizes the blessing of “couples,” not “persons.”  Any person approaching a priest is entitled to a prayer of “blessing.”  This is widely understood and is regarded as an expression of universal grace.  I once hosted a group of donors to the Holy Land.  One of the places we visited was the traditional site of the pool of Bethesda.  I asked if anyone in our group would like to come forward and receive a prayer of blessing.  Various members of the group came forward for prayer.  However, tourists were regularly arriving to the site, and they observed me praying for people.  The other tourists did not realize that I was part of a particular group, so I noticed that complete strangers were getting in line hoping for a prayer of blessing and/or healing.  I prayed for many people, some who did not even speak English, right there at the pool of Bethesda.  I didn’t inquire about the moral state of anyone; I simply prayed God’s blessing on whoever came forward.  This is precisely what the Roman Catholic church envisions.  However, this has always been the case, long before the publication of Fidudcia Supplicans.  The fact that this document emphasizes “couples” rather than “individuals” shifts the blessing from an expression of universal grace to all people (a noble thing) to an emphasis on the particular context, which is two people joined in a same-sex union.  Therefore, the emphasis shifts from a general prayer for the bestowal of God’s grace to a particular blessing on a particular same-sex arrangement that the church has declared sinful.

Thus, while the Vatican may honestly be seeking to expand the doctrine of blessing, I remain deeply concerned that Fiducia Supplicans will inadvertently be widely regarded as cracking the door for the full embrace of same-sex marriage in the church.  Many of us know painfully well where these theologically cracked doors lead.  Those of us from Protestant traditions who are seeking to maintain the biblical view of marriage will find our jobs more difficult, not because the Roman Catholic Church has changed their doctrine of marriage (which they have not) but because they have introduced greater cultural confusion at a time when what we all need most is greater cultural clarity.


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Entering into the Mystery

As a preacher, teacher and seminary president, I have spent most of my life proclaiming, teaching and explaining various aspects of the Christian faith. But, at this time of the year especially, it is important to recall that the Christian faith is explainable – even to a child – yet also beyond explanation, because God’s word is both inscrutable and inexplicable. There is an ancient theological phrase for this in the church: “mysterium fidei” or “mystery of the faith.” We encounter this phrase in the Eucharist liturgy where the celebrant declares, “As we proclaim the mystery of the faith.” Today, the congregation responds with the threefold declaration: Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again. However, those more definitive declarations, while wonderful and powerful, were not added to the Eucharistic liturgy until the 1960s. In its original form, the church embraced and affirmed the mystery of the faith without further delineation. It is not that those three affirmations are not true and beautiful; it is that like 30 more affirmations could have been mentioned, but only three were. There is an expansive, grand “mystery of the faith” that can never be fully summarized. Surely the mystery of the gospel is fully Trinitarian. For example, what about the mystery of how God the Father answers prayer? What of the mystery of the second Person of the Trinity who became incarnate as a human? What about the mystery of how the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin? You get the point.

One of the best ways to enter and embrace the mystery of the faith is to read hymns from previous centuries, which often enshrined the mystery of the faith in beautiful ways. What a treasure it is at Christmas to sing “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” from the fourth century. How sublime are those opening lines:

Of the Father’s love begotten, ere the worlds began to be;

He is Alpha and Omega, He the Source, the ending he.

This line is intended to prepare us for the Incarnation by first inviting us into the mystery of the Godhead. In a similar way, another fourth century hymn, “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” declares,

King of Kings, yet born of Mary, as of old on earth He stood;

Lord of Lords, in human vesture, in the body and the blood;

He will give to all the faithful His own self for heav’nly food.

This line is about the Incarnation, yet it connects it with the mystery of creation, the Crucifixion and the Eucharist in a way that helps us to resonate with the mystery of the gospel.

The “mysterium fidei” was central to many of Charles Wesley’s lesser-known Christmas hymns. For example, Wesley’s “Glory be to God on High” beautifully links the Incarnation with the majesty of the preincarnate Son:

Him the angels all adored, their Maker and their King;

tidings of their humbled Lord they now to mortals bring.

Emptied of his majesty, of his dazzling glories shorn;

Beings source begins to be, and God Himself is born.

Another Christmas hymn of Charles Wesley is called “Celebrate Immanuel’s Name.” In the hymn, Wesley declares,

Fulness of the Deity in Jesus’ body dwells –

Dwells in all his saints and me when God His Son reveals.

Father, manifest Thy Son; breathe the Incarnate Word.

In our inmost souls make known the presence of the Lord.

The power of linking the Incarnation with our union with Christ and the ultimate vision of the full marriage of heaven and earth is one of the great mysteries we cherish at Christmas. I will close with another Christmas hymn, this one from Latin in the 19th century, which has been rendered into beautiful English and is sung regularly in the church. “O Come All Ye Faithful” draws from the language of the Nicene creed, linking the good news of the Incarnation with the external preexistence and deity of the Son.

God of God and Light of Light begotten,

Lo He abhors not the Virgin’s womb;

Very God, begotten not created:

O come let us adore Him,  O come let us adore Him;

O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!

So, this Christmas, let us enter afresh into the mystery of the faith!


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Fifteen Years, One million Miles and a New Centennial

It has been the singular honor and joy of my life to serve as President of Asbury Theological Seminary. I cannot even begin to express how meaningful it has been to steward this sacred mission of “spreading scriptural holiness throughout the world.” We have experienced an amazing abundance of God’s grace during this pivotal time in the history of the Seminary.

Yesterday, I announced to our community that June 30, 2024, will bring my Presidency at Asbury Seminary to a close. This will mark 15 years of serving this beloved ministry. It is a well-rehearsed point of history, which we as Wesleyans love to tell, that John Wesley and Francis Asbury both traveled 250,000 miles on horseback to spread scriptural holiness in their day. I have never ridden a single mile on horseback for Asbury, but, in the spirit of the amazing founders of our movement, I have had the privilege of traveling one million miles on airplanes in service to Asbury and the larger mission of the church. I have had the privilege over the last 15 years of meeting thousands of our amazing alumni all over the world. I have preached in churches on every inhabited continent. Asbury Seminary now offers degrees on four different continents! What a blessing this has been in my own life, and I am at awe of the grace of God towards Asbury in these years. Asbury Seminary was founded in 1923, so it has been a particular joy to bring Asbury to 2023 and to the celebration of our first centennial as a “planting” of the Lord. H. C. Morrison, the founder of Asbury Seminary, said back in 1923 that there was no greater need in the world today than a seminary committed to the grand depositum of Wesleyan faith: universal grace, full salvation and the full Trinitarian vision of historic faith. This is just as true today as it was 100 years ago.

During a recent extended time of prayer, the Lord brought me to John 21, which records the third time Jesus appeared as the risen Lord to His disciples. This was the moment when Jesus gave them a new direction in their lives. The Lord met them in the morning and told Peter to cast his net on the right side of the boat. The result was 153 fish! God gave them a new calling to serve Him, and their full apostolic ministry was launched. We don’t believe they ever fished again. Isn’t it amazing that the last day of their fishing career was the greatest day of their fishing career! But God had a new plan for them. God spoke to me and told me that the time had come for me to cast my “net” to a new side of the boat. I asked the Lord what was the next calling for me, and He told me, “We’re not going to talk about that right now. Just abide with me and I will reveal it to you.”

In July I will continue during the interim period as the Professor of World Christianity until a new president is named. I have never lost my love for teaching and forming students. I know that my calling has always involved three core things: preaching the gospel, helping to bring the gospel to those who have not heard, and training leaders for the church. I believe that my next calling will somehow involve those elements, but I do not know how or when it will fully unfold. Julie and I are still young (at least we feel like we are!) and want to dedicate at least a decade or more in full-time service to the Lord. But we don’t yet know what that will be.

Regardless of what my next assignment is, my love for Asbury Seminary and for its mission remains undiminished. Serving Asbury has been God’s greatest gift to me, and I am humbled beyond words that He entrusted the stewardship of this wonderful ministry into my hands alongside countless leaders throughout Asbury whom I admire and am privileged to work with, whether Trustees, faculty, staff, our supporting friends, or alumni.

I would go so far as to say that, despite the blessings of God on Asbury Seminary during this season, the greatest days of Asbury still lie ahead. As the first American missionary Adoniram Judson famously said, “The future is as bright as the promises of God!”


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What Does it Mean to Evangelize?

“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” Matthew 4:23

This year, our Centennial year, I have been exploring the key themes that have characterized the ministry and witness of Asbury Theological Seminary during the last 100 years. In 1923, H. C. Morrison and the founding board of the Seminary established the purpose of Asbury Seminary. The heart of that mission is in the phrase seen around our campus and on our website: “…to prepare men and women to evangelize and spread scriptural holiness throughout the world.” I would like us to give our attention to one part of this historic statement: “to evangelize.” What does it mean to evangelize? Furthermore, does the church have a shared understanding of the word “evangelism,” or is there a distinctive understanding that we might bring to the global church? So, I would like to revisit our historic understanding of the word “evangelism” and, in particular, what it means for us to share the “good news” – the “evangel” of Jesus Christ.

Some notable books have sought to look at the whole New Testament and clarify what exactly it means to evangelize. Jim Peterson’s “Living Proof,” Michael Green’s “Evangelism in the Early Church,” and Rodney Stark’s “The Rise of Christianity” are a few of many examples that could be cited. We have 11 examples in the book of Acts where the gospel is shared by Peter, Stephen or Paul in public settings. We have five important prayers for evangelism in the New Testament that shed light on the question. Finally, we have examples of personal encounters where the gospel or some facet of it is shared with individuals such as Nicodemus, the Samaritan Woman, the Rich Young Ruler, Levi and friends, Nathaniel, the Ethiopian eunuch, Cornelius, Paul and Silas’ jailers, Felix, and Agrippa. These are also important passages to consider.

I had the privilege of being in Turkey in 1999 with the entire faculty of Gordon-Conwell, where I served at that time. We were retracing the footsteps of the Apostle Paul on what is sometimes referred to as his three missionary journeys, and we visited the site of each of the seven churches addressed in Revelation 2 and 3. Dr. Gregg Beale, who had just completed a major commentary on the book of Revelation, was giving a short lecture to the faculty at a historic spot and, in the process, made several references to the word “gospel.” I noticed that a significant crowd of Turkish men, women and children had gathered around our circle to listen in, so I asked Dr. Beale during a pause in his lecture if he would mind clarifying what exactly he meant by the word “gospel.” Dr. Beale, realizing my intention was to help the Islamic guests who had joined our group, pivoted and ended up sharing a beautiful summary of the gospel. He focused, quite naturally, on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and how He “died for our sins” and how we are called to respond to this “evangel” or “good news.” However, by his own admission later when we reflected on it, sharing the gospel was not as easy as one might think. The reason for this is that the gospel is multifaceted. The challenge inherent in all Christian communication is that we are often compelled to say two or more things at the same time, and omitting any of them ends up distorting the full meaning of the gospel.

This challenge is highlighted in the summary statement of Jesus’ ministry found multiple times in the book of Matthew, which seeks to describe Jesus’ own embodiment of and proclamation of the good news or the gospel. If Jesus stands as the primal embodiment of the “evangel” – you might even say that He is the first evangelist – then we must start with Jesus Himself in understanding the word “evangelism.” Our text says, “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” The language of Matthew 4:23 and 9:35 is virtually identical. In these summary statements, we find three things Jesus did: He taught, He proclaimed, and He healed. The three key words would be “didasko” (to teach), “kyrusso” (to preach or proclaim), and “therapeuo” (to heal). Apparently, Matthew couldn’t summarize the gospel with one thing, so he gave us three things. This is the core problem the church has faced when trying to understand the word “evangelize,” and although it sits in our mission statement as a word without any clarifying footnote, it is important that we recognize the full import of the word.`

This challenge is compounded by two pressure points that have framed and, I think, distorted our understanding of evangelism, which our tradition has sought to address. First, the 16th century Reformation was, among other things, a tumultuous time in church history where the church was seeking to recover the core gospel message. In the process, they shined a huge light on the doctrine of justification. This doctrine had been lost and needed to be reclaimed. We do not want to disparage the particular challenges faced by our 16th century forefathers and foremothers of the faith. They felt that the doorway into the church had been lost, and they directed a huge light to shine on the front door of justification. While as Wesleyans we stand in broad appreciation of this, we also recognize that in the process a huge reductionism took place, which essentially conflated the word “justification” with the word “salvation” such that to this day when someone asks, “Are you saved?” we all know that what they really mean is, “Are you justified?” But the reductionism of salvation to mean only justification is a huge loss for the church. At the core of the Wesleyan revivals and the subsequent emphasis on holiness, sanctification, class meetings, band meetings, etc. was an attempt to shine a light not merely on the doorway into the house of salvation but on the whole house and the larger biblical meaning of the word “salvation.” Salvation does not only look back on our justification but also fully embraces the ongoing work of sanctification and even our future glorification in the eschaton when we are brought into full union with Christ. So, the word “salvation,” as it turns out, looks simultaneously in three directions: we have been saved, we are being saved, and we shall be saved – all three of those are taught in the New Testament. All three of those dimensions are integral to the “good news” and at the heart of what it means for us to evangelize.

The second major problem we have faced is more contemporary, as the church in the 20th century sought to commodify and simplify the gospel, boiling it down more and more to find its simplest form. This tended to reduce the gospel and what it meant to evangelize into something a bit more transactional and reductionistic. I will not criticize, for example, the Four Spiritual Laws tract or any Billy Graham crusade, because God has mightily used them both in personal and group evangelism. We need ministries that focus on justification, and the Graham association put enormous energy into incorporating those who responded into churches for appropriate follow-up and discipleship. The book of Acts is filled with examples of the early church presenting the gospel message of Jesus Christ to individuals or crowds of people. They presented Jesus Christ crucified, risen and ascended, expositing the meaning and power of this central redemptive act and the need to repent and believe the gospel. These are the inaugural words of both the ministry of Jesus and the church itself on the Day of Pentecost (Mark 1:15; Matt. 4:17; Acts 2:38). Revelation and response are key to the entire gospel framework. But the whole narrative of the book of Acts is also about the early church incorporating believers into redeemed communities known as churches – what today we would call house churches or micro-communities. This is why it is misleading to refer to Paul’s three major trips around the Mediterranean basin as “missionary journeys.” The text does not call them that. They are actually an exposition of Paul and his companions’ extended work in church planting or, if you prefer, church multiplication. They were sent out by the church of Antioch to multiply the church, not just lead individuals to a saving knowledge of Christ.

This contrast is reflected when comparing the revival work of George Whitfield and John Wesley. They each spent an enormous amount of time conducting evangelistic public meetings. But years later while reflecting on his ministry, George Whitefield made this statement: “My brother Wesley acted wisely. The souls that were awakened under his ministry he joined in societies, and thus preserved the fruit of his labor. This I neglected, and my people are a rope of sand.”

This is a crucial insight into our understanding of evangelism. Our movement was born in the cradle of revivalism, so we are as deeply committed as anyone to evangelism focused on justification and people receiving Christ into their lives in a personal way. But our movement also had a larger focus for not merely becoming a Christian, but being a Christian, which inevitably carries deep concerns about the more holistic work we believe is embedded in the rich and textured word “evangelism.”

The 20th century tended, quite tragically, to put a deep wedge between evangelism and social action and actually pitted them against each other. This further reduced the word “evangelism” to mean leading someone to justification and, in the process, made wider social concerns, including physical needs as well as the perennial longing for justice and reconciliation, ancillary to the gospel. This is a problem that was faced squarely by the larger evangelical movement in such important statements as the 1966 Wheaton Declaration, the 1966 World Congress on Evangelism in Berlin, The Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern in 1973, and the Lausanne Covenant in 1974 put out by the International Congress on World Evangelization. The Lausanne gathering was intended to be a focus on the “how” of global evangelism, but voices from the Majority World reminded the congress that the more profound question was not so much answering the “how” of evangelism but what evangelism entailed: the need to not merely address the spiritual condition of the world but also the social and political realities that trapped people in poverty, oppression and injustice. The result was to deepen and restore what it means to “evangelize” to the full biblical vision.

Indeed, we must keep remembering the summary statement of Jesus’ ministry as the protype “evangel” for all later Christian evangelism. It makes clear that teaching, preaching and healing are all intricately related to what is meant by the word “gospel” and what it means to evangelize. The core problem is that we have to examine the whole ministry of Jesus as well as the whole ministry of the early church in Acts to see the fundamental unity of word and deed in the Scriptures. In the Incarnation, God’s word and deed are one. On the one hand, the Scriptures teach us through precept and example about the central and abiding importance of proclamation. Paul says to the Corinthians, “we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews, foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (I Cor. 1:23, 24). Paul admonishes the church at Rome that the unbelieving world will not be saved apart from the public preaching of the gospel. He says, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?” (Rom. 10:14, 15). The proclamation of the word is central to our identity as the church. If the church ever ceases to call the world to repent and to put their faith solely in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ, then we cease to be faithful to Christ and the Apostolic message.

On the other hand, Scripture also warns us against the perils of a “dead faith.” James asks, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (Jam. 2:14-17). James explicitly connects the witness of the church with the signs of righteousness in the Old Testament when he says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (Jam. 1:27). The church took their social responsibility seriously, as is evidenced by the dispute that broke out in the church concerning the daily distribution of relief for widows in need. The Greek speaking believers charged that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of relief in favor of the widows who were Aramaic speaking. The Apostles resolved this dispute by appointing the first seven deacons who were responsible for distributing the relief with equity (Acts 6:1-7).

From the earliest days, word and deed were united in the New Testament’s understanding of the life and witness of the church. The Apostle Paul, the great preacher, teacher and church planter, worked tirelessly in raising money for those in distress in Jerusalem due to famine and persecution (Acts 24:17, Rom. 15:25-29, I Cor. 16:1-4). Early in his ministry, when Paul met with the Apostles to discuss the gospel of grace and the propriety of extending the gospel to Gentiles, he comments that they reached an agreement but concludes by saying, “all they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do” (Gal. 2:10). In short, it is a caricature of Paul’s ministry to see him as only committed to the preaching of the word. He was also committed to planting churches which were intended to be outposts of the New Creation and places where forgiveness, reconciliation and justice – both before God and our neighbors – prevail. Paul’s ministry reflects the ministry of Jesus in His commitment to preaching, teaching and healing.

So, when our mission statement uses the word “evangelize,” and especially as it connects it to “spreading scriptural holiness,” we are casting a wider vision for the word “evangelism.” We thank God for our counseling students who are committed to the deep work of healing in our society. We thank God for those of you who might be called “evangelists,” meaning you have a special gift in helping people find the doorway, the entrance, into the grand hall of salvation. We thank God for future pastors in our midst who are committed to walking into a community of believers and helping to disciple them. We thank God for those who are committed to the hard work of racial reconciliation. We thank God for those who have a heart to work among refugees who have no hope unless someone comes alongside them as their advocate. We thank God for those who stand in pulpits preaching the centrality of Jesus Christ and the need to come to Him in repentance and faith. We thank God for those who will spend their ministries feeding the poor, housing the homeless, or working for social justice for the disenfranchised. We thank God for every one of you whose life is committed to seeking justice and dismantling structural evils as much as helping to liberate men and women from the bondage of personal sins. We thank God that the attributes of Yahweh, “mishpat,” “hesed” and “rahmim” (justice, kindness and compassion), did not evaporate with the dawn of the New Testament but were embodied in the glorious Incarnation. We thank God that in whatever we do, it is all rooted in Jesus Christ crucified, resurrected and ascended. The reason is because none of us individually can fully embody the word “evangelism.” But collectively – through the aggregate of our various callings and ministries – we are all reflecting the power of the inbreaking rule and reign of God. And anything that is found in the New Creation, whether it be reconciliation, forgiveness or grace, has a place to be manifested in the here and now in full anticipation of the glorious eschaton. We thank God for all of these ministries because, like a beautiful diamond, they are all different facets of what it means to evangelize.

Thus, may it be said of us as it was said of Jesus. May we too go about in our cities and villages teaching and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction (bodily, structurally or socially) among the people. If we do, we will then be found resonating with our founding mission “to evangelize and spread scriptural holiness throughout the world.” Amen.


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Gird Your Minds for Action: Our Theological Heritage

1 Peter 1:13-25

There are many themes that highlight the identity and mission of Asbury Theological Seminary’s 100-year history. One of these themes is our commitment to theological education.

Malcolm Gladwell, in his best-selling book, “Outliers: The Story of Success,” highlights what he calls the “10,000 hour rule.” What his research found is that truly excelling in a field, regardless of the field, requires 10,000 hours of dedicated, focused work in the early preparatory stage of your life. 10,000 hours, it seems, serves as a kind of “rule of thumb” if you are committed to exceling. The Beatles spent 10,000 hours playing in small clubs before they were able to launch their successful music career. Bill Gates, it turns out, spent 10,000 hours learning about computers and software before launching Microsoft. Gladwell even noted the medical residency hours and classroom instruction for doctors roughly adds up to 10,000 hours. He discovered that famous violin players and piano players have, as a common background, 10,000 hours of practice. None of the great composers, he argues, created any of their masterpieces until they had spent 10,000 hours in practice and composing. He noted the same thing for chess masters like the current grand champion Magnus Carlsen from Norway, and the list goes on and on. When I read that, I couldn’t help but think that this is true for those of us who follow Jesus as well. The disciples spent 10,000 hours with Jesus, if you count daylight hours over a three-year period. There are critics who have responded and said, “No, it’s 9,000 hours,” or “No, it’s 11,000 hours,” etc. But that misses the point, doesn’t it?

The point is that if you are going to excel in your life and in your ministry, there is no path that bypasses the need to spend thousands of hours in devoted study and learning in the formative stage of your life. That is what seminary is about, both in the classroom and in other ways you are being formed and prepared for ministry. We live in an age that looks for the path that is easy, quick and cheap. But discipleship is always hard, long and costly. We live in a time that loves minimalistic solutions that require the least effort, but what is really needed are maximal solutions that require the most effort. We inhabit a culture that longs for comfortable shortcuts when what is required is a long, arduous journey – what Eugene Peterson aptly called in the title of his book of the Psalms of Ascents: “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.” The subtitle of the book is “Discipleship in an Instant Society.” He argues that we want to be tourists rather than pilgrims.

Whether you are here at the Seminary preparing to be a pastor, a counselor, a church planter, a teacher, or a missionary, it requires 10,000 hours of preparation. If you spend your spare time playing video games or looking at the latest TikTok videos or watching Netflix, you will not get to 10,000 and, as Gladwell points out, the 10,000 must happen in the preparatory stage of your life because this is about the foundation you lay, not what you happen to accumulate over a lifetime. In fact, Gladwell says in the book, “Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.”

Your commitment to give yourself wholeheartedly to your theological studies is, in fact, one of the ways you demonstrate your love for God. The greatest commandment, recorded in the all the synoptic Gospels, is “…love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…” Our tradition sometimes leans into the idea that formation is a matter of the heart, and this gets turned into strange kinds of emotive subjectivism, which actually eschews the hard work of formation. In its most virulent form, the mind is viewed as an enemy of the affections, even a detriment to a heartfelt relationship with Christ. Our tradition is very susceptible to this because of a misreading of Wesley’s famous comment, “warm heart, give me thine hand,” which we have taken to mean that if someone has a warm heart, we should embrace whatever bizarre, heretical or heterodox views they have and never think about the theological implications if such views were to be embraced.

What does it mean to love God with your mind? Peter uses this wonderful phrase, “prepare your minds for action” (1 Peter 1:13). This phrase literally says, “gird up the loins of your mind.” The word for loins here is the word “osphoos.” The word “loins” is an important theological word in the Scriptures, but, sadly, it is obscured by the differing ways it is translated in the New Testament in the eight times it appears. In the NRSV, we have four different translations of this word – “waist,” “dress,” “descendants,” and “loins” – and it is completely left out of the NRSV in this text from 1 Peter. This is where a little insight into the biblical languages can really help you, and I encourage you – especially all future pastors – to study koine Greek.

“Osphoos” means “loins,” which is admittedly an odd English word, and translators don’t know what to do with it, leaving us with the NRSV results. The reason I believe that this word is important in New Testament theology and needs recovery is that it is such an important word in the Old Testament, which is the foundation for the New Testament. The Old Testament sets the semantic and revelatory chess pieces, which the New Testament picks up and uses to proclaim the gospel. The word is used over a dozen times in the Old Testament, and the Septuagint translates it “osphoos” – the same word used here in 1 Peter 1:13. But it is very important in the Septuagint. We won’t look at all the texts in the Old Testament, but they fall into four main categories, and all eight times that the word “loins” appears in the New Testament are drawn from these strands in the Septuagint. These strands help us understand what God is calling your mind to in the area of discipleship.

The first of these strands of meaning is “loins” as a symbol of readiness. Exodus 12:11 comes in the midst of the first Passover. The people of God are told to eat the Passover with their loins girded: “This is how you should eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly.” In the ancient world, when you were relaxing at home, you would ungird your belt, just like we might change clothes at night into something more comfortable. They were told to not do that; to instead eat the Passover with their loins girded, meaning to “be prepared for battle” or “be prepared for action.” It is a symbol of vigilance and readiness.

Jesus draws from this image in Luke 12:35-36 when He speaks to His disciples about being ready and anticipating His return, like a servant waiting for his master to return from a wedding banquet. “Be dressed ready for service…” Be ready to open the door; don’t get distracted or too comfortable. Gird your loins for action.

If you invest 10,000 hours in forming your mind, you will be “girding your mind” with readiness for the myriad of things that will be thrown at you. Praxis training, which just focuses on how to do things, only has a shelf life of about five years because within five years, the church and culture have changed so much that you have to learn new practices. But if you have been theologically trained at a deep level, you have the background to respond to fresh problems that emerge. When I was in seminary over 40 years ago, I had never heard of gender reassignment or gender transitioning, etc. So, I was never given one minute of training about it. But decades later, when it became a theme, I was able to write a book about it because I had the theological skills to think about a new issue – I had my 10,000 hours under my belt.

The second strand of meaning is “loins” as a symbol of the prophetic mantle. Elijah is pictured as a prophet with a belt girded around his waist in 1 Kings 18. Recall that Elijah is looking for the rain to come after the long drought. He sees a cloud the size of man’s hand, and eventually the sky turns dark, and it begins to pour down rain. King Ahab went to Jezreel. Then the Spirit of God came upon Elijah, and 1 Kings 18:46 says, “But the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; he girded up his loins and ran…” He outran Ahab to Jezreel. It became a sign of the prophet.

Then, in the New Testament, when John the Baptist comes on the scene, he is pictured as the new Elijah who has returned to herald the Messiah. John the Baptist has a belt girded around his waist: “Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist…” (Matthew 3:4). The word there is “osphoos” – loins. It is intentionally connecting to the Elijah narrative. It is not just telling us something about John’s clothing but about his identification with Elijah and the signs of his prophetic mantle. Jesus even says in Matthew 11:14 that John the Baptist is the fulfilment of the return of Elijah to herald His coming.

The third strand of meaning is “loins” as a symbol of generative power. Solomon was told that the anointed king, David, would come from his loins. The NRSV obscures the word used by saying more simply in 2 Chronicles 6:9, “your son who shall be born to you.” Here we are starting to see something of the symbolic use of the word “loins.” The word is used to describe that generative life, the seed of life, inside our very bodies, which birth to new life. This is the strand picked up on twice in the book of Hebrews when it speaks of Levi being in the loins of Abraham: “…descended from Abraham (from the loins of Abraham)” (Heb. 7:5) and “…for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him” (Heb. 7:10). We know, of course, that it is the loin theology that finally reconciles how Jesus could be both King and Priest, since Jesus came from the kingly line of Judah, yet he was also a priest in the order of Melchizedek. It was because when Abraham tithed to Melchizedek, Levi was in his loins – that is, in his body.

The fourth strand of meaning is “loins” as a symbol of the Messiah. The prophet Isaiah, when speaking of the Messiah, says, “Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.” This is the text that is not only fulfilled in Christ, but it the symbol of our bearing His messianic authority in the world, which Paul draws on in his exposition of the full armor of God. Recall that the first part of our spiritual armor is the belt of truth. Paul says in Ephesians 6:14, “Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist (literally, “having girded the loins of you with truth”) and put on the breastplate of righteousness.”

Peter draws upon this metaphor in our text, 1 Peter 1:13, when he says, “gird the loins of your minds for action.” It is a striking phrase because the clearly symbolic use of “osphoos” manages to draw upon several rich images. For example, your mind must be sharp and poised, ready for battle. The world will dismiss us as buffoons unless we can, as Peter goes on to say in 1 Peter 3:15, “be prepared to make a defense to everyone who asks you about the hope you have.” It is good for people to see your good heart, but we must also show the world that our faith is well-thought-out. It is a beautiful, though nuanced, tapestry of redemption. Can you answer the questions posed to you?

I’ve had the privilege of preaching from the pulpit of Asbury Seminary for many years as the President. When I came to Asbury Seminary, my background was theology and missiology. I had spent 10,000 hours in serious study, which prepared me to pastor, later to teach, and then to serve as President of the Seminary. My heart and my mind both must be fully alive to do what God has called me to do.

I want to give you a little vignette of my academic life. I earned an M.Div. at Gordon-Conwell back in the 1980s and served as a pastor. Later, I earned a Th.M. in Islam from Princeton, and eventually I did my Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. My focus was on the Christian response to Hinduism. My M.Div. program was rigorous – I had to take classical Greek before I was even admitted into Koine Greek. I had to pass an exegetical test in both the Old and the New Testament to graduate. Later on, in my Th.M. degree, I spent hours and hours every day studying the Qur’an because it was necessary for my academic formation. Later on, I enrolled in doctoral studies in Edinburgh. If you enroll in doctoral studies, it is generally required that you learn another academic language, usually German or Latin. Yet in my case, because I was doing Hindu studies, I had to learn Sanskrit. I spent two years of dedicated study learning Sanskrit. Sanskrit is a difficult language because it doesn’t have an alphabet the way we think of an alphabet – with distinct letters. Rather, it is a syllabary where each consonant automatically carries a short “a” sound with it. But, as with most languages, there are times when two consonants come side by side with no intervening short vowel or no vowel at all. So, you have to learn how to insert other vowels, sometimes in creative ways. When there is no vowel, the two consonants must collide with one another and create another symbol, and there are hundreds of possibilities, each of which has to be memorized. Sanskrit doesn’t even have an absolute left to right orientation like English, nor an absolute right to left like Hebrew. Sanskrit letters can move right then left and even move up and down in very challenging ways. All of this took thousands of hours of dedicated study, mostly alone in a carrel in a musty library.

My dissertation was on an Indian convert from Hinduism to Catholicism named Brahmabandhav Upadhyay. (Brahmabandhav is the Sanskrit equivalent to the Greek Theophilus; it means “lover of God.” Upadhyay is a name for a teacher in the Bengali tradition.) One of his main projects was to reconcile the teachings of Thomas Aquinas, the great 13th century Doctor of the Roman Catholic tradition, with the teachings of Adi Sankara of the 8th century, arguably the leading philosophical theologian in the Hindu tradition. I had to spend thousands of hours carefully studying Aquinas’ “Summa Theological” and “Summa Contra Gentiles,” among other works of his. I spent thousands of hours studying Hindu philosophy just so I could understand the writings of Brahambandhav.

The highlight of my research was working with a famous hymn he wrote called “Sacinananda.” It is a reference to the Trinity, and it is a Trinitarian hymn with four verses. Verse 1 is worship to the Triune God, then each successive verse is praise to each of the three persons of the Trinity: verse 2, the Father; verse 3, the Son; and verse 4, the Holy Spirit. It is one of the most important theological contributions in his voluminous writings. But there is a debate about whether he wrote the Sanskrit word “dhanam,” meaning wealth, or “ghanam,” meaning intense bliss. The two words are identical except for a single open or closed line at the top. I had to resolve this problem because the translation of the whole verse largely depended on how this word is translated. I couldn’t find any resolution to this problem. Eventually, I had to fly to Calcutta and go to St. Xavier’s University, a well-known Roman Catholic school, where this hymn was kept in their archives. I flew to India, and, through a challenging process, I was eventually allowed access to this document. The year was 1996, and I held in my hands the original copy of this famous hymn. My hands trembled a bit because this was a very important academic moment in my life. I was tempted to quickly look down at verse 4 and resolve this long-standing academic debate, but I calmed myself and just started reading through the hymn line by line. It had taken me years of preparation just to read this one hymn, and there I was in Calcutta reading the hymn in Sanskrit. My heart quickened as I got to verse 4, the final verse in the hymn, the one to the Holy Spirit. I read to the point that was the reason for my long journey to India. Did Brahambandhav write “dhanam” or “ghanam”? My eyes blinked as I looked at the word. I wiped my eyes to see it more clearly, but there it was. At the very place where that line should be or not be, a tiny book louse, commonly known as a bookworm, had eaten his way through a stack of archives and eaten the manuscript through at that very point. He ate through that spot so precisely that it was impossible to determine if it was “dhanam” or “ghanam.” I had traveled all the way to India, and a tiny book louse, so small you could hardly see it, stood between me and my Ph.D. My point in telling you this story is that it took thousands of hours of preparation to even have that experience. This is the “rule of 10,000.” I am giving an example from my field, but it is just as true if you are learning church history or complex counseling concepts. (By the way, I did resolve the dilemma, making my trip to India fruitful, because Brahabandhav Upadhyay had graciously included some personal footnotes where he explained why he had chosen various terms, and he made a comment about his choice of the word for intense bliss in verse 4, thereby confirming he had written “ghannam,” not “dhannam.”)

The point of this extended illustration is that at the heart of our formation and ministry preparation is the training of the mind and concerted, hard work. When I was a pastor, I didn’t write my sermons on Saturday night. I spent time with the text all week. Our church grew by the grace of God but also because we developed specific strategies to reach our community. It took a lot of hard work and connecting week after week for years with every single person who moved into our community. We were part of a four-point charge, and the lead church was committed to having their own full-time pastor. But our District Superintendent said we could not go full-time until we had a certain level of membership, and the number seemed impossible to our people. But it was the very invitation we needed to get serious about evangelism. We worked and prayed toward this for two years until we met that goal and were able to go full-time on July 1, 1986.

This is not merely a lesson for those who want to be in academics and teach. This is a lesson for all of us. We must gird our minds for action. You have a special window of time afforded you to devote yourself to those 10,000 hours. It doesn’t matter whether your denomination requires the M.Div. or not, or whether some potential counseling center requires a CACREP degree or not. The point is, you require it of yourself because you want to be fully equipped. You want to gird your mind for action. You want to maximize your ministry potential. You want to be able to be used by God in whatever area He calls you to. A sharp sword is better than a dull sword. You may think that some minimalistic path will get you through, but it won’t. Even if the church allows it, or doesn’t have the courage to demand it, you will demand it of yourself. Because this is what will give you the foundation for your entire life of ministry. You can’t help it that you were born in a day when the culture is spiraling down, and all the culture can say is, “Whatever.”  No, this is your very invitation to stand out and stand up for your own future ministry. Now is the time to learn theology, church history, pastoral and counseling practice, biblical texts, and biblical languages, that you might be equipped for service to the kingdom. We have one of the greatest faculties ever assembled, representing each of the key fields of study, and they are here to prepare your minds for actions. That’s why you’re here. Settle for nothing less than God’s highest. It takes 10,000 hours to gird your minds for action.


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The Church as Jesus in the World

Luke 10:1-2; Isaiah 49:6

“After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Luke 10:1-2).

The vision of Christ is for His redeemed people to act as “Jesus in the world.”

Luke, under divine inspiration, has carefully prepared us for this moment in his gospel. In Luke 9:l, Jesus has already sent out the twelve on a Galilean mission to Jews. Later he sends them out to the Samaritans in the north. The disciples, with the exception of Judas, are all Galileans (they are northerners) and they, along with a larger group, are being asked to go into Judea and into the Transjordan area to bring the gospel. This is the first major cross-cultural step as the gospel begins its outward spiral from its base in the north to Palestine, the Graeco-Roman world, the Mediterranean basin including North Africa, Syria, Central Asia, the Far East, the depths of Africa, India, Latin America, and eventually Korea. This is an early clue by Luke of the long vision of Jesus for His redeemed community. This is the first time the gospel is going to be brought to an area filled with Gentiles. They are going to encounter new practices like unclean food. Jesus in this discourse tells them, “Eat whatever is put before you.” Don’t squabble about unclean food because this is the opportune moment – the Kingdom of God is breaking into the whole human race. Jesus Himself, the text declares, has “resolutely set his face toward Jerusalem,” and He knows that the time has come.

One of the concerns of Luke is, of course, the ongoing story of the church, the longer view of where this is all headed. Luke is the only gospel writer that gives us a companion volume, the book of Acts, which is given to extend his gospel outward and to give us some view as to its arc, its direction, as it breaches the walls of Judaism and encounters a Gentile world. It is Luke, a gentile, who, though careful to demonstrate the mission of the church as rooted in the Old Testament, gives us the last words of Jesus before His ascension. “…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Luke is quoting Isaiah: “… I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (49:6). This is the vision that Luke connects with.

Indeed, one of the greatest threats we face as a church is losing this vision. We start thinking of our work, our ministry, and even mission itself as a series of tasks that we are called to, rather than seeing what God is doing and unfolding in the world and calling us to be a part of. Mission (singular) refers to God’s initiative to redeem the world. Missions (plural) refers to the particular acts of obedience whereby He sovereignly calls us to be involved in His plan of extending His church in hundreds of different ways. Does that thrill you?! This is the great privilege and calling of Christian missions. If you forget everything else, don’t forget that – you have been called to be a part of God’s action in the world. If missions is just our initiative, our plans, our story, then we don’t know how these things might end. But because this is His story, His plan, His initiative, we can look in the back of the book and know Who wins! Jesus shall reign! His Kingdom is coming! Satan will be defeated! All things will be set right! The Apostle John captures a glimpse of this vision when he declares, “after this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:9). It is essential that you see your lives in continuity with Christ and His mission.

Everything in this text points us to this larger vision of our Lord Jesus. Even the textual variance in this passage, which is divided between those texts that say that Jesus sent out 70 and those that say 72, is itself a pointer to Genesis chapter 10. Genesis 10 lists all the nations of the known world at that time. This is why this chapter is known as the “table of the nations.” It lists all the tribal or ethnic heads that eventually descended from Noah and his three children. In the Hebrew, if you count the nations listed in Genesis 10, it comes to 70. But in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament that the early church used, the number is not 70 but 72 because of word division differences in the Greek. This demonstrates that Jesus’ use of the number 70 or 72 connects to the Genesis 10 passage.

Remember, in the earlier mission to Jews in Galilee, Jesus sent out 12. 12 is symbolic of the Jewish mission. We all appreciate the importance of the number 12 representing the 12 tribes of Israel. In Luke 9, we see the disciples as the heads of a new redeemed community – a new Israel.

However, by Luke 10 this will no longer do; that vision was too small. The larger vision of sending out the 70 or 72, a number symbolic of the nations, is a first step in the global expanse of the church of Jesus Christ. The text says that Jesus sent out 70. This is Jesus reminding us that His ministry is not just about saving the “lost tribes of Israel.” It is bigger than that – much bigger than that! We are about to breach new walls, go to new peoples, and bring the gospel to all nations. Our goal is nothing less than the world.

In Luke’s account of this sending out of the 70, we must realize that even this mission is preparatory. Despite all of the glowing traditions that developed around the twelve disciples and where they went, they could not and did not go to the 24,000 people groups in the world. They were still confined in this mission to the Transjordan, a very tiny part of the world.

This account is before the Resurrection, before the Ascension, and before the coming of the full empowering of the Holy Spirit. However, like so much in Scripture, everything is prepared in advance. It is like a great banquet. One must make preparations and adjustments because, in time, the Great Commission will be given to us, and we are then tasked to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth. We are now living and working not in the dusky first few shades of light before the dawn but in the full, glorious light of the Resurrection. Now, in the presence of the living Lord and with the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit, we go forth to do “greater things” because He has gone to the Father. Brothers and sisters, we have a global mission, not to a handful of ethnic groups of the Transjordan, but to plant viable self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating churches among 24,000 people groups in the world, thousands of which have never even heard His name or heard so much as John 3:16 in their own language. It is the remarkable mission to Korea that first articulated the “three-self” principle of missions to establish churches: self-governance, self-support, and self-propagation. May this vision continue in our own way until we reach every people group in the world with the gospel.

And so the gospel went forth. In the first century, right in the pages of the New Testament, we discover that the gospel was bigger than Judaism. A group of unnamed disciples from Cyprus and Cyrene began to preach the gospel to Greeks, “telling them, also, the good news of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 11:20). The church at Antioch is born and, by the end of the second century, becomes the largest church in the world. It was, you will recall, the sending church of the Apostle Paul in his great missionary journeys, which were not, as we often think, evangelistic campaigns, but strategic church-planting missions. He is establishing self-supporting, self-propagating, self-governing churches who themselves begin to send out missionaries.

By the fourth century this small, persecuted sect brings down the mighty Roman Empire, and Christianity becomes the official faith of the Empire. The gospel continued to spread north into the so-called barbarian territories and to the far reaches of the Empire itself, including a flourishing church that arose in North Africa and gave wonderful gifts to the church, like St. Augustine.

And the Eastern empire, whose capital was now in Constantinople, brought the gospel to the Eastern world. Later, great Celtic saints like Aidan and Columba and St. Patrick brought the gospel to the western part of the Empire. But the gospel continued to spread across Persia and along the entire silk route that connected the Eastern empire with the Far East. Remarkably, at the same time the gospel was being planted in England, it was also being presented by Nestorian missionaries right into the Imperial court of China. When Islam emerged in the seventh century, many former Christian lands fell, and Christianity suffered a major setback in North Africa and what we now call the Middle East. Even the so-called holy land fell to Islam. But the light of the gospel could not be put out. Boniface brought the gospel into the heart of what is now Germany. Cyril and Methodius were translating the gospel into the Slavic tongue. Vladimir braved the mighty steppes of Russia to bring the gospel.

Even in the darkest days of the Western attempt to militarily defeat Islam, known as the Crusades, you should never forget that there were faithful bearers of the gospel. Men like Raymond Lull, known as “the apostle of love” in an age of hate, brought the gospel to the seat of the Islamic empire. Eventually, the heart of the gospel message and the authority of the Scripture was recaptured by the European church in the Reformation. In due course this gave birth to the modern missionary movement, first with the Moravians streaming forth from the estate of Count von Zinzendorf and eventually with the rise of mission societies who sent men and women like William Carey, Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor, C.T. Studd, Amy Carmichael, Lottie Moon, Gladys Alyward, and others too numerous to count to the ends of the earth. Africa buried the missionaries by the hundreds, earning itself the name “the missionary graveyard,” because the average lifespan of a missionary was only two years. But, in the end, the real story is that Christianity took root in the soil of Africa. China called the missionaries foreign devils, but the real story is that the gospel took root in Chinese soil, because the gospel is not western or eastern; it’s the unfolding plan of God’s redemption for the world.

In this way the gospel spread all over the world, from the remote islands of the Pacific to the breathtaking mountains of Nepal. This is God’s story. From the Jesuit witness in the Imperial courts of China to the relentless travels of David Livingstone in the heart of Africa, this is God’s story. From the work of Wycliffe Bible translators working in the tribal jungles of Papua New Guinea to the Marlows and the Sawyers and others working year after year in the great sprawling cities of the Muslim world like Istanbul, Cairo, Damascus and Jakarta, this is God’s story. From English classes being taught in the name of Jesus to the immigrant populations of North America to the fiery preaching on the streets of Rio or Sao Paulo in Latin America, this is God’s story! From the church planters facing persecution in the heat of North India’s Ganges plain to the bitter cold winds blowing across the faces of gospel workers in Mongolia, this is God’s story. From the mass evangelistic campaigns of Billy Graham and Luis Palau to a young Russian girl kneeling at her bedside with tears streaming down her cheeks asking Jesus to save her, this is God’s story. Only eternity will tell the full story. We only know a few of the chapters of this great story of the church of Jesus Christ extending the good news of the risen Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world.

If we see ourselves in continuity with Jesus, and we are congruent with the apostolic message, then we have the great privilege of helping to bring in the plentiful harvest, the great ingathering into the kingdom of God. The Kingdom will be a place where the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the poor receive good news. The great debt of sin is wiped out, paid in full. The strong man is disarmed, the lost find refuge in the Father’s house, and the marriage supper of the Lamb is prepared. This is the vision that began in Genesis 12:3 when God promised Abraham, “in your seed, all nations will be blessed” and culminates in that great vision of John in Rev. 7:9 when he sees “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:9). May we be ever determined to connect with this great vision of Christ for His church to be “Jesus in the world.”


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Perfecting Holiness

“Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” (2 Cor. 7:1).

I cannot fully express to you the joy that was ours when in the spring of 1985 – over 25 years ago – our first child was born. Jonathan was born rather late at night after 30 hours of labor, and I remember looking at my watch right there in the delivery room when he was born. It was 10:30 p.m. and it was May 24. For a Methodist to have a child born on May 24 is a great gift, indeed. May 24, you will recall, is also the day when John Wesley had his famous heartwarming experience at Aldersgate. It ranks as the most well-known historical event in our movement. (In contrast, my birthday is Sept. 24, and about the only thing I know in history that happened on Sept. 24 is the birth of the American Postal Service, which is, shall we say, not quite up there with Aldersgate). But, it was on May 24 that Wesley went “unwillingly” down to a Christian society meeting and there encountered a reading of Martin Luther’s preface to Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. Listen to Wesley’s own words: “About a quarter before nine, while the reader was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

Scholars and historians still debate about what precisely happened to Wesley that night. Was this his conversion experience, or not? The point, however, is that Wesley went away transformed. That night he heard the gospel, he really heard it at the deepest level – it was a “splagchnizomai” moment, the word used to describe Jesus being “deeply moved within.” Wesley got the point; we are justified through the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. We cannot add to that work. Sola Christus, sola fide: Christ alone, faith alone. Wesley really heard the Reformation recovery of the biblical message. It is no mistake that this transformation came as someone was reading Martin Luther’s preface to the book of Romans – that point should not be lost on us. For Luther’s “tower experience” in the 16th century (tower of the Black Cloister of the Augustinian monastery in Wittenberg) where the gates of heaven were opened – “I felt myself born anew and to enter through open gates into paradise itself!” – was much like Wesley’s Aldersgate experience in the 18th century. They suddenly really heard the full force of Paul when he says, “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last” (Rom. 1:17). They really heard something deep within when they read those words, “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” (Rom. 3:22). Some fresh wind blew across their darkened souls when they read those words of St. Paul, “No one is justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 2:16). It is not less than a doctrine, but it is much more than a doctrine. It must be personalized. We need to understand that the doctrine of justification by faith is one of those doctrines that you don’t just believe or affirm – like people believe or don’t believe in infant baptism or the rapture or supralapsarianism. This is not in that category. This is a foundational doctrine that defines Christian identity. The doctrine of justification by faith is a doctrine that you really need to personally hear at a deep level. You need to believe it, yes, but you also need to experience it. To use the language of the 18th century revivalists, this is not theoretical religion; this is experimental religion (we would say “experiential”). This is precisely what happened to Wesley on May 24, 1738, at about quarter till nine. For the sake of convenience, let’s call this the May 24 story.

You need to have a May 24 story. It may not have happened to you on May 24 – you may not even remember the date or that it took place at a quarter before nine (process versus crisis). But you need a May 24 story. This is your stake in the ground, the point when you “got it,” when you said, “I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation, and an assurance was given to me that my sins, even mine, were taken away, and I was delivered from the law of sin and death.” It’s your birth story! It’s about the foundation. It’s about walking through the front door. I was on a youth group trip up in the mountains of north Georgia, and we stopped one evening at a boarding school in Rabun Gap, and we, along with a few hundred residents of the school, sat on wooden stools around tables and ate supper in a large, grungy cafeteria. In was the summer of 1975. At the end of supper, we were anxious to board the bus and get on home to Atlanta when a man got up to give an after-supper devotional. I – if I can borrow the language of Wesley – reluctantly sat back down on my wooden stool to wait out the devotional. The chaplain opened his Bible to Philippians 3 and shared very clearly from Paul’s declaration that Paul counts all things rubbish that he might be “found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own…, but that which is through faith in Christ” (Phil. 3:8,9). Something happened as I sat there: I heard the gospel. Wesley’s Aldersgate experience, like Luther’s tower experience, my own boarding school cafeteria experience, and your experience, are May 24 stories.

There are some stories in life that are logically prior and, indeed, necessary prerequisites, to other stories. Your birth story, your conversion story, or your wedding story often lay logically prior to other kinds of stories. Your May 24 story is a vital and logically prior story to what I want to share now – a new story for some of you. However, I’m acknowledging up front that this new story requires that you already have a May 24 story as a prerequisite. If you don’t have that, then nothing I am about to say will make a bit of sense.

On New Year’s Eve, bringing in the year 1739 (283 years ago), Wesley goes to another society meeting. This one hasn’t penetrated the popular imagination like Aldersgate, but it is essential if you are going to really understand Wesley and the whole Methodist movement. He goes down, not to Aldersgate, but to Fetter Lane.

That night, at Fetter Lane, they have a prayer meeting, a vigil to bring in the new year. Praying in the new year is a long-standing tradition among many Christians – it is a lot more exciting than watching the ball drop with Dick Clark. So they are praying, and around 3 a.m. (Wesley was very particular in his journals about recording the time things happened!) on January 1, 1739, something dramatic happens to Wesley. He later calls it his personal Day of Pentecost. He received a sanctifying experience where God reoriented his heart and life. Listen to his own words: “Mr. Hall . . . and my brother Charles, were present at our love-feast in Fetter Lane, with about sixty of our brethren. At about three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily among us, insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of His majesty, we broke out with one voice, “We praise thee, O God, we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.” Wesley believed in sanctification as a doctrine before 1739, but it is here that he experienced it. It became a new chapter in his spiritual journey. We’ll call it the Fetter Lane story. There is the May 24 story, and there is the Fetter Lane story – both are essential in the life of the believer. Wesley’s life was reoriented. He became sanctified. He was filled with the Holy Spirit.

The doctrine of entire sanctification is one of the most misunderstood doctrines in our movement. It is misunderstood because we haven’t been prepared to hear it. When most of us hear the word “sanctification,” we think of it as a forensic term – i.e., “sanctified” means that you are divinely certified before God’s court of justice as someone without any sin in your life and, once sanctified, you will never sin again. That is not what Wesley taught or meant by sanctification. For Wesley, sanctification is not really a forensic term at all. You could be justified alone on a deserted island, but sanctification is inherently relational. In fact, it is relational to the core – it is Trinitarian. It is that which happens when we are brought fully into relationship with the Triune God. You see, we are judged not just for the temporal sins that we commit – that would reduce the whole thing to a forensic discussion. When we sin, we are judged because, in that moment of choosing sin, we are actually electing the absence of God in our lives. You see, sanctification is always relational. Sin separates us from God; it is our embrace of the absence of God in our lives.

This is the great insight of the Holiness movement. Luther and the early Reformers understood “alien righteousness.” For Luther, we are only “dung hills covered in snow.” The Holiness movement reminds us that salvation is about more than justification. Righteousness for Wesley was about more than God just looking at us through a different set of glasses. Alien righteousness must become native righteousness; imputed righteousness must become actualized righteousness; declared righteousness must become embodied righteousness, wrought in us not by our own strength but through the power of the living God. We are marked, oriented and reoriented by love.

We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, but we are sanctified by faith as we come into full relationship with the Triune God. Wesley taught that we are justified by faith and we are sanctified by faith. As a relational term, entire sanctification means that your whole life, your body and your spirit have been reoriented. Entire sanctification means that our entire heart has been reoriented towards the joyful company of the Triune God. It was, for Wesley, not the end of some long drudge out of the life of sin but joining the joyful assembly of those who have truly found joy. For Wesley, holiness is the crown of true happiness. To use the language of our text this morning, sanctification is what purifies us from everything that “contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”

Sin is encamped around us on every side, but it is no longer our ally. We burn the secret agreements we have to nod and wink and dance with sin in the night while we confess Christ in the day. We leave behind the agonizingly torn hearts, where we always live under condemnation because sin is always creeping back into our lives. To be sanctified is to receive a second blessing, a great gift from God – a gift that changes your heart, reorients your relationships with the Triune God and with others, giving you the capacity to love God and your neighbor in new and profound ways. It transforms your perspective because your heart is reoriented. Even sanctified people sin, but the difference is that in the life of a sanctified person, sin becomes a permanent enemy and no longer a secret lover! The language of “entire sanctification” uses the word “entire” in reference to Greek, not Latin. In Greek, “entire” or “complete” can still be improved upon. Our founder H. C. Morrison once said, “There is no state of grace that cannot be improved on.” Whenever J. C. McPheeters, our second President, was asked, “How are you doing?” he would joyfully reply, “I’m improving.” It is a new orientation that no longer looks back on the old life but is always looking forward to the New Creation. It is a life that has been engulfed by new realities, eschatological realities – not the realities of that which is passing away.

Wesley also understood that holiness is not merely a negative term. It is not just about sins we avoid. If you were to eradicate every sin in your life, you would only be halfway there. Because, for Wesley, holiness is never just about sins we avoid, it’s about fruit we produce! In Wesley, faith and fruit meet and are joyfully wed! We no longer have a view of holiness that is legalistic, private, negative and static. It is not merely legal, but relational; not merely private, but embedded in community; not negative, but a true vision of the inbreaking of God’s rule and reign! The witness of the Spirit that confirms faith becomes in Wesley the power of the Spirit to produce fruit and to transform the world – to spread scriptural holiness throughout the world!

A sanctified person is “hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:8-9). How could Paul write such things? How can you declare such things in your own life? Because he had been caught up into a higher frame of reference. Your heart has been reoriented. Who needs wine when we’ve got the Holy Spirit? You have what Wesley once called a “self-forgetful heart” and a life engulfed by “perfect love.”

The best metaphor I ever heard for “perfect love” is a story told by Robert Coleman, who taught here for 27 years and, after years at Trinity and Gordon Conwell, is back here in retirement still teaching at Asbury Seminary. Robert Coleman was out in the garden working on a hot day, sweat pouring off his body. His son saw him through the window of the house working hard and decided to bring him a glass of water. He went down to the kitchen, pulled up a stool, and managed to get up to the sink. He picked up a dirty glass laying in the sink, filled it with lukewarm water, and brought it out to his dad. Robert Coleman commented that the glass may have been dirty and the water warm, but it was brought to him in perfect love. Don’t you love that? The self-forgetful heart is the heart that has been reoriented towards love.

I shared with you earlier that I have my May 24 story. But in September of 1977, I was a freshman at Young Harris College in the mountains of North Georgia. I was a baptized Christian believer, but I had many other affections. I was engrossed in politics and, in fact, the same day I received the second blessing was the day that I was elected President of my college freshman class. I had two narratives unfolding in my life. One was to be a Christian but still follow my own affections. The other was to become totally reoriented to divine purposes. I thank God for those dear brothers in Christ who came to me and said, “Do you really want to live for Jesus? Are you prepared for radical change? Do you really want to be put on fire for Jesus and be filled with the Holy Spirit? I said yes. They prayed for me, and I was filled with the Holy Spirit. My heart was reoriented, and I’ve never looked back.

I believe that there are some of you who would like to stand before God and say, “Fill me with the Holy Spirit! Give me the second blessing! Lord, sanctify me in Jesus’ Name! Lord, reorient my heart! Let me be governed by love. Deliver me from me so that I am truly crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” You have a May 24 story. But God will give you a Fetter Lane story when He reoriented your heart towards perfect love!


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