Timothy Tennent

Looking into the Pit of Hell by Timothy C. Tennent

We are still basking in the wonderful good news of Easter. During this Eastertide, I am reminded afresh of the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This past January, my wife and I spent two weeks in the Holy Land. No words can really ever capture the power of walking this land. One of […]

Are “Mainline Churches” in Denial? by Timothy C. Tennent

John Buchanan is the thoughtful editor of the Christian Century. In a recent editorial (See, March 8, 2011 issue) entitled “Living Traditions” he bemoans an article which had recently appeared in the Wall Street Journal (Feb. 4) entitled, “Where have all the Presbyterians gone” The article had pointed out the rapid decline of “mainline” churches […]

Is a live-streamed pastor on the big screen an “icon”?

Those of you who have studied church history will remember that one of the most sustained conflicts in the church was over the use of icons or images in Christian worship. The debate raged for centuries between the seventh and the end of the ninth century. An icon refers to a two dimensional image of […]

The Role of Worship: Wesleyan Catechesis, part 8

This blog completes an eight part series on the distinctive of Wesleyan catechesis. These blogs on catechesis are actually part of a larger project I am exploring through my blogs as to how we rebuild the meta-narrative in the church today. One of the earliest writers to recognize the collapse of modernity as we in […]

The role of Doctrine in Wesley and Wesley’s global perspective: Wesleyan Catechesis, Part 7

We are exploring the role of doctrine in Wesleyan catechesis. For Wesley, theology arises out of a response to God’s prior initiative, lest it become a dead letter of endless intellectual speculation un-tethered from a vibrant, warm heart. The third and final aspect of this we will call, The World is My Parish This third […]

Practical side of Wesley’s doctrine: Wesleyan Catechesis, part 6

In the last blog I was exploring a bit about Wesley’s understanding of doctrine. We have seen that Wesley was deeply committed to historic Christian orthodoxy. We have also seen that Wesley had a very generous spirit of cooperation and collaboration with Christians with whom we disagreed about matters of indifference. We are exploring three […]

The Role of Doctrine in Wesley’s “catholic spirit”: Wesleyan Catechesis Part 5

I have been exploring the multi-faceted strands of the genius of Wesleyan catechesis. So far, we have explored the role of God’s prior action in prevenient grace (part 1), Wesley’s notion of “waiting in the means of grace” (part 2), the role of the community in spiritual formation (part 3) and the missional ethos of […]

The missional catechesis of Mr. Wesley: Wesleyan catechesis, part 4

We are examining the multi-faceted strands of the genius of Wesleyan catechesis. So far, we have explored the role of God’s prior action in prevenient grace (part 1), Wesley’s notion of “waiting in the means of grace” (part 2), and the role of the community in spiritual formation (part 3). Today’s blog will explore the […]

“It’s about Community”: Wesleyan Catechesis, part 3

In the introduction to this series (March 28th post entitled “Catechesis is the first step in ‘making culture’”) I noted that we encounter a wide array of models for how the church passed the faith on to the next generation. I briefly highlighted the catechumen-mystagogy model of the Patristics, the monastic/service model of the Celtics, […]

Waiting “in the means of grace”: Wesleyan catechesis, part 2

The last blog explored how we cannot begin the road to catechesis until we first recognize God’s prior action in our lives. For Wesleyans this is normally captured in the doctrine of prevenient grace. This is that grace which “goes before” or “leads the way” whereby God acts to free our human will from the […]