Dash of Thought - March 2023

Unique
What makes Methodists distinct from others? What is the "USP" (Unique Selling Point), would communication people ask? Recently, I presented to an international group a new resource, which unfolds the basics of United Methodist teaching under the title "Faith working through love".
 
One chapter deals with the UMC in the concert with other churches. One might assume that somewhere this chapter would outline what distinguishes the UMC from other Churches. But there is no such thing. Outsiders may naturally be confused. And this is where it gets exciting and where it is best to recall Wesley's original intention for Methodists.
 
In his short treatise on "The Character of a Methodist", Wesley vehemently denies that Methodists are distinguished by special forms or contents of faith. The hallmark is said to be a three-step process of love: (1) first, the experience that God has poured his love into our hearts (Rom. 5:5); and, therefore the will (2) to "love the Lord your God with all your heart" (Mk. 12:30), and (3) to "love each other person as yourself" (Mk. 12:31). The objection that these are the characteristics of any other Christian is answered in the affirmative by Wesley. However, it is important to him that this core of the faith, with Christ at the center, marks every Methodist. This should be their unmistakable profile. And if other Christians live it, too, so much the better.
 
Such approach to the living core of faith, active in love, is also connected with Wesley's objective "to reform the nation, and in particular the Church, and to spread scriptural holiness over the land". He did not set out to compete with the existing Church of England, for it was the best for him. But he wanted to shape not only the church but also society from the core of faith. This living core of faith, working through love, is and remains the decisive characteristic of Methodists.

 Bishop Patrick Streiff