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Why I Love The Wesleyan Church: Holiness

September 21, 2010 — 4 Comments

“Holiness” is a funny word: it can bring to mind strange rules and fiery preachers… and sometimes things are done in the name of ‘holiness’ that make it appear the antithesis of love.  So, please don’t let the topic of this post keep you from going any further.  I freely admit that some of our definitions of holiness are misguided and potentially hurtful; I also admit we’ve been distracted by conversations related to but not central to holiness. Discussion about the Wesleyan stance on alcohol is best left to another post (or ginormous tome).  No, we’re not perfect in how we approach the outward look of holiness… neither am I perfect in how I live, believe, or do life.

But our passion is the truth that the work of Jesus who lived, died, rose again ascended into heaven and even now pleads for us really does make us new.  The impossible call of God’s Spirit to be holy is met by the overwhelming grace of God’s Spirit and we are made such. We really believe a person can be transformed by grace into being exactly who God calls us to be in Scripture.

I tell people I grew up in a home church environment where the ‘flash and pizzaz’ of the Holy Spirit was more the focus than the real power of God’s Spirit, that It wasn’t until my time at Bethany Bible College that I learned of God’s love so great he not only rescues but renews deep, deep down.  What would have been different in my life and heart had I first been exposed to the message of grace-given holiness?  I believe God’s Spirit gives incredible gifts to the Body (many times us holiness folk shy away from and end up missing out on our full potential here, but that is also a discussion for another time…); that he can heal, give supernatural knowledge, amazing insight, holy discernment, and raise the dead; that he can  inspire men and women with dreams & visions, allow us to proclaim his Word, and be used as vessels to change the world in his power.  But one of the most powerful, loving, amazing things I have seen him do is right a crooked spirit.

We Wesleyans like to proclaim we are part of the Holiness Tradition; I hope our passion for God’s Spirit does not morph simply into a list of rules and remembrances of the Good Ol’ Days—as so many traditions do—but that we find ourselves renewed with passion to proclaim that there is a loving God who rescues and re-wires.  He is powerful, loving, strong and mighty to save.

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This is part 1 of a series.  You can read the introduction here.

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New Blog Series this Week:

September 20, 2010 — 2 Comments

image: jimmywayne/flickr

I wasn’t introduced to The Wesleyan Church until I ended up attending a Wesleyan school, but my time at Bethany Bible College exposed me to some things of Christ that I saw in The Wesleyan Church which made me want to be part.  Sure, there are things I might change and I know the denomination is looking at a number of creative solutions to a number of issues, but over the next few days I’ll be sharing what I see as some deep-in-our-DNA aspects of The Wesleyan Church I don’t think we can ever lose without fundamentally altering who we are.  Keep in mind, these are just my opinions, and I hope you feel free to chime in.

I also hope none of this comes across as though I think the Wesleyans are ‘better’ than others or the only ones invited into heaven–I know there really is only one Church and I love Jesus much more than denomination–but I love the part of the body of which I am part… over the next few days we’ll discuss why 🙂 .

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FFD Video

September 15, 2010 — Leave a comment

I still can’t believe I get to be part of what God is doing in Pittsburgh.  One of the highlights thus far has been our Family Fun Day, held at the end of August when we were able to connect with a ton of people from the community and see what can happen when many churches come together just to love on people.

If you haven’t seen it already, this highlight video is well worth the four-and-a-half minutes or so it takes to watch — it does a great job of giving you a little sense of what it was like to be there.  (Thanks again to Ken Depeal and the Sandy Lake Wesleyan crew for shooting, editing, and sharing this video.)

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Preview!

September 13, 2010 — Leave a comment

The Penn Hills Library: Our Meeting Place

Part of our process in launching The Bridge involves a series of monthly ‘preview’ celebrations.  We’re hoping these monthly gatherings help build momentum while setting the tone for what will be once things are officially up-and-running.  They also help to figure out what connects well and what doesn’t work so well given the culture and context of Penn Hills.

Yesterday, we had our first monthly celebration–our very first public worship gathering, and it was a phenomenal experience.  Thanks to those of you who were praying for us before and during the gathering; we know that it is God’s Spirit who is doing the real work in Penn Hills and that he honors the prayers of his people.  We had a pretty healthy crowd of just over 50 (not bad for a first-go on a Steelers’ Home-Game Sunday!), but of the greatest points of excitement for us is that we’re beginning to see the answer to our prayer for a multiethnic, multicultural local church.  When your launch team is made up of a group of anglos from Western Pennsylvania, it can be difficult to help people see that though we may not look multiethnic or multicultural yet, we are.  It was awesome to see a great deal of diversity in our gathering yesterday.

Reflecting on what happened yesterday got me thinking about our future, as well.  Even though I know that The Bridge won’t stay in ‘church plant mode’ forever, there are a couple things I hope we never lose from these early days:

  • The sense–inherently part of a ‘preview’ service–that we haven’t ‘arrived’ yet: we’re moving toward something greater.
  • A culture of change: Elements of this month’s celebration, timing, and order may never happen the same way again–and that’s okay because we’re attempting a variety of things to connect with those far from God, help people get to know Jesus better, and send followers of Christ out to live as Jesus.
  • Permission to fail: as mentioned above, we’re experimenting to see what works, connects, communicates, and builds the Kingdom of Christ; the beauty of ‘experimentation’ is the freedom to fail at something but keep pressing on.
  • The safety to dream big: the more I journey, the more convinced I am that God calls us to dream big, as long as they are his dreams and not our own fabrications.  The dreams we have for what God can use The Bridge to do in Pittsburgh and the world are. huge.  At least to us.  And in these early stages it is still ‘safe’ to cast gigantic vision and grow in excitement about how ginormous our God is and what he can do, even with broken vessels like us.
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Beauty in the Cluster.

August 31, 2010 — Leave a comment

image: NASA

One of the points of conversation following our FunDay the other day was the beauty of a cluster of churches working together with a missional focus.

We know that there’s no way The Bridge could have, by herself, provided the kind of quality event that people experienced this past Saturday during the Family Fun Day.  We could not have handled the expense, procured the necessary supplies, or raised the army of volunteers needed on our own.  One of the the things that made the day great was seeing so many of our District churches, all with different histories and of varying sizes, partnering together to love on the people of Penn Hills and demonstrate solidarity with us.

The same is true for church planting: for some churches, there’s no way they could, by themselves, daughter a healthy, multiplying church; at least not yet.  For all kinds of reasons, raising up a church planter and sending them out with a healthy team of co-laborers and maybe a good chunk of financial backing (not to mention the prayer support and cheerleading of a mother church) is not really plausible given the present reality of some churches .  But that doesn’t mean they are exempted from the call of church planting or living as missionaries in their spheres of influence.

The beauty of planting and working as a cluster is that the ‘churches that couldn’t’ suddenly CAN find themselves making a tremendous difference and planting healthy churches through partnership.

Sure, there are the needs to make sure there’s a shared vision and sacrifice and maybe someone to give point-leadership during the process… and I know it wouldn’t be easy or clean (but I haven’t yet found the easy, clean parts of following Jesus), but what I saw this past weekend is a small glimmer of what a few connected churches and groups of committed people can do when working in harmony.  It really could change the world.

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