Most of you know that Dale and I are going to FLAME X this summer. Dale will be leading worship and I will be taking classes. I will be taking Wesleyan Church History and Discipline and Intro to Homiletics. The reason I think taking the Wesleyan Church History class is cool is because, starting tomorrow, Wesleyans will celebrate 40 years as The Wesleyan Church. I did not grow up in The Wesleyan Church but married into it. Forty years ago the Wesleyan Methodist Church merged with the smaller Pilgrim Holiness Church.
One of the things that I have to do for my class is find five things that surprise me about Wesleyan Church history and five things that assure me about the Wesleyan church. One of things that surprised me was that over the course of their history the Pilgrim Holiness Church merged with many smaller like-minded denominations. They were the big fish swallowing the smaller denominations. What becomes interesting is that from time to time I still hear comments about how the Pilgrim Church should have never merged with the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Because now the Pilgrim Church was the smaller denomination and the Wesleyan Methodist was the larger.
Dr. Earle Wilson commented once about change – he said, “that we need to build a bridge and get over it.” We are no longer a church of Wesleyan Methodists and Pilgrim Holiness, even though some would like to create artificial divides as such. You have to be over 45 years old to remember the days before the merger, so that supersedes even Dale’s time. You would have to be ordained over forty years to be a Wesleyan Methodist or Pilgrim Holiness preacher. I think it’s time that we put that past behind us. That’s why I think it is great that we Wesleyans are celebrating forty years of ministry together. Does The Wesleyan Church have its problems? Sure, any denomination has problems – that’s because people are part of them. I love what Dr. Earle Wilson said in another sermon – “The church of Jesus Christ has not survived 2000 years because of us, but in spite of us.” Meaning that despite man’s best (or worse) attempts, the Church of Jesus Christ still is alive. We are the body of Christ – we are the Church – the holy, catholic (universal), apostolic church. As Wesleyans we are but a part of that church, and we are called to live it out – to tell others that Jesus loved them and died for their sins and rose again and is coming again – we are called to live it out – to demonstrate that Jesus Christ can make a difference – that we don’t have to live they way we lived before we were in Christ. We are called to live it out – we are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus and make a difference in the lives of those who are outside of our four walls – this is Kingdom building. This is building a bridge. Happy 40th Anniversary to The Wesleyan Church – may we continue to build God’s Kingdom!
