Methodist Beliefs Help Us Live Out Scripture (The 19)

In May, I was ordained an elder in the Global Methodist Church. Each clergyperson ordained in a Methodist denomination has to answer 19 historical questions asked by bishops going back to John Wesley’s (the founder of the Methodist movement) time. I thought I might share my responses to these questions in hopes of sharing a bit more about myself and about Methodism. This is the eighth and ninth of the 19 questions. I hope it blesses you!

To read my other responses to the questions, check them out here:

Have you faith in Christ?
Are you going on to perfection?
Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?
Are you earnestly striving after perfection in love?
Are you resolved to devote yourself wholly to God and to God’s work?
Do you know the General Rules of our Church?
Will you keep the General Rules of our Church?
Have you studied the doctrines of the Global Methodist Church?
After full consideration do you believe that our doctrines are in harmony with the Holy Scriptures?

8. Have you studied the doctrines of the Global Methodist Church?

Both in my own personal study and in an academic setting, I have studied the doctrines of Methodism and specifically, the Global Methodist Church. While I was at Asbury Theological Seminary from 2017 until 2023, I took courses that helped me understand the doctrines of Methodism, specifically The History and Polity of Methodism, United Methodist Doctrine and Polity, and the Theology of John Wesley. While the Global Methodist Church had not yet been formed while I was taking those courses, in my role as the President of the UMC Student Group at Asbury from 2019-2021, I stayed abreast of the emergence of the Global Methodist Church and how it differed and stayed similar to the doctrines and social principles the United Methodist Church professed. In my personal and academic study, what I have found to be most true is that the ways in which the Global Methodist Church differs from the United Methodist Church is how it lives out its doctrines, rather than the doctrines themselves.

As stated in the Book of Doctrines and Discipline of the Global Methodist Church, “The Holy Scriptures are understood to be our primary rule for faith and practice and the doctrines of the Church shall be those embraced within the historic creeds of the church, our Articles of Religion and Confession of Faith, and the core Wesleyan tradition as defined within Part One of this Book of Doctrines and Discipline.”[1]

The Holy Scriptures as contained in the Old and New Testaments are the authoritative doctrine of Christianity and the Global Methodist Church. The Bible contains all things that are necessary for our salvation, so there is nothing that could be added by any denomination or tradition to Scripture that is necessary for our salvation. Doctrine is important, though, to be able to articulate the Wesleyan way of living out the Scriptures in our lives. As Bishop Scott Jones has written, doctrine “functions as a way in which the Church defines its identity”[2] and offers “greater clarity and definition of what teachings truly belong to each church.”[3] Practically speaking, doctrines are a vehicle for churches and church leaders to use to move people towards the goal of the Christian life: holiness of heart and life. They help to clarify our interpretation of Scripture and help us live out our understanding of Scripture in the world.

The creeds of the church (The Apostles’ Creed, The Nicene Creed, and the Definition of Chalcedon), the Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church, the Confession of Faith of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, and Part One of the Global Methodist Church’s Book of Doctrines and Discipline (including, but not limited to, the Standard Sermons of John Wesley, the Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, and the General Rules of the United Societies) are all considered doctrines of the Global Methodist Church.

9. After full consideration do you believe that our doctrines are in harmony with the Holy Scriptures?

After full consideration, I do believe that the doctrines of the Global Methodist Church are in harmony with the Holy Scriptures. In fact, the primary reason I am seeking ordination as an elder in the Global Methodist Church is because I have found no other expression of Christianity that better articulates the Holy Scriptures and how we can live them out in the world.

I am grateful for the many different expressions and traditions (or, as I’ve heard it put before, “accents”) of Christianity that exist. I have learned from many different traditions, even if my theological beliefs differ from them. I have learned the importance of evangelism and mission from my Baptist brothers and sisters, the ways art can reveal God’s goodness and beauty from the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the rootedness of liturgy from my Anglican friends, the joy in worship from my Pentecostal brothers and sisters, and a reverence for the sacraments from the Roman Catholic tradition. Learning from scholars, pastors, and friends from other traditions has given me a more robust understanding of what it means to be the body of Christ across generations and nations, while still deepening my love for the Wesleyan tradition.

As mentioned in a previous response, one of the reasons I fell in love with Methodism is because it went beyond what I had always been taught was the telos, the end goal, of the way of Jesus. Rather than believing that the telos of the Christian life was to “ask Jesus into my heart” and then invite others to do the same, Methodism taught me that the telos of the Christian life was holiness of heart and life for myself and others. This also taught me that good theology is freeing. For so long before diving into Methodist theology, a question had been burning in my soul that I was afraid to ask: “Is this all there is to Christianity: asking Jesus into your heart and being a good person until you die?” When I learned of entire sanctification, it was as if I had been set free to live the life God has invited me to live. This is one of the primary reasons I love teaching Methodist doctrine to others: because I believe it can help free them to follow Jesus in a more helpful, holistic way.

1. Book of Doctrines and Discipline, ¶ 203.
2. Scott Jones, United Methodist Doctrine: The Extreme Center (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002), 24.
3. Ibid, 17.

Thanks for reading! If you’re interested in getting the other responses to the 19 questions delivered to your inbox, subscribe to my blog below!

This blog is a hobby for me, but it does cost some money to maintain. If you’d like to support this blog, you can purchase any of the books I’ve mentioned in this post using the links on this blog, or you can “buy me a coffee.” Thanks!

Also, to read my book review of GMC Bishop Carolyn Moore’s book The 19: Questions to Kindle a Wesleyan Spirit, check it out here.

You might also be interested in some of my other blog posts about the Global Methodist Church. If so, they’re below:

“The Two Preachers We Need”
“My Grandchildren’s Denomination”
“Why Do We Ordain?”
“Learning to Trust: From Calling to Ordination”