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 the time of John Wesley (the founder of the Methodist movement). 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 thirteenth and fifteenth of the 19 questions. I hope it blesses you!

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

1. Have you faith in Christ?
2. Are you going on to perfection?
3. Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?
4. Are you earnestly striving after perfection in love?
5. Are you resolved to devote yourself wholly to God and to God’s work?
6. Do you know the General Rules of our Church?
7. Will you keep the General Rules of our Church?
8. Have you studied the doctrines of the Global Methodist Church?
9. After full consideration do you believe that our doctrines are in harmony with the Holy Scriptures?
10. Have you studied our form of church discipline and polity?
11. Do you approve our church government and polity?
12. Will you support and maintain them?
13. Will you exercise the ministry of compassion?
14. Will you diligently instruct the children in every place?
15. Will you visit from house to house?
16. Will you recommend fasting or abstinence, both by precept and example?
17. Are you determined to employ all your time in the work of God? (Coming soon)
18. Are you in debt so as to embarrass you in your work? (Coming soon)
19. Will you observe the following directions?
    (a) Be diligent. Never be unemployed. Never be triflingly employed. Never trifle away time; neither spend any more time at any one place than is strictly necessary.
    (b) Be punctual. Do everything exactly at the time. And do not mend our rules, but keep them; not for wrath, but for conscience’ sake. (Coming soon)

16. Will you recommend fasting or abstinence, both by precept and example?

Fasting was a discipline that, growing up, I never really thought much about (with the exception of the “30 Hour Fast” that our youth group participated in each year). One of the first John Wesley sermons I read, oddly enough, was the captivatingly-titled, “Upon our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Discourse the Seventh,” which both gave me a Wesleyan understanding of fasting and encouraged me to begin the practice myself. In seminary, I began taking seriously the discipline of fasting. With my Wesleyan band, I began fasting on a weekly basis, typically until 3 pm on either Wednesday or Friday, depending on the schedule of the season I was in.

Fasting quickly became an important spiritual practice in my life. As someone who grew up as a healthy, white, upper-middle class, educated, American male, I’ve never truly known what it meant to be without—without food, opportunity, safety, shelter, medication, freedom. I found fasting to be deeply liberating as it forced me into dependence on God for my most core need: food. Doing so made me realize that, while I often like to insulate myself from the problems of life and in my own soul with life’s conveniences, I am ultimately dependent on God and it is good for me to allow myself to depend on Him.

I had been so impacted by the spiritual practice of fasting in college and early in seminary that I found myself talking about it a lot. Through discussing John Wesley’s “Discourse the Seventh” sermon both in person, on a friend’s blog, and on a podcast, I began realizing how few of modern-day Methodists practice fasting. At [my church], we have introduced fasting as a practice for our congregants to try and have preached a whole sermon on feasting and fasting as a way of encouraging our people to grow deeper in love and dependence on God.

If I’m honest, I used to view abstinence as a cop-out to fasting, a way of choosing some of the gift of fasting without all of it. Aside from occasionally giving up sweets or sodas or social media for Lent and practicing sexual abstinence while I was unmarried, I did not make abstinence an intentional practice of mine. Earlier this year, though, on a day I was fasting, I passed out and had to take a break from fasting until I was able to rule out any underlying medical issues and could feel like it was safe for me to begin fasting again. Through that experience, I was humbled to my own arrogance and grew in my compassion for those who cannot, or believe they cannot, safely fast. Over a period of months while I was not fasting, I had to learn the practice of abstinence. In doing so, I practiced abstaining from certain foods and from social media, which has helped me remove myself from some of the unhelpful dependencies I had—dependence on sugar as a way of masking emotions like disappointment, anger, and sadness; the belief that I needed to hear everyone’s opinions about politics; the false need for praise and affirmation after publishing a blog post or preaching a sermon—and become more dependent on the only One who can truly satisfy my deepest longings.

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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.

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