First off, I ran a mile and walked about a mile and a half yesterday. I must’ve streched and iced my shins properly because I woke up with minimal soreness this morning. Either that, or I wasn’t trying hard enough yesterday. I feel very invigorated this morning and can’t wait for the is afternoon’s trek. Now, onto the topic….
This will probably be an ongoing thought series, but what would Wesley say about our denomination and churches today? Wesley called his ministers to preaching for conversions, discipleship/accountability, and personal holiness. I do think our Spiritual Formation department has it right with the heart, head, hands, habits mantra. I think Wesley would wonder why it costs so much for our ministers to get an education, why they don’t receive more hands on ministry and preaching experience, and how slackers make it through the program. I think if Wesley met a student who couldn’t keep at least a B average, who scoffed at taking Greek, and couldn’t spell “accountability” then he would recommend another career to them. I think if he saw pastors(sr., youth, worship, children’s, etc.) who hadn’t read a book(or the Bible for that matter) to better themselves then he would ask them why, but I’m sure the answer wouldn’t be sufficient. I think if he saw an overweight pastor like me he would be disgusted. I think he would tell me that holiness starts at home. I would offer him a Mountain Dew and after tasting it he would ask,”This did THAT to you? Are you out of your mind?” He would ask pastors when they had their Sabbath and what they prayed and read that day. He would ask how God spoke to us during our times alone with him. I wouldn’t want to be the sucker to sheepishly raise his hand to tell Mr. Wesley that most of us are too busy for that. I think he would ask why people don’t bring their Bibles to church, but I think it would help him understand why many of our parishioners are the way they are. Would he ask,”Are there enough Bibles for everyone? Is that why so many of them are without?” I think he would drastically reformat Sunday School to make it a more understandable Bible study and less time taking prayer requests. He would probably turn Sunday nights into just a prayer meeting so the pastor doesn’t have to wing another sermon and no one has to pick 3 or 4 random hymns to sing(if the pianist shows up). He would then wonder why only about 25% of the people from that morning came on Sunday nights. To this I would reply, if it’s not important enough to plan then why would it be important for people to come. He would probably look at our expanding waist lines, shrinking times with our families, sermons thrown together at the last minute, and realize we have made too many things a priority so that nothing has become a priority. At this point, he would probably need a break. He would look at me and ask,”Where’s that Mountain Dew?”