BEYOND METHOD:
The heart of Methodism
THE word
"Methodist" was used as a derogatory term to name John
Wesley and his Holy Club by their detractors at Oxford University
because of their disciplined approach to Christian living. They
met regularly in their small group, practised fasting, almsgiving,
and the visitation of prisoners.
The original "Methodists" were in fact first-century
Greek physicians who had a new medical theory and believed in
and promoted a method of health - proper diet and exercise. Wesley
knew about this and did not mind the term, for like the ancient
physician Methodists, his Methodist movement promoted a method
of health - only that it was a more holistic kind of health with
special emphasis on spiritual holiness.
That there was a method in Christian living among the Methodists
is clear. John Wesley believed in a practical Christianity - lived
out in a disciplined way. He talked about works of piety (prayer,
scripture reading, worship, fasting) and works of mercy (almsgiving,
visiting the prisons, ministering to the sick, social action)
as basic methods of Christian discipleship. There was a method
in practising holiness. As Wesley wrote, a Methodist is "one
who lives according to the method laid down in the Bible".
The Methodist method
is further expressed in our General Rules. The three sections
that describe Methodist expectations of all members are summarised
by their opening phrases - "Doing no harm and avoiding evil",
"doing good", and "attending upon all the ordinances"
(attending services and practising the Christian disciplines).
While we speak of the Methodist method, it is important to rediscover
the heart or goal of Wesley's method. In The Character of a Methodist,
he defines a Methodist as "one who loves God with all his
heart and loves his neighbour as himself". Wesley spoke of
Christian perfection - understood as a perfection in love. In
other words, the spiritual methods of Wesley were means to an
end, which is loving relationships.
The heart of Methodism and the purpose of the methods of scriptural
Christianity is therefore divine love. If we don't understand
this, we will miss the point. In other words, if our methods do
not lead us to a deeper relationship with God and with one another,
then they have failed.
In fact, the word "Method" comes from two Greek words
-- meta (after) + hodos (a way). It means "following after
a way". In this regard, it is to be noted that in the Gospels,
our Lord described Himself as "the Way" (Jn 14:6). The
way in "method" is therefore ultimately a person - Jesus.
The heart of authentic spiritual method is therefore a relationship
- between Jesus and us.
There is a danger that if we do not realise this our pursuit of
and fascination with methods may lead us to the worship of the
tools and techniques marketed today in the globalised Christian
marketplace.
In The Presence of the Kingdom, Jacques Ellul notes how "in
ancient days men put out the eyes of nightingales in order to
make them sing better", and argues that we do likewise by
sacrificing important values, that make and keep us human, for
technical efficiency. We face the danger of bringing this into
our spiritual lives where spiritual method is reduced to marketed
tools and techniques, and celebrated through measurable success.
We then become slaves to fads in the Christian world and identify
ourselves with the latest "flavour of the month."
IN REALITY, the spiritual life can only be managed up to a point.
Ultimately, it is God who gives growth (1 Cor. 3:6). Amid our
many versions of managed spirituality, we need to rediscover God's
grace. We must learn that heaven cannot be moved by our spiritual
techniques. We cannot even change ourselves with them. Instead,
what transforms us is the grace of God. This grace is received
not by pressing some spiritual buttons, but by waiting with faith
for the Lord.
The temptation for the 21st-century Christian is to try to increase
his control on himself, others, and especially heaven. There needs
to be a paradigm shift of controlling to being controlled by the
Spirit of God. As people shift their faith in technology and techniques
to the grace of God, they will be transformed. This grace is often
received in stillness and silence. In the noisy urban environment
in which we live our lives, we need to rediscover silence, solitude
and stillness, which are part and parcel of classical Christian
discipleship, and now in the new century are urgently needed disciplines
in the modern church.
We, a restless generation, need to rediscover what it means to
be still and know who God is (Ps. 46:10). For it is by grace we
have been saved - and this not of ourselves, it is the gift of
God - not by works, so that no one can boast (Eph 2:8-9).
The wrong use of spiritual methods makes people ask the technical
question "How?" rather than the moral question "Why?"
or the spiritual question "Who?" The notion that spiritual
progress is achieved by mastering spiritual techniques and tools
becomes dominant in modern spirituality where people fail to realise
that the heart of all our spiritual methods is to have a wholehearted
love for God. It is thoroughly relational in nature.
If we realise this, we might stop looking breathlessly for the
latest method that "works" and start opening our hearts
to God. We would learn to discover God on the roads less travelled,
not covered by the many popular methods in our day. After all,
in growing a relationship, methods are limited. There are some
places methodical roads just can't go.
William Stafford's poem puts it very well.
They want a wilderness with a map/but how about errors that
give a new start?/or leaves that are edging into the light?/or
the many places a road can't find?
For Wesley, the heart of method was not technique but relationship,
not achievement or performance, but love. Spiritual methods are
like servants who escort us to the door of the King and quietly
leave us there to enter. They are like vehicles on roads from
which we must alight, in order to walk in love with our Lord to
explore untrodden paths and secret places, as we learn to thoroughly
enjoy His wonderful and lovely presence.
QUOTE:
SCRIPTURAL CHRISTIANITY
'The heart of Methodism and the purpose
of the methods of scriptural Christianity is therefore divine
love.'