Wesley wasn’t “converted” at Aldersgate

I have an Episcopalian friend who remarked that it bothered him that people call the Aldersgate experience Wesley’s “conversion”. He’s absolutely right. This is what I wrote in the comments and I want to share it here.

I always balk and correct people when they call the Aldersgate experience Wesley’s “conversion.” You are absolutely on target, that’s reading Wesley through revivalist eyes. That’s saying he wasn’t really a Christian before then, like he wasn’t really “saved.” 

He was in fact quite faithful, studied, and an Anglican missionary in Georgia.

He did not claim that he got “saved” at Aldersgate. His entire theology of the lifelong journey of experiencing prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace is in fact what Wesley called “the scripture way of salvation.”

It is far more accurate to say this was a very powerful experience of assurance. “An assurance was given me,” he said, a new peace that he did not have to work so hard. Christian life is about grace. I suppose for some revivalists, this assurance is their definition of “getting saved.” But it wasn’t Wesley’s.

It is important, though, and I would press you back (while completely agreeing about the ridiculous idea that this was his “conversion”) that this experience placed a fire in his belly that became the Methodist movement. It was indeed a turnaround from a perceived sense of failure. He was run off from Georgia, yes, by the family of Sophie Hopky and related legal troubles. But not because he was a general failure as a Christian.

But more fundamentally, it was a vivid personal experience of the “heart religion” he already admired and had seen in the Moravians, and which his brother Charles had experienced the year before.

To use his words, Aldersgate was not an experience of justifying grace (conversion). It was his most vivid experience of sanctifying grace. And that turned his inner light on, with the rest of his life committed to help other people grow in holiness.

The “Tax Collector Complex”

I have decided to call it the “tax collector complex.”

In Jesus’s time, the tax collector was like the “king of sinners,” the worst of the worst of the worst. Jews found them repulsive. They are even treated as their own special category (Jesus was asked “why do your followers eat with tax collectors and sinners?”).

Because of what it says in the Bible? No. Did some of them steal off the top? Of course, the Bible says they did. Did all of them? That’s highly unlikely.

They were repulsive to Pharisees but that’s absolutely and unequivocally about culture wars (the tax collectors collaborated with the Romans). That’s why Jesus told the story of the Pharisee who prayed “thank you that I’m not like that tax collector over there” … because that’s how repulsed they were.

Even if you believe homosexuality is a sin (which I do NOT, I believe homosexuality is an orientation you are born with, it is actions that can be sinful or not), why are people so hyper focused on it? The tax collector complex. That’s the only reasonable explanation.

Here’s a simple example. We offer plenty of grace regarding divorce and remarriage (which Jesus clearly called adultery, which by the way is in the 10 commandments), but there are folks who offer NO grace at all about being queer (which Jesus never mentions at all, EVER, and it’s NOT in the 10 commandments). I am not saying we should condemn divorce, not at all. I’m saying offering grace about divorce and remarriage, but not about being queer, can simply NOT be justified biblically. It’s culture wars, plain and simple.

I debated with Nigerian pastors over their views condemning the actions of General Conference. I kept asking, if they believed homosexuality is a sin and they also believe polygamy is a sin, then why were they so offended that we simply neutralized language in the Discipline about homosexuality, but they never, EVER insist on filling the Discipline with harmful language about polygamy?

They never could answer my question. Of course they can’t … because the only justification for the difference in attitude is the “tax collector complex.” I told them they were comfortable dealing with their own social issues regionally, but they were refusing to allow us to do the same.

John Wesley Addresses the Disaffiliators

My friend Dean McIntyre shared a quote from John Wesley that is very applicable for today:

"I dislike your speaking of yourselves as though you were the only [ones] who know and taught the Gospel; ...But what I most dislike is your littleness of love...your want [lack] of union...your want of meekness, gentleness, long suffering; your impatience of contradiction; your counting every [person] your enemy that reproves or admonishes you in love; your bigotry and narrowness of spirit, loving in a manner only those that love you...your censoriousness...  of all who do not agree with you; in a word, your divisive spirit.”

John Wesley 

Letter to the perfectionists in London

November 2, 1762

John 17

The lectionary gospel for this past Sunday was from John 17. In my sermon, I said something I've often said in the past couple of years.

“Jesus never even mentions some of things people get so uptight about that they decide to split off from their own denomination. But he most definitely did talk about unity. That’s what he prayed for. We find our life together not by agreeing on everything, especially things that are secondary to the gospel and creeds and confessions of faith … but by abiding in HIM."

General Conference Reflections

I sat in as an alternate delegate and voted all morning on the last day on General Conference! It was a joy to participate more actively.

That afternoon, I was driving home from General Conference and reflecting. Just when I thought I might pull over because of a rainstorm to post a few pictures of my last day, I realized I was in Banks County, GA. This reminded me how much I’m UNITED Methodist, with every fiber of my being.

Why? My ancestors started a Methodist society RIGHT HERE in Banks County, GA where they are buried at Mt. Pleasant UMC. Their son (my Dad’s 3rd great grandfather) was ordained by Francis Asbury in 1800. Rev. Levi Garrison was a circuit rider for 7 years until he “located” and pastored local churches in nearby Anderson, SC.

And now here I am in Banks County, posting as the storm clears about how proud I am that the UMC has made it through the storm!

I’ve just left a historic General Conference, where it felt like Annual Conference felt last year. Yes of course there were healthy and normal debates, but all the rancor was gone. There was a sense of companionship, unity, healing, and connectedness.

Here are five huge takeaways for the UMC as we move forward: 

1) “Regionalization” legislation passed with flying colors and will be sent to annual conferences for ratification (it’s a constitutional change). This will give United Methodists in different parts of the world (Africa, the Phillipines, Europe, and the U. S.) a great deal of autonomy in sorting out the social issues of their region, all under one General Discipline with the core beliefs that bind us together. 

2) A fresh new set of social principles were passed which replace the archaic ones that have been amended and strung together countless times. Having a robust set of non-binding social principles (they aren’t church law) has been our tradition for over 100 years, since the church tackled issues such as temperance and child labor and made a big difference. One delegate, who happens to be a Supreme Court Justice in Zimbabwe, practiced true spiritual conferencing to find language to define marriage in a way that Africans, Americans, and everyone else in the room could support in unity. The idea that Africans and the US would never find a way to agree and move forward was a WCA/Good News/IRD “separatist narrative” that we just proved to be untrue. When you were committed to unity, you find a way.

3) The controversial and harmful language in the Discipline about human sexuality has been removed, including the punitive language and schismatic disaffiliation legislation inserted in 2019. We don’t have to agree to be together in unity. So we speak of what we agree on across the diverse world and give each other contextual space to go about the business of the gospel!

4) The denomination practiced good financial stewardship after Covid and the season of disafiliations and reduced budget dramatically. Included in this plan is that no new bishops will be elected this year … anywhere in the five US Jurisdictions … and a number will retire. There will be reassignments and transfers and conferences will creatively share bishops. At the same time, we will add 2 new bishops in Africa (we were originally planning on 5). Our denomination is perfectly sustainable moving forward!

5) As per the original "one church plan" that almost passed in 2019, the punitive bans were lifted, but there were also positive built-in protections for churches and pastors to be as traditional as they want to be. It’s sort of a “federated approach.” It’s always been the best way forward. We are a people of open minds, open hearts, and open doors!

So I am happy to “be UMC” in a new season! Thanks be to God.

Accurate information can be found in our bishop’s letter to the North Alabama Conference. You can find it here:

https://www.umcna.org/postdetail/18354109

More accurate information will be coming out from our annual conference soon. Look for that and talk to your pastor! Naturally, you can’t trust everything you’ll read ot hear, especially when it originates from sources with a separatist or proselytizing agenda.