Methodists' openness began with founder John Wesley
That promise of "Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors." reflects the biblical foundation of the Methodist Church and its founder, John Wesley.
Wesley believed in taking the church to the people and using their language - the language of the commoner - to reach all those outcast and marginalized in England during the 1700s.
Ostracized by the Anglican Church, he preached for openness and against exclusivity. He opposed slavery, visited and worshipped with prisoners and collected donations for the poor. His legacy lives on today.
On May 22, United Methodist churches throughout the world will celebrate Heritage Sunday to mark Aldersgate Day (May 24) when Wesley, struggling with his life as a Christian, visited a house on Aldersgate Street in London and experienced the true presence of God upon hearing a reading of Martin Luther's introduction to the Epistle to Romans.
An entry in the Wesley diary reads, "About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."
Heritage Sunday reminds us that out of Wesley's Aldersgate experience grew his philosophy of grace. He believed there were three kinds - prevenient grace, justifying grace and sustaining grace, as explained in the book, "John Wesley: Holiness of Heart and Life."
In providing us this "preparing" grace, Wesley believed that "God places a little spark of divine grace within us which enables us to recognize and accept God's justifying grace." Prevenient grace is free for all.
Wesley then believed that we experience God's justifying grace when we "come into a new life in Christ." Each person is free to accept or reject this type of grace, and it is in our acceptance in which we are "reborn."
Once we have accepted God's grace, we "move on in God's sustaining grace toward perfection." Lest we backslide, or fall from grace, Wesley implores, "Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can."
And where might we find people to do good for? Wesley said "the world is my parish," implying that there are no boundaries in which we should focus our efforts.
According to Dr. William Kellon Quick, pastor emeritus of Metropolitan UMC in Detroit and a professor at Duke Divinity School, "The Methodist family .�.�. is now approaching a global community estimated to be almost 80 million persons. .�.�. The Methodist movement has doubled in the last 50 years due mainly to the unparalleled growth of the Wesleyan family in Africa, Asia, Central and Latin America."
Congregations also are being established in record numbers in the former Soviet Union, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal and Mongolia.
Locally, Methodists can do as Wesley called by participating through a connected system.
By working through the General Board of Global Ministries and the United Methodist Committee on Relief, small Methodist congregations, such as ours in Woodbury, truly can call the world our parish and do good in places we individually may not have been able to.
In that way, we gave to hurricane relief efforts in Florida and tsunami relief efforts in Sri Lanka.
We maintain our "openness" by aiding people of any faith through our donations and our services, participating in mission trips sponsored by other denominations and hosting ecumenical worship services.
To learn more about Methodism in Woodbury, visit www.woodburyumc.net.
Or come by Woodbury United Methodist Church next Sunday at 10:30 a.m. to experience our past and our present together as John Wesley and hymn writer Charles Wesley, and their mother Susanna, come to life during a special worship drama.
Ed Dzitko of Woodbury, a member of the Woodbury United Methodist Church, is a certified Methodist lay speaker and chairperson of the Woodbury United Methodist Church's Ad Hoc Heritage Sunday Committee.