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.
SCRIPTURAL CHRISTIANITY
‘The heart of Methodism and the purpose of the methods of scriptural Christianity is therefore divine love.’