Why are you a United Methodist? I must admit the question caught me off guard. I was raised in the United Methodist Church. My grandparents and parents attended a Methodist Church founded by a circuit rider. Being a United Methodist is part of my cultural, social, and religious heritage. Now, I am a United Methodist pastor. During this time when our denomination is confronting tough questions, it is necessary that we all stop and truly consider why we are United Methodists. And, why we will stay United Methodists. Of course, every Confirmation student can recite the core United Methodist beliefs. We serve a God of grace. It is God’s grace that invites us into a relationship with the Divine. It is God’s grace that offers new birth through justification, and it is God’s grace that enables us to grow in the image and likeness of Christ through sanctification. People in many denominations could echo those same or remarkably similar confessional statements. The United Methodist distinctive is that we believe in faith on the fault line. In other words, we see our task and our mission as actualizing faith in the world through acts of compassion, service, and justice. Our founder, John Wesley believed in holiness of heart and mind. To engage in both pious actions such as worship, prayer, Bible study, and in acts of mercy in the world. That is our call today. And that is why we are and will be United Methodists. Now that is genuinely Good News. Blessings, Pastor Tom 1 John 4: 7-10 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
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