When I met with my mentor pastor, Dave Wright, last month I joked with him that I felt I was "neglecting my Methodism." I severely cut down my committments at RUMC, because I knew I had to focus on 1. grad school/seminary, and thus, my preparation for future ministry, and 2. making money to pay for it all as well as self-care (time, for instance, to actually cook myself dinner instead of overcommitting and eating Top Ramen every night).
Because of the ecumenical nature of Seattle U, I only have a few friends there who are Methodist, and because I was trying to soak up as much information as I could from my fellow students of different denominations, I was spending a lot of time contemplating my Christianity, but I wasn't spending much time reflecting my identity as a Methodist. As a result of this, I was very excited about my United Methodist History course this quarter, taught by Joanne Carlson Brown, a UM pastor located in University Place. Already the class has helped me to feel more connected to my United Methodist roots, and has challenged me to understand and internalize Methodist theology (though of course the UM Doctrine class will help with that even more!)
Already in the reading I have come upon an interesting quote that I wanted to share with you
(emphasis mine):
The spirituality of "grace sufficient" seems to have been a crucially important defining element in early American Methodism. In describing "the Methodist ideology," historian Donald Mathews claimed that a major difference between early Methodists and other evangelical Protestants was that the conversion event (justification, or forgiveness, and new birth) in Methodistm was "no guarantee of final perseverance. The Methodist could not say 'I have been saved!' and leave it at that. The Methodist had to say 'I have been saved, I am saved, I may be saved, I shall one day be saved.'"
I'll suspend any further commentary of my own but may perhaps be back later to add a little. For now I'll just leave you with this, to do with it what you will.
