John Wesley's Words

The best thing of all is God is with us.

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FOOD PANTRY

There is a list posted in the Fellowship Hall of food pantry needs. Please donate to this wonderful community ministry.

Food Pantry Needs

Wish List

Personal items: soap, deodorant, Tooth paste & brushes
Pasta - Spaghetti Noodles
Mashed potatoes - dehydrated
Spaghetti Sauce/ Pasta sauce
Peanut butter
Jelly
Crackers (Individual tubes in boxes)
Cans of soup or ramen noodles Canned chili
Canned meats

• Chicken breast
• Stew
• Hash
• Spaghetti and meat balls or raviolis

Canned Vegetables

• Green Beans, Corn - any kind, Peas
• Any other beans (Baked or pork and beans)

Breakfast cereal - any kind

If you do not wish to shop for the food Pantry, CASH donations are gratefully accepted, and the food pantry committee will do the shopping.

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Prayer Requests
and Praise Reports

can be entered
at any time

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Our Bible and Our Cell Phone

 

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The opening pages of the United Methodist Hymnal bear a preface that has bemused and bewildered distracted worshippers for ages. These seven rules, titled 'Directions for Singing,' were first included in the 1761 publication Select Hymns, a hymnbook for early Methodists.

Keep in mind when you read these directions the hymns we take for granted as "traditional worship" hymns were almost all new in John Wesley's day (Charles was writing them), and most of them would never be sung in church buildings in Wesley's lifetime.

Usually only the preacher had a copy of the hymnbook. He would sing one line out at a time, and then the gathered crowd would repeat what they heard. In this context, Wesley's directions are really rooted in his belief that worship is the work of all the people, meant to unite us as a priesthood of all believers in service to God.

Directions for Singing

That this part of Divine Worship may be the more acceptable to God, as well as the more profitable to yourself and others, be careful to observe the following directions.
I. Learn these Tunes before you learn any others; afterwards learn as many as you please.
II. Sing them exactly as they are printed here, without altering or mending them at all; and if you have learned to sing them otherwise, unlearn it as soon as you can.
III. Sing All. See that you join with the congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a slight degree of weakness or weariness hinder you. If it is a cross to you, take it up and you will find a blessing.
IV. Sing lustily and with good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, than when you sung the songs of Satan.
V. Sing modestly. Do not bawl, so as to be heard above or distinct from the rest of the congregation, that you may not destroy the harmony; but strive to unite your voices together, so as to make one clear melodious sound.
VI. Sing in Time: whatever time is sung, be sure to keep with it. Do not run before nor stay behind it; but attend closely to the leading voices, and move therewith as exactly as you can. And take care you sing not too slow. This drawling way naturally steals on all who are lazy; and it is high time to drive it out from among us, and sing all our tunes just as quick as we did at first.
VII. Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your Heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve of here, and reward when he cometh in the clouds of heaven.

Why do we sing in worship?

This may be a question you've always asked yourself, but haven't heard discussed within the church. Hymns are a valuable aid to worship because they help to focus our attention on the goodness and glory of the Lord. Technically, a hymn is a stanzaic, metrical poem meant to be sung. A traditional meter for hymns in English is 8.6.8.6., called common meter, which corresponds with ballad stanza. The subject matter of a hymn is what distinguishes it from the "psalms" and "spiritual songs" mentioned in Ephesians 5:19 (ESV); a psalm can be thought of as Scripture set to music - usually from the book of Psalms - and a spiritual song can be any song with a spiritual theme, including songs of testimony and admonition. A hymn addresses and celebrates God and has the purpose of praise and adoration.

Here are five reasons we sing in worship.

1. God commands us to sing. There are hundreds of references of singing within the Bible. Jesus Himself sang songs of praise after the Last Supper. If we are called to replicate the character of Christ, I'm confdent that singing should always be involved.

2. Christians have sung throughout history. Te earliest Christians put their community beliefs in songs, which is why Christian hymnody as a whole began. Songs are recorded in scripture and other historical texts. Te Book of Psalms in the Bible is a great resource for reading songs of believers that have gone before us.

3. Songs can give us theology. As you may know, hymns and other Christian songs are full of rich, theological text, therefore they can educate us and teach us about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

4. Singing connects us emotionally. Songs of celebration have the power to lead us to dance. Songs of lament have the power to lead us to tears. Music has a way of piercing into the deep parts of our soul, that assists in our expression and response to God and to the church.

5. Singing helps unite us to the church. The gospel unites believers to one another. However, music is a tool that facilitates the unity. As we gather on the Sabbath, we join together as one body, and praise God with one voice.

We recognize that God gives each of us different gifts. But at the end of the day, we all are called, wanted, and expected to sing.

We should heed the proclamation found in Psalm 96. "Sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord! Bless His name! Share the news of his saving work every single day."

 

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The United Methodist Church

The United Methodist Church is a collection of associated congregations of Protestantism whose doctrine and beliefs are motivated by the spirit and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John Wesley's brother Charles Wesley were also significant early leaders in the movement. Early Methodists consisted of all levels of society, including the aristocracy, but the Methodist preachers brought the teachings to laborers and criminals who were likely left outside of organized religion at that time. In Britain, the Methodist Church had a considerable impact in the early decades of the developing working class.

The Methodist Church began as a reformation of the Church of England.

The Methodist movement started with a collection of men, including John Wesley and his younger brother Charles, as an act of reform within the Church of England in the 18th century. The Wesley brothers originated the "Holy Club" at the University of Oxford, where John was an associate and later an instructor at Lincoln College. The group met weekly and methodically set about living a holy life. They preferred to receive Communion every week, abstain from most forms of amusement and luxury and commonly visit the sick and the poor. The fellowship was stigmatized as "Methodist" by their fellow classmates because of the way they used "rule" and "method" to determine their religious convictions. John, who was the leader of the club, took the attempted mockery and turned it into a title of honor.

Wesley did not intend to split from the Church of England.

Initially, the Methodists simply sought reform within the Church of England. As Methodist congregations multiplied, and elements of a distinct theology were adopted, the rift between John Wesley and the Church of England steadily expanded. In 1784, Wesley responded to the lack of priests in the colonies due to the American Revolutionary War by anointing preachers with authority to administer the sacraments. This was a significant reason for Methodism's eventual split from the Church of England after Wesley's death. This separation created a distinct group of church denominations. With regard to the occurrence of Methodism within Christianity, John Wesley once noted that "what God had achieved in the development of Methodism was no mere human endeavor but the work of God. As such it would be preserved by God so long as history remained."

Wesley taught four key points fundamental to the Methodist Church.

1) A person is free not only to reject salvation but also to accept it by an act of free will.
2) All people who are obedient to the gospel according to the measure of knowledge given them will be saved.
3) The Holy Spirit assures a Christian of their salvation directly, through an inner "experience" (assurance of salvation).
4) Christians in this life are capable of Christian perfection and are commanded by God to pursue it.

Wesley wrote one of the bestselling medical texts of all-time.

Wesley was deeply convicted that God is concerned about our earthly life as well as our heavenly one. To that end, he wrote a medical text for the everyday person titled Primitive Physick. The book discussed the contemporary knowledge about home health remedies and went through 32 editions, making it one of the most widely read books in England. Many of Wesley's suggestions for healthy living remain commonly confirmed. The most significant portion of his philosophy was his conviction on continual observation to support hypotheses.

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John Wesley's Concept of God's Grace

The Bible teaches us that everything we have from God is given because of God's great love for us. United Methodists recognize God's grace at work throughout our spiritual journeys.

 

John Wesley wrote and preached about the role of God's grace to prepare us, redeem us, and continually shape us into the people we were created to be. He taught that our entire spiritual lives are an act of God's grace. He names at least three periods in our spiritual development and the ways God's grace is at work during those times - prevenient grace, justifying grace, and sanctifying grace.

Prevenient grace: God at work before we know it

When we consider the circumstances that led to us coming to faith in Jesus Christ, we begin to see the hand of God at work in our lives long before we were aware of the Spirit's presence. Those who showed us the healing, forgiveness, and restoration available by faith in Jesus Christ came to us by God's prevenient grace. The word prevenient comes from a Latin root word that means to precede. Prevenient grace then is simply the grace that comes before.

Justifying grace: God making things right

The grace with which we are most familiar is what Wesley called justifying grace. The Bible tells us, "All have sinned and fall short of God's glory" (Romans 3:23). Try as we might, we cannot be good enough. We need God to make things right between us, to justify us.

Sanctifying: Growing in grace

The word sanctify means "to make holy." God's sanctifying grace shapes us more and more into the likeness of Christ. As the Holy Spirit fills our lives with love for God and our neighbor, we begin to live differently. Sanctifying grace signifies to us that we haven't arrived. As the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 12:2, "be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what Gods will is - what is good and pleasing and mature."

 

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The Wesleyan Quadrilateral

Building on the Anglican theological tradition, John Wesley added a fourth emphasis, experience. The resulting four components or "sides" of the quadrilateral are (1) Scripture, (2) tradition, (3) reason, and (4) experience. For United Methodists, Scripture is considered the primary source and standard for Christian doctrine. Tradition is experience and the witness of development and growth of the faith through the past centuries. Experience is the individual's understanding and appropriating of the faith in the light of his or her own life. Through reason the individual Christian brings to bear on the Christian faith discerning and cogent thought. These four elements taken together bring the individual Christian to a mature and fulfilling understanding of the Christian faith and the required response of worship and service.

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Grace United Methodist Church
7450 Three Notch Road
Mobile, AL 36619

(251) 661-4951

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