Wesley Report

Wesley Report is Now Faith Experience

For the last few weeks, I've been moving Wesley Report to a new software platform and in the process of making that change, I decided to rename the site. Wesley's ideas (and his mug shot) will still be front and center, but the new brand will better communicate the balance of Christian news, culture, practical theology and Scripture that I'm trying to offer. Be sure to point your news readers to the new feed.

New site: http://www.faithexperience.com

RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/faithex

E-mail subscribers should click here and re-register to receive updates from Faith Experience.

Look for new features, including a podcast, in the weeks and months ahead.

Christians and Immigration

Whenever I cover church politics at Wesley Report, things can get really heated, so more recently, I've been trying to focus on the spiritual side of things. But the more experience I gain, the more I realize that the dividing lines between spiritual and physical and between sacred and secular are not nearly as defined as I'd like to think. Actions in one realm will almost always have consequences (either positive or negative) in the other. Americans in particular have become quite the experts at compartmentalizing faith. Perhaps it's the whole separation of church and state thing we've all been taught. But if we're living on the edge of God's Kingdom, we're going to find that it's hard to avoid politics altogether.

Immigration is one of those issues that the church can't afford to avoid. Every time I seek God's guidance on this topic, I come back to one Bible verse:

Never mistreat a foreigner living in your land. Foreigners living among you will be like your own people. Love them as you love yourself, because you were foreigners living in Egypt. I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 19:33-34 GW)

That doesn't mean I'm for opening up the borders haphazardly, but it's important to remember that the United States is a nation of immigrants. There's an interesting article this week at Baptist Press that addresses various evangelical leaders' views on immigration. Evangelicals are certainly not of one mind on this. I find it quite interesting that fewer evangelicals seem to be subscribing to the perceived Republican "orthodoxy".

Probably the most interesting quote in the article comes from Samuel Rodriguez, the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference:

The Republican Party stands at the brink of repeating history by completing a wall, not between Mexico and the United States but between Hispanic Americans and the conservative movement. How ironic. The group that [President Ronald] Reagan believed would invigorate the Republican Party via its traditional values of God, family and country today potentially stands rejected by the party of Reagan. The family values party is alienating the most pro-life, pro-family constituency in America. Go figure.

He's right. And the recently passed Arizona law (signed by a Republican governor) hasn't helped matters for the GOP. I've heard radio talk show hosts and Fox News commentators defending this law, but the fact of the matter is, the law will encourage racial profiling. How would you like to be a Latino citizen of the United States and suddenly feel second class?

But that being said, the boycotts against Arizona (including the one by my own city, Austin) are foolish...  and they'll hurt a lot of hard-working people who had nothing to do with the immigration law.  

It's good to see Christians putting issues before political parties. That's really the way things ought to be.

Claremont's Religious Food Court

The wire services are buzzing this week with news about United Methodist related (for now) Claremont School of Theology's launch of a new cross-training program for Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders. Earlier this year, the United Methodist University Senate decided to withhold denominational funding from the institution. According to the AP, that amounts to about $800,000 a year. That same story, however, mentions an initial $10 million donation to Claremont, part of which has already been used to hire Muslim and Jewish faculty members. Supporters of the cross-training concept are hoping to raise at least $40 million. My guess is the UMC won't be able to twist Claremont's arm with the paltry sum of 800 grand, so look for either the school or the denomination to tell the other to take a hike sooner or later. Or, if no one raises a fuss, Claremont and the UMC might keep a marriage of convenience going. But conservatives in the denomination aren't going to be happy about a Christian school training leaders from other religions. Exactly who are the groups and individuals with a stake in this pluralism experiment? We know there has already been at least one large donation. And how can a Christian seminary train people of other religions without propagating "another gospel"?

Getting Back to Normal

My apologies for the extended absence. I've moved across town and when I'm in the middle of a major transition it's hard to focus on anything else. I've never been a big fan of moving... I don't like for my "home base" to be disrupted. But having said that, I love to travel. I can go on a trip, come home for a day and I'm ready to leave again. Go figure.

In the middle of my transition, I had the opportunity to speak on Pentecost Sunday during one of the worship services of my home congregation, First United Methodist Church of Austin. I think it's the first time I've ever preached on Pentecost and it was a blast. My church is also in a time of major change... we're getting two new pastors. That should be an interesting experience. 

I'm going to be reorganizing Wesley Report over the next few weeks as I try some new ideas. I'll be continuing my focus on the Bible and I'll also be adding an audio component very soon. I continue to be convinced that Wesleyan-style Christianity should be simple, practical, supernatural and life-changing. My goal is to simultaneously get "back to the basics" while also experimenting and "pushing the boundaries" for Methodists. (Sometimes those two things are one and the same.)

I hope everyone is enjoying annual conference season. More to come soon.

Two Modes for Christians

At any given moment, a Christian is living in one of two modes: in the flesh or in the Spirit... according to our corrupt nature, or according to our spiritual nature. There's nothing in the middle, although I suppose the complexity of life and the reality of compromise make it seem like there is sometimes. Scripture tells us in Romans that we have a choice:

If you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13 NRSV)

Dang, Paul. Since you put it like that...

I get the feeling from this verse that there's more to Christianity than altar calls and fire insurance. Are we telling those new converts what they're getting themselves into? 

Let's make something clear... the body isn't evil. That's not what "flesh" is referring to here. But there is something about our human nature that has been corrupted by sin... it's like a default setting. We're somewhat like a car that's badly out of alignment. If the driver lets go of the steering wheel in such a car for a few seconds, that car will likely run off the road- even if the road is a straight one.  In the same way, without an infusion of transforming power from the Holy Spirit (a realignment, if you will) and our regenerated self at the wheel, we're not going to stay on a straight path.

I like the way God's Word translates flesh in the passage I quoted above:

If you live by your corrupt nature, you are going to die. But if you use your spiritual nature to put to death the evil activities of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13 GW)

In other words, even as Christians, if we let our flesh do what it wants, things aren't going to turn out well. Scripture makes it pretty clear that sin brings death. But which kind of death? Spiritual or physical? Perhaps we should read this passage on both levels. Plenty of people (Christians included) have probably shortened their days on earth because they couldn't get a handle on their flesh. And on the spiritual side, there's backsliding. While I think it's very difficult for a Christian to walk away from God and become lost, I do believe the possibility exists. Sinning dulls our consciences and when we stubbornly continue to resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit, I believe we're in dangerous territory. That doesn't mean God won't pull out all the stops to get us back on the right track... but ultimately he honors our free will.

The Holy Spirit offers amazing power to help us live the Christian life. God wants us to move on to perfection... but it isn't automatic. Choices we make affect who we become, and even as Christians, we have free will. We can choose to walk in the flesh or walk in the Spirit, and each day is filled with opportunities to make that choice.