Faithful Fridays - "American Methodists (Christians): Do We Look Upon ALL the World as Our Parish?"

The United Methodist Church mustn’t lose sight of the vision declared by her missional founder,   “I look upon all the world as my parish; thus far I mean, that in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation.” 

ALL the WORLD is our parish means the people called Methodists are to impact EVERY people group with the glad tidings of salvation. If we are to accomplish our Jesus calling, care is to be taken in our messages and actions. When American Methodists sound and act more like politicians, we have failed to judge what is meet, right and our bounden duty. 

Holy Spirit guided Followers of the Way aren’t narrow-minded, dogmatic, myopic protectors of the status quo. Like Jesus, his disciples are disrupters who embrace the Kingdom of God as expansive. Christ-like believers confront practitioners of Empire by overturning tables of injustice and evil. And certainly, Jesus' Followers point ALL to the Gospel of wholeness and reconciliation to Adonai – Our God who is the Master over ALL. 

When Christians are fully submitted to the will of God, she/he produces fruit, Jesus says, “My Father cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.” In short, the faithful Christian is life giving.

Is it possible that our decline in (attendance and membership of) 
the United Methodist Church 
and other branches of Zion is indicative of 
God’s cutting off these branches due to our failure to produce fruit? 

We, American United Methodists, might ask ourselves what kind of branch are we? 

·      Are we an American politics driven by the status quo branch? 

·      Are we a Gospel, Kingdom of God disruptive force, Great Reversal driven branch? 

·      Are we a branch who has forsaken their identity? 

Whether we answer or choose to dismiss these questions, our fruit or lack thereof reveals who and whose we are! Jesus and John Wesley dared to push the boundaries of the accepted norms and what it meant to fulfill God’s commandment(s). Both defied popular, stagnant, oppressive religious and political practices of their day. 

As we, United Methodists examine our personal and corporate lives:

·         Let us judge what is meet and right, 

·         Let us examine our fruit or lack thereof, 

·         Let us forsake religiosity and abandon exploitative politics,

so that we faithfully embrace our "bounden duty to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation.”

The world awaits and needs the People called Methodists

to bear fruit proving that we too,
“Look Upon All the World as My (our) Parish”!

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INSPIRED BY LOVE, 

Pastor Marcus J. Singleton