Methodism: The Extreme Center

We held a new members class the other day at church where we showed a short video by a Methodist pastor in St. Louis. In the midst of his talk about the Methodist faith, he said something that caught my attention. Describing Methodism, he said that our denomination was an example of Christians choosing to live in the “extreme center.” Now, that doesn’t mean lukewarm or unopinionated. Far from it. He was describing the willingness of Methodism as a movement to embrace both polarities of the Christain faith. Reason and enthusiam, grace and works, a spiritual gospel and a social gospel. Each of those examples lead to unbalance when not coupled with the other. It’s the process of holding all of them in tension that creates a healthy spirituality. And that’s what Methodism attempts to do.

Our staff is a good example. Our senior minister is a female. The other four ministers are male. Out of those four, two remain unordained by the Methodist church, but have extensive theological training. Of the other two, one is ordained Baptist while, though ordained, I choose to remain unaffiliated with any particular denomination. Yet, we all get along (amazingly!). And we all embrace the basic tenents of the Methodist church and work to foster relationship between our parishioners and the Holy Spirit. On a theological and a practical level, we have an ecumenical staff.

Another good example is found in our worship services. We have a distinctly separate contemporary service in a state-of-the-art building for at least half our congregation. We sing the latest Passion songs. People lift their hands in worship. Others don’t. You can respond how you’d like and everyone’s cool with it. We also have a formal service in a beautiful sanctuary where we sing the Gloria Patri. And here’s what’s amazing: as the contemporary service underwent significant growth, the tradional service grew as well. That’s unheard of, people. And both services mix with each other effortlessly in Sunday School, small groups, and at church night suppers.

The extreme center. People passionate about the same God while giving space for their differences.

I wrote a post a while back about how, througout the gospels, Jesus embraced both polarities of life as well. Depending on the situation, he sided with the extreme left and other times, went with the extreme right. The only way he could do this was to maintain an open stance to deal with each scenario as it occured. This allowed him to act in the best interest of the Father’s heart, regardless of religious, political, or social affiliation. He defied labelling. Though considered liberal in some respects (though that doesn’t always affect the local church), the Methodist church does this better than any other denominational group, I think. Within the Methodist camp, there’s actually room to question, grow, and rethink issues. There’s room to breathe.