Who Are the Wesleyans?
The Wesleyan Church is an evangelical, Protestant denomination. We offer the good news that faith in Jesus Christ makes possible a wonderful personal relationship with God, a holy life empowered by His Spirit for witness and service, and assurance of eternal life in heaven. Our name is in honor of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, whose emphasis on a life of faith, self-discipline, and perfect love is our example.
There are nearly 5,000 Wesleyan churches and missions in over 70 nations worldwide. In the United States and Canada alone, there are approximately 1,700 local congregations.
For more information, visit The Wesleyan Church Online at www.wesleyan.org.
What Does It Mean to Be Wesleyan
by Steve Harper
If we give ourselves a label, we should know what that label stands for—especially if it names the essence of our faith. The totality of what it means to be Wesleyan is beyond the scope of this article, but I have chosen a number of significant identifiers.
Wesleyans Are Ecumenical
We want to have fellowship with all other Christians. We are not separatist or sectarian. John Wesley’s first publication about the early Methodist movement was entitled, “The Character of a Methodist,” in which he made it clear that Methodists had no desire to be distinguished from other believers. This is still true. We affirm the basic Christian doctrines. We affirm the historic creeds. We join in ministry with other Christians whenever and wherever we can.
Wesleyans View Theology As an Order of Salvation
More than topics or doctrines, theology is the story of God’s grace (prevenient, converting, sanctifying, and glorifying) and our response to grace (holiness of heart and life) through a disciplined practice of the means of grace. Wesleyans understand Christianity more as a life to be lived than a set of beliefs to be affirmed.
Wesleyans Believe All People Can Be Saved
We do not believe God has predestined some people to go to heaven and others to go to hell. We take John 3:16 literally—that God loves the whole world and is willing to save “whosoever” believes in Jesus. God is not willing that any should perish; He has made no decision that would exclude anyone from the possibility of being saved. Jesus died for all. No one need miss abundant life in time or for eternity.
Wesleyans Believe People Can Know They Are Saved
We believe in assurance. Assurance is not presumption on the future; it is confidence in God in the present. Assurance is also the source of a seminal sign of our salvation: joy. Wesley was convinced that true holiness would be accompanied by a deep happiness. Christian life is “blessed” life.
Wesleyans Believe People Can Be Saved “to the Uttermost”
John Wesley called it “full salvation.” Christian perfection is our hallmark—a salvation in which we are not merely saved from sin but also saved for righteousness. We can have an entire sanctification—a response to God’s grace in which both the breadth and depth of our lives are devoted to God. This experience can be marked by a moment of surrender, and then it will be followed by a deepening devotion for the rest of our lives—a cleansing and consecration Wesley described as holiness of heart and life.
Wesleyans Combine Faith with Action
We combine beliefs rather than separate them—for example: faith and works, personal and social, heart and head, word and table, piety and mercy, Christ and culture. We believe the sum is greater than the whole of the parts.
Wesleyans Help Fulfill the Great Commission
The world is our parish, and the Lord is our sending companion. We desire to communicate the gospel in ways that enable all races and cultures to respond to God. We offer Christ in evangelism that results in new birth, and in nurturing that results in transformed living. We engage in mission that recognizes the need to minister to the bodies, souls, and spirits of those to whom we go.
Wesleyans Have a High View of the Church
We reject any idea of independent Christianity, seeking instead to be called into Christian community that unites us with the great cloud of witnesses in the church of heaven and forms us into a Great-Commission connection with the church on earth. The conduct of worship and the administration of the sacraments create the body of Christ, and we devote ourselves to being faithful members of it.
Wesleyans Empower the Whole People of God
Early Methodism had more lay leaders than clergy leaders. Many of these leaders were women. Ours is a heritage of helping all people to see they are ministers and missionaries—servants inside the church and witnesses outside it. We resist all notions of faith or ecclesiology that would create a professional guild of experts, which limits and isolates the work of the gospel into the hands of a select few.
Reprinted with permission from The Asbury Herald.
—Steve Harper is vice president and professor of spiritual formation at the Orlando Campus of Asbury Theological Seminary, Orlando, Florida
Read this and other articles in Wesleyan Life Magazine at wesleyan.org.
