Podcasts about Methodism

In this new series on Mormon Stories Podcast, we're joined once again by historian Dr. John Turner to take an in-depth look at one of the most important –and complicated –figures in Mormon history: Brigham Young. Dr. Turner is the author of Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet, his acclaimed 2012 biography of the second president and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. John was recently our guest for an extensive series on his newer biography, _Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet_. In this episode, we begin at the beginning: Who was Brigham Young before he became the leader of the Mormon movement?John takes us through Brigham's early life, his difficult relationship with his father, his exploration of different religious traditions, his attraction to spiritual gifts and “ecstatic worship,” and his eventual conversion to Mormonism. We explore the religious environment that shaped Brigham Young and the broader culture of early Mormonism, including speaking in tongues, visions, healings, prophecy, and other spiritual manifestations. We also examine Brigham's relationship with his first wife, Miriam, his friendship with Heber C. Kimball, his early missionary experiences, and his first encounters with Joseph Smith. Along the way, we consider what made Brigham such a committed follower of Joseph Smith –and why Joseph recognized Brigham's loyalty even though their relationship was very different from Joseph's relationships with some of his other close associates. This episode offers a fascinating look at the making of Brigham Young before his transformation into the Mormon leader who would eventually guide thousands of Latter-day Saints across the American West.Some of the topics that we discuss in this first episode is Brigham's childhood, the harsh treatment on the part of his father, Brigham's Methodism and "ecstatic worship” along with his desire to find a church that had the gift of tongues, visions, healings, etc. We discuss the death of Brigham's first wife Miriam and how he handled his children afterward. We discuss his friendship with Heber C. Kimball and his missionary efforts as an elder in the church. We also discuss Brigham's friendship with Joseph Smith, his defense of Joseph, how he handled failed prophecies, and much more. If you wish to donate to support this series, please visit here: https://donorbox.org/brighamyoung___________________YouTubeAt Mormon Stories we explore, celebrate, and challenge Mormon culture through in-depth stories told by members and former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as scholars, authors, LDS apologists, and other professionals.  Our overall mission is to: 1. Facilitate informed consent amongst LDS Church members, investigators, and non-members regarding Mormon history, doctrine, and theology2. Support Mormons (and members of other high-demand religions) who are experiencing a religious faith crisis3. Promote healing, growth and community for those who choose to leave the LDS Church or other high demand religions

In this episode of the CPT Podcast, we welcome Dr. Matt O'Reilly, lead pastor of Christ Church, Birmingham, and a leader in the Global Methodist Church, to talk about what it means to be an ecclesial theologian. O'Reilly describes the ecclesial theologian as a pastor who provides theological leadership from within the local church. Rather than simply translating academic theology for laypeople, ecclesial theologians engage in constructive theology that shapes every aspect of church life—from preaching and discipleship to finances, property, staffing, and mission.  The conversation explores O'Reilly's leadership in the emerging Global Methodist Church, including his role in drafting unified Articles of Faith and chairing the Doctrine and Sacraments Committee for the denomination's General Conference in Johannesburg. O'Reilly argues that theological study is not a distraction from pastoral ministry but an essential part of it—one that can deepen a pastor's leadership, renew the mind, and become an act of worship.Join a CPT Cohort Program Attend the 2026 CPT Conference

What can the history of Methodism teach us about the future of the church?In Episode 238 of Pod Have Mercy, Matt and John sit down with Dr. Ashley Boggan, General Secretary of the United Methodist General Commission on Archives and History, to talk about what she calls the “ministry of memory” and why remembering our history is very different from simply being nostalgic.The conversation centers on a pivotal moment in John Wesley's life when he “submitted to be more vile” and began preaching outside the walls of the church to people who were often excluded from traditional religious life. Ashley explains why she sees that moment as foundational to the Methodist movement and explores how Methodism's early willingness to challenge social and institutional boundaries gradually gave way to a pursuit of respectability, influence, and growth.Show Notes & ResourcesWesleyan Vile-tality: Reclaiming the Heart of Methodist Identity — Ashley Boggan's book exploring Wesley's call to “submit to be more vile” and what it means for Methodist identity today.A Not So Calm Address to American Methodists — Ashley Boggan and Andy Oliver revisit John Wesley's A Calm Address to Our American Colonies in light of America's 250th anniversary.General Commission on Archives and History / UM History Hub — Resources exploring Methodist history and the church's “ministry of memory.”From Crown to Conferencing: Methodism and the New Republic — A General Commission on Archives and History series exploring Methodism alongside the birth and development of the United States.

In this episode, we look at a major figure of Methodism whom we have not met yet: Selina Hastings, the Countess of Huntingdon, or Lady Huntingdon. She will be deeply influential in the Methodist revival over the 18th century, in offering financial and spiritual support to many of the figures we have already covered. Check out https://journal.historyofmethodism.com/ for the illustrated journal of John Wesley's early years.Check out https://lectern.wrootpress.com/ for the Lectern Preaching Resource. Wroot Press https://wrootpress.com/ has a number of new editions of Wesley's sermons as well as a new edition of the Explanatory Notes on the New Testament.You can support the podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/historyofmethodism. The videos are found on our patreon.And you can look at the Wesley Corpus website here: https://corpus.historyofmethodism.com/

Andy BurnhamAs I conclude this column on Monday afternoon Andy Burnham is taking up his position as British Prime Minister. As I dispatch these lines he is addressing the media and supporters outside 10 Downing Street. I wish him well. I also hope he will be the last British Prime Minister to interfere in Irish affairs. Our ambition is for the people of Ireland to govern ourselves. As soon as possible. When that happens we will govern Ireland in the interests of Ireland. Mr Burnham, like every British PM governs in the interests of the English establishment. He like his predecessors is a Unionist. Let's work to ensure that he is the Prime Minister who ends the Union.‘Women's Voices, Hopes for a New Ireland'Féile an Phobail is the launch pad each year of exiting new projects, and especially new books. One such book this year is ‘Women's Voices, Hopes for a New Ireland.' The book is published by Sinn Féin's Commission on the Future of Ireland and will launched at 1pm on 4th August in Áras Uí Chonghaile by Uachtarán Shinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald TD.The book is compiled and edited by Grace McDermott and Aoife Ferguson and is an innovative collection of contributions from 62 women across Ireland and the diaspora sharing their hopes for the future and a new Ireland.The women are drawn from all sections of society. They are writers, actors, musicians, community workers, political activists, health workers. They include Protestant voices. This book is a mixture of written contributions, poetry, song lyrics and artwork. They reflect the experiences of these women to partition and a society that has often held them down, treated them as second-class citizens and pushed them to the margins of history.The book is being launched at this years' Féile an Phobail. The launch will be ion 4th August in Áras Uí Chonghaile on 4 August. You can register to attend here: Women's Voices- Hopes for a New Ireland Tickets, Tuesday, August 4  •  1 PM - 2 PM | EventbriteIt will also be launched at the Derry Féile on the 12 August in Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, 37 Great James Street Derry BT48 7DF at 2pm and other events are being planned.It will be available from An Fhuiseog 55 Bóthar na bhFál, BT12 4PD, https://anfhuiseog.ie/And https://sinnfeinbookshop.com/Water Crisis in GazaImagine in the midst of this very hot, and dry weather you did not have access to fresh drinking water. Could not have a shower or bath. Wash clothes. Prepare food. Make tea or coffee whenever you want. Fill a water container for storage  in the fridge for a cold drink. Have a fridge?That is the reality of life for almost two million women and children and men living in the Gaza Strip. Israel's genocidal policies has resulted in the deliberate and targeted destruction of water, sanitation and hygiene systems (in Gaza. It has created a humanitarian catastrophe. This is especially true for women who are pregnant or are menstruating. According to a recent Oxfam report, women cannot get the water they need to keep clean and hydrated.It reports that the extensive damage to water networks, treatment facilities, and sewage systems “has crushed water production, so it is a fraction of pre-October 2023 levels.” In addition, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has revealed that Gaza's water production has dropped to less than a quarter of what it was three years ago and that 89% of water plants and sewage facilities “have been destroyed or partially damaged.”For a family in the west it's a simple matter to turn the water tap on to access all you need. In Gaza average daily use of water per person has dropped from the minimum humanitarian standard of 15 litres per day to around three litres.Rubber Bullet injures Marwan BarghoutiRegular readers will know that I have written recently on several occasions about the imprisonment and torture of Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti. Marwan, now aged 67, has been held in Israeli prisons for 24 years after a widely criticised show trial in 2002. He is a senior leader in Fatah and is viewed by Palestinians as their Nelson Mandela.Over the years he has endured significant brutality but the most recent occurred in Ganot prison several weeks ago when a prison guard entered his cell and shot him in the leg with a rubber bullet. During the decades of conflict in the North rubber and plastic bullets were frequently used by the RUC and British Army. They were an attempt to terrorise citizens. Seventeen people were killed by rubber and plastic bullets. Eight of these were children and all but one was from nationalist areas.However, the Israeli rubber bullets are of a significantly different design to those used here. Israel's rubber bullets are “steel covered with a thin rubber coat.” They cause more fatalities and life changing injuries.Marwan's son Arab Barghouti, said the family only learned about the incident from his father's lawyer and that Barghouti had not received medical treatment for the injury. Two weeks ago the Arab League called for an international commission of inquiry into what it said were "repeated assaults" on Barghouti. So support freedom for Marwan Barghouti. Log on to https://freemarwan.org/Methodism and the Peace Process‘From Feakle to the Falls and Derry's Wall - Methodism and the Peace Process, 1985-2025 by David Gallagher is an important book and a significant contribution to the discussion on peace-making in Ireland.David has been a member of the Methodist Church in Ireland's Council on Social Responsibility since 1986. He was the Northern Executive's Lay Secretary from 1990 to 2003. His book is a detailed and critical assessment of the role of Methodism and I'm still reading it.I have a firm belief that all of us have a story to tell. My personal focus has been on republicans and working class people telling our story but the truth is the right and the need to tell our own story belongs to everyone. And the Methodists have a story worth telling. So well done David Gallagher.David will be taking part in Féile an Phobail on 1pm on the 31st July in St. Mary's University College on the Falls Road. The book is available at An Fhuiseog 55 Bóthar na bhFál, BT12 4PD, https://anfhuiseog.ie/

Clint and Wendy discuss the concept of sainthood in various religions. How saints are recognized in Catholicism, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christianity, Anglicanism, Lutheranism, Methodism, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Judaism. They note that while Catholicism has a formal canonization process, other religions often recognize saints through community reputation and spiritual realization. Wendy is considered a saint in her faith.

William Law's "A Dialogue Between a Methodist and a Churchman" invites listeners into a profound theological discourse that grapples with the contentious doctrines of Methodism, particularly the ideas of predestination and absolute depravity. Through a dialectic format, Law meticulously critiques what he perceives as the most perilous aspects of these beliefs, employing Calvinist proof texts to challenge their validity. This work remains relevant today as it explores the complexities of faith and the quest for a deeper relationship with Christ, themes that resonate with contemporary discussions on spirituality and doctrine.

Who was John Wesley? What is John Wesley most known for? How did John Wesley become the founder of both Wesleyanism and Methodism?

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Crowhill and Pigweed drink and review a Sweet Baby Jesus chocolate peanut butter porter and discuss a question that's challenged churches and society for centuries. Should religion and politics mix?Using a collection of social issue position papers published by the United Methodist Church as a starting point, the conversation explores the history of Methodism, from John Wesley's "heart strangely warmed" experience and the Holy Club at Oxford to the circuit riders who helped spread the movement across the American frontier. Along the way, they examine how Methodism became deeply associated with social reform, including efforts against slavery, drunkenness, and other social ills.The discussion then turns to modern political issues, including immigration, worker justice, climate change, the death penalty, abortion, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Crowhill and Pigweed consider how churches apply biblical principles to contemporary policy debates, where the line between moral teaching and political advocacy should be drawn, and whether clergy are always equipped to speak authoritatively on complex public issues.A recurring theme is the idea that movements formed in crisis often institutionalize a crisis mentality. If a religious movement was born by confronting genuine social problems, does it eventually develop a habit of searching for the next great cause? And does that tendency sometimes lead churches to exaggerate modern problems by comparing them to historic struggles such as slavery, Jim Crow, or the civil rights movement?It's a wide-ranging conversation about faith, public life, church authority, social reform, and the challenges of living out religious convictions in a deeply political age. Plus, as always, there's a beer review to get things started.

In this episode, I am joined by Ryan Barnett, Chief Operating Officer of the Mid-Texas Global Methodist Church Conference, to discuss the recently released book Christ for All: Every Methodist an Evangelist, which Ryan edited. Our conversation explores the theological and practical vision behind the book and why evangelism sits at the very center of historic Methodism.We also reflect on why this book is being received so well at this particular stage in the life of the Global Methodist Church. As Ryan explains, the GMC's emerging identity and shared theological commitments have created space for renewed clarity and common purpose around evangelism, something that proved difficult in earlier denominational settings. We conclude by looking ahead to the future of the GMC and what it might mean to move forward with unity, missional focus, and confidence in the church's calling.Youtube - https://youtu.be/rklZ6k6TEOMAudio - https://andymilleriii.com/media/podcastApple -  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/more-to-the-story-with-dr-andy-miller/id1569988895?uo=4Here's a link to the book from the show - https://a.co/d/06qWGpCsIf you are interested in learning more about my two full-length video-accompanied courses, Contender: Going Deeper in the Book of Jude andHeaven and Other Destinations: A Biblical Journey Beyond this World , visit andymilleriii.com/coursesAnd don't forget about my most recent book, Contender, which is available on Amazon! Five Steps to Deeper Teaching and Preaching - Recently, I updated this PDF document and added a 45-minute teaching video with slides, explaining this tool. It's like a mini-course. If you sign up for my list, I will send this free resource to you. Sign up here - www.AndyMillerIII.com or Five Steps to Deeper Teaching and Preaching. Today's episode is brought to you by Wesley Biblical Seminary. Interested in going deeper in your faith? Check out our certificate programs, B.A., M.A.s, M.Div., and D.Min degrees. You will study with world-class faculty and the most racially diverse student body in the country. www.wbs.eduIf this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend and leave a review! For more from Andy Miller III, visit andymilleriii.com or follow @andymilleriii on X.Thanks too to Phil Laeger for my podcast music. You can find out about Phil's music at https://www.laeger.net

Rev. Jonathan Brown 05/11/2026 Sometimes the things that become central to who we are begin as a surprise. They do not always arrive with a clear plan, a perfect explanation, or a sense that we understand exactly what we are saying yes to. Sometimes a door opens, an invitation comes, a possibility appears, and only later do we realize that something important in us began to take shape there. When Francis came to us at eleven, he spoke very little English. I spoke no Spanish. Katy knew a bit. And DC Child and Family Services seemed to consider a person bilingual if they had Google Translate on their phone. Every day, I thank God because his young mind has been able to adapt to our language, while I still find myself cursing Duolingo. And since Francis became part of our family, he has also become an accomplished cyclist. He has won two Under 19 series championships, and he spends his free time training to get better. At our local bike shop, someone told us he was a unicorn because he fell in love with cycling even though his parents were not already obsessed with it. This was not a family culture he simply inherited. It became his. One day after a race, I was kind of in awe of him and all he had accomplished, and I asked him, “Francis, how did this happen? How did cycling become your thing?” And he said, “Do you remember when I first moved in with you, and you asked if I wanted a bike?” I said, “Yes.” And he said, “I did not know what you were saying, and I did not want to be rude, so I just said yes. Then I fell in love with it.” I love that. Because so much of life is like that. One day, seemingly out of the blue, something comes into our lives that we did not plan for and could not have predicted. At first, it may feel random. It may feel small. It may feel like a simple yes to a simple question. But over time, that unexpected beginning can become a practice, then a passion, then a major part of who we are. A bike becomes more than a bike. A first ride becomes a rhythm. A rhythm becomes a love. A love becomes part of someone's identity. And that helps me hear Mark's story with fresh ears. Simon and Andrew do not wake up that morning knowing they are about to become disciples. James and John do not begin the day expecting their lives to turn in a new direction. They are working. They are casting nets. They are mending nets. They are living the life they know. Then, seemingly out of the blue, Jesus walks by and says, “Follow me.” What may have felt sudden in the moment becomes the beginning of their identity. They will come to be known as disciples, apostles, witnesses, people whose lives are forever shaped by Jesus. One ordinary day becomes the day they discover the call that will define them. In this first movement of our series, we are asking one of the most basic and important questions Christians can ask: Who are we? In a culture that often tells us our worth depends on success, power, control, or fear, the gospel speaks a deeper truth. We are beloved. We are called. We are connected. We are sent. And today, we begin with this: we know who we are because we know who we follow. We follow Jesus. Mark tells the story with striking simplicity. Jesus passes along the Sea of Galilee and sees Simon and Andrew casting a net into the sea, because they are fishers. Jesus says to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.” Immediately, they leave their nets and follow him. Then Jesus goes a little farther and sees James and John, the sons of Zebedee, mending nets in their boat. He calls them too, and they leave their father in the boat with the hired men and follow him. That whole scene unfolds with surprising simplicity. Jesus walks along the water and sees ordinary people in the middle of their ordinary work. The call of Jesus meets them right there, in the texture of daily life, among boats, nets, family, labor, and responsibility. Before they have time to prepare themselves, before they know where the road will lead, Jesus invites them into a new life. He finds them in the routines they know and calls them toward a future they cannot yet imagine. That is good news, because many of us assume that if God is going to call us, we need to be somewhere else first. We need to become more faithful, more prepared, more certain, more spiritually mature. But Mark tells us Jesus calls people in the middle of life. Jesus calls them as they are, but he does not leave them as they are. “Follow me,” he says, “and I will make you fishers of people.” That phrase can sound strange to us, especially when it has been used in ways that feel manipulative or aggressive. But Jesus is calling them into a way of life that gathers people into the nearness of God. He is calling them to participate in healing, mercy, liberation, forgiveness, and beloved community. Jesus calls these first disciples to walk with him until his way becomes their way. That is discipleship. Discipleship is the lifelong practice of being shaped by the one we follow. That is why this sermon title matters: “We Know Who We Follow: Jesus.” The church is always tempted to forget. We are tempted to follow success, fear, nostalgia, outrage, or whatever gives us belonging without transformation. But Christians belong to Jesus Christ. And Jesus shows us who God is. As we follow Jesus through Mark, we see what God's life looks like in the world. We see Jesus announcing good news, healing bodies, restoring people to community, touching those others refuse to touch, feeding hungry people, welcoming children, challenging religious hypocrisy, confronting oppressive powers, and refusing to abandon the vulnerable. We see him going to the cross rather than returning violence for violence. We see him raised by God, with the promise that death and empire and abandonment do not get the final word. So when we say, “We follow Jesus,” we are saying our lives are being reoriented around the crucified and risen Christ. We are saying that the clearest picture we have of God's character is Jesus eating with sinners, touching the untouchable, forgiving enemies, blessing the poor, challenging the powerful, and giving himself in love. That is not ideology. That is a way of life. This is where our United Methodist tradition helps us. Methodism began as a renewal movement of people who wanted to follow Jesus with their whole lives. Early Methodists gathered in societies, classes, and bands. They prayed together. They confessed sin together. They studied scripture together. They gave money to the poor. They visited the sick and imprisoned. They held one another accountable in love. As the movement grew, John Wesley gave the people called Methodists what became known as the General Rules: first, do no harm; second, do good; third, attend upon all the ordinances of God. In more recent years, Bishop Rueben P. Job helped many United Methodists recover the power of these rules in his book Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living . Job summarized Wesley's General Rules in language that has become familiar across our tradition: do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God. These rules are a way of asking, every day, “What does it mean to follow Jesus here?” What does it mean to follow Jesus in this conversation, this conflict, this family, this workplace, this church, this neighborhood, this moment? There is a sitcom called The Good Place that, beneath all the jokes, bright colors, frozen yogurt shops, and absurd afterlife architecture, is really about moral formation. The show begins with Eleanor Shellstrop waking up after death and being told that she has made it into “the Good Place.” But Eleanor quickly realizes she does not belong there. In life, she had been selfish, rude, careless, and often cruel. So at first, her moral project is not really about becoming good. It is about passing as good. That is part of what makes the show so funny and so honest. Eleanor wants to learn enough ethics to blend in. She wants goodness as a disguise. And if we are honest, that is not always far from how people can treat religion too. We can learn the language, the gestures, and the right answers. We can learn how to pass as good. But Jesus does not call us to pass as faithful. Jesus calls us to follow. And this is where Chidi becomes so important. Chidi Anagonye is a moral philosophy professor. He knows the ethical theories. He can explain Kant, Aristotle, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, and moral duty. If anyone should know how to be good, it should be Chidi. But Chidi's problem is that knowing about goodness does not automatically make him free to live it. He is so afraid of making the wrong choice that he struggles to make any choice at all. His knowledge is real, but it has not yet become courage. His ethics are serious, but they have not yet become love in motion. That makes Eleanor and Chidi surprisingly helpful for the church. Eleanor reminds us that faith is not about passing as good. Chidi reminds us that faith is not only about knowing what is good. Knowledge matters, but knowledge alone is not discipleship. Discipleship is when what we know becomes a life. Discipleship is when truth becomes practice. Discipleship is when grace becomes courage, mercy, forgiveness, service, and love. Over time, Eleanor and Chidi both change because they are drawn into a deeper kind of formation. Eleanor has to practice honesty, compassion, and care for someone beyond herself. Chidi has to practice trust, courage, and choosing love even when he cannot calculate every possible consequence. In other words, both of them have to be discipled beyond appearance and beyond certainty into faithfulness. That is what makes The Good Place surprisingly Wesleyan. The characters become different not because they master one idea or earn enough points, but because they keep practicing a better way of being human. Christian faith is not self improvement with hymns. The gospel is grace. It is God meeting us before we are ready, loving us before we are worthy, and calling us before we fully understand where the road will lead. But grace does not leave us unchanged. Grace begins to form us. That is why the Methodist tradition has always cared about practices. We practice faith because practice keeps us open to the love that is already working on us. We practice doing no harm. We practice doing good. We practice staying in love with God. And over time, through the mercy of God, those practices begin to shape us into people who look a little more like the one we follow. The first rule is: do no harm. Harm is not only physical violence. Harm can come through words, neglect, silence, systems, assumptions, jokes, posts, grudges, and the people we refuse to see. To follow Jesus is to ask: Is my life causing harm? Are my words causing harm? Are my habits causing harm? Are my comforts causing harm? Most of us are not being asked to leave literal nets on the shore, but we may need to ask what nets we are holding. What old ways of being keep catching us? What habits make us feel safe but keep us from love? The second rule is: do good. Christian faith is about participating in God's healing of the world. “Follow me,” Jesus says, “and I will make you fishers of people.” In other words, your life is going to become part of God's work of gathering, healing, feeding, forgiving, restoring, and liberating. Sometimes doing good is serving someone who cannot repay you. Sometimes it is telling the truth when silence would be easier. Sometimes it is forgiving someone, apologizing, showing up, or acting with courage at work or at home. The third rule is: stay in love with God. Wesley's original language was “attend upon all the ordinances of God,” meaning the practices that keep us open to grace: public worship, prayer, searching the scriptures, receiving communion, fasting, Christian conversation, and works of mercy. In other words, stay close to the practices that remind you who you are and whose you are. Because we cannot follow Jesus for long on outrage, willpower, or guilt alone. We need grace. We need prayer. We need worship. We need scripture. We need communion. We need community. We need people who help us remember when we forget. And we do forget. The disciples forgot. Peter left his nets immediately, but later denied Jesus three times. James and John followed Jesus, but later argued about greatness. They followed, but they stumbled. They were called, but they were not instantly complete. And that should comfort us. Following Jesus does not mean we never fail. It means that when we fail, grace calls us again. This matters because the world is full of rival formations. Every day, something is trying to disciple us. Fear disciples us. Consumerism disciples us. Nationalism disciples us. Algorithms disciple us. Anger disciples us. Anxiety disciples us. The endless need to prove ourselves disciples us. The endless need to belong by having an enemy disciples us. So the question is not whether we are being formed. The question is: Who is forming us? So when we talk about discipleship, we are talking about formation. We are talking about what shapes our loves, habits, reflexes, speech, courage, compassion, and imagination. The world is constantly discipling us into anxiety, resentment, consumption, suspicion, and fear. But Jesus calls us into another formation. Jesus says, “Follow me,” and then teaches us the way of mercy, justice, courage, humility, forgiveness, and love. And when Jesus says, “Follow me,” he is giving us both a command and a promise. “Follow me, and I will make you…” The making belongs to Jesus. The transformation belongs to grace. Jesus calls us as we are, and then grace begins its work. Grace teaches us to do no harm. Grace strengthens us to do good. Grace draws us deeper into love with God. Grace makes us into people who can bear witness to another way of life. So this week, choose one small way to follow Jesus intentionally. Serve someone. Forgive someone. Act with courage in your work or home. Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God. Not because these practices save us by our own effort, but because they open our lives to the grace that is already calling us. Because somewhere, even now, Jesus is walking along the shoreline of our ordinary lives. He sees us. He knows us. He calls us. And his invitation is still the same: “Follow me.” May we have the grace to leave behind what binds us. May we have the courage to walk in his way. May we have the humility to be made new. And may our lives become a clear witness to the truth we proclaim: we know who we follow. We follow Jesus. Amen.

Good morning. As the sun finally begins to coax flowers into bloom, the Chelsea Flower Show will open its gates today. The Royal Horticultural Society's annual event sees organisations create beautiful planted spaces, which inspire and educate visitors. With our news headlines full of unremitting contempt and calamity, millions of us will tune into coverage of Chelsea this week for relief. I'd like to think this is more than just a comforting distraction.Christian writer CS Lewis wrote about his vision of hell in the novella ‘the great divorce'. Hell was a place of continual twilight where people moved further and further apart into infinite space, driven by mutual suspicion and a sense of time ticking down. Paradise, by contrast was a place of colour, fruitfulness, and sunshine – open to anyone bold enough to stay. In paradise, people were unafraid of each other or the future. They sought out newcomers, working to convince them to remain.The show gardens at Chelsea may be sanctuaries of beauty, but they are also about shared spaces and living well together. Many, like the Trussell ‘together' garden, are inspired specifically by the way communities deal with hardship – the Trussel Trust's foodbanks tackle food poverty. Like Lewis' paradise, communal gardens like this one combat the notion that safety and solace can only be had by building walls and retreating from the world.John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, wrote a collection of health remedies based on what people could grow or source themselves. Titled ‘Primitive Physick' and published in 1747 it would run to 23 editions during his life. Although his remedies were of their day, his commitment to people's access to healthcare and use of what was readily available still bears weight. Today, the rooftop garden of the national Methodist offices in London is planted with herbs and flowers used in Primitive Physick, recognising the importance of gardens to our collective mental and physical well-being.A reality of life in Britain today is that access to outdoor space is not equal: many do not have gardens. A Christian vision for good community still resists the notion that beautiful outdoor spaces are only the preserve of private wealth. After the show, all of the Chelsea gardens will find their way out into communities around the country – plants will go to balconies, windowsills and neglected urban spaces, gardens to hospices, schools, and the verges of motorways. They will join many other community gardens schemes, allowing even those of us who live surrounded by pavement, to put our hands in soil and see something grow. These gardens are places of retreat, yes: but also places of truth telling about the quiet work of living peacefully together.

Is outrage changing us?We live in a world that rewards anger, division, and instant judgment. But what if fighting what's wrong starts changing something inside of us, too?This Sunday, we'll explore a classic sermon from Methodism's founder and the hard challenge of loving people we deeply disagree with—without surrendering either truth or compassion.

In this episode of More to the Story, I'm joined by New Testament scholar Dr. David A. deSilva for a rich and fun conversation about faith, vocation, and theological formation. Dr. deSilva shares his personal calling to serve the church as a scholar and reflects on how his academic work has been shaped by a desire to build up the people of God. We explore his major areas of research in the New Testament and early Christianity (commentaries, apocryphal, and archaeological studies). Along the way, David tells the story of how God gradually led him into Wesleyan theology and Methodism, helping him see the deep coherence between his scholarly commitments and a tradition shaped by holiness, grace, and discipleship. This episode is warm and genuinely fun—a conversation with someone whose work has made a lasting contribution to both the academy and the church.Youtube - https://youtu.be/GkyAyJ8QrEEAudio - https://andymilleriii.com/media/podcastApple -  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/more-to-the-story-with-dr-andy-miller/id1569988895?uo=4If you are interested in learning more about my two full-length video-accompanied courses, Contender: Going Deeper in the Book of Jude andHeaven and Other Destinations: A Biblical Journey Beyond this World , visit andymilleriii.com/coursesAnd don't forget about my most recent book, Contender, which is available on Amazon! Five Steps to Deeper Teaching and Preaching - Recently, I updated this PDF document and added a 45-minute teaching video with slides, explaining this tool. It's like a mini-course. If you sign up for my list, I will send this free resource to you. Sign up here - www.AndyMillerIII.com or Five Steps to Deeper Teaching and Preaching. Today's episode is brought to you by Wesley Biblical Seminary. Interested in going deeper in your faith? Check out our certificate programs, B.A., M.A.s, M.Div., and D.Min degrees. You will study with world-class faculty and the most racially diverse student body in the country. www.wbs.eduIf this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend and leave a review! For more from Andy Miller III, visit andymilleriii.com or follow @andymilleriii on X.Thanks too to Phil Laeger for my podcast music. You can find out about Phil's music at https://www.laeger.net

In this Wednesday reflection on 1 John 2:1–6, the phrase "the love of God has reached perfection" becomes a springboard for a pastoral tour through one of Methodism's most distinctive — and most misunderstood — doctrines: Christian perfection. The passage holds the same honest tension as the previous chapter: we are going to sin, Christ has atoned for it, and we have an advocate. But the deeper question is what perfection actually means. The reflection pushes back against the common assumption that holiness is a legalistic checklist of moral performance — don't play cards, don't see movies, don't listen to secular music — and argues instead that Christian perfection, in the Wesleyan sense, is never about perfect action but about God's perfect love being restored in us through sanctifying grace. The goal of salvation, as Wesley understood it, is the recovery of the image of God — which enables us to keep the greatest commandment: love God fully and love your neighbor as yourself. That's what holiness looks like. And it's why the means of grace — Scripture, prayer, communion, fasting, community — matter so much: they are the channels through which that love grows and changes us.Join us for our daily reflections with Andy. In 10 short minutes, he'll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help you better understand God's Word.You can read today's passage here - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20John%202%3A%201-6&version=NRSVUEClick here if you'd like to join our GroupMe and receive this each morning at 7:00 a.m. CST. - https://groupme.com/join_group/107837407/vtYqtb6CYou can watch this in video form here - https://andystoddard.substack.com/

Walk Worthy of Your Calling Ephesians 4:1-10 by William Klock “It's Pauline and she sounds angry.”  It was my first week working as an Apple Computer repair tech and the receptionist was telling me I had a call.  I'd repaired Pauline's computer that morning and now she was on the phone and angry.  I didn't know what to expect, but I knew there was no way her computer had the same problem.  I picked up the phone and listened as Pauline yelled at me for a couple minutes because now her printer wasn't working.  This was a new problem.  It didn't make sense.  I spent the next half hour walking her through everything I could think of to get the printer working.  Nothing worked and she was getting angry again.  I knew the printer was plugged into the wall, because we'd already verified the lights were on.  “Pauline, this may sound really stupid, but the printer cable is plugged into the computer?  Right?  You plugged it back in when you got the computer home?”  She bit my head off.  “I never had to plug it in before!” she yelled at me.  “Okay, well, nothing else is working so just humour me.  Is there a cable plugged into the side of the printer?”  “Yes.”  Follow that cable to its other end and tell me where it goes.  If it's not plugged into the printer port on the computer, the computer can't talk to the printer.”  I heard grumbling on the other end of the phone, then a bit of swearing, and then she hung up.  She didn't call back.  Problem solved.  And thus began my career as a computer repair tech. There were a couple calls like that every week.  There was lady who delete an application from her iMac and needed help to reinstall it.  I told her to put the CD in the computer and then to double click it when it appeared on the desktop.  After going round in circles for over half and hour I finally figured out that she didn't know what a CD-ROM drive was.  She was holding the CD up the screen and then putting the mouse on top of it and clicking the mouse button.  As Veronica can relate, I had stories like this all the time.  These were the ones with funny endings.  A lot of them were just exercises in hair-pulling frustration.  I had to listen as people fumed or cry when I told them their hard disk was dead and their data were lost.  I had to call to tell them how much it was going to cost to fix their computer and then figure out what to do when they couldn't afford it.  But those direct interactions with my customers reminded me where my bread and butter came from.  They were the business.  Keeping them satisfied was the mission. A few years later I was hired by a company in Seattle.  The week before I was supposed to start, I went down to meet the guys I'd be working with.  Their shop had a completely different vibe.  And that was because the techs were completely isolated from the customers.  They didn't take phone calls, they didn't offer support, they didn't even talk to them at the service counter.  All they did was fix computers.  And that changed everything.  Talking with them, I used the word “customer” and the lead tech said, “Let me stop you right there.  We don't call them customers.  We call them…”  And what he called them isn't something I can repeat.  It was really bad.  The next morning I called the general manager there and told him I didn't want the job.  I eventually did get a job with that same company in Portland.  Things were run pretty much the same way as that shop in Seattle.  Thankfully the attitude was much better, but I noticed the problem.  When you never meet or deal with the customers, it changes your perspective.  The service counter keeps handing you broken computers and your job is to fix them.  And it never stops.  And instead of seeing the broken computers as the problem, you start to see the people who broke them as the problem.  You can even start to see them as the enemy.  And it becomes all about fixing the computers.  You lose sight of the real mission, which is to satisfy the customer and to leave them happy and with a good experience.  And it's easy to not notice, because you're still fixing computers even though you've lost the real mission.  In the corporate world they have a term for that: employee misalignment.  Or when it happens to a whole department or company, it's “mission drift”.  And it can absolutely destroy a business. Brothers and Sisters, the same thing can and does happen in the church.  We lose sight of our mission.  We misidentify the enemy.  And we fail as stewards of the gospel and of God's kingdom.  If a church does that long enough, if it gets entrenched in the wrong mission, if it misrepresents Jesus and the gospel and the kingdom and refuses to get back on track, Jesus warns that he will take away our lampstand.  Remember his letters to the seven churches in Revelation.  He'll let a church dwindle and die.  Because a bad witness is worse than no witness at all. We're back to St. Paul's letter to the churches in Ephesus this morning—Chapter 4.  [Page 1161 in the pew Bibles.]  And Paul gets at something very much like this idea of “mission drift”.  First, a little bit of recap: Before Passiontide we made our way through Ephesians 1-3.  In the first half of the letter Paul made his way back and forth between prayer and praise to walk us through the story of God and his creation—through the story of Israel and how Israel's story led everything to the story of Jesus, Israel's Messiah, and how Jesus has created a new Israel, a new people of God who have been filled and given new life through the Holy Spirit God had promised to his people so long before.  In Ephesians 1:10 Paul spelled out God's plan and promise: to sum up the whole cosmos in the Messiah, everything in heaven and on earth in him.  It's a promise of a new temple.  Heaven and earth brought together and at the centre of it, at its heart is the image of God.  That image was supposed to be us—humanity.  God created us to be the stewards of his creation and the priests of his temple.  But we rejected that vocation and tried to become gods ourselves.  And so Jesus has come to restore that image—to represent it faithfully and perfectly himself and to wash us clean with his blood and to fill us with his Spirit in order to restore us to that lost vocation.  So Paul is clear: this promise has been fulfilled already in Jesus.  It is currently being fulfilled in the creation of a renewed humanity.  For Paul, the great witness of this new humanity is the church—where Jews and gentiles were being brought together into a single, united people, filled with God's Spirit and living as his temple.  And the promise, finally, will be fulfilled in the end when, as he puts it, God will do far more abundantly than we can ask or imagine. So Jesus and the church—this new people, this renewed humanity—are the evidence that God truly is at work to set his broken creation to rights.  Through this people, God will reveal his manifold, his multifaceted, his Technicolor wisdom to the world and one day, because of Jesus and the faithful stewardship of his people, the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God.  Brothers and Sisters, this is why the church's witness is so important.  This is why mission drift is so dangerous.  This is why, if a church goes astray from the mission and repeatedly and repeatedly refuses God's correction, he will let us wither and die.  Because the church is meant to witness his glory to the world and that can't and won't happen unless we are faithful stewards of his gospel and his Spirit, unless we're truly heaven on earth people. So Paul now begins Chapter 4 writing, “Therefore…”  All of that (Chapters 1-3) is what the “therefore” is there for.  So knowing God's plan and his promise, knowing that he is setting creation to rights through Jesus and the faithful witness of his church, he says “Therefore, I appeal to you—yes, it's me, the prisoner in the Lord—I appeal to you to walk worthy of the calling to which you've been called.  Bear with one another in love; be humble, meek, and patient in every way with one another.  Make every effort to guard the unity that the Spirit gives, with your lives bound together in peace.” Paul's going to make three points in verses 1-10 and this is the first.  He's got something important coming in 11-16, but first he's got to lay a foundation for it.  Think of it in terms of him building a sturdy three-legged stool to support it.  So, first, here in verses 1-3 he stresses the need for humility.  He starts out stressing that it's essential for the church to live in a way that matches the gospel—the good news about Jesus.  “Walk worthy of the calling to which you've been called.”  Into the middle of this Paul interjects a reminder of his imprisonment.  They already knew he was in prison.  That's why he's writing them a letter instead of talking to them in person.  But Paul reminds them again at this point because he saw his imprisonment as an example of what it means to walk worthy of our gospel calling.  Brothers and Sisters, the ways of God's kingdom are the inverse of the ways of the world.  To the pagans in Ephesus, for Paul to be in prison was a sign that either he was out of favour with his God or that his God was powerless to help him.  But for Paul, who had made the cross and the humility of Jesus the lens through which he looked at everything, to be in prison for the sake of the gospel was a sign of faithfulness.  In the same way, the gospel virtues that he says should characterise the life of the church—the ones he lists in verse 2: loving each other, being humble, meek, and patient—those weren't virtues at all in the world of the Greeks and Romans.  To the pagans, they were signs of weakness. So Paul stresses that they've been called.  Usually Paul uses this word, this idea of “calling” to emphasise God's initiative in our coming to faith, but here he kind of wrapping everything to do with—call it “conversion”—he's rolling it all into this idea of calling: We've heard the gospel, we've received and taken to heart the gospel, we're repented, and in faith we've obeyed the gospel.  Now he reminds us just what it was we responded to when God called us.  This is the part I think we sometimes forget, but Paul wants us to remember that the gospel—the good news about Jesus and the message that once captivated us—is about God's amazing kindness and generosity and grace.  And Paul's point is that if that's the gospel that called us, then our gospel life ought to be equally characterised by kindness, generosity, and grace. When I hear that I think, “Oh yeah!  Duh.  How could I lose sight of that?”  But we do.  I don't think we ever forget it; it's more that it sort of slips into the background.  But when we let that happen—think of our Philippians 2 Epistle from Palm Sunday—when we let this slip into the background, we lose the mind of the Messiah that Paul is so insistent we should share.  We stop acting with humility and we start acting and living according to the values of the world around us.  Instead of living for others, we start using and abusing others for ourselves.  Instead of putting others before ourselves, we act out of pride and selfishness.  Instead of being gracious, we can become jerks.  To people out there.  But to our brothers and sisters in the church, too.  And when we do that, we stop working and living as the body of Jesus, our unity starts to break down, and our light grows dim.  We undermine our witness to God's new creation.  So Paul reminds us: bear with each other in love, with humility, meekness, and patience—because this is the way of the cross! The Greek word Paul uses for “patience,” it literally means “great-heartedness”.  Brothers and Sisters, consider the great-heartedness of Jesus who died for his enemies.  We ought to have that kind of great-heartedness for each other.  It doesn't happen naturally, but this is why God has plunged us into his Spirit—or maybe I should say, he's plunged his Spirit into us: to fill our hearts with love for him and for each other.  We come to the church from different backgrounds, we all have our likes and our dislikes and our preferences, we have our different personalities, we all have our hurts and traumas, and it's really easy to get bent out of shape or bend others out of shape when things don't go right.  It's really easy to want to force our desires on others.  It's really easy to use others to accomplish our own goals.  It's really easy to become divided.  Paul knew that as well as anyone and so he tells us, “No!  That's not your calling.  Your calling is be a loving, generous, and gracious gospel people who share the mind of the Messiah and overflow with the love and life of God's Spirit. And, like I said, things like humility, meekness, and patience were not virtues in their world.  This is why Israel stood out from the peoples around them.  The scriptures taught them over and over the importance of humility and love, meekness and patience.  The pagans didn't think that way and even Israel struggled and often failed to be this kind of people.  And this is why it's so important for the church—for us—to remember our calling: because our renewal through Jesus and the Spirit to this kind of life is the fulfilment of the scriptures—of God's promises.  Our gospel life is a witness to God's glory and one that confronts this broken world with what true humanity is supposed to be.  This is how the church announces the coming of God's new creation.  This is what it means to be the people who pray “on earth as in heaven” and not just the people who hope for it and pray for it, but most importantly the people who do it. Instead, we're too often like James and John (remember that scene in Mark's Gospel) conniving a way to sit at the right hand of Jesus.  And Jesus reminds us: That's how the pagans do things.  They push and shove and boss and bully their way through life, always trying to get to the top, but the son of man came to give his life as a ransom for many.  Brothers and Sisters, keep the generous humility of Jesus always in your sight.  That's the kind of people, the kind of community the church should be.  In fact, Paul writes in verse 3: the Spirit has given us unity and made us one and we need to guard that unity with our lives.  That means, first, that each of us ought to live for the sake of our brothers and sisters and not for ourselves.  If we would do that, we'd have no reason to be offended by each other and to divide.  But, too, to live for the sake of each other is to be willing and quick to forgive instead of taking offense when things do happen.  And, again, this runs totally against the grain of our culture.  Our culture says to look out for ourselves; it says to get even; or it says, at least, to cut those problem people from our lives.  The church is meant to witness a better way of being human—one that shows the world (again) the love, generosity, and patience of the cross. So that's the first leg of our stool.  Now look at verses 4-6: “There is one body and one Spirit; you were, after all, called to one hope which goes with your call.  There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in all.” I can't help but think that Paul has the shema in mind.  Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”  That was sort of Israel's fundamental creed.  It's why God could not be represented by idols and it's why there was only to be one temple in Israel.  And now Paul extrapolates that out in light of Jesus and the new covenant.  One body, one Spirit, one hope; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; and above all, there's one God.  We're so distant from the polytheistic world of Paul and the Ephesians that we might not realise what Paul's doing here, but this is him again highlighting how the church confronts the world with the reality of God and his new creation.  Hear, O Church, the Lord our God, the Lord is one…and that oneness works its way through who we are and what we do.  And it not only makes the church stand out in a world chock full of gods as in Paul's day, but it also makes the church stand out in a world that is divided by philosophies and religions and all the “isms” we can think of.  And that includes all the “isms” that divide the church: Anglicanism, Lutheranism, Catholicism, Presbyterianism, Methodism, Pentecostalism and on and on.  You and I won't fix all those divisions, but we ought to do all we can in our life as the church to live out the reality that we share one faith in the one Lord, that we've all been baptised into the one triune God, filled with the one Spirit, and live with the one hope of a world set to rights, and that we are one body despite what the signs outside our churches might imply. When it becomes more about our “brand” than it does about our one God, our one Lord, our one faith, our one baptism, and our one hope; when we start thinking of Brothers and Sisters in the Lord as enemies—we've lost the plot.  Ecclesiastical employee misalignment.  Ecclesiastical mission drift.  We need to recentre ourselves on Jesus.  We probably really need to remember his humility, because we've probably become more than little ecclesiastically or theologically snobbish.  And we need to remember that God intends to make his glory known to the world through his church regardless of our “isms” and those things won't matter when the mission is accomplished and he is above all, through all, and in all—that glorious image of a temple filled with his presence. And then then the third leg.  Look at verses 7-10: “But grace was given to each one of us, according to the measure the Messiah used when he was distributing gifts.  That's why it says [and here Paul quotes Psalm 68:18], ‘When he went up on high, he led bondage itself into bondage, and he gave gifts to men.'  When it says that ‘he went up,' what this means is that he also came down into the lower places, that is, to earth.  The one who came down is the one who also ‘went up', yes, above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.” What Paul's working towards is an explanation of God's gifts to the church—all of us having a vast diversity of gifts to be used together for the common good.  We'll get to that next Sunday.  But before he can get to the diversity of gifts, Paul wants to stress the fact that the gift of the gifts themselves is yet another thing that stresses our unity.  Because those gifts, if we run with them on our own can turn into a source of division.  So Paul quotes from Psalm 68, which is about God's enthronement on Mt. Zion, but it's also got echoes of Moses going up Mt. Sinai.  The gist of it is God enthroned on high and lavishing gifts on this people—whether that's his abundance on the nation Israel or sending down Moses with his law carved on stone tablets.  Paul knew this Psalm well, but after he met the risen Jesus, it took on another layer: It's now the Messiah who ascended to his throne and in doing that he has led bondage itself into bondage.  The long captivity of humanity to sin and death is over.  Jesus has triumphed and been exalted.  It follows Paul's prayer in Chapter 1 where he praises God for putting all things in subjection under his feet.  So Jesus' enthronement after defeating our enemies has inaugurated a new age.  And that prompts Paul to tweak the words of the Psalm.  Instead of humans bringing gifts to God as they did under the old covenant, God now pours out his gifts of grace and redeemed humans receive them.  Through that grace and through those gifts, God is setting his people to rights so that they—so that we, his people, his church—can begin to live his new creation here and now.  So, first, the gospel not only restores us to our God-given vocation, it also gives each of us a new sub-vocation to help the church fulfil that task. Second, Paul, I think, stresses that this is part of the gift of God's Spirit.  Jesus has ascended and in doing so the Spirit has “come down”.  This is again about God's new temple.  Jesus washes us clean and makes a fit dwelling place for God, and God then sends down his Spirit to indwell us—as Paul put it in 3:19 when he talked about the church being filled with all God's fullness.  And in this Paul reminds us of the mission: Again, God's purpose is to set creation to rights by filling it with the knowledge of his glory as the waters cover the sea.  The church is his means of doing that.  We're not only the people entrusted with the good new of Jesus, crucified and risen; we're not only a people entrusted to proclaim the goodness and faithfulness, the lovingkindess and generosity of God; we're also a people filled with his presence and made stewards of his new creation, enabled to live it out—even if imperfectly—in the midst of the old.  A people called both to proclaim the good news that Jesus is Lord and that he has died and risen to deliver us from sin and death, but also a people called, gifted, equipped, indwelt by God himself, in order to make known his love, generosity, and patience and to display as a community the very renewal, the very filling of all things that is our hope and towards which his plan and his promise are moving. And this—I'll just say in closing—this is why the Bible's image of the temple is so important.  It not only reminds us who we are; it reminds us of the mission.  The temple is the place of God's presence.  It's the place where people go to find, to meet, to know, to experience the God of creation.  And too often we think of it as something out there, but Brothers and Sisters, the temple is us.  Washed clean by the blood of Jesus and filled with God's Spirit, we are the temple.  And that means that the world ought to see the God of the incarnation, the God of the cross, the God who humbles and gives himself for the sake of his enemies, the world ought to meet that God in us.  We can become consumed by so many other good things, so many other things that, yes, as the church we should be doing.  But we lose sight of the real mission, of our real calling to be God's temple, to make his glory known to the ends of the earth.  Brothers and Sisters, the world ought to be drawn to God, to this temple, as it sees in us a better way to be human, as it sees the beginning of God's new creation in our life together: humanity's divisions and strifes healed here.  Humanity's tears wiped away, here.  As it finds hope here.  The grace and love, the meekness and the patience of Jesus the Messiah on display here.  As it sees the glory of God in the work of redemption taking place in us. Let's pray: Almighty Father, you gave your only Son to die for our sins and to rise again for our justifiction: Grant that we may put away the leaven of the old age, and put on the life of the new that we might make your glory known in all the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

It is broadly understood that John Wesley was the founder of the Methodist movement that spread around the world in the eighteenth century. He is known for being a missionary in Georgia, his “heart-warming” experience at Aldersgate, field preaching, and the famous quote “the world is my parish.” But this book reveals John Wesley's ultimate reluctance to send missionaries overseas, with several examples of Wesley's rejection of world missions and occasions when he thwarted plans, including those of Thomas Coke, the Father of Methodist Missions. John Wesley and the Origins of Methodist Missions (Abingdon Press, 2025) shows how ordinary immigrants, merchants, planters, soldiers, enslaved persons, and former slaves carried Methodism with them to such far-off places. They were not officially commissioned or authorized by Wesley, but rather traveled on their own, motivated by the love of God and neighbor, to share their faith with others. It was only after these Methodist societies were established, and after multiple appeals, that John Wesley and the British Conference agreed to send missionaries to assist. This book offers some reasons for Wesley's hesitancy to send missionaries overseas and highlights the stories, challenges, and successes of the pioneers who spread Methodism around the world. Byline Host:Byung Ho Choi is a Ph.D. candidate in the History and Ecumenics program at Princeton Theological Seminary, concentrating in World Christianity and history of religions. His research focuses on the indigenous expressions of Christianities found in Southeast Asia, particularly Christianity that is practiced in the Muslim-dominant archipelagic nation of Indonesia. More broadly, he is interested in history and the anthropology of Christianity, complexities of religious conversion and social identity, inter-religious dialogue, ecumenism, and World Christianity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

It is broadly understood that John Wesley was the founder of the Methodist movement that spread around the world in the eighteenth century. He is known for being a missionary in Georgia, his “heart-warming” experience at Aldersgate, field preaching, and the famous quote “the world is my parish.” But this book reveals John Wesley's ultimate reluctance to send missionaries overseas, with several examples of Wesley's rejection of world missions and occasions when he thwarted plans, including those of Thomas Coke, the Father of Methodist Missions. John Wesley and the Origins of Methodist Missions (Abingdon Press, 2025) shows how ordinary immigrants, merchants, planters, soldiers, enslaved persons, and former slaves carried Methodism with them to such far-off places. They were not officially commissioned or authorized by Wesley, but rather traveled on their own, motivated by the love of God and neighbor, to share their faith with others. It was only after these Methodist societies were established, and after multiple appeals, that John Wesley and the British Conference agreed to send missionaries to assist. This book offers some reasons for Wesley's hesitancy to send missionaries overseas and highlights the stories, challenges, and successes of the pioneers who spread Methodism around the world. Byline Host:Byung Ho Choi is a Ph.D. candidate in the History and Ecumenics program at Princeton Theological Seminary, concentrating in World Christianity and history of religions. His research focuses on the indigenous expressions of Christianities found in Southeast Asia, particularly Christianity that is practiced in the Muslim-dominant archipelagic nation of Indonesia. More broadly, he is interested in history and the anthropology of Christianity, complexities of religious conversion and social identity, inter-religious dialogue, ecumenism, and World Christianity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is broadly understood that John Wesley was the founder of the Methodist movement that spread around the world in the eighteenth century. He is known for being a missionary in Georgia, his “heart-warming” experience at Aldersgate, field preaching, and the famous quote “the world is my parish.” But this book reveals John Wesley's ultimate reluctance to send missionaries overseas, with several examples of Wesley's rejection of world missions and occasions when he thwarted plans, including those of Thomas Coke, the Father of Methodist Missions. John Wesley and the Origins of Methodist Missions (Abingdon Press, 2025) shows how ordinary immigrants, merchants, planters, soldiers, enslaved persons, and former slaves carried Methodism with them to such far-off places. They were not officially commissioned or authorized by Wesley, but rather traveled on their own, motivated by the love of God and neighbor, to share their faith with others. It was only after these Methodist societies were established, and after multiple appeals, that John Wesley and the British Conference agreed to send missionaries to assist. This book offers some reasons for Wesley's hesitancy to send missionaries overseas and highlights the stories, challenges, and successes of the pioneers who spread Methodism around the world. Byline Host:Byung Ho Choi is a Ph.D. candidate in the History and Ecumenics program at Princeton Theological Seminary, concentrating in World Christianity and history of religions. His research focuses on the indigenous expressions of Christianities found in Southeast Asia, particularly Christianity that is practiced in the Muslim-dominant archipelagic nation of Indonesia. More broadly, he is interested in history and the anthropology of Christianity, complexities of religious conversion and social identity, inter-religious dialogue, ecumenism, and World Christianity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/christian-studies

Pastor Hilton preaches from 2 Timothy 3:1-5, warning that in the last days many will have a form of godliness but deny its power. He emphasizes that true godliness is not about outward displays of righteousness, expensive suits, or religious performance—it is about possessing real, life-changing power from God. The preacher warns against the dangers of pragmatism, secularism, and compromise that have caused movements like Methodism to lose their identity and spiritual power. He uses the analogy of a concrete foundation: the prophets and apostles set up the forms and ties (outlines and precepts), but Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. The forms can be removed, but the ties (essential truths like holiness, separation, and obedience) must remain. The true measure of godliness is not prosperity or outward righteousness, but the power of God that verifies it. Pastor Hilton urges believers to hunger and thirst after righteousness, to flee from the trends of this untoward generation, and to pursue godliness with diligence. He cites 2 Peter 1:3-10, showing that God's divine power gives us everything we need for life and godliness, and that adding faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity ensures we shall never fall. The message calls the church to seek authentic, power-filled godliness that changes lives and destinies, refusing to compromise in a world of desperation.

In this episode of History 102, 'WhatIfAltHist' creator Rudyard Lynch and co-host Austin Padgett analyze Protestantism's global evolution, exploring how sectarian dogmas, economic shifts, and historical transitions from the 1600s shaped modern Western identity. -- FOLLOW ON X: @whatifalthist (Rudyard) @LudwigNverMises (Austin) @TurpentineMedia -- TIMESTAMPS: (00:16) The Historical Impact of Protestantism (01:32) Protestantism as the Spear Tip of Innovation (03:51) The Shifting Religious and Ethnic Landscape (05:29) Modernity and the Erasure of History (11:20) Nietzsche and the Death of God (16:57) The Theological Origins of Science (21:33) The Map of Protestant Europe in 1600 (27:00) Rationality vs Modern Anti-Intellectualism (35:08) The Social Conservatism of the Reformation (38:05) John Calvin and the Power of Sincerity (40:51) Max Weber and the Calvinist Work Ethic (42:53) Psychological Drives: Busyness vs Sovereignty (44:02) The Rise of Therapy and Wellness Culture (56:01) Germanic Cultures and the Protestant Map (1:03:08) Lutheranism and the Individual Reader (1:06:50) Jante's Law and Scandinavian Conformity (1:14:33) Pietism and the Wellspring of Philosophy (1:18:17) Calvinism: Totalitarianism and Capitalist Freedom (1:35:47)) The Quakers and Social Radicalism (1:39:24) The Baptists and Adult Baptism (1:43:32) Methodism and the Great Awakenings (1:49:39) Anglicanism and the English Establishment (2:01:39) Mormonism and the Faustian Will (2:05:42) Pentecostalism and Growth in the Third World (2:14:00) Darwinism and the 21st-Century Religious Collapse Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Jennings attends a Global Methodist church, works as a creative designer, and writes books and loves Jesus. He is the author of The Supernatural Occurrences of John Wesley. He wrote that book twenty years ago and has just re-released it for its twentieth anniversary. I say Dan wrote the book, but actually he just compiled what John Wesley wrote in his journal about the plethora of miraculous events that occurred while he was ministering at the birth of Methodism. So Dan searched Wesley's journals and found all the stories of visions and dreams, miraculous healings, exorcisms and spiritual warfare (even stories of how God miraculously healed Wesley's horse, not once or twice but three times)! So today, we're just going to have fun wallowing in the stories that led John Wesley down the path of supernatural ministry. 

In this eye-opening conversation, Dr. John Wigger joins me to explore the life and legacy of Francis Asbury—one of the most understudied yet profoundly influential figures in American religious history. Asbury may not have been a charismatic performer or a deep intellectual in the traditional sense, but he had an extraordinary grasp of Methodism's core calling: holiness, sanctification, relational connection, and cultural awareness.He organized and adapted Methodism to serve the needs of the emerging United States, helping it thrive in a new nation. This episode challenged and corrected several misconceptions I held about Asbury, highlighting his practical genius in making Methodism relevant and vibrant in early America.If you're interested in Wesleyan theology, Methodist history, or how faith adapts to cultural contexts, this is a must-listen!Key Topics Discussed:•  Asbury's non-traditional leadership style•  The heart of Methodism: holiness, sanctification, and relational discipleship•  Cultural adaptation and organizational strategy in the young United States•  Correcting common misconceptions about AsburyYoutube - https://youtu.be/2xzLVzyG70QAudio - https://andymilleriii.com/media/podcastApple -  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/more-to-the-story-with-dr-andy-miller/id1569988895?uo=4John Wigger's book: American Saint: Francis Asbury and the Methodists - https://a.co/d/058UdnmnIf you are interested in learning more about my two full-length video-accompanied courses, Contender: Going Deeper in the Book of Jude andHeaven and Other Destinations: A Biblical Journey Beyond this World , visit andymilleriii.com/coursesAnd don't forget about my most recent book, Contender, which is available on Amazon! Five Steps to Deeper Teaching and Preaching - Recently, I updated this PDF document and added a 45-minute teaching video with slides, explaining this tool. It's like a mini-course. If you sign up for my list, I will send this free resource to you. Sign up here - www.AndyMillerIII.com or Five Steps to Deeper Teaching and Preaching. Today's episode is brought to you by Wesley Biblical Seminary. Interested in going deeper in your faith? Check out our certificate programs, B.A., M.A.s, M.Div., and D.Min degrees. You will study with world-class faculty and the most racially diverse student body in the country. www.wbs.eduIf this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend and leave a review! For more from Andy Miller III, visit andymilleriii.com or follow @andymilleriii on X.Thanks too to Phil Laeger for my podcast music. You can find out about Phil's music at https://www.laeger.net

It's Monday, March 2, A.D. 2026. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus United States and Israel bombed Iran The long-simmering threat of conflict between Washington, Jerusalem and Tehran erupted Saturday morning as the United States and Israel launched sweeping airstrikes against Iran, reports NBC News. The launch of “Operation Epic Fury” followed months of heated rhetoric and repeated warnings from President Trump about military intervention in Iran. U.S. and partner forces struck multiple targets, including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command and control facilities, Iranian air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields. Not only was Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei killed, but so was his top security adviser, his chief military secretary, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, the Defense Minister, the Head of Iranian military intelligence, and former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, reports Axios and Israel National News. Trump: We will destroy Iran's “wicked, radical dictatorship” In an 8-minute address to America, President Donald Trump explained why he believed the attack on Iran was necessary. TRUMP: “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime. For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted ‘Death to America' and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder targeting the United States, our troops, and the innocent people in many, many countries.” The president laid out the litany of Iranian attacks from the 1979 U.S. Embassy Hostage Crisis in which dozens of Americans were taken hostage for 444 days and the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 soldiers to the attack on the U.S.S. Cole in 2000, the killing of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and the Iranian-funded attack on Israel through Hamas on October 7, 2023. TRUMP: “For these reasons, the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests. We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally obliterated. We're going to annihilate their navy. We're going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world.” Isaiah 10:1-2 says, “Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.” President Trump expressed concern for the safety of U.S. soldiers. TRUMP: “The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties. That often happens in war. We pray for every service member as they selflessly risk their lives to ensure that Americans, and our children, will never be threatened by a nuclear-armed Iran. We ask God to protect all of our heroes in harm's way. And we trust that with His help, the men and women of the armed forces will prevail.” Sadly, three U.S. service members have been killed in action, as part of the Trump administration's “Operation Epic Fury,” reports NewsNation.com. Iranians celebrating in the streets Anti-regime protesters in southern Iran tore down a statue of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in celebration of his death on Saturday, reports The Telegraph. In Tehran, loud cheers echoed from rooftops and through the streets.   Listen. (audio of Iranians celebrating) Celebratory music played, car horns honked and fireworks were set off in parts of the capital at around 11pm local time. They were joined by Iranians across the world who celebrated the Supreme Leader's downfall after he was killed in a barrage of US and Israeli missile strikes early on Saturday morning. Senator Ted Cruz: Bombing Iran is “single most important decision of [Trump's] presidency” Appearing on CBS' Face the Nation, Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas applauded President Trump's decision to bomb Iran. CRUZ: “President Trump's decision to launch this decisive action against Iran is the single most important decision of his presidency. He is taking this action because the government of Iran is a profound and malign influence. “They have been the leading state sponsor of terrorism for 47 years. They have, over that time, killed nearly 1,000 Americans. They provide more than 90% of the funding for Hamas. They provide more than 90% of the funding for Hezbollah, the Iranian Ayatollah, was, until yesterday, actively trying to murder the President of the United States, Donald J Trump.” Senator Lindsey Graham: “The mothership of terrorism is about to go down!” Appearing on Fox & Friends, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was grateful the American people re-elected President Trump in 2024. GRAHAM: “My feeling today is that I'm very glad that President Trump won and Kamala Harris lost. Unfortunately, the modern Democratic Party is pathetic in the face of evil. “The difference between Donald Trump and our Democratic colleagues, he's common sense. He understands the world. He's of the mindset that the Ayatollah is Hitler in a robe, wearing a turban; that he's not capable of changing his ways. “Donald Trump does not get us entangled in forever wars, but he sure stands up to the bad guys, and he makes us safer. This is the most consequential decision any President has made since 1979.” Senator Graham predicted a major re-set in the Middle East because of “Operation Epic Fury.” GRAHAM: “If the regime falls, I think Saudi Arabia, the keeper of the holy mosque and Mecca and Medina, the center of Islam, will go back to the table to try to do peace with Israel. We were close before, before October the seventh. October the seventh was designed to stop normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel. “I think when this regime collapses, we'll be back at the table of normalization. If Saudi Arabia recognizes Israel it will be the biggest change in 1,000 years in the history of the MidEast. If this regime falls -- Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis terrorist network supported by Iran -- will collapse, slowly but surely. “The mothership of terrorism is about to go down. There's a new dawn coming in the Mideast.” Mass shooting in Austin leaves 3 dead and 14 wounded Three people are dead and 14 have been injured after a mass shooting at a popular bar along West Sixth Street in downtown Austin, Texas during the early morning hours of Sunday, March 1, reports the San Antonio Express-News. The shooting took place at Buford's, a popular bar along the West Sixth Street entertainment strip. Anniversary of John Wesley's death And finally, John Wesley, the English evangelist, who was a principal leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism, died at the age of 87 on this day, March 2nd in 1791. Wesley placed his faith in Christ on May 24, 1738. Referring to our Savior Jesus Christ, Luke wrote in Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” In his early ministry years, Wesley was barred from preaching in many parish churches and the Methodists were persecuted. Under Wesley's direction, Methodists became leaders in many social issues of the day, including the abolition of slavery. He became known for the Wesley Covenant Prayer. It says, “I am no longer my own, but Thine. Put me to what Thou wilt, rank me with whom Thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed for Thee or laid aside for Thee, exalted for Thee or brought low for Thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to Thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Thou art mine, and I am Thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on Earth, let it be ratified in Heaven. Amen.” Wesley wrote hymns including “O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing.” “O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace! My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread thro' all the Earth abroad the honors of Thy name.” John Wesley became widely respected, and by the end of his life, was described as "the best-loved man in England.” Close And that's The Worldview on this Monday, March 2nd, in the year of our Lord 2026. Follow us on X or subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com.  Plus, you can get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

METHODISM Podcast Episode 8: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE WORLDIn this final episode of the Methodism Podcast we'll hear Senior Pastor Rev. Dr. Beth LaRocca-Pitts share how Methodism is All About the World and an in-depth understanding that we are to be people who love God and our neighbors—wherever we may be. AND, LENT BEGINS ASH WEDS FEB 18th 6pm in Sanctuary
Lent is coming quickly and this season of honesty about our lives and our faith begins with Ash Wednesday. We will have Drive-Thru Ashes from 7:30-8:30am in the front driveway near the steeple and an evening Ash Wednesday Worship at 6pm in the Sanctuary. May we use this time to remember our mortality, our human frailty, and our dependence upon God. 

(There will be no Midweek Dinner this Weds and the Ash Weds Service will stream online at YouTube.com/ogumc/live) 

AND, the Lenten Devotionals are out: “God Provides”(Available in print at the church building and an electronic version here: https://ogumc.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/2026.02.18-ogumc-lenten-devotional-electronic-version.pdf) —You can listen, watch, & subscribe to the Podcast on:+ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@OGUMC/podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠+ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0nGIcxSt5ToGbAcs0dmua2?si=3328d0411f194865+ Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oak-grove-umc-podcast/id1695962000—Sunday Worship: 8:30 & 11am* Traditional Worship and 1045am* Modern Worship.*livestreamed at YouTube.com/ogumc#churchpodcast #methodism #umc #ogumc #Jesus

METHODISM Podcast Episode 7: IT'S ALL ABOUT SERVANT LEADERSHIPWhat exactly IS Servant Leadership and how do we follow the example of Jesus to both serve and love our neighbors?In this 7th episode of the Methodism Podcast we'll hear Associate Pastor Rev. Dr. Joseph McBrayer share how Methodism is All About Servant Leadership.Watch on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/KiADgdz_H4E—You can listen, watch, & subscribe to the Podcast on:+ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@OGUMC/podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠+ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0nGIcxSt5ToGbAcs0dmua2?si=3328d0411f194865+ Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oak-grove-umc-podcast/id1695962000—Sunday Worship: 8:30 & 11am* Traditional Worship and 1045am* Modern Worship.*livestreamed at YouTube.com/ogumc#servantleadership #methodism #umc #ogumc #Jesus

One of Methodism's true values is our assurnace of our faith and hope in Heaven.

How do Methodists decide HOW we should live out our Christian Life? (Hint: Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience! AKA the “Methodism Quadrilateral!” More on that in the PODCAST THIS WEEK!)In this 6th episode of the Methodism Podcast we'll hear Senior Pastor Beth LaRocca-Pitts' sermon on how Methodism is All About Jesus.—You can listen, watch, & subscribe to the Podcast on:+ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@OGUMC/podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠+ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0nGIcxSt5ToGbAcs0dmua2?si=3328d0411f194865+ Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oak-grove-umc-podcast/id1695962000—Sunday Worship: 8:30 & 11am* Traditional Worship and 1045am* Modern Worship.*livestreamed at YouTube.com/ogumc#methodism #umc #ogumc #Jesus #ngumc

METHODISM Podcast Episode 5: IT'S ALL ABOUT UNITYHow did the “UNITED” become a part of “United Methodism?” What DOES Christian UNITY mean? Have you ever wondered what Methodism is? Or maybe what makes up the core of what United Methodist Christians believe? Well, this is the Way — or at least this worship series will help us to understand more about the methods of Methodists. In this 5th episode of the Methodism Podcast we'll hear Senior Pastor Beth LaRocca-Pitts' sermon on how Methodism is All About Unity.—You can listen, watch, & subscribe to the Podcast on:+ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@OGUMC/podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠+ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0nGIcxSt5ToGbAcs0dmua2?si=3328d0411f194865+ Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oak-grove-umc-podcast/id1695962000—Sunday Worship: 8:30 & 11am* Traditional Worship and 1045am* Modern Worship.*livestreamed at YouTube.com/ogumc#methodism #umc #ogumc #connectionalism #ngumc

METHODISM Podcast Episode 4: IT'S ALL ABOUT CONNECTIONHave you ever wondered what Methodism is? Or maybe what makes up the core of what United Methodist Christians believe? Well, this is the Way — or at least this worship series will help us to understand more about the methods of Methodists. In this 4th episode of the Methodism Podcast we'll hear Pastor Melissa's sermon on how Methodism is All About Connection.You can listen, watch, & subscribe to the Podcast on:+ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@OGUMC/podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠+ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0nGIcxSt5ToGbAcs0dmua2?si=3328d0411f194865+ Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oak-grove-umc-podcast/id1695962000—Sunday Worship: 8:30 & 11am* Traditional Worship and 1045am* Modern Worship.*livestreamed at YouTube.com/ogumc#methodism #umc #ogumc #connectionalism #ngumc

How did Methodism spread across the American frontier? Today, Stephen Nichols looks at the lives of circuit riders who carried Methodism westward. Read the transcript: https://ligonier.org/podcasts/5-minutes-in-church-history-with-stephen-nichols/early-methodism-circuit-riders-and-camp-meetings/ A donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Donate: https://donate.ligonier.org/ Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

METHODISM Podcast Episode 3: IT'S ALL ABOUT OTHERSHave you ever wondered what Methodism is? Or maybe what makes up the core of what United Methodist Christians believe? Well, this is the Way — or at least this worship series will help us to understand more about the methods of Methodists. In this 3rd episode of the Methodism Podcast we'll hear Pastor Beth's sermon on how Methodism is All About Others.You can listen, watch, & subscribe to the Podcast on:+ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@OGUMC/podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠+ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0nGIcxSt5ToGbAcs0dmua2?si=3328d0411f194865+ Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oak-grove-umc-podcast/id1695962000—Sunday Worship: 8:30 & 11am* Traditional Worship and 1045am* Modern Worship.*livestreamed at YouTube.com/ogumc#newyear #methodism #umc #ogumc

Daily Dose of Hope January 16, 2026   Scripture: I Thessalonians 4   Prayer:  Almighty Father, Thank you for loving us despite our many faults.  Thank you for showing us a different way of doing life.  Help us seek holiness in all we do.  Help us become the people you desire us to be.  As we work through today's Scripture and devotional, I pray that you speak to our hearts.  Help us see things differently.  We want to hear from you.  In Your Name, Amen.   Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that goes along with the New Hope Church daily Bible reading plan.  We are currently journeying through Paul's letters.  Right now, we are walking through I Thessalonians.   Today, we read I Thessalonians 4.  Possibly because they were experiencing so much persecution, the Thessalonians were very interested in knowing when Jesus' second coming would occur.  Paul tells them two things they needed to hear: their persecutors will be judged and in the meantime, living in faith, hope, and love, is the best way to prepare for the next step of their Christian journey.  Jesus will come suddenly, like a thief in the night.  But they have nothing to fear as God's children.  Those who reject the Gospel will face God's wrath but the believers will be protected and get to live with Jesus for eternity.   He reiterates what it means to live a Godly life.  He says to reject sexual immorality, and to seek holiness.  The idea of seeking holiness is deeply rooted in Scripture, including the command to be holy as God is holy (Lev. 19:2), Jesus' teachings to be perfect as our Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48), and the Great Commandment (Matt. 22:34-40).  John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, writes that holiness is not perfection or flawlessness but more a maturity of character and increasing love for God and others.  The Thessalonians were coming from a pagan culture that valued self over others.  Living holy lives would have truly set them apart from the culture around them.  People would notice.    The last part of the chapter is kind of interesting, regarding those who have already died.  Just like his talk of the second coming, this is purely pastoral encouragement for them.  Believers who have died in the Lord will be resurrected when Jesus returns.  They can trust in that.  Now, Jesus was pretty clear-no one knows the time he will come back, only the Father.  In Matthew 24:36, Jesus says, "However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows."  Despite this, people have tried making predictions for thousands of years.  I hear people today say, "Well, these must be end times because of this or that."  My personal opinion is that isn't for us to know or say.  Our responsibility is to take Paul's advice to the Thessalonians and live in faith, hope, and love, pointing others to Jesus and living like people with Good News.   Blessings, Pastor Vicki    

How did a small group of Oxford students shape a global movement? Today, Stephen Nichols traces the early roots of Methodism, from high moral standards and revival preaching to its growth in Great Britain and colonial America. Read the transcript: https://ligonier.org/podcasts/5-minutes-in-church-history-with-stephen-nichols/early-methodism-beginnings-and-revival/ A donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Donate: https://donate.ligonier.org/ Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

METHODISM Podcast Episode 2: How Pastors are Appointed to ChurchesHave you ever wondered:+ how pastors are selected and appointed to local churches? + what Bishops help do in overseeing churches in the United Methodist faith tradition? + what is the difference between an Elder and a Deacon in the United Methodist Church?+ how you can help Oak Grove prepare for Dr. Beth LaRocca-Pitt's retirement in June 2026 and the announcement of who will follow her as the Senior Pastor at OGUMC? Well, you're in luck! In this 2nd episode of the Methodism Podcast we'll hear a live-recorded conversation and Q&A with retired Bishop Larry Goodpaster and retired District Superintendent Rev. Dr. David Naglee. participate in the congregational life of Oak Grove. Many thanks to the participants in this discussion and to the many church members who attended this live recording on Sunday January 11th, 2026 in the Oak Grove Sanctuary. And, special thanks to Bishop Goodpaster and Dr. Naglee!You can listen, watch, & subscribe to the Podcast on:+ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@OGUMC/podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠+ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0nGIcxSt5ToGbAcs0dmua2?si=3328d0411f194865 + Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oak-grove-umc-podcast/id1695962000 — Sunday Worship: 8:30 & 11am* Traditional Worship and 1045am* Modern Worship.*livestreamed at YouTube.com/ogumc #newyear #methodism #umc #ogumc

METHODISM Podcast Episode 1: IT'S ALL ABOUT GRACEIn this first episode of the Methodism Podcast we'll hear Pastor Beth's sermon on how Methodism is All About God's Grace.You can listen, watch, & subscribe to the Podcast on:+ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@OGUMC/podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠+ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0nGIcxSt5ToGbAcs0dmua2?si=3328d0411f194865 + Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oak-grove-umc-podcast/id1695962000 — Sunday Worship: 8:30 & 11am* Traditional Worship and 1045am* Modern Worship.*livestreamed at YouTube.com/ogumc #newyear #methodism #umc #ogumc

A continuing force for good.

This bonus episode of the Podcast is on the Covenant Prayer used by John Wesley, Methodism's founder. Retired Bishop Larry Goodpaster leads us in a conversation about this classic prayer which challenges us to surrender to God's will and continue to seek to live a faithful Christian life. John Wesley and the people called Methodists used this prayer both then and now as a way to help us to focus on the New Year ahead of us and on our relationship with God.A special thanks to Bishop Goodpaster and we hope that you'll join in for worship at Oak Grove in 2026 as we begin a new series called “Methodism: This is the Way,” which will focus on the core teachings of the Methodist faith. You can find a modern translation of the Wesley Covenant Prayer here: https://www.ngumc.org/covenant-prayerYou can listen, watch, & subscribe to the Podcast on:+ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@OGUMC/podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠+ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0nGIcxSt5ToGbAcs0dmua2?si=3328d0411f194865 + Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oak-grove-umc-podcast/id1695962000 — Sunday Worship: 8:30 & 11am* Traditional Worship and 1045am* Modern Worship.*livestreamed at YouTube.com/ogumc #newyear #newyearseve #umc #ogumc #covenantprayer

Christopher Hill was one of the leading historians of his generation. His work across more than 15 books and dozens of articles fundamentally rewrote the way we understand the English Revolution and the development of the modern British state. While his career brought many of the trappings of establishment respectability – he was both a Fellow of the British Academy and the Master of Balliol College, Oxford - he was also seen as a threat to that very same establishment. Under surveillance by the security services for decades, in the 1980s Hill was publicly accused of having been a Soviet agent during the war. His was a Cold War life, as well as a scholarly one.In this brilliant work of biography Christopher Hill: The Life of a Radical Historian (Verso Books, 2025), Michael Braddick charts Hill's development from his abandonment of the respectable provincial Methodism of his youth, through his embrace of Marxism, his membership and eventual break with the Communist Party, as well as his celebrated intellectual career. While many of his books - not least the thrilling work of historical resurrection, The World Turned Upside Down, and God's Englishman, his classic biography of Oliver Cromwell - are still widely read and admired, his intellectual reputation was damaged by sustained academic criticism in the politically-charged atmosphere of the 1980s.Braddick's judicious biography not only situates Hill's life and work in their historical context but seeks to rescue Hill for a new generation of readers. Mike Braddick is a Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. Lucas Tse is an Examination Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Christopher Hill was one of the leading historians of his generation. His work across more than 15 books and dozens of articles fundamentally rewrote the way we understand the English Revolution and the development of the modern British state. While his career brought many of the trappings of establishment respectability – he was both a Fellow of the British Academy and the Master of Balliol College, Oxford - he was also seen as a threat to that very same establishment. Under surveillance by the security services for decades, in the 1980s Hill was publicly accused of having been a Soviet agent during the war. His was a Cold War life, as well as a scholarly one.In this brilliant work of biography Christopher Hill: The Life of a Radical Historian (Verso Books, 2025), Michael Braddick charts Hill's development from his abandonment of the respectable provincial Methodism of his youth, through his embrace of Marxism, his membership and eventual break with the Communist Party, as well as his celebrated intellectual career. While many of his books - not least the thrilling work of historical resurrection, The World Turned Upside Down, and God's Englishman, his classic biography of Oliver Cromwell - are still widely read and admired, his intellectual reputation was damaged by sustained academic criticism in the politically-charged atmosphere of the 1980s.Braddick's judicious biography not only situates Hill's life and work in their historical context but seeks to rescue Hill for a new generation of readers. Mike Braddick is a Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. Lucas Tse is an Examination Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Christopher Hill was one of the leading historians of his generation. His work across more than 15 books and dozens of articles fundamentally rewrote the way we understand the English Revolution and the development of the modern British state. While his career brought many of the trappings of establishment respectability – he was both a Fellow of the British Academy and the Master of Balliol College, Oxford - he was also seen as a threat to that very same establishment. Under surveillance by the security services for decades, in the 1980s Hill was publicly accused of having been a Soviet agent during the war. His was a Cold War life, as well as a scholarly one.In this brilliant work of biography Christopher Hill: The Life of a Radical Historian (Verso Books, 2025), Michael Braddick charts Hill's development from his abandonment of the respectable provincial Methodism of his youth, through his embrace of Marxism, his membership and eventual break with the Communist Party, as well as his celebrated intellectual career. While many of his books - not least the thrilling work of historical resurrection, The World Turned Upside Down, and God's Englishman, his classic biography of Oliver Cromwell - are still widely read and admired, his intellectual reputation was damaged by sustained academic criticism in the politically-charged atmosphere of the 1980s.Braddick's judicious biography not only situates Hill's life and work in their historical context but seeks to rescue Hill for a new generation of readers. Mike Braddick is a Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. Lucas Tse is an Examination Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

In this episode, we look at the fall of 1739 and the different questions of ministry that John Wesley is asking and answering. This was a fecund time for Methodism with the beginning of the General Rules and the first hints at conferencing taking place.Please give us a rating and review wherever you get your podcasts.You can find us online at www.historyofmethodism.com.You can support us online at patreon.com/historyofmethodism. 

In the 1700s, Delaware witnessed powerful movements that shaped American Christianity. Today, Stephen Nichols continues exploring this colony's church history, from George Whitefield's Great Awakening preaching to the rise of Methodism. Read the transcript: https://ligonier.org/podcasts/5-minutes-in-church-history-with-stephen-nichols/a-little-church-history-of-a-middle-colony-the-first-great-awakening/ A donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Donate: https://donate.ligonier.org/ Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

On Today's Podcast - Learn how Methodism became a worldwide mission.It is broadly understood that John Wesley was the founder of the Methodist movement that spread around the world in the eighteenth century. He is known for being a missionary in Georgia, his “heart-warming” experience at Aldersgate, field preaching, and the famous quote “the world is my parish.” It is also assumed that Wesley was a proponent of world missions and helped spread the Methodist movement around the world. Phillip examines this assumption and, after a closer look, reveals John Wesley's reluctance to send missionaries overseas. This was a fascinating discussion that I think gives nuance to the way we think about the history of world missions. 

Not very long ago, a British scholar named Bebbington worked to give a definition of the history of British Evangelicalism. But there was one phrase in his formulation that was interesting: social reform. So, should “social reform” occupy a spot of primacy in believers' lives? Join Kevin as we dive into the question of whether 21st-century Evangelicals are truly evangelical! // Download this episode's Application & Action questions and PDF transcript at whitestone.org.

Patrick tackles everything from spouses nodding off at Mass to pressing questions about mixed-faith relationships and finding trustworthy news for Catholic classrooms, all with real listener calls and a dash of humor. He doesn’t shy away from controversy either, one caller presses him on whether celebrating violence online should mean losing your job, prompting Patrick to challenge listeners on character, consequences, and genuine Christian witness. What emerges is a fast-moving blend of everyday Catholic struggles and tough conversations, always anchored in faith and real-life experience. Rosy (email) – How can I help my husband from falling asleep at Mass? (00:55) Crella (email) – How do I talk to someone who refuses to renounce Methodism, and even tries to convince me that the Holy Eucharist is not the real blood and body of Jesus Christ, but just a symbol? (06:44) Katie - Do you have any alternatives to CNN10 that can be played in Catholic schools. The teacher plays it in one of my kid's classes. (14:14) Mary Anne (email) – People should not be fired for celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk. (22:17) Emma - My sister told me she is going to a Protestant service with her friends. Do you have any advice on what I can say to warn her about this? (31:18) Bridget (email) - Patrick, if you needed surgery and the best surgeon is happy about ANYBODY'S death and so is the second-best surgeon and so is the third best......would you take the fourth best? I don't think I would. (37:11) Richard (email) - How might a faithful Catholic respond to this 'religious hero' worship? (40:11) Calvin - Falling asleep during the homily. Sitting more towards the edge of the bench instead of leaning back on the pew has helped me. (47:27) Audio: Scott Jennings – I’m not losing any sleep over the people being fired for celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death (49:10)

What is the impact of historical research on our faith? Dr. Christopher Jones examines Brother James Covel's life and choices and how his life inspires belief in grace and a message of hope.SHOW NOTES/TRANSCRIPTSEnglish: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC217ENFrench: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC217FRGerman: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC217DEPortuguese: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC217PTSpanish: https://tinyurl.com/podcastDC217ESYOUTUBEhttps://youtu.be/ty4CrredNj0ALL EPISODES/SHOW NOTESfollowHIM website: https://www.followHIMpodcast.comFREE PDF DOWNLOADS OF followHIM QUOTE BOOKSNew Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastNTBookOld Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastOTBookWEEKLY NEWSLETTERhttps://tinyurl.com/followHIMnewsletterSOCIAL MEDIAInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followHIMpodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastTIMECODE00:00 - Part 1 - Dr. Christopher Jones01:45 Dr. Jones previews this episode03:10 Dr. Jones's bio05:01 Becoming a Historian10:06 Four missionaries and an important conversion16:10 Three branches transplanted to Ohio18:43 D&C 38:32 The Lord alleviates fear21:15 Insights from the Apostles22:07 James Covill/Covel26:17 Changing our opinion of James Covel27:18 Backgrounds of D&C 37 and D&C 38 28:18 D&C 37:1-4 - Gather to the Ohio29:45 D&C 38:1-3, 32 God reassures and promises an endowment35:25 A conference at Fayette37:21 What we had wrong about James Covel46:35 What is Antebellum? And more Covel discoveries51:45 Why Methodist vs. Baptist matters for James Covel53:23 D&C 38:26 - A parable and baptism debates57:19 Methodism experiences changes1:00:37 Final words to James Covel1:04:51 Comfort for those that have left the fold1:06:56 The end of James Covel's earthly story1:09:04 Application of James Covel's story01:12:23  - End of Part I - Dr. Christopher JonesThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Cofounder, Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsAmelia Kabwika: Portuguese TranscriptsHeather Barlow: Communications Director"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com