Why I'm a Methodist

The short answer is: Methodists were always there when I needed a Church or God.

I grew up in a Congregational Church (now a part of the United Church of Christ). When the local congregation started falling apart due to internal issues, I quickly found a neighborhood Methodist Church that I felt comfortable with. Although I fell away from God after high School and through College, it was a Methodist chaplain that married me and my high school sweetheart. I still stayed way from God after that, but when my first daughter was born, it was again a local Methodist Church that baptised her. Still, this was not enough to draw me back to Him. It finally was the trauma of my divorce after over 19 years of marriage that changed my life forever. This time it was Linda who took me to her church one Sunday, a Methodist Church. I have not looked back. My faith was challenged the very first day in an adult Sunday school class: even if it's not there or not strong, act as if you believed.

That Sunday School class was 21 years ago, but I still remember it; I'll probably never forget it. I still worship and serve at that same Methodist Church.

This Sunday, a sermon series on John Wesley began. The three important points from the message helps explain why those many Methodists were there for me when I needed them. These are my versions of those points:

1. Faith is both what you think and feel. I. e., it is in both your Head and Heart.
I have always been more of a rational thinker than a 'feeler'. It took me years before I ever got the Heart thing; it was actually during my Walk to Emmaus when I frist truly experienced God from the inside out. perhaps another time I'll describe that.

2. Methodists organized into Bands, Classes, and Societies. I. e., they are made up of small groups.
It was the Adult Sunday School class that got me started and nurtured me through the early days of coping with a new single life. I've moved on from there, but always in one or more small groups where we encourage and challenge each other to live the life that we are called to be our faith.

3. Not by Faith alone, but by works.
Methodists believe in acts of mercy. We are organized for both ministry and evangelism. This reaching out, both locally and globally is what kept drawing me back to God.

What these beliefs call us to do is:

Worship weekly
Be in a small group
Give of our Time and Treasures

I pray that I can be for others what the Methodists have been for me.