Someone asks me about once a month if I know who I am. I have been mistaken for various people, including actor Jack Nicholson and a certain character on the TV sitcom Modern Family. You can join my kids laughing about that one. As I think about my personal identity, it dawns on me that our denomination has an identity, as well. So, Wesleyans: Do you know who you are? If someone asks you who are the Wesleyans (not an uncommon question), how would you respond?
We are the bride of Christ. He is our groom. Loving, honoring, and cherishing is our posture to our Lord as he has laid down his life for us. We respect him. We love him. We submit to him knowing he always has our best interest as his priority.
We are image-bearers and messengers of the holy God of heaven. Proclaim and experience salvation, transformation, sanctification—TheWesleyan Church is to be Jesus with skin on! That means we are so full of Jesus that his love, grace, mercy, and justice ooze out of us individually as as a Church in practical ways.
We are to be disciples who make disciples of all nations. Every opportunity in The Wesleyan Church is a discipleship issue. How? We are in the grip of Jesus, following and obeying him. Discipleship should reside in every decision, process, action, and accountability.
We are to be a multiplying movement for the kingdom of Jesus. Every church should grow in one form or another. It may be that we need to grow down deeper first. We definitely need to grow beyond our walls. We need to walk across the room, the street, across town, and across the sea for Jesus.
We need you in The Wesleyan Church for the good of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. We need Spirit-led people. The structure of The Wesleyan Church does not have to remain in any particular form. Yet the message of heart and life holiness that transforms the whole person across the whole world must survive. That is the Wesleyan message. Believe it. Behave like it. Wesleyans, know who you are as you go into all the world for Jesus Christ. Amen!