John Wesley

Deep Breath

/ Jason Hyer / Leave a comment

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Ahhhhhhhhh. Deep breath… relax.

That’s the feeling I have right now though that is not me in this photograph. It’s surprisingly hard to find a picture of a man taking a deep breath. (I wonder if that’s because we so rarely do it.)

I’ve just finished with my January term class, TH601 – The Theology of John Wesley taught by Dr. Kenneth Collins. For those of you who do not know, John Wesley was an ordained Anglican Priest, who is credited with founding “Methodism.” Though you should also know that he was vehemently opposed to the Methodists splitting apart from the Church of England to form their denomination (the Methodists would wait until a few days after his death to make that jump).

This class was a new breed of learning for me; it is aptly named “intensive.” The format is one week of lectures on campus, one week of prep for the mid-term exam, and then one week of prep for the final exam. The mid-term was just two questions while the final was only one. My mid-term answers were seven pages long, and my final was four (still waiting for grades to be posted for the final). Interspersed through all of the lectures and exam questions was the required reading. This required reading consisted of four books all written by Dr. Collins, as well as 49 Wesley sermons.

Oh, and did I mention the class assignment? It was outlining 16 of Wesley’s sermons. Sounds easy right? Yeah…about that. John Wesley lived for most of the 1700’s. His writings are appropriately 18th century English. Our assignment was to summarize each paragraph of each sermon and put it into our words, in modern English, naturally. I finished my assignment with just a few hours to spare, and it was 11,000 words covering 43 pages (single spaced).

I am seriously considering not taking an intensive next January!

The good news is that this class, while an incredible experience, is now behind me. I have the next eleven days to take a few deep breaths and relax. I’m already getting antsy, though. I keep eyeing my syllabi of the three classes I’m taking for the Spring semester that starts February 8th. I can’t help but think I’m missing a great opportunity to work ahead on those class assignments…

Reflections from the class:

Wesley was a wreck in his early life. Theologically his beliefs were all over the place. He would get started down a particular path of thought, following in the teachings of Luther, a’ Kempis, the Moravians, and many others, only to reverse course after discovering the truths as he saw them contained in Scripture. In his early life he was a Christian in word and deed, but not in his heart, and not from a place of love.

That all changed for him one evening at Aldersgate in England. That night Wesley would experience his profound conversion experience and set off down a path that led to his theological ordo salutis… his order of salvation. This doctrine of salvation would serve as the basis and framework for the group called “Methodist.” In this order is spelled out; how to seek one’s salvation from sin, how to seek one’s freedom from the bondage of sin, how to become liberated in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, and how to become entirely sanctified (holy).

We Methodist don’t hear much about John Wesley’s theology in our churches now. We’ve drifted far from where he wanted us to be. That being said, we do some of the things he wanted us to be doing well… we feed the hungry, help the poor, and clothe the naked. But despite the politics, despite the press, despite the views of some of our leaders, we must get back to Wesley’s message… correction… the Gospel’s message… of the reconciling power of Jesus Christ.

In his early years, John Wesley was thrown out of nearly every church, he preached in. He was thrown out because he questioned the direction of his church. He was thrown out for confronting the hypocrisy he saw coming from the pulpit and the people. He faced those people he regarded as marginal Christians, those Christians that went to church every Sunday out of habit than out of an act of love and worship. He did this not to be a jerk, or because he thought he was better than others. He did this out of love. He didn’t want people to be content where they were, with the little they were doing. He called others to grow in their holiness to glorify God.

And when he was thrown out, when he was persecuted, God blessed him. He noted in his memoirs of those early days that when he started preaching on the atoning blood of Christ, and that Christ was the only way to salvation, the Spirit blessed, and the people came. The very first time he stepped up on a tree stump, the very first time he did “field preaching”, three thousand people showed up.

What do we do to revitalize and bring people to our churches of any denomination?

We preach about Jesus Christ. With every breath, we sing his praises. With every word we push people to be more than they are at this moment, but more humble than they were yesterday.

Jesus Christ is the source of this power. Jesus Christ is the source of this love.

Following Wesley’s conversion, he never waivered from his overriding theme of Holy Love and Sola Fide (Faith Alone)… that being it is only through the utterly free grace of God, and our faith in him, that we are saved. It is God’s love for us, and not our works that will provide our salvation, our “new birth” as a child of God, freed from the Spirit of bondage and liberated in the Spirit of adoption.

God is Love.

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3 NKJV)

 

 

 

First Day of Seminary… New Student Orientation

/ Jason Hyer / Leave a comment

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Having just returned from my two days of new student orientation at Asbury Theological Seminary, I couldn’t wait to document my observations, jot down my thoughts, and detail the impressions I had of this amazing higher learning institution.  By the way, the guy in the photo above (not the hairy one, but the short guy that can hold incredibly still) is John Wesley.  If you don’t know who he is, give him a Google.

If I had to describe the past two days in a single word it would be “Amazing!”.  If I was allowed more than a single word I would say “incredible, affirming, energizing, awe-inspiring, humbling, and… amazing (wait did I use that one already?)”.  I’ve already described this experience to some friends and family in this way…  This is the first time I have sat in a room with 200 people and didn’t feel like the “weirdo.”

Allow me to explain:

As a Christian in today’s world, we are the weird ones.  It’s okay.  In fact, Jesus tells us not to conform to the ways of the world.  He wants us to be the weird ones… the different ones… so that we are an example to the world of his love.  Normal today is not love.  Normal today is not sacrificing for others.  Normal today is not peace.

For the last two days, I have been surrounded by other weirdos, and it was glorious!  I was surrounded by others that have been called by God to be in a relationship with him, have honored that call, and answered Jesus’s words of “Follow me.”   For a brief moment in time, I felt like part of an army… God’s army.  I wasn’t the lone scout sneaking around the enemy lines; I was in formation with brigades of troops following God’s orders.  That experience is incredibly affirming and left me with a supreme feeling of peace and contentment.

This experience also exposed, and revealed to me, that the seminary experience is more than just classrooms, lectures, and paper writing.  It is more than just acquiring knowledge.  It is more than just becoming a scholar.  It is more than learning how to preach.  The time at seminary is about God transforming you and your family into a well-equipped example of God’s love and power that he will then use to go out into the world and do his work.

Asbury Seminary is made up of buildings, classrooms, chapels, libraries, community centers, student housing, and statues of really short people, but most importantly it contains fantastic people.  These amazing people are professors, administrators, registrars, executives, student leaders, and the support staff required to make it all run.  Every last one of them is dedicated to equipping tomorrow’s leaders.  Every last one of them is following God’s call in their life… the call to equip others to go into every corner of the world and spread His love.  And they were doing it all from an incredible place of humility.  Dr. Tennent (Asbury’s President), and his wife were kind enough to open their beautiful home to us for dinner. Yesterday I sat at lunch with three professors that are some of the top minds in theology.  They all took the time to eat and fellowship with me, sharing their call, their drive, and their passion, while also listening to my testimony and the story of how God is working in my life.

The Asbury community is amazing as well.  As I walked around the student housing, I saw children doing something I haven’t seen in many years.  They were outside playing.  They were riding their bikes, playing stick-ball, running through fields, and being in relationship with each other.  As I sat on the front porch of a friend’s apartment in Kalas Village, people walking would stop, introduce themselves, and carry on a conversation with you.

I see why people come then never want to leave.  I fear that my family will miss out on this sense of community as I take my classes online from afar.

I owe so many people thanks for providing us with this opportunity.  I am overwhelmed by your love and confidence in us as we live out God’s plan for our lives.  I thank the Lord for each of you and the part you play in his plan for us.  I thank the Lord for being with me (and all of you).  I thank him for making all things possible even when they seem overwhelming and completely impossible.

Me… in grad school?  The guy that just wanted to get through high school so he could run off to the army?  The guy that’s never been to college?  I mean come on… that is all God!

I also thank the staff and faculty of Asbury Theological Seminary.  Your hard work.  Your dedication.  Your long hours.  Your time away from family and friends… they are all making a difference.  Your efforts are making a difference in the lives of students.  Your efforts are making a difference in the world.  Your efforts are being blessed by our Lord and Savior.

I am poised to throw down my net.  My muscles are tensed.  My grip is tight.  I stare out into the ocean prepared to abandon my comfortable way of life.  Please pray for me.  Pray that I will have the courage of Peter and Andrew.  Pray that I will lay it all down.

18 Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”20 Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.…  Matthew 4:18-20

God gets out his 2×4… from spiritual whisper to a smack up side the head.

/ Jason Hyer / 2 Comments

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Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
  — Acts 2:17

I’ve often struggled with discerning God’s call in my life, as I’m sure many of you have experienced as well.  Since I’m so close to the issues, and because I’m human, I tend to put too much of my feelings, wants, and desires into the situation.  I’ve remarked many times that if God is going to call me into full-time pastoral ministry he is going to have to smack me in the head with a 2×4. At times I’ve felt the call into ministry only to eventually talk myself out of it.  Convincing myself that what I was feeling wasn’t really “The Call”, but merely a moment of spiritual high.  These…. let’s call them “spiritual whispers” … were often following a very uplifting event in my life.  Often times following a Sunday in which I preached a message, lead a mission trip or outreach event, I would go to my pastor and excitedly tell him, “I’m ready, put me in Coach!”.  He would give me that “look”.  I’m sure you’ve seen that look… you know the one…he grins, but on the inside he’s thinking “son, you have no idea what you’re saying”.  I’ve gotten that look many times over the last six years.

This time was different.  This time there was no doubt what God was telling me to do.  This time there weren’t any murky “signs” to decipher or discern.  This time there weren’t even any feelings involved.  This time God called me by name… literally.

Please allow me to explain.

On March 8th I was given the opportunity to preach at Asbury United Methodist Church in Columbus, Indiana (https://www.facebook.com/asburyumccol?fref=ts&ref=br_tf) in place of the head pastor Dave Blystone (Dave’s Blog) who was traveling in Israel.  Dave mentioned that he would like me to teach on John Wesley’s Prevenient Grace.  I had no idea what prevenient grace was (it’s divine grace that precedes human decision by the way), but I set about learning all I could on what John Wesley had to say about it.  Little did I know at the time, but God was nudging me along a path.

Before I even started preparing this message I stopped, humbled myself, and prayed that God would remove me from the message, that the words I wrote and the words I spoke be his and his alone.  A peace settled over me and I wrote out the entire message word for word in one sitting.  Understand though that there were hours spent researching the many forms of grace our Lord provides.  My time spent preparing messages in the past have always been when I feel closest to God.  It feels like I’m having a two sided conversation with him, rather than just me doing all the talking.  For this message I felt especially close to him.

March 8th quickly was upon me, but there wasn’t the usual nervousness or tension that comes with public speaking.  The people at Asbury UMC were open and welcoming, even allowing me to play my bass guitar with their worship team in second service.  I delivered the same message to both of their services that day (March 8th Sermon) and let me tell you it was both exhausting and exhilarating (for more insight into that read: 10 Things You Forget About Pastors) . Monday morning saw me back in my pastor’s office.  Before I could even finish walking through the door, my pastor fired off the question, “so… ready to go into full-time ministry NOW?”.  (I have a feeling he was expecting the usual “put me in Coach” conversation we have had every other time I’ve preached).  This time…again…was different.  I told him (paraphrasing here) “nope, not this time, it was a great experience, but I’ll stay with what I’m doing”.

Oh how I was in for a shock…

I was just two weeks from the events detailed here: Part One: And it all started in a Captain D’s.

Let’s skip ahead to the end of Part One where I have now had God show up in my life in a very real and physical way (well he was always there, but I wasn’t as open to him as I should have been.. see the definition of prevenient grace again).  God has just revealed to me that he finds me worthy.  Worthy of doing His work and worthy of being used in his plans.  It’s around this time that I come to the realization that it’s time to start paying back this kindness.  It’s time to do more than just float through life accepting all these gifts, but not passing them on to others.

At this point let me point out a couple of things.  I know that I can never repay God.  I know that I do not have his power or ability to even come close to paying the price that Christ paid for us.  So let me describe it this way… it’s time for me to start thanking God in more than just words.

With these thoughts spinning in my mind I went to sleep one night… and I dreamed dreams.

In a dream God came to me as a ball of light too bright to look at directly.  An arm reached out holding a bible that was open, but the words were in a language I could not read.  At this point God spoke and said “Jason, open your bible and read Tithus Chapter 2”.  I instantly woke up, then woke up Jennifer to tell her what had happened.  I’m sure she thought I was crazy as I described this dream to her at 2am.  I reached for my bible turning to the Table of Contents to search out this book of Tithus.  Turns out there isn’t a book of Tithus, but there is a Titus.  While it is technically a “book” of the bible it is less than two pages long (depending on your version).  For those of you that don’t know (as I myself didn’t until I did the research) the book of Titus was written by Paul to encourage a young pastor on the island of Crete.  Here is the contents of chapter 2:

Teach Sound Doctrine

2 But as for you, teach what is consistent with sound doctrine. 2 Tell the older men to be temperate, serious, prudent, and sound in faith, in love, and in endurance.

3 Likewise, tell the older women to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink; they are to teach what is good, 4 so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be self-controlled, chaste, good managers of the household, kind, being submissive to their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited.

6 Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 7 Show yourself in all respects a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, gravity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be censured; then any opponent will be put to shame, having nothing evil to say of us.

9 Tell slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect; they are not to talk back, 10 not to pilfer, but to show complete and perfect fidelity, so that in everything they may be an ornament to the doctrine of God our Savior.

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all,[a] 12 training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior,[b] Jesus Christ. 14 He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.

15 Declare these things; exhort and reprove with all authority.[c] Let no one look down on you.

There it was in verse 1… But as for you, teach what is consistent with sound doctrine.

I’ve often read of others that have had God appear to them in a dream, hear an auditory voice when no one was around, or see a vision.  I never thought I would be blessed with such an event in my life.  I spent the next 48 hours floating around on a spiritual high.  I’ve describe it this way to others… this was my burning bush moment.  It’s moments like these that make me scratch my head at non-believers.  How can one doubt the presence of our Savior?

But again… God wasn’t done yet.  I thought he had hit me upside the head with a 2×4, but it turns out he was just merely winding up his swing.

Next up in PART THREE…God prepares the path.