During the 1720s, John Wesley began his quest to understand biblical holiness theologically and to experience it personally. Over the following decades, he preached and wrote about sanctification, carefully refining his grasp of the subject. This long-term investigation led him to study Scripture, reason, experience, and the Christian tradition. Then, in 1766, he published A Plain Account of Christian Perfection. That book went through several revisions and expansions, and in 1777, he issued his final edition of this work. Wesley's Plain Account of Christian Perfection became a Christian classic that now stands in the company of such devotional works as Thomas a Kempis's Imitation of Christ, William Law's Serious Call to a Devout Holy Life, Richard Baxter's The Reformed Pastor, and Jeremy Taylor's Holy Living and Holy Dying. This edition of the Plain Account is a transcription provided by one of the leading Wesley scholars in the world.

This ethics of preaching text identifies vices of irresponsible preaching practices. Preachers who fail to develop deep respect for their listeners or drift into a lack faithfulness to the Gospel can end up becoming: . The Pretender (The Problem of In-authenticity) . The Egoist (The Problem of Self-absorption) . The Manipulator (The Problem of Greediness) . The Panderer (The Problem of Trendiness) . The Crusader (The Problem of Exploitation) . The Demagogue (The Problem of Self-righteousness) Just as the church historically derived its Seven Holy Virtues (chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness, & humility) by naming Seven Deadly Sins (lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, & pride), Reid and Hogan call preachers to turn away from pulpit vices and strive to realize the homiletic virtues of becoming: . Authentic (The Call to Be Genuine) . Altruistic (The Call to Be Selfless) . Careful (The Call to Exercise Self-Control) . Passionate (The Call to Be Honest to God) . Courteous (The Call to Woo a Reasoned Reception) . A Namer of God (The Call to Reveal an Ineffable God) The Six Deadly Sins of Preaching explores the difference between the irresponsible practices, unfortunate missteps, and mere unthinking mistakes in preaching. A chapter is devoted to Preaching Missteps (problems that do not rise to the level of being irresponsible) that includes: . Short Changing the Process . Waving a Red Flag . Thou Shall Not Bore the Congregation . Through the Looking Glass Darkly . The Mumbler . TMI Too Much Information . Your Cup Do Runneth Over . Where s This Sermon Going, Anyway?"

The first of three theological volumes, this volume is devoted tofour of John Wesley's foundational treatises on soteriology. These treatises include, first, Wesley s extract from the Homilies of the Church of England, which he published to convince his fellow Anglican clergy that the evangelical emphasis on believers experiencing a conscious assurance of God s pardoning love was consistent with this standard of Anglican doctrine. Next comes Wesley s extract of Richard Baxter s Aphorisms of Justification, aimed more at those who shared his evangelical emphasis, invoking this honored moderate Puritan to challenge antinomian conceptions of the doctrine of justification by faith. This is followed by Wesley s abridgement of the Shorter Catechism issued by the Westminster Assembly in his Christian Library, where he affirms broad areas of agreement with this standard of Reformed doctrine while quietly removing items with which he disagreed. The fourth item is Wesley s extended response to the Dissenter John Taylor on the doctrine of original sin, which highlights differences within the broad Arminian camp, with Wesley resisting a drift toward naively optimistic views of human nature that he discerned in Taylor. "

Few would argue that many challenges face The United Methodist Church. But what are the core issues and concerns, the ones that must be addressed if the church is to follow God s leading into the future? Laying aside what can be merely tweaked or adjusted, what must the UMC reset about itself? Lovett Weems, one of the most highly-respected interpreters of contemporary United Methodism, suggests that we start with the following: - What will happen now that the increased giving that United Methodists have enjoyed (despite declining membership numbers) has reached a plateau and begun to decline? - Why, with 34,000 congregations and $6.5 billion in annual giving, can t United Methodists add a net increase of even 1 new disciple of Jesus Christ in a given year? - Why are United Methodist clergy less concerned with reaching young adults than are laity? Why are laity unwilling to make the changes to worship and budgets required to attract these same young adults? - If the percentage of married couples with young children has declined by half since the 1950s, why is that still the group we focus on reaching? - Why are so many mid-sized churches on their way to becoming small-membership congregations? With insight, conviction, and calm resolve, Lovett Weems challenges United Methodists not only to ask these hard questions, but to face up to the difficult decisions they require of us as we continue to seek God s will for our lives together. "

On February 2, 2006, two intrepid women set off from Portland, Oregon via Greyhound bus for Limon, Colon, Honduras. There they would establish a new thing, a small monastery and medical mission using sustainable living, voluntary poverty, and religious practice as nuns following Methodist and Quaker traditions of worship and governance. Soon La Doctora, Pediatrician Beth Blodgett, and La muchacha, her assistant, Prairie Naoma Cutting, would be deeply involved helping in nearby clinics. Reading like a frontier women's story, this adventure (still continuing in 2010) has fire, hurricanes, and a robbery as well as other exciting accounts. These gringas become, by the close of the collection of letters home, true hermanas, religious sisters to the neighbors in their rural community. Now professed nuns, they invite other courageous women to join them in a life of service.

In this four-session study guide to the film "Wesley: A Heart Transformed Can Change the World" written by expert Dr. Kenneth C. Kinghorn, see how John Wesley changed the world and became the spiritual leader for millions. With a screenplay adapted directly from the journals of John Wesley, the film faithfully portrays the formative years of Wesley s ministry, from the Epworth rectory fire in his childhood, to his disastrous mission and romance in colonial Georgia, and to his pivotal heart-warming experience in London. Perfect for small groups or individual study, each session includes prayers, study questions, and background information about Wesley's life and times. "

In Ordained Ministry in The United Methodist Church, author William B. Lawrence gives us a gift in this history of ordination in the Methodist tradition. From our beginnings, ordination has always been about the community. The community confirms one's call, helps him/her make decisions about preparation for ministry, and shares in the supervision and ongoing evaluation of the ordained. Ordination is a communal affirmation for the common good. Dr. Lawrence challenges us to look outside the church to the needs of the whole world as we make decisions about who will be ordained and how they will live out ordination.

Distancing himself from liberals and conservatives but also pointing to the uselessness of a middle way, Rieger explores the theology of grace in situations of human pressure. Following John Wesley in his move to consider the 'works of mercy' as part of the means of grace, the author proposes to us a relational concept of grace that will prosper in dialogue and solidarity with those in distress, the oppressed 'other' who make present the gracious 'Other.'

This is the official history of Asbury Theological Seminary, beginning with its founder, Henry Clay Morrison, who established the seminary in 1923. It continues to the present president, Timothy Tennant. This history is written by one of the retired faculty members who is Professor of Church History and Historical Theology, Emeritus.He was authorized by the seminary administration to write a faithful and accurate account of the seminary's history.

In this concise, accessible book, Dr. Ted Campbell provides a brief summary of the major doctrines shared in the Wesley family of denominations. Writing in concise and straightforward language, Campbell organizes the material into systematic categories: doctrine of revelation, doctrine of God, doctrine of Christ, doctrine of the Spirit, doctrine of humanity, doctrine of "the way of salvation" (conversion/justification/sanctification), doctrine of the church and means of grace, and doctrine of thing to come. He also supplies substantial but simplified updated references in the margins of the book that allow for easy identification of his sources. John Wesley distinguished between essential doctrines on which agreement or consensus is critical and opinions about theology or church practices on which disagreement must be allowed. Though today few people join churches based on doctrinal commitments, once a person has joined a church it becomes important to know the teachings of that church's tradition. In Methodist Doctrine: The Essentials, Ted Campbell outlines historical doctrinal consensus in American Episcopal Methodist Churches in a comparative and ecumenical dialogue with the doctrinal inheritance of other major families of Christian tradition. In this way, the book shows both what Methodist churches historically teach in common with ecumenical Christianity and what is distinctive about the Methodist tradition in its various contemporary forms. For more information, please see the author's website: http: //tedcampbell.com/methodist-doctrine/

Georgia Harkness (1891-1974) was a Methodist theologian and the first American woman to teach theology at the seminary level. A leader in the ecumenical movement, Harkness strove to make theology accessible to the laity.

This book is a compilation of writing from early in her career that appeared in publications such as "The Christian Century, Religion in Life, "and "Christendom." Although her theology shifted somewhat during these years, Harkness held fast to her belief that liberal theology would remain "the basic American theology," a prediction that was out of step in the 1930s but is growing more credible today.

The Library of Theological Ethics series focuses on what it means to think theologically and ethically. It presents a selection of important and otherwise unavailable texts in easily accessible form. Volumes in this series will enable sustained dialogue with predecessors through reflection on classic works in the field.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

This is an introduction to the Methodist way and method of doing theology. This book is written to capture the imagination and engage the reader in conversation. Methodism is not a doctrinaire society, yet it is clear about what it believes. Methodists confidently develop their theology through conversation with the world of secular knowledge, with other Christian traditions and other religious faiths, drawing on contemporary biblical scholarship and with careful attention to the Christian tradition. Methodism is serious about worship, public and personal, since it wants to celebrate the reality of God's presence with God's people - that is, as Methodists understand it, with all God's people. Methodist theology is grounded in the grace of God that it proclaims to be free for all. Methodist theology is essentially Christological; it puts Christ at the centre of faith, but therefore, (not 'as well'!) is focused on God, the Holy Trinity. Methodism is one Society and is keen to draw others into its fellowship. Hence the Methodist Church does not have missionary societies; it is, properly understood, a Society organised for mission. "Doing Theology" introduces the major Christian traditions and their way of theological reflection. The volumes focus on the origins of a particular theological tradition, its foundations, key concepts, eminent thinkers and historical development. The series is aimed readers who want to learn more about their own theological heritage and identity: theology undergraduates, students in ministerial training and church study groups.

The Methodist Societies: The Minutes of Conference reproduces the Minutes as a formal record andconveys the nature and role of the Conference in Methodist life and polity during John Wesley's time. Included is information from letters and diaries of preachers as well as from John Wesley, some of which is newly published here. This material highlights some of the problems that arose in the meetings themselves, which in Wesley's eyes was merely summoned to advise him but, in his later years, almost imperceptibly became more of a legislative and ruling body, increasingly preoccupied with what would happen after Wesley's death.Despite the breadth of this volume, the American Minutes are not included, partly because they were in no sense Wesley's own work and partly because they could not be, at present, edited to the required standard. The Irish Minutes are included in an appendix."

This is the official history of Asbury Theological Seminary, beginning with its founder, Henry Clay Morrison, who established the seminary in 1923. It continues to the present president, Timothy Tennant. This history is written by one of the retired faculty members who is Professor of Church History and Historical Theology, Emeritus.He was authorized by the seminary administration to write a faithful and accurate account of the seminary's history.

1876. Chiefly Written by Themselves. In Six Volumes. This edition contains Volumes Three and Four. A compilation of biographies of eminent Methodist preachers. These men were trained in the belief and practice of the strictest churchmanship; so that they would have thought it a sin to deviate from the rubric, to conduct public worship in an unconsecrated place, or to countenance the ministrations of a man on whose head the hands of a prelate had never been laid. Yet these very men were so controlled by the providence and grace of God, as to be a means of introducing, and that upon an extensive scale, a freedom of religious action, such as had scarcely been witnessed in any country since the apostolic age. Contents of Volume Three: Life and Death of Thomas Walsh; Life of John Murlin; Life of John Mason. Contents of Volume Four: Life of John Pawson; Life of Sampson Staniforth; Life of Thomas Lee; Life of John Prickard; Life of Jonathan Maskew; Life of Matthias Joyce; and Life of James Rogers. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. Other volumes in this set are ISBN(s): 1417947403, 141794742X.

This is an in-depth analysis of the malaise of contemporary Western civilization, based upon its modern and post modern ideological and philosophical underpinnings. And, from that grounding, it is a study that proceeds to offer a cogent diagnosis of an (if not the) intellectual problem lying at its epicenter.The author identifies that challenge as the demise of a concern for ontology amid a preoccupation with epistemology which, as he demonstrates, characterizes the philosophical consensus dominating that civilization, particularly since the Enlightenment. The author sets forth as a valuable resource for remedying that dilemma an Eastern ascetic theologian, who is shown to provide resource for rethinking a theology of mission for the present day, viewed within the parameters of the theology of John Wesley. Bellini's work addresses all of the above, and does so within the framework of recovering the apostolic concept of participation in Christ, from the standpoint of what he calls a Radical Orthodoxy perspective. In short, this is a study that does not stop with a cogent cultural evaluation and critique, but also offers a prescriptive response. He finds in Maximus the Confessor a "participatory view of ontology, in continuity with a Christological ontology of participation," which has special relevance for the global Christianity of the twenty first century. Following Maximus, as well as Wesley's prevenient grace, Bellini champions a worldview that discerns within every culture some "point of similarity" or contact, "however vague, wounded or fallen," with the universal witness of the Holy Spirit.

1878. Volume II of III. Stevens was an American editor, historian and Methodist Episcopal clergyman. He suffered the trials of poverty and hard work in childhood and early on he was converted and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. He began to preach when a mere youth, and before he was twenty-one years of age was regarded as a prodigy of eloquence. He opened the vein of American Methodistic history, and gave a long series of historical articles, which afterward appeared in the form of books, and, indeed, entered upon the investigations which produced his History of Methodism, one of the ablest and best-known works of its class. This volume covers from the Death of Whitefield to the Death of Wesley. In his preface Stevens writes: The present volume concludes the most important part of my task-The Life and Times of Wesley. It was promised in the preface to the first volume that this would should be the fullest Life and Times of the great Methodist Founder yet published; the reader must judge of the spirit and style with which the promise has been fulfilled; but I have hope that he will acquit it of presumption, so far as the extent of research and of details is concerned. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. Volume 1 ISBN 0766196194, Volume 3 ISBN 0766196216.

1878. Volume III of III. Stevens was an American editor, historian and Methodist Episcopal clergyman. He suffered the trials of poverty and hard work in childhood and early on he was converted and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. He began to preach when a mere youth, and before he was twenty-one years of age was regarded as a prodigy of eloquence. He opened the vein of American Methodistic history, and gave a long series of historical articles, which afterward appeared in the form of books, and, indeed, entered upon the investigations which produced his History of Methodism, one of the ablest and best-known works of its class. This volume covers from the Death of Wesley to Centenary Jubilee of Methodism. In his preface Stevens writes: This volume concludes my task-The History of the Religious Movement of the Eighteenth Century called Methodism, considered in its different Denominational Forms and its Relations to British and American Protestantism. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. Volume 1 ISBN 0766196194, Volume 2 ISBN 0766196208.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

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This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!