So last week Sunday Pastor Jim was out of town and asked me to lead the New Member's Class (Connections 101) in his place. I was to cover some church history highlights from Martin Luther to John Wesley as well as cover personal growth and holiness. Whew! And I was to do it all in 90 minutes or less!
We launched the evening off with a game I like to call, "Name that Theologian." I created a game where the group was spit in to two teams and they worked together to see which theologian said or did what. The four theologians I chose for the game were Martin Luther, Jacob Arminius, John Calvin, and John Wesley. The game took longer than I anticipated, but it was a learning experience for all. I realized during this time that not many normal "church goers" know much (if anything) about 'heavy hitting' theologians, particularly Arminius. However, they were appreciative of the time we took to play the game because they did learn some things about who these men were and how they have shaped Christianity and Christian thought today.
One of the interesting things that happened during our time together was that the game served as a launching pad to talk about doctrinal differences between the Wesleyan Church and the Reformed Church. We are a Wesleyan Church in the middle of "Reformed" country where there are too many Reformed or Christian Reformed Churches to count. We have many people in our church who have left the Reformed denomination for various reasons and now they have found themselves in a new "theological camp." Needless to say, we never made it to Christian growth or holiness because we spent the rest of our time comparing Calvin to Arminius and Wesley, specifically what each camp says regarding the acronym, TULIP.
T = Total Depravity;
U = Unconditional Election;
L = Limited Atonement;
I = Irresistible Grace;
P = Perseverance of the Saints
To close this entry, I'll just say that generally speaking Wesleyans and Reformed agree on total depravity and perseverance of the saints. The points of contention and differing interpretations of Scripture are over the U,L, and I. In my next entry, I will take these doctrinal statements one at a time and really briefly compare the Wesleyan and Reformed views. Peace.
