Billy Idol Gets It

Friday afternoon a few of us with the church plant went to Jude’s house for lunch. We enjoyed hanging out with Jude and learned more about his story. We asked him to come to Friday night dinner and he said that he would. As we were in the middle of conversation we heard a knock at the door. Jude asked the person to come in. It was a sharp-dressed black man in a suit. Jude told him he was with friends and to come by later. Jude turns to us and says that this guy always comes by unannounced despite Jude asking him to call before he comes over. I asked Jude who the man was and he said it was a Jehovah’s Witness. I looked over at Brady and winked because I was telling him the other day how we can learn from JW and Mormons. Major cults as Mormonism, the Jehovah’s Witness, and some New Age groups have been “busting at the seams” when it comes to growth. U.S. News and World Report recorded the following:

“Today the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormon Church, is one of the world’s richest and fastest-growing religious movements. Since World War II, its ranks have quadrupled to more than 8.3 members worldwide. With 4.5 million U.S. members, Mormonism already outnumbers Presbyterians and Episcopalians combined. If current trends hold, by some estimates they will number 250 million worldwide by 2080 and surpass all but the Roman Catholic Church among Christian bodies.”

Part of the reason for this growth is they still believe in visiting from house to house. The scary thing is that before there were Mormons and Jehovah’s Witness, there was Methodism! So what’s my point? My point is that before one could be ordained as a Methodist minister they would have to answer some tough questions. In paragraph 336 of the Discipline there is a section on the Historic Examination for Admission into Full Connection. There are nineteen questions asked by the bishop to those that are seeking ordination in an annual conference. These questions are to be engaged in a prayerful manner before being answered by the men or women. However I find it interesting that something as historic as these questions can be reduced by some bishops as only a ritual and not normative for the society we live in today. I believe these questions are not ritual but something that must be committed to by every person who vows to carry them out. Question 15 is “will you visit from house to house?” I think we need to return to something that has received criticism and be willing to do what others are not willing to do. It may look different depending on the context and setting but there is something about it that’s still effective.