Find more Wesleyan Accent voices from a variety of Wesleyan Methodist denominations at https://www.wesleyanaccent.
Today I’d like to urge you to read Tim Tennent’s excellent blog post published this past week, which you can find here: “Help Is on the Way: A New Wesleyan Network in a Post-Denominational World.”
He has expressed clearly what was in our minds and hearts when my colleagues and I founded the Wesleyan Covenant Network. In January 2014, 125 persons, mostly clergy, came from three United Methodist jurisdictions and expressed our commitment to mutual accountability, evangelism and upholding the United Methodist doctrine, especially the primacy of Scripture in faith and practice. This was the formal birth of the Wesleyan Covenant Network (see www.wesleyancovenantnetwork.org).
As United Methodists, we were seeking for a way to live in a divided church and to be productive and kingdom-minded. We dreamed of discovering ways to encourage, equip, and support persons and churches in doing that.
We knew that “covenant” was the big issue, because the covenant (Discipline) of our church was being blatantly violated and deliberately disregarded. In stating what we believed, we referred to the formal doctrinal statement of The United Methodist Church. Though he does not state it explicitly, Dr. Tennent is saying we have to be explicit in carefully defining our covenant, because living in covenant defines our relationship. Those willing to live in the covenant, in a Wesleyan faith and way, can share in what we pray will become a world movement of revival and renewal.
The shaping of this network is a work in progress. There are folks prayerfully working on this and we will continue to report over on our webpage at www.wesleyancovenantnetwork.org. I join Dr. Tennent in urging you to make participation in The New Room Conference (September 16-18) a priority this fall.