Can you believe it has been almost three whole months that we have been in ministry together? Time sure does fly when you’re focused on building up God’s kingdom! Lots has happened in our community in the last few months as ministry in the building begins to rebuild and we seek ways to reach out to others; flood buckets were delivered to Manville, NJ to be used in recovery from Ida; young disciples ministries have begun again; a Congregational Care team has begun its ministry; the Worship Team met to talk about what worship at St. Paul’s looks like; we’ve completed our first bible study together; and we celebrated the baptism of two young disciples!

God is not done here!

As we seek to “Love God, Love Others, and Serve our Neighbors” together, I wanted to take a moment to recap the latest Bible study as I think it speaks volumes to our call to be faith-filled disciples of Jesus Christ.

When John Wesley was starting his journey to holy living, he devised three general rules to help all those who were following his lead. Do no harm, do good, and attend to the ordinances of God, were rules that Wesley felt would help him live into the Great Commandment (love God, and love your neighbor as you love yourself, Matthew 22:34-40). Later on, UMC Bishop Ruben Job took Wesley’s rules and broke them down to make them more relevant for the times we live in today.

The first rule, “do no harm,” seems simple enough. It is relatively easy to be intentional about not physically or mentally hurting others. But, this study took us farther into those moments where we are doing unintentional harm. There are lots of ways where we are part of a system that does harm to others or to creation and there are lots of ways we can help break the cycle. For example, in order to get the resources we need to support the energy the American people use, fuel companies have begun to obtain materials in ways that are extremely harmful to the environment, such as taking off the tops of mountains in an attempt to get the coal inside. While we are not the ones who are destroying creation, we can limit and be good stewards of the energy we use to help reduce the harm being done.

The second rule, “do good,” also seems simple enough. But what does it actually mean to do good? Well, doing good means seeing a need in the world, and taking action to fill that need. For Wesley, this meant taking care of the poor, the widows, the orphans, the prisoners. For us, it can mean lots of things as it is important that we are using our own God given gifts to dive into filling the needs. For example, for those who are passionate about food, one of the ways they might dive into doing good would be to help ensure that the people of the community have ways to obtain enough healthy foods to support them.

The third rule, “stay in love with God,” is all about engaging in spiritual disciplines. Actions such as prayer, worship, reading scripture, and fasting, are among the many spiritual disciplines that Wesley felt are the best ways to stay connected and in conversation with God. Some of these disciplines are harder to implement than others, but they are for all people! You don’t have to be a “prayer warrior” to add regular prayer to your life. You don’t have to be a worship leader to engage in weekly worship to build community and grow and strengthen your faith for the week. You don’t have to be a seminarian or a pastor to dive deep into scripture, reflecting on what God might be saying. And, you don’t have to stop eating for a week to engage in fasting. There are lots of ways to eliminate something from our life for a period of time so that we can spend more time focused on God.

These general rules are one of many ways Methodist’s engage in the mission Jesus began and calls us to continue- a mission to love God, to love our neighbors, and to make disciples.

Which rule do you think is the hardest for you to follow?

Blessings friends,
Pastor Nicole