Earlier this week I posted an item about a local footballer, Cyrille Regis, who had accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
There are two things about this post that have bothered me ever since.
Firstly the source. Secondly what Cyrille said.
There was a third point as well about which I won't dwell: most Methodist bloggers received this item for publication, but this blog was the only one to use it. Perhaps I just jumped at a local story?
Let us start with the source. Unbelievably, given its content, this item came courtesy of the Methodist Church Head Office. It came from the connexional communications team. Now it didn't make a press release, but just a quick look at what has been published by the comms team this year shows just how unusual this sort of item really is. It would be so good to have more material like this.
What really struck me was the content. It seemed so unlike anything that a "modern" Methodist would say.
Cyrille was to the point "My greatest experience, greatest lesson was to know Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour". He described what happened when he first understood. He had read a book by Michael Green. He suddenly found a great peace. He knew that Jesus was in the room with him.
I knew immediately what Cyrille meant because I had an identical experience on Friday 25 March 1966 at about 8.45 pm. Just fifteen minutes before I was explaining why I was an atheist. Then one minute I felt lost, uncertain, and confused. The next minute my life was changed.
Now a modern Methodist will sing about such a experience: "Long my imprisoned spirit lay Fast bound in sin and nature's night; Thine eye diffused a a quickening ray. I woke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my hear was free. I rose went forth and followed thee" (Hymns and Psalms 216).
But we shy away from sharing that experience in our sermons, Bible studies and personal witness. To prove the point: when did YOU last hear a testimony of the transforming power of Jesus from a new believer in a British Methodist church?
I would love someone to come on here and tell me that I am wrong, that there are Methodist churches where people speak of the experience that both Regis and I know.
We as Methodists no longer speak in that way. Why not?![]()
There are two things about this post that have bothered me ever since.
Firstly the source. Secondly what Cyrille said.
There was a third point as well about which I won't dwell: most Methodist bloggers received this item for publication, but this blog was the only one to use it. Perhaps I just jumped at a local story?
Let us start with the source. Unbelievably, given its content, this item came courtesy of the Methodist Church Head Office. It came from the connexional communications team. Now it didn't make a press release, but just a quick look at what has been published by the comms team this year shows just how unusual this sort of item really is. It would be so good to have more material like this.
What really struck me was the content. It seemed so unlike anything that a "modern" Methodist would say.
Cyrille was to the point "My greatest experience, greatest lesson was to know Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour". He described what happened when he first understood. He had read a book by Michael Green. He suddenly found a great peace. He knew that Jesus was in the room with him.
I knew immediately what Cyrille meant because I had an identical experience on Friday 25 March 1966 at about 8.45 pm. Just fifteen minutes before I was explaining why I was an atheist. Then one minute I felt lost, uncertain, and confused. The next minute my life was changed.
Now a modern Methodist will sing about such a experience: "Long my imprisoned spirit lay Fast bound in sin and nature's night; Thine eye diffused a a quickening ray. I woke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my hear was free. I rose went forth and followed thee" (Hymns and Psalms 216).
But we shy away from sharing that experience in our sermons, Bible studies and personal witness. To prove the point: when did YOU last hear a testimony of the transforming power of Jesus from a new believer in a British Methodist church?
I would love someone to come on here and tell me that I am wrong, that there are Methodist churches where people speak of the experience that both Regis and I know.
We as Methodists no longer speak in that way. Why not?
