United Methodists and the Supernatural

The most recent Happenings article addressed the matter of supernaturalism and world Christianity. It quoted Methodist Bishop Hwa Yung from Malaysia who argues (Christianity Today, 9-11-10) that church renewal will never take place if the church does not deal with the supernatural world that exists quite apart from the secular understandings of science and naturalism that dominate much of the thinking in the western world.

Responses to this article deserve further comment.

1) Several who read Yung’s original article pointed out that Bishop Yung was critical not only of liberals (who were at least consistent-they deny the supernatural both in the Bible and in the present) but also evangelicals, who fight to defend the miraculous in the Bible but rarely cope with it in real life.

Our Methodist history might be instructive here. Early Methodists, both in England and America (and other places) practiced experiential religion, often characterized by unbridled emotionalism (labeled as enthusiasm). As part of this, Methodists dreamed dreams, had visions, were slain in the Spirit, claimed miracles, and cast out demons. This in part explains Methodism’s phenomenal success among African-Americans in the early 19th century since persons with African connections held to a world-view not unlike that of the Bible. In reaction, modern critical thinking, influenced by the enlightenment, deism, and other forms of rationalism, looked with disdain, not only upon Methodist enthusiasm, but also on the supernaturalist assumptions of the Bible. Ideas such as spiritual warfare and battles against principalities and powers had to be deconstructed, resymbolized and recast into the thinking of the modern times. The educated elite of much of mainline Protestantism, and indeed, of the whole western world, bought into much of that thinking.

The evangelical world was not unaffected. Bishop Yung’s comment about evangelicals who sought (or seek) to defend the miracles of the Bible while failing to cope with it in real life, assesses the evangelical world accurately. Evangelicals were often people who lived in two worlds: they believed in the supernatural in their church world, but did not act as if they did when they lived in their everyday secular world. Dispensational fundamentalism sought to reconcile the two worlds by teaching a form of cessationism, the view that signs and wonders are not needed for the Church age and thus ceased after New Testament times (so modern fundamentalists seldom are seen casting out demons). Among Calvinist evangelicals the full appreciation of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit fell into neglect.

It was Methodism’s holiness movement that kept alive original Methodism’s appreciation for the supernatural. Marginalized by establishment Methodism, holiness evangelists and missionaries carried out deliverance and healing ministries, drove back spiritual darkness and struggled against primal forces. This was especially true on the mission field. A little over 100 years ago one part of the holiness movement morphed into Pentecostalism. Despite all of its excesses, it is the Pentecostal appreciation for the supernatural that has been the major basis for the phenomenal growth of Christianity around the world.

Establishment mainline Protestantism, in the meantime, a captive to the restrictions of modern secularism, finds itself unable to cope with such matters as deliverance and spiritual bondage. Modern progressive ideology (it would be a mistake to call it theology) is reduced to self-help, social engineering, and political activism. It is unable to address some of the deepest spiritual needs in our society. There is a reason for its increasing irrelevance.

At the same time, there is still some resistance among evangelicals, even United Methodist evangelicals, including those in the holiness tradition, to fully embrace the supernatural implication of the gospels. Evangelical preaching is often characterized by a simplistic gospel of self-help advice and moralisms. Serious doctrinal preaching is often in short supply (this is a major concern of The Confessing Movement) in many of our pulpits. But there is also a hesitancy on the part of pastors and churches to present a message of deliverance and spiritual release to congregations which are themselves influenced by naturalism and secularism.

The call for a recovery of the supernatural applies to evangelicals as well as non-evangelicals.

2) Several responses to the article on the supernatural made reference to Aldersgate Renewal Ministries, a United Methodist movement that is part of the larger charismatic movement. The modern charismatic movement celebrates its 50th anniversary this year (it usually is dated to the ministry of the Episcopalian priest Dennis Bennett). This movement was a reaction, or at least a corrective, to the spiritual barrenness of much of mainline Christianity of the mid-1900s, which had much of the life sucked out of it due to liberalism. The movement started among Episcopalians and Catholics, and then spread to all the major denominations. Though not especially identifiable as a movement today, it has still influenced western Christianity in noticeable ways. The uplifted hands, the praise choruses, and the prevalence of prayer ministries represent some of the contributions of the charismatic movement. Ongoing references to spiritual warfare and healing made even in mainline churches testify to its ongoing influence (this was unheard of in the 1950s).

The influence of Pentecostalism and the charismatic movement have also helped many American churches to connect with Christians in Africa, South America, and Asia, where a thriving church is quite comfortable with healing, deliverance, and signs and wonders.

Aldersgate Renewal Ministries dates from the late1970s and is known primarily for annual Aldersgate conferences (seldom covered by the official church press). Because the movement has believed that God’s power is most likely to operate apart from institutional structures, Renewal Ministries has disdained political action. It has given faithful witness to the workings of God in supernatural power. Tongues of fire, healings, and other manifestations of the supernatural have been evidenced at the Aldersgate conferences.

Although Renewal Ministries is not usually mentioned when evangelical renewal groups are listed, it is a movement within The United Methodist Church that shares a common goal with other evangelical renewal groups, namely, to confess the fullness of Jesus Christ as Lord in the church today.

United Methodists who are frequently and regularly discouraged by the boards and agencies, by the seminaries, by an obsession with social activism that characterizes a significant part of the church, should be encouraged that a number of churches and pastors and renewal groups and individuals believe and proclaim the supernatural power of God.