Channels of Love

A lot of my writing in the United Methodist Reporter this year has been focused on the means of grace in Wesleyan theology. These are those practices of the Christian faith that serve as mediators of God's grace in our lives. I think of them as channels of love, those ways by which we realize the presence and power of God in our lives for our salvation.

Because I didn't blog about the column series I did on the means of grace, I thought I'd offer links here in case you'd like to read them. I have also archived the columns under the "UM Reporter Columns" tab in the left-hand sidebar.

Here is the column list:

Renewal is found in Wesley's 'means of grace' - An opening look at the means of grace, explaining what they are and why they are important in our lives as Christian disciples of Jesus.

Trading new patterns for old - A look at the place of the means of grace in our understanding of salvation, including how the means of grace can direct our attention away from the distractions of this world and toward God.

Searching the Scriptures - An exploration of that practice that John Wesley called, "searching the Scriptures," which helps us to know God's grace by reading, hearing, and meditating on the Bible.

Practicing what we preach - With reference to a recent essay by Bishop Will Willimon, this column emphasizes the need to understand the means of grace not as ends-in-themselves, but instead as practices which point toward Jesus Christ.


Recommit to Communion as a means of healing grace - A column that looks the place of Holy Communion in Christian worship and the Christian life. (This column created quite a bit of controversy because of comments I made about baptism. One of the few posts I published on this blog during the spring was in regards to that column; you can find the post here.)


Finding God's grace outside the norm - This column looks at what Wesley calls the "prudential" means of grace, which include those channels of love that find through the practice of our discipleship.


From ordinary grace to extraordinary grace - A view into the way in which our use of the means of grace can prepare our souls for those extraordinary encounters with grace that are sometimes received as gifts in our lives.

What's at the heart of the Christian life - This is the concluding column in the series on the means of grace, which takes one final look at the central role of the means of grace in the practice of our faith. The means of grace are truly channels of love, whereby we receive God's grace in the midst of our life in the church and are restored to the image of God in which we were created.