July 11, 2023
By Rev. Jay Therrell
There are four or five sermons that I’ve heard in my lifetime that I can remember almost every word. God used the preachers that shared them to speak into my life. Those words have shaped and formed who I am in Jesus and what I do for Jesus.
Bob Coy preached one of those sermons. He was the lead pastor of Calvary Chapel in Ft. Lauderdale. At the time, Calvary Chapel was the largest church in Florida. A member of the church I served almost 20 years ago gave me a CD of Coy’s sermon, and it had a profound impact. The sermon was called “The Museum of Sardis” and it was based on Revelation 3:1-6, the passage where Jesus warns the church at Sardis that they are almost dead.
The Mausoleum of Sardis
Coy shared the idea that Christianity started with a man, Jesus Christ. That man inspired a movement; a movement of men and women that began to form a church. That movement grew into a mission that moved worldwide and today includes over 2 billion people. It is a mission that included a church in the ancient city of Sardis (present-day Turkey). That mission located in Sardis was alive. It was making new disciples. It was transforming the city…until the church got comfortable. It began to care more for its own preferences than the lost outside its walls. Eventually, it turned from a mission into a monument.
Jesus squarely warned this remaining monument of what would happen unless it fanned into flame the few remaining embers. He said in Revelation 3:2-3
Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
The Christians of Sardis weren’t willing to repent and return to the mission of making disciples. Instead, they chose death.
Choosing death, the monument of Sardis turned into a museum pointing to a past mission. Eventually, the museum became a mausoleum. Today, Sardis is in ruins. Not only was the church not successful in transforming the city, but the city is no more.
The Museum of Methodism?
I don’t want that for Methodism. We were started by a man, John Wesley. That man inspired a movement in England that led to an evangelical revival. That movement became a mission that crossed oceans. The mission grew worldwide, making disciples of Jesus and spreading scriptural holiness across the land.
Sadly, today we have churches where that mission has become a monument. They are monuments that point to a once glorious past when over one-third of all Americans were Methodist. Moreover, I fear that some of our churches are teetering on the brink of becoming a museum. From being a museum, the journey to becoming a mausoleum is very quick.
I’m done with monuments and museums. I want to be a part of a movement and a mission. I haven’t surrendered my life to Jesus personally and vocationally to be part of a dead sect. I want to join the Light and Hope of the World in reaching the least, the last, and the lost and introducing them to the saving way of Christ!
Returning to the Mission
I want to be a part of a church that recognizes that disciples are made at the local level. No General Conference has ever made a disciple of Jesus. I’ve never known a Jurisdictional or Annual Conference that has introduced someone to Christ. The local church is God’s Plan “A” to transform this world and usher in the kingdom of God, and there isn’t a “Plan B.” We’re God’s answer to people’s prayers! If we genuinely believe that we’ll enthusiastically say we want to be part of a movement and a mission and do whatever it takes to stay away from monuments, museums, and mausoleums.
I want to be part of a church that is unapologetically clear that Jesus is the Lord of all! I want to see Jesus lifted up at every chance and people encouraged to repent of their sins and turn toward His hope, love, and grace. I want to be part of a church that embraces the Holy Spirit as “God with Us” and the only engine that will determine and drive our ministries. I want to be a part of a church that is clear about its mission and doctrine and holds people accountable for faithfulness and fruitfulness. I want to be part of a church that pursues wholeheartedly what it is “for” instead of arguing for decades about what it’s “against.”
A Mission of Making Disciples
I want to be part of a church that is streamlined, less complex, and with far less bureaucracy so that local churches have more money to do ministry. I want to be part of a church that strives with every fiber of its being to let John Wesley’s ways guide us to meet people at their point of need and offer them Jesus. I want to be part of a church that knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is for us and therefore no one can be against us and then lets that knowledge move us forward with a holy boldness. I want to be part of a church that operates out of the Easter victory of Christ knowing that sin, evil, and death are conquered once and for all and that because of Jesus the worst thing is never the last thing.
I want to be part of a church that won’t write off the next generation. I want to be part of a church that holds fast to the mission but is willing to adapt the method, so the beautiful message of Jesus’ saving love winsomely reaches Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha. I want to be part of a church that is less worried about the preferences of its members and is more concerned for the souls of the people who aren’t yet part of it. I want to be part of a church that warmly welcomes every person, good, bad, and ugly, and that also loves them enough that it doesn’t want to leave them there. I want to be part of a movement and a mission.
A Dead Sect
John Wesley famously wrote in “Thoughts Upon Methodism”
I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.
Wesley was afraid that Methodists, if we weren’t careful, would become an empty monument or a dusty museum. A church that has the form of religion without the power is a monument at best.
We don’t have to become the Museum of Methodism. We can once again be the mission that we were created to be. We simply must turn towards Jesus and ask the Holy Spirit to empower us to become those disciples once again.
I want that. I want it with all my heart. I’ve given my life to that. We’re on the brink of being part of that kind of movement and mission again with the Global Methodist Church. Let’s get to work.
The Rev. Jay Therrell is the president of the Wesleyan Covenant Association and an ordained elder in the Global Methodist Church.