Being born again was not meant to be just a private religious experience that is hard to communicate to others, but rather the prerequisite for joining a new and very public movement – the Jesus and kingdom of God movement. It is an invitation to a whole new form and way of living, a transformation as radical as a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. It is far more than a call to a new inner life, or a rescue operation for heaven. It is an announcement of a new order of life that is intended to change everything about the world, and us with it.

Jim Wallis

(from The Great Awakening)

All of us here at LifeBrook and at Sacred Mind Ministries wishes each and every one of you a blessed and meaningful Thanksgiving. Let us always give thanks, rejoicing in our blessings, both seen and unseen.

L.D. “Mick” Turner

You must get in your mind that the God who spoke the universe into existence also has spoken over you. The only reason His Word cannot manifest in your life, as He has spoken it, is that you have not fully accepted the reality of its power and who you are….You must remember at all times, GOD SAID YOU WERE CREATED IN HIS IMAGE AND LIKENESS. It doesn’t matter what the world tries to tell you or convince you of, or the circumstances you may find yourself in. God’s powerful and endless Word has empowered you as a creation in His image and likeness. ..When you wake up to the fact that you’re royalty, you will alter your behavior and act differently. You will begin to walk in your rightful position in accordance with the authority that your Lord and King gives you. You must choose to be the person God calls you to be.

Bishop Jim Lowe

(from Achieving Your Divine Potential)

Mick Turner

Scripture is filled with great teaching stories. Both the Old and New Testaments contain golden nuggets of wisdom, often hidden in the form of parables and dramatic tales of one kind or another. The problem is we often gloss over these stories because we have read or heard them many times. This sense of familiarity is unfortunate and leads us to either ignore or entirely miss vital truths which, if applied to our daily living, could make us much better people.

 Consider the familiar story of the Prodigal Son as told by Christ in the fifteenth chapter of Luke. We are so familiar with this tale of a wasted life saved through love and redemption than we often loose the impact that it should have on our lives. Especially if we are wastrels and rogues like the wandering Prodigal. I had the good fortune to have this timeless story brought to new life for me when I was serving as an English teacher in China.

 I often taught English writing classes to university students, mostly students majoring in English Language. I sometimes began the semester by handing out a paraphrase of the Prodigal’s story because it was easy to read and contained three central characters. The students were asked to write several paragraphs expressing their thoughts on the younger son, the elder brother, and the father.

 The results were often startling. Sometimes students criticized the younger son for his irresponsibility and lack of filial piety, certainly a strong value in a culture so influenced by Confucianism. Others admired him and extolled his adventurous spirit and independence. These were usually students who were strongly impacted by the New China and its market economy and increasing focus on material acquisition. Opinions also varied on the elder son, ranging from a “loyal and faithful son” to a “stick in the mud traditionalist”. But it was the father who tended to mystify them most. How could a father be so tolerant? So forgiving? So loving and compassionate?

 At times students were able to ascertain that this was a story about something other than a human father, although I never discussed this in class in a formal way. To do so would be in violation of my contract and Chinese laws regarding foreigners and religious activities. But the student responses helped me as a Christian. They helped me view this story with “fresh eyes” or as Chinese Christians would say, ” Xin qi de mu guang”. The student writings pushed me to see things from different perspectives, different angles. They helped me to see more clearly.

 What I saw more clearly was the outstanding, awesome, and all-encompassing love of the Christian God. Of course I had often heard this concept expressed in numerous sermons and read of it in countless books. But while in China, where I was more dependent upon the Spirit for my spiritual food, this reality of God’s loving grace bored into my heart more and more deeply. I came to understand at a deeper level that I was in fact accepted. Accepted in my weakness because this is where the strength of Christ is seen. Accepted in my brokenness because this is where the healing of Christ is seen. Accepted in my faithlessness because this is where the fidelity of Christ is seen. Accepted in my wandering in the wilderness because this is where Christ’s true and stable mansions are eventually discovered.

 Remarkable isn’t it – God accepts our response to his offer in spite of our conflicted hearts and spirits. In fact, if one is to believe what Christ teaches in the parable of the Prodigal, then he in accepts our desperation just as much as he accepts our repentance. Again, this points to the awesome nature of God’s love.

 The following passage is a directly quoted from one my student’s compositions, in this case from a young woman of twenty-one who had remarkable insight into the character of the prodigal son’s father:

 What impressed me most was the father in the story. I was most amazed at his love for his two sons, especially the younger one. You see, when the boy asked for his share of the family fortune, the father gave it to him willingly. But it was not just money that he gave him. If you think about it, the father gave the wayward son a part of himself. The money was just the outer trappings. The father had worked hard for many years and put himself into earning this money. So when he gave the money to the young boy, he gave him his life as well. But the young man was foolish and immature. He wasted his father’s money and became bankrupt. But even more, he wasted his father’s most precious gift, that gift of himself. No wonder he ended up starving and despondent. If I were in that situation I, too, would have a deep longing to return home to the embrace of my loving father. And what is most wonderful in this story is that the father accepted him and loved him, no questions asked. I would give the world to know a father like that.

 Many people would like to believe, truly believe, in the overwhelming love offered by God in the Christian gospel. Yet many refuse to accept God’s gracious offer because they feel they are too unworthy, too blemished, too tarnished, too tainted. Many feel they are not good enough to share in this amazing grace that the Bible talks so openly about. Well, the fact is these people are right. They are unworthy, blemished, tarnished, tainted. All of us are. That’s the whole point of the gospel in a nutshell. We cannot go to God because of who we are. But God can come to us. And he did. Christ came into the world for the sick, the fractured, the less than whole. Our unworthiness is our greatest claim to the good news of the gospel.

 Because we are broken, we are blessed.

 © L.D. Turner 2009/ All Rights Reserved

This may sound too simple, but the abundant life that Jesus promises is ushered in through the choices we make in the ordinary moments of life. Even those who change the world, who make a difference in history, who live life rather than simply watch it, have at least one common characteristic among them: they do something. They don’t just watch; they don’t just think about it; they act. When we react, life invades our space, intrudes on our comfort, interrupts our apathy, and forces us to respond. We react when we are forced out of neutrality. We act when we refuse to stay there. If there is one secret to seizing divine moments, it is that you must take initiative.

Irwin Raphael McManus

(from Wide Awake)

L. Dwight Turner

A fundamental component of living a life of spiritual optimism is the birth, development, clarification, and realization of your personal vision. Solomon tells us in Proverbs that without vision, the people perish. The same principle is true for all of us. We may not physically die without having a personal vision to guide and direct our steps, but we will surely die spiritually. Without the motivating presence of our own vibrant, vitalizing, vision we surely cannot manifest the optimal version of ourselves.

 A vision consists of our perception of our particular mission in life and more precisely, defines the specific framework within which we will carry out that mission. Vision gives us a sense of direction, acting like a compass when we lack certainty about our direction in life. In this sense, vision gives us a basis upon which we can make positive and effective choices among various options that might be available to us. A personal vision gives us hope and courage, especially when we are feeling overwhelmed or when we are confronted with difficulties or setbacks.

 The concept of personal vision is intimately tied to at least four other significant factors in the life of a sincere spiritual aspirant: God, dreams, purpose, and optimism. Although space does not allow for a detailed discussion of these four critical connections, let’s take a brief look at how personal vision is tied to them.

 It is imperative to understand that your personal vision is a Spirit-designed and Spirit-imparted phenomenon. Through my work with individuals and groups over the past 35 years I have come to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit imparts a specific, achievable, personal vision to each of us prior to our birth on this planet. Further, God not only gives us this vision, but also supplies us with all the talents and gifts we need in order to bring that vision to life and completion. We may have to work at honing and sharpening those Spirit-given talents but we should always keep in mind that those gifts come from a divine origin.

 Our dreams are also connected to our vision. I am not talking about the kind of dreams we have when we sleep. Instead, I am talking about those dreams that we entertain as we imagine what we would like to do and what goals we would like to accomplish. The dreams I am speaking of here have to do with our imaginings of becoming the best that we can be and even more significant, making a positive contribution to the world. These dreams, like our personal vision, come from God. I am convinced that our dreams are one method the spiritual realm uses to communicate to us about our personal vision. We, therefore, should never discount our dreams, no matter how far-fetched they may initially seem.

 In fact, there are many times that the most impossible dreams have their origins in the mind of God. Think about it. I believe Divine Intelligence desires that we always remain cognizant of the fact that we are ultimately dependent upon him for everything. With this truth in mind, it is very reasonable to assume that the Holy Spirit may indeed give us dreams that are impossible to fulfill without a vital connection to the Divine Source. Perhaps I evaluate a dream and feel inspired, but say to myself, “That’s something I could really get into and it meets a very real need. Still, there is no way I can ever do that by myself.” God, in response, may very well be saying, “No, you can’t. But we can.” The Bible clearly tells us that with God, all things are possible.

 I suggest that over the next week or so you set aside some time to examine your dreams, both current and from the past that, for whatever reason, you did not allow to grow and develop. Study these dreams and ask for guidance in gaining insight into how these specific dreams may now be or may have been connected to your personal vision. Do you see any common themes in these dreams? If these dreams somehow were to become manifest in reality, what specific and beneficial purpose would they serve? This exercise may help you in your search to discover the exact nature of your personal vision.

 How do I discover my vision? There is no one way to do this, but one thing is true: Start by discovering your personal purpose. Your vision should then flow out of that purpose. Discovery of our purpose (mission) is intimately tied up with our personal vision. One thing I have discovered over the years about uncovering purpose and vision is this: You have to be creative and think outside the box. At first, don’t discount any idea just because it seems impossible. Often, God gives us impossible things to do so that we can discover that we need him to do anything of last worth.

 Art Sepulveda, Senior Pastor of the Word of Life Christian Center in Honolulu has written an excellent book entitled, Focus: What’s in Your Vision. In this book Pastor Sepulveda gives the following guidelines for envisioning your future:

 Expand your horizons by stretching your imagination

 Nurture new ideas

 Vote for positive changes with a welcoming attitude

 Imagine the impossible

 Stay ahead of tomorrow

 Invent the future

 Operate expectantly

 Notice unlimited opportunity

 The pastor’s suggestions are first-rate and I would encourage anyone interested in kick-starting the process of discovering their person vision to implement his ideas. I think you will discover that developing vision is not nearly as difficult as you have imagined it to be. The reason for this is that you are not so much trying to invent something that doesn’t exist; instead, you are actually uncovering the outline of something placed in your heart by God before you took your first breath.

 Finally, let’s see how your dreams, purpose, and vision connect with optimism. It is a connected as part of a process that begins with potential and ends with the glory of assisting in the realization of God’s kingdom on earth. Let’s take a look at a synopsis of this process – a process that can only lead to Christian optimism.

 God has placed a unique potential within each and every one of us. The realization of that potential is part of our personal mission on this planet and exists within the context of God’s overall plan and purpose for humanity. When we marry our potential to our individual purpose, our potential is activated and we begin to move toward becoming all that we were designed to be. When our purpose is connected to a specific personal vision, our potential is further unfolded in the context of our purpose and vision. Further, this marriage of purpose and vision gives rise to passion. We become excited about bringing our vision into concrete manifestation. We arise each day with a feeling of optimistic energy and divine direction and we are enthusiastic about working toward realization of our personal vision.

   As the process reaches fruition, we then realize our vision, our purpose, and our potential. In doing so, we manifest our glory. Our glory can be defined as becoming the best version of ourselves and claiming our already established identity “in Christ.” By manifesting our glory, we are able to fulfill our God-given role in the establishment of his Kingdom. The entire process is thus carried forward in the Kingdom Context. God planted his divine plan in us in the form of our unique potential. That potential, along with our subsequent purpose, personal vision, passion, and glory, had an overriding purpose and that purpose was the unfolding of God’s kingdom here on earth.

 On a practical level, the kingdom context consists of the recognition that the primary reason Christ incarnated was to inaugurate the process of establishing his kingdom on earth. Our spiritual unfolding involves nothing less than having all of our actions flowing from the living awareness of our responsibility of carrying on the Lord’s kingdom mission.

  The power that carries this entire process forward, from potential to glory, is faith. We accepted God’s blessing of cleansing and salvation, our justification, on faith. Now we are to go a step farther along the road of faith: we are to accept that God has given us even more grace in that he has provided, as Paul says, “every blessing in the spiritual realm.” Or, in the words of Peter:

 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in world by lust (2 Peter 1:2-5).

 In the words we often use  here at LifeBrook: God has provided for us all that we need in order to become the optimal versions of ourselves for the glory of God and the benefit of others.

 In essence, what we are talking about here is the blessed reality that God, through his grace, love, and infinite wisdom, has seen to it that we have all that we will ever need to be successful in life. He has planted a divine potential in each and every one of us and tied that potential with a personal purpose or mission that we are to carry out. The specifics of that purpose or mission are found in our dreams and our vision, which is also God-given and easily discoverable.

It is upon these very principles, based upon the spiritual reality of God’s love, his character, his provision, and his faithfulness, that we can readily lay claim to spiritual optimism. Indeed, If God be for us, who can be against us?

 (c) L.D. Turner 2009/ All Rights Reserved

Maybe there’s a dream buried deep inside your soul, and God is waiting to reconstruct it, to put all the bones back together. He is waiting to put muscle and sinew on it and wrap skin around it…God is waiting for you to recognize that you cannot control the four winds, but he can. If he commands you to act, and if you will trust him, you will see all of creation move in concert to accomplish in you what you were created to do. You were created not simply to sleep through your dreams but to live dreams bigger than you, bolder than you….Your dreams are a foretaste of the life you can have and the person you can become. But before you will ever live those dreams, you have to discover a dream worth living. That’s why God is so essential to this journey and why Jesus has come for us. Long before you took your first breath, you were a dream – a dream in the mind of the one who made you. He saw you before you were created, and he alone knows the full extent of your creative potential…He sees the dream that could become your life. A life beyond your wildest dreams. Don’t take your last breath without living it.

Irwin Raphael McManus

(from Wide Awake)

L.D. Turner

Growing up as I did on the coastline, I had numerous friends who were into sailing. I would go out with them from time to time and I vividly recall those experiences when there was just no wind available to catch our sails and, novices that we were, we just sat there baking in the South West Florida sun. My more seasoned friends used to call these times the “doldrums.” When we were in the doldrums, either we didn’t move at all, or if we did, everything was sluggish, in slow motion, and required great effort.

 I suspect most of us have similar periods in our spiritual lives – a sort of spiritual doldrums -  where nothing much seems to be occurring. I am sure that most sincere aspirants have them – those times of spiritual aridity where we feel we are just going through the motions but nothing of substance is happening. Even our cherished quiet time takes great effort and, although we may not be spiritually dead, we may feel that we have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.

 Have you ever been there? God knows I have. As I said before, I think this is a fairly common occurrence along the spiritual highway. It may not be as distinct or as deep as the “dark night of the soul” that John of the Cross described so well, but sometimes it feels that way. I mention all of this because a few days back, when reviewing a book I have read several times, I ran across a great description of these sorts of spiritual doldrums when our sails seem useless and we experience a lack of God’s presence or sense we are, at best, just drifting with the current. The book I am speaking of is T.M. Moore’s Disciplines of Grace and I would highly recommend this work to anyone interested in spiritual disciplines and spiritual formation. All in all, it is a great read. Moore begins the introduction to the book with the following words, which are highly relevant to the topic at hand:

 We’ve all known them – those times when the wind seems to go out of the sails of our spiritual lives. Our time in the Word of God is unexciting and unfruitful. Prayer is a struggle. Worship never quite satisfies. Our devotions are either skimpy are even skipped. Our witness is virtually nonexistent. Too many things seem more important than spirituality, and we would not describe ourselves as “currently on the cutting edge of Christian growth.”

 Moore’s final phrase is both candid and convicting. I can say without reservation that much of the time I have spent in devotion has had that quality of feeling anything but being on the cutting edge of Christian growth. While it is true that I have experienced an undeniable call upon my life to utilize my God-given gifts of exhortation and teaching toward the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth, there have been plenty of times I have felt like the spiritual equivalent of a thirsty elephant trumpeting about the arid banks of a dried up watering hole. Yet in an odd sort of paradox, these times of spiritual dryness and seeming distance from God have often been blessings in disguise and have helped me grow in wisdom and garner a deeper understanding of the fact that God can indeed by trusted, even when appearances seem to indicate otherwise.

 Still, I have often found that when I am in the midst of one of these droughts of the spirit, it is easy to lose perspective on spiritual reality. Confusion creeps in through cracks in my faith and a generalized sense of floundering and malaise set in. The only thing that I am certain of during these times is the reality that something is out of kilter. T.M. Moore continues:

 Nobody needs to tell us when we are spiritually becalmed, and a lot of navel gazing about why or how we got in this situation would not be particularly helpful. What we want is out, or rather, back on course with the Lord, our spiritual sails filled with the powerful winds of his Spirit once again. We want our devotions to come alive, our worship to flare anew with spiritual fire, the bounce to return to our spiritual step. We want to rediscover the presence of the Lord, to experience his glory and to bask afresh in the certainty and warmth of his mercy and grace. We yearn for the Word to speak clearly and powerfully to us. We long to know the assurance that our prayers are being heard and to experience the filling of God’s Spirit in fresh, new gusts of power and life. We want our hearts to pound with love for our God, and we want to be able to share that love more fervently and consistently to people around us.

 Anyone out there relate to the experience Moore’s words describe? I know I surely do and more to the point, my own personal experience has validated those words many times over. The overriding question thus becomes: “How does one get out of this mess?”

 Moore takes the approach that the most certain method of gaining freedom from the sort of spiritual malaise described above is through the practice of spiritual disciplines such as prayer, meditation, scripture study, fasting, quiet times and the like. I would tend to agree and I base that agreement once again on my own personal experience.

 Moore makes a valid point when he says asserts that the problems with this type of spiritual doldrums lie not so much with the lack of wind, but rather, the condition of our sails.

 However we have arrived at the spiritual doldrums, this much is certain: within the disciplines of grace…..lies the key to our recovery. For the Spirit of God is still blowing in those arenas as faithfully and powerfully as ever. The problem is that our sails have become tattered and in need of repair, and frankly, some of them have never been unfurled to catch his life-giving wind.

 It doesn’t matter how sincere or even how disciplined we may be in regards to our spiritual formation, the fact is we live in a world that is not conducive to living the kind of life Jesus calls his followers to. As a result, we followers of the Master can get beaten down, damaged, and diseased at both an obvious and at a subtle level. The world where we live, move, and have our being operates with values and principles that are the antithesis of those Christ enumerated in the Sermon on the Mount. It is little wonder that our sails can become damaged.

 Then again, there are some of us who have never raised our sails. Either through lack of discipline, laziness, and most insidious of all, faulty teaching, there are those followers of Jesus who have never practiced the spiritual disciples spoken of by Moore. I find it tragic that there are those present in the church that label anyone who either teaches about or engages in the classical spiritual disciplines as heretics. Personally, I find it appalling and even nauseating that anyone living 2000 years after the fact would have the arrogance and audacity to call anyone a heretic. Those that do so cause more damage and heartache to the Body of Christ than any external threat to the faith. And the irony of it all is that they do this without having even the faintest possibility of knowing with any degree of certainty what may indeed constitute an actual heresy. To use scripture to back up their claims is both a cop out and begging the question.

 Who knows? It may be that these folks are the real heretics.

 The fact is the spiritual disciplines were practiced by Jesus, the disciples, and certainly the early church fathers. All you have to do is read the works of the early Christians to see what sort of practices they engaged in. And it is these very disciples, described so well by T.M. Moore and many other writers, that can help lift us out of those doldrums we have been discussing. This debate has nothing to do with faith versus works, although many try to make it so. Personally, I firmly believe that the whole faith/works controversy has caused more disunity, disharmony, and damage to the church universal than any other conflict. This issue, however, is for another place and time – not this article.

 Rufus Jones, a renowned scholar, Quaker writer, mystic, and friend of my grandfather, is often quoted as saying:

 The grace of God is like the wind blowing across the sea. If you want to reach the other shore, you have to raise your sail.

 My advice to anyone experiencing significant spiritual dryness is to pray for relief and advancement, while at the same time, engaging in a select few of the classical spiritual disciplines. Experiment a bit and see what fits you best. According to T.M. Moore, and I concur completely, the spiritual disciplines are a part of the grace of God and are provided by the Father to help us grow in him.

 Granted, there may be periods of struggle and sacrifice as you discipline yourself to practice the spiritual exercises, but it will be time well spent. One thing is certain, it you do nothing, nothing will get done. That, my friend, is a fundamental law of the doldrums.

 © L.D. Turner 2009/All Rights Reserved

 Christianity calls each of us to believe and trust in God, a belief and trust based on love. This is not simply a matter of intellectual assent….It is a matter of the truth of Christianity becoming ‘true for you’, as an individual. Only when Christianity becomes true for you so that you are willing to stake your whole life on it, does it really become true in your own case.

 Belief that God exists does not come near to what Christianity is about. It is only when the factual truth of Christianity becomes ‘true for us’ so that it becomes the center of our lives around which our whole existence revolves that we, as individuals, can see what Christianity involves….it means each of us coming to understand what it is for Christianity to become ‘true for me’, what Christianity is going to involve when it is taken on board and lived. Once we see and understand this, we then each of us have to decide whether or not we wish to try to live it – but that is our free choice. Until we have understood what is involved, however, we cannot even make the decision.

 Christianity requires passion and total commitment – a commitment to a lived love relationship with God. The relationship has practical consequences and these can, to an extent, be foreseen.

 ‘What does it mean to be a Christian?’ ….The important way of looking at this question, however, is to see it as asking each of us, ‘What does it mean for me to be a Christian?’ This is much, much more uncomfortable and challenging. There is no single right answer – each of us needs to think the answer through for ourselves.

Peter Vardy

(from  And if it’s True?)

L.D. Turner

I strongly believe that one of God’s central purposes for this age in which we live is to bring humankind into a deeper and more widespread knowledge of metaphysical principles in general and the subtle laws which govern the mind in particular. I predict that we will see greater and greater awareness of the practical application of these sublime principles and, in point of fact, we are already witnessing this process to some extent.

 Of course any time there is a move of God in a new direction, there is always the potential for mistaken understandings and bizarre extremes as believers on the spiritual frontier engage these themes. Yet we must be careful so as to not toss out the pearl of great value along with the refuse, or as they often say, throw out the baby with the bath water. This would be a huge mistake.

 As the Holy Spirit gradually makes available increasing knowledge of these laws, we must use our God-given gifts of discernment to separate the wheat from the chaff and put into immediate practice the principles that are beneficial and biblically sound. This is especially true in these days in which we have witnessed a dramatic rise in those who claim the gift of “prophecy” and are seemingly able to pour forth prophetic utterances at the drop of a hat. The question is, as stated, one of accurate discernment, which raises another logical question: What criteria will I use in order to discern whether a teaching is accurate and acceptable or way off the mark?

 Traditionally, there have been several approaches to evaluating a particular teaching or prophetic utterance. This trio of tools consists of Scripture, tradition, and Spirit. Interestingly, depending upon what denominational background you happen to be from, you might see one of these three emphasized at the expense of the other two. For example, Catholics by and large have turned to tradition as ultimate authority and this “tradition” is in the form of the Church. Most Protestants adhere to the principles of biblical authority and therefore turn to scripture as the objective measure of the value of a teaching. If a teacher comes forth with an idea, teaching, or spiritual practice that doesn’t agree with scripture, then it is considered unsound at best, heretical at worst. Within the Protestant fold, Pentecostal and Charismatic bodies tend to stress the validation of the Spirit. If the person feels the teaching is validated through the presence of and experience of the Holy Spirit, then it can be trusted. In all fairness, however, I must point out that many Charismatic and Pentecostal groups also point to the value of scriptural authority.

 Two other groups deserve mention, as their methods of evaluating teachings and practices, although similar to those described in the preceding paragraph, differ somewhat. I am speaking of the Quakers, founded by George Fox in the 17^th Century and the Methodists, founded by John Wesley a century later.

 The Quaker position is, at the same time, simple and complex. For the Society of Friends, the ultimate authority is the ‘Inner Light’ residing within each believer. According to Quaker founder George Fox, it is the source of all certainty for the Quaker and it is this Light Within that Friends seek when they sit in silence. Some Quakers equate the Inner Light with the presence of the Holy Spirit, which caused many Quakers to shake uncontrollably at times. Hence came the derisive name “Quakers,” because they “quaked.”

 From a historical and also a contemporary perspective, I find the most balanced system of discernment within the tradition of my own denomination, Methodism. John Wesley, founder of Methodism, stressed using the matrix of what he called the “Quadrilateral” in order to determine the appropriateness of any theme or idea. The four guidelines of Wesley’s Quadrilateral are: scripture; tradition; reason; and experience. For Wesley, the first, scripture, always took precedence over the other three.

 The Quadrilateral is not an historical artifact. This four-part tool of discernment remains in use today in the United Methodist Church, as well as other Wesleyan denominations. Although Wesley himself never used the term “Quadrilateral,” it is clear from his writings that he used this four-fold methodology as a means of not only guiding behavior, but as a tool for theological speculation as well.

 The term Quadrilateral was coined by Methodist Albert C. Outler in his 1964 compilation of Wesley’s works. It has become traditional in the United Methodist Church, by far the largest and most influential Methodist denomination, to formulate the Quadrilateral as follows:

 Wesley believed that the living core of the Christian faith was revealed in Scripture, illumined by tradition, vivified in personal experience, and confirmed by reason.

 In actual practice, contemporary Methodists vary greatly in terms of application of the Quadrilateral. Many members of this denomination use this methodology of evaluation in a very consistent and precise way. On the other extreme, there are probably a significant number of Methodists who are totally unaware of the existence of the Quadrilateral.

 In my own experience, I must admit that I sometimes utilize a unique blend of approaches when evaluating new ideas and techniques. As I mentioned a bit earlier, I am a United Methodist and have been for the past 30-plus years, so the Quadrilateral is almost second nature to me. However, my upbringing was strongly affiliated with Quakerism, in both its liberal and evangelical flavors. These factors, along with my own study of comparative religion, has resulted in a theological methodology which, although strange for some, works quite well for me.

 When evaluating any new teaching I first go before the Master in prayer, asking for guidance, discernment, wisdom and clarity. I then rest in what Friends often call “Sacred Silence.” It is in the context of this silence that the Spirit often speaks to me regarding a particular issue. Once I have an insight or revelation regarding the issue at hand, I then filter it through the matrix of the Quadrilateral. Finally, I also will often discuss the matter with a few of my most trusted spiritual friends. This way of doing things may not be universally applicable, but for the most part, it works for me.

 As our culture progresses deeper into the ever-shifting shoals of postmodernism I find it increasingly essential to have some way of ascertaining truth. Postmodern thinking stresses the lack of universal standards of factual reality and espouses the sanctity of “relativity.” More than ever, ethics are situational. As many of my friends within the Emergent Movement are so fond of saying, “There is no such thing as absolute truth.”

  Ironically, for them, that is the absolute truth.

 © L.D. Turner 2009/ All Rights Reserved