Part 6. MINISTRY AND POSSIBILITIES

2. Possibilities

WO things or either one of them will prevent any church from serving the spiritual ends of our religion.

     1. If the doctrine becomes modernistic, questioning the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, allowing the teaching of evolution, doubting the deity of Christ or the necessity of His atoning work; if there is a question about the final and eternal disaster which befalls men, unless they come under the provisions of the gospel, there is an effectual barrier against the blessing of the Lord, and there can be no zeal for the promotion of spiritual religion. Heterodox teaching or the neglect of positive orthodox emphasis leaves a church without the help of God and without the help of earnest men.

     2. If a denomination so lowers its requirements for membership that sinners in the church become a majority and the control of the church gets into the hands of sinners, there can be no reasonable hope of effectual Christian work for the salvation of men, and there can be no recovery. Probably no church which has departed from God and become dominated by secret-society and other worldly influences ever found its way back. The only thing left is a social club and a “social gospel.”

     The Free Methodist Church does not have either of these two weaknesses. The church is orthodox. No preacher in the entire denomination dares profess to being a modernist. In the membership are no doubt some who have never been converted and some who, by failing to walk in the light, have lost all the grace from their hearts. However, these are in the minority, and we believe a small minority. This church, because of its standards, is not a comfortable place for sinners to hold membership. Christians are in control in the general church, in every conference, and we hope in every church in the denomination. This condition so far is gratifying, though the boast cannot be made that every member is a Christian.

     The weaknesses of the Free Methodist Church are two:

     1. Many of our people have not obtained the experience of holiness, or having once had that high state of grace are without it today. Such ones are easy prey of the devil. They lack zeal, they may neglect the means of grace, and they may become backslidden in heart if not openly.

     2. There is not the vision for the expansion of the work that there ought to be. Some who talk about the ways of the fathers, referring to the requirements of separation from the world, are in an old rut. They never open a work in a new community. They have no zeal to expand for God. Such are departed from original Methodism and from original Free Methodism. Personal and church and conference evangelism are at the very center of Free Methodism at its best. Some are too lazy to be aggressive. They are too lazy to be good Methodists.

     Among our excellent assets with which to face the future are:

     1. Sound doctrinal positions.

     2. Correct and enforced standard of conduct.

     3. Some of the most substantial and spiritual Christians in the world.

     4. A physical basis for our work in our more than 2,150 church and parsonage properties.

     5. Our opened mission fields in home and foreign lands.

     6. Our excellent educational institutions.

     7. Our Publishing House.

     8. Our young people, who are among the finest on earth and who are among us in the largest numbers of any time in the history of the denomination.

     9. A reputation for orthodoxy, righteousness, spirituality and stability.

     And everywhere is a humanity in dire need of the gospel we are appointed to publish. We are equipped to make the future better than the past has been. In a day of cheap religion we may hold the scriptural standard. Having received much by way of our fathers, we may pass on this kind of gospel. “Be strong, and of good courage.”