Worship Review New Reviews

So there are now three worship song reviews up at www.worship-review.com. Two by me and one by the rags-to-riches-King himself, Wes Kelley. Check it out and give us some feedback. Or argue with us. Whatever floats your boat.
Peace,
Tom

Wesley's Ecclesiology

Wesley, believe it or not, has a sermon titled Of the Church. Its sermon #74 (I've been reading past the standard 52 lately). He makes some rather startling claims. The intro by Outler is probably the most succinct statement on Wesley's ecclesiology:

"The essence of the church for Wesley, need not be sought in it visible institutions, not even some invisible numerous electorum. The church as Body of Chris i the company of all true believers, 'holy' because its members are themselves holy. This is, therefore, an unstable blend of Anglican and Anabaptist ecclesiologies; it is also one of Wesley's more daring syntheses. Its outworks in the subsequent histories of Methodism and Anglican ecclesiology have yet to be probed as deeply as they deserve, which is also to say that its ecumenical significance has yet to be fully appreciated."

You can find his sermon here.

So let's probe it. What do you think? In some of these later sermons I am finding Wesley to totter on the edge of Pelagianism. The emphasis here on the true church being those who are "holy" and thus visibly so, makes me naturally wonder whether I am "holy" and thus, whether I am part of the church. But at the same time I like the "daring synthesis" of trying to combine the invisible and visible church together.

Spiritualist Church Baptism

So a faithful member of your church comes to you and tells you that they were "christened" with water in the Spiritualist church. They are leader in your church and have been for a very long time. You notice that there might be a problem here. Does the UMC (or the Christian church in general) recognize Spiritual Church "christenings" with water as baptism? And what exactly is the Spiritualist practice in baptism?

I told this faithful friend and leader that the UMC recognizes baptisms that were intended to be baptisms and were done in the Trinitarian name (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). Then I passed the buck and told this friend that they needed to talk to the pastor when he got back from sabbatical since I have no sacramental authority as the interim preacher.

Thoughts? Did I handle this well? Did I get the theology right? I'd appreciate any feedback people want to give.

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