Recently, I was chairing a planning meeting for a new evangelical ministry in Seattle. During the discussion, I casually mentioned the fact that I am a "Wesleyan." Across the table from me was an African-American woman who had just retired as chief financial officer of a major corporation in order to start a ministry for Christian women in the corporate world. When she heard the word "Wesleyan," she blurted out, "What's a Wesleyan?" Everyone in the room roared with laughter at my expense. Trying to get even, I told the woman, "All of the Calvinists are laughing." Dead serious, she asked, "What's a Calvinist?"

Although I got the last laugh, the interchange left a sobering note. Here was a bright, educated, professional woman whose face radiates with the saving grace of Jesus Christ, but she knows almost nothing about theology. Her response illustrates the fact that theological differences among the new generation of evangelical Christians are going the way of denominational loyalties. Does it really make a difference whether we are Wesleyans or Calvinists any more than it makes a difference whether we are Free Methodists or Baptists?

Each of us would be quick to say that we are saved by our faith in Jesus Christ, not by our theological identity. Yet theology does shape our Christian character and our Christian witness. So in the next few minutes, I want to reintroduce you to your theological roots using my friend's question, "What's a Wesleyan?"

Our Theological Authority
John Wesley was a practical theologian. Rather than spending a lifetime trying to interpret the Bible in an airtight system of theology, he wrote his theology in sermons as he rode out to preach in the fields or bring the gospel to the marketplace. He had limited time for theological theorizing. His first concern was to preach saving grace for all who believe. To accomplish that end, Wesley relied on four sources of authority by which we know God and His revelation.

Scripture is the primary source of authority in Wesleyan theology. John Wesley was a man of "one Book," which he believed to be the fully inspired and final revelation of God. For him and for us, the Scriptures contain everything essential to our eternal salvation and our earthly conduct as Christians. Here is Wesley's testimony: "I allow no other rule, of faith or practice, than the Holy Scriptures." All other sources of authority are secondary.

Tradition is one of the secondary sources of authority in Wesleyan theology. By tradition, Wesley meant the history of the early Christian church, especially in the great decisions affirming the Apostles' Creed, defining the Lord's Supper as a sacrament and confirming the books of the biblical canon. For Wesley, the formative work of what he called "the primitive church" represented the fulfillment of Jesus' promise that the Holy Spirit will "lead us into all truth."

Reason is another secondary source of authority in support of Scripture. Again, Wesley had confidence in what God was doing through the human mind. For Wesley, divine revelation and human reason were not in conflict. He fully believed that the exercise of reason, whether in logical analysis or in scientific experiment, will confirm the prior truth of the Word of God. With this conviction, he echoed his brother's prayer, which is the watchword for Wesleyan higher education: "Let us unite these two, so long divided, learning and vital piety."

Experience is another source of authority that confirms Scripture in Wesleyan theology. Most classical theologies, such as Anglican, Lutheran, Calvinist and Reformed, are suspicious of experience as a means of confirming the truth of Scripture. Wesley, however, had walked a long road through Scripture, tradition and reason before coming to the heartwarming experience of Aldersgate Street. At the risk of being ridiculed as an "enthusiast," Wesley brought "warmhearted religion" to the stodgy world of tradition and the sterile world of reason. Hear him speak of the experience within his own breast: "It is holiness and happiness, the image of God impressed on a created spirit, a fountain of peace and love springing up into everlasting life."

Faith in Tension
Imagine these four sources of authority being the four corners of what is called the "Wesleyan Quadrilateral." Scripture, tradition, reason and experience represent our faith in delicate balance and creative tension. Yet there is always pressure to push one of these sources of authority to an extreme and upset the balance.

Scripture, our primary, full and final authority, is not exempt from this pressure. Those who claim that they need nothing but Scripture as the basis for their faith tend toward a fundamentalism that saps the vitality out of our faith and pushes our reactions toward fanaticism. Jerry Falwell illustrated this extreme on September 11, 2001, with his reaction that the act of terrorism was God's judgment upon America for the sins of pornography and homosexuality.

Tradition, as we remember from Fiddler on the Roof, is a slippery slope that can lead to a stodgy obsession with the past. The current Roman Catholic controversy over priests who have taken the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience illustrates the obsessive power of tradition. To make the word of the pope equal to the Word of God or to protect pedophile priests under the mantle of the apostolic succession is tradition run amok.

Reason is no more exempt from extremes than any other source of authority. When reason dominates our theological spectrum, sterile rationalism takes over inspiration, relativism prevails, and skepticism is the end product. The postmodern mind, for instance, assumes that there is no absolute truth, that history has nothing to say to us, and that our moral choices are simply a matter of preferences.

Experience can also be pushed to its own extreme. Wesley's heartwarming experience at Aldersgate Street could become an isolated experience with its own ecstatic expression. The laughing identified with the Toronto revival is an example of experience competing with Scripture. Wesley himself rejected mystical experiences that no one can interpret and for which no one is accountable.

The Root of the Holy Spirit
Our Wesleyan faith is vulnerable to each of these extreme tendencies. How then do we retain the integrity of our faith? The answer is found in what I believe to be the most significant contribution of Wesleyan theology to biblical Christianity. It is the pervasive power and presence of the Holy Spirit in every aspect of our personal and corporate life.

For our Wesleyan theology, the Holy Spirit is the Integrator. Without the Holy Spirit, the four corners of Wesleyan theology break apart. With the Holy Spirit, however, all four corners are held in delicate balance — Scripture is inspired, tradition is shaped, the mind is enlightened, and experience is warmed. Wherever the Holy Spirit touches down in human experience, there is the evidence of all things being held together in Jesus Christ.

For our personal salvation, the Holy Spirit is the Energizer. Wesley sees the Holy Spirit as the dynamic agent in our salvation — justifying us in Christ, nurturing us in the Word, sanctifying us in His love, and giving us the hope of eternity with God. Even before we come to Christ, Wesley sees the Holy Spirit preventing us from sin and nudging us toward God. After we have come to Christ, it is the Holy Spirit who assures our relationship as His Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God.

For our ministries, the Holy Spirit is our Activator. When John Wesley says that there is no personal holiness without social holiness, he sees the Holy Spirit not only cleansing us from the bent to sin and filling us with love, but also showing us a broken world and filling us with a compassion that leads to risky action and self-sacrifice. Whether in the lives of our members or in the mission of the church, the Holy Spirit may take us where we don't want to go.

• How do we speak the truth with love in the current climate of religious tolerance?
• What is our response to the evidence that evangelical Christians have a faith that is a mile wide and an inch deep?
• Where will we stand on the issues of injustice that steal hope from the powerless?
• When will we come to grips with the devastation of an indulgent age upon the character of our children?
• When will we break down the walls dividing our Wesleyan witness and become the Web site for a world parish?
• How will we address the sobering fact that you can put a piece of tissue paper between the ethics of believers and nonbelievers?

Only the pervasive power and presence of the Holy Spirit can keep us true to the faith, fill us with the spirit of love, discipline us as a holy people, and give us the compassion for the last, the least, the lost and the littlest among us.

Just the other day, I learned an unforgettable lesson from the same woman who popped the question, "What's a Wesleyan?" We were together in another strategy session on our urban ministry in Seattle. As we reviewed our mission statement, working assumptions and strategic priorities, she interrupted our agenda to say, "I believe that we should stop, lay these plans before the Lord, and listen to what His Spirit wants to say to us." We stopped, we prayed, and seven of us went into sessions of solitude, and then returned to hear what the Holy Spirit had to say. I wish that you could have been present in the meeting of the minds, the clarity of our focus, the fire of our passion, and the unity of our vision. Somewhat sheepishly, I leaned over to my friend and whispered, "You are more of a Wesleyan than I am. Thank you for teaching me what my faith is all about."

What's a Wesleyan? To sum it up, under the full and final authority of Scripture supported by the truths of tradition, reason and experience, we have a faith made whole by the inspiration and incentive of the Holy Spirit. With "Passion for One and Compassion for All," we are Wesleyan. To God be the glory!