As the Associate Pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Hutchinson, KS, I write a weekly article for the newsletter article. I invite both members of the church and other visitors to my blog to share their thoughts!

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Are there any Christians in your life you disagree with?  In my experience, Christians who think differently from one another have a tendency either to avoid one another or to try to “convert” one another.

But doesn’t Christ call us to love one another?

The United Methodist Church is a truly interesting group of people.  There are conservative evangelicals and far-left liberals who all call themselves “United Methodists.”  (Did you know that George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton are both United Methodists?)  We don’t always get along like we should, but at the end of the day we all love God and claim the amazing act of Christ’s death and resurrection for our faith.

I think we all find ourselves around a Christian we disagree with from time to time– maybe a family member or a coworker or other friend.  What do you do in a case like that?  Do you avoid the topic of religion?  Do you assume a superior attitude?  Or do you simply love them?

This topic is nothing new…  Christians have thought differently from one another since the beginning of religion itself.  But that doesn’t change God’s love– I don’t believe God cares nearly as much about the details of our belief as he does about how much we love God and neighbor.

This Sunday I am going to preach my own version of one of John Wesley’s (our denomination’s founder) most famous sermons on this very topic.  If you’d like to check out Wesley’s version ahead of time, you’ll find a web link on my blog, http://ministrygeek.net.  Your thoughts and questions are always welcome.

Here is the link to Wesley’s “Catholic Spirit” (remeber that he’s using the word “catholic” to mean “universal,” not to refer to the Roman Catholic Church.)