All are welcome at the Lord's table, part 1

Haddonfield United Methodist Church
Haddonfield, New Jersey
May 6, 2007

The next week I drew the name of Haddonfield Methodist Church. I decided that from now on I would try to learn more about each church and/or denomination before my visit.

So what did I know about Methodist churches before this visit? I knew that this denomination had been founded by the great English Christian John Wesley. I knew that his heart had been “strangely warmed” in Aldersgate Chapel. I thought I remembered that he had come from a very large family. I knew that his brother, Charles, had written the lyrics of some of the great Christian hymns (such as Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing). I was pretty sure that John Wesley had come up with, or at least popularized, the idea of the “altar call” – asking people who wanted to be saved or who needed prayer to come forward and kneel at the altar during or immediately after a church service.

Well, obviously I needed to study up on Methodism, if that was the extent of my knowledge. Now, what do ordinary people do when they want to learn more about a church? Do they check out theological tomes from the library, or sign up at the local college for a few classes in church history? Of course not.

I turned to Wikipedia.

Today Methodism is extremely diverse; there are Calvinistic Methodists (they believe in predestination) as well as Arminian Methodists (who believe in the free will side of that question). I was happy to learn that Wesley himself, although a staunch Arminian, was lifelong friends with fellow Methodist George Whitefield, an equally staunch Calvinist. I like seeing the yin of free will get along with the yang of predestination; we won’t resolve the issue this side of heaven, or even fully comprehend it, but that’s no reason we can’t get along.

Because Methodism grew out of Anglicanism, some Methodist groups are very “high church,” and base their liturgies on the Book of Common Prayer. But there are also plenty of low church Methodists (sometimes called Primitive Methodists), too. In 2006 there were about 75 million Methodists worldwide, and among them are George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton.

I was correct in remembering that John Wesley had come from a large family: he was fifteenth of nineteen children. And he was short, only 5’2”. (My surprise on reading this exposes one of my unconscious prejudices – I tend to assume that people who cast long shadows in history were actually, physically tall. My bad.)

Wesley studied deeply among the church fathers, particularly the Eastern Orthodox. He was strongly impressed by the faith of a group of Moravian believers he had met on a missionary journey to America, and later attended a Moravian meeting in Aldersgate Street, London, at which Martin Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans was read. It was there that Wesley felt his heart “strangely warmed.” His last words were "The best of all is, God is with us."

During the week I also came up with some resolutions about how to conduct these church visits. I would fill out a visitor’s card at every church, without fail. And I would study each church’s website ahead of time. When I checked out Haddonfield Methodist online, I found that they, like Living Faith Christian Center, have a slogan. Theirs is “Believe. Belong. Become.” In addition, the entire denomination has a slogan: “Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.” Do most churches and denominations have slogans? If so, why had I never noticed this before?

Haddonfield Methodist holds a Saturday night service, and three on Sunday morning: traditional at 8:30, contemporary with praise band at 9:30, and traditional again at 11:00. I opted for the 11:00. I also learned that this church is in the midst of a massive building project. It looks as though they are doubling the size of an already large facility.