What is the Wesleyan Quadrilateral?
Theological reflection is one of the church’s most important tasks. When I use the word “church” I am not referring to an abstract institution. Rather, I am referring to the gathered community of people who have been baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” If you look closely at the Baptismal Covenant in The United Methodist Hymnal (pages 33-39) you will see the church described as “Christ’s body”, “the family of Christ”, and “the household of God.” These terms are used deliberately so that all who hear them understand who the church is; that it is a “community of love and forgiveness.” They also reveal that the God who became one of us in Jesus Christ is the source of the love and forgiveness given and received. All this is to say that the church is not an “it”, it is “us”, you and me together with Christ. Church is not something we do on Sunday morning. Church is the community of the baptized dispersed in the world every day of the week. The chur
