Ministries

Singapore's Methodist convention confronts assumptions about faith

The Methodist Church's Aldersgate Convention 2008, which concluded this past Sunday in Wesley Methodist Church Singapore, addressed two modern-day questions related to the Christian faith: whether or not the Biblical source can be trusted in terms of its credibility and the true focus of worship.

The annual event, held in commemoration of the day that Methodist founder John Wesley had a unique assurance of salvation at an Aldersgate Street meeting in London in 1738, was graced by Rev. Dr. Ben Witherington III, Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary, who delivered the Aldersgate Service and Seminar, in addition to specialised workshops.

In a seminar entitled What Have They Done With Jesus? Professor Witherington III faced the question of the infallibility of the Bible head-on, countering attacks that have come from modern-day Gnostic literature and media including, most notably, The Da Vinci Code plotline by Dan Brown, and showing that the very sources that have become the basis of accusations against the Bible’s trustworthiness were themselves of doubtful origin, and that the self-portraits of the New Testament writers themselves were very much in line with the way in which external historical records portray them.

“Readers should beware of shocking new claims about Jesus or His earliest followers based on flimsy evidence,” he said.

The subject of the Aldersgate Service, on the other hand, was a reaction to a postmodern Christianity in which the Christian faith was increasingly being promoted as a consumer product, and endlessly professionalised simply to suit the tastes of a predominantly consumption-centered world. In his sermon, A Vision of Worship, Professor Witherington III pierced this false assumption, and emphasised, from a passage in the fourth chapter of the Revelation of John that the role and purpose of mankind is to be producers of worship, not consumers, and that at no time should the church seek to ‘produce’ worship for a ‘consumer’ audience.

“We live in a world of consumers and so it is not surprising that many people approach worship as consumers,” he said. “This is exactly the opposite of what we should do—we are supposed to be producers of worship, all of us. Worship should not be the performance of the few for the consumption of the many who are couch potatoes for Jesus!”

Rather, he continued, believers should follow the ‘proper vision of worship’ offered in Revelation.

The Aldersgate Convention 2008, which was open to the general public, was held over the whole of last week.

Seminari Theoloji Malaysia’s Principal, the Rev. Dr. Ezra Kok, delivered two evening talks in Mandarin on the first two days of the Convention.

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