Early Methodist worship was soaked in Scripture, in keeping with the Wesleys' intention. In this episode, David talks briefly about early Methodist practices of reading Scripture and the goal of facilitating personal and social holiness. 

Christ is risen! The gang's all here to talk about Christ's ultimate triumph over sin and death and what the resurrection means for the Christian life. 

In this episode, we talk about the theological significance of Good Friday and get into some incredibly clear an not-at-all-confusing conversation about atonement. 

John Wesley believed that the gifts of the Spirit described in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 were available to believers of all ages. Occasionally he preached or wrote on this topic. Nevertheless, he held, the gifts became far less common after the third century. Find out why in this episode. 

John Wesley was deeply opposed to slavery, as his "Thoughts Upon Slavery" makes abundantly clear. Nevertheless, he doesn't always deal directly with passages of Scripture that were often used in support of slavery. He most likely read these passages in light of the "general tenor" of Scripture, which allowed him to express staunch opposition to slavery while maintaining a commitment to the full inspiration of the Bible. 

We recorded our first podcast in front of a live audience at the 2019 Spirit and Truth Conference at Stillwater UMC in Dayton, Ohio. At this event, we talked about the future of the global Methodist movement, and how we got where we are today in The United Methodist Church. 

John Wesley agreed with his friend George Whitefield on many things, but one topic on which they sharply disagreed was individual predestination. Wesley was an Arminian. Whitefield was a Calvinist. Wesley's sermon "Free Grace" shows how strong were his feelings about the matter. This rejection of individual predestination and the affirmation of free will with regard to salvation would become one of the defining features of Wesleyan theology. 

Frank and Peggi Billman share a story of heartache and redemption as they relate their son's struggle with drug addiction and the overcoming of addiction with God's help. Today, their son Luke is about to become a United Methodist local pastor, but it's been a long road getting there. 

John Wesley understood Scripture as an indispensable resource for Christian formation. In the preface to his Explanatory Notes Upon the Old Testament, he offered several practical suggestions on how to read Scripture so as to grow in faith. David looks at Wesley's instructions for reading Scripture in another episode of PT Shorts. 

For John Wesley, Scripture was a means by which we could receive the preventing, justifying, and sanctifying grace of God. David explores this idea in another edition of PT Shorts.