Christ established his church on the earth as an outpost of the Kingdom of Heaven, showing no partiality among men. No ethnicity or nation is given privilege under God’s reign. Rather, Christ’s high priestly prayer requires that we seek to do God’s will on earth as in heaven together. While there is almost certainly room for cultural differences and regional distinctions, such room is not a justification for separation or isolation. The church one finds in the Bible is an international global body that mutually watches over one another in love, each nation blessing and admonishing the others towards holiness.

The biblical vision of the church requires that we engage in cross-cultural conversations about the nature of our shared lives in Christ. We must intentionally foster the connection that Christ builds between us. We must cooperate with our own salvation. This means talking to one another at some point, at many points. While this can and does happen in big conferences, it can and should also happen also privately, interpersonally.

When Sègbégnon wrote a recent piece in Firebrand, creating a normative vision of what discipleship should look like in a fraught context (Nigeria), I knew I needed to try to understand his perspective. He graciously accepted my invitation, and this is the conversation that followed. We talk about nonretaliation as a universal sign of Christian maturity, the requisite qualities of distinctively Methodist discipleship, and the realities of religious life in Northwestern Africa.

Sègbégnon was a gracious guest. You’ll like him. Here is a link to his article: “To Stop Africa’s Bleeding: The Pentalateral Solution for the People Called Methodists” - https://firebrandmag.com/articles/to-stop-africas-bleeding-the-pentalateral-solution-for-the-people-called-methodists

Also, here is the book we referenced: “A Model for Making Disciples: John Wesley’s Class Meeting” by D. Michael Henderson - https://a.co/d/baf0knE

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