n order for worship leaders to be spiritual leaders, they must cultivate a personal spiritual life. The best way to do so is intentional observance of the means of grace: prayer, scripture study, Christian conversation, worship, the Lord’s Supper, fasting, acts of justice, and mercy. This workshop explores how these disciplines can enable worship leaders to remain connected to the source of their call and inspiration through practice of these classic spiritual disciplines. John and Charles Wesley believed that it was possible for the Christian to continually grow in grace. They taught their followers to seek God in and through all things and warned them repeatedly not to trust in the “means” but to trust God alone, seeking God in the way God has instructed. Thus the “means of grace” are ways God has provided for us to receive more of God and God’s grace. In the “Minutes of Some Late Conversations Between the Rev. Mr. Wesley and Others” found in The Works of John Wesley, 3rd ed. Vol. 8: 322-24, we find a detailed (but not exhaustive) list of what early Methodists understood to be “the means of grace.” They are either Instituted or Prudential: The Means of Grace Instituted in the Bible 1. Prayer Private, family, public—consisting of deprecation, petition (asking forgiveness, asking for our needs), intercession (praying and asking for the needs of others), and thanksgiving (gratitude, worship, praise). Questions asked then, that might be asked of us today: Do you pray every morning and evening? Are you as faithful about your prayer time as you are about your appointments or meetings? How do you plan ahead to secure time with God in prayer? 2. Searching the Scriptures By Reading Are you reading constantly, a part of every day, regularly? Are you reading all the Bible in order? Are you reading seriously, with prayer before and after, and immediately practicing what you learn? By Meditating Are you meditating at regular times? By what method or rule? By Hearing Are you hearing every morning? Are you hearing fully with prayer before, during, and after; immediately putting into practice what you have heard? Do you keep a New Testament always near you? 3. The Lord’s Supper Do you use this at every opportunity? With solemn prayer before? With earnest and deliberate self-devotion? 4. Fasting Do you fast regularly? What method and means do you use? 5. Christian Conference Do you have a soul friend or spiritual director? Are you convinced how important and how difficult it is to always speak with others in grace? Seasoned with salt? To minister grace to the hearers? Do you pray before and after it? The Means of Grace Used by Prudent/Wise Christians 1. For All Christians What particular rules or spiritual disciplines have you in order to grow in grace? What arts of holy living? 2. As Methodists Do you never miss your class, prayer, or CD Group? 3. As Preachers Do you care diligently for the spiritual life of the congregation? Do you feed and nurture your staff and lay leaders (including the leaders of various groups and classes)? 4. As Assistants[liturgists, class leaders] Have you thoroughly considered your office; and do you make a conscious effort to execute every part of it as if you were serving Jesus Christ himself? These means may be used without fruit. But there are some means which cannot; namely, watching, denying ourselves, taking up our cross, exercising the presence of God. John Wesley’s Sermon: “The Means of Grace”* Before you use any means [of grace], let it be deeply impressed on your soul, there is no power in this. It is, in itself, a poor, dead, empty thing: separate from God, it is a dry leaf, a shadow. Neither is there any merit in my using this; nothing intrinsically pleasing to God; nothing whereby I deserve any favor at His hands, no, not a drop of water to cool my tongue. But, because God bids, therefore I do; because He directs me to wait in this way, therefore here I wait for His free mercy, whereof cometh my salvation. Settle this in your heart, that the opus operatum, the mere work done, profiteth nothing; that there is no power to save but in the Spirit of God, no merit but in the blood of Christ; that, consequently, even what God ordains, conveys no grace to the soul, if you trust not in Him alone. On the other hand, he that does truly trust in Him cannot fall short of the grace of God, even though he were cut off from every outward ordinance, though he were shut up in the center of the earth. In using all means, seek God alone. In and through every outward thing, look singly to the power of His Spirit, and the merits of His Son. Beware you do not stick in the work itself; if you do, it is all lost labor. Nothing short of God can satisfy your soul. Therefore, eye Him in all, through all, and above all. Remember also, to use all means as means; ordained, not for their own sake, but in order to the renewal of your soul in righteousness and true holiness. If, therefore they actually tend to this, well; but, if not, they are dung and dross. * Bicentennial Edition of John Wesley’s Works (Nashville: Abingdon, 1984), Vol. 1, p. 396. Tom Albin is Dean of the Upper Room Chapel, Nashville, TN. The preceding material was presented at the Nashville Jubilee Convocation of The Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and the Worship Arts. | It's All About Love | | My Story | Means of Grace | | Council for Accountable Discipleship: Annual Meeting 1999 | | Book Review- Worship & Daily Life: A Resource for Worship Planners | | Subscription Card | Cultivating Sprouts | | Back to Covenant Discipleship Quarterly Home Page |