Five Means of Grace: Experience God's Love the Wesleyan Way

By Elaine A. Heath

John Wesley gave the Methodist movement (and all Christians in general) a discipleship pathway to follow. Wesley began with Three Simple Rules (or “General Rules”), and followed this instruction a year later with the Five Marks of a Methodist (or “Character of a Methodist”). Wesley observed the need for continuous renewal of relationships with God and others, so he established a recurring annual process for God’s people to make One Faithful Promise: The Wesleyan Covenant for Renewal. The study by Heath turns to the practices at the center of Wesley’s understanding of spiritual growth: the means of grace.

This book/study guides readers through the five means of grace that John Wesley called “instituted,” meaning these are spiritual practices in which Jesus himself participated and which he encouraged his followers to do. One of the beautiful aspects of Wesley’s theology is that spiritual practices are seamlessly integrated with practices of loving our neighbors well. This is why Wesley said there is no holiness but social holiness. A life of genuine prayer inevitably leads to a life of hospitality, mercy, and justice.

Through this book/study participants will consider how each of the five means of grace help us as communities of faith to pray more deeply and live more missionally as followers of Jesus Christ. These means are the ordinary channels that God uses to draw us into a fruitful relationship. These five means or channels are:

1. Prayer
2. Searching Scripture
3. Receiving the Lord’s Supper
4. Fasting
5. Conferencing (communion, fellowship)

"Surely John Wesley wanted his teachings to be presented in clear and understandable ways. Elaine Heath’s teaching on the Five Means of Grace
are simple and engaging with deep truths. Your group will love it!" -
Jennifer Cowart (Executive pastor at Harvest Church, a United Methodist
congregation in Warner Robins, GA, near Macon. She co-preaches and
directs Discipleship and Emerging Ministries at Harvest UMC.)

"Elaine
Heath is one of the church’s great teachers and prophets. With engaging
stories and clear understanding of Scripture she invites us to
experience God’s love through ancient practices that we desperately
need. I will be using Five Means of Grace with my congregation
as an invitation for those seeking a deeper pathway into discipleship."
- Rev. Jacob Armstrong, Providence United Methodist Church, Mount
Juliet TN.

"Methodists are followers of Jesus who are guided by a “rule of
life”, a set of common spiritual practices that put us in a place where
we are more likely to experience God’s transforming grace. This brief
volume is deceptively filled with guidance for those who would allow the
Holy Spirit to guide them. I am grateful to Elaine Heath, who
continues to lead us again to the ordinary channels where the streams of
mercy, justice and righteousness flow.” - Ken Carter, Resident Bishop,
Florida Area, The United Methodist Church and co-author, Fresh Expressions: A New Kind of Methodist Church for People Not in Church

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Release date: Sep 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781501835650

Elaine A. Heath

Elaine A. Heath is a theologian whose work is interdisciplinary, integrating pastoral, biblical, and spiritual theology in ways that bridge the gap between academy, church, and world. Her current research interests focus on community as a means of healing trauma, emergent forms of Christianity, and alternative forms of theological education for the church in rapidly changing contexts. Heath is the author of numerous books and articles, the most recent of which is Healing the Wounds of Sexual Abuse: Reading the Bible with Survivors (2019), a republication with updates of a previous volume: We Were the Least of These: Reading the Bible with Survivors of Sexual Abuse (2011). She also recently served as general editor of the Holy Living series.

Book preview

Prayer

We were sitting in Betty’s office debriefing after I led a meeting of the women’s discipleship group that Betty, an associate pastor at our large Pentecostal church, had started years ago. Her staff responsibilities included disciple formation and pastoral care. Betty had over many months coaxed me into joining the group a couple of years before that, telling me it was a gathering by invitation only, for special ladies, which sounded mysterious but I was pretty sure meant for Christians who are slow learners.

When I finally went to the nameless group I realized with dawning joy that the dozen or so women were a ragtag group of disciples who wanted to learn to pray deeply and to hear God speaking to them through the Bible. Like me, some of them had experienced significant trauma in their lives, so they couldn’t be satisfied with pat answers to tough questions such as Why does a good God allow children to suffer abuse? With great patience and wisdom, Betty taught and mentored all of us.

After a couple of years of attending this group, Betty asked me to take over leadership of the group. This was all part of her careful mentoring process to help me awaken to God’s call. I felt overwhelmed by the task, but Betty was insistent that I should do it, so I agreed. Within a few months of taking over, the group’s membership had expanded to several dozen women, most of whom were not from our church and many of whom were new to Christianity. I was doing my best to help them know what it meant to follow Jesus even though I was very much a beginner

Reviews for Five Means of Grace

[tedwitham · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the unfortunate unintended consequences of the Uniting Church in Australia is the invisibility of all things Wesleyan in Australia – no more Methodists, no more reminders of John Wesley! Elaine Heath, Dean of the Divinity School at Duke University in North Carolina, as an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, is keen to share the treasures of the Wesleyan tradition with the widest possible audience. This little book is a gem from that treasury. The book explores Wesley’s five spiritual practices, prayer, searching the scriptures, the Lord’s supper, fasting and Christian conferencing for a contemporary audience. She outlines Wesley’s original conception for these five disciplines, and explains simply how Christians today might apply them to their lives of faith. Each section ends with questions for reflection and action. Dean Heath concludes by commending the idea for every serious Christian of a simple rule of life. The book is designed to fit into a pocket or stack of prayer books. The gilt lettering and embossed design make it a pleasure to hold and use. It is intended for frequent reference for a Christian implementing these spiritual habits for the first time. It would make an ideal gift for a young member of the United Methodist Church; as well as for young members of the Australian churches with a Wesleyan heritage, the Uniting and Anglican Churches.