In the Free Methodist Book of Discipline (2023), the phrase “means of grace” is used 10 times throughout, as it should be as the guiding constitutional document for a denomination in the Methodist tradition. While an actual definition is not found within the BOD (it is presumed into the book), the means of grace can be understood as “a broader category referring to all the ways God has appointed to convey His grace to men and women.”1 Simply put, what this means is God has established ways for those in the Church to receive His divine enablement for Christian love and service.
There are many actions that are conduits of God’s grace to people. Everything from preaching, prayer, Scripture reading, and Christian fellowship to singing… and the list goes on. All of these things are good and necessary parts of Christian life and practice both individually and corporately. And they are yet eclipsed in effectiveness as a means of grace by the two sacraments that Christ Himself instituted and commanded: Baptism and the Eucharist.2
Paragraph 123 of the BOD states:
Water baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the sacraments of the church commanded by Christ. They are means of grace through faith, tokens of our profession of Christian faith, and signs of God’s gracious ministry toward us. By them, He works within us to quicken, strengthen, and confirm our faith.3
And, if you go to the two subsequent paragraphs, each detailing the specifics of our Free Methodist understanding of Baptism and the Eucharist, the language about God’s work in and through these sacraments is even stronger. All of this to say is that according to our Book of Discipline, the sacraments should have a predominant place in our theology and praxis.
From this understanding, I urge Free Methodist congregations to move toward weekly celebration of the Lord’s Supper as the normative goal, while recognizing that pastoral, logistical, and conference-specific circumstances may require a staged path toward that goal. This is not a call to adopt a particular worship style or to diminish preaching, prayer, Scripture, fellowship, or works of mercy. It is a call for our practice to reflect our confession that the sacraments are Christ-commanded means of grace.
What do we practice?
I now must ask the challenging question. If we affirm what our BOD states (something all clergy must do), as the apostolic teaching of the Church carried through our Anglican heritage into Methodism and then through to us today, why do we withhold them from our congregations?
This question specifically applies to our practice of the Lord’s Supper, as there is not usually a question about the importance of Holy Baptism (even if many hold a more Anabaptist view). John Wesley himself felt very strongly about this matter as well. We might go straight to his sermon, The Duty of Constant Communion (which I encourage all to read), but rather I’d turn our attention to Sermon 26, on the Sermon on the Mount, where he said:
“It was the judgment of many of the ancient Fathers, that we are here to understand the sacramental bread also; daily received in the beginning by the whole Church of Christ, and highly esteemed, till the love of many waxed cold, as the grand channel whereby the grace of his Spirit was conveyed to the souls of all the children of God.”4
The grand channel of His grace. This is important, and we should not miss it. Wesley is not saying that there are no other means of grace; there certainly are. But what is being claimed, as affirmed in both Scripture and the early Church, is that the Table is the primary place that God gives His grace to the Church. This claim likewise is bolstered by the fact that the early Methodists in England were derided as “sacramentarians” for their insistence on frequent celebration of the Lord’s Supper.
So I pose the question again for effect. If this is our Methodist belief and understanding of the Lord’s Supper, as affirmed in Scripture, through Wesley and in our BOD, why do we so constantly withhold it from our churches?
I do not mean that Free Methodist clergy are indifferent to Christ or careless toward their people. I mean that, as a denomination, we have tolerated a pattern of sacramental neglect that can deprive congregations of regular access to a means of grace Christ has commanded and our Discipline commends. The FMC pastors I have met and know faithfully preach the Word to their congregations to the churches every single week. I praise God for that and commend them for that. Yet, that is only half the job. We are stewards of both Word & Sacrament. And if a job is only half-done, is it truly done?
Outside Influence
One contributing factor is the way broad evangelical, Anabaptist-inclined, and excessively revivalist habits have shaped many non-mainline Protestant churches, sometimes more deeply than their own confessional and theological inheritances. Congregations understandably observe practices that appear to produce engagement, growth, or visible response and seek to adopt them. Yet such borrowing can become uncritical when we ask only whether a practice appears effective, rather than also asking what theology of grace, conversion, the church, and worship that practice assumes.
A related concern is a significant shift in the way worship is understood and ordered. In some settings, the regular pattern of Word, prayer, praise, and the Lord’s Table has yielded to a service structured chiefly around musical affect, preaching, and an invitation for an immediate response. Contemporary worship music is not itself the problem, nor is an earnest call to conversion. Both can serve the church well. The danger arises when emotional intensity or a visible response becomes the expected climax of worship, while Christ’s instituted means of grace, particularly the Table, are treated as occasional additions rather than a regular act of the gathered church.
This pattern bears resemblance to the revivalist logic associated with Charles Finney’s “new measures,” including the anxious bench: practices designed to elicit an identifiable, immediate decision. The concern is not that people should not respond to the gospel. They must. The concern is that the church may come to measure worship chiefly by the response it can produce, rather than by whether it faithfully gathers the people of God around Word and Table, through which Christ has promised to minister His grace.
My purpose is not to stir indignation against or to accuse faithful pastors and churches. It is to call my Free Methodist brothers and sisters, from laypeople to bishops, to receive afresh and to faithfully and regularly use the means of grace Christ has entrusted to His Church, especially the Lord’s Supper. Those of us ordained for ministry are charged not only to proclaim the Word but also to administer the sacraments; we should therefore seek to order the church’s worship in a manner consistent with that charge.
The Free Methodist Way
The regular participation of the table is not just for “liturgical churches.” While the liturgical church I serve, as well as the Free Methodist congregations in Rochester, NY, and Boise, ID, are irregular expressions for our denomination, there are a growing number of churches that are both contemporary and everything in-between that are becoming more sacramentally minded and celebrating communion weekly. This call is not about a specific style or formula of worship; it is rather a call to pursue the things Christ has given His Church, and that we as Methodists have from the beginning said are important.
I am so appreciative of our denomination’s pursuit of seeking Christ as to how the Free Methodist expression of the Church is called to impact the world. Our desire to seek together, become a reignited Spirit-fueled movement, to see the life-giving holiness of Christ made in each person, and the justice of the Gospel be wrought by our churches in our communities. I am moved by and love who we feel God is calling us to be. Now, how do we enact it?
It is at the Table, primarily, that we encounter Christ. We wish to encounter the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, which makes us holy and into the express image of Christ Himself. What better place than where Jesus has promised to encounter us as we eat and drink in faith! We desire justice to flow like a river, as we love mercy and walk humbly before our God. What a better place than where justice was served. Where God Himself gave Himself freely for others, as we are called to do likewise! We seek holy moments where people meet with and do business with the Lord. What a better place than where, again, we know He is. In the breaking of bread that we know He is there, where there is a participation, a koinonia, with Jesus Himself!
We are looking for answers and solutions to what we see as the problems facing the Church, especially the Church in the West. Yes, these are very real issues we must grapple with. What if the answer has been before us all along? What if, as we come, truly in faith to the place where Jesus is, at the altar, in the bread and the cup, we receive the grace and power of Christ in the Holy Spirit?
Moving Forward
So what are the next steps?
Pray and read.
First, pray. Pray that the Holy Spirit opens your eyes to the work that He desires to do in you and your congregations as you come around the Table. Celebrating the Sacrament does not do anything on its own. His power is there when we come in faith, knowing that He is working as He has promised. If you are laity, pray as well. Pray that your pastor comes to see the immense power that Christ promises to endow to His Church through His instituted means.
Second, read. Firstly, study the Scriptures. Look at the pattern of the Passover feast and how much worship elsewhere in Scripture meant actual consumption of food. Then in the New Testament, look at how central the Table is to the identity of the life and practice of the early Church. Then from that foundation look at the Church Fathers, Scholastics, Reformers, Wesley, and others like Thomas Oden, and see how essential and central the Table is to not just our practice as Christians but also our identity.5
As these things come together—prayer, study, renewed teaching, and faithful practice—we will more fully receive the grace Christ has promised to give His Church at the Table. The Lord’s Supper is not an empty ritual or a technique for producing spiritual results. It is a Christ-commanded means of grace, the “grand channel” through which the Holy Spirit strengthens His people in faith, holy love, and service.
As we come regularly in faith, we are continually reminded of Christ’s saving work and receive its benefits anew. Our identity is more deeply rooted in him; we are formed as one body, nourished for holiness, and sent to love our neighbors in the power of the Spirit.6
Rev. Joel V. Webb is a husband, father, and an ordained Elder in the Free Methodist Church. He pastors Croswell Free Methodist Church in Croswell, MI, and is co-chair of the Free Methodist Liturgical Network. He is pursuing a Master of Theological Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. You can connect with him and read more at joelvwebb.com.
I hate to use the word “effective” because it can derive an input/output sort of modernist mentality. By it I mean that the two Sacraments of Christ are more effectual.
More places to look in Scripture: John 6:35, 51–58; Matthew 26:26–29; Mark 14:22–25; Luke 22:14–20; Luke 24:13–35; Acts 2:42, 46; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 10:16–17; 1 Corinthians 11:23–29; and Revelation 19:6–9.
This article was originally published on joelvwebb.com.
I want to understand the issue better. I assume that many of the FMC churches are providing the Lord's Supper on a monthly basis (like my GMC church) as opposed to at all services, and I also assume that frequency is a matter of decision on a church by church basis. Because of this 1) the Lord's Supper (meaning and power and importance within the conducting of a service) is diminished due to this infrequency, thus 2) congregations and our giving glory to God isn't being fully served
Is there something I'm missing/misunderstanding?
What does this look like for younger ministers who are often entering already established church communities? Do you know anyone who’s moved a church from infrequent to weekly Communion?