What would make a PCUSA'er turn Methodist?

[govols]

Today is my first day meeting with a group of guys in a Bible study going over Mark. One is an Eastern Orthodox Catholic, Free Will Baptist, 7th Dayist and then a guy that was PCUSA for years but is now Methodist.

That is a strange direction to go in. Why would that be so?

Haven't aksed him yet but I know that there are mostly PCA'ers on the PB.

 

[tfelice]

That's quite a mix you have there. I pray the Lord will grant you opportunites to share the gospel message with those people. With the exception of the Free Will Baptist, the others are all in false churches.

To answer your question, in truth there is little difference between the PCUSA and the Methodist church (I am assuming he is now UMC). Both churches are ultra-liberal and teach the "social gospel" rather than preaching about sin, repentance, justification, santification, etc. So making a switch between a PCUSA and a UMC church is likely over external reasons rather than over a deep theological reasoning.

 

[wsw201]

Agree with Tony. There really is no significant difference between the PCUSA and UMC that anyone sitting in a pew would notice.

 

[jfschultz]

Originally posted by wsw201
Agree with Tony. There really is no significant difference between the PCUSA and UMC that anyone sitting in a pew would notice.

I had been going to a PCUSA (actually UPCUSA at the time) while in college when I came to Christ during summer vacation. Having hit a crisis point (the authority of scripture) there I tried a UMC church across the campus. After one service it was apparent that it wasn't any better. I then went to a dipsy church across the street which was probably the only evangelical witness within walking distance of the campus.

 

[WrittenFromUtopia]

The PCUSA and UMC are basically indistinguishable now. It is very sad, actually.

 

[govols]

Originally posted by tfelice
That's quite a mix you have there. I pray the Lord will grant you opportunites to share the gospel message with those people. With the exception of the Free Will Baptist, the others are all in false churches.

What an experience. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be but I sure was afraid to part in the prayer at the beginning.

The 7th Dayer is the tough one. He likes to hog up the time talking about everything. He (they) of course is a big Sabbath holder, etc. and talking about that at the end of Mark 2 and beginning of Mark 3 was fun and will continue to be. Then we had the Free Willer pipe in about our free will to salvation.

I didn't want to get uninvited the first day so I'm biding my time. I did ask if we could meet for an hour instead of half of one b/c I wanted to say a few things instead of listening to the 7th Dayer talk.

I just pray that I will be patient and won't explode with, "surely you can't be that stupid to think that."

But stupidity would mean that they know the truth but choose to ignore or do opposite of which I don't they do yet.

 

[tfelice]

John,

You may be the only true believer in the bunch. I just read over the Statement of Faith at the FWB site

http://nafwb.net/tp17/page.asp?ID=766

There are some major problems there. One one hand they state "It is a salvation by grace alone and not of works" but also deny grace by stating "Since man, however, continues to have free choice, it is possible because of temptations and the weakness of human flesh for him to fall into the practice of sin and to make shipwreck of his faith and be lost"

I admire you trying to share the gospel with these people. I would caution you though to keep your task in mind at all times. Do not look on this as a Bible Study with these people, since you cannot truly study God's Word with the unregenerate, but instead look at it as an opportunity to present the gospel to these lost souls.

 

[twogunfighter]

How does John know that these guys are not regenerate? The fact that these people want to study the bible at all gives hope that they may be regenerate. The fact that they are in false churches in no way indicates that they are themselves tares. Martin Luther and many others have remained members of apostate churches for some time trying to reform them. Any person that has received trinitarian baptism and professes Christ must be given the benefit of the doubt until they prove by their fruits that their confession should be doubted.

 

[turmeric]

You have to get control of the discussion. I know I've seen books about facilitating discussions which would tell you how to give everyone a chance to speak.

 

[Augusta]

John, are you the leader/former of the study group? If yes, then Meg is right. You need to take control and lay down some ground rules. Make sure that the first rule is to be considerate. Then you have to follow it. Try to make sure it is a discussion not an alternating speech giving format. My husband it very good at this staying under the radar thing but asking leading questions. He can bring a person to the subject he wants just by asking questions. He is a sneak attack type when it comes to these discussions. They don't see him coming. He has had to hone this skill by working in an environment that is hostile to all things conservative and Christian. He works at Microsoft.