#BeUMC: The World is Our Parish

Isaiah 2:2-4 John Wesley was on his way to the new world to carry the gospel to any and all when he wrote in his journal the words that we have remembered as the “world is my parish.” He had a heart for the church and worked to shore up the faith of the believers with his system of classes and bands in the Methodist movement. But he knew from the outset that this faith was not one of being cloistered from the world but engaged in it. From the beginnings of our denomination, we have been engaged in world-changing. This isn’t a new thing or a progressive versus a traditional thing. It is the very essence of who we are as United Methodists.