6725

6725. (3) Statement of Practice.

(a) Identification with the church. To be identified with an organized church is the blessed privilege and sacred duty of all who are saved from their sins, and are seeking completeness in Christ Jesus. From the church’s beginnings in the New Testament age, it has been understood that such identification involves the putting off of the old patterns of conduct and the putting on of the mind of Christ, and a unity of witness and worship.

(b) Biblical principles. In maintaining the Christian concept of a transformed life, The Wesleyan Church intends to relate timeless biblical principles to the conditions of contemporary society in such a way as to respect the integrity of the individual believer, yet maintain the purity of the church and the effectiveness of its witness. This is done in the conviction that there is validity in the concept of the collective Christian conscience as illuminated and guided by the Holy Spirit. While variations in culture may require variations in which the transformed life is evident or demonstrated, each General Conference of The Wesleyan Church will be expected to adopt guidelines for its members providing for such evidence and demonstration in conformity with biblical principles.

(c) Worship and language. The Wesleyan Church believes in the miraculous use of languages and the interpretation of languages in its biblical and historical setting. But it is contrary to the Word of God to teach that speaking in an unknown tongue or the gift of tongues is the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit or of that entire sanctification which the baptism accomplishes; therefore, only a language readily understood by the congregation is to be used in public worship. The Wesleyan Church believes that the use of an ecstatic prayer language has no clear scriptural sanction, or any pattern of established historical usage in the church; therefore, the use of such a prayer language shall not be promoted among us.