I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us (Philippians 3:12-14 NLT).

Rev. Brandon Vetter, southeast district superintendent

Greetings from your newest District Superintendent in the Southeast!

As a pastor, especially in new member classes and Bible studies, I would regularly be asked something like this: “what is unique about Methodists versus Lutherans, Catholics, etc.?” And my favorite answer: Christian perfection. It is also called entire sanctification. In modern English, I think the best term is Christian wholeness.

We Methodists believe we can be made perfect in this life, made entirely whole. A lifetime of following Jesus through prayer and worship and study and mission and justice and service changes our default settings; it is not that we become without sin, without falling short. We are only human after all. But our first thoughts, our first responses, our gut responses, our default settings, change from hate to love, anger to empathy, impatience to patience. It is not a pie-in-the-sky notion for us. It can happen.

As we enter a new season in the United Methodist Church, I challenge all of us, myself included, to reclaim the things that make us uniquely Wesleyan Christians. Because I know there as a world hungry and ready for the message we have!

One of my go-to devotionals is a prayer book by Paul Chilcote. He takes many of John Wesley’s most popular sermons and puts them into short prayers for today. The prayer below is based upon Wesley’s sermon entitled "Christian Perfection." Take a few minutes to pray through it and highlight one or two items to carry with you, to challenge you this week, on your journey to Christian wholeness.

Serving Jesus with You,
Brandon V.

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"Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit - 52 Prayers for Today" by Paul Chilcote

God of Perfect Love,

You call me to be perfect even as you are perfect. That is a monumental claim upon my life. Despite the fact that this call to be completely conformed to the image of Christ -  to be absolutely Christlike in my life - is offensive to many, I will strive to open my life to the transforming power of your perfecting love. My prayer is that I might become daily more and more like Jesus, your Son.

The perfection to which you call me certainly does not mean that I will ever be free from ignorance or mistakes or infirmities or temptation; neither is it a call to absolute perfection, for only your unconditional love is perfect in this sense.

Rather you call me quite simply to develop such a close and loving relationship with you that I would never want to do anything to separate myself from that love or withhold it from anyone else. You call me to be loving as Christ was loving, in every relationship and at all times. And if I live by your grace in this way, then I will always be able to look you in the face without fear and with love in my eyes.

So I pray, sincerely that the blood of Christ might cleanse me from all sin. I know that you are ready to forgive all the darkness of my past and that you are able to fill my heart with your life-transforming Spirit. I know that Jesus is my advocate, a liberator who frees me for the bondage of my past and sets my course for a future filled with reconciling and liberating love.

I pray that you also free me from those thoughts and desires that are contrary to your love. I want to be clean, not only on the outside but also inside. If I am to be like Christ, his love must rule alone on the throne of my heart. I want you to live in me and become the source of all my thoughts, words and actions.

Purify me from pride, from self-will, and from anger.

Grant me courage to press on toward the mark for the prize of your high calling in Jesus Christ, not because I can make it my own, but because you have made me your own. Make me mature in him through the power of your Spirit and perfect me in your love. Amen.