Interview: Special Directions

The Special Directions section of The Discipline represent the church’s ongoing engagement with the most pressing issues of the day. As such, they tend to change over time. Because they represent the conversations of decades, sometimes even centuries, they sometimes can take on the feel of artifacts from the issues of the past. For example, in paragraph 410 you can see previous concern over whether a Wesleyan might be a “conscientious objector” in war. The presence of this article even today means that the U.S. government will recognize you as a conscientious objector in a time of war.

At any one moment in time, it is often difficult for us to see the influences on us in that moment. We might have a chuckle at the previous struggles over dancing and going to movies without realizing that some of the issues very important to some at this moment will quite possibly be viewed the same way by the church of the future. The Special Directions are thus valuable tradition but also a reminder that we as a church are still “working out our salvation with fear and trembling” together (Phil. 2:12).

As you did with the Articles of Religion, pick two items from the Special Directions that you find interesting or have questions about. Interview someone in the church who has some knowledge of the debates that have played into this section (including elements that have been removed from the past). Does the person you are interviewing agree with the decisions of the past or with the state of the chapter today? What would they change about it?

Write up your reflections on the interview and chapter 5 in 300-600 words. What do you find interesting in the chapter or what so you have questions about?

Write up your thoughts and upload them to the course. This assignment is worth 50 points