Belief Series: Methodist

The First United Methodist Church is where Pastor Thomas Hyde leads a congregation in worship services every Sunday morning, something he knew was his life’s path since the age of 10.

His journey to this calling is a bit different from other pastors interviewed, a “God Experience,” as he called it.

“I had an accident when I was a young child and lost a leg,” he said, “in the mist of that I made that decision,” to become a minister, “when I was 10 years old.”

“I went through high school and college, but when I went to college I kind of had forgotten that,” his decision, “and headed off in other areas that didn’t work out so well. Then I got a job working with young people at the Y.M.C.A. and that changed my life and turned my life around. When I was out of school and working for a couple child care agencies, for about three years, I remembered the call when I was ready and headed off to seminary in Denver.”

Pastor Hyde graduated from seminary in 1979 and said he has been a pastor ever since.

He grew up in the Methodist beliefs, attending a small country church in his youth, south of Gothenburg, and even back then he said the Methodist Church meant a great deal to him.

“That was my extended family, the church there,” he recalled very fondly.

Pastor Hyde had a leg up in his choice in where and what he wished to teach, having been a member of a Methodist Church his whole life.

This background makes the doctrine quite easy for him to relate to others, as are the fundamentals in which Methodism was born.

“We are a Christian denomination, we are part of the larger church, we see ourselves as a portion of God’s Christian Church,” he began to explain what it is to be Methodist.

“We were founded by John Wesley and his brother Charles, who had a real heart for poor people, reaching out of the walls of the church. He would preach not just in his own church but he would tend to go to coal mines and lots of different places to reach out and find people. He believed by God’s grace we come to Jesus and that Grace is manifested in us, Grace is that love of God we don’t earn, it is by God’s power that brings us to God and not by what we do. But also that is manifested in Christian service.”

The Christian service the Pastor speaks of is that of the founders, reaching out to people less fortunate than the congregation, donating to different charities, to fund missions to help the misfortunate and to spread the word of God along with these acts.

The cornerstones of the Methodist faith are very similar to each of the other Christian based doctrines, “the scriptures are the main source of our faith.

“We do believe in tradition, as in that our beliefs have been formed by the people who have come before us. Scripture is the first tradition, the experience of God’s Holy Spirit working in our lives. And that God gave us a brain to think, from our founder on.”

Pastor Hyde said the Methodist Church is very strong in the belief that education is extremely important, as much as coming to the aide of anyone in need.

“Scripture, tradition and experience are some of the guidelines we operate under,” Pastor Hyde said.

The version of Scripture in which Hyde teaches also runs about the same as other Christian dogmas, saying he uses many translations of the Bible.

“We use a variety of translations. Of course the scriptures were originally in Greek and Hebrew, so where we find the dialog between the various translations is where I find most helpful. If you can’t go with the original language you look at several translations.”

He recognized the difference in the selection of the scriptures the Catholics use in regards to the protestant leaning scripture the Methodist Church follows.

And as with the majority of the Christian Churches, the “NIV and the New RSV are very popular,” Pastor said.

When it comes to baptism being a part of the faith Hyde said, “We believe in infant baptism. We will baptize people of any age. We believe that baptism is a sign of God’s grace in us that we are a part of God’s people. In our service parents take on the vows for their children and that is the beginning of a life growing in God’s grace. When children become age of consent, normally junior high age, then we have a class that we take children through called confirmation. Then they take those vows upon themselves to complete the act.”

He added the belief that when a person is baptized as an infant, the congregation also takes on the responsibility of the vow in keeping the child growing in God’s grace.

The congregation participates in the vow through the many Bible classes and community outreach programs, said Pastor Hyde.

According to the Pastor, since a heavy portion of their belief system is measured in the belief of God’s grace, coming full circle for the child is confirmation; the personal choice to continue upon this path.

“We would hope a young person going through confirmation would have the freedom in saying yes or no at the end of that class. Yes, I want to dedicate myself to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is my lord and savior. Or no, if that is what the child chooses.”

Even though infant baptism isn’t a stranger in the Methodist church, when it comes to baptism, as a choice, it is even more valued in the Methodist church.

“I have baptized adults, of which is quite appropriate,” Pastor continued. “As people come to us. It is quite exciting when people come to us later in life, to join our church; it is a great privilege to be a part of that.”

The Methodist beliefs recognize three types of baptism.

“Sprinkling, pouring and emersion. We tend not to do emersion, mostly because in a practical matter it is kind of difficult to do because we do not have a baptism pond,” the latter he spoke of the difficulty in finding open water to perform the ceremony in. “Most often we sprinkle.”

A difference in this Protestant based Christian religion from others Pastor Hyde said is “we have a strong ecumenical spirit.

“We have an understanding of the way God’s grace works in our life, but we also understand that other people come to that grace in other ways.”

As an example of this acceptance of others Pastor Hyde talked about the combined youth group for teens of three churches including his, Holy Trinity and Light Memorial Presbyterian.

“In all of our nation’s services we invite people to come in. We don’t have to agree with everybody to have a dialog or in partnership with people. We want to be an open church.”

Even within the church, the pastor said people have many differences in how they view the world and members accept that of each other.

“One of the other things that differentiates us is we are a connected church,” he said. “For an example I am appointed by our Bishop as opposed to having a congregation interview me and hire me. The Bishop chooses where I will serve.

“And we have a very strong sense of being connected to all the other Methodist churches. We are one organization with many different locations.”

Another difference between Methodists and other Christian based beliefs, and still debated internally in many Christian churches, is having female pastors or in key positions within the church as a whole, Pastor Hyde said the Methodist church welcomes women as leaders.

As another showing of the acceptance of everyone by the Methodists is the open communion offered, an ideology many others would frown upon, but the reasoning for the Methodists is simple.

According to Pastor Hyde, “We believe God’s grace brings us to God. Anyone attending service with us is welcome to the communion table, because God’s grace works in that.”