With Christians of other communions
we confess belief in the triune God—Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. This confession embraces the biblical
witness to God’s activity in creation, encompasses
God’s gracious self-involvement in the dramas
of history, and anticipates the consummation of God’s
reign.
The created order is designed for the well-being of
all creatures and as the place of human dwelling in
covenant with God. As sinful creatures, however, we
have broken that covenant, become estranged from God,
wounded ourselves and one another, and wreaked havoc
throughout the natural order. We stand in need of redemption.
United Methodist preaching and teaching is grounded
in scripture, informed by Christian
tradition, enlivened in personal
experience, and tested by reason.
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Scripture
United Methodists share with other Christians the conviction
that Scripture is the primary source and criterion for
Christian doctrine. Through Scripture the living Christ
meets us in the experience of redeeming grace. We are
convinced that Jesus Christ is the living Word of God
in our midst whom we trust in life and death. 
Tradition
The story of the church reflects the most basic sense
of tradition, the continuing activity of God's Spirit
transforming human life. Tradition is the history of
that continuing environment of grace in and by which
all Christians live, God's self-giving love in Jesus
Christ. As such, tradition transcends the story of particular
traditions.
Experience
Some facets of human experience tax our theological
understanding. Many of God's people live in terror,
hunger, loneliness, and degradation. Everyday experiences
of birth and death, of growth and life in the created
world, and an awareness of wider social relations also
belong to serious theological reflection.
A new awareness of such experiences can inform our appropriation
of scriptural truths and sharpen our appreciation of
the good news of the kingdom of God.
Reason
Although we recognize that God’s revelation and
our experiences of God’s grace continually surpass
the scope of human language and reason, we also believe
that any disciplined theological work calls for the
careful use of reason. By reason we read and interpret
Scripture. By reason we determine whether our Christian
witness is clear. By reason we ask questions of faith
and seek to understand God’s action and will.
A Triune God
There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without
body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness;
the maker and preserver of all things, both visible
and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there are
three persons of one substance, power, and eternity--the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
The Father
We believe in the one true, holy and living God, Eternal
Spirit, who is Creator, Sovereign and Preserver of all
things visible and invisible. The Father is infinite
in power, wisdom, justice, goodness and love, and rules
with gracious regard for the well-being and salvation
of men, to the glory of his name. We believe the one
God reveals himself as the Trinity: Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, distinct but inseparable, eternally one
in essence and power.
The Son
We believe in Jesus Christ, truly God and truly human,
in whom the divine and human natures are perfectly and
inseparably united. Christ is the eternal Word made
flesh, the only begotten Son of the Father, born of
the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. As
ministering Servant he lived, suffered and died on the
cross. He was buried, rose from the dead, and ascended
into heaven to be with the Father, from whence he shall
return. He is eternal Savior and Mediator, who intercedes
for us, and by him all people will be judged.
The Holy Spirit
We believe in the Holy Spirit who proceeds from and
is one in being with the Father and the Son. The Spirit
convinces the world of sin, of righteousness and of
judgment. The Spirit leads people through faithful response
to the gospel into the fellowship of the Church. The
Spirit comforts, sustains and empowers the faithful
and guides them into all truth.
Prevenient Grace
We acknowledge God’s prevenient grace, the divine
love that surrounds all humanity and precedes any and
all of our conscious impulses. This grace prompts our
first wish to please God, our first glimmer of understanding
concerning God’s will, and our "first slight
transient conviction" of having sinned against
God.
God’s grace also awakens in us an earnest longing
for deliverance from sin and death and moves us toward
repentance and faith.
Justification and
New Birth
We believe God reaches out to the repentant believer
in justifying grace with accepting and pardoning love.
Wesleyan theology stresses that a decisive change in
the human heart can and does occur under the prompting
of grace and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
In justification we are, through faith, forgiven our
sin and restored to God’s favor. This righting
of relationships by God through Christ calls forth our
faith and trust as we experience regeneration, by which
we are made new creatures in Christ.
This process of justification and new birth is often
referred to as conversion. Such a change may be sudden
and dramatic, or gradual and cumulative. It marks a
new beginning, yet it is part of an ongoing process.
Christian experience as personal transformation always
expresses itself as faith working by love.
Wesleyan theology also embraces the scriptural promise
that we can expect to receive assurance of our present
salvation as the Spirit "bears witness with our
spirit that we are children of God."
Sanctification
and Perfection
We believe sanctification is the work of God's grace
through the Word and the Spirit, by which those who
have been born again are cleansed from sin in their
thoughts, words and acts, and are enabled to live in
accordance with God's will, and to strive for holiness
without which no one will see the Lord.
Faith and Good Works
We believe good works are the necessary fruits of faith
and follow regeneration but they do not have the virtue
to remove our sins or to avert divine judgment. We believe
good works, pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ,
spring from a true and living faith, for through and
by them faith is made evident.
Nurture and Mission of
the Church
Finally, we emphasize the nurturing and serving function
of Christian fellowship in the Church. The personal
experience of faith is nourished by the worshiping community.
For Wesley there is no religion but social religion,
no holiness but social holiness. The communal forms
of faith in the Wesleyan tradition not only promote
personal growth; they also equip and mobilize us for
mission and service to the world.
The outreach of the church springs from the working
of the Spirit. As United Methodists, we respond to that
working through a connectional polity based upon mutual
responsiveness and accountability. Connectional ties
bind us together in faith and service in our global
witness, enabling faith to become active in love and
intensifying our desire for peace and justice in the
world.
Service to the World
We insist that personal salvation always involves Christian
mission and service to the world. By joining heart and
hand, we assert that personal religion, evangelical
witness, and Christian social action are reciprocal
and mutually reinforcing.
Scriptural holiness entails more than personal piety;
love of God is always linked with love of neighbor,
a passion for justice and renewal in the life of the
world.
The General Rules represent one traditional expression
of the intrinsic relationship between Christian life
and thought as understood within the Wesleyan tradition.
Theology is the servant of piety, which in turn is the
ground of social conscience and the impetus for social
action and global interaction, always in the empowering
context of the reign of God.
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