Every church group has its “distinctives” – the practices or beliefs that set it apart from other groups.

Sometimes this is confusing to people. They say “if the Bible is true and Jesus was who he claimed to be, why are there so many different churches with so many different beliefs?”

We’re not so sure. We prefer to accept that we are not all the same and to see that in a more positive way.

We would rather believe that different denominations show forth the beautiful diversity there is in the church, which is strength rather than a weakness.

And we believe that when you step back and look at the church as a whole, you get a fuller, clearer picture of the depth and breadth of what the Bible calls “the Body of Christ”.

We are even optimistic enough to believe that with all this diversity in belief and practice, we still agree on 90-95% of Christian teaching, and the other 5-10% we do not agree on falls in this category of “distinctives”. We share many things in common with other believers.

So, what in the world is a Wesleyan?

Well…

We are not Baptists, but like the Baptists, we believe in calling people to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, to which we give public witness through baptism.

We are not Presbyterians, but like the Presbyterians, we believe in the power of preaching the Word of God to bring about changes in people’s lives.

We are not Lutherans, but like the Lutherans, we believe in salvation through Jesus Christ on the authority of Scripture alone, salvation by faith alone, and in salvation as a gift of God’s grace alone.

We are not Catholics, but like Catholics we believe in the seriousness of sin and in the need of a Savior.

We are not Charismatics — we do not speak in tongues in our worship services— but like the Pentecostals or Charismatics, we believe in the gifts of the Spirit, who gives people the power to live a Christlike life and to make a real difference in their world.

We are not Episcopalians — although John Wesley was a lifelong Anglican — but like the Episcopalians we take worship seriously (we just choose to be a little less ‘formal’ in our worship services).

We are not Congregationalists, but we have borrowed some of their ideas on local church organization.

We are not Friends, Moravians, or Mennonites, but like these pietistic groups, we believe in living a careful life that testifies to the watching world that we belong to the family of God.

We are not Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses. We are solidly orthodox in our beliefs about God, his Son, his Word and his work in our world.

And we are not Methodists, but like the Methodists, we grew out of John Wesley’s revival movement in the 1700 and 1800′s and identify Methodist as our heritage. We have good fellowship with our United Methodist “cousins”, but we are organizationally separate for historical reasons.

We are a warm and friendly group of people, people who try, with God’s help, to live the kind of life that brings honor to Him. We look to the Bible as our primary source for direction in our worship and our lifestyles.