Published by Wipf & Stock

The United Methodist Church is at a crossroads, and nothing is more important than reclaiming our sacramental distinctiveness in times of great divisiveness. This book takes a fresh look at Wesley's core teachings on the Lord's Supper, letting each unique feature of Wesley's Communion theology becomes a lens to navigate troubled waters. The author explores the historical background of each characteristic, finds evidence in writings of John and Charles Wesley, and applies them to the struggles of present-day United Methodism. He concludes with signs of life emerging in divisive and uncertain times, as people come back to the table to move forward into the future. 

Free Study Guide Available

There is a free Study Guide for Something Happens Here: Reclaiming the Distinctiveness of Wesley's Communion Spirituality in Times of Divisiveness. It is designed for seven sessions (six during Lent plus one "resurrection meal" after Easter). Or it can be easily adapted for any time of year!

I recommend it for United Methodists who are ready for an intense and timely book study. Order information for the book is on the front page of the study guide. 

Check it out and see if it's right for your United Methodist small group. It’s a deep dive that might just bring healing for those committed to staying in the UMC during this difficult season of disaffiliations.

You may FIND IT HERE.

Endorsements

"Who better than pastor, scholar, musician Steve West to minister to us in the present moment, calling us Wesleyans to the core of our dynamic sacramental piety? Amid the threatened sad separations and acrimonious debate in our church, Steve gives an irenic, passionate, celebratory, deeply Christian witness that could lead us, by God's grace, into a more hopeful future."—WILL WILLIMON, retired United Methodist bishop

“In a time when it’s important to come back to the table instead of just going our separate ways, Steve invites us into real community and a radical life. . . . Steve shares his imagination with us in a way that gives us not only deeper appreciation for hymnology but practical application for all it means to be a time traveler with him.”
—GLANDION W. CARNEY, Anglican priest, retired

West takes us on a journey behind John Wesley’s understanding of Communion to earlier sources and then through John’s writings and his brother Charles’s hymns. However, West is not really focusing on the sacramental theology—he is focusing through it. His real concern is how a Wesleyan understanding of the table can inform the faithfulness of the church in the midst of intense division. A timely book.”
—O. WESLEY ALLEN, JR., Southern Methodist University

“In clear prose, West’s study delivers historical, theological, and pastoral explanations of the eucharistic celebration’s immanent potential for forming the assembled members in Christlike charity and service revealed through word and sacrament.”

—BRUCE T. MORRILL, SJ, Vanderbilt University

“Feast on this book, and it will help you feast on God’s grace! West has taken the riches of the Wesleys’ theology of Holy Communion and made them available for the church today in a way that’s both historically rigorous and remarkably relevant. He has shown that reconnecting with the breadth, depth, and beauty of this holy meal is the best path toward a hopeful future for the church.”

—L. ROGER OWENS, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

“West immerses us in the Wesleyan theology and practice of Holy Communion, especially at this moment fraught with schism. West invites a reconsideration of Wesley’s emphases on the real presence, remembrance as ‘experiencing anew,’ and the sacramental work of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the epiclesis embodies the full expression of Wesleyan eucharistic spirituality. Something Happens Here is a compelling and essential read for a people in need of hope and a reformed identity.”

—RICHARD L. ESLINGER, United Theological Seminary, emeritus

“West’s book is an interesting, must-read intersection of pastoral and scholarly perspectives that can aid United Methodist and other clergy and laity in reclaiming the sacrament of Holy Communion. Following John and Charles Wesley, . . . West suggests to the divisive forces in the church—indeed, to all—to first come to the table of the Lord. There alone is guidance for the individual’s and the church’s direction now and in the future.”

—S T KIMBROUGH, JR., Duke Divinity School

Other Voices in the UMC Speak

Rev. Dr. Dwight H. Judy, Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Formation at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, wrote:

Get this book! Very significant historical references and so important for us NOW!

Rev. Dr. Lovett Weems, Jr., author and distinguished professor of church leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary, wrote:

This is a fine book by an incisive thinker and skilled practitioner. Every page is a tutorial on Wesleyan theology. West captures the power of the Eucharist for Wesleyans, and its implications for the most contemporary challenges the church and world face today.

Rev. Dr. Steve Harper, author and former seminary professor at Asbury Seminary and blogger at Oboedire, wrote:

For some time, I have believed that the increase of divisiveness in The United Methodist Church (and the larger Christian community) is, in part, due to a decrease in our theology and practice of Holy Comnunion. When we stop coming to the Table together, we open the door to separatism that can too easily turn toxic.

And worse, when some divide so severely that they are willing to speak and write about excluding people from the Table, they have reversed the intention of Jesus for the holy meal to bring us together, counterfitting Communion, making it exclusionary, and using it to legitimize and widen the divide. 

Conversely, I also believe that the renewal of the United Methodist Church (and the larger Christian community) must include a recovered theology of the Lord's Supper and a revived partaking of it. I believe the new awakening is eucharistic. 

What I have only discovered recently is that Steve West not only believes this, he has written a book about it--a book which weaves together multiple threads of sacramental theology to offer us a eucharistic coat of many colors, complete with a winsome invitation to put it on. I have not seen a book that combines the various elements of sacramental theology the way his does.

Rooted in the Bible and in the Wesleys' words and hymns, West offers insights as ancient as Macarius the Egyptian and modern as John Pavlovitz. Along the way, his own pastoral experience with the sacrament puts flesh on the conceptual bones, sometimes in surprising and moving ways--the first story in the book serving that purpose in spades.

West's title, 'Something Happens Here' sums it up. And after you read his book, you will find yourself saying, "It is something that needs to happen again, here and now." And more, you will find yourself drawn into a mission to make it so.

United Methodist Insight interviewed the author and published a review of the book by Cynthia Astle. You can find it here. 

Bishop Will Willimon, retired United Methodist bishop, wrote additional words that were not included on the endorsement on the back cover. He wrote:

"West skillfully interweaves history, Wesleyan theology, and hymnody into a warm, pastoral, accessible presentation that calls us Methodists to focus on the heart of who we are. He makes me proud to be a Wesleyan Christian by leading us to the Lord's Table and showing how this sacrament has important things to say to the church in the present age."

Rev. Michael Roberts, senior pastor of Jonesboro First UMC in Jonesboro, Arkansas (which successfully emerged from a high profile lawsuit by separatists seeking to take their property), wrote:

Especially to pastors and church leaders, I want to recommend this book written by my friend Steve West. I bought the Kindle version. It is so good. I will definitely be using it as a part of my strategy to promote unity and Christlikeness in a divided culture, where the frame of "warring sides" is so engrained.  Keys to a more life-giving perspective can truly be found in the sacrament, where Christ is present in the gathered community, inviting us, not to like-mindedness, but to love-mindedness. This book is rich with insights and inspiration to help us, not to take on the stress of having to do it all, but to join in what God is doing and to participate in the reality that is graciously given through Christ.   Holy Communion is truly the grand means of grace for this holy calling.

Rev. Tammy Jackson, senior pastor of Anniston First UMC in Anniston, Alabama and chair of the North Alabama Conference Board of Ordained Ministry, wrote;

Steve is a colleague in the UMC, and I must admit that when I discovered his doctoral work was becoming a book, I expected it to be dry and academic. Something seminary classes might use (and they could), but not something the average layperson would enjoy reading. However, I was pleasantly surprised. While Steve's incredible intellect and deep knowledge of the Wesleyan tradition clearly shine through, it also contains stories and explanations that will connect on many levels. He does a beautiful job of translating theological terms into language everyone can understand and appreciate. This is why I used the book for a Bible study with a group in my own congregation. The reminder of our deep, meaningful roots was appreciated. It's worth the read and will be time you won't regret investing.

Excerpt

My favorite quote of Dietrich Bonhoeffer might be the one found in Life Together where he says, “Christian brotherhood is not an ideal we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.” I am learning from a lifetime of church work that while we can’t manufacture true community, we can begin to live into it. In fact, we must. This is the participation in the life of God that the table invites us into.

For community to be real, our focus must be on what pulls us forward and binds us together, not what we disagree on. This is hard right now. When we come to an impasse, the call of Holy Communion is to come back to the table and work it out instead of going our separate ways. When we can’t imagine moving forward together, the lens of Communion gives us the opportunity to let God reenvision and refashion us. In divisive times, disagreements have led to entrenched requirements that people on the “other side” see it our way, or at least follow our rules . . . or we simply take our toys and go play somewhere else. How typical of North American culture these days, but the table compels us to be different than the world.

What does it mean to be in real community, daring to participate in this new reality Bonhoeffer speaks of? Disagreement has always been part of the story of denominations and faith movements. Yet, by the grace of God, the Spirit ushers in and messes with us, even in the midst of the mess we make of ourselves.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” As I have revisited the Gospels and the book of Acts in recent years, examining Jesus and the early church in their repeatedly bold actions on behalf of gentiles and Samaritans, I have come to the conclusion that the arc of Christian history is also long, but it bends toward inclusion. Yes, there are difficult practical matters to work out in this moment of impasse in the United Methodist Church. But as people of the table, we are willing to do what it takes in the messiness of what it means to be in community together. First and foremost, we must focus on following Christ.

After that, we may need to decentralize decisions we can’t agree on corporately and allow for contextualized ministry, trusting in the workings of the Holy Spirit. It seems to me this is the only way forward for the United Methodist Church, unless the definition of being God’s church is that we must be like-minded thinkers and like-minded actors. As I have said before, how conspicuous that the culture wars that threaten to splinter us apart are over matters that are not even mentioned in the Gospels or the ancient creeds.

The United Methodist Church and our predecessors have made it through divisive issues such as slavery, voting rights, temperance, civil rights, and ordaining women. It is the most evenly widespread denomination in the United States, so there will always be cultural issues to sort through. But this is a moment where we must decide whether to stay at the table and work it out or not, and to me, that’s the very definition of church.

John Wesley said, in his sermon “Catholic Spirit,” “Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may.” He also said, in his sermon “On Schism,” that “it is evil in itself. To separate from a body of living Christians with whom we were before united is a grievous breach of the law of love,” and hence it “is only when our love grows cold that we can consider separation.” He continues, “The pretenses for separation may be innumerable, but want of love is always the real cause; otherwise, they would still hold the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

The table is a radical table, because it brings us back to what connects us, which is not agreement or like-minded thinking but community and love-minded thinking. We are bound by our belief, yes, but I’m reminded that in early English, the word “belief” was pronounced “by life.” How we love those we don’t agree with is the very definition of Christian fellowship.

-- Stephen P. West, copyright 2022

Preview and Purchase Information

A preview of the book (using "look inside") and purchase information (including a Kindle version) may be found here at Amazon.com.

Purchase information may also be found here at Wipf & Stock.

The book is also available directly from the author.

Book Review in Vol 15/2 of Journal Wesley and Methodism Studies (London)