Turning our Focus to Living a Grace Filled Life
In our July edition of the Alumni Link, we introduced this academic year’s spiritual focus for our community. As we begin the Fall semester here at Asbury, all our departments are hard at work, implementing and preparing to lead our student body through the 2019-2020 academic year. As we prepare, we are considering ways we can support growth in our community through our chosen focus: the means of grace.
What are the means of grace?
The means of grace are tangible, intentional ways we can develop our relationships with God. They are holy habits we engage in our lives to help us grow and mature spiritually and bond with God and community.
Why are the means of grace important?
God is more than able to help us grow in our faith and in our relationships with Him and with others. However, this process can be easier and more effective if we are actively cooperating with the work of the Holy Spirit in this way. Structure and intentionality are the keys to maximizing all God is giving you in any season of your life. We seek to learn the rhythms of faith that will allow us to walk into the abundant lives and holy identities He has planned for us.
How are we engaging the means of grace in September?
We will be integrating this emphasis into multiple aspects of our community here on the Kentucky campus, and we hope you will follow us. In future editions of the Alumni Link, we will be publishing information about the chapel services that are planned as well as which means of grace will be highlighted that month. For the month of September, we will be highlighting the grace of pressing into community and creating bands to hold ourselves accountable to growth and holy living.
There will be opportunities to develop bands like this with like-minded people at the New Room Conference this month. See the New Room Website for more information about this conference, including registration information.
How can I participate?
Be sure to catch all the Grace-Filled Life chapel messages this semester:
Throughout the semester, you can check out our overall chapel schedule right here! You can watch chapel online over live stream with the rest of the community, and can watch it later in the archives located here. For your convenience, we have included the full chapel schedule below as well.
Engage our Facebook page here! We will announce opportunities for engagement here. Make sure to like the page to keep notifications coming to your news feeds!
Encourage other alumni you know to sign up for the Alumni Link to come in their email inboxes so they can participate in community with you and the rest of their ATS family! You can sign up by emailing alumni@asburyseminary.edu with your request.
Attend the New Room Conference (information linked above) and join a band. There will be lots of alumni there! We grow and thrive best in community. You’re not meant to go this road alone.
Check in here each month to follow our Asbury Family journey through the means of grace. For further study, check out the resource below from Andrew C. Thompson and published by our very own Seedbed Publishing. You can even preview the first two chapters for free, and they have discounts for orders of multiples! Bring your band, small group, Sunday School, class, or whole church on the journey with you!
The Bible tells us that Jesus’ followers are called disciples. If we want to be counted among those followers, then doesn’t it make sense that we figure out just what being a disciple looks like in everyday life?
In The Means of Grace, Andrew C. Thompson presents a clear and accessible explanation of the core tenets John Wesley instilled in the early Methodist movement—baptism, searching the scriptures, prayer, The Lord’s Supper, fasting, fellowship, accountability, works of mercy, and exercising the presence of God. Each means of grace is drawn from biblical examples and paired with a framework to offer a real, practical model for a life marked by holy love and holy transformation.
Wesley had a phrase for what it means to live faithfully as a disciple of Jesus: walking in the ways of God. Together, the means of grace demonstrate a Wesleyan pattern of discipleship and help us understand what these ways of God are.
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