Apologies for not posting

Dear Readers,
I am sorry for not keeping up with posting on my Methodist History series.  Below you will find parts 5, 6, and 7 of the series which correspond to May, June, and July issues of our church newsletters.  Again, sorry for not keeping up.  Brian.

2015 UM History Series #7: “The Early Methodist Societies”

            After his Aldersgate experience Wesley began to preach in a whole new way.  His teaching centered on salvation by faith, an assurance of salvation by spiritual experience within the heart, and sanctification, or holiness, by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Wesley believed that one could know that one is saved by having a spiritual experience and that one could lead a sinless life by the power of the Holy Spirit.  It is no surprise then, as we will see later in this series, that both the Charismatic/Pentecostal Movement and the Holiness Movement would come largely out of the Methodist Movement.

            Since Wesley did not have a church of his own, he began preaching these new beliefs as a guest preacher in various Church of England Churches.  As you can imagine, these new beliefs did not set well with proper Church of England folks.  Therefore, Wesley found himself excluded from pulpit after pulpit.

            A major shift in Wesley’s ministry came at the encouragement of a former companion at the Oxford Holy Club, the evangelist George Whitefield.  Whitefield encouraged Wesley to preach outdoors, in public, rather than in the church.  For the very proper, rule-following Wesley this was going to be a major change.  He wrote in his journal, “I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin if it had not been done in a church.”

            On Monday, April 2^nd 1739 in Bristol, England, John Wesley wrote in his journal, “At four in the afternoon, I submitted to be more vile and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoining to the city, to about three thousand people.” 

Over the next 50 years John Wesley would ride over 250,000 miles on horseback throughout the British Isles and preach over 40,000 sermons mostly in town squares, open fields, borrowed houses and halls, and later in Methodist meeting houses.

However, John’s message was still not always well received.  Many times Wesley, or his preachers, were pelted with stones and dirt and chased by angry mobs.

In addition to being a great preacher, Wesley was also a great organizer.  When people responded to his preaching, Wesley would organize them into societies and classes.  We will talk more about Methodist organization in England in our next article.  

              

Pastor Brian.                  

2015 UM History Series #6: “From Oxford to Georgia to Aldersgate”

            John Wesley entered Oxford University in 1720.  He completed his master's degree in 1727 and was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1728.  After a brief period of assisting in his father's parish John returned to Oxford in 1729 as a Fellow (a kind of tutor or junior faculty member.)

            Meanwhile, John's younger brother Charles had arrived at Oxford in 1726 and by 1727 had begun to meet with other serious Christian students for intensive Bible study, prayer, support, and accountability.  They would also soon begin collecting money and items for the poor in town and visiting the sick and those in prison. 

            Other students referred to this group as the "Holy Club," "Bible Moths," or "Methodists," due to their methodical practice of Christianity.  Of course the name Methodists would stick. 

            When John returned to Oxford in 1729 he took over leadership of the group.  By 1733 there were 27 “Methodists.”  The group continued to meet even after John and Charles left for Georgia in 1735.

            On October 14^th, 1735 John and Charles set sail for the Georgia Colony becoming the first of the great Reformers to set foot on American soil.  John was to be the priest to the church in Savannah and a missionary to the Native Americans.  Charles was a chaplain to the fort and colony at Fort Frederica.

            Neither found success in their ministries in America.  Their American parishioners found them to be too strict for their tastes.  Charles returned to England on July 26, 1736. 

            John's American experience was more eventful.  John began courting a woman named Sophie Hopkey, the niece of a colonial official.  However, the socially awkward John courted too slowly and Sophie married another man.  A short time later, John refused to serve Communion to Sophie on a technicality.  Sophie's husband and uncle charged John with defamation of her character.  John fled Georgia a wanted man on December 22, 1737 and returned to England as failure in his own eyes.

            During the years at Oxford and his time in America John was a very strict religious man but had not yet had a spiritual awakening or an experience of conversion.  Up until this point in his life John based his religion on, in his words, "Not being as bad as other people."

            Among the Wesley's shipmates on the voyage to America were a group of Moravian Christians from Germany.  Their faith and peace during a storm at sea impressed John and he began to ask them question.  John discovered that the Moravians had a personal faith in Jesus Christ and an assurance of salvation that were entirely foreign to him and for which he deeply longed.

            When he landed back in England John was at the lowest point in his life; he wrote in his journal, "I went to America, to convert the Indians; but oh! who shall convert me?"  It was in this state that John was ripe for the spiritual experience that would change his life forever.  I include below the most famous passage of John Wesley’s journal.  From May 24, 1738 as John describes his experience at a Moravian meeting in London.

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

Pastor Brian                   

2015 UM History Series #5: “The English Civil War and the Birth of John Wesley”

            In the last article I described the English Reformation and the tension in England between Protestants and Catholics and between Conformist and Dissenter and Puritan Protestants.  This tension would boil over in what would come to be known as the English Civil War.

            In 1603 Queen Elizabeth I was succeeded by her cousin James I (The King James of the King James Version of the Bible which was first printed in 1611) who was later succeeded by his son Charles I in 1625.  Both James and Charles attempted to increase royal power and decreased the role of Parliament.  Both also suppressed the Puritans and encouraged more Catholic-like theology and practice in the Church of England.  Remember, it was in 1620, during the reign of King James I, that a group of Puritans fled England on the Mayflower.

            Needless to say many people, especially Puritans and members of Parliament, and especially Puritan members of Parliament were unhappy with James and Charles.  In 1642 the English Civil War broke out between the forces of King Charles and the Parliamentary forces under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell.  In 1649 Charles was executed and his son Charles II was eventually exiled to France.

            From 1649 until the restoration of Charles II in 1660 is known as the Commonwealth Period in which England was ruled by Parliament under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell.  During this time Puritanism held sway in the Church of England, dissenters (except for Catholics) were tolerated, and Catholicism and Catholic-style practices were virtually illegal.

            In 1660 Charles II was restored to the throne.  The Church of England returned to more Catholic-style worship, Puritans and Dissenters were once again, along with Roman Catholics, oppressed.

            It was not until 1688 that Dissenters, but not Roman Catholics, were officially allowed to own buildings and hold worship under the Act of Toleration.

            I said all that to set the background for the story of a Church of England priest named Samuel Wesley and his wife Susanna, both of whom came from dissenting backgrounds, and two of their 19 children, John and Charles, who became the founders of the Methodist movement.

            John Wesley (June 28, 1703 – March 2, 1791) and his brother Charles (December 18, 1707 – March 29, 1788) were both born in Epworth, England where their father served as priest in the Church of England.

            John and Charles were given a very strict religious and academic education by their mother, who was a talented theologian and Bible teacher in her own right.  Susanna held a Bible study in her home by inviting others to join in family devotions; a woman leading a group like this beyond her own family would have been a scandal at the time.

            On February 9, 1709, when John was six years old, the Epworth rectory (parsonage) burned down.  Some believe that the fire may have been started by Samuel’s own parishioners because they did not like his preaching!  The rest of the family fled the house but John was rescued unharmed from an upstairs window moments before the roof collapsed.  Susanna said that John was a “brand plucked from the burning.” (Zechariah 3:2)  John’s mother knew that he was destined to do great things for God.

            John and Charles would go on to study for ordination at Oxford University.  It was here that, along with some others, they would start a study, fellowship, and service group called the Holy Club that would become the beginnings of the Methodist movement.  That is where we will pick up our story next time.