Michael Holland is a minister in the Penrith Circuit

An exploration of the passionate spirituality that drove the work of John and Charles
Wesley and underpinned Methodism, its faith, discipleship and mission.

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Introduction

Methodism grew and developed in a time when the church in England seemed to have lost its way. The convocation of the Church of England was not meeting, and many clergy were absent from their posts. The church seemed to be without direction and leadership and this at a time when one’s Christian faith was considered to be a personal thing, one that did not and should not impinge on life outside Sunday. It was in such a world that John and Charles Wesley took up their posts as ordained priests in the Anglican Church.

John in particular was influenced by the Moravian community; his well known experience of having his heart strangely warmed taking place at a Moravian meeting.¹ It was a Moravian, Peter Böhler, who observed that John “knew he did not properly believe in his Saviour, and was willing to be taught,”² and encouraged John in his search for saving faith and charged him with the words “preach faith till you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.”³

The experience that John Wesley had at that meeting in Aldersgate changed him and gave him a renewed vitality for the gospel and was preceded by a few days by Charles’s own conversion experience. The two set off in ministries that were to lead to the forming of a Methodist Society and to be key leaders in one of the biggest revivals of Christianity in the history of the UK.

But their ministry was not simply a repetition of a call to faith in Christ but was an integration of justification by faith (a protestant emphasis) and sanctification of life (a catholic approach). They set out a holistic approach to both salvation and healing and also a restoring of life and society; setting out that life in Christ incorporates both personal salvation and piety and also social action – an integration of personal and social holiness. This was not a route down a middle road but a radical approach to a dynamic spirituality and discipleship that held together a passionate faith in the saving work of Christ and a passionate outworking of that in the world.

This paper seeks to look at some of the emphases in the Wesleys’ theology and approach to discipleship that formed the basis of Methodism as a force for spiritual revival and social change that changed the face of our country’s religious and moral map.

The Message of Free Grace

Chilcote reminds us that, “we have a wonderful message to proclaim of God’s unconditional love and grace for all people in all places and at all times.”⁴ This was the central message within the Wesleys’ understanding of their faith and their theology; that in Christ we receive a gift of free grace from God. The theological emphasis is of prevenient grace, that the gift of grace is offered to us before we are even aware of it.⁵ This free gift converts us by God’s grace, puts us right with him and gives us new life in Christ and makes us into his holy people as we turn to him in repentance and put our faith in the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ.⁶

The Wesleys’ theology grew to be Arminian in contrast to the predestinarian Calvinism of the Church of England of the day: this gift of grace being for all. This lives on in the Four Alls of Methodism, that:

All need to be saved.
All may be saved.
All can know themselves saved.
All may be saved to the uttermost.⁷

This understanding of God’s grace being held out to all gave an impetus and urgency to the task of evangelism, of preaching so that people unaware of the gift of God’s grace in Jesus may hear, respond and receive what God longs to give. This is evident from John’s preaching:

“If then sinful men find favour with God it is ‘grace upon grace.’ If God vouchsafe still to pour fresh blessings upon us, yea, the greatest of all blessings, salvation: what can we say to these things but, ‘Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift’! And thus it is. Herein ‘God commendeth his love toward us in that, while we were yet still sinners, Christ died’ to save us. ‘By grace,’ then, ‘are you saved through faith’. Grace is the source, faith the condition of salvation.”⁸

This is also reflected in Charles’s hymn writing such as And Can It Be which some consider may have been his conversion hymn, but is certainly an approach we are considered to take in our worship as we consider this gift of grace from God.

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Saviour’s blood?
Died he for me, who caused his pain?
For me, who him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be?
That thou my God shouldst die for me.


Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray-
I woke; the dungeon flamed with light,
My chains fell of, my heart was free,
I rose went forth and followed thee.⁹

Wesley saw our faith being a gift of grace from God as we are justified before him. He assured us that we are not saved by our works, yet reminded us that this was the beginning of our discipleship. This gift of grace required a response and in this he was clear. It was all or nothing, as he reflected on the decision he made during his days at Oxford.

“I resolved to dedicate my life to God, all my thoughts and words and actions, being thoroughly convinced that there was no medium, but that every part of my life (not some only) must either be a sacrifice to God or to myself; that is, in effect to the Devil…I determined, through his grace (the absolute necessity of which I was deeply sensible of) to be all devoted to God.”¹⁰

As result, the life of pursuit of holiness in both the personal and social sphere followed. Justification was the beginning, the start of the journey, sanctification, the road to holiness, became the journey towards Christian perfection.

The Fellowship of the Believer

The Wesleys organised their followers into Class Meetings, sub groups of the Methodist Societies for mutual support and encouragement. While field preaching was bringing people to a point of faith and conviction, it was within the classes that the Methodists developed their faith encouraged and supported one another, and no doubt drew their strength and conviction for further outreach and mission activities.

It was within these groups that Methodists shared their testimony, their ongoing journey of discipleship as they gave an account of their soul. This had two effects, enabling people to articulate their faith which in turn helped them to engage in speaking to others of the Christian faith and Methodist approach which helped the Methodist movement to grow.

Charles’s view of the importance of fellowship, unsurprisingly, made it into his hymns. The importance of this is seen in All praise to our redeeming Lord:

All praise to our redeeming Lord,
Who joins us by his grace,
And bids us, each to each restored,
Together seek his face.

He bids us build up each other up;
And, gathered into one,
To our high calling’s glorious hope
We hand in hand go on.¹¹

The Discipline

Linked to the fellowship of the people called Methodist, was an expectation that this involved taking on a certain discipline in which a personal piety would be practised and developed. Being a Methodist was very much about being a disciple and the class meetings were places of formation, discipline and nourishment of disciples. There was a strong sense of mutual accountability and support in these groups.

Some of this, of course, flows out of the Wesleys’ experience in their early days as part of the Holy Club in Oxford as they sought to live out their discipleship in works of personal piety and holiness and also encourage one another in living out holiness in the social sphere through acts of charity. This for the Wesleys was a response to the grace of God which Charles captures in the words of his hymn:

He wills that I should holy be;
What can withstand his will?
The counsel of his grace in me
He surely shall fulfil.¹²

Wesley’s conviction of us being saved by faith alone did not allow him (or his followers) to rest on the blessings of God’s grace that they discovered in faith but was the beginning of a journey of discipleship and a disciplined approach to this journey. This was seen in his own discipline of prayer rising at five in the morning for personal prayer. Prayer was central to his discipleship and so it became an integral part of the discipline of being a Methodist for him. It is interesting to compare this with a discipline of prayer which is largely missing from much of church life – the prayer meeting often being one of the least attended meetings in the church’s diary.

John Wesley’s emphasis on discipline was evidenced by his writing of rules. Examples of such are recorded for us in his Rules of the Society of the People called Methodists 1743¹³ and The Twelve Rules of a Helper, 1753.¹⁴ Some put this down to Wesley having an obsession with control, however, a closer examination of the rules uncovers a deep concern for the discipline of being a Christian, a disciple, a follower of Jesus and a learner of the way of Christ. His first rule for class leaders in societies was:

“To see each person in his class once a week at least, in order

To inquire how their souls prosper; to advise, reprove, comfort or exhort as occasion may require;

To receive what they are willing to give towards the support of the gospel.”¹⁵

This indicates Wesley’s desire that people take their discipleship seriously and not only have support in this but also be accountable to their fellow disciples for their ongoing Christian journey. The use of these rules and the accountability that lay behind them could perhaps be contrasted with the relative wooliness of instruction about what it means to be a disciple in the Methodist tradition or a member of the Methodist Church today together with a relative reluctance to use discipline resulting in small group fellowships (where they even exist) that meet to study the Bible but not to challenge or support one another in developing a radical discipleship.

The Mission and Service

Of course, Methodism was not solely a religion of personal piety and small groups meeting for mutual edification but became a powerful movement for social change. This happened as Methodists took their faith and conviction out of the class meetings and into the world in mission and service.

The Church of England in Wesley’s day was proving an ineffectual institution. As a church it had exchanged its calling to mission for a task of maintenance which meant it was ill equipped for the social upheaval that was occurring in the 18^th century. Perhaps this was a result of the prevalent understanding of Calvinist predestination that had become an inhibitor of mission activity. The Wesleys’ Arminian approach gave fresh impetus and urgency to mission, but this too was a two pronged approach, the preaching of personal salvation going alongside the work of social redemption.

John demonstrated a transforming evangelical mission, calling people to a personal faith in Christ Jesus with an incarnational ministry, seeking the transforming not just of spiritual lives but of temporal ones too. John did not just preach but worked tirelessly for social change and took, what for its day, was a radical approach in his concern for prisoners, particularly those due to be executed, the effects of the liquor trade on society and even in his support and encouragement of William Wilberforce in seeking an end to the slave trade. All of these were contentious issues in their day and Wesley was not afraid to bring his faith to bear in these matters.

Charles, seemingly having a hymn for every occasion communicated this approach in song.

Never from thy service move,
Needful to each other prove,
Use the grace on each bestowed,
Tempered by the art of God.¹⁶

And

With calmy reverential joy,
O let us all our lives employ
In setting forth thy love;
And raise in death our triumph higher,
And sing with all the heavenly choir
That endless song above!¹⁷

Lessons for Today

So what for the Methodist Church today? Recent changes in visa requirements designed to prevent extremist religious leaders coming to Britain resulted in difficulties for probationer ministers from the USA wishing to take up appointments in the UK. It has been some time since Methodists have been considered extremists but does this tell us something? Do declining membership figures suggest that we have lost our radical edge? David Lowes Watson begins his call to a covenant discipleship by arguing that “Christian discipleship – the real thing that is – demands a radical commitment to Jesus of Nazareth,”¹⁸ and taking seriously what he had to say. Do we need to recapture something of the radical nature of a discipleship in a movement “that in the providence of God was raised up to spread scriptural holiness through the land by the proclamation of the evangelical faith…”?¹⁹

What can we rediscover from our heritage in the Wesleys that could help us as Methodists today?

I believe that the root of this lies in theology. The Wesleys’ faith was moulded by an experience of God’s grace which sent them out on a route of radical discipleship. This was not a theology of works but a response to that grace. We too need to recapture a sense of the immensity of this gift of grace, to “grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know that this love surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”²⁰ This is something so amazing that it demands a response in kind. To rediscover a sense of the enormity of what God has done for us through Christ in our justification by faith and to seek an appropriate response in kind in allowing him to continue his work in sanctification as we step out in holiness must be at the heart of our spirituality.

We need to rediscover the power of the small group, not just for Bible study but as a powerhouse of discipleship.²¹ Lowes Watson encourages the use of small groups to commit to what it means to be a disciple in both personal and social holiness. He suggests that groups make covenants in the areas of acts of compassion, justice, personal devotion and corporate worship in which group members support one another and hold each other to account.²²

The Wesleys knew that faith was not a solo affair but was worked out in community with fellow Christians and in society. If we rely solely on the Sunday service for developing our discipleship I worry that we will be ill equipped on our journey of sanctification. The small group can provide a place of deeper fellowship, support and perhaps most importantly, accountability in our journey, to which we must be willing to submit ourselves.

We can compare this to how we use our membership tickets. Are they just a bookmark or left on the mantelpiece or do we look at them regularly and use them as a guide in working out our discipleship in the church and in the world? I would suggest that our concept of membership has to be rediscovered, not as a statistical reference point for church size or requirement for taking up responsibilities but as a badge of intent towards a serious discipleship incorporating both a personal piety and holiness and an outworking of social holiness in the world.

Rediscovering a passion for our faith needs to go alongside a church culture of a passionate spirituality flowing out of what Christ was done for us. This needs to pervade all of what we do, from our worship on Sundays to our council and committee meetings; setting an example and modelling a passionate discipleship in church is key to helping people to develop such a discipleship for themselves and in small groups.

Alongside this, we need to reconnect our missionary proclamation of the gospel and the need for a personal response to Christ with our missionary acts of mercy and compassion. Too often we do mission as an excuse for not doing evangelism; we choose to minister in the Spirit of Christ in either word or deed. Yet, to separate the two is to pervert the discipleship to which we are called. The Wesleys did not offer us options of either social or personal holiness but sought to hold the two together. This was not a middle of the road approach that avoided either extremes, it was not an either or approach, but a dynamic and radical both and practice of Christian discipleship.

Methodism needs to be shaken from its comfortable status as a church and rediscover what it means to be radical disciples of Jesus, allowing God’s gift of grace to work in our lives transforming us and through such transformed disciples, to transform the society in which we live:

Jesus, confirm my heart’s desire
To work, and speak, and think for thee;
Still let me guard the holy fire,
And still stir up thy gift in me –

Ready for all thy perfect will,
My acts of faith and love repeat,
Till death thy endless mercies seal,
And makes the sacrifice complete.²³

Bibliography

Ayling Stanley	John Wesley	1979 London, Collins
Chilcote, Paul Wesley	Recapturing the Wesleys’ Vision	2004 Downers Grove Il, IVP
Craske, J & Marsh C	Methodism and the Future	2000 London, Continuum
Davies, Rupert E	Methodism	1976 London, Epworth Press
English, Donald	The Meaning of the Warmed Heart	1987 London, Methodist Church, Home Mission Division
Foundry Press/BRF	Disciple	1996 Peterborough, MPH
Hayes, Richard B	The Moral Vision of the New Testament	1996 London, T&T Clark
Langford, Thomas A	Methodist Theology	1998 Peterborough, Epworth
Lowes Watson, David	Covenant Discipleship	1998 Nashville, Discipleship Resources
Marsh, Clive, et al (Eds.)	Unmasking Methodist Theology	2004 London, Continuum
The Methodist Church	Constitutional Practice & Discipline, Vol. 1	1988 Peterborough, MPH
The Methodist Church	Constitutional Practice & Discipline, Vol. 2	2005 Peterborough, MPH
Methodist Publishing House	Hymns And Psalms	1983 London, MPH
Shier-Jones, Angela	A Work in Progress	2005 Peterborough, Epworth
Tabraham, Barrie	The Making of Methodism	1995 Peterborough, Epworth
Tomkins, Stephen	John Wesley	2003 Oxford, Lion
TMCP	Time to Talk of God	2005 London, Methodist Church
TMCP	Called By Name	2002 Peterborough, MPH
TMCP	A Catechism for the People Called Methodists	2000 Peterborough, MPH
Wakefield, Gordon S	Methodist Spirituality	1999 Peterborough, Epworth
Wesley, John (Tr. J Holway)	Sermons on Several Occasions	1987 Ilkeston, Moorleys

References

1	Tomkins, Stephen, John Wesley   (Oxford, Lion, 2003), p61
2	Böhler writing to Zinzendorf, quoted by Ayling, Stanley, John Wesley   (London, Collins, 1979) p88
3	Tomkins, Stephen, John Wesley   (Oxford, Lion, 2003), p58
4	Chilcote, Paul Wesley, Recapturing the Wesleys' Vision   (Downers Grove Il: IVP 2004), p23
5	Romans 5: 8 “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”   (NRSV)
6	TMCP A Catechism for the People Called Methodists   ( Peterborough: MPH 2000), p6
7	Ibid, p40
8	John Wesley's sermon Salvation by faith quoted in: Langford, Thomas A, Methodist Theology   (Peterborough: Epworth 1998), p3 c/f Wesley, John (Tr. J Holway), Sermons on Several Occasions   (Ilkeston: Moorleys 1987), p2
9	Hymns and Psalms 216 And Can It Be
10	John Wesley, from A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, cited in Chilcote, p70
11	Hymns and Psalms 753, All Praise To Our Redeeming Lord
12	Hymns and Psalms 731, I Know That My Redeemer Lives
13	The Methodist Church, Constitutional Practice & Discipline, Volume 1   (Peterborough: MPH 1988), p73
14	Ibid, p77
15	Ibid, p73
16	Hymns and Psalms 764, Christ from whom all blessings flow
17	Hymns and Psalms 761, Jesus, thou soul of all our joys
18	Lowes Watson, David, Covenant Discipleship,   (Nashville: Discipleship Resources 1998), p1
19	Deed of Union in TCMP, Constitutional Practice & Discipline Vol. 2,   (Peterborough, MPH 2005), p213
20	Ephesians 3: 18 - 19   (NIV)
21	Lowes Watson, David, Covenant Discipleship,   (Nashville: Discipleship Resources 1998), p78
22	Ibid,   Lowes Watson recognises that this is not going to work for every church member but argues that it offers an opportunity and support for those who desire to take being a disciple in the Methodist tradition as seriously as the Wesleys did.
23	Hymns and Psalms 745, O Thou Who Camest From Above