John Wesley

Wesley, John (1703-1791). Founder of Methodism. Born in Epworth, Lincolnshire, England, in 1703, Wesley was the fifteenth child of high church Anglican rector Samuel Wesley and his wife, Susanna. Wesley was educated at Charterhouse, London, and Christ Church, Oxford (B.A., 1724; M.A., 1727), and was a fellow of Lincoln College (1725-1727) before joining his father as curate in Wroot (being ordain in 1728). After his father’s death Wesley returned to Oxford (1729-1735), where he also directed the Holy Club, a group of serious-minded students who were also called Methodists. The Methodists performed acts of piety and works of charity until Wesley left for a disastrous missionary experience in Georgia (1735-1737). On his return, an evangelical conversion at a society meeting on Alders-gate Street, London (May 24, 1738), changed his life. He was now convinced that the activities of the Methodists could be empowered by grace (or the work of the Holy Spirit) through faith in Jesus Christ. Less than a year later, a revival broke out which continued until his death in 1791. In his fifty-two-year itinerant ministry, Wesley preached over 40,000 sermons and averaged 4,000 miles of travel annually.

Wesley’s peculiar genius was the formation of societies which gathered and sustained those being awakened and converted. It was these societies that spread to America during the 1760 s. Although basically a lay movement, the Methodist Societies on both sides of the Atlantic had a discipline and style directed by Wesley himself.

In spite of the American Revolution, which in spirit despised all things British, the Methodists continued to grow, primarily under the leadership of Francis Asbury, one of several missionaries appointed in England by Wesley to serve in America. In 1784 the American Methodists wrote to Wesley asking for assistance as their numbers increased. Wesley responded immediately by ordaining Thomas Coke superintendent (in effect, bishop) and Thomas Vasey and Richard Whatcoat elders to assist Coke in establishing an independent Church in America. These, by Wesley’s authority, could in turn ordain a whole host of itinerants who up to that point could preach but not serve the sacraments to thousands of Methodists who were without access to these special means of grace. The famous Christmas Conference of 1784 saw the Methodist Episcopal Church in America come to life.

With Coke, Vasey and Whatcoat, Wesley sent documents necessary to organi e a church—letters of ordination, an "Open Letter to the People in North America" and an "Abridgement of the English Liturgy." After several ordinations, including Coke’s ordination of Asbury as deacon, elder and superintendent (soon to be known as bishop), on successive days the conference unanimously approved Wesley’s "General Plan," including the standards of doctrine received by British Methodism—Wesley’s Standard Sermons and Notes on the New Testament—and in addition, the abridged Articles of Religion the abridged "Sunday Service" and "General Rules" for the classes and bands. In one form or another this distinctive Wesleyan flavor remains within most of the Wesleyan traditions to the present.

Although Wesley’s theological and spiritual legacy lingers at the heart of Methodism, his direct ecclesiastical authority began to wane soon after the Christmas Conference. As Coke returned for a second visit in 1787, with the strong recommendation from Wesley that Whatcoat be elected bishop, the American Methodists flatly refused. Although they continued to love and revere Wesley, and they held tenaciously to much of his theology, rules for spiritual discipline and polity, they considered his attempts to make direct judgments on matters relevant only to the new Republic to be inconsistent with the spirit of independence.

Over the years, Wesley’s influence could be found in many areas of Methodism. Frequently, one denomination would emphasi e only one aspect of the Wesleyan tradition. Social justice, for example, so crucial for Wesley, has been championed by some, pietistic holiness by others, evangelism by still another and discipline by still others.

John Wesley