Wesley United Methodist Church

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John Wesley was born on June 17, 1703, to Samuel and Susannah Annesley Wesley. Samuel Wesley was a descendant of an old English aristocratic line and Rector at Epworth. It was from him that John inherited a strong and independent character.   It was his mother, Susannah, who instilled in him a strong faith and devotion to God.

John and his brother Charles both entered into the ministry to follow in their father's footsteps.  They were both at Oxford together in 1729 where Charles is credited as the founder of Oxford Methodism.  He was the more outgoing of the brothers, so, when they started regular meditation, Charles gathered friends to join them.  They met regularly each Sunday and later twice a week, studying Greek and the New Testament together.  They were regular and methodical in their program of study and they soon were nicknamed Methodists.

This Holy Club, or Methodists, fasted Wednesdays and Fridays.  The money they saved was used for their good works, which covered a variety of things such as visiting the prisoners and freeing some from debtor's jail, teaching prisoners, furnishing books on Christianity, caring for the sick and needy in the town, and giving free tuition to poor children, who otherwise had no education. 

After the death of his father in 1735, John traveled to London.  There he met James Oglethorpe, governor of the Georgia colony in North America.  Plans were begun for the Wesley brothers to travel to Georgia as missionaries to the Indians for the Anglican church.  On the journey the ship was in a great storm.  Wesley examined himself, as was his custom, and found that he was afraid of dying.  He thought that if he was right with God there should be no reason to be afraid of death, but that one might welcome the chance of going to heaven.  As he walked the deck, he noticed a group of Moravians and was impressed by the fact that they were so calm. 

In America the missionary work was mainly with the colonists rather than the Indians, as intended.  However, during this time Wesley became more aquatinted with the Moravians.  He also began studying German hymns, translating them and trying them out in the Society, thus starting a whole new feature in the Anglican Church.  It is interesting that although Charles Wesley was to become Methodism's great hymnist, it was John who introduced the revolution in British hymnology.

Many things didn't go right in America and John returned to England discouraged and intending to give up preaching.  However, he met Peter Böhler, a member of the German Moravian Brethren, who encourage him to "Preach faith 'til you have it, and then because you have it, you will preach faith."

John's true conversion occurred in 1738.  He attended the Fetter Lane Society, which was neither Methodist nor Moravian, but had elements of both.  They had rules requiring the members to confess their sins to one another and to pray for one another.  From Wesley's Journal of May 24, 1738:

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society on 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.

This conversion opened a new world for him.  John visited among the Pietists and United Brethren in Germany, returning to England in September, 1738, with an eagerness to serve God.  After the Aldersgate experience, Wesley's eyes were open to "the multitude that knows not the law."  The Anglican Churches closed their doors to him.  On April 2, 1739, John Wesley preached before approximately three thousand people on a small hill outside Bristol, proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation.  A new era in the religious history of England started on this date.  Wesley's preaching had a deep influence on the hearts of the people.  He spoke so simply that all ordinary people were able to understand him.  Wesley traveled back and forth between Bristol and London, the centers of the Methodist Revival.  Crowds of people came to God through his work.

Then followed a period of doctrinal questioning and breaks from the Fetter Lane Society.  Some eighteen or nineteen of this group followed Wesley and formed the first Methodist Society in 1740. By 1743, they had 1,950 members and, in spite of controversies, Wesley's work continued and grew.  By 1744, Methodist Societies were growing up throughout England.  Wesley had some fifty lay assistants who traveled around the circuits, preaching and building the societies. 

Wesley's energy was amazing.  He traveled about 5,000 miles a year, preaching about 15 sermons a week.  The meetings were attended by thousands.  He organized prayer bands and church societies and appointed leaders to act as lay pastors. 

Much more could be said of John Wesley. But one final item, because it is important to the history of Wesley Church--John Wesley died a few minutes before ten o'clock in the morning, March 2, 1791.  It was estimated that some 10,000 people viewed his peaceful body with its celestial smile.  His gravestone bears these words:

This great light arose
(by the singular providence of God)
to enlighten these nations.
Reader, if thou art constrained
to bless the instrument,
give God the glory.

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