His work also helped lead to the development of the Holiness movement and Pentecostalism. Wesley helped to organize and form societies of Christians throughout Great Britain, North America, and Ireland as small groups that developed intensive, personal accountability, discipleship , and religious instruction among its members. His great contribution was to appoint itinerant, unordained preachers who traveled widely to evangelize and care for people in the societies.
His evangelical theology was firmly grounded in sacramental theology and he continually insisted on means of grace as the manner by which God sanctifies and transforms the believer, encouraging people to experience Jesus Christ personally. Throughout his life Wesley remained within the established Anglican Church and insisted that the Methodist movement was well within the bounds of the Anglican tradition.
Zoom Communion Worship Service at a. Visit the homepage for the Zoom link. Yet the continual opposition of the Anglican bishops, coupled with their refusal to ordain Methodist clergy, forced Wesley to move closer to actual separation toward the end of his life. In he took out a deed of declaration, which secured the legal standing of the Methodist Society after his death. In the same year he reluctantly ordained two men to serve as "superintendents" for Methodists in North America.
He continued the practice to provide clergymen for England but very sparingly and with great hesitation. Wesley always maintained that he personally adhered to the Church of England. Methodism had a significant impact on English society. It brought religion to masses of people who, through the shifts of population brought about by the industrial revolution, were not being reached by the Anglican Church. In addition, it had a beneficial effect on many within both the Church of England and dissenting congregations.
By emphasizing morality, self-discipline, and thrift to the deprived classes, Wesley has been credited by some historians as being a major force in keeping England free of revolution and widespread social unrest during his day. He himself was politically conservative, a critic of democracy, and a foe of both the American and French revolutions. Throughout his life Wesley's closest confidant was his brother and coworker Charles, the composer of a number of well-known hymns.
Wesley, always extraordinarily healthy, remained active to the end, preaching his final sermon at an open-air meeting just 4 months before his death on March 2, , in London. The best source for an understanding of Wesley is The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, edited by Nehemiah Curnock 8 vols. Overton, John Wesley , is a short, sympathetic, well-written biography. Francis J. McConnell, John Wesley , is a full reinterpretation and reevaluation of Wesley in the light of modern experience and research.
The economic changes of the Wesley era are well treated in T. Ashton, The Industrial Revolution, ; rev. All rights reserved. Other Anglican clergy refused to follow his example, so Wesley allowed lay people to preach and teach.
Some scholars credit the Wesleyan movement with preventing civil war in England , especially as it crossed class lines and allowed women to share in leadership. They became the nucleus of the Methodist Discipline. The breach between Wesley and the Church of England gradually widened, but he never considered his societies to be outside the Anglican Church. After Anglican clergy fled America during the Revolution, Wesley was faced with caring for some 15, followers there. The Bishop of London refused to ordain any clergy for him, so Wesley ordained ministers on his own authority, an important step in the creation of the Methodist Church in America.
Wesley is believed to have traveled more than , miles and to have preached more than 40, times. He died in He accepted only baptism and communion as sacraments.
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