Wesleyan University- Philippines

Maria Aurora, Aurora

Christia
n“Methodist Heritage”
Lesson 1

JOHN WESLEY’S BIOGRAPHY

Objective:
To deepen the awareness of the students about the the life and ministry
of John Wesley as the founder of Methodism.

Introduction:
John Wesley, best remembered as the Father of the Methodist movement, was born
in England to an Anglican clergyman and his devout wife. Educated at Christ
Church, Oxford, Wesley was ordained first as a deacon and then as a priest of the
Anglican Church. Later he went to the United States to become the minister of the
newly formed Savannah parish; but the venture was highly unsuccessful and he
returned home beaten and depressed. He began to see the light when by chance he
discovered the Lutheran doctrine of salvation by faith alone. Eventually, he started
the Methodist Movement, which became a huge establishment within his lifetime.
Although he never severed his ties with the Church of England, Methodist Church
gradually became a separate denomination. Today, there are around 80 million
Methodists across the earth. The United Methodist Church, the Methodist Church of
Great Britain, the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Wesleyan Church are
some of the largest bodies which follow Wesleyan theology. Apart from these, the
Holiness movement and Pentecostalism also owe their origins to him.

Motivation:
To motivate the learners on how John Wesley do everything to do his works by
God’s grace. Be like John Wesley, do all the things by the grace of God.
 Wesleyan University- Philippines
Maria Aurora, Aurora

Christia
n“Methodist Heritage”
Childhood & Early Life

John Wesley was born on 28 June 1703, in Epworth, near Lincoln. His father,
Samuel Wesley, was a clergyman belonging to the Church
of England. His mother, Susanna Wesley (née Annesley),
was a devout woman, who took care to inject moral values
into her children.
The couple had nineteen children, out of which John was
born fifteenth. The siblings, including the girls, were not
only taught to read and write English, but were also
expected to become skilled in Latin and Greek and learn
major parts of the New Testament by heart.
On 9 February 1709, the roof of their home caught fire while they were all sleeping.
Although his parents could evacuate his siblings, John was caught in the first floor,
with no scope for escape. Ultimately, a parishioner, standing on a human-ladder,
pulled him out through the window.
The memory of the fire remained with him forever. In later years, he often quoted the
famous text from Bible, 'A Brand Plucked out of the Fire', to describe the incident.
In 1714, as he turned eleven, John Wesley was sent to the Charterhouse School in
London. He graduated from there in 1720 and entered Christ Church, Oxford, on
scholarship with classics and logic.
In 1724, he graduated from Christ Church with a Bachelor’s degree. He now
decided to pursue a Master’s degree and concurrently become a fellow of the
university. With such an aim, he was ordained a deacon on 25 September 1725.
In March 1726, he was elected a fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. He now began to
receive a salary. But soon the call of the ministry became too loud to ignore and so
after receiving his master’ degree in August 1727, he returned home to Epworth.

Career

In 1727, Wesley started his career as a curate in his father’s parish. Although he
was ordained as a priest on 22 September 1728 he continued serving as the curate
till November 1729.
Thereafter, he returned to Oxford at the request of the Rector of Lincoln College and
took up his position as a junior fellow. He mainly taught Greek Testament. Although
he enjoyed the rich social life at Oxford he also began to delve deeper into religion.
 Wesleyan University- Philippines
Maria Aurora, Aurora

Christia
n“Methodist Heritage”
Around this time, his younger brother, Charles Wesley, also a student at Oxford,
started an association of like-minded individuals who met on regular basis to read
and study scriptures and also to undergo rigorous self-examination. In addition, they
took part in charity and visited the prison regularly.
Very soon, John Wesley took up the leadership of the group. In the beginning their
detractors referred to them as ‘The Holy Club’. However from 1732, they began to
be referred to as the Methodists because they followed a rigorous method and tried
to ensure that each hour was used wisely.
This also had an adverse effect on his career. The authorities as well as the
guardians began to fear that he was trying to indoctrinate the students. His father
asked him to take charge of his parish; but Wesley refused the offer.
At this juncture, he was requested to take up the position of the minister of
Savannah parish in the Province of Georgia in the American colonies. Accordingly,
Wesley sailed for Savanna from Gravesend in Kent along with his brother Charles
on 14 October 1735.
On the way, their ship was caught in a terrible storm. Although he was terribly
frightened, he noticed that the German Moravians on the ship were praying calmly.
On introspection, he realized that the Moravians possessed a deep-rooted faith on
God, which he lacked. The incident affected him deeply.
Eventually, they reached the colony in February 1736. His main mission was to
convert the native Indians there; but in actual practice, his work was limited to the
European settlers of that area.
Nonetheless, the attendance at the church began to increase. Publication of
‘Collection of Psalms and Hymns’ was another of his significant achievements of this
period. In fact, it was the first Anglican hymn book published in America.
In spite of such success, Wesley had to flee the colony in December 1737 because
of some legal problems arising out of a failed love affair, and returned to England
broken and depressed. In England, he met Petrus Böhler, a German-English
Moravian missionary and received counsel from him.
However, he was still very depressed. On 24 May 1738, he unwillingly attended a
Moravian meeting in Aldersgate Street, London, where he heard a reading of Martin
Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. Suddenly, Wesley began to see a
new light and his heart became warm.
All these years, he had tried to fight against sin following the path set up by the
church. He now began to believe that it was faith on Christ rather than good deeds,
which leads to salvation.
 Wesleyan University- Philippines
Maria Aurora, Aurora

Christia
n“Methodist Heritage”
Subsequently, he along with Charles and another gentleman founded another
group, which in later years became known as the 'Fetter Lane Society'. The
membership increased quickly and for convenience, they divided the members into
several smaller bands.
In 1738, Wesley visited the Moravian headquarters in Herrnhut, Germany. On
returning to England, he drew up rules for these bands and also published a
collection of hymns for them.
He also began to preach extensively on the doctrine of salvation by faith alone,
which angered the established church. Consequently, he was barred from
preaching. However, he refused to bow down and in April 1739, he gave his first
sermon near Bristol in the open air.
He soon found that preaching in the open was the best way to reach out to the
people, who generally stayed away from the churches. So he continued his field
preaching enthusiastically. This earned the displeasure as well as prosecution by
the church.
Undeterred, Wesley began to expand his organization and appointed lay preachers
to reach out to more people. He also began to build chapels, first at Bristol and then
in other towns. Subsequently, he broke away from the Moravians and formed
Methodist Society.
In 1742, he introduced the ‘class-meeting’ system so as to enforce discipline within
the society. To keep out the undisciplined members, he also introduced the
probationer system. Initially, he visited each unit personally at least once in three
months; but soon the organization became too big for that.
Therefore in 1743, he drew up a set of rules to be followed by all the units. Later on
these rules became the basis of the Methodist Discipline. In the following year, he
held the first Methodist conference.
Over the next decade, he worked tirelessly, moving across Great Britain and Ireland,
preaching to thousands of people, who were otherwise excluded from the church.
Moreover, he organized the movement more systematically, dividing the groups into
societies, then classes, connections and circuits with a superintendent at the helm.
Unfortunately, in his struggle to establish Methodism, he neglected his own health
and became inflicted with tuberculosis. On his recovery in 1751, he once more
immersed himself into the work, making sure the movement he had started would
continue after his death.
Slowly, the movement spread to the United States of America. Since he was still a
member of the Church of England, he refrained from ordaining priests, but worked
with the help of priests ordained by the Church and also the lay preachers. In 1776,
with the independence of the USA, the situation became different.
 Wesleyan University- Philippines
Maria Aurora, Aurora

Christia
n“Methodist Heritage”
In 1784, the Bishop of London refused to ordain priests for the American Methodists.
Thus Wesley was forced he ordain two lay preachers and appoint Thomas Coke as
superintendent before he sent them to America. With this, the Methodists slowly
moved away from the Church of England and became a separate denomination.

Major Works

John Wesley, along with his brother Charles and George Whitefield laid the
foundation of the Methodist movement within Protestant Christianity. Vigorous
missionary work ensured that the movement spread throughout the British Empire
and the USA. Today there are approximately 80 million adherents worldwide.
It is said that throughout his long career, Wesley had travelled over 250,000 miles
and had preached 40,000 sermons across the country, trying to reach out to the
poor and downtrodden. He also kept on working on social issues such as prison
reform and universal education until his death.

Personal Life & Legacy

In 1751, at the age of forty-eight, Wesley married Mary Vazeille, a well-to-do widow
with four children from her previous marriage. However, Wesley was too busy with
his work to pay much attention to his wife. Unable to cope, she left him for good
after a few years.
Wesley died in his bed on 2 March 1791. He was then eighty-seven years old. As
his friends gathered around his death bed he bid them farewell and then said "The
best of all is, God is with us", repeating the words several times and then died
peacefully.
Later he was entombed at Wesley's Chapel, built in City Road, London.
Wesleyanism, or Wesleyan theology, which refers to the theological system, inferred
from his various sermons, theological treatises, letters, journals, diaries, hymns
carry forward his legacy.