Condensed from the 1981 Convo Address in Grove City, Pennsylvania

Archive: Wesley and Evangelism

by Robert E. Coleman, Professor of Evangelism Asbury Theological Seminary

Had you been in London on a September Sunday afternoon in 1739, and sought to find the place of greatest excitement, you might have gone to Moorfields and joined the throng milling about on Kinngington Common. Most of the people, by their poor dress and crude manners, would be recognized as of the common sort. Not a few of them would appear disinterested, even riotous, on the fringe of the crowd. But as you slowly worked your way through the uncultured multitude, into the inner circle, you would notice the attention of onlookers change. Idle chatter gradually gave way to respectful silence. Tears could be seen coursing down the grimy faces of stalwart men and resolute women, while they listened intently to an unstrained voice coming from the center of the gathering.

Pushing forward a bit more, and standing on tiptoe to get a better view, you would have seen a man wearing the clerical garb of an Anglican priest. It might have taken you a moment to determine that this was the speaker, for he stood scarcely five feet four inches tall. Long dark silken hair fell upon his shoulders. His eyes flashed with conviction as he lifted his arm, and in clear, resonate tones, repeated: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved!”[1]

Whether you knew it or not, you would have been in the presence of John Wesley, the most influential leader of spiritual awakening of the eighteenth century. Forces for re-renewal set in motion through his life and work still reverberate around the world.

From whatever vantage point his ministry may be viewed, at its center- giving direction and urgency to the whole-was evangelism, the good news of Jesus Christ bursting from a heart of love. Though the dimensions are many and varied, I would like to highlight seven characteristics of Wesley’s evangelistic passion, then make some application of the principles to our situation toda

I. To Wesley, evangelism issued spontaneously out of a personal knowledge of salvation. This may be seen in his own search for personal faith, which after a long and sometimes agonizing quest, climaxed at the Aldersgate meeting on May 24, 1738. A layman was in charge, and for the lesson that evening, he read from Luther’s preface to the Book of Romans. As the young clergyman listened, about a quarter before nine, something happened. It was explained this way:

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.[2]

Note what instinctively followed. Wesley said: “I began to pray with all my might for those who had in a more special manner despitefully used me and persecuted me.”[3] What began as an experience of salvation now found immediate expression in a constraint to pray for others, an impulse which erupted in personal witness.

Having testified to those present, John Wesley, with some friends, went to tell the good news to his brother Charles, who lay sick in a house nearby. Rushing into his room, John exclaimed: “I believe!” Then, typifying their unbounded joy, they joined in singing a hymn which Charles had composed following his own conversion the day before:

“Where shall my wondering soul begin?
How shall I all to heaven aspire?
A slave redeemed from death and sin,
A brand plucked from eternal fire.
How shall I equal triumphs raise
Or sing my great redeemer’s praise?”[4]

Wesley’s faith was lifted out of the realm of theory and established in personal reality.

From such heartfelt assurances of salvation, Methodism was born. Whatever the promise of redeeming grace, it could be realized by faith, and that without delay.

So must evangelism. be sustained today. The first requirement of real evangelism is an authentic, up-to-date, Spirit-endued experience with the crucified and risen Christ. Then the Gospel must become in us like a living spring of water if it is to flow forth to thirsty souls.

II. Wesley’s message always moved within the context of Biblical truth. The Scriptures had become central in Wesley’s thinking even before his conversion. In fact, they were instrumental in bringing him to know salvation. While at Oxford, with others in the Holy Club, he had resolved to take the Bible as “their whole and sole rule,” it being “their one desire and design to be downright Bible-Christians.”[5] Thereafter, this determination permeated his whole ministry, as is evident from the constant appeal to Scripture in his writing and preaching. “Yea, I am a Bible bigot,” he asserted. “I follow it in all things, both great and small.”[6]

His practice was the reflection of a conviction that the Bible was fully inspired by God. The Bible for him was “infallibly true.”[7] “If there be one falsehood in that book,” he wrote, “it did not come from the God of truth.”[8] He gave no credence to men who stood in judgment upon the oracles of God.

Out of this confidence came his commitment to the doctrines of historic evangelical Christianity. Though he did not draw up a lengthy creedal statement, like the more traditional churches, he did take from his Anglican heritage a simple confession of faith in his Articles of Religion. These, with Wesley’s 44 Standard Sermons, and Explanatory Notes on the New Testament, constituted the Methodist “standards” of doctrine.

To contend, as does the new doctrinal statement of the United Methodist Church, that Methodism has no “confessional principle” is a distortion of history.[9] It is an attempt to justify a prevailing liberal theological climate in the church by imposing upon Wesley a concept of “pluralism,” citing as support his oft-quoted dictum: “As to all opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we think and let think.”[10]

What is ignored is that Wesley’s conciliatory principle applied only to peripheral matters—like modes of baptism or ecclesiastical forms of government—and was never intended to excuse deviation from basic Biblical revelation. This deposit of non-negotiable truth included such foundational doctrines as the virgin birth of Christ; His vicarious blood atonement; the bodily resurrection; His ascension, reign, and triumphant return; original sin; heaven and hell.

To be sure, the catholic spirit of Wesley cut across all sectarianism and bigotry. But there could be no toleration of heresy.

From this kind of theological stamina flowed Methodist evangelism. It is sheer folly to imagine that the Church today can produce the fruits of the Gospel without similar doctrinal integrity. There can be no genuine witness, nor growth in spiritual experience, if we do not believe the Biblical message.

III. Wesley‘s evangelism brings into focus the limitless scope of the Gospel invitation, with the consequential mandate to tell the story to every human being. When it was said that the Son of man came into the world to save sinners, Wesley understood this to mean that in Christ’s redemptive mission there were no exceptions.

God loved the world, and to that end, finally Jesus died on Calvary. The work was complete. Nothing more needed to be done to provide salvation from all sin for all men.

Here he differed from those of the reformed tradition, who, in effect, limited the scope of redemption only to the elect. Wesley did not question the absolute sovereignty of God, nor the inability of people to save themselves; but he believed that by God’s prevenient grace, every person could heed the Gospel call. This was a birthright of the human race. Thus he sang:

“O that the world might taste and see
The riches of His grace!
The arms of love that compass me
Would all mankind embrace.”

Driven by this desire, Wesley could not ignore the multitudes yet in darkness. He was especially mindful of those others passed by—the poor, the sick, the illiterate, the outcasts of society—those downtrodden, lonely hearts who felt unwanted and unloved by most churchmen of his day.

When the Bishop of Bristol told Wesley that he had no business in his parish, and ordered him to go hence, the young evangelist refused. For as he explained:

A dispensation of the gospel is committed to me, and woe is me if I preach not the Gospel wherever I am in the habitable world. Your lordship knows, being ordained a priest, by the commission I then received, I am a priest of the church universal.[11]

The admonition of Wesley was considered so important that it was printed in the early Disciplines of the Church, with the following comment:

Observe; It is not your business to preach so many times, and to take care of this or that society; but to save as many souls as you can; to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance, and with all your power to build them up in that holiness without which they cannot see the Lord.[12]

This is the spirit which still must constrain evangelism. Our commission is to go to all mankind, lost and the least—to go to the ends of the earth, crossing every artificial barrier, and “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).

IV. Wesley found practical ways to reach the lost. His vision for the masses of humanity\was implemented in a relevant methodology. To use the contemporary jargon, his methods were contextualized, that is, adapted to the particular culture and needs of the time.

Take Wesley’s manner of field preaching, as an example. Certainly if he had chosen his own taste in methods, he would never have become an open-air evangelist. Yet he entered upon this new approach because it was seen to be effective in bringing the Gospel to the unchurched multitudes. Later, he reflected:

What marvel the devil does not love field preaching! Neither do I; I love a commodious room, a soft cushion, a handsome pulpit. But where is my zeal, if I do not trample all these underfoot in order to save one more soul.[13]

So following the example of Mr. Whitfield, on April 1, 1739, he laid aside his temperamental reservations and obeyed the controlling mandate to reach the lost. He wrote in his Journal:

At four in the afternoon, I submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoining to the city, to about 3000 people.[14]

In the next 50 years evangelism was to be his occupation, and field preaching his preeminent style. In the out-of-doors in open fields, on street corners, at factory gates—Wesley met the people in congregations larger than church buildings could contain. His biographer, L. Tyerman, has computed that of the approximately 500 sermons preached during a nine-month period in 1739, only eight were delivered in churches.[15]

Though often ridiculed and maligned because of his preaching policy, Wesley never quit.[16] What difference did it make that the sophisticated clergymen of his day scorned him? God was using his methods to awaken lost souls to their privileges of grace, and that was all that mattered.

Because this approach worked, Wesley developed the itinerant system of moving preachers from place to place. It seemed at the time, considering resources available, the most expeditious system of ministering to the whole population. By this constraint also, he started preaching at 5 o’clock in the morning, because he found that it was the best time to catch workers before they went into the mines or factories. The use of lay preachers was justified in the same way, as was the publishing and distribution of tracts.

The organizational structures of class meetings, local societies, and annual conferences were similarly devised. They were simply means of accomplishing the task at hand. Commenting on church practices, in a letter to a friend, Wesley asked:

What is the end of all ecclesiastied order? Is it not to bring souls from the power of Satan to God, and to build them up in His fear and love? Order, then, is so far valuable as it answers these ends; and if it answers them not, it is nothing worth.[17]

If we were driven by this criterion today, what effect would it have upon our church policies? Would it not, at the very least, bring us to examine our programs in the light of their fruitfulness? Activities which are seen to be unproductive would be revised, or dropped altogether. And other programs which seem more promising would be tried.

For us now in the twentieth century, of course, field preaching or the itinerant system, may not be the best recourse. Because these methods were well-suited to Wesley’s generation does not necessarily mean that they are conducive to ours. The question is: Are we determined to get the job done, whatever it takes? When we are, I believe that we will discover ways to do it.

V. Wesley’s Methodists aspired to a disciplined sainthood. Evangelism for Wesley did not end when people made professions of faith. Conversion was only the first step in an ongoing life of discipleship. Hence, the strong emphasis on growing in the likeness of Christ.

Anyone “desiring to flee from the wrath to come, and to save his soul” could become a Methodist. But this desire, as Wesley noted, “must be evidenced by three marks: avoiding all known sin; doing good after his power; and, attending all the ordinances of God.”[18]

This involved participating in a small class meeting each week, where the Methodist discipline was enforced. A class leader was expected to inquire of all persons how their souls prospered, and “to advise, reprove, comfort, or exhort,” as the occasion required.[19] In this manner no Methodist was ever left without regular oversight.

Smaller groups of people met each week in bands. These meetings were for the purpose of recounting Christian experiences, and plainly confessing faults. The leader of each band was required to describe “his own state first, and then to ask the rest, in order, as many and as searching questions as may be, concerning their state, sins, and temptations.”[20] One can imagine the catharsis this regular exercise had upon the people.

Methodists were expected to live holy lives. Perfection of love was always held before them as the standard-a love that found expression toward God in purity of devotion and toward man in selfless service. Out of such holiness flowed their personal witness and social compassion.

Herein was the attraction of their evangelism. It was beautiful in practical holiness. No wonder Wesley exhorted his preachers to follow his example in continually speaking on Christian perfection. Where holiness “is little insisted • on,” he observed, “there is little increase, either in the number or the grace of the hearers.”[21]

It is still true today. Evangelism without holiness, both in the witness and the fruit desired, becomes a contradiction. We must recover, not only the Wesleyan standard of Christian character, but also the disciplined manner by which that life is encouraged. Merely recruiting church members is not enough; new converts must be nourished in a life-style of holiness—a Christlikeness that inevitably radiates love to a lost world.

VI. To Wesley, evangelism meant the mobilization of the whole church for m Wesley’s holistic approach did more than meet the felt needs of people; he involved them in the on-going work. Early Methodism took seriously the priesthood of all believers.

This was immediately evident in the atmosphere created within the class and band meetings. In these little gatherings of kindred spirits, everyone was enabled to participate in the ministry of counseling, encouragement, and prayer. What a natural way to stimulate mutual expression of love, an emphasis inherent in their holiness ethic. From the very beginning of incorporation in the body, they were learning to function as priests by ministering to each other.

Within this context, persons with special gifts would be recognized, and some, appropriately endowed, made class and band leaders. Those with different gifts might be appointed stewards, or assigned some other form of service. Significantly the pastoral functions of ministry, including visiting the sick, comforting the bereaved, and looking after the destitute, were carried on largely by the local people themselves.

Even the preachers appointed by Wesley to the circuits were usually laymen, without any professional training for ministry. In fact, for the most part they had little or no formal education. They were people who came up from the ranks—God-fearing men and women who sensed the call of God for this kind of service.

The use of lay preachers provoked criticism by the more educated clergy of other communions, of course. Augustus Toplady, for example, accused Wesley of “prostituting the ministerial function to the lowest and most illiterate mechanics, persons of almost any class.” Further reflecting his disdain, as well as the extent of Methodist lay involvement, Toplady advised:

Let his [Wesley] cobblers keep to their stalls. Let his tinkers mind their vessels. Let his barbers confine themselves to their blocks and basons. Let his bakers stand to their kneading-troughs. Let his blacksmiths blow more suitable coals than those of controversy.[22]

This is our Methodist heritage. We have come from the workshops of common laborers, not theological seminaries. Wesley did not belittle ordination, 1nor university training. He was himself a college man, probably one of the most thoroughly educated clergymen of his day. But he knew that any evangelistic movement that reaches the masses must bring its own people into the harvest.

We, too, must learn to multiply ourselves by equipping others for the work of the ministry. Most Methodists today have little personal sense of responsibility for reaching the world. We know the theory of every member involvement, but by our example, one would get the impression that ministry requires professional training and ecclesiastical sanction. It is imperative that we rediscover the daily work of making disciples through our vocational callings. Whatever our gifts, there is a ministry for all, not only in testifying to the grace of God, but in helping new Christians assume their role in the great commission.

VII. Wesley’s evangelism was the overflow of true revival—coming alive to the power of God. This reality, on a personal level, gave direction to the experience of salvation, and preserved Wesley’s Biblical theology from the complacency of dead orthodoxy.

The refining fire of Pentecost inflamed Methodists with love for a lost world, and constrained them, by any means at hand, to herald the Gospel to every creature. By the same mighty inworking of the energizing Spirit, they were brought under godly discipline, and molded into an army of laborers.

Here was the genius of Methodism. It was not another religious institution, but a movement of renewal, joining together earnest souls seeking first the kingdom. To the question in the Larger Minutes, “What may we measurably believe to be God’s design in raising up the preachers called Methodists?,” Wesley answered: “Not to form any new sect; but to reform the nation, particularly the church; and to spread Scriptural holiness over the land .”[23]

One could be a Methodist without leaving one’s own communion, or even becoming a member of a Methodist society. Their purpose was to “spread life among all denominations,” wrote Wesley in 1790, though he added prophetically: “Which they will do till they form a separate sect.”[24]

For more than 40 years Methodism existed as an ecumenical body in the midst and alongside established churches. Certainly the parachurch nature of the original societies was seen as no impediment to their spiritual effectiveness. Indeed, “it could be argued,” according to A. Skevington Wood, a foremost Methodist historian, that ‘Wesley’s societies were most useful when they remained independent of ecclesiastical control, whether Anglican or eventually Methodist.”[25]

Ponder the implications of this for our day. If the power of Methodism is somehow diminished when institutionalized, why should we feel so obliged to perpetuate the ecclesiastical structures? Would we not more nearly represent the vision of Wesley by concentrating our energy upon developing spiritual resources rather than bureaucratic organizations?

By the same criteria, why should we limit our fellowship to those within the Methodist constituency? In the true Wesleyan catholic spirit, do we not have affinity with people from every denominational background who are in the flow of revival, be they Baptist, Pentecostal, or Roman Catholic? The same applies to relationships with many contemporary interdenominational fellowships. Inde ed, are not our ties in the Spirit much closer to these persons of kindred heart and aspiration than any ecclesiastical loyalty to a particular denomination? Then let us cultivate our oneness with the movement of God’s Spirit in our time.

Methodism at its heart is a revival movement, and the spirit of Wesley is more alive today than ever before.

Do you not see it? You will notice its appeal in the response of multitudes to the Gospel invitation at a Billy Graham Crusade; you will sense its intensity in a little neighborhood home Bible study; you will feel its excitement in a Southern Baptist evangelism conference; you will catch its earnestness in a Salvation Army street meeting; you will find its commitment in a Campus Crusade action group; you will realize its explosive force in the mushrooming Sunday school of a growing independent church; you will know its presence in the joy of a Catholic charismatic renewal celebration; you will thrill with its vision in the hearts of young people going to the mission fields of the world; and in a thousand other forms of Spirit-filled witness you will recognize the dynamic of revival in our time. Here is the real Wesleyan movement, the spirit of true Methodism, by whatever name it is called.

Here I find my identity—and my fellowship. Here, too, I can rejoice, confident that the ingathering of the Church of Jesus Christ will increase with the years, until that day the work is done, the harvest finished, and the kingdom comes to fruition in the eternal praise of God.

[1] Adopted from a description of this event by Halford E. Luccock and Paul Hutchinson, The Story of Methodism (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1926), pp. 13-18.

[2] John Wesley, The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M., ed. by Nehemiah Curnock, I (London: Robert Culley, 1909) , pp. 475, 476. The description of this experience, as well as the struggles leading up to it, indicate that it was for Wesley an evangelical conversion. Though there were evidences of spiritual awakening much earlier, as far back as 1725, it was not until Aldersgate that a complete turning point in his life becomes obvious.

[3] John Wesley, Journal, I, op. cit., p. 476.

[4] This is the hymn generally believed to have been sung on this occasion, though it is not named by either John or Charles. Another possibility, sometimes proposed, is Wesley’s “And Can It Be.”

[5] John Wesley, A Short History of Methodism, The Works of John Wesley, ed. by T. Jackson VIII (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1872), p. 348.

[6] John Wesley, Journal, V, op. cit., p. 169.

[7] John Wesley, “The Means of Grace,” Wesley s Standard Sermons, ed. by E. Sugden, I (London: Epworth, 1968), pp. 249, 250.

[8] John Wesley, Journal, VI, op. cit., p. 117.

[9] A document drawn up by a Theological Study Commission on Doctrine and adopted by the General Conference in 1972, now printed as “Doctrine and Doctrinal Statements and the General Rules,” The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, 1980 (Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House, 1980), p. 41.

[10] Ibid, p. 40. My response to this statement may be seen in “The New Doctrinal Directives of Methodism,” an unpublished paper issued in 1972, available from Good News, 308 E. Main St., Wilmore, KY 40390. 504 each, including postage.

[11] John Wesley, Journal, 11, op. cit., p. 257.

[12] John Wesley, Minutes of Several Conversations, Works, V 111, op. cit., p. 310.

[13] John Wesley, Journal, IV, op. cit., p. 325.

[14] John Wesley, Journal, II, op. cit., p. 156.

[15] L. Tyerman, The Life and Times of the Rev. John Wesley, I (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1870-71), p. 234.

[16] A. Skevington Wood, The Burning Heart (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1978), pp. 94–97. This study, incidentally, is the best all-round treatment of Wesley’s evangelistic ministry that I have seen.

[17] John Wesley, The Letters of the Rev. John Wesley, ed. by John Telford (London: Epworth, 1931), 11, p. 77.

[18] John Wesley, “On God’s Vineyard,” Works, VII, op. cit., p. 209, cf. “General Rules,” Works, VIII, op. cit., pp. 270, 271.

[19] John Wesley, A Plain Account of the People Called Methodist, Works, VIII, op. cit., p. 253.

[20] John Wesley, Rules of the Band Societies, Works, VIII, op. cit., p. 272.

[21] John Wesley, Letters, IV, op. cit., p. 149.

[22] Quoted by Howard A. Snyder, The Radical Wesley (Downers Grove: Inter Varsity Press, 1980), p. 64.

[23] John Wesley, Minutes of Several Conversations, Works, VIII, op. cit., p. 299.

[24] John Wesley, Letters, VIII, op. cit., p. 211.

[25] A. Skevington Wood, op. cit., p. 193.