Commemorations: John and Charles Wesley

Commemorations

John Wesley, d 1791

Charles Wesley, d 1788

Renewers of the Church

(transferred from March 2)

Reflection

Not enough can be said of these brothers who made a lasting influence on the Church worldwide. Both were educated at Christ Church College in Oxford, England. Dissatisfied with the dull and formal worship of the Anglican Church and the lax attitude toward discipleship, they established the “Holy Society,” emphasizing frequent meeting together, communion, fasting, and service, a methodical program that earned them the derogatory name “Methodists.”

In 1735 they were sent to Georgia by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, where they alienated the colonists by preaching against the slave trade and drinking gin. They returned to London in 1738. While there, John attended a Moravian society gathering, where, on hearing the reading of Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans, he felt his heart “strangely warmed.” He wrote, “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for my 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.”

John spent much of his long life in evangelistic work, traveling by horseback more than a quarter of a million miles, preaching more than 40,000 sermons. He wrote, “I look upon all the world as my parish . . .” Charles wrote over 6000 hymns. John was the founder of Methodism.

Prayer

Gracious God, Thank you for your servants, John and Charles Wesley. Continue to raise up servants with a heart to renew your Church. In Jesus’ name. Amen.