John Wesley Tribute

John Wesley

John Wesley (1703-1791) was a Christian Reformer.[He was also the founder of Methodism, was born at Epworth, in Lincolnshire, was the son of a rector, and was educated at the Charterhouse and at Lincoln College which is at Oxford, of which he became a Fellow. While there he and his brother, with others, were distinguished for their religious earnestness, and were nicknamed Methodists. In 1735, he went on a mission to Georgia, U.S., and had for fellow voyagers some members of the Moravian body, whose simple piety made a deep impression on him. And on his return in two years he made acquaintance with a Moravian missionary in London, and was persuaded to a kindred faith; up to this time he had been a High Churchman, but from this time he ceased from all sacerdotalism and became a believer in and a preacher of the immediate connection of the soul with, and its direct dependence upon, God's grace in Christ alone. In this gospel accordingly he went forth and preached in disregard of all mere ecclesiastical authority, riding about from place to place on horseback, and finding wherever he went the people in thousands, in the open air generally, eagerly expectant of his approach, all open-eared to listen to his word. To the working classes his visits were especially welcome, for it was among them they bore most fruit; "The keynote of his ministry he himself gave utterance to when he exclaimed, 'Church or no Church, the people must be saved.'" Saved or Lost? was the one question, and it is the one question of all genuine Methodists to this hour.

Along with William Wilberforce, Wesley spoke out against slavery. Wesley was considered to be an Arminian.

Source: See Conservapedia: John Wesley

Rise of Methodism

Methodism excerpt taken from Wikipedia!
Methodism is a movement within Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide The Methodist movement traces its origin to the evangelical awakening in 18th century Great Britain. Methodism followed from the work of John Wesley, who was an Anglican clergyman. Although "Methodism" in Great Britain today is commonly taken as "Wesleyan Methodism", there were various Methodist denominations, until the final Deed of Union which, on 20th September 1932, brought together the Wesleyan Methodist Church, the Primitive Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church, to form the denomination formally known in today as the Methodist Church of Great Britain. Wesley sought to keep Methodism as a revival movement within the Church of England, and a significant number of Anglican clergy were known as Methodists. Other 18th century branches of Methodism include Welsh Methodists, later the Calvinistic Methodists, from the work of Howell Harris, and the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion through the work of George Whitefield. The influence of Lady Huntingdon and Whitefield on the Church of England was a factor in the establishing of the Free Church of England in 1844. Through vigorous missionary activity Methodism spread throughout the British Empire, the United States, and beyond.

Groups of Mehtodism- taken from Conservapedia
In the United States there are several major Methodists bodies:

* The United Methodist Church
* Methodist Episcopal Church, South since 1939 part of the United Methodist Church)
* The Free Methodist Church
* The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)
* The Christian Methodist Church
* The African Methodist Episcopal Church, Zion

All Methodist groups have the "connectional" form of government. They have bishops, annual conferences and general conferences. The annual conference, presided by a bishop, is divided in districts presided by superintendents.

Wesley's change of direction - taken from Methodist Recorder onlne!

After Wesley's return from Georgia in 1738 and following his May 24 conversion in Aldersgate Street, London, his ministry assumed a new confidence. "When I was at Oxford," he wrote later, "I lived almost like a hermit. I saw not how any busy man could be saved. God taught me better by my own experience."

However, he no longer felt his mission was to the university. Thereafter, until the first Methodist preaching house was used in 1738, he preached in private houses when he visited Oxford and, although undergraduates often came to hear him preach, he was largely ignored by the university that he had once loved so well.

On June 11 1738 he preached a university sermon on "Salvation by Faith" and on July 25 1741 on the "Almost Christian". "Scriptural Christianity" on August 24 1744 was his last university sermon in which he criticised the university for its sluggishness and spiritual apathy.

The Vice-Chancellor sent for Wesley's sermon notes but took no action. For Wesley it was the end of his university connection. "I preached, I suppose, the last time at St MaryÕs," he wrote in his Journal. "Be it so; I have fully delivered my soul." He resigned his fellowship at Lincoln College on his marriage in 1751.