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Wednesday, March 30, 2016
"Seven of John Wesley’s Practices Can Change Hearts Today" by Roger Ross
As a priest in the Church of England, John Wesley was distraught by the powerlessness of the church to reach the vast majority of British people. God’s spirit created such a holy discontent in Wesley’s heart that he abandoned conventional modes of ministry and experimented with several innovative approaches. To everyone’s surprise, spiritual revival broke out in England and beyond. If you’re like me, you may wonder, “If God could do that then, why not now?”Seven practices emerged as characteristic of the early Methodist movement.
1. Be Devoted to Prayer
Wesley rediscovered what the church of his day had forgotten: prayer releases the power of God. He called prayer “the grand means of drawing near to God” and found believing, persistent prayer to be the necessary first step to see God move. He modeled this conviction by devoting at least two hours a day to personal prayer and made fervent prayer a hallmark of the movement.
2. Go Where the People Are
When the love of Jesus Christ gripped Wesley’s heart, he knew he couldn’t keep it to himself. There had to be some way to reach the vast masses of people who would never darken a church door. Initially, Wesley was convinced the gospel could only be preached in the stained-glass setting of a church building. But with so few people attending church services, he was forced to consider other options. Reluctantly, Wesley began preaching in the open air. He would find a high spot on the edge of a city and speak to whoever would listen. Crowds of three, five, even ten thousand people would gather. Many of them were touched by the spirit of God and awakened to their spiritual state. A revival in England was born largely because Wesley was willing to take the gospel where the people were.
3. Speak Plain Truth
In Wesley’s day, the Church of England didn’t connect with the real lives of everyday people. Ironically, the ministry of Jesus was just the opposite. When Jesus spoke, “the common people heard him gladly.” Wesley longed to bridge the gap between real faith and real people. Although he was a highly educated Oxford fellow and deeply steeped in the Christian tradition, he refused to parade his scholarship. He chose to speak plain truth for plain people. He intentionally shaped his language so common people could gladly hear the gospel and respond.
4. Use the Music of the Culture
Gregorian chants in Latin and heavy German music were standard fare in church services in Wesley’s day. Although the words were meaningful, the music was a complete disconnect with the common people. It didn’t speak their heart language. In his travels, Wesley found that pre-Christian people connected most easily with the gospel when it came through their native culture. He encouraged his brother Charles to put gospel words to the popular tunes of the day, and it caught people’s hearts. Speaking in terms people could understand was part one of cracking the cultural code; music that touched the modern day soul was part two.
5. Place Everyone in a Small Group for Spiritual Growth
As Wesley began outdoor preaching in various sites around England, he soon noticed a troubling pattern. Without intentional support and encouragement, people who had moving, even ecstatic experiences of God while he was preaching would soon fall away from their newly awakened state. To provide responsible spiritual care, Wesley would only preach in venues where spiritually awakened people could be placed in small groups or “classes.” His goal was not to see people have a single encounter with God but to have them experience real, lasting life change through faith in Christ. Such transformation of heart and life happens best when people do life together with a handful of others who become a spiritual family.
6. Give the Ministry to the Laity
A team member who rides the bench and a Christian who sits in a pew share an eerie similarity — they both watch other people play. Christianity was never designed to be a spectator sport. As the early Methodist movement grew rapidly, Wesley soon took his mother’s advice and allowed laypersons, both men and women, to oversee classes (small groups) and preach in the society meetings (large groups). When he released the energies of the laity, the ministry multiplied even faster.
7. Use Mass Communication to Get the Word Out
In Wesley’s day, the mass communication tool was the printing press. Wesley wrote numerous sermons, treatises, tracts, and books that were distributed to a wide audience to fuel the movement. Thousands of people who never heard him speak came to know Christ and grow in Christ through his writings. Of course, today the Internet and social media enable anyone with web access to have a personal platform previously unimaginable.
Why Not Now?
The genius of the Wesleyan revival is found in the ways he engaged coldly indifferent people and turned them into warm-hearted disciples who changed the world. We can do that, too. We can recover the seven methods of the early Methodist movement that reached the unchurched masses of that day. If we will reshape these practices for a twenty-first century context and retool receptive individuals, groups, and churches to use them, a new wave of the spirit will be released.
Roger Ross is senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Springfield, Illinois. This article is adapted from his book Meet the Goodpeople: Wesley’s 7 Ways to Share Faith (Abingdon Press, 2015) and used by permission. The book is available through Amazon
orCokesbury. Used by permission. Read more…
What do you do when someone in your church presents an idea for a new program or ministry? New initiatives can be empowering and energizing. But when the initial enthusiasm wanes, leaders can end up overwhelmed, disillusioned, and feeling unsupported. New ministries are more likely to succeed when they start with a solid foundation. I find it helpful to ask anyone advocating a new ministry idea to attend to these three critical aspects of ministry development.1. Team
Say that a mother in your congregation comes forward with the idea of starting a monthly Family Fun Night with movies and board games. Without dampening her enthusiasm, you can suggest that an important first step is for her to pull together a group of other parents to assess the idea and work out a plan. If she isn’t sure who else might be involved, help her think through what’s required to move the idea forward and what people might be interested in helping with different aspects.
2. Ministry Plan
Next, ask this new group to develop a written ministry plan. What this plan needs to address will vary, depending on the nature of the project. In the case of the Family Fun Night, the group would need to consider location, schedule, program and activities, food and refreshments, publicity, follow-up with guests, leadership, and so forth. If the idea needs the approval of a committee or governance body, this document will facilitate that process.
3. Funding
Rarely do congregations have funds set aside in their budgets for new initiatives. As a general rule, I’ve found asking the proponents of a new ministry to raise the start up funds builds investment and ownership in the project and tests whether the idea resonates with others. So if a new project needs money, suggest that the leaders find a way to raise the money, at least at first. (See “Saying Yes” by Gary McIntosh,Leading Ideas, April 23, 2014) If the project succeeds, it may warrant support from the church in subsequent budget cycles.
These criteria can be an objective standard for weeding out marginal ideas, pet projects, or unsuitable leaders, decreasing the likelihood that the church’s clergy or staff will end up holding the bag for an ill-conceived or poorly planned project. But the larger purpose is not to put obstacles in the path of innovation. It is, rather, to equip and empower leaders for success. It’s a way of ensuring that a “permission giving” posture will be fruitful.
Ann A. Michel is associate director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary.Read more…
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Quotable Leadership
"We simply don’t live in a world of unbelief. People are yearning to believe in something, but the churches have little power to capture their attention."[Alan J. Roxburgh]
“Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns” Resource Now Available
Church members who pledge give 30 percent more than those who do not, and congregations that seek annual financial commitments have significantly higher levels of overall giving. With Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns you will learn to reap the harvest of generosity through best practices to make your annual financial campaign more effective. The resource includes engaging video presentations, written materials, and supplemental materials. Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns is ecumenical and designed for both laity and clergy. Learn more.
The Right Question
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.
- Good planning always requires good feedback from a range of people involved with your organization. Sometimes getting such information from constituents can seem so overwhelming a task that it is not done. Verne Harnish, who does executive education and coaching, offers a simple survey model that can generate impressive insights using these three questions:
- What do you think we should start doing?
- What do you think we should stop doing?
- What do you think we should keep doing?
Editors: Lovett H. Weems, Jr., and Ann A. Michel. Production: Carol Follett
Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary.
4500 Massachusetts Avenue NorthWest
Washington, D.C. 20016, United States
lewiscenter@wesleyseminary.edu
Lewis Center for Church Leadership
Lewis Center for Church Leadership
Wesley Theological Seminary
4500 Massachusetts Avenue NorthWest
Washington, D.C. 20016, United States
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