March 8

Kids in worship.

It's a topic that comes up all over the place...  Seminary classes, church discussions...  And it seems that everybody has some opinion on the matter.  Should the kids be in the "adult" worship, or should they be heavily encouraged to go to the Nursery or Sunday School?

It seems that so many people find children to be a distraction.  Kids make too much noise, they say.  They don't really understand what's going on, they claim.

Are kids too young to get the message?  Is worship a place that should be limited to adults?

In today's journal entry, John Wesley writes of visiting a Society and preaching, when a large group of children descends on the place where he has gathered with the Methodist people.  Wesley writes:

Twenty or thirty wild children ran around us, as soon as we came, staring as in amaze.  They could not properly be said to be either clothed or naked.  One of the largest (a girl, about fifteen) had a piece of ragged, dirty blanket, some way hung about her, and a kind of cap on her head, of the same cloth and colour.  My heart was exceedingly enlarged towards them; and they looked as if they would have swallowed me up; especially while I was applying these words, "Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you forgiveness of sins."  (John Wesley, Journal, March 8, 1743)

We too often have certain expectations of people in our congregations that are too difficult to meet.  We have this idea that children should be well dressed, well behaved, and controlled at all times.  Yet here Wesley tells us of this group of "wild children" coming to hear him preach.  They weren't well dressed.  They weren't accompanied by parents who were constantly shushing them and attempting to keep them under control.

Wesley doesn't seem bothered by their presence at his serious worship service.  Nor does he seem to think that they are too young to understand the message.  To the contrary, he says that the kids were extremely receptive to the message, so much that they looked like they could "swallow me up."

John Wesley welcomes these children with grace and love.  He sees them as valuable members of the community, and as children of God.  He doesn't ask somebody to take them to a different area and give them their own lesson.  He includes them.

I love the language that Wesley uses to describe his inward response to these children.  He says that his "heart was exceedingly enlarged towards them."

When was your heart exceedingly enlarged?  Who do you need to learn to respond to with a large heart full of grace and love?

John Wesley Died Today

Today marks the 220th anniversary of John Wesley's death.

I have decided that, rather than reflect on Wesley's journal entry for today, I will instead post and reflect on an excerpt from the sermon delivered at his funeral.  The sermon was given by Dr. John Whitehead, and it can be found in its entirety at this website, beginning on page 285.

This is the excerpt that I have chosen:

The effects of Mr. Wesley's labours on civil society nave been, and still will be, very considerable. Not particular parts only of the kingdom have received benefit from the preaching of the Methodists, but society in general must feel some beneficial influence from it. If you consider the whole body of people usually called Methodists, and the immense numbers who attend their places of worship and are benefited by them, they will amount to several hundred thousands. These are dispersed through the three kingdoms, and occupy almost every situation in life: they are become more conscientious in all their ways ; more sober and regular in their behaviour ; more true to their word, and more attentive to every social duty than they were before. They are better husbands and wives, better masters and servants, and better neighbours and friends, than before they heard the preaching of the Methodists. Society in general therefore has received benefit from them.

I wonder if Dr. Whitehead knew just how true his statement would be.

Methodism has continued to grow.  Souls continue to be saved by the Methodists.  Social justice still happens with the Methodists at the forefront.  And mission work happens, in the United States and abroad, in the name of God, by the Methodists.

Generations of people have been impacted by the work that was begun by John Wesley and the early Methodists.  For hundreds of years, people have grown in their relationships with God and one another because of ministry that John Wesley inspired.

It blows my mind that Wesley began something so significant for so many people.  In reading through Whitehead's sermon, it really impacted me how much John Wesley really did in his life, and how many people were impacted by his life's work.

It also made me think about the church today...  And how we struggle to keep the vibrant ministry that John Wesley alive in our contemporary world.  For Wesley, it was just who he was.  He lived his life to serve God and to offer something to the people that they were hungering for, both literally and figuratively.

And so I wonder...  How would society be different if it wasn't for John Wesley and the Methodists?

How can we, as the Church, continue to live our lives as individuals, as well as our collective lives of ministry, in the spirit of service that John Wesley embodied?

After you pass on, how will the world be impacted by the work that YOU are doing?

February 26

I visited those that were sick.  One of these had kept her room for many months, so that she had never heard the voice or seen the face of any Preacher of this way: but God had taught her in the school of affliction.  She gave a plain and distinct account of the manner wherein she received a sense of her acceptance with God, more than a year before; and of a fuller manifestation of His love, of which she never doubted for a moment.  (February 26, 1743, emphasis in original)

It impresses me that Wesley always found time to visit people who were sick.  With all of his traveling, preaching, and checking in with different societies that he did, he still found time to visit the sick.

Many leaders in the Church today seem to forget about the importance of doing this.  Not that it's too surprising...   Pastors find themselves having to be preacher, teacher, program organizer, counselor, administrator, and sometimes janitor, among other things...  And to add visiting people in hospitals and nursing homes on top of that!

But Wesley did it.  And he didn't do it half-heartedly.  He describes this woman, whose only relationship with God, it seems, has come through her suffering.  This, along with Wesley saying that she hadn't heard the voice of a preacher 'of this way,' suggests that the woman wasn't even a member of one of his Societies.  On top of that, he didn't just stop by so that he could mark her off a list of people to visit, but took the time to find out where she was in her relationship with God, to really engage her and her faith.

February 18

There is an unfortunate thing that happens to some of us when we are in seminary...  We sometimes get so caught up in talking ABOUT God that we forget to talk TO God.  We spend a lot of time reading ABOUT God's word, but forget to read it for ourselves.

I find myself falling into this trap myself.  We talk so much about how to help people in their relationships with God in classes, that I just assume that I'm doing well myself.  I realized the other day that I hadn't picked up my bible outside of class and church in a few weeks.  I hate when that happens.

And then yesterday, I actually woke up at 7:30 when my alarm starts going off.  I showered, and then spent about an hour reading the Gospel of Mark.  And it was amazing.  And God is able to speak through the Bible, and Jesus is able to come alive in a way that reading about Jesus doesn't quite fill.

John Wesley's journal entry for February 18, 1743 addresses a similar issue.  Wesley writes:

February 16

I reached Epworth. I was to preach at six. But the house not being able to contain half the congregation, I went out and declared, "We love him, because he first loved us." (Wesley's Journal, Feb. 16, 1743)

This journal initially made me laugh. I picture Wesley preparing to preach, and finding out that even more people came than he expected. I imagine what many of us would do in our own churches: stressing out about how we don't have enough bulletins printed, how we don't have enough coffee made, and how big of a mess it's going to be to get out of the sanctuary in a timely fashion after the service ends promptly after an hour. And I bet not all of them are going to give... Twice as many people as we expect, but our collection isn't going to reflect that influx? This is going to look TERRIBLE to the Bishop...

Wesley's response is different.