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?