Wisdom Wednesday: The Methodist Story

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, October 25, 2023 Peakland United Methodist Church is reading this book, Being a United Methodist Christian which explores our beliefs, our best practices and our history as a United Methodist Christian. This week we’re reading chapter 3 of the book, Our United Methodist Story! Our Methodist story begins with Rev. John Wesley, a priest in the church of England who started the Methodist movement nearly 300 years ago at Oxford University with a small group of likeminded folks who were so dedicated to their Bible studies, prayer, and service to those in needs that other mocked them with the name Methodist. I spoke last week about Wesley’s misadventures as a parish priest in the new American town of Savannah, Georgia. At the start of 1738, John was back in England and at his lowest professionally and spiritually. He doubted his effectiveness as a priest, and he doubted that his faith was genuine. In the evening of May 24, 1738, John Wesley went reluctantly to a Methodist meeting at Aldersgate Street in London. He heard a reading from the preface of Martin Luther’s commentary of the book of Romans. Wesley later wrote, “About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for 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." Friends, a couple of days ago, I re-read the preface to Martin Luther’s commentary to the book of Romans. I know beyond a doubt there is a God in heaven because the preface to Martin Luther’s commentary on the book of Romans is the most theologically dense and surprisingly dry writing that only God could have warmed Wesley’s heart with those words. Wow. With his heart strangely and wonderfully warmed John Wesley’s methodist movement grew and grew throughout Great Britain and into the American colonies. In December 1784, the methodist in America established the Methodist Episcopal Church, the first American born Christian denomination. Under the leadership of Francis Asbury, the Methodists in American grew and grew. Famous Methodists of the 19th century include. Richard Allen, a black American methodist who established the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816 after facing discrimination in the white methodist church and Thomas B Welch, a methodist minister and dentist, who in 1869 created Methodist Unfermented Communion Wine. Commonly known as grape juice. As the American nation grew so did the Methodists. As American divided on the issues of slavery, so did the Methodists who split into northern and southern branches in 1845. Through the 20th century Methodists united with other denominations forming the current United Methodist Church today. Marjorie Matthews was the first woman elected as a United Methodist bishop in 1980. Now in the 21st century, the United Methodist Church is the largest of all the methodist denominations with something like 12 million members worldwide. The fastest growing area of United Methodism is now in Africa. The newest methodist denomination is the Global Methodist Church formed by methodists who want to maintain traditional practices in marriage and ordination. Pastor Dave Drinkard preached at Peakland this past Sunday, and he reminded us that throughout our history, we United Methodists are at our best, when we love God and when we love our neighbors. We worship together and we nurture our Christian faith together and we serve Christ together out in the world. That’s what we’re doing at Peakland, and you are welcome to join and learn and experience what it means being a United Methodist Christian.