John Wesley and the History of Methodism — Unit 4: Field Preaching, Societies, Classes and Bands: Wesley's Method

Key Verse

"And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching." (Hebrews 10:24-25, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Explain why and how Wesley began field preaching in 1739, and answer the objection that it was disorderly.

2. Describe the Methodist society and its General Rules of 1743.

3. Explain how the class meeting began in 1742 and what it was for.

4. Distinguish bands from classes, and describe the role of lay preachers and the annual conference.

5. State fairly the criticisms that Wesley's discipline was unoriginal, controlling or legalistic, and give the Wesleyan answer.

The Voice of This Unit

This unit is written from inside the Wesleyan tradition for Wesleyan students. We believe that Wesley's method was wise, and we also know that other Christians and some historians have questioned it. We state their objections and answer them. We remember that the method served the gospel; it was never the gospel itself.

From Converts to Disciples

After Aldersgate Wesley had a clear message. But a message alone does not make disciples. In the 1730s and 1740s, England had churches in every parish, yet many of the poor never entered them. Miners, factory workers and farm laborers were rough, often illiterate, and sometimes unwelcome. Even those who were stirred by a sermon often fell back into old ways when no one helped them.

Wesley's answer was a method, which gave the movement its name. Its parts were these: preaching to the people where they were; gathering those who responded into societies; dividing the societies into small classes and bands for mutual care; and training lay people to preach and to lead. The method was a servant of the Word. Its aim was to help people to be saved and to grow in holiness.

Field Preaching (1739)

In February 1739 George Whitefield, who had been shut out of many pulpits, began to preach in the open air near Bristol to the coal miners at Kingswood. These were poor people who had no church. Thousands came. Whitefield then asked Wesley to come and help him.

Wesley hesitated. He was a careful churchman and he had been brought up to think that order in worship was almost a part of religion. He later admitted that he would have thought it a sin to save souls anywhere but in a church. But he went, saw the crowds, and was moved. On 2 April 1739 he preached in the open air near Bristol, and his text was from the Sermon at Nazareth: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor" (Luke 4:18).

From that day he preached in fields, on hillsides, in market squares, at the mouths of mines and sometimes from his father's tomb at Epworth, when the church there was closed to him. He rode on horseback across Britain and Ireland, often preaching twice or three times a day. He explained his action by saying that he looked on the world as his parish. By this he meant that a minister called by God has a duty to all who have not heard, and not only to the people who happen to live near his church.

The objection of order

Many Anglican clergymen and some bishops objected. They said that a priest should preach only in the church of his own parish, and that field preaching was a violation of church order. Some also said that the crowds were emotional and that the preaching led to disorder.

Our answer. We take church order seriously, and Wesley did as well. But the gospel has a higher claim. Jesus preached on a mountainside, from a boat and by a well. Peter preached in the open air on the day of Pentecost, and Paul spoke in the marketplace at Athens. The Lord's last command is "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations" (Matthew 28:19). Wesley judged that when the church doors were closed or the poor did not enter them, the command still stood. Persecution came with the preaching. Mobs threw stones and Wesley was sometimes in danger of his life, yet he went on. The fruit was plain: lives were changed, and the Methodists, who were often mocked, were found to be sober, honest and charitable.

The Society

A person who was moved by the preaching needed somewhere to belong. Wesley gathered such people into societies. He did not invent this form. There had been religious societies in the Church of England since the late seventeenth century, small groups of people who met for prayer, Scripture and mutual encouragement. The Moravians also had a strong pattern of fellowship. Historians have shown how much Wesley borrowed. We have no quarrel with this. A wise leader learns from the good that God has already done. What Wesley added was an order that joined preaching, fellowship and discipline into a single connected movement.

In 1739 the first Methodist building was begun in Bristol, the New Room, and in London the Foundery served as a base. The societies were called the United Societies, and they remained within the Church of England. Their members were encouraged to attend the parish church and to receive the Lord's Supper there.

The General Rules (1743)

In 1743 Wesley published The Nature, Design, and General Rules of the United Societies. It set out a simple condition for entry: a desire to flee from the wrath to come and to be saved from sins. No one was asked to hold a particular opinion. But those who stayed were to show the fruit of a changed heart in three ways.

1. Do no harm. They were to avoid evil of every kind, such as swearing, drunkenness, quarreling and fraud.

2. Do good. They were to do good to all people as they had opportunity, to their bodies and their souls, and especially to fellow believers.

3. Attend upon the ordinances of God. These ordinances included public worship, the preaching of the Word, the Lord's Supper, family and private prayer, searching the Scriptures and fasting.

Notice how the three rules work together. They are not a ladder by which a person climbs to God. They describe the life of those who are already seeking God and have begun to receive His grace. "Faith without works is dead also" (James 2:26).

The Class Meeting (1742)

The class meeting began in Bristol in February 1742, almost by accident. The society was in debt over the cost of the New Room. A member named Captain Foy proposed that each member give a penny a week, and that the society be divided into groups of about twelve, each with a leader to collect the money. Wesley accepted.

Then the leaders found that some of the members were living in ways that did not fit the gospel. When they reported this, Wesley saw the opportunity. Here was a way of pastoral care that one man could not give to hundreds. The leaders could visit and question each member, and the groups could meet weekly.

The class meeting was ordinarily mixed in gender, and the leaders were laypeople, including women. At the weekly meeting each member spoke of how it was with his soul: his struggles, his victories and his needs. The leader encouraged, corrected and prayed. Offerings were taken for the poor and for the expenses of the society. Quarterly, the leader's report was used to renew the membership tickets, a small card that showed good standing. Members who persisted in sin after repeated warnings were removed, but those who repented were restored.

The class meeting is a good example of the Wesleyan method. It is simple, local, accountable and led by ordinary believers. "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2). It gave to the poor of England a school of discipleship that most had never had.

The Band

The band was smaller than the class and more personal. It was a group of perhaps five or ten men, or of women, in a similar condition of life, such as married women or single men. The idea came to Wesley from the Moravians, whom he knew in 1738. In the band, members spoke openly of their temptations and sins, and prayed for one another. "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much" (James 5:16).

The class and the band had different purposes. The class was for the whole society and was a place of oversight and encouragement. The band was voluntary and was for those who wished to go deeper in the confession of sin and the pursuit of holiness. Later Wesley also organized smaller select groups for those who were pressing on toward entire sanctification.

Lay Preachers and the Connexion

Wesley's work grew faster than one man, or a few Anglican clergy, could cover. The solution was lay preachers. One of the first was Thomas Maxfield, whom Wesley had left in charge of the London society while he was away. Maxfield began to preach. Wesley was alarmed at first. His mother, Susanna, who had been living in London, urged him to hear Maxfield for himself before judging. Wesley did so, and decided that God was with him.

Wesley then set standards. Preachers must be sound in doctrine, holy in life and effective in winning souls. They were not ordained clergymen, and they were not to give the sacrament. Some were itinerant (they traveled in a circuit), and others were local, serving where they lived. In 1744 Wesley held the first annual conference, a meeting of preachers to discuss doctrine and discipline. The societies and preachers were joined together into what Methodists called a connexion, an old spelling of "connection." This word is the root of the Methodist idea of mutual accountability, which Course 4 develops.

Historians, Critics and Objections

Was the method original?

Historians point out that nearly every part of Wesley's method existed already: the Anglican societies, Moravian bands, Puritan and Pietist small groups, field preaching by Whitefield and by earlier Welsh preachers. They are right. But we hold that originality was not Wesley's goal. His genius was to bring these parts together, to adapt them for the poor, and to discipline them with a single purpose. The method fit the message.

Was Wesley's discipline too controlling?

Some critics have called Wesley an autocrat, and he did exercise much authority. They also say the classes were intrusive and that rules for dress or conduct made Methodism a religion of law. Others say that Methodist discipline helped working people to rise from poverty and drink.

Our answer. Membership was voluntary, and the one condition was a desire to be saved. The aim was not control but love: "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness" (Galatians 6:1). Wesley's discipline was meant to be restorative, and it was based on mutual accountability, not private spying. At the same time we admit that discipline can harden into legalism when love is lost. Course 3 will treat this danger. The cure is not to abandon accountability, as many modern churches have done, but to keep it in the spirit of Christ.

Pastoral Application

A pastor serves a church of two hundred people. They are friendly on Sunday, but he learns that a young father has lost his job and told no one. Another family is quarreling and no one knows. The pastor realizes that the church is large but no one is close enough to anyone else to notice.

First, he does not start with a program. He prays and speaks with a few faithful members who are respected in the congregation.

Second, he invites six to ten people to meet weekly in a home for a trial period of three months. They read a short passage, pray, and each answers a simple question: "How is it with your soul this week?"

Third, he chooses a leader from among the laypeople, and does not lead the group himself. The group is to be led by someone who will listen.

Fourth, when the group has proved its worth he adds others. He keeps the rules simple, and he teaches that the group is a means of grace and not a test of who is good enough.

Summary

After Aldersgate, Wesley built a method to turn converts into disciples. In 1739 he followed Whitefield into field preaching near Bristol, and answered the charge of disorder by pointing to Jesus, Peter and Paul and to the command to make disciples. Converts were gathered into societies, which were governed by the General Rules of 1743: do no harm, do good, and attend upon the ordinances of God. The class meeting began at Bristol in 1742 as a way to pay a debt and became the center of pastoral care. The bands were smaller groups, of men or of women separately, for confession. Lay preachers, at first Thomas Maxfield, extended the work, and the annual conference of 1744 and the connexion bound the work together. Historians note that Wesley borrowed much from the Moravians and the Anglican societies, and critics say his discipline was controlling. We answer that his genius lay in joining these parts for the poor, and that his discipline was voluntary and restorative, though it must never become legalism.

Further Reading

• John Wesley, The Nature, Design, and General Rules of the United Societies (1743).

• John Wesley, A Plain Account of the People Called Methodists (1749).

• John Wesley, The Journal of John Wesley, the entries for 1739.

• John Wesley, Sermon "The Means of Grace."

• John Wesley, Minutes of Several Conversations (the Large Minutes).

• Holiness Through the Ages (Coleman, Danielson and Parry), the CTS textbook.

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