Methodist and Nazarene Polity, Worship, and Sacraments — Unit 9: Love Feasts, Watch Night, the Covenant Service, and Revival Services

Key Verse

"So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." (Acts 2:46-47, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

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

1. Describe the love feast: its biblical and Moravian background, its form, and how it differs from the Lord's Supper.

2. Explain the origin and purpose of the Watch Night service.

3. Describe the Covenant Service that John Wesley began in 1755, and what it asks of the worshiper.

4. Explain how camp meetings and revival services grew in Methodism and the Holiness movement, and how revivals are to be tested.

5. State the main objections to these special services and give the Wesleyan answers.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the Wesleyan tradition, for students who belong to it. It is conservative and evangelical. When it says "we," it means the Methodist, Nazarene, Wesleyan, Free Methodist and related churches that hold the Bible to be the inspired Word of God and follow the doctrine of John Wesley. Other Christians view these services differently, and some historians question how far they were new. We state their views fairly and then give our answer. Scripture says, "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Worship Beyond the Sunday Service

Unit 6 described the regular Lord's Day service, and Units 7 and 8 treated the two sacraments. This unit looks at the special services that gave early Methodism its warmth: the love feast, the Watch Night, the Covenant Service, and the revival or camp meeting. None of them is a sacrament. Jesus did not command them, and the church is free to use them or not. But they carried the life of the Methodist societies for generations, and many Wesleyan churches in Latin America, Africa and elsewhere still use them.

They share a common idea. Methodism was a movement of the heart. The class meeting taught people to speak about their faith. These services gave them places to praise, to give testimony, to renew their promises and to seek God together.

The Love Feast

The biblical background

The first Christians shared a common meal. Luke writes that they were "breaking bread from house to house" and eating "with gladness and simplicity of heart" (Acts 2:46). The early church called this meal the agape, the Greek word for love. Jude speaks of "love feasts" (Jude 12), and Paul's rebuke in 1 Corinthians 11:17-22 shows that the meal at Corinth had become selfish, with some hungry and others drunk. In later centuries the church separated the Lord's Supper from the shared meal, and the shared meal faded in most places.

The Moravian pattern

The Moravians, the German Pietists whom Wesley met on his voyage to Georgia in 1735-1736 and later at Herrnhut, kept the love feast alive. Wesley saw it, was moved by it, and brought it into the early Methodist societies in London in 1738. His Journal and his Plain Account of the People Called Methodists (1748) describe how he valued it, and he defended it as a revival of the practice of the early Christians.

How a love feast is held

A love feast is a simple service of fellowship among believers. Its main features are:

• Simple food. The people share plain bread or a small cake, and water or tea. This is not the Lord's Supper. There is no consecration, and a layperson may lead.

• Hymns and prayer. The service begins and ends with Charles Wesley's hymns and with prayer.

• Testimony. The central part is spontaneous testimony. Members stand and say what the Lord has done for them.

• An offering for the poor. The collection was commonly given to those in need, which fits Wesley's concern for the poor.

In early Methodism, members were admitted by their class tickets, so the love feast was a gathering of those who were walking together in the Methodist way.

Why the love feast matters

The love feast taught the church to speak about the Lord. In a tradition that stresses the witness of the Spirit and the hope of being made perfect in love, testimony is not showing off. It is praise, and it builds up others. Paul tells the Corinthians that when they meet, "Let all things be done for edification" (1 Corinthians 14:26).

The Watch Night

Its origin

The Watch Night service began in the early 1740s among the colliers of Kingswood, near Bristol, who were accustomed to spending the night in drinking and loose living. The converted colliers began to spend the night in prayer and singing. Wesley took up the practice and held it in London and elsewhere, usually on the Friday night nearest the full moon, so that the people could walk home in the moonlight. Later it came to be held on New Year's Eve. Wesley pointed out that the early Christians kept night vigils, and he justified the practice by that example and by the Bible.

The biblical support

Jesus "continued all night in prayer to God" (Luke 6:12). Jesus told His disciples to "watch" (Mark 13:35-37). At Philippi, "at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them" (Acts 16:25). The Watch Night is therefore a night of prayer, hymns, Scripture and testimony, ending with the Lord's Supper in some places.

What it became

In Methodist and Holiness churches the congregation looks back on God's mercies, confesses sin, and begins the new year with prayer and dedication. A Watch Night gathering in many African American churches on New Year's Eve 1862 became especially memorable, as people waited for the Emancipation Proclamation to take effect on January 1, 1863. The Watch Night has since remained an important tradition in many African American churches. In Latin America and Africa, many churches keep an all-night prayer vigil with a similar purpose.

The Covenant Service

Its origin

On August 11, 1755, in Spitalfields, London, John Wesley led the people of the societies in a solemn renewal of their covenant with God. He drew on earlier Puritan writings by Richard Alleine and Joseph Alleine, and he later published Directions for Renewing Our Covenant with God (1780). The Covenant Service was repeated, and it became a regular service of Methodism, usually held near the start of the year.

The biblical background

Israel renewed its covenant more than once. At Shechem, Joshua called the people to choose whom they would serve, and the people promised to serve the Lord (Joshua 24). King Asa and the people entered into a covenant to seek the Lord (2 Chronicles 15:12), and after the exile the people sealed a covenant in the days of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 9-10). The prophet Jeremiah foretold a time when God's people would join themselves to the Lord in a covenant not forgotten (Jeremiah 50:5).

What the worshiper is asked

The service calls each person to give themselves entirely to God: to accept the Lord's will in service, to accept the Lord's will in suffering, and to put Christ above every other claim. It speaks of giving oneself wholly to God and being willing to be employed by Him or set aside for Him, to be full or empty, to have all things or nothing. Its great prayer is both a surrender and a trust in God's grace. It is not an act of earning favor, but the response of those already saved by grace.

Why it fits Wesleyan teaching

You studied in Course 3 that holiness is a life of love given wholly to God. The Covenant Service puts this into words. It teaches that the Christian life requires a deliberate and repeated yielding of the will, and that God's grace makes the promise possible. A Wesleyan pastor can use it at the start of the year, at a camp meeting, or at a holiness convention, as a time to renew consecration.

Revival Services and Camp Meetings

Their growth

The camp meeting arose on the American frontier in the early 1800s. A great gathering at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, in 1801 became famous, though it was led by Presbyterians and others, and Methodist circuit riders took part in such meetings. The Methodists quickly embraced the camp meeting, because it fit their structure of itinerant preachers and quarterly meetings, and because Methodist preaching called for decision. Families traveled long distances, camped for days, and heard many sermons. Many were converted, and the Methodist Episcopal Church grew rapidly in the early nineteenth century.

After the American Civil War, the Holiness movement used the camp meeting to promote entire sanctification. In 1867 a national camp meeting for the promotion of holiness was held at Vineland, New Jersey. From this movement came many of the Holiness churches and, in time, the Church of the Nazarene. The revival service, with preaching for decision and an altar where seekers pray, became a mark of Holiness churches. In Latin America and Africa, revival campaigns and "evangelistic weeks" continue the same pattern.

What a revival service contains

Revival services include plain gospel preaching, hymns that call for repentance, an invitation to come forward, prayer with seekers, and testimony. The "altar" or "mourner's bench" is a place where people kneel to seek forgiveness or sanctification.

Testing a Revival

Wesleyans love revival, but they do not accept every excitement as the Lord's work. John says, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1). The Wesleyan church tests a revival by these standards: it exalts Christ, it brings people to repentance and faith, it produces holy living and love for the brothers, and it agrees with Scripture. Jonathan Edwards, in the 1740s, wrote helpful tests of this kind in The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God. And Wesley urged that those who profess new life be gathered into classes, so that their conversion might be nurtured.

Objections and Our Answers

Objection 1: These services are human inventions with no command in Scripture.

Some Christians say that a church should hold only what Scripture commands. They note that the Bible mentions no Watch Night or Covenant Service.

Our answer. Scripture commands the Lord's Supper and baptism, and these we keep as sacraments. But it also leaves the church free to order its worship for the sake of edification (1 Corinthians 14:26, 40). The love feast has a New Testament pattern (Acts 2:46; Jude 12). The Watch Night follows the example of Jesus in prayer and the church's old vigils. The Covenant Service follows the renewals of Israel. A practice is useful if it agrees with Scripture and builds up believers. If it does not, the church may set it aside.

Objection 2: Historians say these customs came from the Moravians and the Puritans, not from the Bible.

It is true that Wesley took the love feast from the Moravians and the Covenant Service from Puritan writers, and some critics conclude that Methodism simply borrowed.

Our answer. Wesley was glad to borrow what was good. He read widely and learned from Moravians, Puritans and the early church, and he tested them against Scripture. The Moravians themselves took the love feast from the New Testament. A practice does not become wrong because it passed through a good teacher.

Objection 3: Revivals manufacture excitement and produce shallow conversions.

Critics in Wesley's day, and many since, said that revival meetings rely on emotion and pressure. Charles Finney's Lectures on Revivals of Religion (1835) argued that revival is the result of the right use of means, and some think this led to artificial methods.

Our answer. The danger is real. We do not believe that revival can be produced by technique; only the Holy Spirit gives life. A pastor should avoid pressure, speak truth, and follow up converts patiently. But the cure for abuse is the right use, not neglect. Peter's sermon at Pentecost brought a decision (Acts 2:37-41), and the Lord still calls sinners to repent today.

Objection 4: A long night of prayer or an altar call is not for everyone, and some churches use them to judge others.

Some members find the services uncomfortable or are made to feel guilty.

Our answer. The services are invitations. They must not become tests of spiritual rank. A Wesleyan pastor explains the purpose, invites without forcing, and makes room for those who need quiet.

Pastoral Application

A pastor in a Wesleyan church in a Latin American town wants to keep the New Year in a way that strengthens his people. His younger members are used to parties on New Year's Eve, and some older members think a vigil is "too long."

First, he explains the purpose. The night is not a performance. It is a time to thank God, to confess, and to start the year with God.

Second, he plans it simply. It begins at nine with hymns and testimony and a shared meal of bread and fruit. At eleven there is a time of silent prayer. A few minutes before midnight, the people kneel and use the Covenant prayer from the Methodist tradition. He closes with the Lord's Supper and a hymn at midnight.

Third, he invites rather than demands, and he allows families with small children to leave after the first part.

Fourth, he follows up, inviting those who made fresh promises to meet in small groups to keep them.

Summary

The love feast, Watch Night, Covenant Service and revival service are not sacraments, but they have shaped Wesleyan worship. The love feast revives the early Christian agape, with simple food, hymns, testimony and an offering for the poor, and Wesley took it from the Moravians. The Watch Night began among the colliers of Kingswood and became a night of prayer and thanksgiving, often on New Year's Eve. The Covenant Service, first led by Wesley in 1755, calls believers to give themselves wholly to God. The camp meeting and revival service carried Methodist and Holiness preaching for decision across America and the world, and they must be tested by Scripture and fruit. Objections that these are human inventions, borrowed customs or emotional excess can be answered when they are used with wisdom and in agreement with the Word.

Further Reading

• John Wesley, A Plain Account of the People Called Methodists (1748), and Journal (public domain).

• John Wesley, Directions for Renewing Our Covenant with God (1780).

• Jonathan Edwards, The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God (1741), public domain.

• Charles Wesley, Hymns and Sacred Poems, hymns for watch nights and the new year (public domain).

• Francis Asbury, Journal (public domain), for camp meetings and quarterly meetings in America.

• Phoebe Palmer, The Way of Holiness (1843), for the Holiness movement's call to consecration.

Submit Exam & Check Pass Reset