Wesleyan Pastoral Ministry, Evangelism, and Global Missions — Unit 2: Preaching for Decision and Growth in Grace

Key Verse

"Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching." (2 Timothy 4:2, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

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

1. Explain why Wesleyans preach for a decision, using universal atonement, prevenient grace and resistible grace.

2. Describe Wesley's picture of the Christian life as repentance, faith and holiness, and show how it shapes a sermon.

3. Explain why believers need preaching aimed at growth in grace, and name four themes for it.

4. List the steps of a plain Wesleyan sermon, from the text to the invitation and the next step.

5. State the objections that decision preaching is manipulative or "works" and give the Wesleyan answers.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the Wesleyan tradition, for pastors who belong to it. We hold that the Bible is God's inspired Word, that Christ died for all, that God's grace goes before our choice, and that He calls His people to holiness. Other Christians differ on some points; we state their views fairly and then answer. See Course 2 for the doctrine behind this unit.

Plain Truth for Plain People

John Wesley published his first volumes of sermons in the 1740s, and in the preface he said that he wanted to speak "plain truth for plain people." He wanted ordinary miners, farmers, servants and shopkeepers to understand the way of salvation. Many of his sermons are still read as doctrinal standards for Methodists; Course 2 studies them.

Wesley's preaching was marked by three things. It was biblical: he was, as he said of himself, a man of one book, and he tried to explain the text. It was plain: his sentences were short and his aim was clear. It was aimed at the conscience: he did not preach to show his learning but to bring hearers to Christ and then to bring Christians on to maturity.

Many of you preach to hearers who speak more than one language or have little schooling. Be plain. A sermon that no one understands has not been preached.

Why Wesleyans Preach for a Decision

When Peter preached at Pentecost, the hearers asked, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" and he answered, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins" (Acts 2:37-38). Paul told the Athenians that God "now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). He said of himself and his helpers, "We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20). The New Testament sermon asks for an answer.

Wesleyans have three doctrinal reasons to preach this way.

Christ died for all. God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4). Because the atonement is for all, the preacher can honestly say to any person in the room, "Christ died for you."

God's grace comes first. Wesley taught what we call prevenient grace: God gives to every person enough light and help that he is able to respond, even though he cannot save himself. The sinner does not begin the work. He answers it. This is why the call is not a demand that the helpless lift himself up. It is an invitation to take hold of what God is already offering.

Grace can be resisted. Stephen told the council that they "always resist the Holy Spirit" (Acts 7:51). The Wesleyan preacher urges a hearer to answer because the answer is real, and it matters.

These three reasons explain a style: warm, direct, earnest. The Wesleyan preacher speaks to the hearer as "you," not only about "them." He does not wait until the end of the service to say something to the heart.

Wesley's Picture: Repentance, Faith, Holiness

Wesley often described the Christian life by a picture of a house. Repentance is the porch, faith is the door, and holiness is the house itself, true religion. (He used this picture in his writings defending Methodist teaching.) The picture gives a preacher a simple outline for a whole ministry.

Repentance. The preacher shows the hearer his need. The law of God and the Word of God show that we have fallen short (Romans 3:23). Wesley used the law as a mirror and as a guide. Repentance is not only feeling sorry; it is a change of mind that turns from sin to God. The preacher must say plainly what sin is, but he must not stay there.

Faith. The preacher offers Christ. Salvation is "by grace . . . through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8). The preacher tells what Christ has done, and invites the hearer to trust Him now. Wesley's sermon "Salvation by Faith" (preached at Oxford in 1738) is a good model of simple teaching on this point. He also taught that a person can know that he is forgiven, by the witness of the Spirit (Romans 8:16; see Course 2, Unit 7).

Holiness. The preacher shows where grace leads. The new birth is the door, not the end. God's purpose is a heart renewed in love, so that we love God and our neighbor (Matthew 22:37-39). A sermon that offers forgiveness but does not call to holy living is half a sermon.

A Wesleyan sermon does not need all three parts every Sunday, but a ministry should not leave any of them out for long.

Preaching for Growth in Grace

Peter ends his second letter with a command for believers: "but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). Wesley preached to people who had already been converted as often as to those who had not. The societies met to be taught, warned and encouraged. A church that hears only the "first steps" sermon will stay small in faith, and a church that hears only advanced teaching will not reach the lost.

Here are four themes for preaching to believers that suit the Wesleyan tradition.

Assurance and its fruit. Believers should be taught that God's Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16), and that assurance is meant to grow into a life of obedience and joy.

Perfect love. Course 3 taught that Christian perfection is perfect love, not sinless perfection. The preacher sets before the congregation the promise that God can fill the heart with love (Ezekiel 36:25-27; 1 John 4:18). In our tradition the question of how and when this is received is held in two ways: the Holiness view of a second work of grace, and the Methodist view of growth in perfect love that may be received in a moment but is approached through gradual work. Preach the promise and the call to seek it. Do not make the sermon a quarrel over the method.

The means of grace. Teach the congregation to use what God has appointed: prayer, Scripture, the Lord's Supper, fasting and fellowship. Wesley taught that believers should keep to these means, and not to treat them as the cause of grace but as the channels through which God gives it.

Warnings and perseverance. The Wesleyan tradition holds that a believer can fall away by continued unbelief, and that he can be restored (Course 2, Unit 9). The author of Hebrews warns, "Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God" (Hebrews 3:12). Such warnings must be given in love, with the promise that God is able to keep those who trust Him.

Preaching for growth also means teaching the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27). A pastor who preaches only his favorite texts will leave his people thin. Preaching through a book of the Bible helps protect the congregation from the preacher's habits.

The Shape of a Plain Wesleyan Sermon

There is no single form. But the following steps have served many Wesleyan preachers, and they are suitable for a pastor with little time.

1. Choose a text and read it carefully. Let the passage set the subject. Ask what it meant to its first hearers.

2. State the main point in one sentence. If you cannot say it in one sentence, the sermon will not be clear.

3. Explain the text in plain words. Define hard words. Use a short story or a picture from daily life if it helps. Use few quotations.

4. Speak to the conscience. Ask what the text requires of the hearer. Name sins and needs honestly, with love.

5. Offer Christ. Show what God has done and promises to do. Preach the gospel to Christians too, for they need grace every day.

6. Invite a response. Say what you want the hearer to do: repent, believe, pray, forgive, give thanks, seek the Lord for a clean heart.

7. Give a next step. Tell people where to go: to the altar, to the pastor after the service, to a class or home group this week.

Pray before and after. Only the Spirit can convict "the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8). The preacher plants and waters, but God gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6).

The Invitation: History and Practice

The way of inviting a response has changed over time. Wesley, in his open-air preaching, called on hearers to repent and believe, and then gathered those who were awakened into the societies and classes, where they could be taught and watched over. As far as the sources show, he did not use one fixed form of calling people forward.

On the American frontier, Methodist camp meetings and revivals made use of a place near the front, often called the mourners' bench or altar, where seekers could kneel and pray with others. Historians do not agree on how this practice grew. Some trace it chiefly to the Methodist and frontier camp meeting tradition. Others give more weight to the later revival methods of Charles Finney in the 1830s, which included an "anxious seat." It is likely that several streams influenced one another.

Wesleyan bodies today, such as the Church of the Nazarene and The Wesleyan Church, have commonly kept an altar in the sanctuary as a place of prayer for seekers and for believers. What matters is not the form but the purpose: to give people a real and plain way to answer God, and to make sure they are not left alone afterward.

Objections and Wesleyan Answers

Objection 1: Decision preaching is manipulative. It depends on emotion, music and pressure.

Wesley's own meetings were criticized for this reason. His Journal records meetings where people cried out or fell down, and some clergy and bishops objected. Today critics point to numbers of "decisions" that did not last.

Our answer. The critics are right to warn us. Emotion is not a proof of grace, and a preacher must not use pressure, false promises or tricks. Wesley himself looked for fruit, not noise: a changed life over time was the test. We agree with that. But Scripture does not ask us to be cold. Peter urged his hearers "with many other words" (Acts 2:40). The Wesleyan answer is honest preaching of the whole gospel, no promise that Scripture does not make, a plain invitation, and real follow-up in the class or home group. Where there is follow-up, a feeling that fades does not decide the matter.

Objection 2: Calling for a decision makes salvation a human work and denies God's sovereignty.

Some Reformed Christians fear that "decision" language puts the sinner in charge. They hold that God alone chooses and that a person cannot respond unless God has first regenerated him. Calvinist preachers such as George Whitefield also preached to everyone and called for repentance, and a fair reading must say so.

Our answer. We agree that salvation is a gift: "by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves" (Ephesians 2:8). Faith is not a work that earns anything; it is the empty hand that receives. We also hold that God's prevenient grace makes the response possible, so the glory still belongs to God. The Bible speaks both ways: God draws (John 6:44), and the hearer is told, "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts" (Hebrews 3:15). We believe that God's universal love and a real human answer are better supported by the whole of Scripture than a view in which the call is sincere only to some.

Objection 3: A sermon should teach, and evangelism belongs to special meetings.

Some pastors think the Sunday sermon is for believers only.

Our answer. Every congregation includes people who do not know Christ, including children, visitors and church members who have never truly turned to God. Wesley warned about the "almost Christian," one who has the form of religion without its power. A Wesleyan pastor expects that someone in the room needs to hear the call to repent and believe, and also that someone needs to be strengthened for the road.

Pastoral Application

Pastor Elena prepares her sermon on Luke 15, the lost son. This Sunday there will be several kinds of people. Some visitors come from a Catholic background and have never heard an invitation of this kind. Some older members have been in church for forty years and are tired. A young father has stopped attending for months.

She writes the main point in one sentence: "The Father runs to meet the one who turns toward home." She speaks plainly and uses short sentences, because several hearers read Spanish better than English. She shows the son's need, and the Father's welcome, and she also speaks gently to the elder brother, who stood outside the feast. She invites those who want to come home to God to come forward to the altar, and she says that others may stay seated and pray where they are. She asks two mature members to pray with anyone who comes. She tells the visitors, kindly, that she is glad they came, and that nothing here is meant to shame them.

During the week she visits the young father and invites the visitors to the Wednesday home group. The sermon opened the door; the group helps people walk through it.

Summary

Wesleyans preach for a decision because Christ died for all, because God's prevenient grace makes an answer possible, and because grace can be resisted. Wesley's picture of the house, with repentance as the porch, faith as the door and holiness as the house, gives a preacher an outline for a whole ministry. Believers also need preaching for growth: assurance, perfect love, the means of grace and the warnings of Scripture, all within the whole counsel of God. A plain Wesleyan sermon moves from the text to a main point, plain explanation, the conscience, Christ, an invitation and a next step. Historians disagree about how the altar invitation developed, but its purpose is a clear way to answer God with follow-up. We answered the objections that decision preaching is manipulative, that it makes salvation a human work, and that evangelism belongs outside the Sunday service.

Further Reading

• John Wesley, "Salvation by Faith" and "The Almost Christian," in the Standard Sermons.

• John Wesley, preface to the Sermons on Several Occasions, a primary source.

• John Wesley, "The Scripture Way of Salvation," in the Standard Sermons.

• John Wesley, Notes on the New Testament, on Acts 2 and 2 Corinthians 5.

• The Journal of John Wesley, on the early field preaching and the reactions to it.

• The Journal of Francis Asbury, a primary source on frontier preaching.

• Charles Wesley's hymns, for the Wesleyan language of invitation and holiness.

• Course 2 (doctrine of salvation) and Course 3 (holiness) of this specialization.

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