Baadhi ya maandishi haya bado hayajatafsiriwa kwa Kiswahili; sehemu hizo zinaonyeshwa kwa Kiingereza.

Kusoma mitazamo tofauti ya kiteolojia. Masomo ya kihistoria yanaeleza mitazamo ya waandishi wake, ikiwemo mapokeo ya Kiarminiani na ya Kireformed au ya Kikalvini. Kujumuishwa hakufanyi msimamo wa mwandishi kuwa fundisho thabiti la CTS. Soma pamoja na Maandiko na nyenzo zilizopangwa. Jibu lenye hoja kutoka mtazamo mwingine wa kiinjili linapaswa kupimwa kwa hoja zake, si kuadhibiwa kwa sababu tu linatofautiana na mwandishi. Ikiwa alama ya kompyuta inakataa jibu kama hilo, omba CTS ilipitie.

Masomo Yaliyopangwa ya Uzamili (yote matano)

Wanafunzi wa M.Div. na Th.M. husoma masomo yote matano yaliyopangwa na kufanya mtihani wake tofauti baada ya kuanzishwa. Ukurasa wa mtihani unaeleza kanuni ya sasa; ukamilishaji halali wa awali unabaki halali.

Heshima ya Hiari (chagua matatu)

Heshima ni ya hiari kwa kila programu. Wanafunzi wa Cheti na wa Shahada ya Mshiriki wanaweza kusoma masomo matatu ya heshima bila mtihani wa masomo ya lazima. Heshima haichukui nafasi ya mtihani wowote wa Uzamili.

The Master's textbook test: read The Journal of John Wesley, 1746–1760 (selections), then take its test: twenty fill-in-the-blank questions, drawn from forty; eighteen right passes. Each answer is marked right or wrong at once. Correct answers and explanations are available after the attempt passes. It is separate from the reading test on the five digests below: passing one does not pass the other. On the M.Div. and Th.M. tracks both tests are being introduced; each test's page says whether it is in force yet. Until then any student may take them, and a pass is kept in your record.

The Master's reading test: separate from the honors invitation below. Honors asks you to read any three of these digests; the Master's test covers all five. It has twenty fill-in-the-blank questions, four from each reading, drawn from forty; eighteen right passes. Each answer is marked right or wrong at once; correct answers and explanations are available after the attempt passes. You may try again after a short wait. The test is being introduced: its page says whether it is in force yet. Until then any student may take it, and a pass is kept in your record.

Chaguo la heshima: Kamilisha masomo matatu yoyote kati ya matano yaliyo hapa chini. Masomo haya yanaongeza kozi na hayachukui nafasi ya sehemu zake wala mitihani yake.

Kwenye tovuti hii: Kila moja ya masomo matano ni muhtasari wa Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala, ulioandikwa na CTS, unaopatikana hapa kwenye tovuti — kila mmoja unafunguka moja kwa moja kutoka ukurasa huu, bila kupakua chochote. Kila kadi inataja kitabu ambacho muhtasari wake umetokana nacho.

Yaliyochaguliwa: 0 kati ya 3

Somo la 1 · Itinerancy and Pastoral Visits

Physic for the Poor, Snow on the Road

A CTS digest of John Wesley, Journal, 25 November 1746 – 30 March 1747; Works, ed. Thomas Jackson, vol. 2 (imprint year to be confirmed), pp. 39–51 (provisional, from OCR running heads)

Wesley opens a free dispensary for the London poor, rides through mobs at Devizes and a winter of snow to Lincolnshire, visits small societies such as Tetney, where members gave all they had to God, and examines the Newcastle classes one by one, asking not about the heart but about the life.

MUHTASARI WA CTSSoma muhtasari wote — unafunguka hapa hapa

Muhtasari wa Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — muhtasari asilia ulioandikwa na CTS, unaopatikana kwa Kiingereza, Kihispania na Kifaransa, unaosomeka bila mtandao. Huu ni muhtasari wa CTS, si maandishi kamili ya chanzo asilia.

Dawa kwa Maskini, Theluji Njiani: Wesley Katika Mzunguko, 1746–1747Physic for the Poor, Snow on the Road: Wesley on Circuit, 1746–1747

Somo la Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — miezi minne ya Jarida la John Wesley, kuanzia zahanati ya bure London hadi safari ya majira ya baridi kuelekea kaskazini na uchunguzi makini wa madarasa huko NewcastleA Chapala Theological Seminary reading — four months of John Wesley’s Journal, from a free dispensary in London to a winter ride north and the careful examining of the classes at Newcastle

Muhtasari wa CTS wa Jarida la John Wesley la tarehe 25 Novemba 1746 hadi 30 Machi 1747, kama lilivyochapishwa katika The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, mhariri Thomas Jackson, buku la 2. Asili ni mali ya umma; nukuu fupi zilizo hapa chini zimetoka humo.A CTS digest of John Wesley’s Journal for 25 November 1746 to 30 March 1747, as printed in The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, ed. Thomas Jackson, vol. 2. The original is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it.

Jarida, Nov. 1746 – Machi 1747Journal, Nov. 1746 – Mar. 1747
Chanzo cha msingiPrimary source
Safari za kuzunguka (itinerancy)Itinerancy
Ziara za kichungajiPastoral visits

Neno kabla ya kusoma. John Wesley (1703–1791) alitunza jarida kwa zaidi ya miaka hamsini na kulichapisha kwa awamu. Si shajara ya siri. Ni kumbukumbu ya hadharani, iliyoandikwa kuonyesha Mungu alichokuwa akifanya miongoni mwa watu walioitwa Wamethodisti na kujibu wakosoaji wao. Lisome kama ushuhuda wa mwinjilisti mwenye shughuli nyingi, si kama ripoti isiyoegemea upande wowote. Somo hili la kwanza linamfuata katika majira moja ya baridi: London, njiani kwenda Bristol, kupitia theluji hadi Lincolnshire, na miongoni mwa wachimba makaa na risasi wa kaskazini-mashariki. A word before you read. John Wesley (1703–1791) kept a journal for more than fifty years and published it in instalments. It is not a private diary. It is a public record, written to show what God was doing among the people called Methodists and to answer their critics. Read it as testimony from a busy evangelist, not as a neutral report. This first reading follows him through one winter: in London, on the road to Bristol, through the snow to Lincolnshire, and among the coal and lead miners of the north-east.

1.Harakati Iliyokuwa Bado Inatafuta Umbo Lake1.A Movement Still Finding Its Shape

Kufikia mwishoni mwa 1746 uamsho wa Kimethodisti ulikuwa na umri wa miaka minane hivi. Wesley alikuwa bado kasisi wa Kanisa la Uingereza, na ndugu yake Charles na kikundi kidogo cha marafiki makasisi pia. Lakini sehemu kubwa ya kuhubiri sasa ilifanywa na wahubiri wa walei, watu wasiowekwa wakfu ambao Wesley aliwateua na kuwahamisha kutoka mahali hadi mahali. Waongofu walikusanywa katika “jamii”. Kila jamii iligawanywa katika “madarasa” ya watu kumi na wawili hivi waliokutana kila wiki chini ya kiongozi mlei, wakatoa sadaka ndogo kwa maskini, na kutoa hesabu ya maisha yao ya kiroho. Nchi ilikuwa na wasiwasi. Uasi wa Wajakobiti wa 1745, uliojaribu kuirudisha familia ya Kikatoliki ya Stuart kwenye kiti cha enzi, ulikuwa umekandamizwa hivi punde tu. Wengi walishuku kwamba Wamethodisti walikuwa waasi wa siri. Ingizo la kwanza kabisa la somo hili linaonyesha aliyekuwa mshiriki wa zamani akijitenga na Wesley kwa sababu, alisema, alikuwa “asiyependa Serikali”. Maoni ya Wesley ni makali, lakini wasiwasi wake wa ndani zaidi ni wa kichungaji: kwa maoni yake, alikuwa ameuacha upendo wake wa kwanza.By late 1746 the Methodist revival was about eight years old. Wesley was still a priest of the Church of England, and so were his brother Charles and a handful of clergy friends. But most of the preaching was now done by lay preachers, men without ordination whom Wesley appointed and moved from place to place. The converts were gathered into “societies.” Each society was divided into “classes” of about a dozen people who met weekly under a lay leader, gave a small offering for the poor, and gave an account of their spiritual lives. The country was nervous. The Jacobite rising of 1745, which tried to restore the Catholic Stuart family to the throne, had only just been crushed. Many people suspected that the Methodists were secret rebels. The very first entry of this reading shows a former member breaking with Wesley because, she said, he was “disaffected to the Government.” Wesley’s comment is sharp, but his deeper concern is pastoral: she had, in his view, left her first love.

2.Tiba Kama Huduma2.Medicine as Ministry

Tarehe 4 Desemba 1746 Wesley aliiambia jamii ya London mpango wake wa “kuwapa maskini dawa”, yaani dawa na ushauri wa kitabibu bila malipo. Watu thelathini hivi walikuja siku iliyofuata, na watu mia tatu hivi ndani ya majuma matatu. Kazi iliendelea kwa miaka kadhaa, hadi idadi ya wagonjwa ilipofanya gharama kuwa kubwa mno kubebeka. Wesley anaandika kwa urahisi tu kwamba wengi waliokuwa wagonjwa kwa miezi au miaka walirejeshwa katika afya. Mwaka 1747 alichapisha Primitive Physic, kitabu cha tiba rahisi za nyumbani kwa watu wasioweza kumlipa daktari. Sehemu kubwa ya dawa zake imepitwa na wakati sasa, na nyingine zilikuwa na shaka hata wakati ule. Jambo la msingi kwetu si dawa, bali silika. Kwa Wesley, kutunza mwili mgonjwa ilikuwa sehemu ya kutunza roho. Injili aliyoihubiri hewani wazi haikuishia kwenye mpaka wa mahitaji ya mwili ya mtu. Majuma hayohayo yanamwonyesha akiandika “Masomo kwa Watoto” na kuwatembelea walioanguka: mmoja wa washiriki wazee alimkuta “mwenye upendo sana, na mlevi sana”, wala hakuweza kufanya lolote naye.On 4 December 1746 Wesley told the London society of his plan of “giving physic to the poor,” that is, free medicine and medical advice. About thirty people came the next day, and about three hundred within three weeks. The work continued for several years, until the number of patients made the cost too great to bear. Wesley notes simply that many who had been ill for months or years were restored to health. In 1747 he published Primitive Physic, a book of simple home remedies for people who could not pay a physician. Much of its medicine is outdated now, and some of it was doubtful even then. The point for us is not the remedies but the instinct. For Wesley, caring for a sick body was part of caring for a soul. The gospel he preached in the open air did not stop at the edge of a person’s physical need. The same weeks show him writing “Lessons for Children” and visiting the fallen: one old member he found “very loving, and very drunk,” and he could do nothing with him.

3.Wafanya Ghasia, Mikokoteni na Barabara ya Majira ya Baridi3.Mobs, Carts and the Winter Road

Mwezi Januari 1747 Wesley alipanda farasi kuelekea magharibi. Huko Devizes mji mzima ulikuwa katika fujo, ukichochewa, aliambiwa, na kasisi wa huko aliyezunguka nyumba kwa nyumba dhidi yake na hata kubandika tangazo chafu likidhihaki mkutano. Wesley alihubiri hata hivyo, na umati wa wafanya ghasia ulioingia ukanyamaza. Huko Bristol mkokoteni uliangusha farasi wake katika mtaa mwembamba na kumtupa barabarani; gurudumu lilipita karibu sana na ubavu wake. Aliinuka, akajisafisha, na kutimiza miadi yake ya saa tisa alasiri huko Wick. Kisha mwezi Februari alianza safari kuelekea kaskazini kuchukua nafasi ya ndugu yake. Maingizo yanaeleza mvua ya mawe, baridi kali, upepo “tayari kupindua mtu na mnyama”, na barabara zilizopotea chini ya theluji iliyorundikana. Mtumishi wake aliposema hakuna kusafiri siku ile, Wesley alijibu: “Angalau tunaweza kutembea maili ishirini kwa siku, tukiwa na farasi wetu mikononi.” Hii ndiyo safari ya kuzunguka (itinerancy) katika umbo lake rahisi kabisa. Mhubiri alikwenda kwa watu, katika hali zote za hewa, kwa sababu watu hawakuwa tayari kuja kwake.In January 1747 Wesley rode west. At Devizes the whole town was in uproar, stirred up, he was told, by a local clergyman who went from house to house against him and even posted a crude advertisement mocking the meeting. Wesley preached anyway, and the mob that came in grew quiet. In Bristol a cart knocked his horse down in a narrow street and threw him into the road; the wheel passed close by his side. He got up, cleaned himself, and kept his three o’clock appointment at Wick. Then in February he set out north to take his brother’s place. The entries describe hail, frost, wind “ready to overturn both man and beast,” and roads lost under drifting snow. When his servant said there was no travelling that day, Wesley answered: “At least we can walk twenty miles a day, with our horses in our hands.” This is itinerancy in its plainest form. The preacher went to the people, in all weathers, because the people would not come to him.

4.Ziara za Kichungaji Njiani4.Pastoral Visits on the Way

Safari kupitia Lincolnshire na Yorkshire ni mnyororo wa ziara ndogo za kichungaji. Huko Epworth, nyumbani kwake utotoni, alihubiri kwenye msalaba wa soko. Huko Grimsby kijana mmoja wa heshima alizamisha sauti yake hadi mwanamke maskini alipogeuza kicheko dhidi yake. Huko Tetney alichunguza jamii ndogo ambayo orodha ya darasa lake ilionyesha kutoa kwa ajabu kwa ajili ya maskini. Kiongozi, Micah Elmoor, alieleza kwamba washiriki wasio na ndoa walikuwa wamekubaliana “kujitoa wenyewe na yote tuliyo nayo kwa Mungu”, ili waweze kumlisha na kumpa malazi mgeni yeyote aliyekuja kijijini. Huko Tealby mchungaji wa mahali alikuwa amewanyima Wamethodisti Meza ya Bwana, hata hivyo nyumba ilijaa kumsikia Wesley. Huko Acomb alimkuta mshiriki aliyechanganywa na mwandishi wa mafumbo Jacob Boehme, akamrudisha kwenye Maandiko na akili ya kawaida. Huko Osmotherley mchungaji alimwalika Wesley kusoma sala na kuhubiri katika kanisa la parokia, na wapinzani wa zamani “walionekana sasa wameyeyushwa kuwa upendo”. Wesley pia alichukua muda njiani kujibu pingamizi la kasisi kwamba kuhubiri kwa Kimethodisti huko Hunslet kulifanya madhara zaidi kuliko mema. Jibu lake lilikuwa la subira: watu wengi walikuwa wameacha kweli ulevi na kuapa, na kosa la wale waliowadhihaki halikufuta wema uliofanyika.The journey through Lincolnshire and Yorkshire is a chain of small pastoral visits. At Epworth, his childhood home, he preached at the market cross. At Grimsby a young gentleman drowned his voice until a poor woman turned the laugh against him. At Tetney he examined a little society whose class-paper showed remarkable giving for the poor. The leader, Micah Elmoor, explained that the single members had agreed “to give both ourselves and all we have to God,” so that they could feed and lodge any stranger who came to the village. At Tealby the local minister had refused the Methodists communion, yet the house filled to hear Wesley. At Acomb he found a member confused by the mystical writer Jacob Boehme, and he pressed him back to Scripture and common sense. At Osmotherley the minister invited Wesley to read prayers and preach in the parish church, and former opponents “seemed now to be melted into love.” Wesley also took time on the road to answer a clergyman’s objection that Methodist preaching at Hunslet did more harm than good. His answer was patient: many people had truly left drunkenness and swearing, and the fault of those who mocked them did not cancel the good done.

5.Kuyachunguza Madarasa5.Examining the Classes

Huko Newcastle mwezi Machi Wesley alitumia siku nyingi kuyachunguza madarasa moja moja. Baadhi ya watu walimwambia kwamba hilo haliwezekani bila karama ya kimiujiza ya kupambanua roho. Yeye hakukubali. Mambo mawili yalihitajika, aliandika: “ujasiri na uthabiti kwa mchunguzi”, na akili ya kawaida na unyofu wa kawaida kwa kiongozi wa kila darasa. Maswali yalikuwa rahisi. Je, mtu huyu anaishi katika ulevi au dhambi yoyote ya nje? Je, huenda kanisani na kutumia njia za neema? Je, hukutana na darasa lake? “Swali halihusu moyo, bali maisha,” aliandika. Jamii ya Newcastle, iliyokuwa na washiriki zaidi ya mia nane katika mwaka wake wa kwanza, sasa ilikuwa na mia nne hivi. Wesley hakusumbuka. Akinukuu methali ya zamani, alisema hapa “nusu ni zaidi ya nzima”. Mapema, London, alikuwa amewaomba viongozi wa madarasa ripoti zilizoandikwa. Mmoja wao, John Hague, alikiri kwamba darasa lake lilihitaji ushauri “ulio wazi na unaokata, unaoamsha na kutikisa”, na kwamba yeye mwenyewe alihisi roho ya uvuguvugu ikimng’ang’ania. Nidhamu katika Umethodisti wa mwanzo haikuwa hasa kuwafukuza watu. Ilikuwa kulijua kundi kwa majina.At Newcastle in March Wesley spent days examining the classes one by one. Some people told him that this was impossible without a miraculous gift of discerning spirits. He disagreed. Two things were needed, he wrote: “courage and steadiness in the examiner,” and common sense and common honesty in the leader of each class. The questions were simple. Does this person live in drunkenness or any outward sin? Does he go to church and use the means of grace? Does he meet his class? “The question is not concerning the heart, but the life,” he wrote. The Newcastle society, which had more than eight hundred members in its first year, was now about four hundred. Wesley was not troubled. Quoting an old proverb, he said that here “the half is more than the whole.” Earlier, in London, he had asked the class leaders for written reports. One leader, John Hague, confessed that his class needed advice “plain and cutting, awakening and shaking,” and that he himself felt a lukewarm spirit clinging to him. Discipline in early Methodism was not mainly about expelling people. It was about knowing the flock by name.

6.Miongoni mwa Wachimba Madini, na Onyo6.Among the Miners, and a Warning

Kuzunguka Newcastle Wesley aliwahubiria wachimba makaa na wachimba risasi wa vilimani. Huko Blanchland alisimama juu ya jiwe la kaburi katika magofu ya kanisa la zamani la abasia huku kusanyiko, lililokusanyika kutoka migodi ya risasi, likipiga magoti juu ya nyasi, na safu ya watoto ikiketi kimya chini ya ukuta. Huko Newlands alifurahi kwamba mwenyeji, John Brown, alikuwa amekusanya jamii, akauliza: mtu “mwenye vipaji vichache vya asili” anaweza kufanya nini asichoweza, akiwa “amejaa imani na upendo”? Somo linamalizika kwa hadithi ya uzito. Francis Coxon alikuwa wakati fulani tegemeo kuu la jamii ya Biddick. Alichoka kutenda mema, akatafuta urafiki wa dunia, akafanikiwa. Kisha akaanguka machimboni na kuvunja mguu. Akikabili kifo, alitubu kwa vilio vikali, akapata amani tena, akafa. Wesley anaisimulia kama onyo dhidi ya kurudi nyuma. Msomaji wa kisasa hahitaji kukubali kila tafsiri ya riziki ya Mungu iliyomo ndani yake ili kusikia ujumbe wa kichungaji: mafanikio yanaweza kuupoza moyo ambao shida haikuwahi kuupoza.Around Newcastle Wesley preached to coal miners and to the lead miners of the hills. At Blanchland he stood on a tombstone in the ruins of an old abbey church while the congregation, gathered from the lead mines, knelt on the grass, and a row of children sat quietly under the wall. At Newlands he rejoiced that a local man, John Brown, had gathered a society, and asked: what may not a person “of small natural talents” do, if he is “full of faith and love”? The reading closes with a sober story. Francis Coxon had once been the main support of the society at Biddick. He grew weary of well-doing, sought the world’s company, and prospered. Then he fell into a quarry and broke his leg. Facing death, he repented with strong cries, found peace again, and died. Wesley tells it as a warning against drifting back. A modern reader need not accept every reading of providence in it to hear the pastoral point: success can cool a heart that hardship never could.

7.Alichojifunza Mchungaji wa Kiwesley Leo7.What a Wesleyan Pastor Takes from It Today

Hii ni hadithi ya Umethodisti wa Uingereza katika miaka yake ya mwanzo, katika miji ya Kiingereza na vijiji vya migodi. Haielezi misheni za ulimwengu za baadaye. Hata hivyo mifumo iliyomo hapa ilisafiri mbali. Ndani ya miaka ishirini walei wa Kimethodisti walipeleka mkutano wa darasa Amerika Kaskazini, na baadaye jamii za kimisionari za Kiwesley, makanisa ya Kimethodisti ya Marekani na Kanisa la Nazarene (lililoundwa mwaka 1908) walianzisha makutaniko Afrika, Asia, Pasifiki na Amerika ya Kilatini, mara nyingi pamoja na zahanati na shule. Mchungaji wa Kimethodisti au Mnazarene leo anaweza kuchukua mafunzo kadhaa kutoka kurasa hizi. Kwanza, nenda kwa watu; usingoje waje. Pili, tunza miili pamoja na roho, kama zahanati ya London ilivyofanya. Tatu, wajue washiriki wako binafsi na uulize maswali wazi juu ya jinsi wanavyoishi. Nne, waamini viongozi wa kawaida: Micah Elmoor au John Brown anaweza kushikilia kijiji kizima. Tano, tafuta amani na kanisa la mahali inapowezekana, kama huko Osmotherley. Neno la tahadhari pia linahitajika. Wesley anatumia “Wapapisti”, neno la kawaida la Kiprotestanti la wakati wake, kwa Wakatoliki wa Roma. Huko Hainton alihubiri neema ileile kwa “Waprotestanti na Wapapisti” sawa, na hiyo ndiyo sehemu bora ya mfano wake. Tunapaswa kusema juu ya majirani zetu Wakatoliki kwa heshima ileile tunayoiomba kwa ajili yetu wenyewe.This is the story of British Methodism in its early years, in English towns and mining villages. It does not describe later global missions. Yet the patterns here travelled far. Within twenty years Methodist lay people carried the class meeting to North America, and later the Wesleyan missionary societies, the American Methodist churches and the Church of the Nazarene (formed in 1908) planted congregations in Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Latin America, often alongside clinics and schools. A Methodist or Nazarene pastor today can take several lessons from these pages. First, go to the people; do not wait for them to come. Second, care for bodies as well as souls, as the London dispensary did. Third, know your members personally and ask plain questions about how they live. Fourth, trust ordinary leaders: a Micah Elmoor or a John Brown can hold a village together. Fifth, seek peace with the local church where you can, as at Osmotherley. A word of care is also needed. Wesley uses “Papists,” the common Protestant term of his day, for Roman Catholics. At Hainton he preached the same grace to “Protestants and Papists” alike, and that is the better part of his example. We should speak of our Catholic neighbours with the same respect we ask for ourselves.

8.Kuliweka Moyoni8.Taking It to Heart

Kwa tafakari. Ni nani walio wagonjwa na maskini karibu na kanisa lako, na ni huduma gani rahisi na ya vitendo kutaniko lako linaweza kuwapa? Kama mtu angewauliza viongozi wa vikundi vyako vidogo kila mshiriki anaishije, wangeweza kujibu kwa kweli? Ni “hali ya hewa” gani inakuzuia kwenda kwa watu, na ingekuwa na maana gani kutembea “tukiwa na farasi wetu mikononi”? Na ni wapi mafanikio, kuliko shida, yameupoza upendo wako wa kwanza? For reflection. Who are the sick and poor near your church, and what simple, practical care could your congregation offer them? If someone asked the leaders of your small groups how each member is living, could they answer truly? What “weather” keeps you from going to the people, and what would it mean to walk “with our horses in our hands”? And where has success, rather than hardship, cooled your own first love?

Chagua

Somo la 2 · Societies and the Troubles of Expansion

The Lions of Bolton

A CTS digest of John Wesley, Journal, 21 September – 9 December 1749; Works, ed. Thomas Jackson, vol. 2 (imprint year to be confirmed), pp. 157–169 (provisional, from OCR running heads)

Wesley plants a society at Whitehaven and judges honestly that the work is wide but not deep, repents of refusing communion to the Lutheran pastor Bolzius in Georgia, works alongside Whitefield, faces the Bolton mob with love and tears, and reads the journal of David Brainerd, missionary among the Lenape.

MUHTASARI WA CTSSoma muhtasari wote — unafunguka hapa hapa

Simba wa Bolton: Huduma ya Jamii na Matatizo ya Upanuzi, 1749The Lions of Bolton: Society Ministry and the Troubles of Expansion, 1749

Somo la Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — majuma kumi na moja ya Jarida la John Wesley, kuanzia kupanda jamii huko Whitehaven hadi kukabili umati wa Bolton, pamoja na barua kutoka Georgia na Rotterdam na usomaji wa kwanza wa David BrainerdA Chapala Theological Seminary reading — eleven weeks of John Wesley’s Journal, from planting a society at Whitehaven to facing the Bolton mob, with letters from Georgia and Rotterdam and a first reading of David Brainerd

Muhtasari wa CTS wa Jarida la John Wesley la tarehe 21 Septemba hadi 9 Desemba 1749, kama lilivyochapishwa katika The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, mhariri Thomas Jackson, buku la 2. Asili ni mali ya umma; nukuu fupi zilizo hapa chini zimetoka humo.A CTS digest of John Wesley’s Journal for 21 September to 9 December 1749, as printed in The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, ed. Thomas Jackson, vol. 2. The original is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it.

Jarida, Sept. – Des. 1749Journal, Sept. – Dec. 1749
Chanzo cha msingiPrimary source
JamiiSocieties
Wafanya ghasia na upinzaniMobs and opposition

Neno kabla ya kusoma. Mwaka 1749 Umethodisti ulikuwa ukikua haraka, na ukuaji ulileta matatizo. Jamii mpya zilipaswa kuundwa na kufundishwa, na katika miji mingi umati ulishambulia wahubiri, wakati mwingine kwa idhini ya kimya ya waheshimiwa au makasisi wa mahali. Somo hili linaonyesha pande zote mbili za upanuzi: kazi ya subira ya kujenga jamii, na hatari ya kuhubiri mahali ambapo watu hawakutaka. Kumbuka kwamba Jarida ni masimulizi ya Wesley mwenyewe, yaliyoandikwa kuwatia moyo watu wake. A word before you read. In 1749 Methodism was growing fast, and growth brought trouble. New societies had to be formed and taught, and in many towns crowds attacked the preachers, sometimes with the quiet approval of local gentlemen or clergy. This reading shows both sides of expansion: the patient work of building a society, and the danger of preaching where people did not want you. Remember that the Journal is Wesley’s own account, written to encourage his people.

1.Kupanda Jamii Huko Whitehaven1.Planting a Society at Whitehaven

Mwishoni mwa Septemba 1749 mhubiri Bwana Cownley alimsihi Wesley aje Whitehaven, bandari kwenye pwani ya Cumberland kaskazini-magharibi mwa Uingereza. Wesley alihubiri katika uwanja wa soko na kuona kwamba watu waligusika. Kwa hiyo, baada ya kuhubiri, aliwaomba wale walioazimia kumtumikia Mungu wakutane naye kando na umati, na akawaeleza “kusudi, hali na matumizi ya jamii za Kikristo.” Jioni hiyo alianza kuwaunda “kuwa jamii ya kawaida,” na siku iliyofuata aliwachunguza mmoja mmoja. Pia alihubiri katika vijiji vya madini vilivyo karibu. Huko Hensingham, mgodi mkubwa wa makaa, hamu ya watu ilimkumbusha siku za mwanzo huko Kingswood karibu na Bristol. “Lo, kwa nini tusiwe daima kama tulivyokuwa zamani?” aliuliza. Alipoondoka majuma mawili baadaye, jamii mpya ilikuwa na washiriki zaidi ya mia mbili. Huu ndio mfumo wa Kimethodisti kwa ufupi: hubiri hewani wazi, waalike walio makini wajiunge, wapange mara moja, na umjue kila mmoja.In late September 1749 the preacher Mr. Cownley urged Wesley to come to Whitehaven, a port on the coast of Cumberland in north-west England. Wesley preached in the market-place and saw that the people were moved. So, after preaching, he asked those who were resolved to serve God to meet him apart from the crowd, and he explained to them “the design, nature, and use of Christian societies.” That evening he began to shape them “into a regular society,” and the next day he examined them one by one. He also preached in the mining villages nearby. At Hensingham, a large colliery, the eagerness of the people reminded him of the early days at Kingswood near Bristol. “O why should we not be always what we were once?” he asked. When he left two weeks later, the new society had more than two hundred members. This is the Methodist pattern in miniature: preach in the open, invite the serious to join, organize them at once, and get to know each one.

2.Tathmini ya Unyofu2.An Honest Assessment

Wesley hakujifanya kwamba kila umati ulimaanisha uamsho. Tarehe 24 Septemba alipata homa kanisani, lakini bado alihubiri kwa kusanyiko kubwa katika uwanja wa soko. Kisha alisimama kutafakari. Kazi ya Whitehaven, aliandika, ilifanana na kazi ya Athlone huko Ireland. “Inakimbia kwa mkondo wa haraka na mpana; lakini haiendi kwa kina.” Sehemu kubwa ya mji ilionekana kuguswa, lakini wachache sana walikuwa wameamshwa kweli, na karibu hakuna aliyekuwa amepata upendo wa Mungu wa kusamehe. Siku chache baadaye alirudia onyo: wengi walionekana kuguswa, lakini “hivi punde ilizimika.” Unyofu huu una maana. Wesley alipima kazi si kwa ukubwa wa umati bali kwa maisha yaliyobadilika. Siku hizohizo alipanda farasi peke yake kuvuka vilima vya milima katika ukungu na dhoruba, akapotea njia zaidi ya mara moja, akaomba, akaipata barabara tena. Pia alitumia siku moja katika kufunga na kuomba pamoja na John Brown na Bwana Hopper, wahubiri wawili wa kaskazini. Kupanda jamii kulimgharimu nguvu zake na afya yake.Wesley did not pretend that every crowd meant revival. On 24 September he caught a fever in church, yet still preached to a large congregation in the market-place. Then he paused to reflect. The work at Whitehaven, he wrote, resembled the work at Athlone in Ireland. “It runs with a swift and a wide stream; but it does not go deep.” Much of the town seemed moved, but very few were truly awakened, and hardly anyone had yet found the pardoning love of God. A few days later he repeated the warning: many seemed affected, but “it soon died away.” This honesty matters. Wesley measured a work not by the size of the crowd but by changed lives. In the same days he rode alone across the fells in mist and storm, lost his way more than once, prayed, and found the road again. He also spent a day in fasting and prayer with John Brown and Mr. Hopper, two of the preachers in the north. Planting a society cost him his strength and his health.

3.Barua kutoka Georgia3.A Letter from Georgia

Huko Whitehaven Wesley alipokea barua kutoka kwa John Martin Bolzius, mchungaji wa walowezi Walutheri kutoka Salzburg huko Ebenezer, Georgia. Wesley alikuwa amemjua wakati wa misheni yake isiyo na furaha huko Georgia mwaka 1736–1737. Bolzius aliripoti nyumba mbili za ibada, shule mbili na vinu kadhaa, na aliomba msaada kwa wajane, yatima na wagonjwa. Wesley aliguswa sana na utauwa na urahisi wa barua hiyo. Kisha alitoa ungamo lenye maumivu. Alipokuwa Savannah, alikuwa amekataa kumkubali mtu huyuhuyu kwenye Meza ya Bwana, kwa sababu Bolzius hakuwa amebatizwa na mchungaji aliyewekwa wakfu na askofu. “Je, yeyote anaweza kupeleka bidii ya Kanisa Kuu juu zaidi ya hii?” aliuliza, akaongeza kwamba tangu hapo alikuwa “amepigwa kwa fimbo yangu mwenyewe,” kwa kuwa sasa makasisi wengine walikuwa wakimfungia nje. Hapa ni kiongozi aliyejifunza kutokana na kushindwa kwake mwenyewe katika misheni. Wesley kijana huko Georgia alijali sheria za kanisa kuliko mtumishi mwenzake wa Kristo; Wesley mzee anatubu hilo kwa maandishi.At Whitehaven Wesley received a letter from John Martin Bolzius, pastor of the Lutheran settlers from Salzburg at Ebenezer in Georgia. Wesley had known him during his unhappy mission in Georgia in 1736–1737. Bolzius reported two houses of worship, two schools and several mills, and he asked for help for widows, orphans and the sick. Wesley was deeply moved by the letter’s piety and simplicity. Then he made a painful confession. When he was in Savannah, he had refused to admit this very man to the Lord’s Table, because Bolzius had not been baptized by a minister ordained by a bishop. “Can any one carry High Church zeal higher than this?” he asked, and he added that he had since been “beaten with mine own staff,” for now other clergy were shutting him out. Here is a leader who has learned from his own failure in mission. The young Wesley in Georgia had cared more for church rules than for a fellow servant of Christ; the older Wesley repents of it in print.

4.Kufanya Kazi na Whitefield4.Working with Whitefield

Mapema Oktoba barua ilikuja kutoka kwa George Whitefield, ikimwomba Wesley akutane naye Leeds. Watu hao wawili walikuwa wameachana mwaka 1741 kwa sababu ya kuamuliwa tangu awali (predestination): Whitefield alikuwa Mkalvini, Wesley hakuwa. Hata hivyo walikutana kama marafiki. Whitefield alihubiri Leeds na Birstal, na Wesley alifurahi kwamba Mungu alimpa “maneno yenye nguvu na ya kushawishi.” Wesley alitumia saa moja na wahubiri wake kadhaa “katika kuonya na kuomba.” Baadaye, huko Newcastle, alikuta kwamba ziara ya karibuni ya Whitefield huko ilikuwa imezaa matunda ya kudumu. Huko Birstal Wesley alikuta kwamba hata sauti yake yenye nguvu haikuweza kufikia theluthi mbili ya umati. Baada ya miaka kumi na miwili ya kuhubiri nje, aliandika, hakuna mtu angeweza kusema kwamba watu walikuja kwa sababu tu ni jambo jipya. Somo kwetu ni rahisi: tofauti za mafundisho ni halisi, lakini si lazima zizuie Wakristo kuomba na kuhubiri pamoja.Early in October a letter came from George Whitefield, asking Wesley to meet him at Leeds. The two men had divided in 1741 over predestination: Whitefield was a Calvinist, Wesley was not. Yet they met as friends. Whitefield preached at Leeds and at Birstal, and Wesley rejoiced that God gave him “strong and persuasive words.” Wesley spent an hour with several of his preachers “in exhortation and prayer.” Later, at Newcastle, he found that Whitefield’s recent visit there had borne lasting fruit. At Birstal Wesley found that even his strong voice could not reach two-thirds of the crowd. After twelve years of field-preaching, he noted, no one could say that people came only because it was new. The lesson for us is simple: doctrinal differences are real, but they need not stop Christians from praying and preaching together.

5.Rochdale na Bolton5.Rochdale and Bolton

Tarehe 18 Oktoba Wesley alipanda farasi hadi Lancashire. Huko Rochdale mitaa ilikuwa imejaa watu wakipiga kelele na kulaani, kwa hiyo alihubiri kutoka chumba kikubwa kilicho wazi kuelekea barabarani, na umati ukatulia. Huko Bolton ilikuwa mbaya zaidi. “Simba wa Rochdale,” aliandika, “walikuwa wana-kondoo ukilinganisha na wale wa Bolton.” Umati ulifuata wahubiri hadi nyumba waliyokaa, ukamtupa mmoja wao matopeni, ukavunja madirisha kwa mawe, ukapiga kengele kuwaita watu zaidi, na hatimaye ukavunja kuingia ndani ya nyumba. Wenzake wawili wa Wesley walisema na umati ndani, mmoja kwa maonyo na mwingine kwa maneno ya upole. Kisha Wesley alishuka kwenda katikati ya walio wengi zaidi na kuomba kiti cha kusimamia. “Moyo wangu ulijazwa upendo, macho yangu machozi, na kinywa changu hoja,” aliandika. Umati ulishangaa, ukaona aibu, na “ukayeyushwa.” Asubuhi iliyofuata watu wengi kuliko nyumba ingeweza kuwa nao walikuja, naye alihubiri tena katika uwanja wa nyasi. Baadaye wahubiri walitembea kupitia kila mtaa bila madhara. Wesley hakujibu jeuri kwa jeuri. Alijibu kwa uwepo, upendo na neno la Mungu.On 18 October Wesley rode into Lancashire. At Rochdale the streets were lined with people shouting and cursing, so he preached from a large room open to the street, and the crowd grew quiet. At Bolton it was worse. The “lions at Rochdale,” he wrote, “were lambs in comparison of those at Bolton.” The mob followed the preachers to the house where they stayed, threw one of them down in the mud, broke the windows with stones, rang a bell to call more people, and finally burst into the house. Two of Wesley’s companions spoke to the crowd inside, one with warnings and one with gentle words. Then Wesley walked down into the thickest of them and called for a chair to stand on. “My heart was filled with love, my eyes with tears, and my mouth with arguments,” he wrote. The crowd was amazed, ashamed, and “melted down.” The next morning more people came than the house could hold, and he preached again in a meadow. Afterwards the preachers walked through every street without harm. Wesley never answered violence with violence. He answered it with presence, love and the word of God.

6.Tamaa Zilizokatizwa, Marafiki na Jarida la Mmisionari6.Disappointments, Friends and a Missionary’s Journal

Si kila mlango ulifunguka. Mchungaji wa Acton alimwalika Wesley kuhubiri kanisani kwake kisha akakosa ujasiri. Wesley hakusumbuka: “Napenda kweli kuhubiri kanisani,” aliandika, lakini Mungu angeweza kufanya kazi popote apendapo. Huko Dudley umati ulitupa matope; huko Wednesbury kusanyiko lililoomba lilimwinua. “Kusanyiko linaloomba linamtia nguvu Mhubiri jinsi gani!” Mwezi Novemba barua ya Kilatini ilifika kutoka kwa Johannes de Koker, rafiki huko Rotterdam. Alimsifu Wesley kwa kutojifunga na kikundi chochote cha kidini na kumhimiza aepuke mabishano yasiyo ya lazima. Wesley alipanga kumtembelea, lakini de Koker alifariki kwanza. London Wesley alikuta roho ya kufa moyo iliyosababishwa na watu wachache waliokuwa wakieneza makwazo, naye alishughulikia jambo hilo hadi “pigo lilipozuiliwa.” Alimzika Martha Somerset, “mama katika Israeli.” Kisha, tarehe 9 Desemba, alisoma dondoo la jarida la David Brainerd (1718–1747), mmisionari kijana kwa watu wa Walenape (Delaware) huko New Jersey na Pennsylvania. Alifurahi kwamba Mungu “mara nyingine tena” amewapa mataifa toba, lakini pia alimkosoa Brainerd kwa kuhukumu uamsho mwingine kwa ukali mno. Maneno ya Wesley kwa Wenyeji wa Amerika, “Wahindi”, yalikuwa neno la kawaida la wakati wake; watu ambao Brainerd aliwahudumia walikuwa Walenape, wenye jina lao, lugha yao na historia yao.Not every door opened. The vicar of Acton invited Wesley to preach in his church and then lost courage. Wesley was not troubled: “I love indeed to preach in a church,” he wrote, but God could work wherever he pleased. At Dudley a crowd threw dirt; at Wednesbury the praying congregation lifted him. “How does a praying congregation strengthen the Preacher!” In November a Latin letter arrived from Johannes de Koker, a friend in Rotterdam. He praised Wesley for tying himself to no sect and urged him to avoid needless disputes. Wesley planned to visit him, but de Koker died first. In London Wesley found a spirit of deadness caused by a few people who kept spreading offence, and he dealt with it until “the plague was stayed.” He buried Martha Somerset, “a mother in Israel.” Then, on 9 December, he read an extract of the journal of David Brainerd (1718–1747), the young missionary to the Lenape (Delaware) people in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He rejoiced that God had “once more” given repentance to the nations, but he also criticized Brainerd for judging other revivals too severely. Wesley’s phrase for Native Americans, “the Indians,” was the usual term of his time; the people Brainerd served were Lenape, with their own name, language and history.

7.Alichojifunza Mchungaji wa Kiwesley Leo7.What a Wesleyan Pastor Takes from It Today

Matukio haya yametoka Umethodisti wa Uingereza, katika miji ya kaskazini mwa Uingereza. Si historia ya misheni za ulimwengu. Lakini tayari yanaelekeza zaidi ya Uingereza: mchungaji Mlutheri huko Georgia, rafiki Mholanzi huko Rotterdam, na mmisionari miongoni mwa Walenape wote wanaonekana katika majuma haya. Wamisionari wa Kiwesley na Kinazarene wa baadaye, na wachungaji wa kitaifa waliowafuata, mara nyingi walikutana na uadui kama wa Bolton. Katika sehemu za kusini mwa Meksiko, kwa mfano, familia za kiinjilisti wakati mwingine zimefukuzwa kutoka vijiji vyao. Mchungaji wa Kimethodisti au Mnazarene leo anaweza kujifunza mambo kadhaa hapa. Kwanza, wakusanye waumini wapya haraka katika vikundi vidogo, na uwafundishe kikundi ni cha nini. Pili, pima kazi kwa kina chake, si ukubwa wake. Tatu, kiri makosa ya zamani katika huduma, kama Wesley alivyofanya kwa Bolzius. Nne, fanya kazi na Wakristo wa imani nyingine pale injili inapohudumiwa. Tano, kabili uadui bila chuki: nenda miongoni mwa watu wenye hasira kwa upendo, machozi na sababu njema. Na sita, soma hadithi za wamisionari wa nchi nyingine, lakini uzisome kwa upambanuzi, kama Wesley alivyomsoma Brainerd.These scenes come from British Methodism, in the towns of northern England. They are not a history of world missions. But they already point beyond Britain: a Lutheran pastor in Georgia, a Dutch friend in Rotterdam, and a missionary among the Lenape all appear in these weeks. Later Wesleyan and Nazarene missionaries, and the national pastors who followed them, often met hostility like Bolton’s. In parts of southern Mexico, for example, evangelical families have at times been driven from their villages. A Methodist or Nazarene pastor today can learn several things here. First, gather new believers quickly into small groups, and teach them what the group is for. Second, judge a work by its depth, not its size. Third, admit past mistakes in ministry, as Wesley did with Bolzius. Fourth, work with Christians of other convictions where the gospel is served. Fifth, meet hostility without hatred: go among angry people with love, tears and good reasons. And sixth, read the stories of missionaries in other lands, but read them with discernment, as Wesley read Brainerd.

8.Kuliweka Moyoni8.Taking It to Heart

Kwa tafakari. Watu wanapoitikia kuhubiri kwako, unawasaidia kwa haraka kiasi gani kuingia katika kikundi ambamo watajulikana na kutunzwa? Kazi katika kanisa lako inakimbia kwa haraka na kwa upana, au kwa kina? Je, kuna uamuzi wa zamani katika huduma yako, kama wa Wesley na Bolzius, unaohitaji kuukiri? Na unapokabili upinzani, ingekuwaje kushuka miongoni mwa wapinzani wako kwa moyo uliojaa upendo? For reflection. When people respond to your preaching, how quickly do you help them into a group where they will be known and cared for? Does the work in your church run swift and wide, or deep? Is there a past decision in your ministry, like Wesley’s with Bolzius, that you need to acknowledge? And when you face opposition, what would it look like to go down among your opponents with a heart full of love?

Chagua

Somo la 3 · Travel and Pastoral Care in Ireland

Preaching in Irish

A CTS digest of John Wesley, Journal, 13 July – 6 October 1752; Works, ed. Thomas Jackson, vol. 2 (imprint year to be confirmed), pp. 270–275 (provisional, from OCR running heads)

Wesley crosses to Dublin, steadies a society shaken by riot and by conflicting opinions, rides through the midland societies inviting Catholic and Protestant hearers alike to Christ, confers with his preachers at Limerick, examines the Cork society, hears Thomas Walsh preach in Irish at Waterford, and begins a new preaching-house in Cork.

MUHTASARI WA CTSSoma muhtasari wote — unafunguka hapa hapa

Kuhubiri kwa Kiayalandi: Safari na Utunzaji wa Kichungaji Ireland, 1752Preaching in Irish: Travel and Pastoral Care in Ireland, 1752

Somo la Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — majuma kumi na mawili ya Jarida la John Wesley, kuanzia kuvuka bahari yenye dhoruba hadi Dublin, kupitia jamii za katikati hadi Limerick, Cork na Waterford, hadi nyumba mpya ya kuhubiria iliyoanzishwa CorkA Chapala Theological Seminary reading — twelve weeks of John Wesley’s Journal, from a stormy crossing to Dublin, through the midland societies to Limerick, Cork and Waterford, to a new preaching-house begun in Cork

Muhtasari wa CTS wa Jarida la John Wesley la tarehe 13 Julai hadi 6 Oktoba 1752, kama lilivyochapishwa katika The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, mhariri Thomas Jackson, buku la 2. Asili ni mali ya umma; nukuu fupi zilizo hapa chini zimetoka humo.A CTS digest of John Wesley’s Journal for 13 July to 6 October 1752, as printed in The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, ed. Thomas Jackson, vol. 2. The original is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it.

Jarida, Julai – Okt. 1752Journal, July – Oct. 1752
Chanzo cha msingiPrimary source
IrelandIreland
Utunzaji wa kichungajiPastoral care

Neno kabla ya kusoma. Wesley alitembelea Ireland kwa mara ya kwanza mwaka 1747 na alivuka Bahari ya Ireland zaidi ya mara ishirini katika maisha yake. Ireland haikuwa upanuzi rahisi wa Uingereza. Watu wake wengi walikuwa Wakatoliki wa Roma na wengi walizungumza Kiayalandi, wakati mamlaka ya kisiasa yalikuwa mikononi mwa wachache wa Kiprotestanti, na Sheria za Adhabu ziliwazuia Wakatoliki katika sehemu kubwa ya maisha ya umma. Wesley aliiona Ireland kama kasisi Mprotestanti wa wakati wake. Unaposoma, kumbuka sauti ambazo Jarida halizirekodi. A word before you read. Wesley first visited Ireland in 1747 and crossed the Irish Sea more than twenty times in his life. Ireland was not a simple extension of England. Most of its people were Roman Catholic and many spoke Irish, while political power belonged to a Protestant minority, and the Penal Laws barred Catholics from much of public life. Wesley saw Ireland as a Protestant clergyman of his day. As you read, keep in mind the voices the Journal does not record.

1.Kuvuka hadi Dublin1.Crossing to Dublin

Mwezi Julai 1752 Wesley, aliyekuwa ameoa sasa, alingoja Whitehaven meli. Hatimaye moja ilipokuwa tayari, iliondoka robo saa kabla hajafika gatini, kwa hiyo yeye na mkewe walipanda nyingine. Pepo za kinyume ziliwaweka baharini hadi tarehe 17 Julai, walipofika Dublin. Wesley alifurahia nyumba mpya ya kuhubiria huko, yenye ghorofa za ndani zenye kina pande tatu. Lakini Jumapili ya kwanza ilikatisha tamaa. Kusanyiko lilikuwa dogo kuliko alivyotumaini, mwenendo wa watu katika Kanisa Kuu la St Patrick ulimshtua, na wasikilizaji wake wengi wa jioni walionekana “hawajaamshwa kabisa.” Aliandika waziwazi: “Nastaajabu inakuwaje, kwamba baada ya kazi yetu yote hapa, bado kuwe na tunda kidogo hivi.” Mmisionari anayetunza jarida ataandika maingizo kama haya. Kazi ya uaminifu haizai daima matokeo yanayoonekana.In July 1752 Wesley, now married, waited at Whitehaven for a ship. When at last one was ready, it sailed a quarter of an hour before he reached the quay, so he and his wife boarded another. Contrary winds kept them at sea until 17 July, when they reached Dublin. Wesley was pleased with the new preaching-house there, which had deep galleries on three sides. But the first Sunday was discouraging. The congregation was smaller than he had hoped, the behaviour of the people in St Patrick’s Cathedral shocked him, and many of his evening hearers seemed “utterly unawakened.” He wrote frankly: “I marvel how it is, that after all our labour here, there should still be so little fruit.” A missionary who keeps a journal will write entries like this. Faithful work does not always produce visible results.

2.Jamii Iliyotikiswa2.A Shaken Society

Punde Wesley alijifunza hadithi ya ghasia za karibuni huko Dublin. Umati ulikuwa umevunja madirisha ya nyumba ya kuhubiria na ulikuwa ukivunja kuingia askari walipofika. Viongozi walikamatwa na kushtakiwa, lakini, Wesley anaripoti, jopo la mahakama liliwaachilia; anawalaumu wajumbe Wakatoliki kwa kuwabana wengine. Tunasikia upande wake tu wa shauri, ulioandikwa wakati wa kutoaminiana kwa kina kati ya Waprotestanti na Wakatoliki, nasi tunapaswa kuusoma hivyo. Siku iliyofuata alichunguza jamii yenyewe, ambayo bado ilikuwa na washiriki mia nne na ishirini hivi, “ingawa wengi walikuwa wametikiswa sana, hasa na maoni mbalimbali,” yaliyoenezwa hata na baadhi ya wahubiri wake mwenyewe. Hatari kubwa zaidi kwa jamii haikuwa umati wa nje bali mchanganyiko wa ndani. Jibu la Wesley halikuwa kukemea kutoka mbali bali kutembelea, kuuliza na kufundisha. Pia alijali watu mmoja mmoja. Alikutana na mtu tajiri aliyewahi kumjua Bristol, ambaye sasa alikuwa na kila kitu ambacho ulimwengu unaweza kutoa na hakufurahia chochote. “Tabibu mkuu na auponye ugonjwa wake!” Wesley aliomba.Wesley soon learned the story of a recent riot in Dublin. A mob had broken the windows of the preaching-house and was breaking in when soldiers arrived. The leaders were arrested and tried, but, Wesley reports, the jury acquitted them; he blames the Catholic jurors for pressing the others. We hear only his side of the case, written in a time of deep mistrust between Protestants and Catholics, and we should read it that way. The next day he inquired into the society itself, which still had about four hundred and twenty members, “though many had been much shaken, chiefly by various opinions,” spread even by some of his own preachers. The greatest danger to the society was not the mob outside but confusion within. Wesley’s answer was not to scold from a distance but to visit, inquire and teach. He also cared for individuals. He met a wealthy man he had once known in Bristol, who now had everything the world could give and enjoyed nothing. “May the great Physician heal his sickness!” Wesley prayed.

3.Kupitia Jamii za Katikati ya Nchi3.Through the Midland Societies

Kutoka Dublin Wesley alipanda farasi kupitia jamii ndogo za katikati ya Ireland: Edenderry, Portarlington, Mountmellick, Tullamore, Coolylough, Tyrrellspass na Athlone. Mara nyingi alikuwa mgonjwa na sauti iliyokauka. Huko Portarlington kuhubiri kulikuwa na maumivu, lakini aliliita “maumivu ya faraja.” Baada ya kukutana na marafiki huko Coolylough, alimbatiza Mquaker wa zamani, Joseph English, na watoto wake wawili. Huko Abidarrig Wakatoliki wengi walikuwapo, na Wesley alihisi “wasiwasi mwingi kwa ajili yao.” Alisema nao moja kwa moja na kuwasihi wategemee kabisa “Mpatanishi mmoja kati ya Mungu na wanadamu.” Huko Athlone alihubiri upande wa Connaught wa mto kwa Wakatoliki wengi pamoja na Waprotestanti. Katika matukio haya Wesley hawashambulii wasikilizaji wake Wakatoliki; anawaalika, kama alivyomwalika kila mtu, kumwamini Kristo peke yake. Leo tunaweza kushiriki mwaliko huo huku pia tukitambua imani ambayo waumini wengi Wakatoliki tayari wanayo, na historia ndefu ya dhuluma iliyounda shaka ya Waayalandi kwa wahubiri Waprotestanti wa Kiingereza.From Dublin Wesley rode through the small societies of the Irish midlands: Edenderry, Portarlington, Mountmellick, Tullamore, Coolylough, Tyrrellspass and Athlone. He was often ill and hoarse. At Portarlington preaching was painful, but he called it “a comfortable pain.” After meeting friends at Coolylough, he baptized a former Quaker, Joseph English, and two of his children. At Abidarrig many Catholics were present, and Wesley felt “much concern for them.” He spoke to them directly and urged them to rely wholly on “the one Mediator between God and man.” At Athlone he preached on the Connaught side of the river to many Catholics as well as Protestants. In these scenes Wesley does not attack his Catholic hearers; he invites them, as he invited everyone, to trust Christ alone. Today we can share that invitation while also recognizing the faith that many Catholic believers already hold, and the long history of injustice that shaped Irish suspicion of English Protestant preachers.

4.Kifo Chema Huko Athlone4.A Good Death at Athlone

Huko Athlone Wesley alisikia kutoka kwa mumewe hadithi ya Rose Longworth, aliyepata amani na Mungu mwezi Juni 1749. Mwaka 1751 nguvu zake zilianza kupungua. Hakulalamika kamwe, akijali tu nafsi yake isipate hasara. Aliomba arudishwe Athlone afe huko. Katika saa zake za mwisho aliomba kwa ajili ya mumewe, wazazi wake, jamii, Kanisa “na ulimwengu wote,” kisha akapiga kelele, “Mwone Mkombozi wangu!” Wesley anaandika vifo vingi kama hivyo. Kwa wasomaji wa kisasa vinaweza kuonekana vya ajabu au vya hisia nyingi, lakini vilikuwa na kusudi la kichungaji. Katika wakati wa vifo vingi, Wamethodisti wa mwanzo walitaka kuonyesha kwamba imani katika Kristo inasimama wakati kila kitu kingine kinashindwa. Pia vinaonyesha nafasi ya wanawake wa kawaida katika harakati: ushuhuda wa Rose Longworth ulikumbukwa na kuchapishwa. Siku hizohizo Wesley alikutana na mzee wa miaka tisini na miwili, afisa wa zamani wa jeshi, aliyekuwa ameanza “kumtumikia Mfalme wa Amani” mwaka mmoja au miwili tu kabla.At Athlone Wesley heard from her husband the story of Rose Longworth, who had found peace with God in June 1749. In 1751 her strength began to fail. She never complained, being only concerned lest her soul should suffer loss. She asked to be brought back to Athlone to die. In her last hours she prayed for her husband, her parents, the society, the Church “and the whole world,” and then cried, “See my Redeemer!” Wesley records many such deaths. To modern readers they can seem strange or sentimental, but they had a pastoral purpose. In a time of high mortality, early Methodists wanted to show that faith in Christ holds when everything else fails. They also show the place of ordinary women in the movement: Rose Longworth’s witness was remembered and printed. In the same days Wesley met a man of ninety-two, a former army officer, who had begun “to serve the Prince of Peace” only a year or two before.

5.Mkutano na Nidhamu Huko Limerick na Cork5.Conference and Discipline in Limerick and Cork

Katikati ya Agosti Wesley alifika Limerick. Alitumia siku mbili “katika mazungumzo na Wahubiri wetu,” na juma lililofuata alisema na kila mshiriki wa jamii. Huko Cork umati wa asubuhi ya Jumapili ulikuwa mkubwa mno kwa nyumba, lakini Wesley aliandika kwamba “alihukumu kusanyiko dogo lenye amani bora kuliko kubwa lenye kelele na fujo.” Kwa siku mbili alichunguza kwa makini jamii ya Cork na “akawaondoa wasioenda kwa kadiri ya Injili,” akibakiza watu mia tatu hivi waliojitahidi kwa unyofu kuweka dhamiri safi. Huu ni usimamizi wa Kimethodisti ukifanya kazi: wahubiri walikutana pamoja, washiriki walijulikana kwa majina, na uanachama ulimaanisha maisha yaliyobadilika. Huko Kinsale askari walichonga mahali katika ubavu wa kilima kwa panga zao ili Wesley asimame hapo kuhubiri, na askari wengi walimsikia. Huko Clonmel, kinyume chake, chumba kilikuwa kimeanguka baada ya mahubiri mwaka uliotangulia, na wakazi wa mji walikuwa wameapa kwamba hakuna Mmethodisti atakayehubiri huko tena.In mid-August Wesley reached Limerick. He spent two days “in conference with our Preachers,” and the next week he spoke with each member of the society. At Cork the crowd on Sunday morning was too large for the house, but Wesley wrote that he “judged a small congregation with peace, preferable to a large one with noise and tumult.” For two days he examined the Cork society carefully and “put away those who did not walk according to the Gospel,” leaving about three hundred who were sincerely striving to keep a clear conscience. This is Methodist oversight at work: the preachers met together, the members were known by name, and membership meant a changed life. At Kinsale soldiers cut a place in a hillside with their swords so that Wesley could stand there to preach, and many soldiers heard him. At Clonmel, by contrast, a room had collapsed after a sermon the year before, and the townspeople had vowed that no Methodist would ever preach there again.

6.Kuhubiri kwa Kiayalandi, na Nyumba Mpya6.Preaching in Irish, and a New House

Huko Waterford, tarehe 2 Septemba, inakuja mojawapo ya mistari muhimu zaidi katika somo hili: “Saa tano Bwana Walsh alianza kuhubiri kwa Kiayalandi katika nyumba ya soko.” Thomas Walsh (1730–1759) alikuwa mhubiri mlei aliyesema Kiayalandi, aliyekulia Mkatoliki. Ilikuwa siku ya soko, watu walikuja kutoka pande zote, na wengi walisikiliza kwa uzito. Jioni hiyo Wesley alijaribu kuhubiri kwa Kiingereza katika Jumba la Mahakama, lakini umati ulikuwa na kelele nyingi hata wachache waliweza kusikia. Tofauti hiyo inasema mengi. Ingizo lililofuata lina tarehe 14 Septemba, kwa sababu Uingereza na Ireland zilikuwa zimepitisha Kalenda Mpya (ya Gregori), na siku kumi na moja ziliachwa. Aliporudi Cork, Wesley alipendekeza kujenga nyumba ya kuhubiria. Watu kumi waliahidi paundi mia moja siku iliyofuata, na mia nyingine ilikuja ndani ya siku chache. Dhoruba kisha ilichelewesha meli yake ya kurudi, naye alisikia kwamba meli zaidi ya thelathini zilipotea kwenye pwani hiyo; aliona “riziki maradufu” katika kuchelewa huko. Somo linamalizika tarehe 6 Oktoba huko Cove, ambapo nyumba za wageni zilikuwa zimejaa na hakukuwa na cha kununua, kwa hiyo wasafiri walikula mayai na mkate nao “wakaridhika vyema.”At Waterford, on 2 September, comes one of the most important lines in this reading: “At eleven Mr. Walsh began preaching in Irish in the market-house.” Thomas Walsh (1730–1759) was an Irish-speaking lay preacher who had grown up a Catholic. It was market day, people came from every side, and many listened seriously. That evening Wesley tried to preach in English at the Court-House, but the mob was so noisy that few could hear. The contrast is telling. The next entry is dated 14 September, because Britain and Ireland had just adopted the New Style (Gregorian) calendar, and eleven days were dropped. Back in Cork, Wesley proposed building a preaching-house. Ten people pledged a hundred pounds the next day, and another hundred came within a few days. A storm then delayed his ship home, and he heard that above thirty ships had been lost on that coast; he saw a “double providence” in the delay. The reading ends on 6 October at Cove, where the inns were full and there was nothing to buy, so the travellers ate eggs and bread and “were well contented.”

7.Alichojifunza Mchungaji wa Kiwesley Leo7.What a Wesleyan Pastor Takes from It Today

Somo hili ni la Umethodisti wa Ireland ndani ya harakati ya Uingereza; si historia ya misheni za ulimwengu za baadaye. Hata hivyo Wamethodisti wa Ireland wakawa mojawapo ya madaraja yake makuu ng’ambo. Philip Embury na Barbara Heck, kutoka jamii za Kimethodisti za Wapalatini za Kaunti ya Limerick, walihamia New York mwaka 1760, na mwaka 1766 Embury alianza kuhubiri kwa Kimethodisti huko. Robert Strawbridge, naye kutoka Ireland, alianza kazi ya Kimethodisti huko Maryland miaka ya 1760. Kutoka Umethodisti wa Marekani, na baadaye kutoka harakati ya utakatifu, zilikuja misheni zilizofika hatimaye Meksiko na sehemu kubwa ya Amerika ya Kilatini, ikiwa ni pamoja na Kanisa la Nazarene. Mchungaji au mmisionari leo anaweza kujifunza mafunzo kadhaa hapa. Kwanza, injili inasema kwa uwazi zaidi katika lugha ya moyo ya watu, kama kuhubiri kwa Kiayalandi kwa Walsh kunavyoonyesha; ndiyo sababu misheni za Kiwesley na Kinazarene zimefanya kazi katika lugha nyingi, kuanzia Kihispania hadi lugha za wenyeji. Pili, tunza jamii ya ndani pamoja na umati wa nje. Tatu, weka uanachama wenye maana. Nne, waalike watu wa mapokeo mengine kwa Kristo bila dharau. Na tano, kubali shida na kuchelewa kwa kuridhika.This reading belongs to Irish Methodism within the British movement; it is not a history of later global missions. Yet Irish Methodists became one of its main bridges overseas. Philip Embury and Barbara Heck, from the Palatine Methodist communities of County Limerick, emigrated to New York in 1760, and in 1766 Embury began the Methodist preaching there. Robert Strawbridge, also from Ireland, began Methodist work in Maryland in the 1760s. From American Methodism, and later from the holiness movement, came the missions that eventually reached Mexico and much of Latin America, including the Church of the Nazarene. A pastor or missionary today can learn several lessons here. First, the gospel speaks most clearly in the heart language of the people, as Walsh’s Irish preaching shows; that is why Wesleyan and Nazarene missions have worked in many languages, from Spanish to Indigenous languages. Second, care for the society within as well as the crowd outside. Third, keep membership meaningful. Fourth, invite people of other traditions to Christ without contempt. And fifth, accept hardship and delay with contentment.

8.Kuliweka Moyoni8.Taking It to Heart

Kwa tafakari. Ni wapi katika huduma yako unaona “tunda kidogo hivi” baada ya kazi nyingi, na unaendeleaje? Watu unaowahudumia huomba na kuota ndoto katika lugha gani, na je, injili inawafikia ndani yake? Unasemaje juu ya Wakristo wa mapokeo mengine katika jamii yako? Na ingekuwa na maana gani kwa kanisa lako kupendelea kusanyiko dogo “lenye amani” kuliko kubwa lenye kelele? For reflection. Where in your ministry do you see “so little fruit” after much labour, and how do you keep going? In what language do the people you serve pray and dream, and is the gospel reaching them in it? How do you speak of Christians from other traditions in your community? And what would it mean for your church to prefer a smaller congregation “with peace” to a larger one with noise?

Chagua

Somo la 4 · Discipline and Oversight

One Jarring String

A CTS digest of John Wesley, Journal, 9 April – 24 June 1755; Works, ed. Thomas Jackson, vol. 2 (imprint year to be confirmed), pp. 326–336 (provisional, from OCR running heads)

Wesley calls a persecuted society at Manchester to examine itself, leads the 1755 Leeds Conference to a calm, shared judgment that separation from the Church of England was not expedient, settles a Newcastle society unsettled by one preacher, and asks why revivals fade when leaders trust learning, party and comfort more than God.

MUHTASARI WA CTSSoma muhtasari wote — unafunguka hapa hapa

Kamba Moja Inayopiga Kelele: Nidhamu, Usimamizi na Mkutano Mkuu wa Leeds, 1755One Jarring String: Discipline, Oversight and the Leeds Conference, 1755

Somo la Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — majuma kumi na moja ya Jarida la John Wesley, kuanzia jamii zenye matatizo Lancashire kupitia Mkutano Mkuu wa Leeds juu ya kujitenga hadi tafakari za Wesley kuhusu kwa nini uamsho hufifiaA Chapala Theological Seminary reading — eleven weeks of John Wesley’s Journal, from troubled societies in Lancashire through the Leeds Conference on separation to Wesley’s reflections on why revivals fade

Muhtasari wa CTS wa Jarida la John Wesley la tarehe 9 Aprili hadi 24 Juni 1755, kama lilivyochapishwa katika The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, mhariri Thomas Jackson, buku la 2. Asili ni mali ya umma; nukuu fupi zilizo hapa chini zimetoka humo.A CTS digest of John Wesley’s Journal for 9 April to 24 June 1755, as printed in The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, ed. Thomas Jackson, vol. 2. The original is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it.

Jarida, Apr. – Juni 1755Journal, Apr. – June 1755
Chanzo cha msingiPrimary source
Mkutano MkuuConference
Wahubiri wa waleiLay preachers

Neno kabla ya kusoma. Kuanzia 1744 Wesley alikutana kila mwaka na wahubiri wake katika “Mkutano Mkuu” (Conference) kuamua mafundisho na nidhamu. Kufikia 1755 harakati ilikuwa na kadhaa za wahubiri wa walei wasafiri na jamii kote Uingereza na Ireland. Swali gumu lilikuwa likisukuma: Wamethodisti wabaki ndani ya Kanisa la Uingereza, au waliache na kuwa kanisa tofauti? Somo hili linaonyesha jinsi Wesley alivyoongoza kupitia swali hilo, na jinsi alivyoendelea kuangalia jamii moja moja. Kama siku zote, ni masimulizi ya Wesley mwenyewe. A word before you read. From 1744 Wesley met each year with his preachers in a “Conference” to settle doctrine and discipline. By 1755 the movement had dozens of travelling lay preachers and societies across Britain and Ireland. A hard question was pressing: should the Methodists stay inside the Church of England, or leave it and become a separate church? This reading shows how Wesley led through that question, and how he kept watch over the societies one by one. As always, it is Wesley’s own account.

1.Jamii Chini ya Shinikizo1.A Society Under Pressure

Somo linaanza Manchester tarehe 9 Aprili 1755. Umati ulibaki kimya kiasi Wesley alipokuwa akihubiri, lakini ulikasirika mara alipomaliza. Hili lilikuwa likiendelea kwa muda, na Wesley anatoa sababu: “Mahakimu wema wanawatia moyo.” Mahakimu wa mahali, waliopaswa kulinda amani, walikuwa wakiunga mkono umati. Alichofanya Wesley baadaye ni cha kushangaza. Tarehe 13 Aprili alikutana na jamii saa kumi na moja alfajiri na kuwaonyesha mahali alipoogopa walikuwa “wamemhuzunisha Roho wa Mungu.” Hakuwalaumu tu wanaowatesa. Aliwaomba waumini wajichunguze wenyewe. Siku hizohizo alimzika mtoto mdogo huko Hayfield katika Peak ya Derbyshire, ambaye maisha yake mafupi ya imani yaliigusa familia yake, na akapata “uhuru usio wa kawaida” katika kuhubiri kwa umati mkubwa uliokusanyika. Mchungaji aliye mahali pagumu lazima ashikilie kazi zote mbili pamoja: kuwafariji wanaoomboleza, na kuliita kanisa kwenye utakatifu.The reading opens at Manchester on 9 April 1755. The mob stayed fairly quiet while Wesley preached, but raged as soon as he finished. This had been going on for some time, and Wesley gives the reason: “the good Justices encourage them.” The local magistrates, who should have kept the peace, were siding with the crowd. What Wesley did next is striking. On 13 April he met the society at five in the morning and showed them where he feared they had “grieved the Spirit of God.” He did not simply blame the persecutors. He asked the believers to examine themselves. In the same days he buried a small child at Hayfield in the Peak of Derbyshire, whose short life of faith had moved her family, and found “uncommon liberty” in preaching to the large crowd that gathered. A pastor in a hard place must hold both tasks together: comfort the grieving, and call the church to holiness.

2.Liverpool, Bolton na Vilima vya Yorkshire2.Liverpool, Bolton and the Yorkshire Hills

Huko Liverpool Wesley alipendezwa na mji unaokua, uliojengwa vizuri. Alibainisha kuwa watu wake ni wapole na wenye adabu, wakionyesha tabia ya urafiki “si tu kwa Wayahudi na Wapapisti wanaoishi miongoni mwao, bali hata kwa Wamethodisti.” Hii ni dokezo adimu na la kukaribishwa la uvumilivu katika enzi ya shaka. Wasikilizaji wake wengi walipenda mabishano, Wesley anasema, “Lakini nilikuwa na kazi bora zaidi”: alisisitiza toba na imani, na kueleza Kanuni za jamii. Huko Bolton alikuta jamii ndogo zaidi, iliyogawanyika na “wana wa ugomvi,” baadhi wakimfuata John Bennet, mhubiri wa zamani aliyejitenga na Wesley, na wengine wakifuata kikundi kingine. Kisha alipanda farasi kwenda vilimani vya Yorkshire. Karibu na Todmorden watu walisimama safu juu ya safu ubavuni mwa mlima, “wakorofi kabisa kwa sura ya nje,” lakini na mioyo “kama nta inayoyeyuka.” Huko Haworth alihubiri hewani wazi kwa sababu kanisa lisingeweza kuuchukua umati. Huko Bradford, ambako sasa kulikuwa kimya, alikumbuka kwamba mhubiri mlei John Nelson alikuwa wakati fulani amefungwa katika shimo lake la gereza. Wesley aliona majibu ya sala katika mambo madogo, kama wingu kufunika jua kali, akahitimisha kuwa hakuna ombi dogo mno kwa Mungu.At Liverpool Wesley admired a growing, well-built town. He noted that its people were mild and courteous, showing friendly behaviour “not only to the Jews and Papists who live among them, but even to the Methodists.” This is a rare and welcome note of tolerance in an age of suspicion. Many of his hearers loved controversy, Wesley says, “But I had better work”: he pressed repentance and faith, and he explained the Rules of the society. At Bolton he found the society smaller, divided by “the sons of strife,” some following John Bennet, a former preacher who had separated from Wesley, and some following another party. Then he rode into the hills of Yorkshire. Near Todmorden the people stood row above row on the mountainside, “rough enough in outward appearance,” but with hearts “as melting wax.” At Haworth he preached in the open air because the church could not hold the crowd. At Bradford, now quiet, he remembered that the lay preacher John Nelson had once been held in its dungeon. Wesley saw answers to prayer in small things, such as a cloud covering the hot sun, and concluded that no petition is too small for God.

3.Mkutano Mkuu wa Leeds3.The Leeds Conference

Kabla ya Mkutano Mkuu Wesley na ndugu yake walisoma pamoja kitabu chenye nguvu cha mchungaji asiyekubaliana na Kanisa rasmi wa Exeter, kilichobishana kwamba Wakristo wa kweli wanapaswa kuliacha Kanisa la Uingereza. Wesley alikiona kuwa chenye uhai lakini chenye uchungu. Alikilinganisha na Mpuritani Richard Baxter, aliyeandika kana kwamba anatumbukiza kalamu yake katika machozi, wakati mwandishi huyu alitumbukiza yake “katika siki na nyongo.” Kitabu hakikumpa uthibitisho kwamba kujitenga ni halali, “sembuse wajibu wetu.” Kisha, tarehe 6 Mei, Mkutano Mkuu ulianza Leeds. Swali moja lililoulizwa wahubiri wote lilikuwa “Je, tunapaswa kujitenga na Kanisa?” Kila mmoja alialikwa kusema mawazo yake kwa urefu. Kila hoja “ilizingatiwa kwa uzito na kwa utulivu.” Siku ya tatu wote walikubaliana: kama kujitenga ni halali au la, “haifai kamwe.” Angalia njia. Wesley hakutangaza tu maoni yake. Aliwaacha wahubiri waseme, akasikiliza, na kutafuta nia moja pamoja. Angalia pia aina ya uamuzi uliofikiwa. Ulikuwa wa vitendo zaidi kuliko wa mwisho; mlango haukufungwa milele.Before the Conference Wesley and his brother read together a strong book by a Dissenting minister of Exeter, arguing that true Christians should leave the Church of England. Wesley found it lively but bitter. He contrasted it with the Puritan Richard Baxter, who wrote as if dipping his pen in tears, while this author dipped his “in vinegar and gall.” The book gave him no proof that separation was lawful, “much less our duty.” Then, on 6 May, the Conference began at Leeds. The one question put to all the preachers was “Whether we ought to separate from the Church?” Each was invited to speak his mind at length. Every argument was “seriously and calmly considered.” On the third day they were all agreed: whether separation was lawful or not, “it was no ways expedient.” Notice the method. Wesley did not simply announce his opinion. He let the preachers speak, listened, and sought one mind together. Notice too the kind of decision reached. It was practical rather than absolute; the door was not locked forever.

4.Kamba Moja Inayopiga Kelele4.One Jarring String

Juma moja baadaye Wesley alifika Newcastle akakuta matatizo. Washiriki wengi walikuwa karibu kuliacha Kanisa, na wengine walikuwa wamefanya hivyo tayari, wakiamini wana idhini yake. Mhubiri mmoja alikuwa amefundisha tofauti na wengine. “Lo, ni ugomvi kiasi gani unasababishwa na kamba moja inayopiga kelele!” Wesley aliandika, na ni taabu kiasi gani “kwa mtu mmoja asiyetembea kwa kanuni ileile.” Jibu lake lilikuwa la subira. Siku ya Pentekoste aliipeleka jamii kwenye sakramenti katika kanisa la St Andrew, ambapo wengi walipata “baraka isiyo ya kawaida.” Katika juma lililofuata alisema na washiriki mmoja mmoja, akakuta chini ya arobaini wenye chuki dhidi ya Kanisa. Alitumaini “pigo sasa limezuiliwa.” Hili ndilo kusudi la mshikamano (connexion) na mkutano: wahubiri wanaokubaliana pamoja huwalinda watu kutokana na mchanganyiko. Katika majuma hayohayo Wesley aliwakaribisha wachungaji wa Presbiteri wa Scotland kuhubiri katika kanisa lake dogo la Newcastle, kwa mshangao wa wengine, na kunukuu wimbo wa ndugu yake: “Majina, na madhehebu, na vikundi vinaanguka.” Pia alitembelea Zahanati ya mji na kuomba na mgonjwa huku wodi nzima ikisikiliza.A week later Wesley reached Newcastle and found trouble. Many members were on the point of leaving the Church, and some had already done so, believing they had his approval. One preacher had been teaching differently from the rest. “O how much discord is caused by one jarring string!” Wesley wrote, and how much trouble “by one man who does not walk by the same rule.” His response was patient. On Whit Sunday he took the society to the sacrament at St Andrew’s church, where many found “an uncommon blessing.” In the following week he spoke with the members one by one, and found fewer than forty prejudiced against the Church. He hoped “the plague is now stayed.” Here is the purpose of connexion and conference: preachers who agree together protect the people from confusion. In the same weeks Wesley welcomed Scottish Presbyterian ministers to preach in his Newcastle chapel, to the surprise of some, and quoted his brother’s hymn: “Names, and sects, and parties fall.” He also visited the town’s Infirmary and prayed with a patient while the whole ward listened.

5.Maporomoko ya Ardhi, Mimbari Iliyofungwa na Jamii Tajiri5.A Landslip, a Closed Pulpit and a Rich Society

Mwezi Juni Wesley alisikia juu ya maporomoko makubwa ya ardhi huko Whiston Cliffs, Yorkshire, ambapo miamba ilikuwa imepasuka na ekari za ardhi zilikuwa zimesogea. Alikwenda kuyaona mwenyewe, akipanda juu ya magofu na kuwahoji mashahidi. Alipima moto, maji na hewa kama sababu za asili, akaikataa kila moja, akahitimisha kwamba Mungu ndiye aliyefanya kama onyo linaloonekana kwenye barabara yenye shughuli nyingi. Leo wanajiolojia wangeeleza maporomoko kama hayo kwa michakato ya asili, kwa hiyo hatuhitaji kufuata hitimisho lake. Lakini tunaweza kustaajabia tabia yake ya kwenda kuangalia, kuwauliza mashahidi na kufikiri kwa makini. Huko York afisa wa kanisa kuu alimwonya kasisi rafiki asimruhusu Wesley kuhubiri kanisani kwake. Wesley alikataa kumweka hatarini. Aliondoka York akiiita jamii tajiri zaidi, kwa idadi, Uingereza, na alitumaini isiwe, kama Cork ilivyokuwa kwa muda, “Capua ya Wahubiri wetu”: Capua ilikuwa mji wa kale ambapo jeshi la Hannibal lilisemekana kuwa laini. Faraja inaweza kuwaharibu wahudumu kama vile mateso yanavyoweza kuwatawanya. Huko Sheffield, kinyume chake, hakuna aliyeitembelea jamii kwa miaka miwili, lakini ilikuwa imekua.In June Wesley heard of a great landslip at Whiston Cliffs in Yorkshire, where rocks had split and acres of ground had moved. He went to see it himself, climbing over the ruins and questioning eyewitnesses. He weighed fire, water and air as natural causes, rejected each, and concluded that God had done it as a visible warning on a busy road. Today geologists would explain such a landslip by natural processes, so we need not follow his conclusion. But we can admire his habit of going to look, asking witnesses and reasoning carefully. At York a cathedral official warned a friendly clergyman not to let Wesley preach in his church. Wesley declined to put him at risk. He left York calling it the richest society, number for number, in England, and hoped it would not become, as Cork had for a time, “the Capua of our Preachers”: Capua was the ancient city where Hannibal’s army was said to have grown soft. Comfort can spoil ministers as surely as persecution can scatter them. At Sheffield, by contrast, no one had visited the society for two years, yet it had grown.

6.Kwa Nini Uamsho Hufifia6.Why Revivals Fade

Aliporudi London Wesley alihubiri juu ya Zaburi 147:20, “Hakuwatendea hivi taifa lolote.” Alilinganisha uamsho wa Uingereza na maamsho ya awali ya Scotland na New England. Huko, alisema, wahudumu wengi wenye uwezo waliongoza kazi; Uingereza ilibebwa na “Makasisi wawili au watatu wasio na maana, pamoja na vijana wachache wasio na uzoefu wala elimu.” Kisha aliuliza kwa nini kazi ilipungua kasi Scotland na New England. Alipendekeza sababu tatu. Wengine walikuwa na hekima machoni pao wenyewe, wasimruhusu Mungu kutuma yeyote amchaguaye, bali walimtaka afanye kazi “kupitia watu wa elimu, au la kabisa.” Wengine walikuwa wakaidi, wakiambatana kwa uchungu na maoni yao. Na kujipendekeza kuliingia pale kujikana hakufundishwi tena. “Na tufaidike kwa mfano wao,” alihitimisha. Hukumu yake juu ya Wakristo wengine ni ya upande mmoja, na anamtaja hata Jonathan Edwards. Wesley pia anarudia kumbukumbu ya Kiprotestanti ya mateso ya Wakatoliki; tunapaswa kukumbuka kwamba Wakatoliki wa Uingereza na Ireland pia waliteseka mateso. Hata hivyo onyo lake linalenga kwanza watu wake mwenyewe. Siku iliyofuata alipendekeza siku ya shukrani ya dhati kwa yote ambayo Mungu alikuwa amewapa.Back in London Wesley preached on Psalm 147:20, “He hath not dealt so with any nation.” He compared the revival in England with earlier awakenings in Scotland and New England. There, he said, many able ministers had led the work; in England it had been carried by “two or three inconsiderable Clergymen, with a few young, raw, unlettered men.” Then he asked why the work had slowed in Scotland and New England. He suggested three reasons. Some became wise in their own eyes and would not let God send whomever he chose, but required him to work “by men of learning, or not at all.” Some were bigots, bitterly attached to their own opinions. And self-indulgence crept in where self-denial was no longer taught. “Let us profit by their example,” he concluded. His judgment of other Christians is partisan, and he names even Jonathan Edwards. Wesley also echoes the Protestant memory of Catholic persecution; we should remember that Catholics in Britain and Ireland suffered persecution too. Yet his warning is aimed first at his own people. The next day he proposed a day of solemn thanksgiving for all that God had given.

7.Alichojifunza Mchungaji wa Kiwesley Leo7.What a Wesleyan Pastor Takes from It Today

Matukio haya yalitokea katika Umethodisti wa Uingereza, bado ndani ya Kanisa la Uingereza. Si historia ya misheni za ulimwengu. Lakini maswali yalisafiri. Baada ya Mapinduzi ya Marekani, Wamethodisti wa Marekani waliunda kanisa tofauti katika Mkutano Mkuu wa Krismasi wa 1784, na huko Uingereza kujitenga kulikuja polepole baada ya kifo cha Wesley mwaka 1791. Mikutano mikuu ya kila mwaka ya Kimethodisti, na mabaraza ya wilaya na ya jumla ya Kanisa la Nazarene, bado yanakusanya wahudumu na wajumbe walei kuomba, kuchunguza na kuamua pamoja. Sehemu kubwa ya ukuaji wa ulimwengu wa makanisa haya pia imetegemea wachungaji walei na wenye kazi nyingine (bivocational), warithi wa “vijana wasio na uzoefu wala elimu” wale. Mchungaji leo anaweza kuchukua mafunzo kadhaa. Kwanza, amua maswali magumu katika baraza, ukiwaacha wengine waseme. Pili, pendelea kinachojenga kuliko kile ambacho umeruhusiwa tu kufanya. Tatu, linda umoja: “kamba moja inayopiga kelele” inaweza kuvuruga jamii nzima. Nne, watembelee na uwachunguze washiriki wewe mwenyewe. Tano, usiwadharau wahudumu wasio na elimu rasmi; wafunze, kama CTS inavyojitahidi kufanya. Na sita, ogopa faraja pamoja na upinzani.These events took place in British Methodism, still inside the Church of England. They are not a history of world missions. But the questions travelled. After the American Revolution, American Methodists formed a separate church at the Christmas Conference of 1784, and in Britain separation came gradually after Wesley’s death in 1791. Methodist annual conferences, and the district and general assemblies of the Church of the Nazarene, still gather ministers and lay delegates to pray, examine and decide together. Much of the global growth of these churches has also depended on lay and bivocational pastors, the heirs of those “young, raw, unlettered men.” A pastor today can take several lessons. First, decide hard questions in council, letting others speak. Second, prefer what builds up over what you are merely allowed to do. Third, guard unity: one “jarring string” can unsettle a whole society. Fourth, visit and examine the members yourself. Fifth, do not despise ministers without formal learning; train them, as CTS seeks to do. And sixth, fear comfort as well as opposition.

8.Kuliweka Moyoni8.Taking It to Heart

Kwa tafakari. Kanisa lako linapokabili swali la mgawanyiko, maamuzi hufanywaje, na nani anaruhusiwa kusema? Je, wewe wakati mwingine ni “kamba inayopiga kelele” miongoni mwa wahudumu wenzako? Ni wapi faraja inaweza kuifanya huduma yako kuwa laini, kama wahubiri wa “Capua”? Na je, unatarajia Mungu kufanya kazi kupitia viongozi wenye elimu tu, au uko tayari kuwatambua na kuwafunza watu wasiotarajiwa anaowatuma? For reflection. When your church faces a divisive question, how are decisions made, and who is allowed to speak? Are you ever a “jarring string” among your fellow ministers? Where might comfort be making your ministry soft, like the preachers at “Capua”? And do you expect God to work only through educated leaders, or are you ready to recognize and train the unlikely people he sends?

Chagua

Somo la 5 · Itinerancy and Leadership Reflection

The Gospel to the Poor

A CTS digest of John Wesley, Journal, 23 September – 12 December 1759; Works, ed. Thomas Jackson, vol. 2 (imprint year to be confirmed), pp. 515–520 (provisional, from OCR running heads)

In wartime Wesley still preaches in the open fields, avoids even the shadow of rivalry with a parish minister, leads Bristol Methodists to clothe eleven hundred French prisoners, states his preference for preaching to the poor, weighs the Everton revival with balance, and begins revising his New Testament notes with colleagues.

MUHTASARI WA CTSSoma muhtasari wote — unafunguka hapa hapa

Injili kwa Maskini: Safari za Kuzunguka na Tafakari ya Uongozi, 1759The Gospel to the Poor: Itinerancy and Leadership Reflection, 1759

Somo la Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — majuma kumi na moja ya Jarida la John Wesley wakati wa vita, kuanzia kuhubiri mashambani Moorfields na kuwavisha wafungwa Wafaransa huko Bristol hadi kupima uamsho wa Everton na kurekebisha maelezo ya Agano JipyaA Chapala Theological Seminary reading — eleven weeks of John Wesley’s Journal in wartime, from field-preaching in Moorfields and clothing French prisoners at Bristol to weighing the Everton revival and revising the New Testament notes

Muhtasari wa CTS wa Jarida la John Wesley la tarehe 23 Septemba hadi 12 Desemba 1759, kama lilivyochapishwa katika The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, mhariri Thomas Jackson, buku la 2. Asili ni mali ya umma; nukuu fupi zilizo hapa chini zimetoka humo.A CTS digest of John Wesley’s Journal for 23 September to 12 December 1759, as printed in The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, ed. Thomas Jackson, vol. 2. The original is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it.

Jarida, Sept. – Des. 1759Journal, Sept. – Dec. 1759
Chanzo cha msingiPrimary source
Safari za kuzungukaItinerancy
UongoziLeadership

Neno kabla ya kusoma. Mwaka 1759 Wesley alikuwa na umri wa miaka hamsini na sita na alikuwa amesafiri na kuhubiri kwa miaka ishirini. Uingereza ilikuwa vitani na Ufaransa katika Vita vya Miaka Saba (1756–1763). Somo hili la mwisho linaonyesha kiongozi aliyekomaa: bado njiani, bado anahubiri nje, lakini pia anatafakari jinsi ya kuongoza harakati kwa hekima. Linajumuisha mojawapo ya matendo mazuri zaidi ya rehema katika Jarida na mojawapo ya hukumu za makini zaidi za Wesley juu ya uamsho. Kama siku zote, ni masimulizi yake mwenyewe. A word before you read. In 1759 Wesley was fifty-six and had been travelling and preaching for twenty years. Britain was at war with France in the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763). This last reading shows a mature leader: still on the road, still preaching outdoors, but also reflecting on how to lead a movement wisely. It includes one of the finest acts of mercy in the Journal and one of Wesley’s most careful judgments about revival. As always, it is his own account.

1.Bado Mashambani1.Still in the Fields

Siku ya Jumapili tarehe 23 Septemba 1759 Wesley alihubiri kwa kusanyiko kubwa sana huko Moorfields, eneo wazi nje ya mji wa kale wa London. Miaka ishirini baada ya kuhubiri hewani wazi kwa mara ya kwanza, bado alikuwa na hakika ya thamani yake. Hakuna jengo, isipokuwa Kanisa Kuu la St Paul, lingeweza kuwa na umati kama huo, aliandika, wala sauti yoyote isingewafikia humo. “Naweza kuamuru mara tatu ya idadi hiyo hewani wazi, kuliko nikiwa chini ya paa.” Na nani angeweza kusema wakati wa kuhubiri nje umepita, wakati watu wengi kuliko wakati wowote walikuja na nguvu ya Mungu ya kugeuza ilikuwa miongoni mwao? Kisha alikuwa njiani tena: Brentford, Basingstoke, Whitchurch na Salisbury, ambapo alipendezwa na chumba kipya cha kuhubiria. Kikosi cha wanamgambo wa Hampshire kilikuja kumsikia na kilitenda, alisema, kama wanyama. Hata hivyo baadhi walirudi asubuhi iliyofuata “wakiwa na roho nyingine kabisa.” Mhubiri msafiri hakuchagua wasikilizaji wake. Alihubiri kwa yeyote aliyekuja, na akamwachia Mungu matokeo.On Sunday 23 September 1759 Wesley preached to an immense congregation in Moorfields, the open ground outside the old city of London. Twenty years after he first preached in the open air, he was still convinced of its value. No building except St Paul’s Cathedral could hold such a crowd, he wrote, and no voice could reach them there. “I can command thrice the number in the open air, that I can under a roof.” And who could say the time for field-preaching was over, while more people than ever came and God’s converting power was present among them? Then he was back on the road: Brentford, Basingstoke, Whitchurch and Salisbury, where he admired the new preaching-room. A regiment of Hampshire militia came to hear him and behaved, he said, like brutes. Yet some came back the next morning “of quite another spirit.” The itinerant did not choose his hearers. He preached to whoever came, and trusted God with the result.

2.Hata Kivuli cha Upinzani Hakuna2.No Shadow of Opposition

Huko Bradford-on-Avon Wesley alikuwa amepanga kuhubiri saa moja jioni, lakini alipofika alikuta kwamba mchungaji wa parokia, Bwana Hart, alipaswa kuhubiri saa kumi na mbili. Kwa hiyo Wesley alingoja hadi ibada ya kanisa ilipomalizika, “ili pasionekane (angalau upande wangu) hata kivuli cha upinzani kati yetu.” Tendo hili dogo linaonyesha kanuni iliyopita katika huduma yake yote. Umethodisti ulikusudiwa kulitia nguvu kanisa la parokia, si kushindana nalo. Huko Bristol pia alihubiri katika uwanja wazi “kwa ajili ya watu wengi” ambao hawangekuja chumba cha Kimethodisti. Kiongozi mwenye hekima huwatafuta watu walio nje ya mikutano ya kawaida, na huepuka kutoa sababu yoyote ya ushindani na watumishi wengine wa Kristo. Katika majuma yake huko Bristol Wesley pia alimaliza buku la nne la Mahubiri yake, ambalo alidhani huenda likawa la mwisho kuchapisha.At Bradford-on-Avon Wesley had appointed to preach at seven in the evening, but when he arrived he found that the parish minister, Mr. Hart, was to preach at six. So Wesley waited until the church service was over, “that there might not appear (at least on my part) even the shadow of opposition between us.” This small act shows a principle that ran through his whole ministry. Methodism was meant to strengthen the parish church, not compete with it. In Bristol, too, he preached in the open square “for the sake of many people” who would not come to the Methodist room. A wise leader looks for the people who are outside the usual meetings, and avoids giving any cause for rivalry with other servants of Christ. During his weeks in Bristol Wesley also finished the fourth volume of his Sermons, which he thought would probably be the last he would publish.

3.Wafungwa Wafaransa Huko Knowle3.The French Prisoners at Knowle

Tarehe 15 Oktoba Wesley alitembea hadi Knowle, maili moja kutoka Bristol, kuwaona wafungwa wa vita Wafaransa. Zaidi ya watu elfu moja na mia moja walikuwa wamejazwa katika mahali hapo padogo bila kitu cha kulalia ila majani machafu na bila kitu cha kuwafunika ila matambara membamba, hata wakawa wakifa kwa wingi. Wesley aliguswa sana. Jioni hiyo alihubiri juu ya Kutoka 23:9: “Wala usimwonee mgeni; maana mnaijua roho ya mgeni.” Paundi kumi na nane zilitolewa mara moja, na ishirini na nne kufikia siku iliyofuata. Kwa fedha hizo Wamethodisti walinunua nguo na kuzishonesha kuwa mashati, vesti na suruali, wakaongeza soksi, wakizigawa pale uhitaji ulipokuwa mkubwa zaidi. Punde Halmashauri ya Bristol ilituma magodoro na blanketi, na michango ilianza London na sehemu nyingine. Watu hawa walikuwa maadui wa Uingereza na Wakatoliki katika nchi ya Kiprotestanti. Wesley aliwaona kwanza kama wageni wenye uhitaji. Mahubiri yake yaligusa kusanyiko, na mfano wao uligusa mji. Hapa uinjilisti na hatua za kijamii si wapinzani. Mhubiri yuleyule aliyewaita wenye dhambi watubu aliwaita watu wake wawavishe adui zao.On 15 October Wesley walked to Knowle, a mile from Bristol, to see the French prisoners of war. More than eleven hundred men were crowded into that small place with nothing to lie on but dirty straw and nothing to cover them but thin rags, so that they were dying in great numbers. Wesley was deeply moved. That evening he preached on Exodus 23:9: “Thou shalt not oppress a stranger; for ye know the heart of a stranger.” Eighteen pounds were given at once, and twenty-four by the next day. With the money the Methodists bought cloth and had it made into shirts, waistcoats and breeches, and they added stockings, giving them where the need was greatest. Soon the Corporation of Bristol sent mattresses and blankets, and collections began in London and other places. These men were enemies of Britain and Catholics in a Protestant land. Wesley saw them first as strangers in need. His sermon moved a congregation, and their example moved a city. Here evangelism and social action are not rivals. The same preacher who called sinners to repentance called his people to clothe their enemies.

4.Tajiri na Maskini4.Rich and Poor

Aliporudi London Wesley alikutana na dereva wa bwana mmoja, ambaye mwaka uliotangulia alikuwa mtesaji mkali wa Umethodisti na wa mkewe mwenyewe. Alikuwa amekuja kusikia mwenyewe, akajiunga na jamii, akapata amani na Mungu. Baadaye, alipokuwa akipokea mkate kwenye Meza ya Bwana, moyo wake usiotulia ulijazwa upendo wa Mungu. Siku chache baadaye Wesley alitumia saa moja ya kupendeza na watu wawili wa vyeo. Alifurahi kwamba baadhi ya matajiri na wakuu walikuwa wakiitwa. Lakini aliongeza, “Kama ningechagua, bado (kama nilivyofanya hadi sasa) ningehubiri Injili kwa maskini.” Pia alisikia kutoka kwa mtu aliyetoroka Guadeloupe katika Karibea, ambako majeshi ya Uingereza yalikuwa yakipigana. Maji ya askari yalinuka, mikate yao ya biskuti ilikuwa imejaa funza na nyama yao ya ng’ombe ilikuwa imeoza. “Ni ajabu gani kwamba watu maskini walikufa kwa vikosi! Nani atajibu kwa damu yao?” Huruma ya Wesley kwa maskini ilijumuisha askari wa kawaida, ambao mateso yao mara nyingi yalipuuzwa na wenye nguvu. Mwezi Novemba alipanda farasi kupitia theluji hadi Bedford, ambapo chumba cha kuhubiria kilikuwa juu ya zizi la nguruwe. “Hakika wanaipenda Injili,” aliandika, “wanaokuja kuisikia mahali kama hapo.”Back in London Wesley met a gentleman’s coachman who, the year before, had been a violent persecutor of Methodism and of his own wife. He had come to hear for himself, joined the society, and found peace with God. Later, while receiving the bread at the Lord’s Supper, his restless heart was filled with the love of God. A few days later Wesley spent a pleasant hour with two people of rank. He was glad that some of the rich and noble were being called. But he added, “If I might choose, I should still (as I have done hitherto) preach the Gospel to the poor.” He also heard from a man who had escaped from Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, where British forces were fighting. The soldiers’ water stank, their biscuit was full of maggots and their beef was rotten. “What wonder that the poor men died in troops! Who shall answer for their blood?” Wesley’s concern for the poor included common soldiers, whose suffering the powerful often ignored. In November he rode through snow to Bedford, where the preaching-room stood over a hog-sty. “Surely they love the Gospel,” he wrote, “who come to hear it in such a place.”

5.Kupima Uamsho Huko Everton5.Weighing the Revival at Everton

Huko Everton, Bedfordshire, mchungaji John Berridge alikuwa ameona uamsho wenye nguvu mwaka 1758 na 1759, uliotambulika kwa vilio vikubwa, watu kuanguka chini, mizimo ya roho na maono. Wesley alipotembelea mwishoni mwa Novemba, Berridge alikuwa mbali akihubiri Cambridge, kwa hiyo Wesley alisoma sala, akahubiri na kutoa Meza ya Bwana kwa kusanyiko kubwa peke yake. Aliona mabadiliko. Sasa hakuna aliyepiga kelele wala kuanguka chini; watu walitetemeka, mnung’uniko mdogo ulisikika, na wengi walipata amani. Kisha Wesley aliandika hukumu ya makini. Hatari moja, aliandika, ilikuwa kutazama dalili hizo za nje kupita kiasi, kana kwamba kazi ya ndani isingeweza kuendelea bila hizo. Hatari nyingine ilikuwa kuzitazama kidogo mno, kana kwamba hazikuwa na chochote cha Mungu ndani yake. Mungu alikuwa amewahukumu wengi kwa ghafla kweli, na baadhi walikuwa wametiwa nguvu na ndoto na maono. Kwa wakati “asili ilichanganyika na neema,” na Shetani aliiga kazi ili kuiharibia sifa. Hata hivyo ghushi hazithibitishi kutokuwepo kwa halisi: “Kivuli si dharau kwa kitu chenyewe, wala ghushi kwa almasi halisi.” Kinga ilikuwa unyenyekevu, kwa maana “hakuna kinachofaa kwa Mungu ila upendo wa unyenyekevu.”At Everton, in Bedfordshire, the vicar John Berridge had seen a powerful revival in 1758 and 1759, marked by loud cries, people falling down, trances and visions. When Wesley visited in late November, Berridge was away preaching at Cambridge, so Wesley read the prayers, preached and gave communion to a large congregation alone. He noticed a change. Now no one cried out or fell down; people trembled, a low murmur was heard, and many found peace. Wesley then set down a careful judgment. One danger, he wrote, was to regard such outward signs too much, as if the inner work could not go on without them. The other danger was to regard them too little, as if they had nothing of God in them. God had truly convinced many people suddenly, and some had been strengthened by dreams and visions. In time “nature mixed with grace,” and Satan imitated the work to discredit it. Yet even counterfeits do not disprove the real thing: “The shadow is no disparagement of the substance, nor the counterfeit of the real diamond.” The safeguard was humility, for “nothing avails with God but humble love.”

6.Shukrani, Karamu ya Upendo na Maandiko6.Thanksgiving, Love-Feast and Scripture

Tarehe 29 Novemba Uingereza iliadhimisha siku ya Shukrani ya Jumla kwa ushindi katika vita. Wesley alivutiwa: maduka yalifungwa, hakukuwa na moto wa shangwe wala fataki, na watu walionekana makini. Kilichomgusa zaidi kilikuwa sala kwa ajili ya adui za taifa, labda, alifikiri, ya kwanza ya aina hiyo barani Ulaya. Tarehe 9 Desemba alifanya, kwa mara ya kwanza, karamu ya upendo kwa jamii nzima ya London, mlo rahisi wa mkate na maji pamoja na ushuhuda na sala. Tarehe 12 Desemba alianza kusoma Agano Jipya la Kigiriki na Maelezo yake ya Ufafanuzi pamoja na ndugu yake na wengine, akilinganisha tafsiri ya Kiingereza na asili na kusahihisha au kupanua maelezo. Somo linaishia hapa, na kiongozi msafiri mezani pake, akipima mafundisho yake kwa Maandiko akiwa na wenzake. Mtu aliyepanda farasi alikuwa pia mwanafunzi wa Neno.On 29 November Britain kept a day of General Thanksgiving for victories in the war. Wesley was impressed: the shops were shut, there were no bonfires or fireworks, and the people seemed serious. What struck him most was the prayer for the nation’s enemies, perhaps, he thought, the first of its kind in Europe. On 9 December he held, for the first time, a love-feast for the whole London society, a simple meal of bread and water with testimony and prayer. On 12 December he began reading through the Greek New Testament and his own Explanatory Notes with his brother and others, comparing the English translation with the original and correcting or enlarging the notes. The reading ends here, with an itinerant leader at his desk, testing his teaching against Scripture in the company of colleagues. The man on horseback was also a student of the Word.

7.Alichojifunza Mchungaji wa Kiwesley Leo7.What a Wesleyan Pastor Takes from It Today

Maingizo haya ni ya Umethodisti wa Uingereza, lakini mwaka 1759 upeo wake ulikuwa ukipanuka. Mwezi Novemba 1758, muda mfupi kabla ya somo hili, Wesley aliwabatiza Waafrika wawili waliotumwa utumwani kutoka nyumba ya Nathaniel Gilbert wa Antigua. Gilbert alirudi nyumbani na kuanza kuhubiri, na kutokana na kazi yake zilikuja jamii za kwanza za Kimethodisti Karibea. Mwanzo huo ulifanyika katika jamii ya watumwa, na lazima ukumbukwe kwa unyofu. Wesley baadaye alilaani utumwa katika Thoughts upon Slavery (1774). Baada ya kifo chake, Jamii ya Kimisionari ya Wamethodisti wa Kiwesley ilituma wafanyakazi ulimwenguni kote, na katika karne iliyofuata harakati ya utakatifu ilizaa Kanisa la Nazarene, ambalo sasa lipo katika nchi zaidi ya mia moja. Mchungaji au mmisionari leo anaweza kujifunza mambo kadhaa kutoka somo hili. Kwanza, peleka injili nje na pembezoni. Pili, epuka hata kivuli cha ushindani na makanisa mengine. Tatu, acha rehema ifikie wageni na hata maadui. Nne, weka upendeleo kwa maskini. Tano, hukumu uzoefu wa kiroho kwa usawa, bila kuufukuzia wala kuudharau. Na sita, endelea kurudi kwa Maandiko pamoja na wengine.These entries belong to British Methodism, but in 1759 its horizon was widening. In November 1758, shortly before this reading, Wesley baptized two enslaved Africans from the household of Nathaniel Gilbert of Antigua. Gilbert returned home and began preaching, and from his work came the first Methodist societies in the Caribbean. That beginning took place in a slave society, and it must be remembered honestly. Wesley later condemned slavery in Thoughts upon Slavery (1774). After his death, the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society sent workers across the world, and in the next century the holiness movement gave birth to the Church of the Nazarene, now present in well over a hundred countries. A pastor or missionary today can learn several things from this reading. First, take the gospel outdoors and to the edges. Second, avoid even the shadow of rivalry with other churches. Third, let mercy reach strangers and even enemies. Fourth, keep a preference for the poor. Fifth, judge spiritual experiences with balance, neither chasing them nor despising them. And sixth, keep returning to Scripture with others.

8.Kuliweka Moyoni8.Taking It to Heart

Kwa tafakari. “Mashamba” katika jamii yako ni wapi, mahali ambapo hukusanyika watu ambao hawataingia kanisani kwako kamwe? Ni nani “wageni” karibu nawe, wahamiaji, wafungwa au watu wa taifa lingine, na ingegharimu nini kutaniko lako kuwavisha? Unapoweza kuwahudumia wenye ushawishi au maskini, unachagua yupi? Na unaitikiaje uzoefu wa kiroho wa kuvutia: je, unautazama sana, au kidogo mno? For reflection. Where are the “fields” in your community, the places where people gather who will never enter your church? Who are the “strangers” near you, migrants, prisoners or people of another nation, and what would it cost your congregation to clothe them? When you could minister to the influential or to the poor, which do you choose? And how do you respond to dramatic spiritual experiences: do you regard them too much, or too little?

Chagua

Andika usomaji wako

Ukishasoma kikamilifu masomo matatu uliyochagua, andika jina lako na uthibitishe hapa chini. Kumbukumbu hii inatunzwa kwa uaminifu wako, kwenye kivinjari hiki; inaonekana kwenye cheti chako kama kwa heshima.

Jina lako

Kwa uaminifu wangu, nimesoma kikamilifu masomo matatu niliyochagua hapo juu.

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alithibitisha tarehe kuwa amesoma kikamilifu:

Chapala Theological Seminary · Wesleyan Pastoral Ministry, Evangelism, and Global Missions · present or print this page as your honors reading record.

Masomo Zaidi: Vitabu Sita vya Uwanja wa Umma

Vitabu hivi sita ni kwa masomo zaidi, kwa mwanafunzi anayetaka kuendelea kusoma. Si sehemu ya masomo ya heshima yaliyo hapo juu: hayo yanabaki kama yalivyo — muhtasari tano za CTS, mitatu yoyote ikisomwa kikamilifu na kuandikwa kwa uaminifu wako. Vyote sita viko katika uwanja wa umma; kila kiungo kinafungua kitabu mtandaoni, na vingi vinapatikana pia katika Internet Archive au Project Gutenberg. Vingi viko kwa Kiingereza: kivinjari cha Chrome kinaweza kutafsiri ukurasa (bonyeza kitufe cha kulia cha kipanya, “Translate to…”; kwenye simu, menyu ya kivinjari).

The Volume · Library Record

1. The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, vol. II (Journal)

John Wesley; ed. Thomas Jackson · Wesley House Digital Library catalog

Look at the catalog record of the volume, the journal from December 1745 to May 1760, before you cite the work.

Fungua somo ↗

The Journal Itself · 1746–1749

2. The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, vol. II (Journal)

John Wesley; ed. Thomas Jackson · Wesley House Digital Library scan

Read the whole journal extract for 1746–1749, from which Reading 1 was selected, and see the entries around it.

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The Journal Itself · 1749–1751

3. The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, vol. II (Journal)

John Wesley; ed. Thomas Jackson · Wesley House Digital Library scan

Read the whole journal extract for 1749–1751, from which Reading 2 was selected, and see the entries around it.

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The Journal Itself · 1751–1754

4. The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, vol. II (Journal)

John Wesley; ed. Thomas Jackson · Wesley House Digital Library scan

Read the whole journal extract for 1751–1754, from which Reading 3 was selected, and see the entries around it.

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The Journal Itself · 1755–1758

5. The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, vol. II (Journal)

John Wesley; ed. Thomas Jackson · Wesley House Digital Library scan

Read the whole journal extract for 1755–1758, from which Reading 4 was selected, and see the entries around it.

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The Journal Itself · 1758–1760

6. The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, vol. II (Journal)

John Wesley; ed. Thomas Jackson · Wesley House Digital Library scan

Read the whole journal extract for 1758–1760, from which Reading 5 was selected, and see the entries around it.

Fungua somo ↗

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