Staying the Course - a lesson from the life of John & Charles Wesley
Most of us know John and Charles Wesley as the poster boys for revival and worship in England. The impact of these guys on the world at large is undeniable. Given the glossy treatment, you would think that they were raised by perfect parents to be saints in an imperfect world. The truth of their back story is much juicier.
Their father, Samuel, was a local pastor struggling to make ends meet. Their mother, Susanna, was a dominant influence in their early lives. Her family were strong people of faith from the Pietism movement. Classical education was the order of the day and John could read and write – Greek, Hebrew and English by age 12. Given their family history it’s no surprise that they both entered the ministry.
Here’s the rub. While John and Charles were high achievers under their mothers’ watchful eye, they had little real paternal guidance and influence in their lives. As a result both John and Charles would grow to have problematic relationships in their lives, especially with women, at least in John’s case. Moreover, while both of the Wesley boys were hyper-educated (certainly by our standards) about the Bible, both of them were Ordained as Anglican ministers while in what we would call today and “unsaved” condition. They knew a lot about Jesus, (see my blog from 10/15/09, Next Steps), but their lives lacked, at that point, Holy Spirit power.
These deadly deficiencies in “Intimacy with God” (unsaved ministers on mission?) coupled with an upbringing that did not role model balanced “Family Priorities” (lack of strong Father figure), ultimately led John Wesley to near ruin. On the way over to the Colonies, John became romantically involved with the wife of a colonist. Satan took things over from there and the upshot of all of this is that John Wesley, had to sneak out of the colony under cover of darkness to make his way back to England by ship. Charles would follow some time later.
The rest of the story is more familiarly known. John would receive Godly counsel and support from a group of Moravians that he met on his voyage over and back. The Moravians were very missions focused and lived lives that were truly consistent with the Gospel. Amazed at their joy in the Lord and their living witness to the Gospel, John would be led ultimately to the Lord as would Charles.
Everyone likes an underdog-makes-good story, God especially. John would go on to be part of a countrywide revival that would change the course of history. Charles would go on to write and publish no less than 4,000 hymns. His work would get so much air time that nearly everyone in the western world today knows at least one of his famous hymns, Hark! the Herald Angels Sing. You can’t thumb through a hymnal without tripping over his stuff.
I believe that the Wesley story of tragedy and triumph underscores the validity of the core values that we teach at ILI. While the Wesley’s had some holes in their program, it is really the Moravian “Passion for the Harvest” in concert with their other strong values that God used to bring John and Charles to Him. Satan had them in their pride, arrogance and fleshly desires, but the Holy Spirit won them back to the Glory of God.
How cool is that?
Watch this interesting video on Charles Wesley, from Mark Driscoll’s series on The Rebels Guide to Joy.
~mab
