Supernaturalearth.myfreeforum.org

Helena · Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 75 Location: yorkshire, UK

Methodists, Holy Club
Founded in England, 1744, by John & Charles Wesley and George Whitefield., it is now the second largest Protestant denomination in the USA, with 15.5 million members and 53,235 congregations; 38 million worldwide. Although centered in the British Isles and North America, Methodism has spread worldwide.

The Wesley formed a prayer group, the "Holy Club", nicknamed "Methodists", because they were so faithful and disciplined in the performance of their religion studies and moral lifestyle...

George Whitefield (1714 -1770), was a minister in the Church of England and one of the leaders of the Methodist movement.

The "Pentecostals" are their "children".

Two distinctive features:
1- A "mystical experience", is the best way to know God: The "witness of the Spirit" to the individual, with personal assurance of salvation, the "heartwarming experience". This "born-again" experience is the first of the four ways to know God; the other 3 are: Scripture, reason, and tradition.
2- It was the "social conscience" of England, preaching to the "poor" a new message of hope and care: They devoted much time to create private welfare agencies to help the poor, social reforms, improvement of the daily life of workers, legalize labor unions, abolish slavery, protect woman and children; they started schools for children, old folk' homes, orphanages, dispensaries for the sick, agencies for the unemployed and homeless... and they were among the foremost champions of a democratic a free United States.

John Wesley, preached 42,000 sermons; at the age of 87 he preached three times a day, in different places, traveling 250,000 miles on horseback.

John and his brother Charles, who had experienced conversion few days before his brother, began to preach in the open air in the spring of 1739 to crowds of many thousands. In addition to their preaching ability, the brothers were gifted and tireless organizers and they quickly established a national network of evangelical groups. The first ‘preaching houses’ or chapels were erected within twelve months of the commencement of the open-air ministry and by 1750, Wesleyan Methodism was a well-established and vibrant part of the religious scene.

The new revival movement was opposed by many within the parent Church of England. The Wesleys were regarded as extremists, inciting impressionable people to hysterical outbursts, while the crowds that gathered to hear the preachers were seen as a threat to public order. The evangelicals did however enjoy support from people who regarded them as a force for renewal at a time when British religious life appeared stagnant.

In the early years of the revival it was George Whitefield (1714-1770), the Wesleys’ friend from their days at Oxford, who made the greater impact. His dramatic preaching style and oratorical brilliance attracted crowds of up to 30,000 which success impelled the Wesleys into an open-air ministry, initially against their own inclinations.
Whitefield, who was also an Anglican minister, remained a significant figure in Britain and North America until his death in 1770. By that time however, the Wesleys’ superior powers of organization and forceful characters had placed them at the forefront of the Evangelical Revival

Organization:

Wesley organized the followers into small cells called "societies", and imposed upon his congregation a semi military form of supervision by appointing a "watchdog" over each society, a supervisor who would report to Wesley any member who strayed from the path of righteousness. Later, such military discipline was abolished.

John Wesley was the "head of his Church" in England, and in the colonies he appointed subordinate agents called superintendents, later designated as bishops. The system was modeled upon the Episcopal or bishopric form of the Church of England.
John Wesley built up an enormous following among the laboring poor of the new industrial areas, whom the established Church of England had tended to neglect, and by the late eighteenth century there were hundreds of Methodist chapels, presided over by itinerant lay preachers. Methodism was very much a religion of the poor, and had a great deal to do with a revolution in English religion which was as radical in its effect, in its way, as was the Industrial Revolution itself.

As a Reformed Protestant, Wesley rejected the authority of the Pope, the successor of Peter... but he proclaimed himself the "actual Pope of his Church", a "little Pope", not the successor of Peter, but more demanding that the real Pope...

Theology:

It has a base in Calvinism, against the Church of England, but rejects absolute predestination, and maintains that Christ offers grace freely to all men, not just to a select elite.

They are in general agreement with Protestant theology regarding the Bible as the sole rule of faith, justification by faith in Christ, the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper (but it is not "our daily bread" of Jn.6:51, Matt.6:11)

Congregations are free to choose various forms of services: Scripture, sermon, hymns, prayers...