At Wesley’s death on 2 March 1791, Methodism had grown to 294 preachers and 71,668 members in Great Britain, 19 missionaries and 5,300 members on mission stations and 198 preachers and 43,265 members in America.1 Numbers like that would impress even 21st century church leaders but surprisingly, just two years before that, John Wesley articulated a crisis in the Methodist movement of spreading scriptural holiness globally, in his sermon, Sermon 116: Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity, preached in Dublin on 2 July 1789.
Several times throughout the sermon, he implored his listeners, “Why has Christianity done so little good in the world?” His conclusion: it is imperative that the practice of Christian discipline must accompany Christian doctrine.
He said, “Among them that hear and receive the whole Christian doctrine, and that have Christian discipline added thereto, in the most essential parts of it? Plainly, because we have forgot, or at least not duly attended to, those solemn words of our Lord, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.’” The very root of Christian discipline is the practice of self-denial and rejection of self-indulgence.
In the same impassioned sermon, he brought up again his own practice of the three rules—earn all you can, save all you can and give all you can, on which he had expounded at length in another of his sermons, Sermon 50: Use of Money—to encourage his listeners to practise such Christian discipline. Wesley admitted that, disappointingly, Methodists had grown incapable of escaping the snares of material prosperity and painted a bleak future of the scriptural holiness project:
“And riches naturally beget pride, love of the world, and every temper that is destructive of Christianity. Now, if there be no way to prevent this, Christianity is inconsistent with itself, and, of consequence, cannot stand, cannot continue long among any people; since, wherever it generally prevails, it saps its own foundation.”
To be honest, many Christians feel alarmed by the subject of practising self-denial according to the words of Jesus in Matthew 16:24-26. How, and to what extent? Do I really have to give up everything I own? If you are reading this and sense the burden to reverse the trend and apply the three rules in your life, I encourage you to prayerfully do so with the temperate guidance of Wesley’s sermon, Sermon 50: Use of Money. I would like to imagine that we are progressing in applying the three rules and we are ready to give what we can.
You might be wondering where you should give your money to.
To answer that question, allow me now to highlight Wesley’s starting point for spreading scriptural holiness which is the thrust of his Sermon 116. As one who considered the world as his parish, Wesley’s vision for the good that Christianity brings was not only to benefit ministries, but also to bring about healing and restoration to a deeply corrupt human nature. Sensing the urgency to reach the “nineteen of thirty parts” (roughly two-thirds) of the world’s population who had yet to “hear and receive the whole Christian doctrine”,
Wesley advised his followers to give whatever they could, starting with the poor in Methodist societies which had been founded in England and North America under Wesley’s leadership. Through denying oneself and serving the poor as a personal spiritual discipline, the project of spreading scriptural holiness can gain momentum effectively and the gospel can then be meaningfully preached.
Through denying oneself and serving the poor as a personal spiritual discipline, the project of spreading scriptural holiness can gain momentum effectively and the gospel can then be meaningfully preached.
More than two centuries after Wesley’s death, the global Christian population still hovers at 32 per cent.2 We might often hear Christian leaders argue that this is a good reason to focus on the home front, citing that there are not enough resources for the world. Such a mindset might result in the precious resources needed for world evangelisation to instead fill the bottomless pits of needs that churches and its ministries have created.
However, world evangelisation should not be overlooked due to weak returns on investment. Rather, we should imagine the actual lives being touched, and the transformation of people and global communities through the power of the gospel. Christianity continues doing good in the world when it receives the needed support from Christians practising scriptural holiness.
1 Frederick Mills, “John Wesley,” New Georgia Encyclopedia, last modified July 23, 2018, https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/john-wesley-1703-1791/.
2 https://lausanne.org/report/hope/world-religions
Rev Erick Tan is the Director of the Centre for Missions Analysis, Reconstruction, and Development, Methodist Missions Society.