"Wesleyan Vile-tality: Reclaiming the Heart of Methodist Identity"

One of my favorite Wesley quotes ever:

 

And I love this book title which riffs on it ...

Thanks to Asheley Boggan for bring this quote back into the conversation(s) about where Methodism goes from here.  She rightly asserts that, "John Wesley's entire ministry was framed by a submission to be more vile." (p.23).

Wesley's Journal:

"I could scarce reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields, having been all my life (till very lately) so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin if it had not been done in church...

“At four in the afternoon I submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation…” (, Journal of John Wesley, II, 31 Mar. 1739, p. 167 ).”

What time is it for Methodism? It's four o clock in the afternoon.

At Bristol.

We of the Methodist tradition are quick to quote a different time, date and place as where it all began:

"In the evening,I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." (Journal, May 24, 1738)

But one year later at Bristol, everything took subversive shape:

"Have you had a Bristol moment in your life? 

A moment where you felt God calling you into something new and unexpected?
(Discussion question, p.22)

In a very moving section (chaper 1), Boggan recounts her own Bristol encounter, literally in Bristol on a Wesleyan heritage tour, interweaving it with her own personal trauma (divorce and death of parents) and the denominational trauma. That brave pilgrimage is one we all need to take! Thank you, Ashley for inviting us into the hard but required work of reflection which can birth a wholly and holy vile life.

Any who know my own traumas connected to discerning my calling as a Methodist pastor may be surprised I am not here to comment on the UMC/GMC divide, or conservative/liberal debates. (See 

"We've done everything we can to work with Rev. Wainscott!" if interested.

 It's no longer my fight; in fact it never was. I am a conscientious objector in the culture (and denominational) wars 

But I was Bristoled an   ATM in Fresno, California.

And I would love to be as Bristol-ed as I was Aldersgated.

I will let you peek at the table of contents,   and these reviews of the book  to learn more about how she apples the Bristol-birthed vile-tality  in the current situation.  She is well-versed in history,  a great story teller, and the challenges are clamant and convicting  A heads-up: many in our tribe are not aware of the Thomas Blair incident (pp 30-31) in which Wesley used his influence to spring a man accused of "sodomitical practices"  (reminds me of the Pastor Artie Bucco story)  from prison.  Tell that story, Methodists of all stripes.

May Wesleyans ever be "prophetically offensive" (p. 107) and sovereignly and steadfastly committed to Jesus..and to true "vile-tality."

Have you had a Bristol moment in your life?

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Note: I received a copy of the book from Speakeasy for an honest review.