The Life of John Wesley
- Born June 17th, 1703
- Number 15 of 19 children (10 survived)
- Rescued from house-fire (1709)
- School in London (1714), Oxford (1720)
- Leader of the ‘Holy Club’ (1729)
- Missionary to Georgia (1735-1738)
- Charles converts, writes 1st hymn (1738)
- John’s heart ‘strangely warmed’ (1738)
- England’s pulpits close to Wesley brothers
- Begins preaching outdoors (1739)
- 3 point circuit (London, Bristol, New Castle)
- Societies, Classes, and Bands created
- Fell on London Bridge, married nurse (1751)
- Spouse separated in 1771, died in 1781
- Ordained 28 ministers, separating Methodism
- Traveled about 250,000 miles for preaching
- Preached 40,000 sermons (3,000 unique)
- Wrote/Edited b/w 200 and 300 books
- Gave away more than 30,000 pounds to needy
- Movement reached 50,000 English members
- Movement reached 15,000 Americans
- Wrote final letter (to William Wilberforce)
- Died on March 2nd, 1791
2 comments:
I think it'd be a pretty tough task to cover anyone's life in 45 minutes!!
Possible additions (don't know if they're "vital" or not) include:
His brother Charles' opposition to John's marriage because Charles thought John should be wholeheartedly dedicated to ministry.
Tension in John's marriage.
I really appreciate Wesley's sense of Christian unity as seen, for example, in The Question of What is an Arminian... (see point # 12) and Catholic Spirit...as I'm coming from more of a Calvinistic perspective myself. But as Spurgeon, a Calvinist himself said, "I wish to be called nothing but a Christian," and think Wesley would be in agreement with that, as am I.
May God richly bless your teaching time. Christian biography is so wonderful!
thanks for the feedback! I do plan on discussing, briefly, wesley's lifetime of struggle with the female gender.
I also appreciate his 'catholic spirit'... Thanks again!
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