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Introduction This week we conclude our Wesleyan Vile-tality series. We have watched John Wesley climb down out of the safety of the pulpit and the church walls and preach in open fields, to coal miners and crowds who would never have set foot in a church. That was vile-tality in real life: Wesley let go of his own respectability so he could reach the people the respectable church had written off. This was a significant risk for Wesley, and that same risk…

Introduction We continue our Wesleyan Vile-tality series, and have followed the history of the people called Methodist. As the movement they built grew into an institution, more than once, the people lost their nerve. This week we turn to the ones who worked prophetically from within, refusing to leave and refusing to behave. They formed communities of accountability and care, and kept asking one plain and profound question: How is it with your soul? In the face of ridicule, the prophet Jeremiah…

Introduction Our series has followed the people called Methodist from the prisons of Oxford to the open fields of Bristol, wherever respectable religion had drawn a line and decided who was worth its time. As the movement grew into an institution, it began to prize its reputation, its membership rolls, and its standing in polite society. Again and again, when faithfulness and respectability seemed in opposition, the Methodists chose respectability. We built beautiful churches and even growing churches, and we…

Introduction This week our series follows the Methodist movement out of the church and into the open air. After Wesley preached in the fields of Bristol in 1739, going beyond the walls became a pattern. He and the people called Methodist visited the imprisoned, welcomed laborers and outcasts, placed women in leadership, and called slavery the evil it was. Respectable religion had already decided who was worth its time, and Wesley continued his “enthusiasm” and kept pushing further, toward those…