During the painful process of denominational division and schism, I began wondering what about Methodism makes it worth going through all the trouble? Plenty of churches and denominations seem faithful to Scriptural Christianity and evangelistic in outreach. Why remain Methodist? What about Methodism is distinctive and makes it worth the trouble? Why did God raise up Methodists?
When I assessed my pastoral work in Minnesota, I was not ashamed that I had spent four decades defending orthodoxy among my United Methodist clergy and leading local churches in evangelism. But there was little difference between what I was leading and what many nearby conservative churches were doing. My leadership offered little reason to remain Methodist beyond the scriptural teaching and meaningful relationships and ministries people formed and conducted. (Although we saw conversions, including leading an atheist to a believer, to a disciple, to a pastor, these transformations seemed too infrequent to suit me.)
Then in the heat of division, and during its pandemic pause, Dr. Kevin Watson published Perfect Love: Recovering Entire Sanctification – The Lost Power of the Methodist Movement (2021). In its pages, I learned that John Wesley discussed my very question. In his view, Methodism was blessed because it believed, proclaimed, and pursued in practice the teaching of Entire Sanctification or Christian Perfection.
Although this doctrine is often savaged by other parts of the church, such unbelief, in its necessity, availability, and inevitability for those who earnestly seek it by faith, does not come from reading the Scriptures. Both Old and New Testaments call for holiness, entire sanctification, in promises, commands, and warnings. (Many of those Scriptures are cited in paragraphs 54 and 67-76 of Catechism for the Global Methodist Church). Holiness is not an option. Lack of it brings destruction to individuals and communities. Holiness is an essential part of God’s saving work. “Without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14, NIV).
The minutes, for forming Methodism as a church in America, state: “What is the rise of Methodism, so called? In 1729 the late Mr. Wesley and his brother, upon reading the Bible, saw that they could not be saved without holiness; they followed after it, and incited others to do the same. In 1737 they saw that holiness comes by faith. They saw likewise, that men are justified before they are sanctified: but still holiness was their point. God then thrust them out utterly against their will, to raise a holy people” (Minutes of Several Conversations Between the Rev. John Wesley, and the Preachers in Connexion With Him; London: 1797 [reprinted 1850]).
If holiness was the point, how was it pursued? What characterizes a saving faith that results in holiness of heart and life? The Apostle John provides the answer, and the Wesley brothers made it intentional and practical.
John taught: “If we claim to have fellowship with him (God) yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:6-7, NIV). John taught further: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9, NIV). John told believers that if they truly follow Jesus in the light he gives, they will connect with one another, and in that context experience forgiveness and freedom from all sin.
The Wesley brothers simply put John’s teaching into practice. They themselves came together with fellow believers for the purpose of full salvation and then began forming other groups. These salvation cells were called “class meetings.” (With the Enlightenment in full bloom, naming anything associated with learning or school may have seemed more attractive.) Throughout Wesley’s life, a Methodist was one who weekly attended a salvation cell or class meeting. Up until 1860 members of the Methodist Episcopal Church were required to weekly attend a class meeting.
Kevin Watson in his recent book, Doctrine, Spirit, and Discipline: A History of the Wesleyan Tradition in the United States (2024), unpacks a fuller picture of the “method” of Methodism, but the essential unit of Methodism was the class meeting or salvation cell. It is where people were filled continually with the Holy Spirit, freed of guilt, renewed in mind, and empowered in redeeming love. It is where faith replaced fear and failure. It is where victory was celebrated, and testimonies multiplied.
To be sure, the discipline of meeting weekly was difficult and hard to maintain, but so are many other practices essential to life and health. In his latter years, John Wesley wrote: “I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.”
If we practice a form of religion without its power, the community about us will increasingly become godless, and we believers will continue to suffer the brokenness of unbelief, for “without holiness no one will see the Lord.” But what if we recover the faith, spirit, and discipline that God gifted our movement. Is it not time to embrace the “method” of Methodism?
