Advice from Wesley

While there are a lot of conflicting words circulating about Methodism in these days, everyone agrees that the word "Methodist" is almost synonymous with chaos.  Suddenly people are choosing up sides and becoming experts on John Wesley and the Methodist movement birthed by him in the 18th century.  Since choosing up sides has never really been a favorite pastime, I decided to do some reading about Wesley in order to refresh my memory and to learn more about this spiritual giant who would surely grieve over what is happening today.   

Before I retired I bought several volumes of a book series subtitled, "The Standard Sermons in Modern English."  Each volume contains some of Wesley's sermons with a brief commentary before each one.  Wesley always seemed to think of himself primarily as a preacher of the gospel.  Kenneth Kinghorn, the editor of the volume dealing with Christian Beliefs wrote that Wesley's sermons focused on fundamental subjects.  They contained sound logic and clear thinking, they spoke both to the head and to the heart, they linked theory and practice, they were easy to comprehend, they championed relational religion, and they underscored the centrality of holiness.  What Wesley always sought to do was to articulate the plain truth for plain people.    

One piece of advice given in a preaching class back in seminary days came from a Lutheran preacher and professor who said we should preach as if we were preaching to sixth graders. Dr. Brokhoff was not denigrating the intellect of the people in the pew, but trying to make us would be preachers understand that the place for egos to be placated by big words and flowery speech was not the pulpit.  He wanted us to understand that the pulpit was not a place for showing off our educational degrees, but a place for proclaiming plainly and clearly the life changing truths of God.