“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6 NIV) Perhaps this scripture sums up the Wesley household and points to where the influence on John and Charles Wesley began. It is commonly stated that individuals are formed by those things that surround them. Susanna and Samuel Wesley enveloped their children in their beliefs.
Samuel, the father of the Wesley boys, came from a family steeped in Christianity. He followed his father’s footsteps and also became clergy. Suzanna, the Wesley children’s mother, was also born into a Christian family. In her teen years she converted back to the Church of England. It is important to note that her father allowed her the freedom to
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This attribute was inherited by Charles and can be seen in the many hymns he wrote. The influence from family was not isolated to their parents. John and Charles received influence from their older brother Samuel as well. The love of sacraments was likely strengthened from this older brother. All the male children in the family succeed in college which can be traced back to the strict upbringing and requirements that Susanna imposed.
Not only did the Wesley boys receive influence from their family, but community and social aspects also played into the equation. The boys, along with many others, “were influenced by the SPCK.” From this society, other societies were formed. In this newly formed society, there were three things that were at the center of their meetings; prayer “to God; secondly to read the Holy Scriptures” and “thirdly, to deliberate about the edification of our neighbors and the promoting of it.”
The life lessons learned from the “cosmos” that played an intense part of the development of the Wesley boys include “commitment, orthodoxy, spirituality, mission, order and scripture.” Certainly the means of grace shaped not only their family life but their spiritual development as well. The significance of prayer, scripture and spiritual discipline were not only beneficial to the Wesley family, but the influence has spread to millions of
Samuel Sewall lived a very Puritan life in early colonial Boston. As a man who cared deeply for his religion and his family, Sewall dearly loved his family and viewed their good and poor health as God’s reward or punishment. He did not, however, simply attend to his family to satisfy what he believed was God’s will. Rising rapidly to a position of prominence in society, Sewall was blessed with money and a close relationship with his wife and children. He aided them individually through illnesses, moral dilemmas, and he guided them through the mourning process after any deaths in the family, though he himself suffered most. Samuel Sewall’s relationship with his family was one of close ties and a strong religious orientation; they prayed and read together from the Bible daily which in turn allowed them to grow closer.
While comparing her time, theology and spiritual practice we realize she lived during the time of immense change, similarly we are living on the edge of a challenged modernity. Her spiritual direction allows us to recognize and develop further abilities in our pastoral ministries of caring for one another as participants within the corporate communities as well as within the mission fields.
Firstly, Abernathy’s Early Life includes his family and the first roles and jobs that he start doing. Abernathy’s family consisted of his mother, his father and his 10 other siblings. His parents’ names were William L and Juanita Odessa Jones. His father was a local farmer and church deacon; he owned 500 acres of farm land. Juanita, his mother, was always encouraging Ralph to strive to reach his goal of becoming preacher once he realized that was his calling. His father was a part of the school board of Linden Academy, the high school that Abernathy attended. When it came to religion, his whole family consisted of Christians. Abernathy was born the 10th out of 11 other siblings, brothers and sisters that lived with him when he was a child and adolescent in Linden, Alabama. One of his sisters gave him the nickname of “Ralph” after a favorite teacher she had. His family was respected by the black...
Mead, Loren B. The Once and Future Church Reinventing the Congregation for a New Mission Frontier . The Alban Institute, Inc., 1991. Kindle eBook file.
To fully evaluate the role of the sacraments in the journey of the Scripture way of salvation according to John Wesley’s sermons, we must achieve a few important understandings. We must examine and work to understand Wesley’s Scripture way of salvation. We must also work to understand Wesley’s views on the sacraments of baptism and communion. Finally, after completing both of these crucial steps, we can then move on to finally understanding the relationship that Wesley has established between these two through his preaching.
In order to understand the ramifications of Matthias's formation of his kingdom, the social,financial, ethnic, and sexual conditions of the times must be realized as the catalysts that cause the cults to form. A whole series of evangelic congregations appeared in the early decades of the nineteenth century in order to serve the poor, the emotionally needy, those barred from the new prosperousness, hopefulness, forbearance, personal freedom and sensible thought of the business classes. Combining good narrative skills,excellent characterization, and historic detail, Johnson and Wilentz recreate the engaging tale of a hypocritical prophet and his erroneous followers in New York during the eighteen twenties and thirties. The main motif that dominated Matthias's and Elijah Pierson's actions involves the beliefs that were instilled in them when they were young,about the natural order of men and women. The patriarchy that ruled Matthias's kingdom originated in both men's thoughts from the Calvinism that was their first doctrine as youths around eighteen hundred. Elijah's Morristown First Presbyterian Church and Mathews Coila Anti-Burhgers church enforced the dominance of men through incorporating their domestic authority into church ritual. With Elijah men sat at the head of the pew and his father and uncles were church trustees. Even though Robert Matthew's church had an egalitarian dissolution of power and wealth , patriarchal roles were reinforced by men leading their families into church and
From an early age Jones was exposed to religion, specifically the Pentecostal sect of Christianity. With no father figure to look up to he turned to the pastors in his church for a role model. Watching the local pastors speak moved Jones; he id...
It was the night of the big revival, and Langston, a young boy going on the age of thirteen, was brought to his Aunt Reed’s church to see Jesus and be saved from sin. His aunt told him, “when you were saved from sin you saw a light, and something happened to you inside” (219). He believed her. When he was brought to church, his aunt directed him to the front row, where he sat calmly and patiently in the heat, waiting for the preacher to begin the service. The Preacher welcomed the “young lambs” (219) and started his sermon. Towards the end of his speech he invited the young children to the altar to be saved. At this point, Langston was confused because he was not seeing Jesus before him. All the young boys and girls sprang to their feet except Langston and another boy named Westley. They were the only two left on, what the parishioners of the church called, the “mourners’ bench” (218). Finally, Westley became very restless and decided that he was not going to sit on this bench anymore. Langston was left there all alone until
Different ideas were being expressed through The Second Great Awakening. The religious focus was now turning to God’s mercy and benevolence, which sparked other beliefs and ideas. People started believing that they could control their own fate. Worship services consisted of singing hymns and personal testimonies to make it more emotional. Many found religion as a soft comfort during the difficulties of this time period. Charles Finney was one of the most effective evangelists of the time. He entertained and edified, preached on conviction, repentance, and reformation (DOC B). The belief that parents could contribute to their child’s salvation led women to want to spiritually educate their children. Spiritually educating led to the belief that education was important. Schools were started to educate children while they were young. Many lower-class families had to go to high extremes to put their children in school. Children were needed to help work in the homes, but families saw that education was important, and they would allow their children to attend half a day or more of schooling (DOC E). Religion and education was becoming better known throughout society. America saw they needed to apply higher principles to gain benefits of the highest physical, intellectual, and moral education in order to be a gre...
I was intrigued by John Wesley’s family background. Of how, “John Wesley began life as a happy by-product of a family dispute” (p. 3, Abraham) of praying for King William III. I find it hard to consider that the leader of the Methodist movement was the result of conflict resolution. John was the fifteenth child of a family of nineteen children. His parents, “Susanna and Samuel Wesley was both Dissenter, those who rejected the vision of Christianity developed by the Anglican Church after the Reformation” (p. 4, Abraham). John grandfather, Susanna’s father, was a “distinguished Dissenting Preacher” (p. 4, Abraham). His family tree was rich with ancestors who did not go along with the establishment if it did not match with spiritual truths.
Wesley leaned on Eastern Orthodox traditions by stressing that we are "liable for own sins, not the sins of our parents."
Gerard Manley Hopkins had eight siblings and was born of Manley and Catherine Smith Hopkins. His parents were Anglicans that followed the Catholic tradition in sacraments and papacy. By instilling the theological values, faith and morals into Gerard, he became heavily influenced by his family. His parents taught him, as well as their other children to love God. Gerard guaranteed his mother that he would strengthen his connection with God and familiarize himself with the Scripture, so Gerard began to read the New Testament at school. Manley, his father, was an officer of the laity and helped out at the Church. He taught children at the Sunday school including his own son Gerard. Other relatives influenced his faith, too. His uncle was a clergyman and helped Gerard’s father write a renowned book of faith. John Smith, his uncle on his mother’s side, was an officer of the laity; he fortified the religious tradition and teaching within the family and in the community. Through the guidance of his parents and his father and mother’s relatives, Gerard Hopkins developed a strong, binding connection with God.
As one digs deep into writings of John Wesley, they can quickly see his strides to social justice, evangelism, and personal holiness. If there was one portion of his theology that many wrestled with when it came to John Wesley, it was more than likely his thoughts and ideas on Christian Perfection. Many were afraid to write about being perfect once finding Christ, however John Wesley believed there was no difference between holiness and Christian Perfection. In his writing on Christian Perfection, Wesley pleads his case for those who have found Christ to be found as perfect and no longer sinful.
This paper was prepared through research of sermons and texts with regards to one great theologian by the name of John Wesley on his distinctive’s of sanctification and the “new creation”. Wesley held to a different view on the renewal of the image of God through the new creation.
On June 17, 1703, Reverend Samuel Wesley and Susannah welcomed a little baby boy into their family. This little boy was their fifteenth child they had, but he was the sixth child to survive birth. This little boy would become not just a theologian and pastor whom many would agree with while others would disagree with, but he also would became the founder of the Methodist Movement. The theologian whom this paper is about is none other than John Wesley. Wesley was influenced by a lot of other scholarly Christians at Oxford, their group “became known as the ‘Holy Club,’ ‘Bible Moths,’ or ‘Methodist’” (Cross 1446). It was also at a meeting on May 24 1783, that Wesley “experienced a conversion during Martin Luther’s Preface to the Epistles to the Romans. Wesley’s professed object was to promote as far as ‘I am able vital practical religion and by the grace of God to beget, preserve, and increase the life of God in the souls of men’” (Cross 1446). The topic of this paper is theological information about salvation from John Wesley’s point of view. Salvation is one being saved from his or her sin by the act of God’s grace. Salvation is very important to both the church and Christians today because we cannot be a church or a Christian without Salvation it comes when we welcome Jesus Christ into our hearts. Wesley believes in original sin; and “salvation from original sin begins with justification, continues in sanctification, and ends with glorification” (Cramer). In the following we will be looking at what Wesley means by justification, sanctification and glorification, and how this is a great contribution to life of the church today.