Our Practices

The early experiences and practices of the Methodist movement continue to deeply influence who we are today.

Warm hearted discipleship: John’s Aldersgate experience 

While he had been a follower of Jesus for many years, in May 1738 at a meeting in Aldersgate Street, John Wesley had a new experience of God’s love. He described this experience in his journal saying “I felt my heart strangely warmed”. Wesley welcomed the ongoing work of the Spirit in the world, the church and in the life of Christians. As Methodists today we believe that every follower of Jesus can know this love of God deeply as people who are “warm-hearted, rejoicing and confident in the Gospel”.
  

Long before his Aldersgate experience John and his brother Charles formed “the Holy Club” as students at Oxford University. Together with others they studied the bible, prayed, worshipped together, and served the poor. The many new followers who responded to God’s love through the preaching of John and the early Methodists were organised into small groups called “Bands” and “classes”, led by local Methodists, to learn together what it means to follow Jesus. Small groups remain central to the life of Methodist Churches today as places of intentional discipleship where we can grow together and be sent out as followers of Jesus in everyday life. As well as recognising the importance of small groups, Wesley emphasised the significance of the sacraments as a means of grace.   

Early Methodism grew quickly in numbers and woman and men alike were key to this growth both as leaders of small groups and as lay preachers, trained by Wesley to take on roles that had traditionally been reserved for men and for those ordained as ministers in the Church of England. Woman and men are key to the growth of Methodism today providing leadership in all aspects of church life, whether ordained ministers or lay, serving in the local church or on Connexional Groups and Committees that provide leadership and oversight to the church. 

Leadership and structures that support mission 

John Wesley organised the people called Methodists in such a way as to serve the growth and mission of the movement. Small groups and the involvement of lay people in leadership contributed to this growth allowing the message of the gospel to spread rapidly and providing a means for local people to serve those most in need in their local communities.  John Wesley organised lay preachers into a conference to provide leadership and vision for the movement.  In recent years the Methodist Church in Ireland has been reviewing and changing its leadership structures so that people, both lay and ordained, can be released to focus on mission. 

Pioneering mission and evangelism 

Early Methodism was marked by innovation and experimentation. John Wesley rode hundreds of miles of horseback, preaching in the open air, visiting prisons and encouraging local preachers.  When he first preached in the open air it was a new experience for Wesley and not one that he approached with pleasure. Yet it was through this experiment that thousands of people became followers of Jesus.  Global mission was key to the early Methodist movement. Wesley and his preachers travelled to Ireland and to America sharing the enthusiasm of the Methodist movement further afield. Charles Wesley penned thousand of hymns which communicated the theology of Methodism to new followers of Jesus from every social class. This meant that it was not necessary to be well educated to know the doctrines of the Methodist movement but rather they were learnt through songs that were often set to familiar pub tunes. 

This new approach to mission was not just new in the methods that were used. Wesley believed in the concept of “prevenient grace” – that grace is already at work in the heart before we even understand it. God was already at work with those that would encounter him through the preaching and lives of the people called Methodist.  

As Methodists in Ireland today we know that God is already at work in the lives of those with whom we have the privilege of sharing God’s love. It is up to us to join in. We are committed to pioneering new ways of engaging in mission and planting new communities of faith.  Singing is important to us. Wesley hymns are loved by local societies and important for Connexional events.  Our younger generations love to encounter God through sung worship, particularly welcoming the new songs of today in the same way as the early Methodists welcomed the new songs of Charles Wesley. We are committed to global mission, supporting partners overseas and looking to them to help us do mission better here. 

Faith that impacts every aspect of life 

Wesley affirmed God’s concern for every aspect of human life and every aspect of society.  The good news of Jesus impacts the whole earth and everyone on it. While still at Oxford, Wesley and other members of the Holy Club’ visited prisons and sought to give practical support to those in need. That holding together of an evangelical concern that all might know Jesus along with a practical social involvement remains an important feature of Methodism.