john wesley & wesley guild today: keeping wesleyan heritage

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JOHN WESLEY WESLEY GUILD TODAY KEEPING
WESLEYAN HERITAGE OF CARING FOR THE POOR AND
NEEDY
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JOHN WESLEY WESLEY GUILD TODAY
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JOHN BENJAMIN WESLEY
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JOHN BENJAMIN WESLEY

• Born 17 June 1703
• Son of Rev Samuel Susanna Wesley
• Anglican church
• Was the 13th, 14th, 19th child
• Christian family

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EDUCATION

• Home based education
• Instil discipline (habits of sleeping, eating
  devotion
• At 5 children would join daily lessons
• Formal Schooling
• at age 11, Wesley was sent to Charterhouse School
  in London
• Exercise was part of his daily routine
• At 17 went to Oxford univerity
• Obtained B.A and Masters degree with
  specialisation in classics and philosophy

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Youth

• Entered priesthood for ordination with the
  purpose to pursue a scholarly career as a
  university fellow and tutor
• Analysed and recorded his spiritual state
• 1729 ordained as a priest
• Joined a movement for mutual edification to
  study Greek
• John Charles started to visit prisoners

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HOLY CLUB (METHODISM)

• Formed by men who were
• - conscious of the poverty of their own
  spiritual lives
• - saddened by the low state of religion in
  varsity
• They turned to a Methodical order of living
  frequent observance of HC
• Ridiculed their piety and seriousness saints
  club, Biblists, Reformed club, Followers of
  Perfection, Sacramentarians, Holy Company.

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HOLY CLUB (METHODISM)

• They followed rules in all things, they were
  people of method. The name stuck.
• They started to serve the needs of the poor
  needy

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Mission in Georgia

• Opportunity of evangelism bcz by nature
  Methodism was an evangelical movement, which
  encouraged people to experience Christ
  personally.
• Serve Moravians and expected to convert slaves
• Whilst on mission, 4 of the Holy Club guys met
  regularly to encourage one another, review what
  they have done and plan their activities

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Mission in Georgia

• the Methodist mission was a fiasco (ludicrous
  failure)
• This failure led to self examination why that I
  who went to America to convert others, was never
  myself converted to God?

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Aldersgate experience

• In the quest to find answers and thinking ton
  leave preaching he met Peter Bohler him how
  can you preach to others faith that you dont
  have
• Preach faith till you have it
• He preached salvation is by faith alone
• Wednesday, May 24th he records

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Aldersgate experience

• On this day, May 24th, 1738 he opened his Bible
  at about five in the morning and came across
  these words, "There are given unto us exceeding
  great and precious promises, even that ye should
  partakers of the divine nature." He read similar
  words in other places.
• That evening he reluctantly attended a meeting in
  Aldersgate. Someone read from Luther's Preface to
  the Epistle to Romans. About 845 p.m. "while he
  was describing the change which God works in the
  heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart
  strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ,
  Christ alone for salvation and an assurance was
  given me that He had taken away my sins, even
  mine, and saved me from the law of sin and
  death."

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Aldersgate experience

• He then believed a to be one who so believed in
  Christ as that sin hath no more dominion over
  him/her. And in this obvious sense of the word I
  was not a Christian till May 24th, 1738
• This was the beginning wafaka umbona, wafaka
  amanzi lakhula idada.

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WESLEY GUILD FORMATION

• 1896, a century after the death of Wesley that it
  was formed, in Britain
• A new effort to bring young people into the
  kingdom,
• The Rev. Charles H. Kelly introduced the subject
  in the London Methodist Council, 1895
• The Liverpool Conference of 1896 therefore
  sanctioned the formation ofthe "Wesley Guild."

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WESLEY GUILD FORMATION

• Its three grades of members included young people
  already attached to the Church, with others not
  yet ripe for such identification, and "older
  people young in heart,"
• all joined in guild friendship, and aid in
  forming this federation of the existing societies
  interesting to young people.

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WESLEY GUILD FORMATION

• By periodical meetings, weekly if possible, for
  devotional, social, and literary purposes, a
  healthy common life and beneficent activity were
  stimulated,
• the rising generation was happily and usefully
  drawn into relation with the older Church
  workers, whom it aids by seeking out the young,
  lonely, and unattached, and bringing them into
  the warm circle of youthful fellowship.
• http//www.arcamax.com/nonfiction/b-1115-21

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WESLEY GUILD- SOUTH AFRICA

• 1918 Cradock a fellow white minister who
  visited Britain introduced this movement but it
  did not spread to Blacks
• 60s Rev Sitiloane visited Britain and learnt
  about WG.
• WG was born in SA in 1966
• Four Cs emerged and some well known ministers
  were recruiters e.g. Revs Baartman, Japhta etc.

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WESLEY GUILD- SOUTH AFRICA

• Black and White was the uniform and a certain
  society KK Ncwana decided royal blue as it is
  now, spread to the whole connexion
• Lwakhula usana ngoba sinesisekelo until today

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TODAY successes

• The gap between Sunday school and Manyanos has
  been closed
• Kept young people in church
• Became college of spiritual, social, mental
  growth
• Produced leaders

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TODAY challenges

• Focus is in the guild not the church
• Place of love affairs
• Duplication of Manyanos
• Platform of intellectual competence
• Platform of exposure
• Power struggle

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TOMMORROW SUGGESTIONS

• Focus on the purpose of establishment
• University of church affairs (innovative)
• Priesthood of all believers (delegation)
• Redefine our role as WG in our context
• Lead by example we are people of faith,
  salvation, hope and prayer

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TOGETHER CONCLUSION

• GUILD an association of people for mutual
  aid, pursuit of a common goal
• That of
• serving the needs of the poor and needy
  (community development)
• Enriching our spirituality (consecration)
• Becoming one and creating a space for those who
  want to experience what it is to be a church
  (comradeship)
• Utilise the gifts and talents that God gave us
  for the betterment of his people (creativity)

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TOGETHER CONCLUSION

• Be in a state of being ridiculed
• Follow the rule of life (LD, para3.5)
• Doing no harm avoiding all evil of every kind
• Doing good by being merciful
• Attending all ordinances of Gods grace
• Dedicate, like Wesley, all my life to God, all
  my actions, thoughts, words giving Him all my
  soul, my body and my substance.

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TOGETHER CONCLUSION

• So that all people may know that they Can be
  saved and Can be saved to the uttermost
• Ours is to live that kind of life.
• SHALOM