The work of John and Charles Wesley in the 18^th Century caused an upheaval in the religious life of England and later years in America. They together with George Whitefield, with whom John later had an amicable split over an interpretation of Calvinism as against Arminianism, were all Anglican clergymen. It was Whitefield who first introduced John Wesley to open air preaching when his own ministry was too successful for one man to manage. John was a lifelong churchman who never intended to split from the Church of England. Instead he organised “bands” (of people who had responded to his preaching and met together for further growth in holiness), “class meetings” and “societies” in addition to his expectation that his followers should continue in church attendance. 

During his undergraduate years (and later as a fellow) John and a little group of like-minded people (the Holy Club) were so organised in their observations of prayer, Bible Study, preaching and visitation to hospitals and prisons that their less pious acquaintances scoffingly coined the name Methodists for them. John was equally organised in the way his classes were run and at some point the name Methodist was revived for members of this new movement. Over some years, and especially after John had set up classes and societies in the United States where there was no such strong allegiance to Anglicanism, it became clear that the Methodists had became a separate denomination. Wesley tried to find ordained ministers to lead his congregations but had to accept that in the early years at least many societies – now Methodist Churches – would have a lay leadership and despite his original best intentions he had to ordain ministers himself, first in America then in the UK. (The Methodist Episcopal Church was established in North America in 1784)

The hallmarks of his theology were: regeneration by faith through grace (that would usually involve a specific decision of accepting Christ and turning from a worldly way of life, “being saved”, “being born again”); holiness – a way of life but driven and enabled by spiritual change through the Holy Spirit – which at times he described as “sanctification” or “entire sanctification”, “heart purity” and “Christian perfection”; assurance of grace by the witness of the Spirit. There is some evidence that Wesley at first thought of Sanctification as something to be sought and aimed for; it may be that he regarded it as something that a Christian may not achieve in this life. “Only when a saved person looks back and looks over the very brim of hell from which he has been saved is he moved to turn over his whole being to Christ and receive sanctification.” It seems that later (and this is certainly the belief of later holiness theologians) he came to regard Sanctification as the norm for true Christians and comes as a “second blessing” of the Holy Spirit, a personal Pentecost, equivalent to the “baptism in/by the Holy Spirit” demanded by the Pentecostals. The interpretation that this sanctification by the Holy Spirit as a second blessing is the removal of “original sin” is perhaps a later interpretation.

John Wesley's theology

salvation

sanctification

the second blessing



After the death of John Wesley and moving into the nineteenth Century, the Methodist church in the UK split into as many as thirty separate bodies, the Kilhamites (or Methodist New Connexion 1797), the Independent Methodist Connexion (1805), the Primitive Methodists (1807), Bible Christian (1815), United Methodist Free Church (1849), Wesleyan Reform Union (1849) being the most influential. The remaining Methodist churches adopted the name Wesleyan Methodist Church. Some of the splits were caused by the “normalisation” of the movement when some individual churches refused to relinquish the freedom they had enjoyed as Conference and its Circuit Superintendents (earlier called itinerant, circuit or travelling preachers) took a greater role in the governance of the church.



At the first Methodist Conference the itinerant preachers who had the job of keeping an eye on the various independent churches within their “circuit” and were the only members of the conference decided that the term “Reverend” would not be used and that no clerical dress (specifically ruffles or collars and gowns) would be worn. But within only a few years under the influence of one Jabez Bunting, the title of Reverend was adopted. “We’ll be having bishops and a pope next!” (source?)

A typical story of secession is related by James Vickers. The Bank Street Wesleyan Chapel, Warrington was under the supervision of the Northwich circuit but received little attention from the circuit or its superintendent minister. There was at one point a suggestion that they should be removed from the supervision of and the expense of supporting this circuit minister. Among the activities of this community were cottage meetings. The circuit minister, perhaps desiring that all the work of the Society should centre on the Chapel demanded that these meetings cease. The result was that the cottage meetings continued but their members left the church and in 1796 formed a separate society in a grocer’s shop in Bridge Street. This is seen as the birth of what became the Independent Methodists.

                               Use made in the above of History of Independent Methodism, James Vickers 1920

The splits from the Methodist Church

 Interest in theological matters remained at a high level in the UK and in the USA.

In the USA a man named Lorenzo Dow, usually and probably best described as eccentric, made several attempts to become a Methodist minister. At last and somewhat reluctantly the church ordained him but he never pastored a church and became a travelling evangelist who drew immense crowds. When it was known that he was to preach in an area people from all around came to hear him and camped out in the neighbourhood for as long as he was staying. He has been credited as being the founder of the Camp Meeting movement though perhaps it was not formalised as such in his own time.

 He made three visits to the north of England and in 1805 stayed at the home of Peter Phillips, leader of the Independent Methodists and also spoke with Hugh Bourne, leader of what was to become the Primitive Methodists, the largest of the Methodist groups. This resulted in 1807 in the famous Mow Cop camp meeting organised by Bourne and William Clowes and regarded as the start of Primitive Methodism. This “camp meeting” was described as “Based on a phenomenally successful American style of revivalism, camp meetings with Ranter preachers and exuberant prayer were regarded by some as potentially revolutionary and 'highly improper'.

https://www.myprimitivemethodists.org.uk/content/subjects-2/primitive-methodist-history/mow_cop_the_highly_improper_story

Lorenzo Dow

Camp Meetings

Mow Cop

Ranters

The word seems to have originated in the time of Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth. They were mystics with deep spirituality but rejecting the established church and even the Bible.

It came into use again to describe the often open-air extravagant style  of evangelical preachers such as Lorenzo Dow.

It was applied specifically to the Primitive Methodists.

There are a number of "Ranters' Chapels" around the UK.

In the second half of the nineteenth century popular interest in and debate about religion continued. This is the time when both Pentecostalism as we know it and renewed interest in “holiness” arose (though both movements of course claim that these things had always been basic to Christian faith). The Holiness revival was not confined to the Methodist Church.

July 1887 The People’s Evangelical Church, Providence, Rhode Island

1888 Mission Church at Lynn, Mass

March 1890 the above two with other Holiness congregations formed the Central Evangelical Association.

From 1888 onwards a handful of congregations bearing the name “The Holiness Church” were organised in Texas.

December 1895 Association of Pentecostal Churches of America formed.

November 1896, joint committee of the Central Holiness Association and the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America met in Brooklyn and “framed a plan of union” retaining the name of the latter body (that is retaining “Pentecostal” at the expense of “Holiness”).

                                         (abridged from the Church of the Nazarene Manual 1997-2001)

USA

Rapid growth of Holiness congregations

To modern eyes it is strange that “Holiness” churches and “Pentecostal” should have seemed almost indistinguishable at this time but they shared the theology that Christians could (should) receive a “second blessing” of infilling by the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor 12 lists the “gifts of the Spirit “ as faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophesy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in different kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues. The modern day Pentecostals major on these gifts, speaking in tongues being regarded as the primary proof of having received the Holy Spirit. We know too the Fruits of the Spirit, but also we must consider 1 Thess 4:3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified ; 1 Thess 5:23  May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through (wholly in KJV sometimes expressed as entirely); Romans 15:16 might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit;  2 Thess 2:13 and 1 Peter 1:2 through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. This is where the modern Nazarenes major in view of their emphasis on the “entire sanctification” described by John Wesley. But the early Holiness people spoke in tongues and this remained an issue until 1955.

It might be noted that John Wesley was unhappy about “enthusiasm” in Methodist meetings. That word’s basic meaning is “filled with God” or with the Holy Spirit but when that resulted in too many shouts of “hallelujah” (I wish we had a few more!), meetings disturbed by random “speaking in tongues”, dancing in the aisles and people being “slain in the spirit” – falling trance-like to the floor, that was deleterious to serious worship and study of God’s word. It was Wesley’s methodical order, of course, which produced the name Methodist in the first place. It may be that over the course of time (source?) in the spirit of Wesley,Holiness people moved away from tongues and Pentecostal demonstrations towards the quieter and more contemplative acceptance of heart purity as the primary gift of the second blessing.

Holiness, Pentecostalism

Could you tell the difference?

second blessing

tongues etc

sanctification

John Wesley and "enthusiasm"

Phineas Bresee, born 31 December 1838 was a minister of the Episcopal Methodist denomination in the USA who pastored a number of churches and held various offices including Presiding Elder (District Superintendent).

As a result of the movement of the church out of the city centre (following the middle classes to the suburbs) in 1894 Bresee withdrew from the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church in order to serve as pastor to the Peniel Mission, an independent ministry to the homeless of Los Angeles.

A dispute as to the best way to serve city centre dwellers (Peniel founders concentrated on down-and-outs; Bresee was convinced that the best ministry for the urban poor was to create strong churches that ministered to entire families) was the reason that in October 1895, Bresee and Dr. Joseph Pomeroy Widney joined with numerous lay men and women to form a new church. Widney suggested the name "Church of the Nazarene," because he said it identified the ministry with the toiling masses of common people for whom Jesus lived and died. [[Nazarene was of course almost synonymous with “despised”. John 1:46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. The ministry of Jesus the Nazarene (eg Mark 16:6) is often characterised as to the poor (and sinners!).]]

The new church in Los Angeles prospered. In 1898 there were two new congregations in the greater San Francisco area. From 1903 on, Bresee (now without Widney) began a process of systematic church planting, and by 1907 there were congregations of the Church of the Nazarene up and down the West Coast and as far east as Illinois.

In 1907, Bresee led the Church of the Nazarene into a union with another Wesleyan-holiness denomination, the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America. Meeting in Chicago for their First General Assembly, the two groups formalized their merger, adopting the name Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene [note Pentecostal plus Nazarene]. The following year, at Pilot Point, Texas, the Second General Assembly of the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene was held and a southern body, the Holiness Church of Christ, merged with them. Bresee served as the senior general superintendent of the church until his death in 1915 and continued serving as pastor of Los Angeles First Church of the Nazarene until 1911.

                                                    Abridged from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_F._Bresee

Phineas Bresee

Pastor to the poor

Church of the Nazarene

1907  first General Assembly

By the late nineteenth century the Methodist Church (actually many independent denominations like Wesleyan Methodists, Primitive Methodists, Independent Methodists, Wesley Reform Union) had become an accepted part of the religious scene and was in danger of becoming just another place to go on Sunday. There were those however who were keen to keep alive what they saw as the essence of Wesleyanism, a changed life resulting in practical holiness.

There were differences about the basic theology of this and how it was put into effect, but the divisions were seldom acrimonious since in practical terms it was the end result that mattered and it had to be agreed that there were Christians living out lives of holiness from all parts of the spectrum of Wesleyan theology. What was not at issue was the way the New Testament insisted on followers of Jesus living holy lives and the fact that “holiness”, “Christian perfection”, “sanctification” and various other terms were writ large in the letters, essays and sermons of the founder of Methodism.

Holiness was seen as a work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the agent of change in our lives at the time of salvation (conversion, being born again, letting Jesus into ones heart), “If anyone does not have the Spirit he is not of Christ”. Romans 8:9. But is a holy life then achieved by progressively allowing the indwelling Holy Spirit to take charge of more and more aspects of ones life in a series of deliberate decisions? Certainly Paul’s epistles contain many active and imperative verbs, “Put off the old life and put on the new life”. Or while we certainly need to make some effort, is holiness just as much a gift of God as was our salvation? The various flavours of Pentecostalism were coming into being in this same period and it was seen that holiness could be imparted to the believer as one of the gifts (the primary gift) of the Spirit in a “Second Blessing”, the “Receiving of” or “Baptism in” the Holy Spirit. There was also a half-way-house where it was accepted that each believer had within him the Holy Spirit from the moment of conversion, but the evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in that person’s life could not be seen until he or she deliberately gave themselves over fully to the purposes of God. Favourite phrases used were, “Put your all on the altar for God” and “It’s not that you need more of the Holy Spirit, rather that the Holy Spirit needs more of you.” The first of these phrases could equally apply to a Christian seeking the “Second Blessing”; no-one can receive this blessing unless a full commitment to Christ has been made. 

In 1891, Dr. Watson, of Boston, Massachusetts, came to England conducting holiness meetings in all our large towns. He came to Speke Hall, Battersea, where one Sunday evening he showed from the Word of God in Rom. vi. 6, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” and also from many other passages in Scripture that God could deal with the sin of the heart and make men and women holy in heart and righteous in life…

One of his listeners was a young businessman, a draper originally from Wales and an active Christian. Under such direct preaching the draper, David Thomas, had to acknowledge the failure in his Christian life and service. Obedient to the call of God, at the invitation he went forward to the penitent form for prayer, it was a time of confession, of consecration of body, soul, spirit, business, wife, family and all that he knew, henceforth he was to be God’s man entirely, God should have first place in his life. The consecration was complete and final, all was on the altar, the fire of the Holy Ghost possessed his being…



The young people employed in his business noticed the change, the hasty, unkind words addressed to their failings never again came to those lips. Holiness was found to be practical in business as well as in Church life.

Source: “David Thomas” by those who lived, loved and laboured with him.

David Thomas went on to found the Holiness Mission in 1907. Extensive missionary work developed in Southern Africa and the church was renamed the International Holiness Mission in 1917.

In 1915 David Thomas relocated the headquarters of the  Holiness Mission to 68 Battersea Rise in what had been a local town hall. This became a church of the IHM denomination which on Thomas’ death in 1935? was renamed The Thomas Memorial Church. The building still remains, more or less unchanged in external appearance but completely refurbished inside, and was recently reopened as Fresh Ground Church, a cafe and community church still within the Nazarene British Isles South District.

General comments

Keep Wesleyanism alive!

Holiness

sanctification

The Holy Spirit in the lives of Christians

Pentecostalism

Holiness work in the UK

Battersea

David Thomas

A holy life revealed

1907 The Holiness Mission

The International Holiness Mission

Thomas Memorial Church

Fresh Ground

In 1889 Manchester businessman Francis Crossley – founder of Crossley Works and holder of the British patent for the Otto Gas Engine which drove the engines of the Industrial Revolution – provided a ‘mission hall’ to meet the spiritual needs of his own workers. He purchased a dance hall, Star Hall, ultimately building his own facilities These included a place of worship which saw a multitude of the leading ‘holiness’ preachers of the day, as well as Ancoats Hospital, providing health care for that blighted area of the city.

After his death in 1896 his daughter and a Miss Hatch took leadership of the ministry, which came to include a ‘Bible Institute’ that trained church leaders who were sent around the world. The work of Star Hall continued until 1919 when the Misses Crossley and Hatch retired and the buildings were handed over to the Salvation Army. The congregation, however, joined the International Holiness Mission, re-locating to Brunswick Street, Manchester – and was known as the ‘Manchester Tabernacle’. This became the centre of IHM work in the north of England. This work is presently known as the Longsight Community Church of the Nazarene at Tollgate Close, Manchester M13 0LG.

Manchester

Francis Crossley

Star Hall

International Holiness Mission

Longsight Church of the Nazarene

In 1906 George Sharpe of Parkhead Congregational Church in Glasgow was ejected from his pulpit for preaching the Wesleyan doctrine of Christian Holiness. Eighty members who left with him immediately formed Parkhead Pentecostal Church; other congregations were organised and in 1909 the Pentecostal Church of Scotland was formed. That body united with the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene in 1915.

                                                                                  (Nazarene Manual 1997-2001)

 Some time later a Nazarene Pentecostal Church was established in Morley near Leeds, Yorkshire. They have now moved from their original building in Albion Street to a modern building in the ASDA car park.

Scotland

Christian Holiness

Parkhead Pentecostal

Parkhead Nazarene

Morley

Without denying the preaching of holiness in other churches, the IHM was the primary body in the UK for the propagation of this doctrine seen as the essence of Wesley’s teaching.

In 1934 four of its leading lights seceded from the IHM to form The Calvary Holiness Church: An outgrowth of itinerant evangelism called 'trekking. Maynard James, Jack Ford, Leonard Ravenhill, & Clifford Filer – all of whom had worked under the auspices of the International Holiness Mission until tension over willingness to permit 'tongues-speaking' [seen as a gifting of the Holy Spirit] in their services let to separation. The new body stopped short of regarding glossolalia as evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit; however, they remained in all essentials in the Wesleyan Holiness tradition.

IHM



Schism!

The Calvary Holiness Church

In the UK the Holiness churches are not clearly connected with Pentecostalism but "tongues" is still an issue

In 1952 the IHM merged with the Church of the Nazarene in Scotland and Yorkshire and worldwide. Theological differences remained and the CHC did not take part in the unification at this time. However in 1955 when the CHC found itself under strain to continue its work with Beech Lawn Bible College, and its missionary outreach in Colombia and Pakistan, talks with the Nazarene Church were recommenced. Union was effected on June 11^th of that year but as a result of a pledge not to 'encourage' tongues-speaking in public services, six ministers refused to unite. It remains the case that “speaking in tongues” is most definitely not the usual practice in Nazarene churches in the UK though it is not actually forbidden.

1952 and 1955

IHM and CHC merge with the Church of the Nazarene