John Wesley is seen as the grandfather, or great-grandfather of much of the evangelical, and charismatic movements. And right so! During the Great Awakening in England, and the advent of the Methodist movement, Wesley was the spearhead, along with his brother Charles, George Whitfield, and others in seeing salvation and holiness come to the lives of many thousands. Many are familiar with his Aldersgate experience where his heart was strangely warmed. Somewhat less well known, but likely even more important was Wesley’s experience at Fetter Lane.
What many don’t know is that following his experience at Aldersgate, John was still depressed. While he certainly felt assurance and peace of his salvation in Christ, something wasn’t right still. This is where at Fetter Lane that John, Charles and about sixty others experienced a powerful move of the Holy Spirit, and it was just a short time after this experience that Wesley’s preaching really kicked off. It was once Wesley experienced a powerful move of the Holy Spirit that everything clicked into place for him. Not too dissimilar to the Apostle’s following the ascension of Christ. Once the Holy Spirit fell on Pentecost, everything made sense, and the move of God was empowered to go out into the world and change lives.
I also want to take note of something peculiar to us that happened at Fetter Lane. Not only did Wesley and those gathered experience what we can only describe as a charismatic experience, but following that experience Weslry writes,
“As soon as we recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of his majesty, we broke out with one voice, “We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.””
What is this prayer that was uttered by all? It’s called the Te Deum Laudamus, a prayer found in the Book of Common Prayer.
For those who don’t know, the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is the primary book of worship for the Anglican Church. The first authorized and published version was in 1662, and I would say is likely one of the biggest influences on Christian worship that came out of the reformation. The primary author was Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and leader of the Church of England as it came out of the Roman Catholic Church. Cranmer;s focus and goal was to bring the worship services of the Church to the people in their common language so they could actively particiapte.
It is this book that formed and shaped the spirituality and Christian walk of John Wesley, and any Anglican Christian. In fact, in most of John’s sermons, when he is quoting the book of Psalms, he doesn’t directly quote the King James Bible, but utilizes the translation of the psalter found in the BCP.
So what does the BCP have to do with Fetter Lane, John Wesley, or spirit-aliveness in general?
While it is very easy to focus on the fruit and the excitement of the Methodist revival, and the obvious move of the Holy Spirit through Wesley, we more often than not overlook the foundation that built the spiritual disciplines and language of Wesley’s faith in Christ. Every singe part of John’s Christian practice was built around two documents. The Bible, and the Book of Common Prayer. For prayer times, worship services, baptisms, Communion, weddings, funerals, ordinations, prayers, everything else under the sun you could think of that goes on in our lives has something for it in the BCP. And for John he would have utilized the BCP for it all. Other than the Bible, the BCP was the most formational book that John would have used.But sadly, it is so easy for us to miss it because it is outside of our sght or experience.
My argument and proposal is that if we are wishing to see and experience the same levels of spirit-aliveness in our day and age, it will not simply come from looking at just the fruit of the Methodist movement. We must look to the roots. And aside from God’s Word, the other inescapable part of that foundation is the BCP.
So what should we do with this?
The reality is that for most, it doesn’t make sense to fully implement something like the BCP in our worship contexts. But what we should be looking at is how do we develop regular spiritual disciplines that are formed around the common worship of the Christian faith since the earliest days of the Church.
What we often see is that anything that seems lile liturgy, or formulated worship is quickly labelled as “dead religion”, and not something that the Holy Spirit can work through. My challenge to those reading this is to, rather than seeing liturgy as a straight jacket, see it as a foundation for the Holy Spirit to work through.
Let’s be honest, extemperanous prayer can sometimes be a mess. Or, we don’t always know what to pray, or don’t feel like praying. What liturgy, and other forms of similar worship/prayers (as found in the BCP) provide us the tools for faithful worship at all times. Just because it is written down, doesn’t means it’s “any less effective”.
The automatic and unison response at Fetter Lane to the move of the Holy Spirit was to pray something directly from the BCP, something that was foundational and formational in the spiritual lives of those present.
In an age where the most popular worship song changes every other week, and the next spiritual fad is coming and going, what many of us need in the Church is the beauty and stability that comes from the classic worship of the Church.
For those of us in the Free Methodist Church. We are seeking for spirit-aliveness to grow in our personal lives and congregations. Let’s take page 1 out of Wesley’s play book, and see how the methodical and beautiful spiritual formation that coes from the BCP can actively transform and change what we see as decline into healthy growth.
This article is an introduction of a series that I am going to be doing specifically on the Book of Common Prayer, and it’s relation to Free Methodism. I’ll be doing a deeper dive intro into the BCP, and then also have a series of articles relating how the BCP can be a transformational part of each element of the Free Methodist Way.