Aldersgate Sunday is important to us as Methodists because it symbolizes the heart of Methodism: our faith is not just intellectual or ritualistic but our faith is deeply personal and transformative. It transforms us from within because of God’s grace.
On May 24, 1738, John Wesley (the man who started the Methodist movement) reluctantly attended a meeting on Aldersgate Street in London. While the preacher was reading Martin Luther’s preface to the Book of Romans, Wesley recalled:
“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.”
This moment was the turning point in his life.
Before this experience at the Aldersgate, John Wesley was a dedicated Anglican priest. He was ordained as a priest in the Church of England in 1728 after graduating from his studies at Oxford. He was deeply committed, and passionate about his ministry as an Anglican priest. He never left the Anglican church although he started the Methodist movement.
John Wesley was passionate about his ministry but he actually had doubts and was uncertainty about his own salvation. He knew God with his mind. He had knowledge about God in His mind. But he did not know God with his heart. It was only at Aldersgate, that John Wesley experienced a deep, personal assurance of God’s love and grace.
Before the Aldersgate experience, John Wesley only knew God in his head. Only from this experience, he truly understands the love that comes from God. His ministry was transformed from this point on.
John Wesley changed from a formal, works-based approach to a faith-centered and evangelical approach. This Aldersgate event reignited Wesley’s ministry and as a result, it launched the Methodist revival—a movement focused on transformation, grace, and active discipleship.
Soon after Aldersgate, he began preaching outdoors to reach people who were not attending church. He rode on horseback to preach anywhere he could: in the marketplace, town squares, open field, rural areas. This approach brought the Gospel to thousands, especially among the working class and the poor.
In his lifetime, he travelled around 400,000km on horseback throughout Britain and Ireland, preached more than 40,000 sermons and wrote about 200 books. He also wrote journals.
The impact of the Revival in Britain was immeasurable. It changed the lives of thousands of working class families and the society was slowly transformed for the better. Many historians believed that if not had been for the Methodist revival, Britain might have had a blood revolution like similar to the French Revolution in 1789.
From England, the revival spread to Wales, Scotland and Ireland and later to the United Sates. Today, we have Methodist churches around the world.
John Wesley said, “the world is my parish”. This means, he would preach anywhere, not confined to a church or to a specific group of people. He believed that every person, regardless of class, status, or location, deserved to hear the message of salvation. And that God’s love is for all peoples.
Today, we have been deeply blessed by his teachings and his missionary effort to rescue as many souls as he could. I personally am greatly encouraged and blessed as I continue to study his theology as a pastor of the Methodist Church.