Wesley's influence on British society

Not a systematic theologist, John Wesley was a great social reformer that not only played a leading role in the Holiness movement and religion but also prevented Britain from a revolution. An Anglican clergyman, Wesley used a controversial and unconventional practice called field-preaching, that consisted in going to unusual places to preach, to the open air, expanding the word of god outside the church, and there so, reaching  factory laborers and newly urbanized masses.Due to his preaching circuits ( also called “Methodist connections”), conferences and an interlocking system of societies,  Wesley’s influence throughout England was extended, a consequence of how a remarkable organizer he was.

Following a younger colleague, George Whitefield, that began preaching in the open to coal miners in Bristol,Wesley did his first field-preaching to nearly three thousand people. Whitefield’s influence converted Wesley into an evangelist that focus on conveying salvation and holiness to the un-churched.

Concerned for people's physical as well as spiritual welfare and believing  that doing good to others was evidence of inner conviction, he spent most of his money on charity, caring for the sick and supervising orphanages and schools. He not only wanted individuals to be holy, but also society in a whole. Not only had his movement given opportunities for the underclass, but also for women, appointing them to lay preaching in the rise of Methodism, which was open to all who were sincere seekers after salvation, and not only limited by members of the Church of England.

In an era when literacy was restricted to the elite,bringing spiritual hope to the masses was considered dangerous by the Establishment,that, frightened by the emotionalism that Wesley’s preaching caused in the underclass, regarded Wesley as a traitor for his class. Methodist meetings were frequently disrupted by mobs, encouraged by local clergy and magistrates. Methodist preachers were harassed until the 1760s. Wesley consistently stated that he had no intention of separating Methodism from the Church of England. However, it was forced to. Firstly, by circumstances in America, and secondly, four years after Wesley's death, with the Plan of Pacification which formulated measures for the now independent church, now with a Conference of one hundred people, named by Wesley, now in charge.

Helping the poor, Wesley himself died poor, but leaving a vast legacy, being the most important the Methodist Church, consisting now with a worldwide membership of approximately 75 million people. Considered a pioneer of modern revivalism,which continues to be a potent force of Christian renewal worldwide, and the father of the Holiness Movement and  Pentecostalism; Wesley led direction  in many social justice issues of the day, like prison reform and abolitionist movements, that provided hope and encouraged discipline among Britain's newly urbanized and industrialized working class; making the evangelical revival that enabled Britain to avoid the political revolutions that unsettled France and the European continent. As he said it, “Methodism was the antidote to Jacobinism”.