The Methodist Church, Congleton Circuit -- Magazine -- What's happening in Methodism and Christianity in Congleton and the wider world

10 things you'd hate about John Wesley

'John Wesley: A Biography', by Stephen Tomkins
[from www.shipoffools.com/Features/frameit.htm ?1003/wesley.html]

1. Despotism – Even Wesley's own preachers called him "Pope John". He ruled his followers like an enlightened despot, and his beloved brother Charles plotted to "break his power". John expected every Methodist society to follow his rules like a McDonald's franchise, and took personal charge over every member's private life, expelling them for laziness or selling spirits.

2. Superstition – He saw rain storms as God's punishment on him - or the Devil's attack. He made decisions by opening the Bible at random for God's guidance, and even decided whether to marry by pulling bits of paper out of a hat.

3. Copyright – Wesley was a plagiarist and pseudepigrapher – he passed off other people's writings as his own and his own as other people's. He got into trouble for ripping off an anti-American tract of Dr Johnson's. And he attacked a book by Toplady (of "Rock of Ages" fame) by publishing a cheap caricature of it at the same time under Toplady's name. Toplady denounced him as a common crook worthy of deportation to America.

Wellspring Church A vision for a new mission
	Over the 12 months to the Summer of 2003, new things started to happen at Wellspring Church in Congleton. The Lord has been moving in the whole area of Mission, and the congregation has been experiencing new ideas and new vision. A key event in this process was the launching of two new ministries based in the Church: Mission in Action and The Word for the World, UK.
How things got going When Jeff and Angie Lewis first shared their vision for motivating and mobilising the Church to mission with Rev. Graham Wassell, none of them knew how quickly the Lord would enable the vision to become reality. In October of 2002, Kobus van Aswegen, the South African director of The Word for the World, Ethiopia, spent a week at Wellspring, along with Endeshaw Shiferaw, his newly appointed Ethiopian deputy. This was the catalyst for tremendous movement. People were challenged to think a bit further afield, and in particular about the need for Bible Translation, the ministry of The Word for the World. It was during this visit that Jeff & Angie were called to work full time for God and, with the support of the church, were able to launch Mission in Action and The Word for the World, UK.
Mission in Action: what it's about “Mission in Action is about helping churches to see that mission is just as important as every other aspect of church life“, says Jeff Lewis. “The aim is to deliver an integrated programme of services and meetings to help the church find God’s specific vision for that church.” The programme was run at Wellspring during the Spring and early Summer. It was not just these services which proved challenging. Several visiting speakers also picked up the theme for the church to catch hold of God’s vision and to step forward in faith. “As God’s church, we have to be involved with the world, both as individuals and as congregations”, says Jeff’s wife and co-director, Angie. “The hardest part is so often giving up our time, not our money. This is what God has been challenging Wellspring about.” One visiting speaker had a particularly strong impact with his message at a Sunday morning service. As a result, the leader of one of the regular fellowship groups challenged him to attend the following evening at the group meeting to expand further on his message, which he kindly did. It was a wonderful evening for those present, who were able to set out their own assessment of their personal spiritual needs, openly and without any embarrassment.	The Word for the World: what it does The Word for the World is an international Bible Translation and training organisation. Its unique characteristics are that it is indigenous to the Third World, and that it trains native speakers to translate the Bible into their own language. Many of the translation projects arise directly from the training programmes, which are run with the support of the local churches. It has been so successful in Ethiopia, and grown so quickly, that Jeff Lewis spent 2 weeks there in June 2003 to initiate management and accounting procedures. This was followed up in August when the Lewis family spent 3 weeks in Ethiopia providing training to students as well as spending time with two of the translation projects. This will be the first of many training modules that Jeff and Angie will be delivering. As well as their involvement in training, they are also responsible for promoting The Word for the World in the UK, and to raise funds for the work overseas. At the moment there are about 50 mother tongue speakers employed by The Word for the World in five countries. Through church visits and other fundraising work, The Word for the World UK are aiming to raise enough funds in the next three years to support the work in Ethiopia	What it all means for Wellspring Church Because Jeff and Angie are members of Wellspring, it makes the impact of their work more immediate. It is very hard to ignore the needs of world mission when the person sitting next to you is so involved. Rev. Graham Wassell has shared the growing sense of God moving in the church. He said, “It has been an exciting time in the life of the church. Not only do we have a first-hand view of a ministry in other parts of the world through Jeff and Angie’s work with The Word for the World, but we have also been challenged about our whole attitude towards mission, both at a local level and in the wider scale. I trust that God will enable us all to capture a vision for the part we can play in bringing His gospel to the world.” Geoff Butler is Wellspring’s representative on the Mission in Action board. “There were a lot of people wondering where the church should be going”, he said. “Through Jeff and Angie and others, I think the Lord has shown to a lot of people the direction for which they were looking. Their involvement with The Word for the World Bible Translators has introduced us to an area of mission that we knew little about.”

We need other Missions too Many of the Wellspring folk seek to serve in other ways apart from their church activities. Included in these is work with Congleton Disabled Club, Chernobyl Children’s Charity, the annual Christmas Shoebox appeal and the East Cheshire Hospice. Prayerful consideration is being given to increasing our support in these areas as part of our mission vision. Jeff has encouraged us in this seeking but has made us aware that we should focus and not spread our resources too thinly at this stage.
Visit Wellspring’s web site at www.wellspringmethodist.org.uk Visit The Word for the World at www.thewordfortheworld.org Visit the Mission in Action web site at http://www.missioninaction.org.uk

	Each year, in April, the Christian Aid representatives from churches in Congleton gather together to plan for the house to house collection during Christian Aid Week in May. We co-ordinate our efforts, allocating collectors to each of the town's streets so that as many as possible are covered.	Since 1991, three churches: St Mary’s RC, The Baptists and New Life, have joined the original churches and are building up their base of collectors. With the increase in housing in Congleton, this is always necessary. In 1991 we were able to collect in virtually every Congleton Street, but today, in spite of having more collectors, there are about 70 streets where envelopes are not delivered. For those of you who don’t yet collect for Christian Aid, please volunteer next year. Not only will you have the privilege of begging on behalf of the poorest, but also you get exercise and fresh air -- not to mention the opportunity to view other people’s gardens. We look forward to seeing you next year. Please contact Cath Lilley at Trinity, via the Circuit team of ministers
In the past the meeting would just discuss roads, do ‘swaps’ as necessary and collect all the new posters and envelopes etc, but in recent years Linda Tiongco has also joined us. Linda is the Christian Aid area co-ordinator for Cheshire and Merseyside. She always has up-to-date news from Christian Aid headquarters in Liverpool and can tell of other initiatives in the district and of Christian Aid projects abroad.
On a couple of occasions she has brought with her visitors from partner agencies in The Philippines and a number of African countries, and the meeting has then heard directly from them how the money we raise is put to use.
One overseas visitor was quite overcome when she saw some Christian Aid volunteers in Liverpool standing in the streets with collection tins. In her words, she had no idea that we raised money for her “by begging in the streets”. She found that very humbling: begging on behalf of the world's poorest. I always think of this when I am out collecting. It helps me overcome my English reserve!