Most evangelical Christians have heard of John Wesley and his brother Charles. Even if you do not know much about them, you certainly are familiar with some of Charles' great hymns. At Christmas time we sing “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” or “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus”. Easter Sunday morning we sing, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” These and many others are scattered through out hymn books of churches of many traditions. Yet, John and Charles Wesley's' influence on modern Evangelicalism goes much deeper than their music. John Wesley is considered by many historians to be one of the most influential personalities of the Evangelical Revival in England. Today, many evangelical denominations claim at least some Wesleyan connection. Ironically, John Wesley himself, is not the founder of any of them. (the original Methodists under John Wesley's oversight were not a church but a society or fellowship of devoted Anglicans.) So what is it that he contributed to these evangelical groups?

What many consider to be the hallmark of Wesley's influence is the subjective experience of conversion, sometimes referred to as heart religion. In 1738, at a society meeting on Aldersgate street, while someone was reading Luther's preface to the Romans, Wesley relates, “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.” (Works of Wesley, Journals Vol 1, p. 103.) This experience has been interpreted in many and diverse ways in the years since then. At its heart though, is a subjective religious experience, and the assurance of faith. This heart felt religion became a kind of icon of Evangelicalism,-- A person can have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and assurance of faith. Some have pushed this interpretation so far as to say that without such an experience, one is not properly “saved.” Yet this interpretation of the event, removes it from its context and places more weight on it than it is able to bear.

When I was a college student, steeped in the “Wesleyan” tradition, I simply could not comprehend why Wesley insisted on staying in a stuffy liturgical church, as opposed to starting a new denomination of vibrant experiential Christianity. I did not understand until I began to study Wesley's life and thought more closely. First, for John Wesley the Anglican Church, the sacraments, the liturgy were not obstacles to heart religion. On the contrary, the Church was the very context into which his experiential faith was born. His Aldersgate experience, and teaching of heart religion in no wise contradicted his Anglican heritage. Secondly, although not secondary, was Wesley's theology of the church. He was truly a “high churchman” who believed in one holy, catholic and apostolic church. The Church of England, was simply that, The Church of England. Both John and Charles Wesley, proponents of heart felt, experiential Christian faith, key figures in the Evangelical revival of the 18^th century, and major influences of modern evangelicalism, remained faithful Anglicans throughout their lives.

The historic (orthodox) Anglican tradition does not hinder the ongoing dynamic work of the Holy Spirit in the world. On the contrary, many of us have found in the Anglican tradition a stable and enduring context through which Jesus Christ continues to transform our lives.