As the flowers of May bloom in full splendour, we are reminded of new life and spiritual renewal. This month, we turn our hearts back nearly 300 years to a pivotal moment in church history a time when one man’s discouragement was transformed into a global movement.

We are, of course, speaking of our founder in faith, John Wesley.

 

The Dark Before the Dawn

By the spring of 1738, John Wesley was a failure by worldly standards. He had returned from the Georgia colony humiliated, his ministry in shambles. Despite his ordination, his missionary zeal, and his rigorous “method” of holy living, he confessed to his diary: “I went to America to convert the Indians; but oh, who shall convert me?”

He knew the rules of faith, but he lacked the music of faith. He was a preacher with a dead letter and no living fire.

 

The Aldersgate Experience

Then came May 24, 1738.

Feeling utterly hopeless, Wesley reluctantly attended a small society meeting on Aldersgate Street in London. Someone was reading aloud from Martin Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans.

Wesley later wrote those immortal words:

“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.”

That “heartwarming” experience did not give him a new theology—it gave him a living Saviour. The intellectual believer became a spiritual dynamo.

 

From Embers to Empire

That single night ignited a revival that would sweep across the British Isles and jump the Atlantic to America. Wesley didn't sit on his experience; he rode with it—logging over 250,000 miles on horseback, preaching 40,000 sermons in fields, mines, and streets.

He organized the desperate masses into small groups (classes and bands) to grow in holiness. He fed the poor, visited prisoners, and fought slavery. Methodism wasn't just born; it was set ablaze.

And today? It is still “alive and kicking”—from the lively congregations in Africa to the food pantries in your local neighbourhood.

 

What We Learn from a “Warmed Heart”

So, what does John Wesley’s Aldersgate experience teach us this May?

1. Information is not Transformation.
You can have the right doctrine, attend every service, and still feel empty. Wesley knew the Bible well, but until the Holy Spirit applied it to his heart, he had no power. Don’t settle for knowing about God—seek the “strangely warmed” moment of knowing God.

2. God works in the ordinary.
Wesley didn’t see a vision or fly to heaven. He was sitting in a room listening to a book. Renewal often comes not in the spectacular, but in the quiet act of showing up to a meeting or opening Scripture.

3. Personal experience leads to public mission.
The warmth wasn’t for Wesley alone. Immediately after his heart was warmed, he went out to preach to others. If your faith has gone cold, pray for the fire. If it is warm, find someone who is cold and share the flame.

4. Methodism is a movement, not a monument.
Wesley insisted on “scriptural holiness” spreading across the land. We honour his memory best not by preserving museums, but by being “alive and kicking”—starting small groups, serving the marginalized, and preaching grace in word and deed.

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A Challenge for May

This month, take 10 minutes to read Wesley’s Aldersgate account (his Journal for May 24, 1738). Then ask yourself:

• Is my faith a set of habits or a heart on fire?

• Am I waiting for a “strange warming” of my own?

John Wesley managed to bring renewal because he admitted his own deadness and reached for the live coal of God’s love.

May that same fire find us this month.

Yours on the journey,

 

Revd Dr David Jebb