Most of us in the
Methodist and Wesleyan tradition are familiar with the life-changing event that
happened in John Wesley’s life on May 24, 1738. Having been theologically
trained but spiritually ill-equipped, Wesley returned to England from a
disastrous missionary adventure in Georgia full of doubt and despair. After an
anguished season of soul-searching which culminated in a spiritual crisis, he
said he went “very unwillingly,” without enthusiasm, to a meeting on Aldersgate
Street where he said he felt his “heart strangely warmed” and, by God’s grace,
he “passed from virtual faith to real faith, from hoping to having.” (Albert
Outler, John Wesley, New York: Oxford
University Press, 1964), p. 17.
But Aldersgate
was only the beginning. The Eighteenth Century Great Awakening would begin
later, under the leadership of John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield.
But this would happen only after a period of deep and prolonged prayer at
Fetter Lane.
The Fetter Lane
Society was a small community of faith founded in London by Wesley’s Moravian
friend Peter Bohler. The Wesley brothers and Whitefield attended, and it became
the arena for theological argument/holy conferencing as well as the estuary for
the formation of Wesley’s theology. The Fetter Lane model was part of the
inspiration for the Methodist societies after Wesley left Fetter Lane in 1740.
Wesley’s Journal tells of one meeting at Fetter Lane nine months after
Aldersgate which might well have been the springboard for the Great Revival:
January 1, 1739:
Mr. Hall, Kinchin, Ingham, Whitefield, Hutchins, and my brother Charles were
present at our love feast in Fetter Lane, with about sixty of our brethren.
About three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power
of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy,
and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from that
awe and amazement at the presence of His Majesty we broke out with one voice, “We
praise Thee, O God; we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.” (John Wesley, The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M.,
ed. Nehemiah Curnock. London: Epworth Press, 1938), 2:121-25.
Some historians
refer to this Fetter Lane meeting as a “little Pentecost” which helped launch
the great Wesley-Whitefield revival in Britain. Lewis Drummond writes: “What
actually happened to Wesley at the Fetter Lane prayer meeting was a refreshing,
a reviving, and infilling of God’s Spirit that blessed, challenged, encouraged,
empowered, and thrust him out in great evangelistic activity. He was awakened anew.
He was personally revived.” (Lewis A. Drummond, The Revived Life: How to Have a Personal Spiritual Awakening.
Nashville: Broadman Press, 1982), p. 25.
In our research
of great revivals and awakenings of history, we have found that revival always begins with periods of
fervent, heartfelt prayer. People were “continuing instant in prayer” until
three o’clock in the morning! And God showed up and mightily answered their
prayers. When was the last time you and some of your friends prayed until three
o’clock in the morning? Meet me at Fetter Lane.
