Spiritual Discipline for 2018: 52 Weeks with Wesley

Are you one to make New Year's resolutions?  I have made some in the past.  Some, I've kept.  Others, I've not.  And, there are years that I simply didn't make any such resolutions.

Fr. William Shontz

However, a couple of weeks ago, my Facebook friend and colleague, the Rev'd. William Shontz, priest in the Anglican Church in North America, posted a GREAT idea!  Fr. Shontz is an Anglican who, as his idea will make clear, has been greatly influenced by the Wesley's.

The idea involves a spiritual discipline that is not burdensome.  It is not very time consuming.  In fact, it would be quite easy to accomplish.  And yet, I think it could be profoundly helpful to all those within the Wesleyan tradition.  So, what is the spiritual discipline?

Well, the year is made up of fifty-two weeks.  This number corresponds quite well with (at least the later version of) the number of "Standard Sermons" of John Wesley.  (When the "standard four volumes of sermons" were first published in England, there were forty-four sermons.  However, when published later, there were fifty-three, with the fifty-third being dropped, since it was a more biographical piece, on the death of the Rev'd. George Whitefield.  Thus, fifty-two were counted as "standard.")  -  These fifty-two "Standard Sermons" have been very important for the entire Wesleyan/Methodist family.

As you can undoubtedly guess by now, the proposed spiritual discipline for 2018 is to read through one of the standard 52 sermons each week of the new year. 

Such a discipline, I think, will be very helpful in reminding and grounding Wesleyan pastors of all stripes in our Wesleyan theological tradition.  -  Frankly, I thought it was a great idea!

If, by chance, you do not have a copy of Wesley's "Standard Sermons" (I'll refrain from saying, "Shame on you!"), you can either purchase such (recommended!), or you can simply find (at least 50 of) them (along with a nice introduction) online, here. The two that are missing are "The Good Steward" and "The Reformation of Manners."  If you choose to purchase the sermons, you can even purchase a "modern English" version of the sermons (which contains all 53).  For my part, I think I will read through them in this modern English format this time around.

And so, I want to challenge and encourage all members and friends of the Wesleyan-Anglican Society, all of my Nazarene colleagues, my United Methodist colleagues, and all other Wesleyan/Methodist and Anglican visitors to this blog: join me in (re)reading John Wesley's standard sermons for 2018!