Veteran preacher’s freedoms curtailed - at Speakers’ Corner!

Charles Gardner reviews the Sh’ma Kingdom Drama play about the legendary preacher.

Nearly 300 years after it happened, John Wesley’s conversion is still widely celebrated. For most great men, it is their birth that is usually remembered. But in Wesley’s case, it is what the Bible terms his ‘new birth’, recalled each year on 24 May.

As part of this year’s celebrations, a unique play was staged on the lawns of the Old Rectory where the preacher grew up, in the small town of Epworth in Lincolnshire (another performance is being planned elsewhere in the county for next month - see details below).

Performed by the Sh’ma Kingdom Drama group, I am John Wesley captivated an appreciative audience on a beautiful spring afternoon with a stirring invitation to share in the transforming experience that changed Britain and the world – a heart ‘strangely warmed’ by the Gospel, as the Methodist founder put it.

An Inspirational Invitation

We were treated to an inspirational weaving together of dance, dialogue and choral hymn-singing complete with audience participation – front row viewers were handed rolled-up tights to throw at the cast at a given signal to depict the fierce opposition Wesley’s preachers encountered on their travels.

The narration, backing music and PA system all worked together smoothly and the drama was enriched by authentic costumes. The waving of brightly-coloured flags helped to convey the traumatic scene when six-year-old John was rescued from an upper window during a blazing fire, which is why he came to be referred to as ‘a brand plucked from the burning’.

I am John Wesley captivated with a stirring invitation to share in the transforming experience that changed Britain and the world.

I was particularly moved by the sight of one of the cast, her face shining like an angel, worshipping her Saviour before moving towards the audience as she encouraged others to welcome Jesus into their lives.

With the audience also invited to join in some of Charles Wesley’s well-known hymns, some of the cast, including John Wesley, came out of character for a few minutes to share the story of their own life-changing encounter with Christ.

The Gospel, No Holds Barred

Used with permission from the Sh'ma Kingdom Dancers.

Wesley’s conversion took place at Aldersgate, London, in 1738 and launched a 50-year ministry that included 40,000 sermons preached while travelling a quarter-of-a-million miles on horseback. Historians are agreed that we might well have suffered a revolution of the kind that brought chaos to France without his influence.

He often returned to Epworth and its environs, but wasn’t allowed to preach at the church where his father, Samuel, had been rector for nearly 40 years, choosing instead to use his father’s tomb as a pulpit as he lifted up Jesus to a crowd of thousands.

Considering it was only the third staging of the play, it was quite sensational in the way it combined entertainment – both visually and otherwise – with a no-holds-barred presentation of the Gospel.

The next performance of ‘I Am John Wesley’ will be taking place at Broughton Village Hall (DN20 OJX, near Brigg, Lincolnshire) on Saturday 31 August, beginning at 7pm. All are welcome to this free event – call 07940 222 707 for more details.

Find out more about the Sh’ma Kingdom Drama and Dancers on their website, www.shma-kingdomdancers.co.uk.

Used with permission from the Sh'ma Kingdom Dancers.

Charles Gardner reviews the newly published autobiography of legendary preacher JC Ryle.

Those wishing to be inspired and encouraged to stand up for Christ in these difficult times would do well to pick up a copy of a new book on legendary 19^th Century preacher JC Ryle.
Bishop J.C. Ryle’s Autobiography: The Early Years (edited by Andrew Atherstone and published by the Banner of Truth Trust) includes some wonderful old photographs, along with a selection of the tracts for which he became famous. It was originally written for his children in 1873 and never intended for publication.

The first Bishop of Liverpool, John Charles Ryle was one of the most influential evangelical clergymen of his time. His tracts were especially pithy, powerful and pungent – so unlike the often ponderous and long-winded literature of his contemporaries.

His voice continues to ring out down the generations, and is a timely wake-up call to a sleeping church.

Heaven to be Gained, Hell to be Shunned

Today, with evidence of apostasy all around as Christians come under tremendous pressure to conform to the world’s pattern of thinking, Ryle will stir your passions to renewed vigour and determination.

The book takes us to the end of his long ministry at Helmingham in Suffolk, where he wrote so many of his tracts. Some are included in the appendix and also speak to our time, like the one he wrote on the 1845 disaster at Great Yarmouth where 75 perished when a bridge collapsed during a circus event.

Today, with apostasy all around, Ryle will stir your passions to renewed vigour.

He reminded his readers in no uncertain terms that there was a Heaven to be gained and a Hell to be shunned, bluntly warning parishioners that they too could have been swept into eternity in a moment. And were they prepared to meet God?

Not Included: Israel’s Re-Gathering

Unfortunately not included in this otherwise fine record of a great ministry are messages on a subject close to his heart – the Bible’s teaching on the much-prophesied return of the Jewish people: first to their ancient land, and then to their Lord and Messiah.

I have visited the church at Helmingham myself and I quote from one of the many tracts I picked up there, written in the mid-19^th Century: “I believe that the Jews shall ultimately be gathered again as a separate nation, restored to their own land and turned to the faith of Christ (Messiah).”

And so it was, less than 50 years after he died in 1900, that the modern state of Israel was born! And a growing number of its people have since acknowledged Jesus as their Messiah.

Read the book, and stir your faith!

‘Bishop J.C. Ryle’s Autobiography’ (359pp, cloth-bound, 2017) is available from the publisher for £12.40 + P&P.