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For years I heard the names Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, John Wesley, Ralph Horner, D. Moody, and others and stories about the Welsh Revival. I knew of the thousands who were converted in those days under the ministries of such notable preachers. What I lacked was an understanding of why they were so effective. Undoubtedly they were gifted evangelists. They preached the Word with great unction and authority, used the music and methods of their day, and had impressive teams and strategies to help preserve the fruit.Yet, I wondered if there were any other factors that drew the great crowds and added persuasion to their presentations of the gospel message. Was friendship/lifestyle evangelism a significant factor in these great revivals?

My own denominational background, as mentioned earlier, is Wesleyan (Methodist), yet despite being a fourth-generation Wesleyan, educated at a Wesleyan Bible college and a Wesleyan-approved seminary, I somehow had missed ever hearing the real reasons why John Wesley commanded such large crowds and achieved such amazing evangelistic results in his ministry.Granted, Wesley was a gifted evangelist, communicator, writer, social activist, and committed follower of Christ. He had a brilliant mind and was extraordinarily committed to and passionate about the advancing of the gospel message. And undoubtedly people invited others to come see and hear Wesley’s fiery brand of preaching.

But do these traits and factors account for the thousands and thousands of people who came to faith under his ministry? My journey to answer these questions led me to discover the true reason for Wesley’s amazing success was the obvious presence and power of the Holy Spirit in Wesley’s life and preaching services. Wesley often used the word preternatural (meaning beyond or different from what is natural) to describe the unusual manifestations he witnessed (“almost daily in Bristol”) in his services and travels. His remarkable ministry was regularly marked by paranormal manifestations and healings. Wesley believed these manifestations were “chiefly supernatural, springing from the gracious influences of the Spirit of God which accompanied his word.” 1Wesley viewed the miraculous as a sign of God’s endorsement of both his call to ministry and the content of his sermons. 2 More important was the impact of the miraculous on Wesley’s evangelistic efforts.

Religious historian John Kent observed that what “got the ministry of Wesley off the ground in the 1740s was Wesley’s encounter with and response to a passionate hunger for access to invisible powers and for ways and means of changing the life situations of ‘the average man.’” Kent noted that people then, as they are now, were looking for a God who could deliver them from pain, death, and suffering. People were drawn to the gospel that provided for their spiritual and physical well-being. Wesley’s offering of divine intervention into the lives of common people stood in stark contrast with the lack of belief and expectation offered by the Anglican Church at that time.

Kent asserted that Methodism proclaimed “supernatural power was available to the individual believer.” 3In seeking to account for the numerous miracles in his day, Wesley stated that they were necessary “because of the hardness of our hearts, unready to receive anything unless we see it with our eyes and hear it with our ears, that God, in tender condescension to our weakness, suffered so many outward signs.” 4 Today, hearts are again hard, and minds skeptical. Author John White wondered if the twentieth-century resurgence of God’s miraculous manifestations was, in itself, an expression of the necessity of God’s intervention in the current “phase of the battle.” 5Note that Wesley preached almost entirely to “unbelievers,” 6 especially in the early days of his ministry in England, and recorded in his journals many expressions of the supernatural in his evangelistic campaigns. Kent stated, “Examples of healing, prophecy, personal protection, special providences and ecstasy occurred in the Wesleyan societies for a long time.” 7 One notable story related to a revelation from God (perhaps a word of knowledge), that resulted in a class meeting quickly disbanding and leaving a house just moments before the home exploded due to a spark falling into a barrel of gunpowder. 8Wesley believed in and “expected” God’s miraculous interventions (“extraordinary interpositions of God”) in the affairs of man.

9 John Cennick, a contemporary of John Wesley, made the following observation concerning Wesley’s expectation of God’s miraculous authentication of the preaching of the gospel: “Frequently when none were agitated in the meetings, he Wesley prayed ‘Lord! Where are thy tokens and signs?’ and I don’t remember ever to have seen it otherwise than, that on his so praying, several were seized and screamed out.” 10Wesley believed God frequently and immediately stopped rainstorms so his services could continue, and often delivered him from fevers and pains.

11 Wesley wrote, “I believe that God now hears and answers prayer, even beyond the ordinary course of nature.” 12 Stories of skeptics being healed and unwillingly falling and shaking on the ground for hours were frequent. 13 Even Wesley’s critics acknowledged his revival services and journals were filled with accounts of the miraculous demonstrations of God ’s power. 14 A physician who had attended Wesley’s services because he was deeply concerned the accounts of healings were fraudulent, left the meetings “convinced it was not fraud, nor yet any natural disorder. But when both her a woman being prayed for soul and body were healed in a moment, he the physician acknowledged the finger of God.” 15 Wesley’s contemporary George Whitefield had serious reservations about the role of the supernatural acts of God. However, on at least one known occasion, he also experienced unusual outward signs of God’s presence as Wesley preached. Whitefield experienced trembling, convulsions, groaning, and fainting. 16 Historical records indicate Wesley’s prayers for the healing of the sick often resulted in people experiencing an immediate recovery.

17Kent went so far as to state that these expressions of God’s miraculous answers to prayers “were at the heart of Wesleyanism’s Methodism’ssuccess.” 18 Church historian Dr. Stephen Tomkins stated unequivocally that visions and healings “were exciting for participants and drew many spectators. They were also often decisive in Methodist conversions and played an ongoing part in their spiritual lives.” 19 Henry D. Rack, one of the world’s leading experts on Wesley, agreed and wrote succinctly that the presence of the miracles often resulted in “instant conversions.” 20Wesley had to contend with many who believed God’s supernatural enablement of the church ceased with the death of the apostles; thus, they supposed the supernatural manifestations in Wesley’s services were fake, at best, or demonically inspired, at worse. A number of these skeptics, however, became convinced of the legitimacy of the miraculous aspect of Wesley’s ministry as they personally experienced the power of God. 21 Commenting on the views of Wesley concerning cessationism, historian Henry Rack stated that Wesley “believed that much that he saw was indeed the work of the Spirit, whose work of this kind was not confined to past times, as educated contemporaries thought.” 22 In his August 15, 1750, journal entry, Wesley suggested that the diminished references to miracles in and through Christ’s church after the second and third centuries was due primarily to the growing presence of “dry, formal orthodoxy and the diminishing presence of faith and holiness.” He repeated this charge in his letter to Dr.

Conyers Middleton, stating that the church lost much of God’s power due to the corruption and “want of faith, and virtue and piety in those times.” 23 Wesley further elaborated about his understanding of why God manifested Himself in such extraordinary ways through his ministry. On November 25, 1759, he wrote that the convulsions, trances, visions, dreams, healings, and the like, that were so often seen in his ministry, existed to “strengthen and encourage them that believed and to make His work more apparent.” 24That is not to say that John and Charles Wesley naively accepted every manifestation that happened as being genuinely of God. Charles made notations in his journals when he believed people self-induced manifestations. 25 John attributed some manifestations to demonic activity and other displays as being overly zealous expressions of immature believers and/or imposters. Nor does this emphasis on the miraculous diminish the importance of Wesley’s preaching. This overview of Wesley’s ministry only demonstrates that the combination of the miraculous, along with Wesley’s fifty-two thousand powerful sermons and his emphasis on charitable expressions of Christianity to the poor, resulted in an amazing harvest for the kingdom of God.I suspect Wesley would have had far, far less evangelistic success had it not been for the miraculous activities surrounding his ministry.

I am absolutely convinced Wesley would be the first to acknowledge that the graces and gifts God had given him as an evangelist, leader, and strategist were inadequate to explain the staggering numbers who came to faith in Christ. I suspect he would be equally quick to downplay any thought that friendship/lifestyle evangelism was a significant factor in seeing England and much of Europe saved under his ministry. Electronic arts harry potter games. These supernatural manifestations were not solely confined to the ministries of John and Charles Wesley. Many other revivalists through history were also marked by remarkable manifestations of the Holy Spirit.—Are you interested in learning more about the role of the Holy Spirit in the work of evangelism? Elliott makes the case for the central role of supernatural signs and wonders in the church’s proclamation in By Signs and Wonders: How the Holy Spirit Grows His Church. John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley (Peabody, MA: Hederickson, 1984), 14:358.2. Steve Beard, Thunderstruck: John Wesley and the “Pensacola Outpouring” (Wilmore, KY: Thunderstruck Communications: 1996), 10; John White, When the Spirit Comes with Power: Signs and Wonders Among God’s People (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 1988), 126.3.

John Kent is using the word “powers” in the context of supernatural manifestations and interventions. John Wesley and the Wesleyans: Religion in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Cambridge University Press: 2002), 8, 50, 31.4. Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, 1:197.5. White, When the Spirit Comes with Power, 153.6. Glenn Gould, Healing the Hurt of Man: A Study of John Wesley’s “Cure of Souls” (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1971), 62.7.

John Kent, John Wesley and the Wesleyans, 24.8. Godfrey Holden Pike, Wesley and His Preachers: Their Conquest of Britain (University of California Libraries: 1903), 205.9. Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, 6:322.10. White, When the Spirit Comes with Power, 128.11. Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, 3:137; 8:459 – 6 0.12. Ibid., 9:124.13. Pike, Wesley and His Preachers, 199–200; Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, 1:284, 406.14.

Kent, John Wesley and the Wesleyans, 170.15. Pike, Wesley and His Preachers, 199.16.

Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, 1:210.17. Pike, Wesley and His Preachers, 135; Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, 3:285.18. Kent, John Wesley and the Wesleyans, 168.19.

Stephen Tomkins, John Wesley: A Biography (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003), 85.20. Rack, Reasonable Enthusiast: John Wesley and the Rise of Methodism (London, UK: Epworth, 1992), 187.21.

White, When the Spirit Comes with Power, 78.22. Rack, Reasonable Enthusiast, 187.23.

Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, 10:1–2.24. Charles Cuthbert Southey, ed., The Life of John Wesley and the Rise and Progress of Methodism, vol. 2 (London: Spottiswoode and Company, 1858), 151.25. White, When the Spirit Comes with Power, 62. Stephen Elliott is Director and Professor of Pastoral Ministry & Church Planting Degree Programs and Campus Pastor at Kingswood University in Sussex, New Brunswick. He began his full-time ministry in 1983 when he and his wife Helen began a church plant in Ottawa, Ontario with just 2 people. When he left Ottawa 22 years later to pursue doctoral studies, the church was the 4th largest evangelical church in the Ottawa area and the second largest Wesleyan church in Canada with a staff of eleven and a church constituency of over 1300.

He is known for his creative and dynamic pulpit ministry, his emphasis on visionary leadership, his passion for healthy/vibrant local church ministries, and his tender and compassionate pastoral heart.

One of the most deeply entrenched beliefs and ministry practices in the North American church is the mindset that life-style/friendship evangelism is both the biblical and most effective way to share the faith. Of Christians solely use this means as their method of sharing the faith with their unsaved neighbors, friends and family members. Yet rarely do people take the time to analyze whether or not this ministry practice is actually effective in reaching the unsaved for Christ.In my experience, living an exemplary good and godly life along with being intentionally kind and helpful and thoughtful to others rarely provides opportunities for Christians to share personally the particulars about the gospel message, nor does it even open up many opportunities for Christians to invite others to faith-based events. The vast majority of churches are not growing and even those churches which are growing can account for their growth by ‘transfers’ from other churches. Verbal sharing of one’s personal faith is scarce. Twenty years ago, George Hunter found that only 1-2% of Christians share their faith ( Church for the Unchurched, 1996, p.

179); Ed Stetzer recently found the number to be much higher,. Yet church leaders consistently promote lifestyle and friendship evangelism as the primary means to evangelize those around us who are heading towards a lost eternity.Even a cursory overview of Scripture reveals that lifestyle evangelism was not the reason why the gospel message exploded around the Mediterranean in the first three centuries.

Many of those the Apostle Paul evangelized rarely knew him, his lifestyle, or that of any other believer. The unsaved had no idea whether or not his lifestyle backed up his message. Yet clearly thousands came to faith in Jesus through his ministry and those of the other apostles. Nor is lifestyle evangelism the reason why the church is thriving and growing so rapidly outside of North America.While C. Peter Wagner remains one of my personal heroes, his oft quoted statement, “Church planting is the most effective form of evangelism,” is simply not trueit is the second most effective form of evangelism. Instead, as I unfold in (Seedbed, Franklin, TN: 2016), church services which are marked by the supernatural expressions of the Holy Spirit (signs, wonders, miracles, visions, prophecies, etc.) are the most effective form of evangelism.

This insight is true and has strong biblical and historic backing, and is presently true in Christian ministries outside of North America. Whenever and wherever the gospel message is substantiated by God’s miraculous activities, the church almost inevitably experiences dramatic conversion growth.In 1983 my wife and I planted a church in the Ottawa, Ontario suburb of Kanata. The church began with just the two of us.

(We knew 2 other people living in the community, but they were already attending another church.) Over the next 13 years, the church grew slowly at a rate of about 10-15 people/year. In 1996 I was discouraged at the meager evangelistic results we were experiencing, which caused me to do an extensive Bible study to determine what factors had contributed to the rapid growth of the Christian church in the first three centuries. The result of that study profoundly changed the way I viewed and approached evangelism.

I discovered that there is little biblical evidence that lifestyle/friendship evangelism contributed in any way to the conversion process. I was shocked to discover that 50% of the conversion stories had an identifiable miracle which had just taken place. A good example is the story of the raising of Lazarus.

The concluding statement in the biblical narrative says, “many put their faith in Him” (John 11:45).Beginning in 1997 we switched our focus from relying upon friendship evangelism, to an intentional focus on the miraculous activities of the Holy Spirit as the primary attraction and transforming influence in our midst. The results were dramatic. Instead of seeing 10-15 people joining our church per year, we immediately began seeing 50-100 people joining the church. Instead of primarily having transfer growth, we began to see a dramatic increasing in conversions.On a regular basis we began inviting people to be anointed with oil for healing, and carving out more quiet/silent time in our worship services for hearing from God. We began to have people receive words of knowledge and prophecies. As a result, the non-Christian community became interested to come and see what was happening, and our people we more emboldened to share their faith. Perhaps the most dramatic healing we witnessed was the immediate healing of a lady from aggressive breast cancer.

For over 10 years now, there is no sign of a return of her cancer. Just this week we were with that same lady! Stories of healing, accurate predictions of the future, and other displays of God’s power have a profound way of drawing people to come and find out what is going on, just like they did with Jesus’ ministry. My own doctoral research concluded that those who both hear the gospel message and personally experience some miraculous activity of the Holy Spirit are two to three times more likely to become Christians than those who simply hear the gospel message.My research also led me to discover some interesting insights about the reasons behind John Wesley’s amazing evangelistic efforts. John Wesley’s services were frequently marked by signs and wonders (John White, When the Spirit Comes with Power, Intervarsity Press: 1998, p.

Suddenly the multitude of biblical references to signs, wonders, and miracles began to fall into place, including the Apostle Paul’s concise and unequivocal statement that the reason for his amazing success as an evangelist was because of the power of signs and miracles through the power of the Spirit” (Rom. Many of the greatest revivals of the past we marked by God’s miraculous activities and those same results are still happening all over the world whenever churches cry out for God’s presence and intervention into their midst.I am not appealing for non-charismatic churches to suddenly become charismatic. Rather I am asking churches to place a much higher emphasis on the person and work of the Spirit. Too many churches are Trinitarian in doctrine, yet binitarian in emphasis. We speak much of God the Father and God the Son, but rarely do we even talk about the Holy Spirit. Yet so critical is the Holy Spirit to the mission of the church that Jesus told His disciples not to undertake the Great Commission until they were filled with the Holy Spirit’s presence and power.Is your present system of evangelism reaping the results you believe you ought to be experiencing?” If not, how can your church lean more heavily into the Holy Spirit?

Our post-Christian world will never be convinced to follow Christ by offering more excellence in preaching, building better facilities, using fancier equipment or more creative programming. There is nothing wrong with these projects and ministries, but they are not nearly enough. We need more. What we need is what we see in 1 Kings 18, when God showed up in power on Mount Carmel and the people of God fell to their faces and cried out “The Lord, He is God, The Lord, He is God”.

May it happen again today.For more information, please check out Dr Elliott’s, “” (Seedbed Publishing), which pleads for the church to place a much higher emphasis on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. It is written as a small group study (questions at the end of each chapter for discussion) and is written from a solidly Wesleyan perspective, containing some very interesting yet rarely talked about insights concerning the reasons why the evangelistic ministry of John Wesley was so effective. The book is filled with real-life stories, historic and current day research, and biblical insights which challenges the church to take seriously the need for demonstrations of God’s Spirit. Stephen Elliott is Director and Professor of Pastoral Ministry & Church Planting Degree Programs and Campus Pastor at Kingswood University in Sussex, New Brunswick.

He began his full-time ministry in 1983 when he and his wife Helen began a church plant in Ottawa, Ontario with just 2 people. When he left Ottawa 22 years later to pursue doctoral studies, the church was the 4th largest evangelical church in the Ottawa area and the second largest Wesleyan church in Canada with a staff of eleven and a church constituency of over 1300. He is known for his creative and dynamic pulpit ministry, his emphasis on visionary leadership, his passion for healthy/vibrant local church ministries, and his tender and compassionate pastoral heart. A timely article.

Where do I purchase the book?Like the author, I am a fan of C. Peter Wagner, at whose feet I sat while taking a degree at Fuller Seminary in the 1980s. Peter went out on a limb when he befriended and helped open doors for John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard Fellowship movement (and a behind the scenes catalyst for the Anglican based ALPHA program). Wagner loved Christ and –based on his worldwide ventures in missiology– sought to pursue evidence wherever it leads.

He came to believe that the “hand of God” in powerful and otherwise inexplicable occurrences helped bring people into a faithful following of Christ. In the 1980s C. Peter quietly but firmly stood by the belief that new church starts were high on the list and integral to effective evangelism. But I got the impression via occasional reports that by the 1990s Peter would probably concur with Dr. Elliott’s conclusions regarding “signs and wonders following.” With regards to spiritual gifts (he published a book entitled “Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow.” It was first published in February 1979. In 1984 I heard him say to a group of Southern Baptists, “Seek the gifts with which you are comfortable, and leave the rest on the shelf.” He had an open mind yet sought to stay rooted in scripture.