The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, came to Bristol, England in the late 1730s. Bristol was a coal mining town and a major port for the English slave trade. It was full of persons who lived life on the outskirts, often secluded from the rest of England. George Whitefield and Charles Wesley had been in Bristol for a while trying to spiritually revive the town, and requested John?s assistance. When John arrived, he found George Whitefield preaching in the fields (not in a pulpit!). John had found this act disreputable. But then he saw its effect. He writes in his journal,

?At four in the afternoon I submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation?? (April 2, 1739)

John was willing to do something that he found reprehensible, uncomfortable, and ?vile? in order to proclaim the love of God. He pushed his idea of what church was, what preaching was, and how people experience God because he felt pulled by the Spirit to adapt his ministry.

He submitted to the Spirit of God to be more vile?.Will you?

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