Marks of a Movement: What the Church Today Can Learn From the Wesleyan Revival

Description

Marks of a Movement calls us back to the disciple-making mandate of the church through the timeless wisdom of John Wesley and the Methodist movement. With a love for history and a passion for today's church, Winfield helps us reimagine church multiplication in a way that focuses on making and multiplying disciples for the twenty-first century. Winfield Bevins reminds us of the vital multiplication lessons from the Wesleyan movement, one of the greatest missional movements the world has ever known. He highlights the necessity of discipleship as the starting point and the abiding strategic practice that is key to all lasting missional impact in and through movements. The Methodist movement is an example of the power of multiplying movements that utilize the strategy of discipleship. Within a generation, one in thirty people who were living in Britain had become Methodists, and the movement soon became a worldwide phenomenon. We in the Western Church need a movement of historic proportions once again. What would such a multiplication movement look like for us today We must look to the past to gain wisdom for the future. And as we look at the pages of church history, there is no better example of a multiplication movement in the West than the Methodist movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Marks of a Movement highlights the lessons and key insights that enable us to learn from the past and reapply this timeless, biblical wisdom for today.

Winfield Bevins serves as the Director of Church Planting at Asbury Seminary and as Canon for Church Planting for the Anglican Diocese of the Carolinas, Director of Re-Missioning for Fresh Expressions US, and Director of the New Room Regional Network. As a seasoned practitioner, he has trained hundreds of leaders from diverse backgrounds on four different continents. One of his passions is to help others connect to the ancient roots of the Christian faith for spiritual formation and mission. He and his wife, Kay, have three beautiful girls, Elizabeth, Anna Belle, and Caroline.

Inspirational and to-the- point. If you want to know how our Father worked through those early Methodists to launch a global multiplication movement, then read this book! Bevins calls us to learn from the wisdom of those who have gone before us, and we must heed his call. Read, learn, and apply! * J. D. Payne, professor of Christian ministry at Samford University and author of Apostolic Church Planting * With a powerful simplicity, Bevins has written a brief book distilling John Wesley's wisdom of the past to help us move forward on God's mission. His excellent overview of Wesley's life and strategies of "movement making" are crystal clear and compelling. For any leader interested in seeing a gospel movement, Marks of a Movement is an essential resource. * Rev. Dr. Larry Walkemeyer, lead pastor, Light & Life Christian Fellowship; superintendent, Southern California Free Methodist; director of equipping, Exponential * History at its best accurately reflects on what happened and builds vision for what can yet happen. Bevins highlights the people and the practices of one of the great movements of Christianity---and inspires us to multiply disciples and churches in our generation. * Wayne Schmidt, general superintendent, The Wesleyan Church * Winfield masterfully summarizes John Wesley and the Methodist movement. If you want to see a church multiplication movement happen in your context today, this is required reading. * Daniel Im, author of No Silver Bullets, coauthor of Planting Missional Churches, and director of church multiplication, NewChurches.com * Marks of a Movement is a concise account of the characteristics of the Methodist movement and its application for today. I've read a lot of material on John Wesley and the Methodists, but this book has some valuable surprises. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from one of the greatest movements in history. * Steve Addison, author of Pioneering Movements * It's impossible to read this book without getting excited about what the Holy Spirit has done and can do in lives fully surrendered to God. This account of the powerful marks of the Wesleyan movement inspires and challenges us to be part of the birth of a new movement for our day. On almost every page I found myself praying: "May it happen again!" * Rev. Jessica LaGrone, dean of the chapel, Asbury Seminary * The method of John Wesley created the greatest religious movement in American history. Could it hold the key to the next great movement in US history? Bevins thinks so. Drawing from the life and ministry of John Wesley, Bevins describes key marks of a movement. Anyone interested in joining the growing multiplication movement should read this book. * Bill Easum, president, The Effective Church Group * "A brand plucked from the burning"---my countryman John Wesley started a fiery movement of reproducing disciples, leaders, and churches that reflected the purity, simplicity, and communal power of the early church. His followers took the apostolic church of Acts as their model and set their world on fire with passion. It's vital to learn again from the man and his ministry, but most of all from his methods. I am thrilled that Dr. Bevins helps us do so here, and in such a readable manner. * Anthony Delaney, leader for the Ivy Network, NewThing UK and LAUNCH Conference * Winfield Bevins reminds us of John Wesley's disciple-making wisdom, which gave birth to a movement of mission and church planting. The movement he started spread around the world and ultimately transformed the religious landscape of the West. With his love for the history of the church and his personal experience of church planting, Bevins helps us understand powerful lessons from John Wesley that can inspire hero makers today. * Christian Selvaratnam, head of church pl anting engagement, Alp ha UK & Europe; leader of G2 York * Marks of a Movement is a handful of gems for the movement-maker--- giving them precious and short reflections on some of our most brilliant forbearers in church revival. Winfield Bevins is a unique voice bringing together mainline leaders, church planters, and dreamers from across a huge spectrum. I have great faith for what this guide can bring! * Graham Singh, executive director of Church Planting Canada and rector of St. Jax Montreal * The twenty-first century demands a new and revitalized apostolic movement of disciple-making leaders like never before in the history of the church. This book will become a blueprint to accomplish such a monumental task for those seeking to establish the kingdom of God. * Rev Dr. Iosmar Alvarez, senior pastor of Fuente de Avivamiento and founder of Disciple 21 Network * To re-evangelize the postmodern West, it will take not just a method or program, but a movement. Taking his cues from the early Wesleyan movement, Winfield Bevins offers clear and wise guidance on how we might reignite the fire that once spread so rapidly across England and the nascent United States, and eventually, throughout the globe. I strongly recommend this book for all those with a heart to win the lost and see revival in the increasingly secular context of the postmodern West. * David F. Watson, PhD, academic dean, vice president for academic affairs, and professor of New Testament at United Theological Seminary * When God breathes his Spirit upon his followers for his purpose, movements are birthed. While these movements of God are easy to spot, they can be difficult to understand. In Marks of a Movement, Winfield Bevins helps us do exactly that. Drawing from a deep well of tried-and- true practices, he reframes old paradigms for a modern audience. You will finish this book with a fresh understanding of past movements of God and a burning passion to see God to do the same again today. * Robby Gallaty, pastor, Long Holl ow Baptist and author, Growing Up and Here and Now * Two hundred years ago, Methodism was the greatest soul-winning discipleship movement in America. If you want to know how the church can recover its mission and live again, Winfield Bevins tells how! * Dr. Robert Coleman, author of The Master Plan of Evangelism * Jesus said a person well-trained for the kingdom of God is "like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure things old and new" (Matt.13:52). A key truth for church renewal: linking the old and new. John Wesley understood this and modeled it better perhaps than anyone else in history. The dynamics, depth, and discipleship of early Methodism grew from the combustive joining of the Great Tradition with the newness of the Spirit in people's lives. Marks of a Movement brings these old/new insights into our present time. Today, Jesus can and will renew persons, churches, even whole societies, and here early Methodism and other movements can teach us. Churches today often struggle along with only half their true DNA. Marks of a Movement shows why, and what to do. Here is new wine enriched by the old of past movements. * Howard A. Snyder, author of The Radical Wesley, The Problem of Wineskins, and Signs of the Spirit, and international representative, Manchester Wesley Research Centre * Marks of a Movement is well worth reading to the very, very end! It is a very practical book that shows how John Wesley innovated, and how we should do the same, if we want a multiplying movement like his in our day. * Michael Moynagh, author of Church in Life: Innovation, Mission and Ecclesiology and tutor, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford * Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, once devised a Mission Statement Generator, which could be loaded with familiar buzzwords to automatically formulate high-toned bunk. Winfield Bevins has done the opposite---written a Mission Detector book that finds and refines those core missional components that make and mark an authentic movement of the Spirit in every age and context. Regardless of tribe, this book is required reading for all feeling called to participate in God's missional renaissance. * Leonard Sweet, author of Bad Habits of Jesus, professor at Drew University, George Fox University, Tabor College, Evangelical Seminary, and founder of preachthestory.com *