CREEDE HINSHAW: Going to church unwillingly

He forced himself to go to church. And the world was changed because of this simple act of obedience.

It was Wednesday evening, May 24, 1738, — 286 years ago — in London, England, when this 35-year-old priest in the Church of England trudged toward Aldersgate Street to do what he had no heart to do … attend a worship service.

Much has been made of this evening by Methodists, many of whom still commemorate the event by calling it Aldersgate Day, naming their churches Aldersgate, and referring in Methodist shorthand to John Wesley’s Aldersgate Experience.

This depressed, discouraged, doubting priest had recently returned from the colony of Georgia from which he had fled embarrassment over a failed romance and the resulting trumped-up legal charges. His domineering, dogged chaplaincy in the fledgling Georgia church was a case study in how to fail.

No wonder he didn’t want to attend worship. When a person is at a low point, feeling like a complete failure, assailed by doubts, it’s hard, very hard, to face other people.

At that Aldersgate service of worship Wesley wrote his heart was “strangely warmed.” That movement of the Holy Spirit was the pivot upon which the Methodist movement turned.

But the key, oft overlooked words Wesley wrote in his journal about that evening are these: “… I went very unwillingly.”

Nobody could force this 35-year-old to go to church except himself. That’s called adulthood. You call the shots yourself. You are free from the commands of other people, for the most part. Nobody can make you eat your vegetables, exercise, get eight hours of sleep.

Wesley did not want to go, but he knew it would be good to go. He fought through his moodiness, his despair, his ennui. He willed himself to go to church.

There is an obedience that is salutary, that is far too often in short supply these days. Much is made of those who will never enter the doors of a church anymore, and we in the church lament this. But far less is made over those who only come to church when the stars align, when they are in a good mood, when they have no better choices for the weekend, when the baby is happy, when their pets are healthy, etc.

The church could do better at stressing the amazing benefits to what Eugene Peterson once called “a long obedience in the same direction.” The discipline of weekly church attendance is a life-changing, life-transforming, life-sustaining habit. Faith and character, fortitude and perseverance, are shaped little by little when a person resolves to be obedient to the discipline of weekly worship. Kindness and goodness and the other fruits of the Holy Spirit follow.

Those who have made their way to church with creaky bodies, sour moods, inconvenient schedules, inclement weather, and the resignation that the preaching might be mediocre and the music off-key will receive benefits. Obedience and discipline are their own rewards. In Wesley’s case, his obedience changed the world. For all of us, it can change our world.