UM churches to celebrate Wesleyan heritage May 22

Boerne pastor shares
online stories about
Methodist founder

By Claudia M. Williams
Staff Writer
Southwest Texas United Methodists are to celebrate the 300-year legacy of John Wesley May 22. That’s Heritage Sunday across The United Methodist Church.
The General Commission on Archives and History has selected “World Methodism” as the theme for this year’s commemoration.
One Southwest Texas Conference pastor has been promoting Wesleyan heritage around the globe online for nearly a decade.
The Rev. W. Conrad Archer, associate pastor, First UMC, Boerne, chronicles the life and works of John Wesley, founder of the worldwide Methodist movement, in e-mail messages called the “Days of Wesley.”
The goal, he explained, is to allow readers to get a new understanding of Methodist heritage in small “doses.”
“I took classes about John Wesley in seminary,” Archer said. “Seminary opened the door but didn’t fill in all the blanks and question marks. It was important for me to get to know John Wesley better.”
Archer said it is fascinating to learn what kind of person Wesley was.
“He was a strange man,” Archer said. “I mean that in a kind way. He was unusual.”
In the late 1990s, while reading Wesley’s writings, Archer found passages that he thought would interest his friends, so he sent the passages to them by e-mail.
“They said I should pass the information along to other people,” Archer said. That e-mail list of 10 or so friends became what is now a subscription list of about 800.
“Days of Wesley” readers include bishops, pastors, lay leaders, members of Sunday school classes and others who simply want to explore Methodist heritage.
“What I value most about the series,” said Belton Joyner of North Carolina, “is the way that it regularly puts me in touch with parts of the Wesleyan heritage that I have not seen.”
The Rev. Martin Gutzmer, pastor of First UMC, Galva, Ill., said Archer’s messages keep him “grounded in the historical roots of our faith.”
“Each day it gives me a special glimpse into the life and living of our founder, John Wesley,” Gutzmer said.
Kathy Stover, a certified lay speaker in the Kansas East Conference, said she appreciates that Archer distills Wesley’s writings into digestible nuggets.
“These snippets of Wesley’s sermons and activities are easy to read and understand,” she said, “and mollify the daunting task of reviewing Wesley’s cumulative works.”
Stover commended Archer for his “sincere and steadfast dedication to rekindle the passion found in John Wesley’s prolific literary works.”
Archer noted, “People ask me things as if I’m an expert. I say, ‘No, I just have an interest.’ But their question sends me off looking for an answer.”
And another potential installment of the “Days of Wesley” is uncovered.
The “Days of Wesley” is available at http://www.gbgm-umc.org/sonorafirst/windex.html.