Rose Bush or Rose Garden? - Equipping as Ministry
George Whitefield, the Great Awakening preacher, traveled in Great Britain & in the United States preaching & drawing huge crowds. Whitefield was a contemporary of John Wesley, another great preacher of the time who, likewise, drew huge crowds. At his death, Whitefield is reported to have said, “Wesley chose the better way. My converts are like a fist-full of sand.”
The difference between the ministry of George Whitefield & John Wesley was not the purity of their doctrine or impact of their preaching. Both were thought of as powerful & compelling preachers through whom the Spirit worked in remarkable ways. There were those who claimed that Whitfield was the more accomplished preacher. The difference in their ministries was Wesley’s commitment to organize his followers into local groups (called "classes") that were trained to minister to one another. They were taught a method of Bible study and discipleship that was easily replicated in new places and with new people (from which the label “Methodists” comes).
If gathering a crowd to hear great preaching is a rose bush then Whitefield may have had the prize-winning rose bush. But, at his death he looked out and saw a large and impressive rose garden under the care of John Wesley. In my back yard is a small rose bush. It is a climbing bush and produces medium pink blooms. Recently, we went to the nursery to buy some rose bushes but we were not looking for pink blooms. Yet, the story of this bush touched us. This bush started as a clipping from a large bush in New Orleans that had been flooded during hurricane Katrina. While Katrina killed many things, including gardens, the partent bush survived. Having been living & ministering in the New Orleans area during & after Katrina, we had to have this little rose bush.
However large and beautiful the parent bush was in New Orleans, however many blooms it produced, however remarkable it is that it survived being buried for days in the rancid, post-Katrina floodwaters, what magnifies all of those qualities is that now that bush will reproduce its beauty in many smaller, yet equally as beautiful bushes in many new places, like our backyard.
Like the crowds that gathered to hear both Wesley and Whitefield, people like to hear good preaching. They may travel impressive distances to hear a skilled homeletician work his wonders with the Word of God. Yet, history has repeatedly demonstrated that the Kingdom of God breaks into the darkness more effectively through simple, reproducible discipleship than through even the very best preaching.
Rose bush or rose garden?