William Booth, the London Methodists and Follow Up
William Booth’s heart for the poor and the lost did not sit easily with most of the churches of his day. When his apprenticeship as a pawnbroker ended in 1848, the 19 year old Booth was unemployed and spent a year looking in vain for work. Reluctantly he left his family and moved to London where the only work available was again with a pawnbroker.
William continued as a Methodist lay-preacher but the small number of opportunities frustrated him. He applied to be a full-time preacher but was knocked back because he had no heart for academic studies. His preaching at a local Methodist Chapel, however, so impressed one of its richer members that Booth found himself on 3 months wages so he could pursue open-air evangelism.
The Methodist church soon recognised his preaching gift and offered William a circuit of churches in Lincolnshire, 150 kilometres north of London. Almost from the start his preaching attracted new people and up to 20 converts were being added weekly to the various churches in the circuit. But William wanted to be back in London with Catherine Mumford, a woman with strong ideas and heart, and with whom he had fallen in love.
He now saw the benefit in academic training and began two new ventures – marriage and studies. The College Principal had not seen someone with William’s evangelistic zeal and success and secured his appointment as deputy superintendent of the Methodist London churches. So many people came to Christ that William developed what was then a revolutionary method for handling the converts. He invited those accepting Christ to come to the front at the end of the meeting. There church workers took them aside for further counselling about their decision. Their names and addresses were taken and each convert was paired up with someone from the church. The church member gave the new convert a Bible and worked in with them until they were established in the church. Nowhere else in England was this being done nor had it been done before.
We love to see genuine conversions but God is looking beyond that for genuine disciples. We all have a part to play. What are you doing to see those in this church discipled?