Archive Article: The Importance Of Church History. June 03
December 22, 2008

I was reading recently about the Mission’s work among young people that attracted the police’s attention. The police had to be called to deal with what was described as a “crowd of lively and noisy but good-humoured boys”. Mission organizers had planned on 60 people attending – and about 800 did so. However, the meeting was held without incident and it was the forerunner of many youth-oriented activities, not least making sure that young people don’t go off the rails.

This “contemporary” account was actually dated May 30 1889. However, it seems very “contemporary” to us. This month Wesley Mission has been part of the international network of churches and other organizations celebrating the 300th anniversary of John Wesley’s birth. The anniversary has trigged a number of books and articles on the significance of John Wesley.

There are three reasons for focusing on church history. First, as my opening comments showed, there is very little that is new under the sun (even that expression comes from the Bible). There is a tendency to assume that everything we are doing now is somehow being done for the first time. Quite often, we are only talking about new variations on an old theme. Studying history gives us a sense of perspective. This applies to all forms of history (and not just church history).

Second, history can be a source of inspiration and ideas. It is comforting to know that our forebears encountered similar challenges and managed to overcome them – and so we can do the same. History can also provide information for solutions – by reminding us that a particular solution was found useful then, and so could be useful again now.

Finally, on the specific issue of church history, churches have played a more significant role in most countries than they get credit for by the wider society. The Superintendent of Wesley Mission in his Sunday addresses, for example, has been looking for some weeks at some of the significant Christians who helped the settlement of this country.

Similarly, it is impossible to write a thorough political or social history of 18th Century England without mentioning John Wesley. His activities transformed the country for the better. Hence the amount of attention he is currently receiving.

There is a Christian dimension to the history of most countries that sometimes gets overlooked or downplayed. But such a dimension is to be expected because Christianity is the most popular and widespread religion around the world. There is no inhabited location on Earth that has not been touched in one way or another by a Christian presence. Right from its outset, Christian evangelists were taking the good news to all corners of Earth. For example, it reached India before it reached Western Europe (even though in the West we tend to assume that we were the first beneficiaries of this missionary work).

By the way, I was the first Treasurer of the Uniting Church’s Church Records and Historical Society. This was formed in 1977 in readiness for the creation of the Uniting Church. We knew that the amalgamation of churches (Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational) would lead to a loss of interest in the heritage of the three foundational denominations.

But the Canadian United Church’s experience is that a generation after amalgamation, there would be an upsurge of interest in the history of the earlier churches. Thus, the Australians learned from the Canadian experience. This has turned out to be the case. Australians are increasingly interested in church history as part of learning more about their society. John Wesley 300 Celebration page

Broadcast Friday 20th June 2003 on Radio 2GB’s “Brian Wilshire Programme” at 9pm