Marks of a Movement: What the Church Today Can Learn From the Wesleyan Revival

Marks of a Movement calls us back to the disciple-making mandate of the church through the timeless wisdom of John Wesley and the Methodist movement. With a love for history and a passion for today's church, Winfield helps us reimagine church multiplication in a way that focuses on making and multiplying disciples for the twenty-first century. Winfield Bevins reminds us of the vital multiplication lessons from the Wesleyan movement, one of the greatest missional movements the world has ever known. He highlights the necessity of discipleship as the starting point and the abiding strategic practice that is key to all lasting missional impact in and through movements. The Methodist movement is an example of the power of multiplying movements that utilize the strategy of discipleship. Within a generation, one in thirty people who were living in Britain had become Methodists, and the movement soon became a worldwide phenomenon. We in the Western Church need a movement of historic proportions once again. What would such a multiplication movement look like for us today We must look to the past to gain wisdom for the future. And as we look at the pages of church history, there is no better example of a multiplication movement in the West than the Methodist movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Marks of a Movement highlights the lessons and key insights that enable us to learn from the past and reapply this timeless, biblical wisdom for today.

About the Author :
Winfield Bevins serves as the Director of Church Planting at Asbury Seminary and as Canon for Church Planting for the Anglican Diocese of the Carolinas, Director of Re-Missioning for Fresh Expressions US, and Director of the New Room Regional Network. As a seasoned practitioner, he has trained hundreds of leaders from diverse backgrounds on four different continents. One of his passions is to help others connect to the ancient roots of the Christian faith for spiritual formation and mission. He and his wife, Kay, have three beautiful girls, Elizabeth, Anna Belle, and Caroline.

Review :
“A brand plucked from the burning”---my countryman John Wesley started a fiery movement of reproducing disciples, leaders, and churches that reflected the purity, simplicity, and communal power of the early church. His followers took the apostolic church of Acts as their model and set their world on fire with passion. It’s vital to learn again from the man and his ministry, but most of all from his methods. I am thrilled that Dr. Bevins helps us do so here, and in such a readable manner. History at its best accurately reflects on what happened and builds vision for what can yet happen. Bevins highlights the people and the practices of one of the great movements of Christianity---and inspires us to multiply disciples and churches in our generation. Inspirational and to-the- point. If you want to know how our Father worked through those early Methodists to launch a global multiplication movement, then read this book! Bevins calls us to learn from the wisdom of those who have gone before us, and we must heed his call. Read, learn, and apply! It’s impossible to read this book without getting excited about what the Holy Spirit has done and can do in lives fully surrendered to God. This account of the powerful marks of the Wesleyan movement inspires and challenges us to be part of the birth of a new movement for our day. On almost every page I found myself praying: “May it happen again!” Marks of a Movement is a concise account of the characteristics of the Methodist movement and its application for today. I’ve read a lot of material on John Wesley and the Methodists, but this book has some valuable surprises. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from one of the greatest movements in history. Marks of a Movement is a handful of gems for the movement-maker--- giving them precious and short reflections on some of our most brilliant forbearers in church revival. Winfield Bevins is a unique voice bringing together mainline leaders, church planters, and dreamers from across a huge spectrum. I have great faith for what this guide can bring! The method of John Wesley created the greatest religious movement in American history. Could it hold the key to the next great movement in US history? Bevins thinks so. Drawing from the life and ministry of John Wesley, Bevins describes key marks of a movement. Anyone interested in joining the growing multiplication movement should read this book. Winfield Bevins reminds us of John Wesley’s disciple-making wisdom, which gave birth to a movement of mission and church planting. The movement he started spread around the world and ultimately transformed the religious landscape of the West. With his love for the history of the church and his personal experience of church planting, Bevins helps us understand powerful lessons from John Wesley that can inspire hero makers today. Winfield masterfully summarizes John Wesley and the Methodist movement. If you want to see a church multiplication movement happen in your context today, this is required reading. With a powerful simplicity, Bevins has written a brief book distilling John Wesley’s wisdom of the past to help us move forward on God’s mission. His excellent overview of Wesley’s life and strategies of “movement making” are crystal clear and compelling. For any leader interested in seeing a gospel movement, Marks of a Movement is an essential resource.