THE SHOUTING METHODISTS

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29 NIV).

I had never heard of the “shouting Methodists” until I was directing a crusade in Salem, OR, in the mid-1980’s. We were at the State Fairgrounds with about 5,000 in attendance at each service. Sitting beside me on the front row of the stage was the retired pastor of the visiting evangelist. Twenty years earlier, the evangelist had come to faith in Christ in this Methodist pastor’s church and this crusade service was the first time the pastor had heard the evangelist preach. Needless to say, he was “all ears.”

It was a great service. One of those you wish you could bottle and take everywhere. The music was excellent, the crowd was alive and responsive, and the evangelist was preaching up a storm. In the middle of the sermon, the evangelist paused for just a moment and suddenly the eighty-year-old retired pastor, sitting next to me, let out the loudest shout of “GLORY” I have ever heard in my life. This was not a Sunday morning, polite “Praise the Lord” that only you and one or two around you could hear. No, this was a bellow that every person in that audience heard.

I didn’t know that I could jump that high from a sitting position. Funny what an adrenaline rush will do and only my dry cleaner really knows how surprised I was.

The evangelist turned sheepishly to all of us sitting on the front row and said, “I forgot to tell you that he was a “shouting Methodist.”

In 1794 in Cornwall County, England, a boy named Billy Bray was born. Cornwall is the tin mining area of England. Bray’s father died was he was young and Billy was raised by his grandfather. At age 27 Billy married a backslidden Christian girl. Working in the tin mines and raising seven children was overshadowed by Billy’s addiction to alcohol. He would spend his earnings each week drinking and carousing.

In 1823 two things occurred that changed Bray’s life. The first, a near-death experience during an accident in the mine, deeply troubled him. Not long after the accident, a friend gave him a copy of John Bunyan’s book entitled “Visions of Heaven and Hell.” Although reluctant to do so, Bray felt drawn to read the book. He talked to his backslidden wife about the Lord and she told him that her memories of serving the Lord were wonderful. Bray went to bed that night knowing that he needed to pray but he could not do so in front of his wife. At three in the morning Bray got up, and under deep conviction, he got down on his knees and cried out to God for forgiveness.

The change in Billy was immediate. He stopped drinking forever and became a devoted family man. Seeing the change in her husband, Billy’s wife recommitted her life to Christ. Billy became active in the local Methodist church and within one year of his conversion he had begun preaching in area churches.

Bray became a great evangelist, mostly to the poor miners of southwest England. He became widely known for his continual joy and excitement about the Lord and he was called the “Praising, Shouting, Dancing Preacher.” Bray was controversial, mostly to the clergy, but people would flock to his meetings, and thousands were converted. One day, when questioned about his abundant joy, he responded, “He has made me glad and no one can make me sad. He makes me shout and no one can make me doubt. He it is that makes me dance and leap, and there is no one that can keep down my feet.” He went on to say, “I sometimes feel so much of the power of God that, I believe, if they were to cut off my feet I should heave up [get up] and walk on the stumps.”

Although Bray’s conduct irritated the pious, God used him for over forty years to win souls and build churches. A typical Bray sermon contained no Scripture. He normally would start singing a song, move into a story or an extended illustration, and follow up with a call for salvation. This uneducated, unorthodox former drunk became a useful vessel in the Lord’s army.

During the latter years of Bray’s life, a young man rising to prominence was a Baptist preacher by the name of Charles Spurgeon. I came across an interesting statement that Spurgeon made regarding Billy Bray: “I remember once hearing him speak with great effect to a large congregation, principally miners. There was excitement in some of his meetings, more than sufficient to shock the prejudices of highly sensitive or refined persons. Some even who had the fullest confidence and warmest affection for Billy could not enjoy some of the outward manifestations they occasionally witnessed to the extent that he himself did. Billy could not tolerate ‘deadness,’ as he expressively called it, either in a professing Christian or in a meeting. He had a sympathy with persons singing, or shouting, or leaping for joy.”

Billy Bray was a “shouting Methodist.” When the doctor told Bray that he was going to die in a few days, his response was to shout, “Glory! Glory be to God! I shall soon be in heaven.”

We could use a few more like Billy Bray today!