Methodism : Her Unfinished Task by WE Sangster Epworth Press, 1950 128 pages
out of print but may be available secondhand
Is it worth reviewing a book published 70 years ago ? The question has to be asked and deserves to be answered.
At the time (1950) Dr Sangster was minister at Central Hall, Westminster. He had only another 10 years to live. Those years were full of activity, not least as President of Conference. Why then, just a short time after the end of World War 2, did he feel the need to address Methodists with a concern so deeply felt ?
The dedication of the book – ‘To the People called Methodists with much affection and warm gratitude but with deepening concern’ – offers a measure of the answer.
The chapter headings give more flesh to the concern, viz.
- There is an unfinished task;
- In spreading Scriptural Holiness;
- In evangelising the world-parish;
- In changing the social order;
- In being a bridge-church;
- In redeeming rural areas;
- In teaching the use of money
- In enlisting the service of laymen.
It would be futile to pretend that the book is not of its time, just a handful of years after the end of WWII.
Allowing for its historical setting, we have to ask ‘does it carry any message relevant to our Methodist situation in 2021 ?’ Even a cursory perusal shows that it has; it does not even require that much imaginative effort or even deep thought. Three examples will suffice to illustrate its topical relevance.
Firstly, the traditional Methodist emphasis on Scriptural Holiness is as much to be taught and pursued today as ever it was.
Secondly, evangelism can be traced back further than can Scriptural Holiness – superficially at least – so the words of Jesus to his disciples recorded at the end of Matthew’s book provide the impetus for spreading the gospel – “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.”
Thirdly, enlisting the service of laymen (today Dr Sangster would have said ‘lay people’).
Compared with other Christian denominations, the Methodist church has perforce used its laity more extensively and, it might well be claimed, to greater effect. Here Dr Sangster reports that there were 25,817 fully accredited Local Preachers in British Methodism alone and 3,175 on trial. Those were the days when “five out of every seven Methodist services were conducted by laymen”. What is it today ?
In these cases as in many others explored and expounded by a great Methodist preacher, there is encouragement as well as challenge for today’s Methodist church.
Being dead, he yet speaketh.