Finding Wonder, Love, and Praise: Weaving the Threads of Wesleyan and Methodist Theology and History Into a Twenty-First Century Worship Tapestry

The United Methodist Church has seen a decline in membership for many decades. Accompanying this numeric decline has been a decline in the vitality of worship in many churches. This denomination traces its roots to a renewal movement in the Church of England, led by John and Charles Wesley, which spread across the Atlantic and took hold in the American colonies, where it soon became a separate church. This new church was characterized by lively and Spirit-filled worship and exponential growth. This thesis explores and analyzes the theology of the Wesley brothers and the Wesleyan movement, the history of that movement as it developed into a new denomination in colonial America and the United States, the worship practices that emerged with that history, and the music that inspired that worship. That analysis is applied to a modern worship context with new musical expressions of Wesleyan ideas and practical application of the core of Wesleyan theology and practice