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With special thanks to all my Patreon supporters who make Wesley Bros Comics possible! Debbie Baber (Mom!), Charlie Baber (Dad!), Laura Baber, Kathie Wilkinson, Carolyn McGuire, Jane Gray, Amy Curtis, Anne Wallis, Cynthia Astle, Lemuel Dominguez, Alan Swartz, Kraig Lawrence, Daniel Albrant, Jennifer Woodruff Tait, Donna Wolcott, Stacy Salles, Danny Borkowski, Paige Gant, Amy Denson, Dan Levine, Katherine Parker, Don Marsh, Melissa Miller, Linda Young, Kim- berly Alexander, Elizabeth Beam, Dayton Mix, Pastor Mike Evans, Kathryn Haynes Johnson, Rob Phillips, Reverend Daniel Foster, Ryan Lockett, Mort and Kathy Kothmann, Jay Locklear, Barbara Dunlap, Keven Autenrieth, Ron Blaisdell, Don Templeton, Brian Foreword ...... 5 Lee, Andy Keck, Charles Plantz, Beth Galbreath, Molly Shivers, Will Rose, Mitzi Manning, Marie Meeks, Maxine Crenshaw, Martha Predestined for Arminianism Boyer, Dave Fields, Lisa Helt, Carolyn Patterson, Claire Phillips, Brandon Sikes, Jane Almon, Laurin Allred, Jeanne Clark, Sarah Salter, Introduction ...... 7 Sarah Timberlake Watson, Emily Delikat, Christyn Koschmann, Mark Carlson, Tammie Grimm, Sue Kimmet, Darcy Knight, Caro- line Martens, Bob Seaton, Jeremy Wester, Jessica Talbert, Lisa Cameron, Andrew Marshall, Elsie Weber, Phil Rzewnicki. 1. A Brand Plucked ...... 9 Your monthly pledges keep Wesley Bros Comics alive week in and week out! A Brief and Possibly Unflattering Become a supporter at www.patreon.com/wesleybros. Overview of the Wesleys’ Formative Years 2. Bad Romance ...... 26 Less Talk, Mo’Ravian Moth, Not Sloth 3. Predestiny’s Child ...... 46 4. The Fantastic Quadrilateral ...... 66 The Rise and Fallout of the The Cosmic Rays of Modern Critical Wesleys’ and Whitefield’s Wesleyan Studies I Warned You About Friendship 5. Loving God ...... 83 How Ordinary Love Welcomes Extraordinary Grace 6. Loving Neighbor ...... 101

Wesley Bros Comics are hand drawn with a Pentel brush on Bristol board, and digitally colored in Photoshop on a Wacom Cintiq drawing tablet using brushes I Thought This Would Be Easier created by Kyle T. Webster. The primary font is Duper Pro, with titles in Brady Bunch Remastered, Nanum Pen, and The Dreamer fonts. Submitting to Be More Vile: The Illustrated Adventures of John and Charles Wesley Now That I’m Saved Copyright © 2019 by Charlie Baber All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any 7. Directions for information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permis- Are We Yet Alive, or What? sion should be addressed in writing to Permissions, Abingdon Press, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., Nashville, TN 37228-1306, or [email protected]. 978-1-5018-8947-9 Singing ...... 119 Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the 8. Shepherding the Shepherds ...... 137 United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org/ Get Your Praise On, Scripture quotations marked CEB are taken from the Common English Bible, copyright 2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.CommonEnglish- Bible.com Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the How Can You Be Burned Out if You Only Work a but Don’t Get Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press. All art and comics are copyright © Charlie Baber and have been previously published online at www.WesleyBros.com. Few Hours on Sunday? Too Crazy Book layout and design by Charlie Baber. 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28—10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 9. Onward to Perfection ...... 157 Everyday Church Life and the Art of Not Punching One Another 10. At-One-Ment ...... 176 3 Christ Is All in All, Y’all Foreword hen you lecture in a large class since the cartoonists of their day (like William Hogarth) on topics like Methodist history used this form of expression mainly to satirize and dis- and Wesleyan theology, you frequently miss the Methodists. But as they paged through this Wwonder what the students are typing (or watching!) on collection Charles and John would recognize continuing their laptops, or doodling on the paper in front of them. I echoes of their deep love for the church (even as they was never privy to Charlie Baber’s doodles during his time chafed at its foibles and resistance to new winds of the in my class at Duke Divinity School, but I hope there was Spirit), their strong conviction that God’s love is offered an occasional forerunner of his Wesley Bros Comics that to all (particularly those excluded by the typical church), are collected in this volume. I hope this because it would their central affirmation that God’s saving work reaches mean that Charlie caught from the class not only some beyond what is “vulgarly understood” (forgiveness of information about early Methodism but—more impor- sins and going to heaven) to include an anticipation of tantly—he imbibed some of their missional spirit! “heaven below” in renewal of our lives and communities, As they experienced more fully the “heavenly healing and their hard-won appreciation for the centrality of the This light” of God’s love shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy means of grace to Christian life. Book Spirit, nothing mattered more to Charles or John than in- I also have no doubt that John and Charles (and viting others into this “way of salvation.” And nothing those of us who are Wesley scholars) could find places in Belongs to united the brothers more than the conviction that this the collection to raise a caveat (for example, I tend to read invitation should be offered to all. From the earliest days their brother Samuel in a more positive light). This is due of the Methodist revival, the Wesley brothers had a par- largely to the centrality of caricature to cartooning. Com- ics bring clarity to their specific theme by emphasizing ticular concern to share this invitation with those who certain traits, acts, or settings at the expense of others. were not being reached through the ordinary channels of While this may raise concern for some about proper his- weekly worship in the established church. Nudged by the (Your Name Here) torical nuance, it is precisely what may capture the atten- Spirit, their ministry soon focused on “more vile” settings tion of many others who dismiss or simply ignore more and forms than were common for regular Anglican clergy. typical forms of sharing the story and teachings of the They adopted a style of open-air preaching that could gain Wesley brothers. the attention of passing workers, who rarely had time or It did not take long in my academic life to learn that a sense of welcome to enter the parish church. They ap- the audience I had been least prepared to engage was propriated from Christian groups outside of the Church teen groups. They found my clearly outlined lectures bor- of England the regular use of communal hymn-singing, ing and my illustrations passé! How I wish I had then a enriching this practice with a growing body of their own resource like this collection. And how I appreciate the hymns, so that Methodists were soon known as “the gifts and passion for ministry of Charlie Baber, which are singing people.” And they embraced the newest forms of reflected in the collection! I commend it gladly and hope mass media (cheap tracts and—a bit later—magazines) in it will find broad use individually, in ministry, and among hope of sharing God’s “amazing love” in every house and all who are youthful enough at heart to consider what cranny of their contemporary British setting. the Wesley brothers and Yoda might have in common! I am confident that the Wesley brothers would recog- nize their missional spirit, with its openness to new forms - Randy L. Maddox of sharing God’s saving concern, in this collection of com- William Kellon Quick Professor of Wesleyan and ics! To be sure, they would likely be surprised by it as well, Methodist Studies, Duke Divinity School 4 IDK. they seem to have nailed your cheery no one ever Introduction demeanor. gets my hair right. s a kid, all I wanted to be when I grew up was a cartoonist. All of my free time was spent either creating comics that I would print out and give to my friends, or getting lost in the worlds of Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes, Jeff Smith’s Bone, Gary Larson’s The Far Side, and Berke ABreathed’s Outland. As a high school student, my faith in Christ became deeply alive, and I began to feel a strong call to youth ministry. I began to give up my dream of cartooning because it seemed so impossible to break into that world. Once I started full-time youth ministry, I gave up creating art altogether for about six years. Pursuing ordination in my denomination (The United Methodist Church) had been spiritually exhausting, and when I finally made it through, I got cold feet. The church had put me through a test of perfection to prove that I was worthy to be a minister, or at least that I was unlikely to majorly screw up one of their churches. Instead of life-giving, I found the experience to rob me of my joy and my trust that the gospel was true for me. And that’s when I started Wesley Bros Comics online. It began with a thought: what would the founders of Methodism do and say if they were alive today? But that quickly evolved into what has become a main theme in the comics: what would you and I do if we were the founders of a better church today? John and Charles Wesley did extraordinary things that completely changed the religious landscape in En- gland and North America, and eventually the world. We can either put the saints of old on an unattainable pedestal or discover that the same Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is alive in you and me. For me, Wesley Bros has been a return to my first calling, creating comics, without the loss of vocational youth minis- try. It helps me think through and translate my theology, process and plan a better way within the church, and trust over and over again that when the world (and often the church) expects me to be perfect, Christ has already made me worthy and creates in me a more perfect love for God and others. And the comics seem to be helping a growing audience do the same. John Wesley Charles Wesley This book is a compilation of what I hope are the best Wesley Bros Comics, organized by their themes, not by the date June 28, 1703 - March 2, 1791, December 18, 1707 - March 29, 1788, they were created. Part One focuses on the history of John and Charles Wesley from childhood through the initial spread aged 87. aged 80. of the Methodist movement. Part Two homes in on the theological task and spiritual disciplines at the root of Wesleyan Christianity. Part Three wraps it all up with a look at life in the church today, and a hopeful vision for how the saints of old can inspire us to a brighter future in God’s kingdom here and now. Can you imagine how boring all that would be if it weren’t comics? Each chapter ends with Questions for Your Local Holy Club. They point you back to a particular comic, and elaborate How to Use This Book on the history or theology behind it, asking questions that should challenge you to a deeper faith. They’re designed to be discussed in a small group or seminary class. You can either invite folks to read the whole chapter ahead of time, or just Level Up focus on one comic to read together and then dig into the content. Items Option 1 Option 2 The church is a hot mess these days, y’all. But that’s nothing new. It’s times like these the saints lean more deeply Animate into the unfailing love of Christ and discover a new awakening. If what comes next is anything like what John and Charles started, it’s not going to happen inside the institution or in playing by the rules. For John Wesley, field preaching to the masses was a “vile” departure from the decorum of high church life, but God was calling him to prove the gospel to those Each comic plus hundreds who would never darken a church door. “Submitting to Be More Vile” has always been the tagline of Wesley Bros Comics, more can be found with Use Wesley Bros Liturgical additional written material at Calendars and Playing and I hope that, along with John Wesley, you’ll find the courage to follow God’s self-emptying lead into a better church It’s a comic book WesleyBros.com. Share the Wesleys Take Read it with others, and Cards to survive so just have fun. comics come out each Plus week! new the Web animated that looks less like a religious museum and more like the kingdom of God. use the Questions for shorts from UMC.org Church History or Confirmation classes. Seriously. Why are you Your Local Holy Club to on your social media to overthinking it? - Charlie Baber, April 2019 go deeper. introduce topics. 6 7 George Whitefield Oxford Methodists Cross-eyes, cockney, The first rise of Methodism, crass super-Chrish. AKA "The Holy Club."

Samuel Wesley Somewhat Predestined for Arminianism Susanna Wesley self-absorbed dad. Jeremy Taylor Mother of the movement. Spiritual guide.

Who would’ve thought that two proper, boring British brothers would be so transformed by the gospel that they would start a movement that would rock the world? Sam Wesley, Jr. But this is no superhero Irrelevant older brother. Charles Wesley comic book. In your hands are daily comics meant to remind The movement's you that even the heroes of the soundtrack. faith are still everyday people like you and me. Old Jeffrey Political polter- geist. John Wesley In Part One, you’ll follow the The founder of the movement. humble beginnings of the Wesley Bros from childhood through the first rises of Methodism. Like all of us, John and Charles Wesley were profoundly influenced by their family, by their close friends, and by the ideas of great men and women who had gone before them. All of us are surrounded by a ked communion of sinners-turned-saints, past and present. Just as luc John and Charles became friends and conversation partners with nd P the heroes before them, I hope you find friends among the weird ra characters in Wesley Bros Comics. Whether they’re inspiring us B or making us scratch our heads at how they could be so clueless, A of ew the saints of old don't have to be separated from us by stained ervi glass and powdered wigs. God has always been choosing all kinds g Ov tterin of people to partner in the hard work of grace and love. How else nfla ly U would they have let people like you and me in here? ssib Po s and ar rief Ye 8 A B 9 the e Wesleys’ Formativ 10 11 12 13 John Wesley and the Order of the Oxford Methodists Oxford the of Order the and Wesley John

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