Develop a Discipleship System
Vile-tality: Wesleyan Roots for Today’s Church Planters
By Bener Agtarap
Reclaiming Our Church Planting DNA Rooted in John Wesley’s Practical Missiology
At Path 1, we believe the church is most alive when it’s on the move – led by the Spirit, grounded in Wesleyan tradition, and boldly committed to love and justice. That’s the heartbeat behind the Church Planting Resources Hub, a space to equip United Methodist leaders with the wisdom, courage, and tools to start and renew faith communities that reflect the inclusive love of Jesus.
This month, we spotlight Vile-tality, a provocative and hope-filled reflection by Rev. Dr. Ashley Boggan. Ashley reminds us that church planting isn’t about preserving institutions; it’s about reclaiming the grace-filled, boundary-breaking movement that first sent Methodists to the fields, the margins, and those often excluded.
“Vile-tality”—a term she coins to describe holy rule-bending—calls us to embrace discipleship that dares to disrupt injustice and include the excluded. It’s a vision rooted deeply in John Wesley’s practical missiology: field preaching, grassroots community, social engagement, and leadership activation.
This is not nostalgia; it’s renewal. It’s not about maintenance; it’s about mission. The DNA of our Methodist movement has always been bold, Spirit-led, and unapologetically focused on reaching those left out and left behind.
As someone who has planted churches in both the U.S. and the Philippines, I’ve witnessed firsthand how reclaiming our Wesleyan identity and courageously bending the rules for the sake of love can spark resurrection in forgotten places. We are not caretakers of a museum; we are torchbearers of a movement.
I invite you to reflect on these insights and respond with your own acts of faithful innovation. Together, let’s reclaim our calling and plant with purpose.
Key Insights
Wesleyan Identity Is Justice-Oriented
To be Methodist is to ensure that every person—especially those on the margins—experiences the radical love and welcome of God. This identity sometimes requires us to challenge the status quo and lean into holy resistance.
“Vile-tality” = Holy Rule-Bending
Ashley Boggan’s concept of “vile-tality” reflects the courageous spirit of early Methodists: breaking down walls that divide and building a church grounded in grace, not gatekeeping.
Reclaiming Our Movement Roots
John Wesley’s methods—preaching in the fields, forming micro-communities, equipping lay leaders—remain a Spirit-filled model for planting churches today. His mission-first mindset offers us a roadmap for innovation.
Take your learning deeper and strengthen your church planting toolkit:
- The Belong Series: A rich resource to engage your congregation in baptism, Holy Communion, and membership vows. Click here to explore the Belong series.
- Fresh Expressions United Methodist (FXUM): A Spirit-led movement for forming new Christian communities in a Wesleyan way. Click here to learn more.
- Church Is Changing Podcast: Stories of innovation and hope from leaders reimagining church in the twenty-first century. Click here to listen now.
- Church Planting Resources Hub: A collection of breakthrough ideas, practical tools, and inspiring stories. Click here to visit the hub.
- SCD Laity Bootcamp 2025: A two-day event designed to ignite passion for ministry and provide hands-on tools to lead with confidence. Click here to learn more and register.
Now is the time to reclaim our movement.
Empowered by the Holy Spirit, let us love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
May this reflection by Ashley Boggan ignite your own “vile-tality.”
Wesleyan Vile-tality: Reclaiming the Heart of Methodist Identity
By Ashley Boggan
Within the Christian tradition, being Wesleyan and/or Methodist calls us to stand as a beacon of justice in the world. You cannot identify as Wesleyan or Methodist without seeking to ensure that all people, no matter who they are, how they identify, or where they come from, feel worthy of God’s love, have their basic physical and bodily needs met, and have the ability to seek happiness and perfection in Jesus Christ. If we live into this call of our faith, we will be known as people who bend the rules and push the boundaries of society to ensure God’s love is continuously felt.
This is the core aspect of our identity, one that we’ve lost and need to claim. It can be summed up in the ideology of Wesleyan vile-tality – a willingness to look beyond today’s acceptable practices, standards, and norms and bend the rules to ensure that more people can be included within the kin-dom of God. All people, no matter who they are, how they identify, whom they love, or how they live, can know and experience the love of God, understand their self-worth, and grow to love themselves so that they can love others.
My book, Wesleyan Vile-tality: Reclaiming the Heart of Methodist Identity (Abingdon Press), delves into the foundational stories of our Wesleyan/Methodist history and connects them to our current moment within The United Methodist Church. John Wesley set out to revive the Church of England toward a renewed sense of mission and faith acted out as love. How can we, as United Methodists, seek to reform ourselves to, once again, be a beacon of embodied loving justice in a world that is increasingly polarized? In this book, we journey through the life of John Wesley and the early Methodists, discovering their unwavering commitment to spreading the gospel to the marginalized and their relentless pursuit of social justice. The book reveals the contexts for and the consequences of becoming an institutionalized church that lost some of that rule-bending Spirit. The main question this book addresses is, “What is our identity moving forward?”
Wesleyan Vile-tality: Reclaiming the Heart of Methodist Identity is an analysis of our identities as Methodists throughout history. It delves into our past, but it’s an approachable, fun trip backward that propels us forward with stories of resurrection and rebirth of a church identity. As you read, I invite you to open your mind to the radicalism of John Wesley and the early Methodists. As you read and examine how their identities formed, how their faith shaped a movement, and how that movement became an institution, I invite you to think of your faith journey. Why are you Wesleyan, Methodist, and/or United Methodist? What DNA from those early folks lingers inside us? What pieces might we need to leave behind? What pieces might need to be reclaimed?
As you consider where to plant churches or where to shift ministerial energy within your conference, I encourage you to discern how, where, and why Wesley chose the fields over the parishes. John Wesley was a practical missiologist. Throughout his ministry, he established a systematic form of church planting and community formation.
In an upcoming book, Calling on Fire: Reclaiming the Method of Methodism, Rev. Dr. Chris Heckert and I explain what we’ve come to call the “practical quadrilateral.” Calling on Fire: Reclaiming the Method of Methodism presents the four-fold ‘method’ of Methodism as field preaching, micro-communities, social engagement, and leadership activation. This four-fold process is what Wesley implemented after people were drawn into the Wesleyan/Methodist message of God’s love for all. It is a method that can be implemented no matter the size of a congregation, whether rural or urban, young or old, inside or outside a church structure.
Wesleyan Vile-tality: Reclaiming the Heart of Methodist Identity and Calling on Fire: Reclaiming the Method of Methodism will propel The United Methodist Church forward through a sincere reclamation of our roots!
About Ashley Boggan
Dr. Ashley Boggan is the General Secretary of the General Commission on Archives and History. In this role, she ensures that The United Methodist Church understands its past so it can envision a more equitable future for all Methodists. Boggan earned her PhD from Drew Theological School’s Graduate Division of Religion, specializing in Methodist/Wesleyan Studies and Women’s/Gender Studies. She earned an M.A. from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School, specializing in American Religious History. She is the author of Nevertheless: American Methodists and Women’s Rights (2020); Entangled: A History of American Methodism, Politics, and Sexuality (2018); Wesleyan Vile-tality: Reclaiming the Heart of Methodist Identity (2025); Calling on Fire: Reclaiming the Method of Methodism (forthcoming 2025).
For questions or conversation, contact Bener Agtarap at [email protected].
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