The Kitchen Table Dynasty

In 1709, a fire destroyed the Epworth rectory in Lincolnshire, England, and Susanna Wesley nearly lost her three-year-old son John to the flames. She had no grand ambitions for empire-building. She was a pastor's wife with nineteen children, ten of whom survived infancy, and a husband perpetually in debt. Her plan was modest: teach her children Scripture at the kitchen table, one hour per child per week, and trust God with the rest.

She never preached a single sermon. She never planted a church. She never wrote a theological treatise that bore her name. Yet from that scarred rectory and that worn kitchen table, God raised up John and Charles Wesley — two sons whose preaching and hymns would ignite a revival across England, birth the Methodist movement, and shape the worship of millions for centuries to come. Charles alone wrote over six thousand hymns. John preached over forty thousand sermons.

Susanna wanted to build a faithful household. God built a dynasty of faith that endures to this day.

This is the promise of 2 Samuel 7. David came to God with blueprints for a cedar temple, but the Almighty had something far greater in mind. "I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever," God declared. The Lord does not need our grand plans. He takes our kitchen-table faithfulness and builds from it an eternal house — one whose foundations rest not on our ambitions, but on His unshakable covenant.