While visiting the Museum of Methodism in London this summer, I stopped to photograph this faded document hanging behind glass. At first glance, it looks like little more than an old chart filled with names, dates, and preaching places. But the description beside it explained what I was actually looking at: “A Plan for the Preachers in London” for January through March 1791.

That date makes this document remarkable. John Wesley died on March 2, 1791, at the age of eighty-seven. This was the preaching plan in use during the final weeks of his life, and Wesley’s own appointments appear alongside those of the other Methodist preachers serving London. Some of the last sermons he ever preached were scheduled on this very plan.

I have spent a lot of time reading about Wesley and early Methodism, but there is something different about standing in front of an original artifact like this. Here was not simply a description of Wesley’s ministry written years later. This was the actual working plan of the Methodist preachers during the closing weeks of his life.

It also tells us something important about the Methodist revival. We often remember the dramatic parts of the story: field preaching, conversions, opposition, societies springing up across Britain, and thousands gathering to hear the gospel. But behind that spiritual movement was remarkable organization. Preachers had assignments. Places had preaching times. Circuits were organized. Societies were supervised. Wesley understood that spiritual fervor and careful organization did not have to compete with one another.

What strikes me most, however, is seeing Wesley’s name on a preaching schedule at eighty-seven years old. He had been preaching the gospel for more than half a century. He had traveled thousands upon thousands of miles. He had endured opposition, illness, disappointment, and exhausting schedules. Yet as 1791 began, Wesley was still planning to preach. And he did.

On February 17, he preached at Lambeth. The next evening, despite feeling ill, he preached at Chelsea. On February 22, he preached for the final time at City Road Chapel. Then, on February 23, he traveled to Leatherhead and preached from Isaiah 55:6: “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” It would be his final sermon.

A week later, John Wesley was gone.

There is something deeply moving to me about this old preaching plan. Wesley did not know when it was prepared that he would never finish it. There were appointments on the calendar that another preacher would have to fill. But until his strength failed him, he continued doing what God had called him to do.

Wesley once prayed, “Lord, let me not live to be useless!” His final preaching plan shows just how seriously he meant it. Standing there in London and looking at this document more than two centuries later, I was reminded that finishing well does not necessarily mean doing something spectacular at the end. Sometimes it simply means remaining faithful to the calling God gave us at the beginning. John Wesley kept preaching until he could preach no more. That is Wesleyan theology in practice: a lifetime of faithfulness, all the way to the finish.