A Life of Faith, Mission and Faithfulness
P. John Wesley was born on 7 July 1954 in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, the fifth of eight children in a large and godly family. His father, P. S. John, was a businessman and a man deeply committed to prayer. From his earliest years Wesley was surrounded by the rhythms of Christian faith. Prayer, Scripture, church and service were not simply religious practices in his home — they were the framework of life. His father modelled for him a faith that trusted God deeply, and those early impressions shaped the man he would become.
His childhood itself held a remarkable testimony of God's preserving grace. When Wesley was only one year and eight months old, he accidentally swallowed a sewing needle. A wet X-ray in March 1956 showed that the needle had already travelled into his abdomen, and the doctors could offer little beyond observation. His father took him home, gathered the family and prayed, entrusting the child completely to God. The following day, the needle passed harmlessly. Every year thereafter, on 17 March, his father would invite neighbours and friends to the family home for a thanksgiving gathering and retell the story. Wesley grew up surrounded not only by faith, but by testimony.
Yet as a young man he knew that being surrounded by Christianity was not the same as personally knowing Christ. He sang in the choir, taught Sunday school and tried to live a good life, but he lacked assurance of salvation. One day a guest from Ambassadors for Christ asked him a simple but searching question:
“Wesley, are you saved?”
He realised he did not know how to answer. Through the account of Nicodemus in John 3 he was pointed to the necessity of receiving Christ. Wesley responded in faith, and with that came a peace and assurance he had not known before.
The Call to Mission
After completing his PUC studies, Wesley attended a Friends Missionary Prayer Band state conference, and there sensed God's call to give his life to full-time Christian ministry. At the time he was involved in his father's tyre business. Responding meant leaving something familiar and secure, and he chose obedience — closing that chapter and enrolling in Bible college in Chennai.
The decision was not without struggle. Seeing the pressure on his family, he returned for a period to help with the business. His mother hoped he would strengthen the family enterprise. His father, however, reminded him of the words of Jesus about putting one's hand to the plough and not looking back. Wesley wrestled deeply with the tension between responsibility, security and obedience.
Then came 1976. While travelling on a highway he was involved in a serious bus accident and suffered a compound fracture. He spent two months in hospital, and at one point prayed what he believed might be his last prayer. After his discharge he continued to limp, with little access to the physiotherapy that would be available today.
Yet even in that season of weakness God was directing his steps. Wesley went to an Operation Mobilisation recruiting conference in Bangalore, where a preacher spoke from Isaiah 55:8–9 about the higher ways and thoughts of God. Wesley sensed God speaking directly to him:
“Wesley, I called you to serve Me, but you have been running from that call. I have brought you back. Now, what will you do with My call?”
That moment brought clarity. He understood that partial obedience was still disobedience, and he surrendered fully to God's call. His time with Operation Mobilisation was relatively brief, but it shaped him profoundly, teaching him lessons of trust, discipline and obedience that remained with him throughout his ministry. Encouraged by a friend, he continued his theological studies at Allahabad Bible Seminary and completed his B.Th. with support from OMS. In 1980 he entered full-time ministry.
Ministry Among the Young
Wesley joined the Evangelical Church of India in Chennai as Director of Youth and Children's Ministries. His gifts in music and communication became valuable tools for reaching and discipling young people, and he helped build youth fellowships and trained Sunday school teachers across the city.
He had a particular gift with the young. He took them seriously, asked them meaningful questions and listened to their answers. He wanted them not simply to attend church, but to encounter Christ and understand their own calling to serve Him.
Mercy, His Partner in Life and Ministry
In 1982 Wesley married Mercy, the daughter of evangelist Samuel Ganesh. They were married on 27 May 1982, beginning a partnership that would span forty-four years and become one of the defining blessings of Wesley's life.
Mercy was not simply the wife of a minister. She was his partner in ministry and calling. Together they served in different missions, counselled families, encouraged young people and opened their lives to countless people. Their home became a place where people were welcomed, listened to and prayed for.
From 1983 to 1986 Wesley and Mercy served with Grace to India, the outreach ministry of Grace Community Church, California, where Wesley served as National Director. During those years he learned media and communications from the ground up — recording and producing biblical teaching, establishing the work in India, and helping distribute Christian teaching materials into multiple nations.
Three Decades with the Indian Evangelical Mission
In 1986 Wesley and Mercy joined the Indian Evangelical Mission. Their decision followed a visit to the Koya people in Khammam, where they witnessed transformed lives and heard moving testimonies of faith. Their hearts were deeply moved, and after prayer they joined IEM in July 1986.
For the next thirty-one years IEM became one of the central chapters of his life and ministry. IEM was an indigenous church-planting mission that had begun in 1965 from a conviction that the Indian Church should take responsibility for India's mission, raising workers and sending them across the country's many languages, cultures and communities. Wesley embraced that vision wholeheartedly and gave three decades to strengthening it.
At IEM he first served as Youth Secretary and Secretary for Cassette Ministries, recording conventions across India, including the messages of Rev. Dr. Theodore Williams. He helped launch the Happy Evening city programmes, through which many young people found direction and opportunities to serve, and he travelled across the country filming stories from the field and documenting the work being carried out among different communities.
Through the 1990s he served in church ministry in Karnataka, becoming State Secretary for the state in 2000. In 2003 he became Communication Secretary, leading the Outreach ministry, which was producing and distributing approximately 60,000 copies in ten languages. He also produced music albums designed to encourage Christian service and involvement in ministry.
In 2004 Wesley paused his ministry responsibilities to pursue a Doctor of Ministry at the South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies in Bangalore. Then, in March 2007, came an unexpected new responsibility: the IEM board asked him to serve as General Secretary. On 7 July 2007, his fifty-third birthday, he was installed as the fifth General Secretary of IEM, and he held the office until the end of 2015 — leading the mission for eight and a half years.
He was relieved in 2016, at sixty-two, and continued as a Minister at Large until July 2017 — thirty-one years with the mission.
He never regarded leadership as a pursuit of position. Responsibility came to him as stewardship before God.
A Preacher, Teacher and Shepherd
Wesley was ordained by Bishop Sampath Kumar of the Methodist Church in India. He preached and taught in both Tamil and English, combining a strong academic understanding of Scripture with personal faith and a distinctly pastoral heart. His scholarship served his faith, and his teaching was never separated from his love for people. He could engage deeply with Scripture while speaking in a way that was warm, practical and pastoral.
He and Mercy also gave much of their lives to strengthening families. In 1995, through an IEM Family Enrichment Seminar, they discovered afresh how Scripture could speak practically and powerfully into marriage and family life. They began counselling couples and conducting family enrichment seminars, a ministry they continued for many years.
A Ministry Beyond Titles
After handing over the leadership of IEM, Wesley entered another significant chapter of ministry. He served as Executive Director of the Lead Like Jesus Society, helping carry the message of servant leadership across India. Lead Like Jesus conducted two-day training programmes designed to help people live, love and lead as Jesus led, and Wesley and Mercy served as facilitators, ministering across multiple languages including English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi.
But the end of his formal leadership role did not mean the end of his ministry. He continued to serve as a preacher, teacher, mentor, counsellor, conference speaker and ministry leader. He trained missionaries and Christian leaders, conducted family life seminars, taught in training institutes, and spoke at churches, mission gatherings and leadership programmes.
He also continued to serve on a wide range of mission boards, Christian organisations, funding agencies and institutions, bringing decades of experience in church planting, mission leadership, communications, leadership development and partnership. He was the first Chairman of Urban India Ministries, and was instrumental in transitioning this movement from a group of friends who were burdened for broken families into a structured organisation with a vision to enrich and restore marriage and families of India and beyond. He served as an executive committee member of the India Missions Association. He served on the board of Christian Fellowship Hospital, a 300-bed mission hospital in Tamil Nadu. He chaired the New India Evangelistic Association and served as a Trustee of the Faith2Share International Mission Network and on the boards of other Christian mission organisations, including Interdev-India.
His later years were marked by an increasingly broad ministry of encouragement and connection. He worked with mission organisations, funding agencies, churches, seminaries and training institutes, and was often called upon not simply for his knowledge, but for his wisdom, experience and ability to bring people together around the larger purposes of God's mission.
At an NIEA board meeting he received a wonderful surprise, when Dr. Subhro Sircar, Principal of Serampore College, announced that he would be conferred with an honorary doctorate. The honour was bestowed at the New India Bible Seminary's Golden Jubilee Graduation Service on 14 February 2025. It was a deeply meaningful recognition, especially considering that years earlier he had made the selfless decision to discontinue his DMin studies in order to dedicate himself fully to his role as General Secretary at IEM. His family were incredibly proud and grateful to witness that honour awarded to him.
For Wesley, partnership was never merely an organisational principle. It was a reflection of the body of Christ. He believed that mission was strengthened when churches, organisations and leaders learned to trust one another, share resources and serve together. He led Partnership and Networking seminars, teaching what four decades had taught him — that mission attempted alone is mission attempted badly.
Those who knew him will tell you that the offices were never the point. He was a man who sought to serve, who encouraged others without needing to be noticed doing it, and who stayed faithful to what God had entrusted to him. His ministry rested on a conviction he lived rather than argued: that meaningful Christian service asks for more than words or good intentions. It asks for prayer, sacrifice, service and a lifetime of faithfulness.
A Love for Families
Alongside all his public ministry, Wesley remained deeply committed to families. He and Mercy continued to speak at family life seminars and counsel couples, encouraging husbands and wives to build their marriages on Scripture and to discover the joy of following Christ together.
For Wesley, ministry was never confined to pulpits, conferences or boardrooms. It was also found around a table, in a counselling room, over a cup of tea, in a phone call to someone who needed encouragement, and in the quiet act of praying with another person.
A Husband, Father and Grandfather
For all the ministries and responsibilities Wesley carried, perhaps his most cherished calling was the one he lived at home. He and Mercy were blessed with three sons — Charles (Pramod), Samuel (Santosh), and Jonathan (Dillu) — and six grandchildren. Like their father, the children have been musically gifted, and they, along with their families, are serving the Lord Jesus Christ in their own callings.
Wesley loved being a husband, a father, and especially a grandfather. The offices he held may have taken him across India and into rooms filled with Christian leaders, but his family remained at the heart of his life. He loved people, enjoyed laughter and conversation, and found great joy in the ordinary blessings of family.
He was a simple man who lived life to the fullest — a man of contentment.
Faith Through Suffering
In September 2025 Wesley was diagnosed with Stage 4 stomach cancer. The diagnosis brought suffering, limitations and difficult treatment. His strength diminished, his body became weaker, and many things that had once been easy were no longer possible.
But the cancer did not change the direction of his life. He remained faithful to his calling. When he could preach from a pulpit, he preached from the pulpit. When he could minister from a hospital bed, he ministered from the hospital bed. When his strength was limited, his faith was not.
Even when he had very little energy to speak, two things he would say again and again were:
“Rejoice in the Lord.”
“In everything, give thanks.”
These were not simply words he offered to others. They were the words by which he continued to live. His joy was not dependent on his circumstances, and his gratitude was not dependent on his health. After a lifetime of learning to trust the faithfulness of God, he continued to demonstrate that faith even through the hardest season of his life.
His Final Message
Even in the midst of illness, Wesley continued to encourage ministry leaders. His final message was not about his achievements, his suffering or his own legacy. It was about the Gospel.
We are loved.
We are chosen.
We are forgiven.
After more than five decades of following Christ, he continued to point people back to the grace of God. Even as his own body weakened, his message remained centred on the One he had served all his life.
A Joyful Homegoing
On 23 August 2026, Rev. Dr. P. John Wesley peacefully finished his earthly journey. He was excited to meet Jesus, his Saviour and friend.
The hope of resurrection was real to him. The Jesus he had preached, taught, served and loved throughout his life was no longer simply the subject of his ministry. He was going home to meet Him.
At his funeral, one person captured something deeply significant about his life:
“Annan not only taught me how to live, but also how to die.”
He taught people to live with faith, joy, gratitude and a deep confidence in Christ. And in his final days, he showed them that the hope of the Gospel remains even when earthly strength is gone.
P. John Wesley's life was a life given to Christ, to the Gospel, to the Church, to mission and to the people God placed in his path. And now, having finished his earthly journey, he rests in the presence of the Saviour he loved.