Try to start a program in your church and I bet some of these ideas will be in the conversation:
- Tell people it will be fun.
- Let them know it won’t be too demanding — we’re busy people.
- Make sure they see it is going to make their lives happier.
- Emphasize that they will meet friends, and deepen relationships.
In short, high on our list of goals is pleasing people. In a consumer culture we offer things people will want to consume.
It would, of course, be silly to make our goal to DISplease people.
But what if, instead, we started by aiming at a target worth reaching, chose a path that would reach the target, and just didn’t consider self-interest, enlightened or otherwise?
That is what John Wesley’s small group ministry looks like to me. (I’ve been posting on John Wesley’s distinctive approach to Christian community for a while. Click here to see all the posts. I also did a series on the very different model of Christian community in medieval monasticism. Click here for those.) He did not try to lure people in with promises of high rewards for low commitment. He started out by asking some hard questions.
He asked each prospective member whether they had experiential knowledge of (1) forgiveness, (2) peace with God, (3) adoption as God’s child, (4) a heart steeped in God’s love, and (5) a genuine freedom from sin.
These groups were not seeker sensitive. They were simply not about evangelism at all. You had to be a Christian to start.
But then, once he knew you were a Christian, the questioning went on. He wanted them to know what would happen in their small group meetings — no point in joining a group if you don’t like what the group does.
6. Do you desire to be told of your faults?
Well, that’s bracing. Frankly no. What else do you do together Mr. Wesley?
7. Do you desire to be told all your faults, and that plain and home?
Hmm… Actually I’m looking for a group that will show me a little support and affirmation.
8. Do you desire that every one of us should tell you, from time to time, whatsoever is in his heart concerning you?
I guess it depends on what’s in your heart, eh? Kind of pushing the boundaries of trust here. No seriously, what kinds of stuff do you dredge up?
9. Consider! Do you desire we should tell you whatsoever we fear, whosoever we hear, concerning you?
No, no, no. Please, no. What happened to “unconditional love”? But I hear your groups are great. Just how personal do you really get with this?
10. Do you desire that, in doing this, we should come as close as possible; that we should cut to the quick, and search your heart to the bottom?
Those five questions were asked of every prospective member. You really had to want a process that brought about holiness of heart and life.
There was just one more question, and it provides the counter-balance to the process. Every member had to commit to the same process of openness and accountability toward the rest of the group.
They were watching over one another in love. This was mutual oversight, not authoritarian scrutiny by those higher on the ladder. That is what gave these groups their potential as a model of community.
Wesley could never have sold this program the 21st century way. But it did sell. People joined by the thousands. Tens of thousands, really. Okay, hundreds of thousands.
He set the bar high. People knew what they were getting into. They were choosing accountable discipleship. Together they became thorough-going followers of Jesus. And that turned them into a movement that took the Gospel to the world.
What might a process for accountable discipleship look like in our era?
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Scary entrance requirements!
Question: could you be a Methodist and not go to a small group? Was it mandatory??
Juan, thank you for being willing to start the conversation.
Scary indeed — unless you really saw this kind of accountability as the way to grow in Christ. I wonder, in our very affirming age, whether some people might find this commitment to mutual oversight freeing, with its call to encourage one another to grow, even when it meant saying hard things. At least you would never wonder where you stood!
If I read Wesley correctly there were multiple levels of involvement in these early decades. He preached to tens of thousands, not all of whom would call themselves “Methodist.” It looks to me like the name only was attached to people who joined in the small group programs called classes and bands where people exercised this loving mutual oversight. There were further levels of still higher commitment, as leaders of classes and bands, as preachers, and in special small groups focusing on the pursuit of “perfection.”
Reblogged this on A Pastor's Thoughts and commented:
This take on Wesley gives us something to think about. Give it a read.
Thanks Irvin! I’m honored to be reflagged by you. Hope my readers will click through and see some of the other great stuff you post.
One slightly more structured successor to the class meeting is the Covenant Discipleship group (much info here from the UMC: http://www.gbod.org/live-the-um-way/the-basics/resource/covenant-discipleship-groups-an-introduction). Others are trying to keep and reclaim the “class meeting” name (ie – http://vitalpiety.com/2013/10/30/almost-here-new-book-on-the-methodist-class-meeting)
Thank you, Brad. I’m thinking this is the program building on the work of David Lowes Watson, right?
If you ever want to share about your experiences in these groups it would be fun to hear.
And especially I’m interested about how they connect with and differ from what Wesley himself laid out in documents I’m quoting from, like “Rules of the Band Societies.”
I’ve done some reading (mostly David Lowes Watson, and yes, the Covenant Discipleship concept seems to be built on his work) and think that the underlying purpose is similar to Wesley’s original ideas, but not sure I can really speak to the comparison in any detail. I can tell you that Covenant Discipleship groups have been a powerful thing at my church over the past five years or so. On reflection, I think these things are most important: 1) the framework (acts of compassion, justice, devotion, worship) helps people think about and balance the way they live their faith, 2) the covenant clauses help to make the actions more concrete, 3) the accountability helps one keep the commitments in mind throughout the week, 4) it really seems to help people grow their discipleship and encourage them to try out things (sometimes big, sometimes small) that they otherwise wouldn’t have done.
Thanks Brad. Sounds like great stuff.
The way that similarly shaped programs evolve in their agendas (as well as ways similar goals have to be sought in different kinds of programs) is really interesting to me. I hope you’ll come join in again — more on Wesley to come!