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A UMNS Report
By Heather Hahn
1:00 P.M. EST July 29, 2010
The Rev. John Wesley preaches to Cornish miners at Trewint in southwest
England. Illustrations courtesy of the General Commission on Archives
and History.
View in Photo Gallery
The United Methodist Church can experience revival by returning to
the spiritual practices of Methodism’s early years, say two scholars
leading an effort to develop passionate lay leaders.
In joining the mainline establishment, the church jettisoned many
of the activities that made John Wesley’s movement so vibrant, said
Scott Kisker, associate professor of church history at Wesley
Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.
“Methodism was a method of helping people, a discipline that enabled
people to have their lives transformed by the gospel and become holy,”
Kisker said. “Mainline means we are an establishment religion that
basically doesn’t see much difference between creating good citizens
and creating Christians.”
In the 18th century, Methodist preachers took to the road to share
the gospel and Methodist laypeople gathered each week for class
meetings to discuss the state of their souls. Often the class leaders —
rather than ordained clergy — performed pastoral duties for their
communities.
It was all a bit countercultural. The early Methodists were the Jesus freaks of their day.
Kisker and the Rev. Steve Manskar, director of Wesleyan leadership
for the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, would like to see the
church recapture some of that 18th century spirit.
To help with this revival, Manskar and Kisker will lead the Wesleyan
Leadership Conference on Oct. 14-16 at West End United Methodist
Church in Nashville, Tenn. The theme of the conference derives from
Kisker’s book “Mainline or Methodist? Rediscovering our Evangelistic
Mission.” Manskar is working to get United Methodist congregations
across the country to establish Covenant Discipleship Groups, based on
the model of lay-led class meetings.
“Lay leadership is essential,” Manskar said. “That’s where the
revival is going to come from. We need to have laity taking the lead in
the visiting, the caring and the mission of the church.”
Small group vitality
The conference comes on the heels of a recently released
Congregational Vitality study that identified small groups as one of
the main “drivers” of church growth, attendance and giving.
Such a finding would not have surprised John Wesley. Kisker said small groups were a key part of Methodism from the beginning.
Wesley started out with band meetings, intimate groups divided by
sex and marital status where people met weekly to confess their sins.
At band meetings, participants each had to answer five questions:
- What sins have you committed?
- What temptations have you met with?
- How have you been delivered?
- Do you have any questions?
- Do you have any secrets?
“It was a way to experience God’s grace,” Kisker said, “and have more compassion on your neighbor.”
Wesley next added class meetings where people could discuss how well
they were following Jesus’ teachings. At a time when professional
clergy were scarce, class meetings led by lay men and women became one
of the core units of Methodism.
In the foreground, a person is “slain by the spirit” in this illustration depicting a camp meeting in 1819.
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Membership in the Methodist church required membership in a class
meeting, Kisker said. A person who missed three class meetings risked
being dropped from the church rolls.
However, as the church grew in size and its members grew in
prosperity, Methodists started to want to be more like their
Presbyterian and Episcopal neighbors, Manskar said. They stopped
wanting to attend class meetings each week, and they wanted pastors who
no longer traveled but served one congregation.
By the middle of the 19th century, many of the circuit riders had
dismounted, and such practices as field preaching and class meetings had
fallen by the wayside.
In the process, many laity lost their passion for discipleship. The
church still attracted new members. But as a percentage of the U.S.
population, it stopped growing sometime after the Civil War, Kisker
said.
“I think we became more about building an empire and less about
creating disciples for Jesus Christ and redeeming people,” Kisker said.
“We became more about building a church instead of building the church.”
Applicable today
The practice of class meetings still works amid people’s busy 21st century schedules, Kisker and Manskar said.
Kisker is part of a class meeting with fellow members of Hyattsville
(Md.) United Methodist Church. The group usually gathers in a member’s
house on Friday evenings.
“We’ve seen some amazing things happen — people making dramatic life
changes,” Kisker said. “One woman who was a lawyer decided she was
going to become a nurse. … I just think making yourself aware of what
God is doing in your life and having someone who asks you about it
every week is pretty profound.”’
Manskar hopes Covenant Discipleship Groups will lead others around the country to have similar profound experiences.
In these groups, members hold each other accountable for following
Wesley’s three simple rules: Do good, do no harm and stay in love with
God. The goal, Manskar said, is “to witness to Jesus Christ in the
world and to follow his teachings through acts of compassion, justice,
worship and devotion under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”
Fairmount Avenue United Methodist Church in St. Paul, Minn., which
has a weekly attendance of about 200, has seven such groups of four to
seven members.
They meet for about an hour each week. Members go around in a circle
sharing what they have done in the past week as acts of compassion,
justice, worship and devotion. Then they discuss their spiritual
promptings and share prayer requests.
Dan Thielen, a member of one of the groups, said the gatherings help him think about what is important in his life.
“We support each other through the bad times and pat each other on the back in the good times,” he said.
The Rev. Michelle Hargrave, the church’s senior pastor, said she and
others have seen their faith deepen because of their Covenant
Discipleship Groups. She is a member of a group with six other women.
“It’s such a foundational piece of Wesley’s own thinking, and it
lives out in our lives so concretely,” Hargrave said. “That’s a pretty
exciting tool for the church.”
The Wesleyan Leadership Conference costs $95. Further information is available at www.gbod.org/wesleyanleadership.
*Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service.
News media contact: Heather Hahn, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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