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Class meetings, a part of Methodist history, have relevance today

 


Class meetings, a part of Methodist history, have relevance today

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A UMNS photo by John Goodwin

Class meetings were a part of 18th-century life at New York's John Street Church.

Nov. 1, 2004       

By Linda Bloom*

NEW YORK (UMNS) – Anyone living in New York in the late 1700s with an interest in joining John Street Methodist Episcopal Church was required to attend a weekly class meeting.

After six months of learning about Christian doctrine from class leaders, hearing the testimonies of regular members and making their own professions of faith, those who had been “admitted on trial” might be recommended for full membership or continued as probationary members.

Even at its earliest stages, “it was apparent that the spiritual vitality and sect-like quality of New York City Methodism and, for that matter, the entire denomination, were bound up closely with the Wesleyan class meeting, which was referred to by some 19th century Methodist writers as ‘the soul of Methodism,’” writes the Rev. Philip F. Hardt, a member of the United Methodist New York Annual (regional) Conference.
 
To Hardt, this is not just an interesting aspect of church history. He believes that the reintroduction of the class meeting as an integral part of United Methodism could enhance unity among the denomination’s members, develop leadership and attract new members.

His book, The Soul of Methodism: The Class Meeting in Early New York City Methodism, released in 2000 by University Press of America, helps make that case. A paperback version is to be published this fall. 

Hardt, who teaches theology courses at Union Theological Seminary and Fordham College in New York and the New Brunswick (N.J.) Theological Seminary, points out that many nondenominational mega-churches “are using small groups to strengthen their church programs.”

While some United Methodist churches have latched on to that idea, he thinks the denomination can be more intentional about reviving a process that, “far from being a relic of the past, can enhance existing church efforts at initiation and assimilation into the body of Christ.”

The idea for the book began as Hardt was working on his dissertation for a doctorate in theology, which he received from Fordham University in 1998. What started as a history of John Street Methodist Church in lower Manhattan expanded into research on class meetings as he found minutes of those meetings, individual diaries of class meetings and “lots of class lists” in the rare books room of the main research branch of the New York Public Library.

Class meetings originated with John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, in England. The practice continued when Francis Asbury and other circuit-riding preachers brought Methodism to New York from 1766 to 1780. “The class system stabilized New York Methodism by developing local church leadership and by monitoring behavior,” the Soul of Methodism reports.

“Methodists didn’t expect instantaneous conversion,” Hardt tells United Methodist News Service. People who came to class meetings included “seekers” as well as believers, he adds. Hearing the testimony of other class participants could help the seekers find clarity for their own faith journeys.

Attendance at the weekly meetings, which usually lasted about an hour and a half, was mandatory. “If you missed three meetings, you could actually find yourself expelled,” Hardt says.

The main difference between Methodist class meetings in New York and England was that the New York classes were segregated both by gender and by race. According to the class lists he reviewed from 1800 to 1832, white men led the separate classes for women and African Americans. Classes did become more mixed by gender by the 1830s.

As the 19th century wore on, preachers had greater oversight of individual churches, and the focus shifted from class meetings to new voluntary societies: Bible, tract, Sunday school and mission. “New priorities on respectability and education also moved Methodism further and further away from the weekly small sharing groups,” Hardt writes.

In addition, the class meetings had ballooned to 30 to 70 members, “which completely distorted the Wesleyan ideal of small group accountability and forced class leaders to rush through their meetings or allow the meetings to run late.”

In short, as New York Methodism acquired more mainstream Protestant characteristics in the mid-1800s, many members simply stopped attending class meetings.

Today, Hardt believes the revival of class meetings – on the local, district or conference levels – could benefit current members hungering for more spirituality and prospective members wanting a better grounding in the Christian faith.

The more intimate setting of the class meeting also provides an opportunity for closer relationships to form and allows members to “agree to disagree.” By praying together and talking about personal experiences, “you tend to bond with those people,” he says. “I think it would draw people together.”

The structure for a class meeting revival actually was approved by the1988 United Methodist General Conference. That legislative body stated that a pastor, in consultation with the local church nominating committee, could recommend a number of class leaders to be elected from that local church. The leaders would then invite the congregation to join their classes, with new members being assigned to existing classes.

Hardt recommends that local churches consider having study groups about the class meetings before actually implementing the system, “maybe easing it into the life of the congregation.”

His book, The Soul of Methodism, can be ordered through Cokesbury or University Press of America. It also can be found at some seminary bookstores.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

 

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