Bridging the Gap: Applying John Wesley’s Discipleship Model to 21st

Century Africa

Primary source

Henderson, D. Michael. John Wesley’s Class Meeting: A Model for Making Disciples. Nappanee, Indiana: Evangel/Francis Asbury, 1997.

Secondary sources

Collins, Kenneth J. The Theology of John Wesley: Holy Love and the Shape of Grace. Nashville: Abingdon, 2007.

Heitzenrater, Richard P. Wesley and the People Called Methodists. Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1995.

Pollock, John. John Wesley. Wheaton, Illinois: Harold Shaw, 1989, 1995.

Snyder, Howard A. The Radical Wesley And Patterns for Church Renewal. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 1996.

Watson, David Lowes. The Early Methodist Class Meeting: Its Origins and Significance. Nashville, Tennessee: Discipleship Resources, 1987.

Tracy, Wesley “Economic Policies and Judicial Oppression as Formative Influences on the Theology of John Wesley.” Wesleyan Theological Journal, 27:1 (1992), 30-56.

Our challenge as Nazarenes in 2010

“However, as the Church continued to develop through the centuries, outside influences began to dilute and diminish its initial impetus. The tight focus on ‘making disciples’ was lost, and many other activities gained priority. The task of maintaining Church institutions began to usurp the role that was originally assigned to making disciples, and the once dynamic Christian movement began to fossilize from within.”

- Michael Henderson, p. 14

Our Task Today

What can early Methodism teach us about discipleship that can help us avoid the “fossilizing” described by Henderson?

Conditions in Wesley’s England

“Housing conditions were outrageous. Ten persons per unfurnished room was common. Horse manure polluted the unpaved streets. It was sometimes piled 14 feet high on both sides of the street in London. Diseases like typhoid, smallpox, dysentery, and cholera ravaged almost unchecked. Starvation was a daily reality which stalked the poorest.

Violent crimes were common. Gambling and gin-drinking became the national pastimes. Every sixth building in London was an alehouse. Sports included boxing, bullbaiting, cockfighting, and hangings. For the children there were the streets or the sweatshops. Schools? Only one child in every 25 attended any school of any kind.”

-- Wes Tracy

I. Who was John Wesley?

• b.1703 d. 1791• With his brother,

Charles, George Whitefield and others, was God’s revival instrument through a movement in England known as “Methodism.”

II. Theological foundations for Wesley’s discipleship model

• Salvation as God’s free gift

(Eph. 2:8-10)• Rejected particular predestination

• Accepted prevenient grace

(John 1:9)

The Wesleyan “middle way”

Was John Wesley Reformed, Catholic, or both?

George Croft Cell called Wesley’s theology a “necessary synthesis of the Protestant ethic of grace and the Catholic ethic of holiness.”

-- cited by Collins, p. 289

Wesley’s synthesis:Faith that works through love

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything but faith working through love.”

– Galatians 5:6, NASB

Sample use of Galatians 5:6

“Be we then continually jealous over our souls, that there be no mixture in our intention. Be it our one view in all our thoughts, and words, and works, to be partakers of the divine nature, to regain the highest measure we can of that faith which works by love…

…let us then labour to be made perfectly whole; to attain the fullest conquest over this body of death, the most entire renovation of our nature….”

-- in John Wesley’s sermon,

The One Thing Needful (Luke 10:42)

Ideas related to the “faith that works by love”

• perfect love (1 John 4:18)• Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind,

and strength, and loving neighbor as oneself (Mark 12:28-34)

• Christian perfection (Matt. 5:43-48) or holiness (Hebrews 12:14)

• Entire sanctification (1 Thess. 5:23-24)

Summary from Henderson and Collins

John Wesley believed in the “perfection of humanity’s intentions and behavior by God’s grace.”

- Michael Henderson, p. 86

“Christian perfection, then, is another term for holy love. It is holy in that believers so marked by this grace are free from the impurities and drag of sin. It is loving in that believers now love God as the goal of their being, and they love their neighbors as they should.”

– Ken Collins, p. 302

III. Educational foundations: Three aspects of faith

(Henderson)

1) Christian faith is cognitive.

“Love the LORD your God with…all your mind…” (Mark 12:30)

2) Christian faith is behavioral.

“Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds…is dead and useless” (James 2:17, NLT).

3) Christian faith is affective.

“Love one another deeply, from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22b, NIV).

How would John Wesley combine these three aspects into the Methodist community of faith?

IV. Wesley’s method: discipleship in community

On faith in community

“ ‘Holy solitaries’ is a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than holy adulterers. The gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness but social holiness. ‘Faith working by love’ is the length and breadth and depth and height of Christian perfection.”

-- from the “Preface” to the 1739

Hymns and Sacred Poems

When discipleship is neglected

“I was more convinced than ever that preaching like an Apostle, without joining together those that are awakened and training them up in the ways of God, is only begetting children for the murderer. How much preaching has there been for these twenty years all over Pembrokeshire! But no regular societies, no discipline,

no order or connexion: and the consequence is that nine in ten of the once awakened are now faster asleep than ever.”

– John Wesley, Journal, 25 August 1763

“The pursuit of Christian perfection was the stated aim of the classes and bands, the arenas where perfectibility was tested on an individual basis. The declared mission of Methodism shows the broad-based aim of perfection - to ‘reform the nation, particularly the church, and to spread scriptural holiness over these lands.’ ” – Wesley Tracy, 48

The “Church” defined

“A visible Church (as our Article defines it) is ‘a company of faithful (or believing) people: coetus credentium.’ This is the essence of the Church, and the properties thereof are (as they are described in the words that follow), ‘that the pure word of God be preached therein, and the sacraments duly administered.’ ”

- John Wesley, in An Earnest Appeal to Men of

Reason and Religion; cited by Snyder, p. 74

Howard Snyder on Wesley and the sacraments

“Wesley believed that the sacraments, especially the Lord’s Supper, were necessary ‘if not for the being, at least to the well-being of a Church.’”

- citing Wesley’s An Earnest Appeal; in The Radical Wesley,

p. 102

John Wesley’s vision

“By Methodists I mean a people who profess to pursue (in whatever measure they have attained) holiness of heart and life, inward and outward conformity in all things to the revealed will of God; who place religion in an uniform resemblance of the great Object of it; in a steady imitation

of him they worship in all his inimitable perfections; more particularly in justice, mercy, and truth, or universal love filling the heart and governing the life.” -- in Wesley’s 1745 “Advice to the People called

Methodists”

“Unite the two so long disjoined, knowledge and vital piety.”

-- C. Wesley hymn sung at the opening of the Kingswood School for Children, 1748; Heitzenrater, 168, 219

A. Cognitive tool: the Society

The Methodist Societies ultimately came to fulfill both historic functions of the Church:

- Bible preaching

- the Sacraments administered

City Road Chapel, London

Under Wesley, the Society meetings included:

• prayer

• singing

• preaching

The New Room, in Bristol

Other aspects of the Society

• Often met on Sunday evenings, and were open to one and all at this time. The emphasis was preaching, both doctrinal and evangelistic.

• Other society meetings (at 5 a.m.) were by ticket only, given to members faithful to their class, and after a quarterly review by the preacher.

Conclusion re. the cognitive role of the Society meeting

“The major aim (of the society meeting) was to present Scriptural truth and have it clearly understood.”

- Henderson, p. 93

B. Behavioral tool: the class meeting

“To the class meeting must go much of the credit which many historians have attributed to Methodism for the radical transformation of England’s working masses. It was a triumph, not of any human personality, but of an ingenious set of instruments designed for behavioral change.” – Henderson, p. 93

Marks of the Class Meeting• Was required for all Society members• Met weekly in the evening in people’s homes• organized by geographical zone• Included members fifteen years or older• Was co-educational (i.e. male and female)• had from 10-20 in attendance• Included people from all social standings• Only allowed visitors every other week• Atmosphere of love and acceptance• A place where seekers could come to faith and

believers were strengthened in their faith

How the Class Meeting unfolded

• Always began with a short hymn and a short prayer

• The class meeting leader (either male or female) will share briefly about their own spiritual condition.

• In turn, the leader will ask each class member: “Well sister, well brother, how do you find the state of your soul this evening?”

• Each class member brought a penny offering for the support of the Society, esp. the poor.

- from Watson, p. 96

Conclusion re. the behavioral role of the Class Meeting

“(Wesley) saw in the class meeting a return to the societal norms of the first-century Christians.”

- Michael Henderson, p. 105

“The ignorant and ignored lower classes found in Wesley’s system new dignity and new self respect. Rich and poor, educated and unlearned sat together as peers in Methodist classes and bands. This was new for the poor. They had no privileges, owned no property, did not have the right to vote. They held no memberships in clubs, and no one cared for their opinion. Yet, in Methodism, they counted.”

- Wes Tracy, 48-49

C. Affective tool: the band

• Charles Wesley was the “first Methodist” since he began the “Holy Club” at Oxford

• It became a tool for spiritual growth and service for a handful of Oxford friends, including his brother, John

Charles Wesley, 1707-88

It was John Wesley who over the years refined the “band” concept, drawing on various sources, but especially from the Moravians.

Mark of the bands

• Were not required, but were encouraged

• Were for believers only

• Composed of 5-6 individuals

• Were all of the same gender

• Were grouped together by age and marital status

• Met weekly

No appointed leader, but structured on 5 questions

1) What known sins have you committed since our last meeting?

2) What temptations have you met with?

3) How were you delivered?

4) What have you thought, said, or done of which you doubt whether it be sin or not?

5) Have you nothing you desire to keep secret?

Conclusion re. the affective role of the band

“Wesley had great regard for those who cared enough about him to ask him searching, probing questions concerning his inner life.”

-Henderson, p. 121

General Conclusion from Henderson

“The design of the Wesleyan program had the goal of holiness in constant focus: The societies proclaimed and explained the doctrine, the class meeting was designed to implement the behavioral quest for the holy lifestyle, and the bands facilitated the cultivation of inner purity and the purging of the attitudes.” – p. 115

Questions: 15 minutes

Bridging the Gap: Applying John Wesley’s Discipleship Model to 21st

Century Africa

Where do we go from here?

Session 2 – 2-3 p.m.

Meet in your group of ten for 30 minutes for a trial “class meeting,” then combine to a group of twenty to discuss the questions in the last section of your handout.

Session 3 – 4-5 p.m.

Each group’s spokesperson will give a 5 minute summary of findings from your group discussion.