The Class Meeting

Introduction

Matthew 16:13–17 NIV

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

Pray.

Virtual Reality Church: Saw this CNN special of the spread of virtual reality churches. A pastor that travels the US in a trailer to tell people about the church but on Sunday morning he stands up in the living area of the trailer, puts on his VR helmet and goes to church. There are thousands that are a member of his church. Their avatars gather in pews. Do you know what an avatar is? Not the blue things that was in that movie. Avatars are something that represents you. And you can like dress them up now. Interesting that so many gamers and people that would never go to church are attending this. But just something feels off. Then something clicked in the interview. The reporter asked the pastor what he thought about the VR church versus the real church. He said this, “Well I think relationships can be much more authentic because people can hide behind an avatar. There is a level of anonymity that makes people feel more comfortable. See this is just so far from what I think God designed us to be. We are relational beings. We are created for relationship. And listen I am not trying to be that “get of my lawn” curmudgeon about technology. But this is not what the christian journey is supposed to be!

And before you feel too proud of yourself for being in a real church this morning and not at VR church....we are all walking avatars. We hide behind some shell of ourselves. We only let others see the version of us we want people to see. Our best qualities and none of our flaws. Our successes and none of our failures. Our good days and none of our bad ones. We are this walking avatar that we have created. AND NO ONE KNOWS US. Heck we dont even know ourselves.

That is where I believe small groups come in. It is the means of grace, the avenue through which God breaks through our own self-reliance, our temptation to try and be our own God. Today and next week we will explore Wesleyan discipleship groups and listen these are simple and revolutionary. And they are nothing crazy…just biblical discipleship. Pay attention to their likeness to the way that Jesus did it.

Disciples:

The 12 disciples, called together to live and learn. Why 12? Well there is theological and cultural reasons here but think about the practical. It is a learning size. Typical for any teacher of the law to have a following of disciples like this. They would repeat back to each other teachings....they would ask questions and process things together. They would learn from hands on experience.

Think about this question that Jesus asks them one night…Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am?

I always imagine them sitting around a fire with this text. I don’t know why. Eating and thinking through the events of the last couple of days. Probably, talking about the shock on people’s faces as Jesus fed 4 thousand with just a few loaves of bread. Probably blaming each other for doubting that Jesus could do it. Peter with a mouthful tries to convince the rest that he knew Jesus had it the whole time....then Jesus asks, what are people saying about me?

The right answer

Who do you say that I am?

Well you’re the Messiah, the son of the living God.

The right answer again.

But Jesus is not interested in just right information....We know this by the relationship with Peter. Peter (and the 12) will spend the rest of their journey learning what it means to follow Jesus, the messiah.

The implied question here is the point of transformation....How does your life reflect that I am the messiah, the son of the living God?

The class meeting:

And this is the focus of the class meeting. We call the class meeting, we will be rebranding this name soon. The whole point of the class meeting in John Wesley’s time was to provide space for people to internalize and grow in grace.

The beginning:

Early Wesleyan/Methodist societies were formed as a gathering of corporate worship and preaching, but this was not the core of the rapidly growing movement of the 17-1800s. In order to be a Methodist, membership within the Class Meeting was required at one point in the revival movement. According to Wesley, the meeting involved 12 people, men and women, equipped to encourage and “more easily discern whether they are indeed working out their own salvation” (John Wesley, General Rules, 9:69-70). The class meeting became an access point for evangelism and hospitality, reaching the unchurched in masses. Then, for the serious work of sanctification men “banded” with 2-3 men and women with women, to position themselves in intentional accountably relationships. The Band groups, as they were called, we will talk about in the future, but for our purposes here the Class Meeting requires our attention.

These groups existed to encourage one another in love, to provide accountability, and to not just talk about the Christian life but to actually live it as well.

nineteenth-century American Methodist preacher:

“In these class-meetings many seekers of religion have found them the spiritual birth-place of their souls into the heavenly family, and their dead souls made alive to God.” - Peter Cartwright

and then from Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke, the fathers of American Methodsim

“We have no doubt, but meeting of christian brethren for the exposition of scripture-texts, may be attended with their advantages. But the most profitable exercise of any is a free inquiry into the state of the heart.” - Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke

The class meeting was the heart of the Methodist revival. In 1776, Methodists accounted for 2.5 percent of religious adherents in the colonies, the second smallest of the major denominations of that time. By 1850, Methodist comprised 34.2 percent of religious adherents in the U.S, which was 14 percent more than the next largest group. And it is not hard to say that the most important growth factor was the class meeting....

Since the 1900s, the class meeting has disappeared in our churches. Really Wesleyan discipleship that is uniquely Wesleyan has dissapeared. The Global Methodist Church has identified the importance that we retrieve some of the most important parts of our heritage and much of that is centered around Wesleyan Discipleship. I am leading a team for the conference to help churches begin these classes.

A different kind of group:

It is different than Sunday School. Listen, we have a strong sunday school program here. I am not telling you that our sunday school classes are not important. We should continue to support and resource these classes. What I am saying is let’s be clear that, in general, there is something very different about these groups. Mostly, Sunday school classes are centered around a teacher/lecturer/curriculum. It is information download where we go from one curriculum to another.

Formational: Consistently meeting together and accountability is formative. We are now considering our walk in Christ all throughout the week. We are learning to pray for our group. We are learning to have spiritual conversation that is honest. We are learning to listen!

Transformational: Son and daughter of God....how are you living this way?

Evangelistic: home groups, invitational to other people

So what are we doing?

Last fall I led a group through a class meeting experience and out of that there are leaders that are ready to lead groups. I will continue this process, training leaders.

Today there is an informational luncheon about class meetings in Asbury after the 11am service. If you cannot come to the luncheon today, I want to know if youre interested in being a part of a group.

End of year reports: Maybe 400 last year participated in SS or bible study of some sort. We have a membership of over 2300 and we are averaging 750 in worship every week. These groups are not competing with SS but complimenting. Living in community is paramount to our discipleship journey.

Friends, lives are being changed.

In the fall, we heard testimony of marriages being strengthened, people finding healing from deep family wounds, others coming alive to the work of God in their life.

Back to the text.

just a few verses later, Jesus tells the disciples that he must die. And Peter, the one who knew the right answer to the question, did not know what it actually meant. He challenges Jesus, “this shall never happen to you!”

Get behind me Satan.

Peter, abandons Jesus in the garden when he falls asleep and then physically abandons him as he heads towards that death. Peter knew the right answer up here, but not right here.

Not living as an avatar. But allowing people to know us fully and to know them fully. This is the promise we have in following Christ. If anyone wants to save their life…they will lose it. It is really hard to lose your life. It is impossible by yourself.

We do that better as a team.