Class Meeting: School of Ministry

Introduction

Personal Introduction

Quickly, I just want to introduce myself:

I am married to Lauren for 9 years. We have three kids: Luke, Rylie, and James. I am privileged to serve as one of the pastors at First Methodist Conroe. I won’t bore you with all the other technical bio stuff. But I believe I am here before you today because my passion and commitment in ministry is discipleship. And you might immediately think, well that should be all of ours. Yes. But I think you will see why there is something aggressive in my passion today because of what God has done in my life.

The Stories we tell: Let’s begin with the story I can tell best, my story.

I grew up in a Christian home. We were definitely more than Christmas and Easter goers. My dad grew up in a devout Christian home. His parents taught kids and adult Sunday school for 50 years. So me and my two younger brothers were there most Sundays for most of my childhood. We were Christians, or at least that is what I thought.

When I got to high school there was more coming and going with soccer on the weekends but I was the kid who gave my life to Christ every summer at Lakeview church camp. Went on mission trips. I did all the things. We did all the things.

In late high school, I began to experience life a little and that continued into college. By the time I was a sophomore in college everything fell apart individually and collectively. Personally, I quit my soccer team, almost got kicked out of school for cheating on a test, came home and got a DWI, and was as far from Christ as imaginable.

The middle brother, the same year, was discovered to be deep in an addiction to Meth and deep into a life of crime. This road led to him being sentence to prison and he is in year 10 of incarceration at this point. My parent’s marriage fell apart, and really the only one that seemingly got out unscathed was the youngest brother who got as far away from home as possible by joining the Navy. This would begin a chapter in the McMann household of wondering in the wilderness.

How did this happen?

I have had plenty of time since God saved me to reflect on this story, my story.

See for all of the church activity in our life, there was not anything powerful enough to face addiction, depression, betrayal, and pain.

It is like we had spent so much time sitting in the room with Jesus…and yet, collectively and individually, ....

We knew the basics: The gospel. We saw first hand the life, death, and resurrection. We were encouraged by what this meant for us. Enough to keep coming back. But we hadnt learned the reality of a God who is in the middle of suffering. We had not internalized the present promise of resurrection. We knew nothing of the Lordship of a holy King, and nothing of the gentle love of the lamb.

We had an active faith and dormant lives.

We had fooled ourselves that we were awake

John Wesley....

John Wesley wrote, “I am more and more convinced that the devil himself desires nothing more than this, that the people of any place should be half-awakened and then left to themselves to fall asleep again.”

What is the Problem?

I think we have a problem with letting people sleep in the church. Not literally of course, that’s is a nice thing to provide shelter for people...

I just had this image pop into my head of a time I was sleeping in the sanctuary of a church during a UMARMY and one of the matriarchs found me and I think she just discovered we moved the bible on the altar three inches, and I got a tongue lashing.....It’s ok for people to sleep in the church

BUT we are allowing people to spiritually sleep, or to fall asleep. We are doing our best to wake them up on Sunday morning, midweek programming, and then we are surprised when we see them again and they are right back there.

3 personal data points for me:

COVID

Presidential election

Racial injustice

We lost our everlasting minds. And listen this is not to downplay the seriousness of those three, but my goodness.

Where we are going today:

Framework for discipleship

History of Class Meetings

Practicing Class Meetings

Starting Classes in your church

Back to the basics

Ask: What does it mean to be a disciple?

What is a Jesus person to you? We call them Christians, disciples, followers. Christians is a phrase we are most familiar with and one we probably use the most, but it is hardly used in the NT....3 times and usually in a derogatory way.

There is a pattern that emerges as we look at the calling of the disciples to follow Jesus and the ways in which the NT refers to those that are with Jesus.

Mark 1:16–20 NIV

As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Mark 2:13–14 NIV

Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

Mark 3:13–19 NIV

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Mark 8:34–37 NIV

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

Do you see the pattern that emerges. Jesus calls his disciples to follow me.

Story after to story the invitation was not to believe in me. Come and make a decision that you think I am what I claim to be.

Follow me. Be my disciple.

The word for follow and disciple really go hand in hand.

Follow could mean any one of three things in english:

To follow someone going in same general direction. Following someone you dont know on the road

To follow someone generally connected to. Like a tour guide

To follow someone and you are shaped because of the following.

Disciple: Mathetes

This word could mean student. But it is more than how I was as a college student.

Many think a better word here would be apprentice...

In other words, what makes you a disciple is not turning up from time to time. Discipleship may literally mean ‘being a student’, in the strict Greek sense of the word, but it doesn’t mean turning up once a week for a course (or even a sermon). It’s not an intermittent state; it’s a relationship that continues. The truth is that, in the ancient world, being a ‘student’ was rather more like that than it is these days. If you said to a modern prospective student that the essence of being a student was to hang on your teacher’s every word, to follow in his or her steps, to sleep outside their door in order not to miss any pearls of wisdom falling from their lips, to watch how they conduct themselves at the table, how they conduct themselves in the street, you might not get a very warm response. But in the ancient world, it was rather more like that. To be the student of a teacher was to commit yourself to living in the same atmosphere and breathing the same air; there was nothing intermittent about it. -Rowan Williams

Williams, Rowan. Being Disciples (p. 2). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.

To be the student of a teacher was to commit yourself to living in the same atmosphere and breathing the same air; there was nothing intermittent about it. -Rowan Williams

Apprenticeship.

So let’s bring this all together:

Now to be an apprentice in Jesus’ day was more than some intellectual belief. It was about leaving behind this other life and following the rabbi teacher. It was about staying with them non-stop, every moment. To listen and learn, to orient and reorient. And in the being with the rabbi, you would become like the rabbi. Taking on characteristics. Eventually you would be released to go and do what the rabbi did in the world.

Which side note you can see this very thing in the gospels....look at it next time you sit down to read Mark.

Translate that to today....

Short:

Life as Jesus' disciple will always be devotional, transformational, and missional.

Discipleship to Jesus is a way of living a holistic pursuit of a relationship with Jesus through the Spirit that undergirds all aspects of life. As such, this lifestyle will look different in different contexts, but will always be guided by three underlying principles. The life of a disciple is devotional: Through the means of grace, disciples devote their hearts, minds, and bodies to Jesus. The life of a disciple is transformational: Though it often takes long periods of time, disciples will encounter the Holy Spirit of God and come through those encounters changed. Finally, the life of a disciple is missional: To follow Christ is to go where he goes and do what he does—this will lead disciples into spaces of self-sacrifice to love and serve the world, making more disciples as they go.

Life of a Disciple is Devotional

Means of Grace

By ‘means of grace’ I understand outward signs, words, or actions ordained of God, and appointed for this end – to be the ordinary channels whereby he might convey to men preventing, justifying, and sanctifying grace….

The chief of these means are prayer, whether in secret or with the great congregation; searching the Scriptures (which implies reading, hearing, and meditating thereon) and receiving the Lord’s Supper, eating bread and drinking wine in remembrance of him; and these we believe to be ordained of God as the ordinary channels of conveying his grace to the souls of men. [John Wesley, The Means of Grace. II.1]

The means of grace are the given modes through which we are afforded to stay with Jesus. To sit at his feet. To receive the teachings and join ourselves to them. To apply life that has been given.

"The first and most basic thing we can and must do is to keep God before our minds. This is the fundamental secret of caring for our souls. Our part in thus practicing the presence of God is to direct and redirect our minds constantly to Him. In the early time of our "practicing" we may well be challenged by our burdensome habits of dwelling on things less than God. But these are habits — not the law of gravity — and can be broken. A new, grace-filled habit will replace the former ones as we take intentional steps toward keeping God before us. Soon our minds will return to God as the needle of a compass constantly returns to the north. If God is the great longing of our souls, He will become the pole star of our inward beings." -Dallas Willard

Life of a Disciple is Transformational

Now as you follow the teacher around, hopefully you become like them. You develop the skills and vision that they do. Except as Christians, we believe this is not just a metaphorical expression, but that we can actually become like Christ.

That as we are joined to him:

Paul exhorting the Phillipi

Philippians 2:5 NIV

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Paul in corinthians (remember the nuance of follow)

1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

Same with Peter....

1 Peter 2:21 NIV

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

Paul in Romans, more directly....

Romans 8:29 NIV

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

and in Galatians

Galatians 2:20 NIV

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

This is possible, this is sanctification. Spiritual Formation. Being formed into the image of the son.

This is not behavior modification, this is transformation. I dont think we fully grasp this all the time. We think we are just supposed to try harder and be better. (Maybe not “we” in the room, but the people we serve)

Discipleship has been equated with bible study and service and some other things along the way. Those are included. But discipleship is suppose to be helping us to live the way of Jesus. It isnt just learning stuff.

You are being spiritually transformed.

John Wesley:

By justification we are saved from the guilt of sin, and restored to the favor of God; by sanctification we are saved from the power and root of sin, and restored to the image of God. All experience, as well as Scripture, show this salvation to be both instantaneous and gradual. It begins the moment we are justified, in the holy, humble, gentle, patient love of God and man. It gradually increases from that moment, as a grain of mustard-seed, which, at first, is the least of all seed, but afterwards puts forth large branches, and becomes a great tree; till, in another instant, the heart is cleansed from all sin, and filled with pure love to God and man. But even that love increases more and more, till we “grow up in all things into Him that is our Head;” till we attain “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” -On Working Out Our Own Salvation

Illustration: my associate pastor is adopting a child from India at this time. He is legally their child. His name is Moore. Now it is the means of grace through which Joshua’s life will be formed by that reality. These means of grace will be family interaction, events, dinner table routines, nightime prayers, etc.

Life of a Disciple is Missional

As we become like him, then we are able to do his work in the world.

Look at Mark again....

Mark 3:14–15 NIV

He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.

He appointed them, that they would be with him and that as an outpouring of that very reality....they would go out and preach and to have authority to drive out demons.

Later on in Mark 6:6-7, he sends them out giving them authority over evil. In Matthew, they have authority to heal every kind of disease and illness.

And of course Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 NIV

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Go and make disciples: Mathetes .... go and call people to follow him. To learn to be with him.

Transition to the need for this work in community.....

We need to rethink everything we are doing in regards to discipleship. It’s not working

John Wesley (Journal, August 1763)

“I was more convinced than ever that the 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 connection. And the consequence is that nine in ten of those once awakened are now faster asleep than ever.” - John Wesley

Plainly put, Wesleyan classes and bands are the location of inspired devotion, deep transformation, and activated mission.

History of Class Meetings

A common conviction today among Methodist leaders is the necessity to recapture our early heritage of discipleship and theological conviction. I believe the class leader of the early Wesleyan movement is a crucial office that must be retrieved and reframed for today’s church if we hope to inspire holy revival in our churches. The class leader in the early movement was a disciple-making lay person who fostered intentional community focused on holiness and working out one’s salvation. They gave theological language to what God was doing in the life of the believer and provided loving accountability to ensure the community was living out the truth of the Gospel daily.

So much of what fills our churches today is education of the Christian life and very little devotion to living out the Christian life. Furthermore, the pursuit of holiness, which was once penned as the goal of the Christian life by John Wesley, is more an amorphous catchphrase rather than the focus of our church communities. Wesley says this holiness is perfect love: “It is love excluding sin; love filling the heart, taking up the whole capacity of the soul. It is love ‘rejoicing evermore, praying without ceasing, in everything giving thanks’ (The Scripture Way of Salvation, I.9).

The loss of the class leader underlies many of the factors that developed our spiritual inertia. This office was responsible for the systemic focus on holiness, evangelistic fervor, and making disciples who make disciples.

In order to once again establish this important officiant of a vital means of grace, we must study the first class leaders and contextualize their roles for the church in which we find ourselves. This is a two-part essay in which part one will provide a historical background for the class leader that will demonstrate the high calling of the leader and the dependence on this office for discipleship, evangelism, and structure. Part two will present a contextualization of this office for today’s church and suggest ways to implement class-leader training in the local church.

The Class Meeting and Birth of the Class Leader

The class meeting was the central location of discipleship for the early Methodists, though it was created for practical reasons. The meeting was designed to separate societies into groups to better collect members’ financial contributions to the movement and to check on how individuals were attending to the general rules of the Societies: 1) Do no harm; 2) Do good; 3) Attending to the ordinances of God.

The class leader then was the individual charged with going to the houses of the 10-12 men and women to collect their penny-tithe, to interview each as to the state of their soul and walk with God, and then to report back to Wesley or the local minister. Practicality again led to another shift as leaders found that door-to-door visits were not effective or efficient, and so the classes began to meet regularly together to serve the same purpose. It was not long until Wesley saw something significant born from these meetings:

It can scarce be conceived what advantages have been reaped from this little prudential regulation. Many now happily experienced that Christian fellowship of which they had not so much as an idea before. They began to ‘bear one another’s burdens’, and ‘naturally’ to ‘care for each other’. As they had daily a more intimate acquaintance with, so they had a more endeared affection for each other. And ‘speaking the truth in love, they grew up into him in all things which is the head, even Christ; from whom the whole body, fitly joined together, and compacted but that which every joint supplied, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, increased unto the edifying itself in love’ (A Plain Account of the People Called Methodist).

I often hear the class meeting referred to as a place of accountability and support, and it does that, but this community became a means of grace where holiness was the focus and sanctification was experienced. As Andrew Thompson succinctly puts it, the class was “the substance of an interactive communal practice by a people joined together for the mutual benefit of fruits that are both internal to their common activity and impossible to receive outside of that activity” (To Stir Them Up to Believe, Love, Obey). The usage of Ephesians 4 by John Wesley in his description of the collective transformation in the class meeting is telling. Ephesians 4 is about the community living out the truth of faith together and thereby transforming into the body of Christ. This is more than a group of encouragement or support.

As this became evident to Wesley and the early leaders, classes became a requirement for persons to be a part of the people called Methodist. Furthermore, the class leader became one of the most vital pieces to the spread of scriptural holiness in England and later, America. This office of lay leader became an officiant of a means of grace and the primary connecting relationship for every person in the Methodist movement. Later Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury would acknowledge such in the 1798 Doctrines and Disciplines:

The office is of vast consequence. The revival of the work of God does perhaps depend as much upon the whole body of leaders, as it does upon the whole body of preachers. We have almost constantly observed, that when a leader is dull or careless or inactive—when he has not abilities or zeal sufficient to reprove with courage though with gentleness, and to press a present salvation upon the hearts of the sincere, the class is, in general, languid: but, on the contrary, when the leader is much alive to God and faithful in his office, the class is also, in general, lively and spiritual.

The Historical Class Leader

The Class leader was responsible for the oversight and enforcement of the general rules already mentioned and specifically as follows:

To see each person in his class once a week at the least; in order:

To receive what they are willing to give toward the relief of the poor;

To inquire how their souls prosper;

To advise, reprove, comfort, or exhort, as occasion may require.

To meet the Minister and the stewards of the Society once a week, in order:

To pay into the stewards what they received of their several classes in the week preceding;

To show their account of what each person has contributed;

To inform the Minister of any that are sick, or of any that walk disorderly and will not be reproved (General Rules and Rules of the Band Societies).

Then class leaders would meet weekly with the local preacher assigned to them (or more infrequently depending on the itinerancy of the pastors) to ensure accountability and oversight. It is important to note that these leaders had high responsibilities but they also had high expectations of their own pursuit of holiness, something largely missing from our current leadership mechanisms.

The selection of these leaders was critical, given all that was asked of them. Wesley looked for leaders with “disciplinary and spiritual discernment.” As a disciplinary, they were responsible for discerning the best way to lead people towards a shared goal of holiness and had to be incisive on the conditions of sin, human nature, and the ways to influence people. As spiritual leaders, they are not the source of God’s grace, but they are providing leadership in a means of grace. This requires them to be theologically and spiritually mature as they give language to what people are experiencing and also sensitive enough to respond to what God might be doing individually and corporately.

This responsibility is a tall task, but a worthwhile one. The class became a place of conversions as members maintained evangelistic fervor, inviting people to come and see what God was doing. Individuals learned to pray at the meeting, connecting the entire movement with the sinews of intercession. And holiness, the goal of the Christian life, was constantly held in focus for every Methodist. Movements require flexible structures that maintain the integrity of focus and identity—the class meeting provided that through the raising up of these leaders.

Along with this responsibility and the authority given with it, much was required spiritually of the leaders. They were to be working out their own salvation and leading the way in “fleeing the wrath that is to come.” Leaders would meet regularly with Wesley, their society preacher, or other leaders, and in addition to answering questions about their leadership of the class, they would also have to testify to the state of their own soul.

The Downfall of the Class Meeting

For 125 years the class meeting and the class leader were promoted and encouraged as central to the movement. Several factors led to the downfall of the class meeting.

As the circuit riders gave up their horses for appointed pastorates, dependence on local lay leaders for ministry decreased, taking away the authority of the class leader and the dependence on them for discipleship.

In addition, as Methodism moved from bars and coal mines to suburban middle-class America,      pressures of individualization and privatization of members increased. Several historians of class meetings have argued that upward mobilization of the people called Methodists contributed to the decline of participation in intimate transformational groups like the class meeting. Similarly, David L. Watson argues “the decline of the class meeting was due to a neglect of the works of obedience in the weekly catechesis and a growing self-preoccupation with religious experience” (The Early Methodist Class Meeting, 145).

These factors may indicate some barriers to overcome for a return to the class meeting. The dependence on clergy and professionalization of ministry today has led to a vacuum of raising up disciple-making lay leaders in our churches. Clergy lament that churches expect them to wear all of the hats of responsibility, but we have also created the very system of dependence without working to empower ministry. To compound these issues, cultural factors and lingering characteristics of the church growth era have created isolated consumers largely attached to the Sunday gathering if anything at all. Classes reintroduce transformational community and begin to catechize a culture of accountability.

The historic class leader was a loving disciplinarian given the space and authority to shepherd people towards the goal of the Christian life. They were expected to model this pursuit of holiness in their own life and were devoutly committed to their flock of 10-12 individuals. The class leader catechized individuals into the Wesleyan faith as they facilitated sanctification for all in their care. The leaders were more than teachers of a curriculum or Sunday School lecturers.

If we wish to retrieve Wesleyan discipleship practices and to see holy revival in our churches, we must reconsider how we are making disciples in the first place. We need to once again empower disciple-making leaders in our church and focus on holiness of heart and life.

What are Class Meetings?

Classes:

Simple definition:

A Class Meeting is a transformational small group of people who meet weekly to give testimony to their life in God and encourage one another in the pursuit of becoming more like Jesus.

men and women

intergenerational

diverse

So much of our discipleship is Christian education that can inspire and inform, but Wesleyan discipline like the class and band internalizes and empowers, through practices of accountability, mentorship, prayer, etc.

Nuts and bolts:

10-12 people | Weekly for 1.5 hours | In a home

Shepherded by 1-2 Class Leaders (preferably Lay)

Focused on the transformed life:

How is your life in God?

How is your life in prayer?

How is your life in mission?

Saturated in prayer

Class Meeting Experience

Question: How is your life in God this week?

I answer….

Starting Classes in your church

Keys to success for starting class meetings:

Start somewhere

Resist the temptation to over-program this

Identify potential leaders and show them how

Continued support

Small Church:

Gather together at least 6 people that will commit to exploring a “new” way of discipleship

You lead to begin but identify early someone that can become the class leader in the future

Familiarize yourself with 2 things:

Kevin Watson’s The Class Meeting

Wesleyan “Way of Salvation”

Teach them the Class Meeting using Kevin Watson’s book

Repeat

Medium/large churches:

Recruit potential class leaders (8-12)

Commit to 10 weeks

Become their class leader

Showing them how to pray for people in meeting and outside

Asking questions (versus giving advice)

Listening for the Holy Spirit

guiding the work of holiness with accountability and giving language to what they are experiencing in God

Teach them with Kevin Watson’s book

Supplement with Absolute Basics of the Wesleyan Way (Unit 2)

Conclude with invitation:

Will you lead a group?

Will you help start a group?

Will you take what you have learned and bring it to other aspects of the church?

New leaders begin prayerfully recruiting who will be in their group

Preach about it

Testify!

Repeat

Resources:

Webinar with Dr. Kevin Watson, November 12

Essential Office for Wesleyan Revival: The Class Leader (Part 1 and 2), Firebrand Magazine. firebrandmag.com

The Class Meeting by Kevin Watson

Absolute Basics of the Wesleyan Way by Phil Tallon and Justus Hunter

Closing testimony....

After my life changed for the worst, it changed for the better. Amid the embarrassment and shame, and the feelings of guilt and despair, was abundant grace and community that provided the first and most important steps in the renewal of the faith that holds my life together. Through an assignment for court-appointed therapy, I recently wrote my life story. In doing so, I became aware of the importance of community and accountability in my life, my choices, and in my behavior. I looked back at all of the peaks and valleys of my story and discovered an interesting recurrence. I found that in the peaks there was always a community providing checks and balances in my life. Conversely, amid all of the valleys I experienced isolation. Be it physical or emotional, I found that my deepest spiritual deficit was always paired with a sense that I was alone. No one really knew me- or cared to. I believed that people loved me, but only because I presented myself without any baggage. My struggles were unique, and therefore a burden to others. My sins were mine to bear. Even after I got married and had children, I felt that I was saving them from pain and heartache by withholding my struggles and presenting myself as positive and self-assured. It wasn’t until my truth was thrust into the spotlight that I came out of isolation and into a community that the church provided, and welcomed me into. Since then, honesty, vulnerability, and transparency have been crucial to my recovery, and rediscovery of the life that Christ wants for me. The More to Life group has provided me and others an outlet to rediscover Christ in our lives. We share the triumphs and the failures that we experience weekly, and are given the chance to be fully known and loved by a community of our peers. The group has provided a sense of spiritual, emotional and even physical community that I have been craving. I now have an outlet to pray and praise, and serve alongside my wife. Instead of leading parallel lives, our lives are interconnected and she is my greatest accountability partner. The same can be said for our More to Life group of twelve. The way we share and support one another is community as Christ intended within the church body. We are not intended to be a group of parallel lines, but a cord of many, woven and intersecting with one another. We are honest, vulnerable, and transparent, fulfilling a promise to look after one another in love.”

Q&A