Tags
catechesis, Christian formation, Class Meetings, life in god, methodist class, relationship with god
If I had to pick one thing that I believe would be most likely to be used by the Holy Spirit to bring renewal to the church, it would be a return to the early Methodist class meeting.
And that is why I have finally gotten around to writing a book that is designed to introduce people to what a class meeting is and to help create and sustain these groups. I have just submitted my manuscript and am excited to see this book in print.
Class meetings were groups of seven to twelve people who gathered together to discuss the state of their relationship with God. The question used in the eighteenth-century was, “How does your soul prosper?” Today it might be translated, “How is your life in God?” Regardless of how the question is phrased, the most important thing is that the group is focused on each person’s relationship with God.
In my experience, when people want to grow in their faith, they typically assume that they need to know more. The problem of a lack of formation is often perceived to be a lack of information. I agree that all of us could stand to learn more about our faith and there is a key role for catechesis.
However, following Jesus is ultimately a way of life, not a body of knowledge about him. Too often, Christians do not practice what they do know.
The key contribution that the early Methodist class meeting would make for contemporary Christianity is that it would help people learn to look for encounters with God in every part of their life. They have the potential to help Christians learn to interpret every part of their lives through the lens of the gospel.
Above all else, contemporary Christianity needs Christians who are Christian not in name only, but women and men who are passionate and confident in their faith in Christ and who can speak to the ways that they have seen and experienced God’s work in their lives and in the lives of others.
I believe that the Holy Spirit wants to use this form of communal Christian formation once again to help people have an active faith in Christ, not merely a passive intellectual faith. And I believe that if this practice were to be reclaimed, it would be used by the Spirit to bring renewal.
If you are interested in reclaiming the class meeting in your faith community, stay tuned! I will update the progress and availability of the book here and on twitter (@kevinwatson).
If you’d like to read more about the class meeting, check out the series of posts I wrote here.
Kevin M. Watson 
Sounds great, Kevin! If you need some “test groups” we will start a new men’s group in the fall. I would love to try it out. Let me know! Blessings, Gary Holdeman
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Interested in what you have in the pipeline. We are looking at a series this Fall to work through “A Blueprint for Discipleship” in sermon/small group format. We will be attempting to carry that momentum forward in vital small groups that meet regularly without a dependence on a provided curriculum.
Keep talking. You are hitting the nail on the head. I have learned “doing church to a fare-thee well” is not enough, especially with a muddled understanding. Knowledge via the Heidelberg Catechism has been a huge help. But in the end, it is about the individual living out a life centered in God on a daily basis. I like the way Kathleen Norris states it in her Forward to “Mere Christianity”:
“The Christianity Lewis espouses is humane, but not easy; it asks us to recognize that the great religious struggle is not fought on a spectacular battleground, but within the ordinary human heart, when every morning we awake and feel the pressures of the day crowding in on us, and we must decide what sort of immortals we wish to be.” Kathleen Norris, Forward, “Mere Christianity” by C. S. Lewis
I recently found this quote from Charles Wesley and it probably best describes early Methodism’s success:
“Let us unite the two so long divided, knowledge and vital piety.” Charles Wesley
Knowledge of who God is and who I am followed up by here is the impact on my life 24/7.
I co-lead a Salvation Army church in Nashville that conducts Sunday morning meetings like a Methodist class meeting with open sharing and testimonies. It is right across the street from a famous Methodist preacher’s (John Berry McFerrin who died in 1887) home where he prayed that class meeting style meetings would be restored to the church. Here’s an article about it: http://stevesimms.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/a-nashville-dream-fulfilled-after-121-years/