This past March I presented a paper at the 42nd meeting of the Wesleyan Theological Society. The title of the paper was “The Form and Power of Godliness: Wesleyan Communal Discipline as Voluntary Suffering.” This paper discusses the crucial role that small group accountability played in early Methodism. The paper argues that the contemporary United Methodist Church has almost entirely abandoned the discipline that the early Methodist believed was so important to the movement’s success. It further seeks to look at the implications this has for the revival of the UMC today. You can read the paper here. I have submitted the paper for publication in the Wesleyan Theological Journal.
Andrew Conard, an associate pastor at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, has written a review of the paper that he posted on his blog, Thoughts of Resurrection. You can read his post here and you can read the review here.
If you have the time to read the paper, I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks to Andrew for taking the time to review it.
Kevin M. Watson 
I just finished reading your paper. I enjoyed your thoughts. I don’t come from a Methodist background and I was delighted to read your quote of Wesley’s definition of entire sanctification. “Entire sanctification, for Wesley, meant obeying Christ’s commandment to love God and neighbor.24”
It seems that I have been misled to understand that entire sanctification and sinless perfection (ceasing from sin in the flesh) were the same thing.
I would also like to ask for pointers to information about the classes, societies, and unions you mentioned.
I am reluctant to embrace accountability in the same manner as you describe. In my congregation (Baptist) there is emphasis on small groups as well as accountability partners. I resist what I see as the misplaced accountability effort. I feel that accountability must be earned not programed. Furthermore the person closest to me is my wife. She is the first one I seek to be accountable to in this world.
The problem of being an American consumer is not just a problem to the UMC it is a problem for the whole of Christendom. However the words of Wesley, earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can, points to the cure.
Keep up the good work. I enjoy your blog and will continue to read.
rusty –
thank you for taking the time to read my paper, and for your comments.
for wesley, entire sanctification actually is synonymous with christian perfection. yet, he also could say that entire sanctification was obeying Jesus’ command to love God and neighbor. the reason being, if you are completely loving God and neighbor, than you would commit no sin.
a good resource for learning more about the society, class, band structure is David Lowes Watson’s The Early Methodist Class Meeting. A book that is a bit less dry is D. Michael Henderson’s A Model for Making Disciples. Both of these books primarily focus on the class meeting, but discuss the society and band as well.
You make a great point about having that kind of accountability with your wife. That is a real blessing. For some men, for different reasons, it is difficult to have that kind of relationship with their wives. Ultimately, my passion is that everyone have a core group of people that they can talk to about “how it is with their souls” as they make progress along the Way of Salvation.
I agree with you, that it can be very difficult to program this kind of accountability. To me, it is necessary to think about how we might be able to effectively program accountability for growing in faith, simply because so few people have that kind of relationship in their lives.
Sorry not to have responded sooner to your comment, and thanks again for reading and writing.
Thanks for the book recommendations. I have added them to my wish list at Amazon.
As for accountability, Hebrews 10:24 comes to mind as well as Galatians 6:12. Gentle stirring towards love.
rusty- no problem on the recommendations. if you end up reading then, I’d be very interested to know what you think.
The verse from Hebrews is powerful reminder. Did you mean Galatians 6:1-2? In any case, thanks for the reminder of Scripture’s relevance.