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Kevin M. Watson

Kevin M. Watson

Category Archives: Accountability

On the Class Meeting

27 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in Accountability, Christian Living, links, Methodist History, Ministry

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

class meeting, Seedbad

I recently wrote a post for Seedbed on “How to Reclaim Wesleyan Class Meetings.” Check it out if you are interested.

For those of you who are finding your way to my blog for the first time because of the Seedbed article – Welcome!

A year and a half ago I wrote a series of posts on the Wesleyan Class Meeting for the 21st century that may be of interest to Seedbed readers who want to learn more. For convenience, here are the titles of the posts in that series:

1. The Origin and Development of the Class Meeting.
2. The Potential Contribution of the Class Meeting for 21st c. Wesleyans/Methodists.
3. The Target Audience of Class Meetings.
4. Top Ten Ways to Guarantee Your Class Meeting Will Fail (Intended to be humorous).
5. Is the Class Meeting too Judgmental and Exclusive?
6. The Role of the Class Leader.

A good friend of mine from Munger Place, a church plant from Highland Park UMC in east Dallas, described his experience being a contemporary class leader in an excellent and insightful series of posts that gives a valuable perspective into the lay experience of the class meeting. His posts can be found here:

1. My experience with classes and the role being in a small group has played in my faith journey.
2. The impact leading a class meeting has had on my Christian faith.
3. The impact of classes on my church.
4. The potential impact of class meetings on The UMC.

Finally, I have received questions in various online forums about the difference between the early Methodist class meeting and contemporary Covenant Discipleship groups. I am working on a post to describe the similarities and differences of these two groups as I see them.

As always, if you would like to subscribe to this blog and automatically receive future posts, you can subscribe by email by clicking here or in a reader by clicking here.

A Proposed Definition for “Small Groups”

21 Thursday Apr 2011

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in Accountability, Christian Living, Ministry

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

small groups

In my previous post I discussed the term “small group” and how difficult it is to define and pin down what the term actually signifies. Is a small group a curriculum driven study? Is it a hard-core accountability group? Is it an affinity group with no obvious component geared toward Christian formation? In surveying the ways that the term is deployed, the answer would appear to be “yes.”

Figuring out what a small group is becomes even more difficult when we recognize that the boundaries between informational, transformational, and affinity groups are often blurred so that one group contains many aspects of each of these categories of small groups.

At the end of my last post, I suggested that it might be more helpful to skip the question “What is a small group?” and ask instead, “What should the definition of a small group be?” In this post, I am going to propose a definition for how the United Methodist Church should define small groups in the context of twenty-first century American Christianity.

Before offering my definition of how small groups ought to be understood, I want to clarify several assumptions that inform my defintion.

First, the church and people have limited time and resources. Church leaders need to be clear about what is most important for people to do in order to reliably expect to grow in their faith. When it comes to small groups, then, I think the church ought to decide which type of small group will be most helpful for the UMC’s stated mission of “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world” and clearly prioritize those types of groups over others.

Second, United Methodist leaders cannot take biblical literacy for granted amongst its membership.

Third, despite there often being room for significant growth in knowledge of the Bible and its contents, a deeper problem for United Methodism than biblical illiteracy is that most United Methodists know more than they put into practice. For example, I am confident that most committed United Methodists could tell you that reading the Bible and praying are important Christian practices. I doubt most United Methodists do both of these things on a daily basis. (I hope I am wrong.)

Fourth, every Christian ought to be able to talk about their faith in light of the every day events of their lives. However, I do not think that every Christian is actually comfortable doing this. One of the reasons many Christians are not comfortable talking about how they are growing as followers of Jesus Christ is because you learn how to talk about your faith by talking about your faith, and this does not happen in focused ways in most small groups. However, I believe it is possible for every Christian to recognize God’s action in their lives and to give voice to experience of God’s presence or a lack of a sense of God’s presence.

Fifth, I assume that Jesus cares more about whether we are becoming the kind of people he wants us to be than whether we are becoming more knowledgeable. I do not think that these two things are mutually exclusive. However, if we have to pick between information or transformation, I think we should have a strong bias in favor of transformation.

Sixth, when the UMC talks about small groups, we should be able to take for granted that any small group would have a strong Christian emphasis. In other words, Christian small groups are not social clubs or activity groups that do not have any focus that is distinctly and easily recognizable as Christian.

I am sure that there are many more ways I could list criteria for how we should define what a small group is. What do you think I missed?

Based on the previous factors, I would say that the ideal understanding of a small group in a Christian context should be:

Small group – a group of people who gather together on a regular basis with the goal of becoming more faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, to attend to the ways that God is at work in their lives and the extent to which they are cooperating with God’s grace, and to watch over one another in love and mutually challenge, support, and encourage one another in the pursuit of deeply committed Christian discipleship.

This is very much a working definition that I pulled together for the purpose of this post. However, I think it has the advantage of being general enough to provide for flexibility and adaptability to various contexts and the needs of various groups of people. On the other hand, it is clearly and correctly weighted toward the transformational approach to small groups as opposed to informational groups or affinity groups. There are a variety of ways a group could be organized in order to meet this definition. And yet, any group that is not primarily focused on attentiveness to growth in discipleship would not count as a small group by this definition.

Finally, I think this definition is a start for providing much needed clarity for knowing what we mean when we say “small group.” I also believe that such an understanding of small groups compliments and strengthens United Methodism’s own understanding of its mission, “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”

This post is admittedly a thought experiment, and certainly not an attempt to try to say the last word about how we should understand small groups. What would you change or add to what I have said?

The General Rules and a Holy Lent

09 Wednesday Mar 2011

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in Accountability, Christian Living, links, Methodist History, Ministry, Wesley

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Christian living, discipleship, General Rules, Michael Cartwright, Wesley


One of many highlights of last week’s annual meeting of the Wesleyan Theological Society was a conversation I had with Michael G. Cartwright about a new resource on the “General Rules.” Cartwright and Andrew D. Kinsey have developed “Watching Over One Another in Love: Reclaiming the Wesleyan Rule of Life for the Church’s Mission” which is a 28 day day study of the “General Rules.” I have not had the chance to read through this resource, but it looks excellent and I am looking forward to getting into it. (My first impression, when I was given a copy was that the design and layout is beautiful!)

And the price of this resource is right. You can download it here for free! For more, you can also go to The Indiana Annual Conference’s Wesleyan ConneXion page to download another free resource that contains articles by Richard P. Heitzenrater and William J. Abraham on the relevance of the Wesleyan tradition for contemporary United Methodism.

As I write this on Ash Wednesday, I can’t help but think that using “Watching Over Another in Love ” could be a great way to help you have a holy Lent in preparation for the good news that we will hear again on Easter Sunday. In fact, it would be a great way to take on John Meunier’s recent challenge to focus on what it would look like to “be Methodist” during the forty days of Lent.

Hearing from a 21st Century Class Leader (Part 4)

24 Thursday Feb 2011

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in Accountability, Christian Living, Ministry, Wesley

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

21st Century Class Meeting, Christian formation, class meeting, Nick Weatherford, small groups

This post is the fourth and final post in a series within a series. Broadly, it is a continuation of my series of posts on the Methodist class meeting for the twenty-first century. (Click here for a link to the last general post in this series, which also contains a link to an outline of the rest of the series.) More specifically, this is the fourth post in a series written by Nick Weatherford, who is a member of Munger Place Church and a leader of a Kitchen Group, which is a 21st century class meeting. This series will allow you to hear directly from a lay person who is currently leading a class meeting. In the first post, Nick shared his story with you and talked about the role that being in a class meeting played in his recommitting to a life of Christian discipleship. In the second post, Nick talked about the impact that leading a Kitchen Group has had on his faith. The third post discussed the impact that Nick believes that these groups are having on Munger Place. In this post, Nick talks about the impact that he thinks reclaiming the class meeting for the 21st century would have on contemporary United Methodism. I deeply appreciate the time that Nick has taken in writing this series of posts, which will appear throughout the course of this week. He has agreed to follow the discussion and interact with any comments or questions that you may have, so I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to interact with Nick.

What impact do you think reclaiming these kinds of groups could have on the larger UMC?

I personally believe that the UMC should focus on the roots of the Wesleyan tradition. When I was considering a church, denomination was not particularly important although I certainly had some preconceptions of the Methodist church. I think in many congregations they are probably quite true. However, through getting to know Kevin and Andrew, I have been exposed to John Wesley and the early foundations of Methodism. Munger has made a very conscious effort to embrace that heritage primarily through Kitchen Groups (or as I have learned, what Wesley called “class meetings”). For Wesley, being in these class meetings wasn’t just encouraged, it was required. In fact, for a time it served as your ticket to worship on Sunday. I picked up a book on Wesley and developed a crude understanding of Wesley’s theology and the formation of the early Methodist church. I learned that for a time in American history, the Methodist church grew from being quite small in number to becoming the fastest growing and largest denomination in the country. And, there weren’t even enough preachers to go around!

Wesley understood that assembling people into these class meetings was essential for their spiritual maturity. This was a place where they could watch over one another in love, to encourage each other, to encounter God’s grace and to keep people committed to the task at hand. Wesley understood that group participation and interaction would lead to active membership. The groups would create a system where people heard and shared the gospel each week, and groups would allow the church to grow in number through members being actively engaged in ministry with each other. These early groups were able to raise large sums of money to support charity. The members were active in attending to the needs of the least, last and lost in their communities.

I understand that the UMC overall is declining in numbers, and that most congregations have far more members than folks who attend church any given week. I think many people are unsure of what the Methodist tradition is about, even within its churches. Based on what I have learned from reading up on Wesley and through launching Munger, I believe the heart of the Methodist tradition is an active commitment to the church and to Christ’s ministry of reconciliation. It’s about getting your hands dirty, and committing to give financially and to serve in the community. It’s also about grace. It’s about committing to a group knowing that we are going to struggle but that this participation will ultimately keep us engaged in our relationship with God.

It’s also about seeing salvation as the starting line for your relationship with God. Wesley believed that grace allowed us to respond to God’s call in our hearts, but that we were to engage ourselves daily (methodically!) in reconciling ourselves to who God is calling us to be. I don’t find that people are afraid of expectations. People want to be involved in something that matters and they want know what the principals and theology of their church are. Embracing this is resulting in an active community of believers at Munger, many of whom did not come from the Methodist tradition.

Ultimately though, these groups don’t measure us or grade us. They are certainly not there to pressure us or make us feel guilty. They are there to encourage us and challenge us. They remind us each week that our God is a God of second chances and they help us begin looking at our lives as if our faith and relationship with God was the only thing that matters.

– Nick Weatherford

Hearing from a 21st Century Class Leader (Part 3)

23 Wednesday Feb 2011

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in Accountability, Christian Living, Ministry, Wesley

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

21st Century Class Meeting, Christian formation, class meeting, Nick Weatherford, small groups

This post is the third post in a series within a series. Broadly, it is a continuation of my series of posts on the Methodist class meeting for the twenty-first century. (Click here for a link to the last general post in this series, which also contains a link to an outline of the rest of the series.) More specifically, this is the third post in a series written by Nick Weatherford, who is a member of Munger Place Church and a leader of a Kitchen Group, which is a 21st century class meeting. This series will allow you to hear directly from a lay person who is currently leading a class meeting. In the first post, Nick shared his story with you and talked about the role that being in a class meeting played in his recommitting to a life of Christian discipleship. In the second post, Nick talked about the impact that leading a Kitchen Group has had on his faith. This post discusses the impact that Nick believes that these groups are having on Munger Place. In the final post, Nick talks about the impact that he thinks reclaiming the class meeting for the 21st century would have on contemporary United Methodism. I deeply appreciate the time that Nick has taken in writing this series of posts, which will appear throughout the course of this week. He has agreed to follow the discussion and interact with any comments or questions that you may have, so I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to interact with Nick.

What impact do I think these groups are having on Munger?

The groups are certainly becoming part of Mungers DNA. I hope that we are creating a culture where you will feel like you are missing out if you are not actively in a group. Not because anyone is trying to stand up each week and “sell” you on it, but because someone you know at church tells you what they are experiencing in a group, or even better, because you recognize something different about the Kitchen Group members.

One of the things often repeated about Munger is that it feels like home. I believe group participation really fosters this sense. I have never felt more comfortable walking into a church before and I know that part of that is due to the fact that I am going to see someone from my group across the room or chat with them after the service. Having little communities within our church really makes folks feel welcome and even excited to walk through the doors on Sunday. I can’t speak for everyone, but I have heard folks mention that for that Sunday is now their favorite day of the weekend. I imagine there are several reasons for that at Munger, but I believe that part of it is that the group experience prepares you for worship. On Sunday, we celebrate, but during our meetings we do a lot of the heavy lifting, focusing on our personal ups and downs in our faith journeys with a group of fellow believers. We encounter the grace of the Holy Spirit there. We are more aware of where we stand with God, and more eager and ready to experience His loving presence on Sunday.

From a very practical standpoint, I think the groups are accomplishing a lot of work for the church. Whenever we have a service day, an outreach event or need volunteers, the majority of the folks you will see are in one of our groups. Whatever the Lord is accomplishing in our groups is translating into service amongst the members. Part of this is bound to be the comfort zone of knowing folks at these activities and getting to hang out with your Kitchen Group friends, but I think there is also more to it than that.

– Nick Weatherford

Hearing from a 21st Century Class Leader (Part 2)

22 Tuesday Feb 2011

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in Accountability, Christian Living, Ministry, Wesley

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

21st Century Class Meeting, Christian formation, class meeting, Nick Weatherford, small groups

This post is the second post in a series within a series. Broadly, it is a continuation of my series of posts on the Methodist class meeting for the twenty-first century. (Click here for a link to the last general post in this series, which also contains a link to an outline of the rest of the series.) More specifically, this is the second post in a series written by Nick Weatherford, who is a member of Munger Place Church and a leader of a Kitchen Group, which is a 21st century class meeting. This series will allow you to hear directly from a lay person who is currently leading a class meeting. In the first post, Nick shared his story with you and talked about the role that being in a class meeting played in his recommitting to a life of Christian discipleship. In this post, Nick talks about the impact that leading a Kitchen Group has had on his faith. The third post discusses the impact that Nick believes that these groups are having on Munger Place. In the final post, Nick talks about the impact that he thinks reclaiming the class meeting for the 21st century would have on contemporary United Methodism. I deeply appreciate the time that Nick has taken in writing this series of posts, which will appear throughout the course of this week. He has agreed to follow the discussion and interact with any comments or questions that you may have, so I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to interact with Nick.

What impact has leading a group had on me and my Christian faith?

Leading a kitchen group has helped me to recognize that the Holy Spirit is active and is always amazing. Only a portion of our meetings revolve around Bible study. I have honestly struggled with that part of our meetings. I was so nervous the first couple of weeks. My voice shook as I stumbled through our lesson. I wanted them to be blessed by this experience the same way that I have been blessed. Christ’s story isn’t contained by whatever text we are studying though. He is present in the lives of our group members today and we need to hear that story as well. Each believer, strong or struggling, new to the faith or old, brings something to the group each week that someone needs to hear.

We pray each week that the Lord will be amongst us and I have come to realize that God is present, and that no matter how much I try to run a good meeting, no matter how eloquent my prayer might be, etc., the success of our groups has nothing to do with the leader at all. The Holy Spirit is truly active in our group, wanting to bless us with his presence. You cannot convince me otherwise. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking miracles and conversions here. Sometimes it’s the small steps or just the love of someone reaching out and offering some encouragement from shared experience. But I can see it. I see it in the relationships that are being formed, the changes occurring in people’s hearts and the resolve of the group to stick it out this time. I have also learned that people long for honest interactions about their faith, doubts, struggles and triumphs. It is difficult to share stories of our faith in work and often with our friends and families.

– Nick Weatherford

Hearing from a 21st Century Class Leader (Part 1)

21 Monday Feb 2011

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in Accountability, Christian Living, Ministry, Wesley

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

21st Century Class Meeting, Christian formation, class meeting, Nick Weatherford, small groups

This post begins a series within a series. Broadly, it is a continuation of my series of posts on the Methodist class meeting for the twenty-first century. (Click here for a link to the previous post which also contains a link to an outline of the rest of the series.) More specifically, this series of posts is written by Nick Weatherford, who is a member of Munger Place Church and a leader of a Kitchen Group, which is a 21st century class meeting. The rest of this post and the next three posts will allow you to hear directly from a lay person who is currently leading a class meeting. In this first (and longest) post, Nick shares his story with you and talks about the role that being in a class meeting has played in his recommitting to a life of Christian discipleship. In the second post, Nick talks about the impact that leading a Kitchen Group has had on his faith. The third post discusses the impact that Nick believes that these groups are having on Munger Place. In the final post, Nick talks about the impact that he thinks reclaiming the class meeting for the 21st century would have on contemporary United Methodism. I deeply appreciate the time that Nick has taken in writing this series of posts, which will appear throughout the course of this week. He has agreed to follow the discussion and interact with any comments or questions that you may have, so I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to interact with Nick.

A couple of weeks ago my friend Kevin Watson asked me to contribute a guest post about my experiences in Munger Place small groups to his blog. I must confess that I have been finding excuses not to get started. I have not written about my faith in quite some time and I want to do his great blog justice. Lately, I could talk to you about these things for hours, but putting them down on paper is something entirely different.

First, I thought a little background might be relevant here. I grew up in the church, particularly in the Baptist tradition here in Dallas, TX. I also attended a Christian school here. Therefore, faith was also part of the social structure of my life. It affected my standing at school and I felt like I was always under a microscope. There was pressure to talk the talk. My senior year of high school, I was not required to go to church any longer. Perhaps my mother had hoped that I would desire to go by my own will, but it didn’t happen. I figured I had had enough church: I got it. I didn’t discount it completely but my new found independence did not include anything to do with regular attendance at church. Still, I went off to college counting myself among the faithful. I can’t tell you at what point I started treating Jesus like that friend from childhood that you just didn’t want hanging around anymore, but it happened almost unconsciously for a variety of reasons I’m not exploring here. Anyway, I figured I had it down. I must not need my faith because everything is going great. Besides, I don’t really want to let people in on my little faith secret anyway. I’m having too much fun wrapped up in college and fraternity life. So began my journey through the wilderness of self reliance and self deception. I’ve got the job, the right friends, the house and the car. Weekends are booked. All is well. I was content with those things for awhile. Life was exactly as it was supposed to be. Then, the emptiness started to set in. My answers and my “things” left me feeling spiritually bankrupt. I was empty and aching.

I confess my first attempts to get back into a church were met with the same reluctance that I have felt about starting this blog post. I didn’t really know where to begin again. I dared to pray about it. My brother and his fiancé had been going to the Cornerstone service at Highland Park United Methodist Church. I figured I could tag along safely with them. Well, soon after that I heard about the Munger Place campus that was being started in East Dallas. Then I met the campus pastor Andrew Forrest at the open house. Next thing you know I’m nervously waiting in the car before going up to knock on the door at my first small group meeting (at Munger we call them “Kitchen Groups”).

What has being involved in a small group done for my own Christian faith?

I have come to realize the importance of being called into community with one another and of God’s unrelenting grace. We are not asked to, or intended to do this alone. I would argue from personal experience that our faith will wither away over time if we are not proactively involving ourselves in community with other believers.

I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived for my first meeting. We began with a Psalm, a prayer and then a short Bible study. Next, the question was posed, “How is your life in God?” I had never been asked that question before! What was everyone going to say? I was relieved I didn’t have to answer first. After hearing everyone’s responses I was at ease. This was a group of folks, from different backgrounds and experiences, who were not only willing to, but seemed to look forward to sharing the details of their relationship with Christ. There were other ways given to respond to this same question: “Are you further or closer to where you want to be spiritually?” “When did you feel closest and furthest from God this week?” “When did you most feel love this week?”

I don’t remember what I shared that night. I do remember that everyone listened, was honest and real. There was no pressure for me to pretend I had it together or that everything was perfect. The only expectation was that I show up, and that I share if I was willing. I did not have to measure up to anyone’s standard, this group accepted me as I was, where I was, and were genuinely interested in my personal relationship with the Lord.

Perhaps because of my background, I thought being really actively involved in church was something you did when you were on God’s “good side”, when you were in some sort of right relationship with him and following some set of rules. I have learned that all of us, even our pastors and leaders have rough weeks or periods where they question what God’s will is and whether or not they are brave enough to pursue it. Being honest with others about our faith helps us to be open books before God. Experiencing a little bit of grace each week by being accepted by those in our group with all of our messiness and brokenness has been a gift. I often find I hear just the thing I needed to hear whether it is in the form of encouragement, or if I am being pushed a little bit.

I think we are our own worst enemies and toughest critics. If we are not forgiving ourselves and accepting grace from each other, how can we accept the gift that Jesus has freely given us? The Kitchen Group helps me to do that. And, by more deeply understanding His grace I am more eager to dare to be like Him. So, realizing that we all have the same struggles no matter how long we’ve been at this and that faith does not always come easily for all of us has made participation in our church seem more genuine and authentic to me.

Kitchen Groups foster a community of honesty and personal accountability. The accountability comes not in any prescribed set of rules or confessions (this is not group therapy or a 12 step program) but in learning to understand and respond to all of our experiences, good and bad, through the perspective our relationship with God. I think more about my faith than I ever have in my life, asking myself more and more often “how is my life in God”, even outside of the group setting.

Finally, I think the small group experience provides a sort of spiritual checks and balances. Weeks where I have dragged myself to a meeting because I didn’t like anything that I might have to say for myself, I have gained from the group the strength I need to keep trying. Weeks where I can really feel God’s presence, I am sobered by the struggles of my brothers and sisters and I get to do some encouraging.

I think this helps us learn to approach God even in our weakness, to understand our brokenness. I was reminded just last Sunday that we so often resort to our default answers when we interact with people. Even at Church on Sunday. We smile and say we are doing well when we are asked, sweeping whatever might really be going on under the rug. I am guilty of pretending that I have it together even when I am a mess. At small group I am honest. I am forced to reconcile myself to how I am REALLY doing. I read that it saddens God when we don’t believe that we are totally forgiven and are uncomfortable approaching him. I find that in my life, I sometimes have the hardest time forgiving myself. The group experience helps me do more of that each week.

In contemporary churches, there seem to be ample opportunities for Bible studies and programs, but Kitchen Groups don’t follow any particular curriculum. We just ask you to analyze your own experiences through the lens of faith. What has God revealed to you this week? What do you need to work on? What is holding you back? It doesn’t ask you to measure up to any particular standard other than a genuine desire to be more of who you are being called to be as a follower of Jesus.

– Nick Weatherford

The Methodist Class Meeting for the 21st Century: Where Are They Now?

18 Thursday Nov 2010

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in Accountability, Christian Living, Methodist History, Ministry, Wesley

≈ 22 Comments

Tags

class meeting

It has been awhile since I have added to my series on the class meeting for the 21st century. (If you have missed this series and want to learn more about the relevance of Wesleyan class meetings for the 21st century, click here for the last post and an outline of the entire series.) I recently received a great question from a reader about my post on the class meeting for the 21st century. The basic question was, Are there Methodist churches that have class meetings? The question is so good, I am going to dedicate a post to it.

The short answer is Yes!

In the Dallas-Fort Worth area I have worked with several ministries about starting something like a contemporary version of the class meeting. Here are three different ministries and the way that they have implemented a 21st century version of the class meeting in their unique contexts:

1. Munger Place Church

Munger Place Church is a congregation that was relaunched by Highland Park United Methodist Church. Public worship began at Munger Place just over a month ago. Munger Place has adopted the class meeting as their basic approach to small groups, which they call “Kitchen Groups.” In the first month as a worshiping congregation, Munger has already had a small group launch that resulted in starting five Kitchen Groups. The leaders for these five groups came from a previous small group that began meeting last spring. My family has been part of the leadership team that helped “relaunch” Munger Place and we have been blessed to be involved with Kitchen Groups as well. I am excited by the way that Andrew Forrest, the campus pastor, has embraced the class meeting model and renamed it. When Andrew talks about membership at Munger Place, he always mentions that part of the expectations of membership include involvement in a Kitchen Group. (One caveat: The link to the Kitchen Group page on the Munger website contains a video that is not specifically about Kitchen Groups. The video was actually made by Cornerstone for their small group ministry, which has a bit different emphasis.)

2. S.M.U. Wesley Foundation

This is an example of a way that a United Methodist campus ministry is implementing a Wesleyan approach to small groups. This year, the Wesley Foundation at Southern Methodist University has started both class meetings and band meetings. Every time I meet with the director, Andy Roberts, and intern from Perkins School of Theology, Robert Perales, I leave energized and excited by the ways that both Andy and Robert are pouring themselves into the students at S.M.U. From the conversations with them, I am coming to see campus ministry as a context that is particularly ripe for Wesleyan forms of communal Christian formation. Andy has recently invited me to speak with the students leaders at the Wesley Foundation over a few weeks in the Spring – I can’t wait!

3. Nexus Community, A Church of the Nazarene

Finally, I was invited by Nexus Community, which at the time was part of Richardson Church of the Nazarene and has since become a new church plant, to share with them about the history of Wesleyan small groups and their contemporary relevance. The last time I spoke with them, I broke the congregation up into small groups and we did a “speed class meeting.” This gave everyone a chance to experience a very abbreviated form of the class meeting and dip their toes in the water of talking about their lives with God. Nexus has since started three class meetings, one meets at the church and two meet in the leaders’ homes.

These are just three examples, and I only know about them because of the ways I have been invited to walk beside them as they begin to reclaim the Wesleyan practice of “watching over one another in love.” Do you know of churches that have 21st century class meetings? Have you been in one? Please leave a comment and share your experience!

Generation Rising: A Future with Hope for The UMC

08 Monday Nov 2010

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in Accountability, Book Review, Christian Living, Methodist History, Ministry, Wesley

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Christian accountability, Generation Rising, new book, small groups

Andrew Thompson has written a post about a book that Abingdon will be publishing in the Spring, Generation Rising: A Future with Hope for the United Methodist Church. Thompson is the editor of the book, which features chapters from twelve different younger leaders in the UMC about the future of the denomination. (Click on the link to Andrew’s post to see a list of the authors of the various chapters, the titles of each chapter, and the cover of the book.)

I was thrilled to be asked by Andrew to write a chapter on the role of small groups for the future of the UMC. My chapter gives a brief history of the role of “watching over one another in love” through a form of small group accountability in early Methodism. I then explore the relevance of the past for the present by addressing some of the challenges to embracing this Wesleyan communal practice in the 21st century. Ultimately, I argue that a return to such a practice will be essential for the renewal of United Methodism. I see the chapter I wrote for Generation Rising as a key part of what I have been doing here in my series on the relevance of the class meeting for the 21st century. If you have found that conversation to be beneficial, I hope you will read my chapter.

I am excited to be a part of this project, because I am thrilled to be part of a collaborative effort to give voice to what younger leaders in the UMC think is needed in order for United Methodism to have a future with hope. One of my frustrations about efforts to restore vitality to our denomination is that they typically fail to represent the vision or insights of the people who are the future of the church. This project is one attempt by younger folks in United Methodism to share what our sense is of where we are and what the most promising and hopeful way forward is. It is written by people who love the church and are committed to it.

I appreciate Andrew’s vision, initiative and leadership in conceiving this project, and his work to bring it to fruition. I also appreciate Abingdon Press’s recognition of the importance of giving voice to the experience and insights of younger generations within the church. Ultimately, I hope Generation Rising is only the beginning of a broader conversation about the way forward for the church.

A Sermon for Seminary Students

15 Wednesday Sep 2010

Posted by Kevin M. Watson in Accountability, Christian Living, Methodist History, Ministry

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Becoming, Perkins, sermon

I was asked by the Order of St. Julian, a student group at Perkins, to preach at their chapel service today. Having the opportunity to preach in chapel was a tremendous blessing for me. In my sermon writing process, I typically write a full manuscript. I bring the entire manuscript with me in the pulpit; however, I do not preach it word for word. What follows is not exactly the sermon that I preached, but it is pretty close:

“Becoming”
Revelation 2:1-5
Perkins Chapel
September 15, 2010
Kevin M. Watson

My name is Kevin Watson and I am a PhD student here at SMU studying Church History and Wesley Studies. I am an ordained elder in the Oklahoma Annual Conference of the UMC. I am also married to Melissa, an amazing woman, and we have two children, Bethany Faith, and James Matthew. One reason I am here today is because I am involved in OSJ and I was asked to preach. But really, I am here for three reasons: I am here because of a Spring Break trip to Mexico, because of a question that a professor in seminary asked me, and because I want to ask you the same question.

Let us pray:

I. The first reason I am here is because I went to Mexico for Spring Break when I was a sophomore in college at the University of Oklahoma. That year I had friends who went skiing in Colorado and other friends who went to the beach in Florida. But not me. I went on a high school youth group mission trip to Mexico. Really, on the drive through Oklahoma and then the seemingly endless drive through Texas, I had a pretty bad attitude. I kept thinking about how my friends were skiing or relaxing at the beach, and I was riding in a van with high school students. And to be honest, I was also intimidated because there were more than 100 high school students on the trip, and I hardly knew any of them. In my mind, it was hard to think of anything much worse than being a college sponsor on a high school trip, who felt left out and uncool. My attitude didn’t improve when I realized that we were going to get up at 6 am every morning. At some point, as we got closer to Weslaco, TX, I asked myself, What am I doing on a high school mission trip? Why am I even here?

But I experienced something on that trip that changed my life and that set me on the path that has led me to where I am right now. The group that I was in built a small school room. Actually, the responsible people in the group did the building and I played with the kids at the school, all day every day. And I had a blast. But more important, I felt God’s love for these children so strongly, more strongly than I had ever experienced God’s love before. And I felt God’s love for the high school students I was with. This experience helped me to realize that the love that I so clearly saw that God had for all of these people, God also had toward me. I had already been a Christian before I left for Mexico, but on that trip God’s love became more real to me than it had ever been before. It was as if the love that I read about in Scripture came off the pages of Scripture and came to life in a new and deeper way. And I realized that I wanted nothing more for my life than to respond to this love, to love God back and to be able to learn how to love other people as God loves me.

I am here today in many ways because of that trip. Of course there is much more to the story than that. But today I don’t want to talk about me, I want to ask you to think about your own life, and more particularly about your present: Why are you here?

When did God’s love first come alive in your own life? Do you remember when you were first surprised by the love of God? When you were first overwhelmed by the enormity of God’s love? Where were you? Was it on a trip? Or in your home? Or was it at your church?

Do you remember the experience that you had of the living presence of God that brought you here?

Another way to ask the question would be to ask: What was your first love? What was it that you were initially so passionate about that you began to take the steps that have brought you here today?

In the book of Revelation, John received a vision about the future. In today’s Scripture reading, John relates a message that was given to him specifically for the Church in Ephesus. Ephesus is recognized for its hard work, its perseverance, its inability to tolerate wicked people, and its ability to discern true apostles from false ones. These are not insignificant complements, these are not wicked people. And yet, the part of the message for the Church in Ephesus that really pierces my heart and has stayed in my mind is what seems to me to be a warning that is just a relevant today as it was when John first heard it. It is a message we need to hear today. Listen to the warning: “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”

John’s vision is a plea for the Church in Ephesus to remember its first love. It is a warning that if they forget their first love, that the perseverance, the endurance, the discernment, the hard work will all be for nothing.
This morning, do you remember your first love?

II. More importantly, have you forsaken your first love?

This is a question that is relevant for all of us who are here today. It is relevant for seminary professors, for administrators, for all who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ. Every one who seeks to faithfully follow Christ faces the challenge of trying to keep everything else in life in its proper proportion to one’s allegiance to the lordship of Christ.

And yet, this morning, I want to speak in particular to those of you who are currently in seminary.

I am not all that far removed from being in your shoes. I remember well the excitement, the challenges, the stress, the fatigue, the reading, the papers, the exams, the fellowship, the churches I attended and preached at. And my favorite memory – graduation! It can happen to you too!

My message for those of you who are in seminary is actually pretty simple, I want to implore you to remember your first love. Who are you becoming during your time here? Although this is a question that we should ask ourselves throughout our lives, seminary seems to be a time when it is particularly easy to set it aside. And yet, what more important time in your life could there be to pay close attention to who you are becoming, than right now, when you are preparing, training for pastoral ministry? How can we hope to be effective leaders in God’s Church if we are not becoming more and more like Christ?

During your time here at Perkins, you will be graded and evaluated on many things. There are many factors that will determine whether you graduate – or should I say when you graduate. But you will not be evaluated on whether you are becoming a more mature follower of Jesus.

It is not that Perkins does not care about this. In fact, it is in Perkins’ best interest to have its graduates flood the church with passionate leaders who are deeply committed Christians, whose faith is evident and contagious. Still, your ability to pass or fail a class will not ever be based on the status of your faith while you are in that class.

And yet, it is easy to begin to pay the most attention to what you are being evaluated on. It is easy to worry more about how you are doing in a class than how you are doing spiritually. It is easy to become more concerned about whether you are going to graduate with honors than to be concerned about what kind of person you are going to be when you graduate.

And so I want to encourage you, to beg you to remember your first love! Because, if you forget, if you lose sight of the vision that God gave you, you may begin to learn about the right ways to talk about God, without continuing to talk to God. You may learn about the relationship between the persons of the Trinity, without cultivating a living, breathing relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You may learn about the best ways to read and study the Bible for preaching and teaching, without continuing to allow your soul to be fed and nourished by the Word of God. You may learn about systematic theology, without systematically applying your faith to your own life.

Remembering to stay rooted in our faith and to practice it actively seems basic. But, it is so easy to forget. My observation of the typical seminary experience is that it is busy. There is so much to do and it is often hard to know where it is all going to fit in. And this is before you factor in your family, your work at a church, or your work at another job, and scratching and clawing to try to make progress in the marathon sport of United Methodist known as the candidacy and ordination process.

The Church in Ephesus was not evil, it did so much that was right. But, nevertheless, it forgot its first love. It is so easy to do. Given all of the things that you have to juggle in seminary, it is easy to see how someone could lose perspective.

I almost forgot my first love when I was in seminary. In my second semester, I was disappointed in the results of my mid-term exam in one of my classes. After I got the results, I went to the professors office to ask a few questions about the exam. Really, I think I was whining politely, or complaining respectfully. My professor patiently answered everyone of my questions. And then he asked me a question, “Kevin, how are you doing spiritually?”

This morning, the second reason I am here is because my professor asked me that question. For me, being asked this question was like being stirred from sleep walking. I realized that I had lost focus. I was becoming obsessed with performing, with grades, with an inadequate measure of success. This gentle question helped me remember the deep reason I was in seminary, to prepare to be the pastor of a congregation, in hopes of helping people to come to know the depths of the love of Jesus Christ. And in hopes of helping those who were already followers of Christ to continue cooperating with the grace that God was giving to them so that they could become more holy, more like Christ. From that point, I realized that the consistency with which I was practicing the means of grace was just as important of a measure of my time in seminary as the number of pages I read, or the grades I got in my classes.

As I began to pay more attention to this, I realized that there wasn’t going to be time left over for things like searching the Scriptures, praying, participating in corporate worship, receiving the sacrament of Communion, or Christian fellowship, support, and accountability. I realized that if I wanted to grow in my faith I would have to make it a priority and plan for these important spiritual practices. In what felt like a radical step, I decided to plan first for things like reading Scripture, praying, attending worship, and participating in a weekly accountability group and to be willing to let other things go if necessary.

As it turned out, I rarely had to let other things go. (So this isn’t an excuse to be lazy and not take your academic work seriously.) But, for me it felt like a radical shift in perspective to determine that practicing my faith would always be the first priority. It was hard, and even now there are times when I struggle to cling to the reason I am here, to keep track of who I am becoming. Even this past few weeks, with a dizzying number of things occupying my attention, it was yesterday that it hit me that I need to hear my own sermon. I needed to remember that this is my priority, that this is why I am here. It is so easy to loose perspective. Sometimes we need someone to ask the right question to help us remember who we are becoming and why we are here. So, why are you here? Who are you becoming? How are you doing spiritually?

III. These questions are powerful because they remind us of what is most important. They keep us focused on our deepest goals. And when Christians gather together to ask each other these types of questions, it is far more likely that we will cooperate with the grace that God has given us. That we will grow in our faith. That we will become deeply committed Christians.

When my professor in seminary asked me how I was doing spiritually, it reminded me to tend to who I was becoming. And not long after being asked that question, I joined a small group of people who were similarly concerned for staying focused on our deepest goal, that of becoming more like Christ, learning how to love God more and love others more. This experience was transformative.

And as I began studying the history of Methodism, my own denomination, I discovered that the discipline of “watching over one another in love” as John Wesley called it, through some form of small group accountability was key to the vitality of early Methodism. The class meeting was a small group of 7 to 12 people, where each person was asked the simple question, “How is it with your soul?” For decades, Methodists believed that being a member of a class meeting was basic to what it meant to be a Methodist. In fact until the mid 1800s, according the Book of Discipline, in order to be a member of Methodism, you had to attend a weekly class meeting. In England, Wesley was often known to remove people from the membership rolls for failing to attend their class meeting.

A study of denominations in the United States found that in 1776 American Methodism was a tiny, little-known, and insignificant sect. By 1850 American Methodism had become the largest denomination in the country, by far! One way of glimpsing the dramatic growth of Methodism during this period is that in terms of the overall percentage of religious adherents in this period, the largest percentage increase among groups other than Methodists during this period was Catholics, who increased by 77% from 1776 to 1850. During this same shift Methodism increased by 1,368%! The growth of American Methodism during this period was explosive! One of the reasons for this growth was that every single Methodist met in a weekly small group to check in with one another, to give an account of how they were doing spiritually. In fact, one historian of American Methodism has called the class meeting “the building blocks of Methodism.”

Things have certainly changed in Methodism from 1850 to 2010. But have people really changed so much, that we no longer need to join together with other Christians to watch over one another in love, to support and encourage one another in an intentional, disciplined way as we seek to grow in our faith?

And so, this morning the third reason I am here is because ever since my professor asked me about the state of my soul, I have been burdened to remind others who are preparing to become pastors to tend to their own souls during their time in seminary.

I believe that the most important thing that you can do to ensure that you remember why you are here is to gather together with other people who are determined to do the same thing. The history of the Church that this seminary is rooted in bears witness to this, my own life bears witness to it, as do the lives of the others of us who have been involved in OSJ. We have found that when we come together to ask each other, “How is it with your soul?” We are reminded why we are here. We are reminded to pay attention to who we are becoming.

The reality is that during your time here you are becoming someone. I believe that the number one measure of your success as a Perkins student is whether during your time here you are becoming someone who loves God more and loves other people more.

How are you planning to become the person that you want to be when you graduate? How are you cooperating with God’s grace to become the kind of person you would want to be your pastor? One of the most amazing things to me about God is that God has graciously given us a role to play, we are invited into a relationship, not to be a puppet in a puppet show. So, how are you going to respond to what God has already done in your life?

Have you forsaken your first love?

Do you remember why you are here, really?

How are you going to make growing in your faith during your time here your number one priority? I hope and pray that you give serious attention to this question. Amen.

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