Category Archives: Ministry

Munger Place in the News

05 Wednesday Jan 2011

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Mary Jacobs of the United Methodist Reporter has recently written a feature piece on Munger Place Church. Munger is the church that my family has been involved with since it began the process of relaunching about a year ago. Public worship services began in October and have been ongoing since. I have been working on a longer post on Munger in my head for weeks now, but until I get it down here I will say that there are two things that I think Munger Place is doing that offer a model for The United Methodist Church.

First, campus pastor Andrew Forrest is serious about working to reclaim a contemporary equivalent of the early Methodist class meeting. Andrew calls these groups Kitchen Groups, and they are primarily focused on creating a space where people come together to talk about how their journey as followers of Jesus Christ is going – that is the primary purpose and activity of Kitchen Groups.

The second thing about Munger that really excites me is that it is providing an opportunity for a young person with obvious gifts to gain real ministry experience in a growing church. Andrew will graduate from Perkins School of Theology this spring, and as a result is in the process of applying for commissioning as an elder. It excites me that he is not just observing, but leading and even preaching at a church that had 700 people in attendance on its first week in worship and has consistently had 400 people a week in worship since. For all the talk about the need for younger clergy in the denomination, I don’t often see younger clergy given this kind of opportunity to thrive in ministry. If the UMC is serious about attracting the best and brightest of the up and coming generations, it will need to be willing to take risks on gifted people like Andrew.

You can visit Munger’s website here.

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

18 Thursday Nov 2010

Posted by in Accountability, Christian Living, Methodist History, Ministry, Wesley

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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!

Almost Christian

12 Friday Nov 2010

Posted by in Book Review, Christian Living, Ministry

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I recently finished reading Kenda Dean’s new book, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church. As I said in a previous post that recommended several books I have recently read, I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in youth ministry, young people, or the state of the American Church.

To put it differently, if the beginning of Dean’s book doesn’t make you want to read more, then you may not want to read it:

Let me save you some trouble. Here is the gist of what you are about to read: American young people are, theoretically, fine with religious faith – but it does not concern them very much, and it is not durable enough to survive long after they graduate from high school.
One more thing: we’re responsible.
If the American church responds, quickly and decisively, to issues raised by studies like the National Study of Youth and Religion… then tending the faith of young people may just be the ticket to reclaiming our own. As the following pages attest, the religiosity of American teenagers must be read primarily as a reflection of their parents’ religious devotion (or lack thereof) and, by extension, that of their congregations. (3-4)

As Dean says a few paragraphs later, “lackadaisical faith is not young people’s issue, but ours.” (4)

In other words, this book is as much about the current state of the American church as it is about the state of youth ministry or the faith of youth themselves. Dean sees the faith of teenagers as a mirror that shows the American church the faith that it is teaching to them. Part of Dean’s argument is that the church is doing a decent job of forming young people in the faith that they are practicing. The problem is that this faith is “an imposter faith that poses as Christianity, but that in fact lacks the holy desire and missional clarity necessary for Christian discipleship” (6)

Here is the question that should cause American Christians to do some serious soul-searching: “What if the church models a way of life that asks, not passionate surrender but ho-hum assent? What if we are preaching moral affirmation, a feel-better faith, and a hands-off God instead of the decisively involved, impossibly loving, radically sending God of Abraham and Mary, who desired us enough to enter creation in Jesus Christ and whose Spirit is active in the church and in the world today?” (12)

Dean’s work moves beyond Christian Smith and Melinda Denton in Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenages and the National Study of Youth and Religion (NYSR), which was the research that informed the book. Here is the central question that Dean explores in Almost Christian: “How can the twenty-first-century church better prepare young people steeped in Moralistic Therapeutic Deism for the trust-walk of Christian faith?” (22)

The argument of the book, then, contains a detailed description of the problem of the “parasite” of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, several positive examples of what it looks like to “claim a peculiar God-story,” and several descriptive chapters that outline suggestions for “cultivating consequential faith.”

Almost Christian has gained attention in many venues. An article about the book on CNN.com even stirred up some controversy. As of this writing, there are more than 5,000 comments to the article. This is an important book that raises some serious questions, not just about ministry to youth and young adults, but about the contemporary state of Christianity in America.

After reading the book, the question I am left with is: What tools or insights does an intentionally Wesleyan approach to Christian formation offer? Admittedly, this is a question beyond the scope of Dean’s book, but I believe the Wesleyan tradition has a rich contribution to make to attempts to “cultivate consequential faith” in Christians both young and old(er)!

Generation Rising: A Future with Hope for The UMC

08 Monday Nov 2010

Posted by in Accountability, Book Review, Christian Living, Methodist History, Ministry, Wesley

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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

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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.

An Important Wesleyan Voice on the Formation of Youth

30 Monday Aug 2010

Posted by in Book Review, Christian Living, Ministry

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Kenda Dean has written a book which has recently been published by Oxford UP, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church, and it has received a lot of attention over the past week. It started with an article on CNN.com, which you can read here. As of this post, there were almost 6,000 comments to the story! Dean responded to the CNN article with two different responses on her blog. You can read them here and here.

Edit: I initially omitted Dean’s post “Almost Christian” which responds to CNN’s use of the term “fake” in the title of their article. This is the lengthiest post, and it makes explicit that Dean had Wesley’s sermon of the same title in mind when she gave her books its title. This is an excellent post, if you only click on one of the links in this post – click on (and read) this one.

I also just noticed that Sonja Tobey, an elder in the Oklahoma Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, has written a blog post on Dean’s book and the CNN article. Apparently, all the attention is impacting the sales of the book. I am not sure what the sales numbers were for the book before the CNN article, but as of this posting the book is ranked #231 on Amazon.com’s sales rankings, which is the highest sales ranking I remember seeing for a book written by a seminary professor (Dean teaches at Princeton Theological Seminary).

This book has been on my radar for several months, but seeing the CNN article finally prompted me to order it. Here is a brief summary of the book from the Oxford listing:

Based on the National Study of Youth and Religion–the same invaluable data as its predecessor, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers –Kenda Creasy Dean’s compelling new book, Almost Christian , investigates why American teenagers are at once so positive about Christianity and at the same time so apathetic about genuine religious practice.

In Soul Searching , Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton found that American teenagers have embraced a “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism”–a hodgepodge of banal, self-serving, feel-good beliefs that bears little resemblance to traditional Christianity. But far from faulting teens, Dean places the blame for this theological watering down squarely on the churches themselves. Instead of proclaiming a God who calls believers to lives of love, service and sacrifice, churches offer instead a bargain religion, easy to use, easy to forget, offering little and demanding less. But what is to be done? In order to produce ardent young Christians, Dean argues, churches must rediscover their sense of mission and model an understanding of being Christian as not something you do for yourself, but something that calls you to share God’s love, in word and deed, with others. Dean found that the most committed young Christians shared four important traits: they could tell a personal and powerful story about God; they belonged to a significant faith community; they exhibited a sense of vocation; and they possessed a profound sense of hope. Based on these findings, Dean proposes an approach to Christian education that places the idea of mission at its core and offers a wealth of concrete suggestions for inspiring teens to live more authentically engaged Christian lives.

Persuasively and accessibly written, Almost Christian is a wake up call no one concerned about the future of Christianity in America can afford to ignore.

I hope to comment more about the book once I have had a chance to read it. At this point, I just want to note how pleased I am to see that someone like Kenda Dean (who is an ordained United Methodist pastor and graduate of a UM seminary – Wesley Theological Seminary) has written a book that is making a splash in the broader conversation about Christianity in America.

If you are interested in ways that scholarship by Methodists is impacting the broader conversation about the role of Christianity in American life, or if you are interested in the formation of youth in the Christian faith – you should pick up this book. My guess is that we will be hearing much more from Kenda Dean. I can’t wait to read Almost Christian.

Oh, and if you haven’t read the book mentioned in the Oxford summary of Dean’s book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers written by Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, it is also worth checking out.

The Methodist Class Meeting for the 21st Century: The Role of the Class Leader

26 Thursday Aug 2010

Posted by in Accountability, Christian Living, Methodist History, Ministry, Wesley

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This is the sixth post in a series on the contemporary relevance and practical application of the Methodist class meeting. Here is a brief outline of what has been discussed so far:

    1. A brief history of the origin and development of the class meeting in early Methodism.
    2. Discussion of the potential contributions the class meeting can make for 21st century Methodism and compared and contrasted the class meeting to Sunday school classes, small groups and accountability groups.
    3. Discussion of the target audience for the 21st century class meeting.
    4. Top Ten ways to guarantee that your class meeting will fail.
    5. Addressed the concern that classes would be judgmental and exclusive.

In early Methodism, the class leader was a crucial position. The class leader was seen as the spiritual leader of the people in his or her class meeting. They kept track of attendance and visited people who missed the weekly meeting. They also provided support and encouragement as needed. Because the focus of this series is on the contemporary relevance and application of the class meeting, I am going to skip an elaborate fleshing out of the details of the history of the early Methodist class leader, and move directly to a discussion of what this role might look like in contemporary practice. (The “General Rules” and other available sources can be consulted for more information on the function of the class leader in early Methodism. Of course, if you have specific questions, feel free to raise them and I will do my best to address them.)

I believe that the class leader and the ability of churches to identify gifted class leaders will be the single most important factor in the success or failure of a class meeting.

As I currently understand it, the imagery of the class leader as shepherd is helpful for fleshing out the function of the class leader for the contemporary church. The class leader is the shepherd of his or her flock, and as such there are two key things that a class leader should do: 1) go after lost sheep; 2) keep the rest of the sheep moving in the right direction. By lost sheep, I mean someone who stops coming to the class meeting. When this happens, the class leader should be the first person to go after them, expressing that they have been missed, asking if they are doing ok, and asking the person if they are willing to come back to the class meeting.

Second, by keeping the rest of the sheep moving in the right direction, I mean that the class leader is the person who is responsible for making sure everyone has a chance to answer the question, “How is your life in God?” They are also responsible for making sure that something else does not take over the class meeting. For example, that it does not become a curriculum driven group, rather than a place where people watch over one another in love and discuss the current state of their souls. And most boldly, as the shepherd of the flock, the class leader, by the grace of God, seeks to move the class away from sin and closer and closer to mature discipleship.

Finally, at a very practical level, the class leader is the one who runs the meeting. The most important part of this dynamic is that the class leader should begin and end the meeting with a prayer (or ask someone else, in advance, if they would be willing to pray) and then the class leader should begin the meeting by being the first one to answer the question, “How is your life in God?” This is important because it gives an example of how the question can be answered for any new visitors and it eases the anxiety and uncertainty in the group about who is going to go first. After the leader is done, she should ask the next person the question.

At this stage, several things come to mind that the class leader should not do:

The class leader is not a teacher. It is not the class leaders job to come with all of the answers. And it is absolutely not their job to come with a lesson to teach or a topic to study. Class leaders should see themselves as facilitators, not teachers.

The class leader should not allow the weekly meetings to last more than an hour and a half, and a successful class meeting can occur in one hour. Of course there should be freedom for the Spirit to move, and there will be weeks when it is obvious to everyone that the group is not done yet. However, this should be the exception and not the rule. People will stop coming to the class if it becomes a weekly marathon meeting.

The class leader should not allow the class to grow beyond twelve members. As the group grows, the class leader should seek to discern who God may be calling to lead a new class. The class leader should talk to that person outside of the class and express their feeling that they believe this person would be an excellent class leader, and then ask them to prayerfully consider leading a new class. Once a new leader has been identified, the group should divide.

The class leader should not feel the need to respond to every person at every meeting. Often there will be no need for any response to someone’s revelation of how things are going in their life with God. Other times someone besides the class leader will have exactly the right thing to say.

There is much more that could be said, but I am going to stop here (I need to get back to reading). What are your thoughts? What have I missed? What do you think would be crucial for a class leader to do? What would be essential for a class leader to avoid?

Is the Class Meeting Judgmental and Exclusive?

11 Wednesday Aug 2010

Posted by in Accountability, Christian Living, Methodist History, Ministry, Wesley

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This is the fifth post in a series on the contemporary relevance and practical application of the Methodist class meeting. In the first post, I gave a brief history of the origin and development of the class meeting in early Methodism. In the second post I discussed the potential contributions I believe the class meeting can make for 21st century Methodism and compared and contrasted the class meeting to Sunday school classes, small groups and accountability groups. In the third post I discussed the target audience for the 21st century class meeting. In the fourth post I revealed (with tongue somewhat in cheek) ten ways to guarantee that your class meeting will fail. In this post I will discuss one of the main concerns that people have with any form of accountable discipleship – the fear that they will be judged.

One of the main fears or concerns that keeps people from joining a group like a class meeting is that they are afraid they will be judged. Part of the fear is that if I knew who you really were, I would never be able to accept you or continue to love you. And if I don’t meet your expectations, will you exclude me? Will I be told I am not good enough?

Judged. Excluded. Nobody likes to feel either judged or excluded. Most people will actively avoid placing themselves in situations where they know in advance they will feel judged or excluded. And The United Methodist Church has spent millions of dollars on an add campaign that, among other things, tries show that the UMC is neither judgmental nor exclusive.

So, how does this relate to the class meeting?

If we are honest, the class meeting is unavoidably a place where judgments are made. And it is a place of exclusion. But it makes all the difference in the world what judgments are made and what is excluded.

In contemporary Methodism, one of the quickest ways to dismiss something is to label it as judgmental or exclusive. Could it be that there is a place for both in the Church and in the Christian life?

Again, what we are excluding makes all the difference in the world. The first Methodists were obsessed with trying to figure out how best to exclude sin from peoples’ lives. They were clear that there are things that are not of God, that keep us from growing in our relationship with God. If we are to pursue growth in holiness, these things must be excluded. They are not neutral. It is not a matter of indifference if they are allowed to reign over our lives.

I doubt that many people would argue that Christians should not try to remove sin from their lives. The next part may be more contentious. One way of understanding early Methodism is that it excluded people who were not serious about following Christ. The Methodist movement was not designed to make people comfortable in listless apathetic discipleship. Rather, it was designed to help people experience the fullness of the abundant life that God offers every single person in Christ.

Hear me carefully: I believe that contemporary Methodism should welcome every single person, should reach out to every single person with the good news of what God has done for them in Jesus Christ. The gospel is not only for some, it is for everyone. In that sense the message of contemporary Methodism should be radically inclusive. But I do not believe that contemporary Methodism should pass out cheap grace. I do not believe we should tell people that it is ok if they profess faith in Christ, but do not allow it to impact the way that they live their lives.

I don’t have the implications of this fully worked out. I think that Methodism needs to wrestle a bit with whether excluding people who are not interested in following Christ may be necessary in order to help those who are to grow in their faith. Ultimately, the way I would see this working right now, it would not literally involve excluding people from the UMC, but it would involve intentionally not catering to people who are interested in the church only because it makes them feel comfortable, because it is their country club. The efforts and energies of the church should be fully focused on proclaiming the good news and inviting people into the new way of life that is available in the light of this news. This way of life excludes sin in order to more fully love God and serve others. In American culture today, I believe that something like the class meeting has enormous potential to help people live more fully into this new way of living.

What about judgment?

I want to say two things about judgment, as it relates to the class meeting for the 21st century. First, the fear of being judged, seems to me, to be related to a deeper issue – trust. Imagine having lunch with a perfect stranger, someone you have never met. How would you feel if they began to express concerns about the way that you were living your life? Probably not good.

Now imagine having lunch with the person you trust and respect more than anyone else in the world. How would your reaction be different if they expressed similar concerns? I hope your reaction would be very different. There are a handful of people in my life, who, if they sat me down and expressed concerns about the decisions I was making, I would listen very carefully. There are people whom I trust and respect so much that my instinct would be that they could see things about my life more clearly than I can. I would listen and likely take their advice because I know that they love me. I know that they care about me more than about whatever part of my life we are discussing.

My point is this: I am not sure it is healthy to avoid ever being in situations where you are judged. In my own life, I know that it would make me incredibly vulnerable to self-deception or to rationalization. When it comes to being judged, the identity of the person making the judgments makes all the difference in the world.

Having said that, I don’t think the contemporary class meeting is best conceived as a place where other people make judgments about your life. In the classes I have been a member of, it has been rare for someone to judge me or call me to account for something.

This leads to the second point about judgment, the primary person judging you in a class meeting is yourself. The class meeting is a place where you take a weekly inventory of your own life. You make judgments about how things are going in your life with God. Some weeks you will judge that things are going very well, that you have been particularly aware of God’s grace and have cooperated with this grace. Other weeks, for whatever reason, you will judge that things are not going very well. On other occasions, you may be doing everything right, and yet, God seems strangely distant. The point is that in a class meeting, it is not the group’s job to tell you about your relationship with God, or evaluate it. Rather, you are telling the group about your experience from the past week.

Sometimes judgment and exclusion are the bogey men of the Church. Our fear of them can cause us to forget that they are descriptive terms, that can describe harmful events in some contexts and healthy, even necessary, events in other situations. The class meeting has the potential to be a place that is judgmental and exclusive in a negative sense. However, if this happens it is a malfunction of the class meeting, and not its best use. On the other hand, the class meeting has the potential to create a place where we can gather together to make judgments about our own lives with God, with the goal of removing (or excluding) the things that are hindering our growth in grace and nurturing the things that are an asset to our discipleship.

What do you think?

Top Ten Ways to Guarantee that Your Class Meeting will Fail

09 Monday Aug 2010

Posted by in Accountability, Christian Living, Methodist History, Ministry

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This is the fourth post in a series on the contemporary relevance and practical application of the Methodist class meeting. In the first post, I gave a brief history of the origin and development of the class meeting in early Methodism. In the second post I discussed the potential contributions I believe the class meeting can make for 21st century Methodism and compared and contrasted the class meeting to Sunday school classes, small groups and accountability groups. In the third post I discussed the target audience for the 21st century class meeting. In this post I will give you the top ten ways to guarantee that your class meeting will fail.

Yep, you read that right. Is there a lot of pressure in your church, district, or annual conference to start a class meeting in your church? But you don’t really like the idea? Well, here is how you can start one, but torpedo it. If you do these ten things, I guarantee that your class meeting will be an utter failure.

(In case you missed it, that was an attempt at humor.)

On a more serious note, the intent of this post is to identify some of the major things in small group dynamics that can undermine the vitality or long term success of a group. If you are serious about starting something like a class meeting today, you will need to think about how you are going to address some of the challenges that come with starting such a group. Some of the things I will mention can be pretty touchy, and may even make people angry if you call them out on it in the moment. One strategy that can help the group be aware of some of these dangers is to name them before they become a problem. There is a decent chance on any given day nearly everyone in the group will struggle with at least one of these things. Finally, humor can be a way to address serious things in a way that people can hear more easily. So, talking about how to guarantee the failure of a class meeting can be a disarming way to name some things that might make people feel a bit defensive.

Ok, without further ado, here are the “Top Ten Ways to Guarantee that Your Class Meeting will Fail”:

#10: Never start one.

This one is pretty straight forward. The easiest way to guarantee that your class meeting will fail is to talk about it and consider it, but never actually start one.

#9: Meet at an inconvenient or irregular time.

Another way to ensure that your class meeting will fail is to meet at a time that many people who would like to join the group simply cannot attend. This is probably the one that is most obvious, and least likely to be the downfall of a sincere effort to start a class. The more likely obstacle would be failing to meeting regularly and consistently. The group is most likely to succeed if the group meets at the same time and place every week. It may not necessarily be fatal to the group, but if the meeting place changes, someone will inevitably show up at the wrong location one week. Similarly, if the group is meeting at your house and the group does not meet at the same time each week, you will inevitably have someone forget when the group is meeting and show up at your house expecting to meet.

#8. Turn the class meeting into a curriculum driven group.

About 3 – 6 months after the group starts meeting, people will begin to get restless and wonder what is next. A well-intentioned person may suggest that the group read and discuss a book they just read that really inspired and challenged them in their walk with God. If and when this happens, there needs to be a gentle stubbornness by the group, and particularly the leader, that the group is not going to become a study group. Bible studies and other study groups are not bad, but they are not class meetings. For a class to succeed today, the group needs to have a deep commitment that the purpose of the group is to take a weekly inventory of how things are going in each person’s life with God.

#7: Forget the differences between classes and bands.

Classes are groups with men and women, married and single people all together. The group should have somewhere around 7 to 12 people in it. The point of the group is to weekly gather to support and encourage each other in the common goal of growing in faith and being transformed by the grace of God. The basic question of the group is: “How is your life in God?”

Bands are groups that are either all men or all women, and are sometimes also divided based on whether the members are married or single. Bands should have about 5 people in them. The point of bands is to bring actual sins that have been committed into the light, to encourage one another in the common goal of pursuing entire sanctification, or being made perfect in love for God and neighbor. The basic question of the band meeting is: “What sins have you committed since our last meeting?”

If someone thinks they are joining a class, but it functions like a band meeting, they will likely feel that they are in over their heads. Further, there is a greater degree of spiritual maturity required of the band than there is in the class meeting, so if people jump straight into the bands before they are ready, a host of issues can arise.

#6. Select the leader based on anything other than spiritual maturity and spiritual leadership.

The role of the leader in the class meeting is important. They are the one who will gently move the conversation on as needed, ensure that every person has a chance to talk, and otherwise facilitate the meeting. A class meeting that has a spiritual leader of maturity leading the group will have a key person in place to guide the group through its development and through challenges the group may face. This person is also a key person for helping to set the tone for the group by being the first one to answer the question “How is your life with God?” every week and by keeping the group focused on its purpose.

#5. Allow one person to dominate the conversation.

My guess is that this is one that basically every group will struggle with. For one thing, classes will be most comfortable for people who like to talk and process things by talking about them. This is one area that is particularly important to address up front. At the beginning of a new class meeting, the leader should stress that it is important that every person be given the opportunity to talk. The leader may even want to acknowledge that some people talk more easily than others, they may need to challenge themselves to be more concise and aware of how long they have been talking. On the other hand, those who are less comfortable talking may need to challenge themselves to talk a bit more. If this is addressed up front, then it will not seem as personal if the leader gently suggests that the conversation needs to move to the next person during a meeting.

When this needs to happen, and it will need to happen, the leader should not say, “You have been talking for too long, let’s move on.” Almost always, when someone talks too long, even though everyone else may be suffering over how long they have been talking, the person who is actually talking has no idea how long it has been. The best approach is to gently interrupt by thanking them for sharing, briefly identifying one thing they have said that was particularly appreciated, and then simply asking the next person the question, “How is it with your soul?” or “How is your life in God?” The person who is interrupted may feel embarrassed, but if the leader moves the attention to someone else, the person who is embarrassed won’t have to have the double embarrassment of having the attention be on them.

By the way, this one hits pretty close to home for me, because I am one of the people who processes things by talking. As a result, I have to really work to be aware of how long I have been talking. I also have to work on being concise. (I mean, look how much I just wrote about this… just be glad we weren’t talking about this one in person!)

#4. Have all the answers.

This is a catch-all for several ways to ruin a class meeting. In small group dynamics there is often an expert who emerges in the group. You probably know what I am talking about, someone who has all the answers. They are the only person who fails to realize when a rhetorical question has been asked. To them, every question has an answer. And they always know what the answer is. These people also have the best of intentions. They are passionate about their faith and are eager to share what they have learned with others. They really believe they are helping. However, one of the best ways to stifle a conversation is by being a know-it-all. Other people in the group will be less likely to be vulnerable and share doubts, anxieties, or concerns that they are having if there is one person who always has everything figured out and leaves no room for other people to be in flux, or working through things.

Another way this can manifest in a group is if the leader sees herself as a teacher, not a facilitator. This can be deadly, because if the leader is the one causing the problem, it will be very difficult for the group to overcome. So, if you are involved in starting something like a class meeting, know that it is not your job to have a solution to every problem that people in your class raise. You are not there to teach people how to be better Christians, you are there to walk with them as they seek God’s transforming grace. And, you are there because you need them to walk with you as you seek God’s transforming grace in your own life.

One more thing: If you have been in a lot of small groups and have never noticed that this is sometimes a problem of small group dynamics… you are probably the one with all the answers. (Sorry, someone had to tell you.)

#3. Hide during the meeting.

I don’t mean literally hiding, like behind the sofa… though that would certainly be a problem, and really weird. By hiding I mean either not talking or not being honest about what is really going on in your life with God. This doesn’t mean that the class meeting is the place for your to bring all the skeletons that have been in your closet. In fact, the class meeting is not the place for that.

Members who have had a bad week, may be tempted to gloss over their struggles by saying that things have been fine, or ok. If you are in a class meeting for an extended period of time, you will almost certainly have weeks where it is NOT well with your soul. It it ok to be honest about that. In fact, it is vital for the future wellness of your soul to be honest when things are not going well. When it is not going well in your life with God, this is the time when the class meeting may be the biggest means of grace in your life. If you are honest, you will realize you are not alone. You will receive sympathy and prayers from the group. And in verbalizing your spiritual malaise, you may learn about what is going on in your life with God.

Related to this, there is also sometimes a tendency in class meetings to feel like you have to one-up yourself every week. Resist this temptation. Simply be honest and real.

#2. View the group as a place to gather gossip.

One of the best ways to destroy a class meeting is by breaking the confidence of the group. It needs to be clearly said that what is shared in the class meeting is confidential. It is not a topic of conversation with friends or family members outside of the group. If there is some reason that talking with someone else might be helpful to the person who shared, what was said in the group can only be shared with someone outside of the group if the person who shared it gives their permission.

If you struggle to keep secrets, or to keep things to yourself, the class meeting may not be for you. Confidentiality is not optional.

#1. Be unwilling to be challenged to grow in your faith and be transformed by the grace of God.

The class meeting is an invaluable asset for people who desire to grow in their faith and seek to be transformed by the grace of God. When people gather together to support and encourage one another, God will also be there. The class meeting, however, is not for those who do not want to be changed. It is not for those who are content to profess faith in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit on Sunday morning and then live the rest of the week as if there is no God. The class meeting is for those who want to a tool that will help them check in to see how their faith is impacting their life.

All of the concerns about what might go wrong cannot be addressed in advance. We are messy people. We are good at sinning. Something could go wrong. But, if we believe that the Holy Spirit is active and present with us, we don’t have to have everything mapped out in advance. We should be prudent in doing what we can to make a group like a class meeting as likely to succeed and be a blessing to its members as possible. However, we should also leave room for the Spirit to guide and direct each meeting.

Nearly in the top ten: Meet for more than 1.5 hours

Initially, the desire to allow the meeting to continue comes because something exciting is happening in the group. Someone has some sort of breakthrough and the group wants to allow them to process it. This is well and good, and even ok if it happens occasionally. However, it should be rare. If a weekly meeting consistently lasts longer than an hour and a half, people will begin to feel exhausted just by the thought of going to the group. The leader of the group should remember that a commitment to attend a group once a week for 1-1.5 hours is already a big time commitment. Leaders should work to formally end the meeting on time by closing with a prayer. Conversation can certainly continue among those who wish to stay, or talk at their cars. But formally ending the meeting gives those who need to leave the opportunity to do so.

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The Methodist Class Meeting for the 21st Century: Who Is This For?

04 Wednesday Aug 2010

Posted by in Accountability, Christian Living, Methodist History, Ministry, Wesley

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This is the third post in a series on the contemporary relevance and practical application of the Methodist class meeting. In the first post, I gave a brief history of the origin and development of the class meeting in early Methodism. In the second post I discussed the potential contributions I believe the class meeting can make for 21st century Methodism and compared and contrasted the class meeting to Sunday school classes, small groups and accountability groups. In this post I will discuss the target audience for the 21st century class meeting.

Simply put, class meetings are designed for anyone who wants to grow closer to God. As I mentioned in the last post, they can help ensure that people do not fall through the cracks in a church. Classes also help people be self-aware of what is happening in their lives as Christians. What difference is their faith making in their life? And they provide a place for people to talk with other people who want to grow closer to God about what is happening in their life with God.

In the last post, John Meunier raised an important issue. John wrote: “Didn’t the class leader have a role that included giving advice and/or reproof as needed? It seems like that would be felt as more intense to most people today. Not as intense as the bands, but more intense than many folks want.”

As far as I can tell, John is right. I think there would be resistance to joining something like a class meeting among many people for two reasons: 1) Generally speaking, Methodists have not been in the habit of talking about their lives with God for a long time. 2) Contemporary Methodism’s desire to avoid being judgmental or condemning has led to an almost total abandonment of any real standards or expectations for its members. This was illustrated recently by, of all people, Jon Stewart who said that Methodism was like the University of Phoenix of religions, you pay $50 check “I agree” and you are saved. Stewart has perhaps given Methodism too much credit for having membership standards – because there is no cost currently associated with being a Methodist.

So, at one level people might be uncomfortable because they are being asked to talk about something they aren’t used to talking about with other people. At another level they might be uncomfortable because they are being asked to make a meaningful commitment to join together with a small group of people with the purpose of growing in their lives with God.

My response is that comfort is not the best indicator of whether or not something is good for you, or whether you need to do something.

For my first two years as a Ph.D. student, I did not take good care of my body. I did not exercise and I ate whatever sounded good. This approach was, generally speaking, very comfortable. Recently, I committed to exercise 20 minutes or more at least 3 times a week. The first time I ran (using that word very loosely!) was not comfortable, in fact it was painful. I thought I might throw up at the end of those first 20 minutes and the next day my legs were sore. I am slowly getting in better shape, but running (using that word just a bit less loosely now) is never comfortable for me.

This may not be the best example, but we could easily come up with many other examples of how comfort is not necessarily a good or accurate indicator of right or wrong, or of what is best for us.

More directly to John’s concern, in my experience people who are gifted at leading groups like class meetings are quick to listen and both cautious and sensitive about offering advice or correction. At this point, I am going to set this aside, because I plan on writing more extensively about the role of the class leader in future posts – which is what I think is primarily at issue here.

So far I have argued that the class meeting is for everyone who wants to grow closer to God, but I have also admitted that it will likely intimidate many people who sincerely desire to grow closer to God. What is the best way to address this tension?

This is a key place where pastors and lay leaders have an opportunity to challenge people to move outside of their comfort zone. An effective way to address this tension would be for the person who has the vision for starting groups like this to acknowledge that the thought of joining something like this might be a little bit scary, but that is actually a very normal reaction. One thing I have done to ease this tension is to make the first meeting more of an information session, where people will have the chance to learn more about the group, what its goals are, and why someone would benefit from being a part of it. I always stress that people who are interested, but not sure if this is for them should come, that coming to the first meeting is part of discerning whether this is for them. It is NOT a commitment to join the group. In other words, you can give people the freedom to come and learn more, without feeling like showing up means they are going to be forced to permanently join.

More importantly, anyone who is trying to start these type of groups needs to be able to make the case for why facing the fears or discomfort that will result from getting involved will more than offset the initial discomfort. If someone has been part of a group like this before, it would be very appropriate for them to share the hesitation they may have initially had to joining and then to share the ways that the group was a blessing and actually did help them grow closer to God.

Ultimately, I believe there are a significant number of Methodists who want to grow closer to God so much so that they are willing to move outside of their comfort zone and take a risk if they are convinced that the risk is likely to help them actually grow in their faith. The key, then, will be to make a persuasive case that this type of group is a key tool to that end. It might not hurt to remind them that for our spiritual ancestors, it was believed to be an indispensable tool.

What do you think? Have you been in a group like this? Did it help you grow closer to God?

If you are just joining this conversation, welcome! Please continue to feel free to ask any questions that this post may have raised for you. You can email me directly at deeplycommitted at gmail dot com or leave a comment on this post.