I’ve written before on 4 questions to ask and be asked every week. I participate in a group that asks each other those questions – or something to get at the same – each week. It has been the single most important practice I’ve kept as part of my Christian growth in the past two years. See those questions in “How is it with your soul?” and “2 more questions to ask and be asked every week.”

Those questions, and the groups we’re asking them in, stem from a very early Methodist practice called the “class meeting.” A practice that was at the heart of the Methodist movement/explosion in 18th century England and then in America. A practice that The United Methodist Church has all but forgotten today. A practice that I think could be incredibly life-giving for you, and full of potential for renewal in the church.

A document called “The Nature, Design, and General Rules of the United Societies” is the best, most concise account of how those class meetings developed and the accountability that came along with them. I think it can shed a lot of light on the nature and purpose of these groups and the four questions I think we should all ask and be asked every week.

As usual, it’s in old King James style English, which makes it tough to get through. So I’ve worked on an update. Find it below. Or see a copy of the original here. Enjoy!

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The Nature, Design, and General Rules of the United Societies

Near the end of the year 1739 eight or ten people came to John Wesley in London. They appeared to be deeply convicted of sin and longing for redemption. They asked, as did two or three more the next day, if he would spend some time with them in prayer, and advise them how to flee from the coming wrath, which they saw continually hanging over their heads. So he might have more time for this important work, he set a time when they might all come together — Thursday evening — which from then on they did every week. To these, and as many others as desired to join them (they grew daily in numbers), he gave the advice which he judged they most needed, and they always concluded their meeting with prayer according to their needs.

This was the rise of the United Society, first in Europe, and then in America. Such a society is nothing other than “a company of people having the form and seeking the power of godliness, united in order to pray together, to receive the word of exhortation, and to watch over one another in love, that they may help each other to work out their salvation.”

To more easily discern whether they are truly working out their own salvation, each society is divided into smaller companies, called classes, according to where they live. There are about twelve people in a class, one of whom is designated the leader. It is his/her duty:

1. To see each person in the class once a week at least, in order: (1) to inquire into their spiritual state; (2) to counsel, correct, encourage or urge on, as the occasion may require; (3) to receive what they are willing to give toward the relief of the preachers, the church, and the poor.
2. To meet the ministers and the stewards of the society once a week, in order: (1) to inform the minister of any that are sick, or of any that are idle or disruptive and will not be corrected; (2) to pay the stewards what they have received from their classes that week.

There is only one condition required for admission into these societies: “a desire to flee from the coming wrath, and to be saved from their sins.”

But wherever this desire is really fixed in someone’s soul, it will be shown by its fruits.

It is therefore expected of everyone who continues in the societies that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation,

First: By doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practiced, such as:

• Misusing the name of God.
• Desecrating the day of the Lord, either by doing ordinary work on it, or by buying or selling.
• Drunkenness: buying or selling distilled liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme necessity.
• Slaveholding; buying or selling slaves.
• Fighting, quarreling, brawling, one brother taking another to court; repaying evil with evil or insult with insult; not treating others as ourselves in buying or selling.
• Buying or selling goods without paying appropriate taxes.
• Giving or taking things on usury—i.e., unlawful interest.
• Unkind or useless conversation; particularly slandering or heaping abuse on rulers or on ministers.

Doing to others what we would not have them do to us.

Doing what we know is not for the glory of God, such as:

• Wearing gold or expensive clothes.
• Being diverted by entertainment that cannot be used in the name of the Lord Jesus.
• Singing those songs, or reading those books, that do not lead to the knowledge or love of God.
• Softness and needless self-indulgence.
• Storing up treasure on earth.
• Borrowing without a probability of paying; or taking goods without a probability of paying for them.

It is expected of everyone who continues in these societies that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation,

Secondly: By doing good; by being in every way merciful according to their ability; as they have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all people:

To their bodies, with the strength God provides, by giving food to the hungry, by clothing those needing clothes, by visiting or helping those that are sick or in prison.

To their souls, by instructing, correcting, or encouraging anyone we have any communication with; trampling under foot that extreme doctrine that “we are not to do good unless our hearts are willing to do it.”

By doing good, especially to those who belong to the family of believers or are groaning to belong to it; employing them in preference to others; buying from one another, helping each other in business, and all the more because the world will love its own and them only.

By all possible diligence and frugality, so that the gospel will not be discredited.

By running with perseverance the race marked out for them, denying themselves, and taking up their cross daily; submitting to bear disgrace for the sake of Christ, to be as the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world; and expecting that people will falsely say all kinds of evil of them because of the Lord.

It is expected of everyone who desires to continue in these societies that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation,

Thirdly: By being devoted to all the commands of God; such are:

• The public worship of God.
• The ministry of the Word, either read or explained.
• The Lord’s Supper.
• Family and private prayer.
• Searching the Scriptures.
• Fasting or abstinence.

These are the General Rules of our societies; all of which we are taught to observe by God in his written Word, which is the only rule, and the sufficient rule, both of our faith and practice. And we know God’s Spirit writes all these rules on truly awakened hearts. If there are any people among us who do not observe them, who habitually break any of them, let it be known to the ones who keep watch over that person as those who must give an account. We will warn them of the error of their way. We will put up with them for a season. But then, if they do not repent, they will have no more place among us. We have absolved ourselves.

I’ve also been slowly working toward updates of Wesley’s standard sermons. Find that work here.

“What a lot of us are saying in our private discussions is that we don’t need more Christians.”

A prominent theologian and leader in the evangelical world said that to me recently, and it took me by surprise. He went on to explain a scenario that sounded like several of the other “bubbles” we’ve seen recently.

Remember the dot-com bubble? Or the real estate bubble? In both cases, things got artificially inflated beyond a level of sustainability, and then they burst with a messy splat all over the people holding them. A bubble can go on growing for a while, but ultimately, every bubble is doomed to burst.

This Christian leader was telling me that American Christianity has blown up one of those bubbles, and we’re due for a pretty messy bubble-bursting at some point in the near future.

How we ended up with a bubble

The great Christian movement is a result of discipleship. Jesus called disciples. Then he sent his disciples to “make disciples.” Those disciples made more disciples, and on and on. Discipleship is the lifeblood of the church. ^[1]

As this Christian leader pointed out to me, the primary location for discipleship throughout history has been the home (see “The Best Children’s Ministry in Town“). And when not in the home, in another setting of intimate, mentoring relationships–à la Jesus with his disciples.

And so, in American Christianity–where providing more activities and drawing large crowds have clearly taken precedence over intimate discipleship–we run into a problem:

Essentially, we have a large number of professing Christians, but very few disciples, few leaders, few who see themselves as pastors, or have any expectation of becoming pastors.

In a culture where “church” is more often associated with attending and “shopping” than serious, intimate discipleship, we largely see ministry as something done by a few (e.g. those on stage or those hired to do it) for the masses to consume.

When the ratio of serious disciples to mere attenders gets this far out of balance, you end up with something unsustainable. There simply aren’t enough equipped Christian disciples and pastors who are able to transfer the faith to the next generation. That bubble can keep growing for a while, but eventually it will burst. If you’ve seen some of the shocking statistics about how few youth and young adults are active in the Church today, you know that we may now be seeing signs of collapse. If you see the even more staggering statistics about how much of the church’s giving today is coming from those ages 55 and over, it will show you just how quickly a collapse could come.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about this brilliantly in Discipleship [affiliate link–I highly recommend this new translation]. You should read at least the first chapter on “cheap grace” and “costly grace.” He wrote that in 1937 in Germany. Seventy-five years later, we can look at German Christianity and see the steep decline he expected.

Leaders dealing with the bubble

If you’re a leader of a congregation that has been around longer than you, there’s a decent chance you came into leadership of a congregation that has a lot of Christians, but not a lot of disciples. Your congregation might look a lot like that bubble.

If that’s the case, what do you do? If you devote most of your time to personally discipling a few leaders, will the rest jump ship because they’re not receiving what they want (enough interesting programs and variety; a well-crafted, entertaining weekend event…)?

For anyone living in a bubble, there’s a great fear that we must keep the bubble going. It can’t burst on our watch, or we’ll take a lot of the blame.

And how do you keep a bubble going?

The going wisdom would be to keep doing what created the bubble in the first place… and hope to get out before it bursts. There are surely American pastors right now looking at the financial numbers and wondering whether they’ll have reached retirement before the financial bottom falls out.

The courageous thing to do–the risky thing to do–the most promising thing to do for the sake of the Christian movement–is to invest in the substance that will allow long-term growth. Invest in genuine, intimate discipleship. As much as possible.

That’s courageous because it will come with a cost. You’ll almost surely have to shift your focus from some of the fluffy and flashy options that the bubble-people like.

That makes it risky. It’s likely to lead to a short-term loss in numbers, and in money. It starts slower. Intimate, dedicated discipleship takes time. And it makes high demands of people. Demands that are likely to scare a lot of them away. Remember Jesus asking his disciples, “You do not want to leave too, do you?”

But this investment is the most promising. Attractive, flashy, and fluffy can draw big, excited crowds. For decades even. And it’s not just fluffy that works. People can come and get good, deep substance, but if we don’t require anything more from them, the masses generally won’t go further than to listen and enjoy the good, deep substance. None of that transfers. It creates a bubble, then keeps trying to sustain it until the pop. But if you invest in the discipleship of a few, you invest in a few who can (and are expected to) transfer that faith to a few more, who go to a few more, then a few more. You won’t amaze anyone with the mega-church you build in five years’ time. But the movement that comes out of it–the number of genuine Christian pastors and apostles who come down from that lineage–can be staggering.

Was the Christian leader I mentioned at the start saying that we shouldn’t evangelize? Not at all! He’s quite an advocate for evangelism. What he was saying is that we need to be converting people into real, legitimate disciples. And we already have a huge number of un-discipled Christians on our hands. We need to be converting the pagans and the Christians, alike. Just getting people to say they’re Christian doesn’t cut it, and we’re about to start feeling that.

Notes

[1] Hear these statements as penultimate. Ultimately, and without question, the great Christian movement is a result of God’s love in Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the lifeblood of the Church.

Related articles

• “Where does discipleship lead?” or “The disciples became apostles” (teddyray.com)
• Evangelizing the Christians (teddyray.com)
• Re-evangelizing America with changes in our ministry roles (teddyray.com)
• Time For A New Mission? (doroteos2.wordpress.com)