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Small groups enable disciples

BY DIANA L. HYNSON

The Godhead is a small group.

We relate to God as Father/Creator, Son and Holy Spirit: a community, if you will, of ways of being and knowing God.

In the Creation story, Genesis tells us that the man was given other creatures, and then the woman, for community. It is not good that they - or we - should be alone (Genesis 2:18-22).

We relate to others in a holistic and unified system. Paul describes the Christian community as a body; particularly the Body of Christ, in which no single part takes precedence over the rest.

Indeed, he tells us, the "weaker" members are "indispensable" and those whom we think "less honorable we clothe with greater honor." He goes on to affirm that when "one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it"

(1 Corinthians 12:12-26).

There is no question that our biblical mandate is to be with one another, including those whom we would prefer to reject, and in the church, we best nurture these relationships in small groups. Furthermore, each of the groups should have a biblical/theological reason for being.

There is tremendous power in groups. Group life is at the heart of our ministry as we worship, study, serve and grow together spiritually. Think about what would be missing if there were no groups: no Sunday school or choir, no worship or fellowship, no community gatherings or self-help partnerships.

How could we do what we now do, and more importantly, how could we be who we are as the body of Christ, without the benefit of small groups?

John Wesley understood the power and benefit of small groups. When his renewal efforts in the Church of England began to bear fruit, Wesley devised the Societies to help organize, nurture and edify the believers. The Societies met regularly for fellowship and support to "flee the wrath to come."

Their efforts centered in at least four significant areas: prayer, confession, reporting on the state of their souls (including faults committed and temptations), and collecting what alms they could for the relief of the poor.

One obvious goal of these groups was the spiritual growth of its members. A second related goal was one of cultivating spiritual leaders, not just followers, who helped to spread scriptural and social holiness throughout the community and the land.

Wesley's principle "congregation" in his vast itinerancy throughout Great Britain, was people from the more humble classes. Many of them were poor themselves, and living conditions in the poorer areas of London, for example, were squalid at best.

Yet one of the requirements of the Society was to receive a collection of one pence per week from those who could afford it.

Through those pennies, Wesley and his fellow Methodists began schools, clinics, meeting places, microlending programs, and much more.

When we think of "small groups" in the church, we may automatically assume that they are all prayer or study groups, and certainly those groups are included.

The Societies met for devotional purposes, and we have no trouble finding the Scriptures that urge us to those practices. It is typical to understand devo-tional groups praying, confessing, and testifying on the state of their souls, though they will do that with varying degrees of depth and spiritual maturity.

Think about a spiritual growth group that you attend or have attended. Did all the members confess the faults they had committed and the temptations to which they succumbed? And if they did, was there any kind of accountability?

Imagine what each small group in your church would look like if every group:

• member could articulate the biblical theological reason for being.
• was evaluated according to its biblical theological basis in order to continue.
• gathered for fellowship, recreation, administration, devotion, study, finance, self-help or support, mission, and evangelism used the four foci (prayer, confession, testimony, and relief) as a way of being and a way of evaluating whatever they do.
• member found a partner in support and accountability to work toward greater spiritual depth and reconciliation of faults and temptations.
• took serious responsibility for relief of "the least of these" as Jesus described them in Matthew 25.
• member accepted the role of spiritual leader and diligently attended to that role as a model for others.

It is clear that John Wesley felt that his Societies, classes and bands were to engage in faith formation to strengthen their members as Christian disciples. This heritage and mandate are still with us, as each church accepts its biblical call to be a partner with God in disciple making.

Through small groups in the church, we have a tremendous power and vehicle if we form and attend to them with Wesley's criteria in mind.

Rev. Diana L. Hynson, an Elder in the Baltimore-Washington Conference, is Director of Learning and Teaching Ministries /Director, Church Vitality Indicator at the General Board of Discipleship in Nashville, Tenn.

Seminary offers training for churches

By Katherine Brown

The Wesley Ministry Network began four years ago with a mission to bring the best of seminary scholarship to the local church.

Three courses were released that first year, and the response was

consistently encouraging. Bishop Richard B. Wilke, founder of Disciple Bible Study, called Wesley Ministry Network "the perfect follow-up to Disciple Bible Study."

The Christian Century magazine said, "It is hard work to embrace the fullness of the Christian faith while also responding to the challenges of modern critical inquiry. Wesley Ministry Network offers further resources to do just that."

Wesley Ministry Network has since released four more courses, including the recently published "Devotion to Jesus: The Divinity of Christ in Earliest Christianity." An eighth course, "Religion and Science: Pathways to Truth," will be released this summer.

"Devotion to Jesus" explores essential questions about Christian origins: What did Jesus' earliest followers believe about him, and when did they believe it?

Professor Larry Hurtado of Edinburgh University, the course teacher and one of the world's leading experts on early Christianity, explains: "How does a man people knew, who himself professed the one God of Israel, come to be reverenced as divine? Yet the devotion given to Jesus in earliest Christianity is remarkable, and right at the heart of Christianity even from its earliest days."

"Religion and Science" brings together more than a dozen leading American and British theologians and scientists, including two Nobel Laureates, to con-sider the interrelationship of religion and science.

The course is hosted by Dr. Francis S. Collins, director of the Human Genome Project and author of the best-selling book, "The Language of God." The course was produced with a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

These courses - challenging, enlightening, and relevant - are in line with the Wesley Ministry Network's commitment to making top-quality scholarship available to churches in a way that engages and empowers clergy and laity alike.

"Our goal is to strengthen the ministries of the local church by equipping participants for discipleship that engages both the heart and the mind," says Professor Craig Hill, Director of the Wesley Ministry Network.

The courses both provide information and structure formation: course design covers group discussion as well as the Bible study done between sessions. This approach has been consistent since the network's inception, as has the goal of enabling lay leadership. A leader training DVD was produced last year and is included in every course kit.

Bishop Kenneth L. Carder, Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry at Duke Divinity School, says, "Wesley Ministry Network effectively connects local congregations and seminary-quality scholars; and this connection furthers the church's ability to connect to the world. Individuals and groups are invited to wrestle with basic questions of faith, nurtured in deeper relationship with God, and equipped to more closely connect their faith and their work."

Wesley Ministry Network courses are in use nationwide and in a dozen countries, in settings that range from traditional Sunday classes to home-based small groups. The materials elicit consistent responses, such as "thought-

provoking" and "powerful."

"The truth is that most church people have relatively little chance to talk about theological matters," said Ed McClellan of First Presbyterian Church in Bloomington, Ind. "These materials fill that void. The Scripture readings and the questions prepared us well, and it was wonderful to hear distinguished speakers on all these theological questions."

The Rev. Amy Yarnell of Chesapeake City Charge, found participants so engaged in their Wesley Ministry Network course that they "talk seriously about wanting to take it again next year because it is so good and they want to glean even more information from the study."

The Rev. Connie Paulson has led three different courses at Millian Memorial UMC in Rockville and is "tremendously impressed." "The questions pushed the group to analyze information and apply insights to their Christian faith," she said. The materials' ease of use also made it easier to find volunteers to help lead the sessions.

Mike McCurry, former White House Press Secretary and Wesley Theological Seminary board member, explains, "The Wesley Ministry Network helps structure for lay people and clergy alike a journey that's deeper and better than typical Christian education materials - you get an adventure that leads to a richer understanding of who we are as people of faith; a seminary-level course that every congregation can find accessible and enjoyable."

Thinking and vital discipleship; living connection between the church's

traditions and modern life are key to this curriculum. Wesley Ministry Network stands squarely in the Wesleyan tradition, which seeks to "unite the two so long disjoined - knowledge and vital piety."

For more information about any of Wesley Ministry Network's courses, log on to www.wesleyministrynetwork.com or phone 202-885-8607. Wesley Ministry Network courses may be ordered directly or through Cokesbury (http://www.cokesbury.com/).

Practicing the 'means of grace'

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, believed that Jesus is God's means of grace.

For Wesley, disciples developed and matured by "means of grace," which consisted of works of piety (spiritual disciplines) and works of mercy (doing good to others).

According to Wesley, means of grace are: "...outward signs, words, or actions, ordained of God, and appointed for this end, to be the ordinary channels whereby he might convey to men, preventing, justifying or sanctifying grace."

Wesley talked about a variety of works of piety,

including prayer, searching the Scripture, receiving the Lord's Supper, fasting, participating in Christian com-munity and healthy living.

Wesley's works of mercy included doing good, visiting the sick and prisoners, feeding and clothing those in need, earning, saving and giving all one can, and opposing slavery.

To read a copy of Wesley's sermon on "The Means of Grace" see http://gbgm.umc.org/umhistory/wesley/-sermons/16.

Sunday School transforms teachers, too

Teaching Sunday School is a ministry that develops disciples of all ages.

But too often, volunteers are drafted into teaching without the training or resources to help them to shape the lives of their students in meaningful ways.

The General Board of Discipleship offers an 8-page Comprehensive Plan for Teacher Development for United Methodist Churches.

See: http://www.gbod.org/education/cptd.pdf

The quotes in on this page are from Mary McLeod Bethune, a United Methodist educator who lived from 1875 to 1955.

In the square outside of Lincoln Park UMC in Washington, D.C., is a statue of McLeod Bethune. It is the first statue of a woman or an African American erected in the city's parks.

McLeod Bethune, founder of Bethune-Cookman College, also served as a New Deal government official and was one of the highest

ranking women in the Roosevelt administration.

She was a delegate to General Conference from 1928 to 1944 and was instrumental in the Sunday School movement.