Using the Historic Wesleyan Plan for Spiritual Formation

From the beginning, John Wesley expected those who received the gospel to demonstrate a wholly Christian character. In his tract, A Farther Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion, John Wesley wrote, "I will not quarrel with you about any opinion. Only see that your heart be right toward God, that you know and love the Lord Jesus Christ; that you love your neighbour and walk as your Master walked; and I desire no more" (Part iii, 1745, in Selections from the Writings of the Rev. John Wesley, MA, p. 293).

There was no room in his movement for "almost Christians." All around him he saw parishes where the bulk of the members called themselves Christians but did not demonstrate the character of a truly converted life. He reviewed what he saw with a special concern for the quality of fellowship within the churches and asked, "Are not the bulk of the parishioners a mere rope of sand? What Christian connection is there between them? What intercourse in spiritual things? What watching over each other's souls?" ("The Almost Christian," John Wesley's Fifty-Three Sermons, ed. Edward H. Sugden, [Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1983], pp. 29-38).

Having proclaimed the gospel to thousands and seen hundreds of conversions, Wesley began to recognize the need to organize a means of nurturing Christian discipleship. The parish churches were wholly unfit to care for the souls of newly regenerate believers. Their clergy tended to undermine the converting experience of saving grace, to which George Whitefield's and the Wesleys' followers testified. They often excluded Methodists from the Lord's Table.

As the concerns grew and the need for oversight became more clear, Wesley and his colleagues began to organize new converts into classes or groups of twelve. Class Leaders functioned as lay assistants who watched over other souls living near one another.

Wesley wrote:

No clergyman would assist at all. The expedient that remained was to find some one among themselves, who was upright of heart, and of sound judgment in the things of God; and to desire him to meet the rest as often as he could, in order to confirm them, as he was able, in the ways of God, either by reading to them, or by prayer, or by exhortation. God immediately gave a blessing hereto. In several places, by means of these plain men, not only those who had already begun to run well were hindered from drawing back to perdition; but other sinners also, from time to time, were converted from the error of their ways. (Selections from the Writings of the Rev. John Wesley, p. 189)

This model had been profitably used in the dissenting churches during the English Reformation and would work well in the midst of the current revival.

John and Charles Wesley first practiced the "method" of Methodism while studying at Oxford. There they formed the Holy Club with George Whitefield and others. These young men "earnestly desired to flee from the wrath to come" and determined to practice the faith of Jesus by way of regular visitation of the poor, the orphaned, the widows, and the imprisoned. They met frequently, sometimes for up to three hours, to search the Scriptures, pray, discuss the faith, and account for their work as emissaries of mercy and as witnesses to the gospel among those in need. Later, under the evangelical preaching of George Whitefield, John Wesley took on the challenge of organizing new converts into classes and societies for the purpose of seeing that the fruit of evangelical conversion matured into lifelong holiness.

Wesley's method for nurturing Christian discipleship became known as the Class Meeting system. Its purpose was to provide for the nurture of the members of the Methodist societies. All members in good standing would "continue to evidence their desire of salvation, First: By doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind; Secondly: By ... doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all; Thirdly: By attending upon all the ordinances of God" ("The Methodist Societies: The Nature, Design and General Rules of the United Societies" vol. 9 in The Works of John Wesley, ed. Rupert E. Davies [Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989], pp. 70-73).Wesley admonished those who were charged with oversight of souls and the maintenance of discipline according to the standard of the General Rules:

If there be any among us who observe them not, who habitually break any of them, let it be known unto them who watch over that soul as they who must give an account. We will admonish him of the error of his ways. We will bear with him for a season. But then, if he repent not, he hath no more place among us. We have delivered our own souls. (The Book of Discipline [Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House, 2000], 103, p. 74)

Methodists were to hold each other accountable on a weekly basis through lifelong participation in a Class Meeting. TheClass Meeting provided a fellowship for mutual support, discipline, and edification. Its members were those who "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." (The Book of Discipline, 103, p. 72)

Following John Wesley's design, classes convened once a week. Everyone was to arrive exactly at the stated hour, apart from some extraordinary reason. The session began at the appointed time with singing or prayer.

According to rules "drawn up" December 25, 1738, each member speaks "freely and plainly, the true state of our souls, with the faults we have committed in thought, word, or deed, and the temptations we have felt, since our last meeting." The leader initiates the sharing and then asks the rest, in order, "as many and as searching questions as may be, concerning their state, sins and temptations" (The Early Methodist Class Meeting, Appendix E, p. 200 or from The Works of John Wesley, 14 Vols. [London: Wesleyan Conference Office, 1872; reprinted, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1979], 8:272-73). The leader reports to the ministers and stewards of the society or congregation.

This method, sometimes referred to as Christian Conferencing, in conjunction with practicing "the ordinances of God," would serve to preserve the faithfulness of the converted and guide them toward "perfection in love." The ordinances of God that the Methodists were to practice were proven means of maintaining a right relationship with God. Jesus both practiced them himself and taught...