How Is It With Your Soul?: Class Leader's Manual for Use With This Day - Hardcover

Stringer, Denise

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0687066972 ISBN 13: 9780687066971

Publisher: Abingdon Press, 2004

Synopsis

Stringer, Denise L.

About this title

About the Author

Denise Stringer graduated from Princeton with a concentration in New Testament and Christian Education. She holds degrees in pastoral care and counseling. Currently she serves a local United Methodist Church in New York. Dr. Stringer is the author of Paul and the Romans, The Kingdom Sayings of Jesus, FaithQuestions: What About the Rapture, and has written for Adult Bible Studies.  Her most recent publication is How Is It With Your Soul, a companion piece for class leaders and program directors to be used with This Day.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

How Is It With Your Soul?

Class Leader's Manual for Use With This Day

By Denise L. Stringer

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 2004 Abingdon Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-687-06697-1

Contents

FOREWORD, 
INTRODUCTION, 
1. USING THE HISTORIC WESLEYAN PLAN FOR SPIRITUAL FORMATION, 
2. OUR WESLEYAN HERITAGE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN PIETY, 
3. NURTURING DISCIPLESHIP THROUGH THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY WESLEYAN CLASS MEETING SYSTEM, 
4. THE METHOD OF THE CLASS SESSION, 
5. THEOLOGY AND THE METHOD OF METHODISM IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, 
6. PLANNING FOR GROUP DIVERSITY, 
7. ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF PRAYER, 
8. RECOGNIZING CHANGING NEEDS OVER THE ADULT LIFE SPAN, 
9. TROUBLESHOOTING, 
10. CARING FOR THE CLASS OVER ITS LIFE CYCLE, 
GLOSSARY, 

CHAPTER 1

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 his disciples to do so. Methodists often refer to them as "the means of grace." Wesley composed a simple list of the spiritual practices that he expected of his fellow Methodists and published them as a part of the General Rules that were to govern the Methodist societies and guide the Class Meetings (The Book of Discipline, ¶103, p. 74). They are:

• The public worship of God

• The ministry of the Word, either read or expounded

• The Supper of the Lord

• Family and private prayer

• Searching the Scriptures

• Fasting or abstinence

Spiritual Formation Among Methodists Today

Early Methodists believed that to participate in a Class Meeting and keep the General Rules was to exercise due diligence lest their eternal soul be lost in judgment at the last day and their conversion be in vain. While contemporary Methodists experience less fear in the face of God than did their forebears, many recognize that to revert to the way of life they formerly followed or the lifestyle that the society at large practices will lead to spiritual emptiness, if not to the ruin of all that matters most in life. Therefore, contemporary Methodists seek a pattern of mutual encouragement and guidance and a means of growing daily in faith and faithfulness. How Is It With Your Soul? provides a discipleship system in the Wesleyan tradition that incorporates a daily structure for prayer and the study of Scripture, as well as regular Class Meetings, in order that the character of Christian discipleship may once more become both apparent and regularly practiced among the people called Methodists.

All members of the class shall also be active members of a local church where they worship regularly, partake of the Sacrament of Holy Communion whenever it is offered, contribute to the financial support of the ministry, and seek to live a godly life both in private and in public. Class Leaders hold themselves accountable to the director (coordinator of Class Leaders) orminister in charge. Class sessions include prayer, a means of mutual accountability and support, and study. The purpose of this method of spiritual formation is to nurture communion with God and the development of Christian character within the community of God's people.

A holistic practice of the Christian faith requires solitude, community, and servanthood. The disciple of Christ engages in a covenant with God and neighbor, especially "those of the household of faith or groaning so to be" (The Book of Discipline, ¶103, p. 73; Galatians 6:10). This is no solitary life. Rather, it is a faith that manifests itself in love, both within the congregation and in the world. When we practice this way of life, we live out our mission to "save persons, heal relationships, transform social structures, and spread scriptural holiness, thereby changing the world" (The Book of Discipline, ¶121, p. 88).

Our Mission: Addressing the Human Condition

To say that we are in the business of saving people is to point to something the early church fathers called "the cure of souls." Human beings suffer from a state of moral and spiritual corruption (Romans 1:21). The teaching of the Church tells us that "man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually" (Of Original or Birth Sin, Articles of Religion). Moreover, the human condition "is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and works, to faith, and calling upon God; wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will" (Of Free Will, Articles of Religion). Thus, apart from God's leading us to receive the revelation of God in Jesus by faith and our practicing the means of grace, we are without hope of living whole and holy lives. The method of Methodism takes as its first task, then, bringing the believer into a relationship with God, so that the goodness of God may transform the believer's mind and conform his or her entire being to the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5; Romans 12:2). The church does this by proclaiming the gospel and encouraging others to respond (Mark 1:15; Romans 10:8-11, 14-15). With faith and repentance come new birth and an ongoing process of sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8; Romans 6:17-19).

We believe sanctification is the work of God's grace through the Word and the Spirit, by which those who have been born again are cleansed from sin in their thoughts, words and acts, and are enabled to live in accordance with God's will, and to strive for holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Entire sanctification is a state of perfect love, righteousness and true holiness which every regenerate believer may obtain by being delivered from the power of sin, by loving God with all the heart, soul, mind and strength, and by loving one's neighbor as one's self.... The Christian must continue on guard against spiritual pride and seek to gain victory over every temptation to sin. He must respond wholly to the will of God so that sin will lose its power over him; and the world, the flesh, and the devil are put under his feet. Thus he rules over these enemies with watchfulness through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Sanctification, Articles of Religion, see The United Methodist Book of Discipline, 103, p. 70)

Thus, the daily practice of prayer and regular participation in a Class Meeting support both the individual and the church in the pursuit of holy living and faithfulness in mission to the world.

Focusing Accountability: "How Is It With Your Soul?"

When the class gathers, the leader may ask the members the question, "How is it with your soul?" or otherwise inquire after the members' faithfulness during a time of reflection. John Wesley frequently inquired after the souls of those with whom he corresponded and often spoke of the state of the soul in its relationship with God. He might ask, "How do you find your soul?" or "Do you find your soul as much alive to God as ever?" (A Letter to Mrs. Mortimer, John Wesley, 1777). Never was the question intended as an invitation to become introspective, as if absorbed in self-examination. The pastoral question sought to lift the inmost thoughts of the believer toward God.

When the question is asked in the context of a Class Meeting, it is as if Jesus himself were watching over the believers through the supportive fellowship of the class. By asking the question, the Class Leader holds up a mirror to the souls under his or her care. Class members respond as if speaking to their Master Teacher and Lord, while allowing their fellow disciples to overhear them and encourage them.

Members share what they feel comfortable revealing about their inmost selves, their conscious love for God, and their conscience with regard to love for their neighbors. Participants hold each other accountable for living humbly and simply in conformity with the teachings of Jesus and for seeking forgiveness and peace with God and neighbor (Matthew 5:3-7:27).

The objective standard by which they give an account of themselves includes the regular practice of the means of grace, as guided byThis Day: A Wesleyan Way of Prayer, and faithfulness to scriptural holiness as summarized in the General Rules.

Daily Prayer

The guide to daily prayer includes two primary components: (1) forms of prayer in the Wesleyan tradition (a daily office); and (2) a lectionary of Scripture readings for use every day. The discipline of integrating these elements into a regular personal practice, including a definite time and place for relating directly to God, will provide for sound and ongoing spiritual nurture.

The daily office and collects for the day come from the tradition of the church, especially the Book of Common Prayer. The language has been modernized with an eye and ear for preserving the original beauty and syntax. Regular use of the daily office will serve as a bridge over which the believer can pass toward communion with God, as an invitation to take and eat the bread of God's Word, as a setting in which the believer can attend to the things that matter most, and as a tool for ministry with others.

The reading of Scripture as guided by the daily lectionary invites Methodists to listen prayerfully for the voice of God. This Day: A Wesleyan Way of Prayer provides for praying a psalm each day of the month, as well as reading two other passages, one from the Hebrew Scriptures and one from either the Gospels or other New Testament writings (for example, the Epistles). Over the course of two years, those who follow the daily lectionary will have prayed through the major sections and most treasured passages of the Bible. The goal of spreading scriptural holiness requires that every Methodist be steeped in the Scripture. This habit of daily listening for the Word of God through a disciplined reading of the Old and New Testaments will help create a lifelong pattern of biblical faithfulness (Matthew 6:33).

The prayer book This Day: A Wesleyan Way of Prayer offers Class Leaders, as well as class members, model prayers for use in a wide variety of settings and in response to particular needs. Laity can use the book in family devotions, at mealtime, in small groups at the noon hour or at other breaks in the work day, in visitation of the sick and elderly, during meetings, as well as in private prayer. All who use the book will find their prayer life informed and enriched by the variety of gifts and faith perspectives this rich tradition of prayer represents. Those who feel that they "do not know how to pray as [they] ought" (Romans 8:26b) will find guidance and encouragement in the patterns of prayer and structure for daily devotional life by which the church has found edification and inspiration over the centuries.

Perceiving Spiritual Formation Through a Biblical Lens

Valuing the historic roots of Methodism orients the people called Methodists and gives us a sense of mandate. John Wesley's approach to spiritual formation was, however, nothing other than an attempt to live "according to the method laid down in the Bible" (Note to The Complete English Dictionary, 1753 found in Welch, p. 295). He wrote in his Preface to Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament:

Would to God that all the party names, and unscriptural phrases and forms, which have divided the Christian world, were forgot; and that we might all agree to sit down together, as humble, loving disciples, at the feet of our common Master, to hear his word, to imbibe his Spirit, and to transcribe his life in our own! (1755, Works, vii, 536, in Selections from the Writings of Mr. John Wesley, M.A., p. 292)

(Continues...)

Excerpted from How Is It With Your Soul? by Denise L. Stringer. Copyright © 2004 Abingdon Press. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0687066972
• ISBN 13: 9780687066971
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 129