John Wesley's Class Meeting: A Model for Making Disciples

John Wesley was an eighteenth-century Anglican priest and Oxford tutor. He and George Whitefield were the primary leaders of the Evangelical Awakening which had a profound effect on the spiritual, social, and political life of both England and colonial America. Wesley gathered converts into a network of small groups for personal accountability, behavioral change, leadership training, and the transformation of their communities. Central to his system was the “class meeting,” which proved to be one of the most effective tools for making disciples ever developed. This study examines the historical development, the theological foundation, and the social outcomes of John Wesley’s class meeting.

As Publisher of Rafiki Books and Executive director of Heart of Africa, Dr. D. Michael Henderson serves as our lead author and curator of original titles. Heart of Africa is a specialized mission which helps African Christian leaders design effective programs in outreach, training, publishing, community development, discipleship, and church planting, and which assists Americans who want to make an effective investment in African Christian ministries. Has been a pastor and college/seminary professor for more than forty years, specializing in personal discipleship and small groups. He was most recently the teaching pastor at Northland, A Church Distributed, in Longwood, Florida. Currently, Mike and his wife Martha live in Wilmore, Kentucky, where he directs the work of Heart of Africa.