The Class Meeting: Reclaiming a Forgotten (and Essential) Small Group Experience

by Kevin Watson

“Our main doctrines, which include all the rest, are three, that of repentance, of faith, and of holiness. The first of these we account, as it were, the porch of religion; the next, the door; the third is religion itself.”3 Methodists preached about the possibility and urgency of moving not just a part, but all of our lives into God’s house.

The starting point for John Wesley was that people are in desperate need of salvation and that we cannot save ourselves.

one of the great challenges American Christianity faces is that salvation seems unnecessary to many Americans, who feel that they are the source of their own life and security.

But the gospel is only good news to those who realize their need for salvation and that only God is able to save us.

Sin affects us from the spectacular to the mundane.

to re-exchange the image of Satan for the image of God,

As a result, for Wesley “original sin,” or the idea that we are in a mess that we cannot get ourselves out of, was not an optional belief for Christians.

Allow this, and you are so far a Christian. Deny it, and you are but an heathen still.”7

we cannot fully recognize how good the news is until we recognize how deeply we need it.

Repentance involves a recognition of the reality of the grip of sin on one’s life and a decision to turn away from sin and turn toward God. Repentance, then, is not only having your eyes opened to reality; it involves a 180-degree turn, so that one turns completely away from sin and turns toward the new life offered in Jesus Christ.

Wesley was convinced that the Christian life cannot make sense apart from the conviction that all people need to be saved, that we are not capable of saving ourselves, and that Jesus is not only able to save us but is ready and willing to do for us and in us what we cannot do on our own.

Repentance is essential because it brings us to the porch of God’s house, where we recognize our need for God and begin to seek God’s amazing grace.

“At the same time that we are justified, yea, in that very moment, sanctification begins.”

both justification and sanctification are by faith.

“We are sanctified, as well as justified, by faith … Faith is the condition, and the only condition of sanctification, exactly as it is of justification.”18

From the time of our being “born again” the gradual work of sanctification takes place.

But what is perfection? … Here it means perfect love. It is love excluding sin; love filling the heart, taking up the whole capacity of the soul.

Wesley was so committed to the doctrine of entire sanctification that in the last decade of his life he wrote that entire sanctification was the “grand depositum” of Methodism and was the reason that God had brought Methodism to life.21

made perfect in love in this life. By “perfect,” Wesley meant love excluding sin.

This is a dynamic process because tomorrow I will know more about myself than I do today, and as a result, I will have more of myself that I can give to God.

I have been even more disheartened with how often I have heard church leaders say something along these lines in order to essentially excuse sin, or a lack of faithfulness to the gospel, in advance.

the same people who deny original sin, who feel that people are not that bad, are also adamant that nobody is perfect, that no one is capable of living a life free of willful sin.

Here is why I believe in Christian perfection: I believe that it is possible for people to give themselves completely to God, perfectly, because I am convinced that grace is bigger and more powerful than sin. Now, don’t mistake me. I believe that sin is real and devastating in its effects. But I do not believe that it is necessary.

And whether intentionally or not, if you deny the possibility of living an entirely faithful life, then you are arguing that sin is necessary in some sense and that it must exist in this world, even if God hates it.

I am certain that holiness is a real possibility in this life because Jesus Christ has ...

On Good Friday, when Jesus’ dead body hung limp on the cross, it looked as though sin and death had won, that they could not be vanquished from this world. That life would always be accompanied by sin. But on Easter Sunday, the tomb was empty!

Holiness is not about what you can do for God, it is about the possibilities for faithfulness and living in God’s will that have been broken open by the explosion of grace that has been made available to us through the work of Christ. We should settle for no less than the fullness of the salvation that has been offered to us in Christ in this life and the life to come.

The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it” (1 Thess. 5:23–24 TNIV).

Wesley’s experience with the Methodist movement convinced him that people rarely made progress in moving their lives into God’s house by themselves.

I was more convinced than ever that the preaching like an apostle, without joining together those that are awakened and training them up in the ways of God, is only begetting children for the murderer.

The results of upward mobility and the Sunday school movement led to an approach to small groups where a group of people gathered to learn from a perceived expert, either the leader of the small group or the author of a book the group was studying. In other words, the Sunday school movement shifted attention away from the focus on Christian experience and on becoming a deeply committed Christian, which Asbury had so strongly endorsed.

Class leaders checked in on the people in their classes throughout the week to see how they were doing, trying to encourage them in their faith.

Ultimately, I suspect that most of the examples that people would cite of Sunday schools that were transformative for them would have more to do with the quality of the leader and a personal connection to someone in the group than to curriculum or content.

The decline of the class meeting matters because disciples of Jesus Christ are called to live different lives, not just think different thoughts.

If your goal is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and most of your focus has been on finding the church that will best meet your needs, figuring out which translation of the Bible is the best, or reading the best books on discipleship that you can find, but your life is the same as it was before—I would argue that you aren’t becoming a disciple. Nothing other than following Jesus Christ can make you his disciple.

I am worried that our approach to Christian discipleship is too often like a person who prepares to run a marathon by buying shoes without actually running in them.

Discipleship, however, is about a way of life, not only the life of the mind. Disciples follow Jesus. They are sent out in ministry by Jesus. They heal the sick. They feed the poor. They tell people about Jesus and what he has done.

The class meeting joins people together in small groups so they are not lost in church.

The format of the class meeting draws attention every week to the reality that the Christian life is not static.

in a class meeting each participant is reminded every single week of the importance of living their beliefs.

Participating in a class meeting does not guarantee that you will become a mature Christian. It is not a magic bullet that is guaranteed to make you a saint. But participating in a class meeting will create space in your life for you to give voice to your victories and struggles.

Another reason why Methodists should return to a small group like the class meeting is because of its potential to be a valuable point of entry for people who are not Christians or for people who are nominal Christians

In Wesley Fellowship Groups, we were encouraged to share our lives, hold each other accountable, pray together, study scripture, and commit ourselves to outreach.

disciples are not made through study; they are formed through an apprenticeship.

The class meeting is a place where you take a weekly inventory of your own life.

The point is that in a class meeting, it is not the group’s job to tell you about your relationship with God. Rather, you are telling the group about your experience from the past week. The members of the class meeting should support you and pray for and with you as you seek to grow as a follower of Christ.

Successful class meetings will be places where members are able to speak into each other’s lives in ways that are life-giving.

Ultimately, the name is not important; watching over one another in love is.

The expectations of membership in most Methodist churches, and really most congregations in the United States in general, have been so low for so long that many people who are members of a church may simply not be willing to join a group that requires weekly attendance and a willingness to talk about the ways they are experiencing (or not experiencing) God’s grace in their lives. You cannot control the level at which someone else is willing to commit to their faith. You can decide to invest more deeply in your own faith and invite others to join you.

Any step toward greater faithfulness is cause for rejoicing!