Finding God in Sm

Τι doctoral research reveals why t h e Wesleys 1 system.

S
M A L L G R O U P S —in which 6 to 12 people regularly gath­
er to talk about their spiritual journeys, study the Bible,
and pray—have become an integral and dynamic part of
modern American church life. They have helped trans­
form thousands of churches and millions of individuals.
Though many think they were invented in the last couple of
decades, they've been around in one form or another since the
early 1700s, with the ministry of Methodist founders John and
Charles Wesley.
June marked the 300th anniversary of John
Wesley's birth, and CHRISTIANITY TODAY took
the occasion to look at one of Wesley's most enduring legacies. To
explore the Wesleys' small-group innovations—and what they
might teach us today—we asked senior writer Tim Stafford to talk
with Tom Albin, dean of The Upper Room in Nashville. Albin did
doctoral research at Cambridge University on the small groups of
early Methodism, and he helps lead one of the most significant
renewal groups in Methodism.

Why do historians often call the Wesley brothers organi­

zational geniuses?
They often say that the secret of the Methodist movement was its
small groups. But when I began my research, I found that nobody
had gone deeply into what made those small group structures
work. In the 18th century, the Wesleys were remarkably effective
within the oral tradition of a working class, almost semiliterate
culture. There were no manuals for class leaders produced during
the lifetime of the Wesleys. To answer the question, you had to
look to letters and diaries for clues.

So what were the early groups like?

There was a rich diversity of groups that emerged within the first
five years. The trial band, for example, distinguished a sincere
seeker for God from somebody who was just casually curious. You
were on trial to see if you really wanted to know and love God.
A group of four to six people met weekly with a leader. They
prayed, they sang and worshiped, and there was always an ele­
ment of spiritual accountability. If they could do that faithfully
over the course of two to three months, they were recommended
to be a member of the United Society and the class meeting.
In the trial band, you find exactly the grace and power of the
sincere seeker that one finds today in the 12-step groups. What
does it take to be a part of AA? YOU have to say, I've got a problem
and I need help from on high. And I'm sincere enough that I'll do
the 12 steps.

42 C H R I S T I A N I T Y T O D A Y A u g u s t 2 0 0 3
Groups
we iL IMTERWIEW l¥ TIM S T A F F O R D
W h a t were the requirements for get-
ting into a trial band?
You just had to be sincere. You didn't have
to say you believe in Jesus Christ as your
only Savior and Lord, that you accept the
Old and New Testaments as the inspired
Word of God. You just had to say, "I want
God in my life."
The whole Wesley system was set up to
help the people who really wanted more of
God. If you missed more than three meet-
ings in a quarter, you were out. They made
it really easy for people to
get out, and significantly
challenging for people to
get in and stay in.
They created a system
w h e r e sincere seekers
could receive guidance
and instruction. In fact
you could say t h a t the
whole Wesley revival was really a revival of
pastoral care and spiritual guidance. The
diaries are what clued me in to this. Over
and over the person says, "I went to this
pastor and they weren't interested, and I
went to this person and they couldn't help
me, and I read this book, but I had no one to
guide me in the divine life." The phrase no
one to guide me opened my eyes.
W h a t happened then in the class
meeting, when one became a member
of the society?
Each one of the Wesleys' small groups
related to one of their major theological
concepts of grace. The trial band explored
and experienced prevenient grace, the
grace that goes before belief. The class
meeting was for convincing grace. Not
only are you responding to the wooing of
the Spirit, but you also have made a com-
mitment to pursue a personal relationship
with Jesus. You're absolutely convinced
that you want and need Jesus Christ in
your life. Between the time a person joins the United Society (and
gets assigned to a class meeting) and when they experience con-
verting grace, justification, or new birth is about two years.
So what's going on during those two years?
Well, every week you're getting together, every week you're talk-
ing about how things are going with your soul, and you're hearing
other people talk about it. You could call it small-group spiritual
direction. You're praying, you're singing, you're getting spiritual
advice, and you bring your questions. You're getting a clearer view
of who God is and what the life of faith is, and somewhere in the
process the Holy Spirit enabled you to give your life to God. When
you've experienced justi-
fying grace, then you're
ready for a band meeting.
W h a t distinguishes the
band meeting?
In the band meeting, all
the m e m b e r s are b o r n
again. The issue t h e n
becomes, how do I grow in grace, how do I live as a disciple, and
there's another theme verse: confess your faults to one another
and pray for one another, and you will be healed (James 5:16). In
the band meeting, the level of confidentiality is much higher.
The band meeting is also separated, men and women, and even
by marital status. New Christians could answer the question,
How do I live faithfully as a disciple, now that I've been justified
by grace through faith? Gender and marital status become signifi-
cant. Where before I knew as a single man what the culture told
me were appropriate relations for men and women, now that I'm
a member of the kingdom of God, how do I relate as a single man?
In a class meeting there could be 12 to 36 people; a band meet-
ing was four to eight. Everybody is my same gender and my same
marital status, so they are the ones who can best help me figure
out how to live a faithful Christian life in this culture. After this
comes the final step, the select band.
How did one get there?
You have to desire with all your heart that God give you sanctifying
grace, or else to have already experienced the love of God poured
out by the Holy Spirit, as in Romans 5:5. Interestingly, the select
band is not separated by gender or marital status. It's as though
once you have been filled with the love of God you're living Gala-
tians 3:28, so that in Christ there is no male or female, Jew or
A u g u s t 2 0 0 3 | C H R I S T I A N I T Y T O D A Y 43

Greek, slave or free.
The focus of the class meeting is on the
mind, the band meeting focuses on the
will, but the formational focus of the select
society is the heart. The early Methodists
would see the select society as spiritual
adulthood. You've given all of yourself at a
different level.
It seems that all these small groups
demanded a high commitment level.
The Methodist movement was all about cre­
ating a channel for people who had the
desire and commitment to experience God
and live the life of a disciple. It presses us to
ask ourselves, Where are the sincere seekers
finding a welcome? Where are they finding
a community? And w h e r e do they find
someone to guide them in the spiritual life?
You could argue that any given congre­
gation today probably has 10 to 15 percent
of the people who are ready for this type
of Methodist movement within the con­
gregation. The trouble is, very few congre­
gations have one available. So people have
to go elsewhere if they are really keen to
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How long did this kind of small group
structure last?
It continued through the Wesleys' lifetime.
When the movement began to become a
denomination, the small groups shrank
into a single category, the class meeting.
Why did they shrink?
The Methodist movement demanded a
high degree of commitment. Every year
they would rewrite the society book with
t h e list of m e m b e r s . I sat in Wesley's
chapel, looking at the society lists in John
Wesley's handwriting. He wrote every
single name, every year, all 2,000 mem­
bers. If someone d r o p p e d out of some
small group, he knew that their name was
coming off. He would ask why.
When British Methodism became a
denomination in the late 18th century, the
whole thing changed. The high require­
ments for membership of a movement had
to be adjusted: Are you going to kick me
out of t h e U n i t e d M e t h o d i s t C h u r c h
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because I don't show up every Wednes­
day? Would you deny me the sacraments?
Would you excommunicate me over not
giving my penny a week for the poor?
W h a t difference has learning all this
made for your own ministry?
When I was a pastor, if you had come to me
and said, I'm having trouble with my prayer
life, I would have asked you what books you
had read, and I would then have recom­
mended the two best books that you hadn't
read yet. The basis of my ministry was that
knowledge leads to transformation.
Now, I would still ask what books you
had read, but I would also ask, What are
your prayer practices, and who are the
people who taught you to pray, and how
did they pray? And then, based on what I
learn about your personality and your for­
mative influences, I would seek to get you
into the sphere of influence that matches
your personality type, and into prayer
practices that suit that personality type.
I would try to help you into the sphere
of influence of living human guides, spiri­
tual friends who can help you develop
new ways to pray that suit the kind of per­
son you are. I now understand Christian
spiritual formation and discipleship to
involve three interrelated dimensions:
knowledge, experience, and a small group
that can support me as I grow in grace and
discover my place in the body of Christ.
Do we need structures that demand
accountability?
No, I think we need structures that allow
more voluntary accountability. Voluntary
accountability is very important to me,
because the difference between a cult and
what I'm describing is exactly the issue of
voluntary. It's not the church telling me I
have to do this or else. As a seeker, I respond
to the call of God when I am ready.
There are people who long to go deeper
with God, and they don't have anybody to
guide them. They can't find a group that's
clear enough about the spiritual journey to
say, "If you really want to connect with
God, here's how you do it." In AA you have
to have a mentor, but you also have to have
a meeting. So where are the mentors, and
where are the meetings? That's the key
question for those who desire more of God,
more of the life of the Spirit. Φ
 ^ s
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