What’s a Methodist? – Part 4 of 4

A Methodist is a Christian training to love God with all his or her heart, soul, and mind. A Methodist is also a Christian training to love his or her neighbor as himself or herself.

In this final post of the series I will explore the meaning of how Methodists train to love their neighbors as themselves. I’ll begin with why loving the neighbor is necessary to Christian discipleship. Then I’ll look at the neighbor Christians are commanded to love. Finally I’ll explore the nature of the love Jesus teaches us to practice.

Why love neighbors? The writer of 1 John is very direct:

“Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The command we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also” (1 John 4:20-21).

It’s really quite simple. If you say you love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, then it logically follows that you must love what God loves; which means loving those whom God loves. Scripture is clear: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…” If God loves the world, which I’m guessing means everyone in the world, then all who profess to love God must necessarily love the world that God loves.

Jesus is very clear about who and how his followers are to love.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:43-48).

Active love of God and those whom God loves is the way of perfection. Here to be “perfect” means to be complete and whole. It means to be fully the person God created you to be, in the image of Christ. When we love people who do not love us we imitate God. The more we imitate God we become more like Jesus. The way of love is the way of holiness and wholeness.

Jesus is unambiguous when describing how his followers are to love their neighbors in Matthew 25:31-46. He tells us to give food and drink to the hungry and thirsty, welcome the strangers, give clothing to people who are naked, care for the sick, and visit the prisoners. Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40). Jesus identifies himself with the people who are hungry, alone, thirsty, naked, sick, and imprisoned. They are the neighbors Christians are commanded to love. When we are with them we are in the physical presence of Jesus. When we love the people Jesus loves, we become more like Jesus; which means we become more genuinely the persons God created us to be.

The Scriptures cited above clearly tell us that the “neighbors” Jesus commands his followers to love cannot be limited to the people who live next door or in the neighborhood. The neighbor is anyone, anywhere in the world who is in need. Jesus answers the question “And who is my neighbor” with the parable of the “Good Samaritan” in Luke 10:29-37. John Wesley helps us understand the meaning of “who is my neighbor?” in General Rule #2:

It is expected of all who continue in these societies that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation,

Secondly: By doing good; by being in every kind merciful after their power; as they have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all men: To their bodies, of the ability which God giveth, by giving food to the hungry, by clothing the naked, by visiting or helping them that are sick or in prison.

To their souls, by instructing, reproving, or exhorting all we have any intercourse with; trampling under foot that enthusiastic doctrine that “we are not to do good unless our hearts be free to it.”

By doing good, especially to them that are of the household of faith or groaning so to be; employing them preferably to others; buying one of another, helping each other in business, and so much the more because the world will love its own and them only.

By all possible diligence and frugality, that the gospel be not blamed.

By running with patience the race which is set before them, denying themselves, and taking up their cross daily; submitting to bear the reproach of Christ, to be as the filth and offscouring of the world; and looking that men should say all manner of evil of them falsely, for the Lord’s sake.

Here, in the words of Jesus and John Wesley, we see that the neighbor Christians are commanded to love include both the people we know and love, people who are strangers near and far, all people who are suffering and living in want, and even those who hate and persecute us. When we love people who do not love us we imitate Christ Jesus who loves even the people who hate him. Practicing such selfless, self-giving love leads to transformation of the heart and life such that we become more and more fully the persons God created us to be, in the image of Christ.

Finally, how can love be commanded? What kind of love are we called to practice? The love Jesus commands is very different from the love that is commonly spoken of in the culture, and even in the church. The common concept of love emphasizes feelings. When we say we “love” something or someone we mean that we have strong feelings of affection and attraction for the thing or person. The culture convinces us that feelings cannot be commanded. They must emerge naturally and spontaneously. This is why the idea of commanding us to love is such a foreign concept today.

Jesus is teaches a different kind of love. It has much more to do with behavior than with feelings. For Jesus, and John Wesley, love is a way of life. This is why Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan in response to the question “And who is my neighbor?”. Rather than tell his audience to think kind thoughts about their neighbors, he tells a story about what a Samaritan did when he encountered a Jewish traveler bloody and beaten on the side of the road. He didn’t feel loving thoughts toward the man lying face down in the dust. Rather, Jesus tells how the Samaritan stopped to help the man, even though he was from a different tribe, and likely had little natural sympathy for him. Nevertheless, because he loved God, the Samaritan stopped to tend to the man’s wounds, put him on his donkey and took him to an inn where he instructed the innkeeper to care for him and left money to cover any costs.

Jesus teaches that his way of loving the neighbor is a practice that must be taught and learned until it becomes a habit. This way of love is the very heart of what it means to be a Methodist. The class meeting was the place where Methodists learned the discipline of love. John Wesley called them “works of mercy.” They are described above in the second part of the General Rules. Today we summarize the practices of love as “acts of compassion” and “acts of justice.” Compassion is the act of kindness toward the person who is grieving, hurt, hungry, sick, lonely, or imprisoned. Justice is the act of Christians joined together to ask why people are suffering and acting to change the systems that cause the suffering.

When Christians habitually practice Jesus’ way of love they become Jesus imitators. Imitation ultimately leads to people whose character and behavior are reflections of the Master. This is the goal of Christian discipleship. God supplies the grace and the means (Christian community and the practices known as “means of grace”) we need to become the people he created us to be. As Christians learn and practice the discipline of love the are equipped to participate with Christ in his mission of preparing this world for the coming reign of God on earth as it is in heaven.

What’s a Methodist? (part 3 of 4)

I began this series of posts by telling the story of a Wednesday night church dinner conversation with a young woman who asked, “What’s a Methodist?” In reply I said, “A Methodist is a Christian who loves God with all his or her heart, soul, and mind and loves his or her neighbor as himself for herself.” But after giving more thought to the question, long after parting company with the young woman, I realized a more correct response to her query is, “A Methodist is a Christian who is in training to love God with all his or her heart, soul, and mind, and love his or her neighbor as himself or herself.”

I then decided my definition needs some “unpacking.” I am doing so with a series of three posts. In the first post I argue a Christian is a person who follows and witnesses to Jesus Christ in the world and whose life is shaped by the Baptismal Covenant. In this post I’ll say more about how a Methodist is a Christian who is in training to love God with all his or her heart, soul, and mind.

Methodists are people who know that God gives us the ability to love. “We love because he fist loved us” (1 John 4:19). Love is a gift from God. It is grace. Wesley believed that love and grace are the same. Grace is love. Love is grace. We can love because God loved us first. We can love because God made us in God’s image. “God is love” (1 John 4:16b). Methodists know God is love, being created in God’s image, we love because God first loved us.

Love is at the very heart of Methodism. The way of love is the way of Jesus. Methodists, therefore, follow and obey Jesus’ teaching summarized in Matthew 22:37-40. The focus here is on the first commandment:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

Notice how many times the word “all” appears in this commandment. “The commend to love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind is really an invitation to fall in love, to engage one-on-one in a personal sharing that is nothing less than a severe emotional stripping. And like any love affair, it will be ardent and arduous both” (Robin Maas, Crucified Love: The Practice of Christian Perfection, page 47). Loving in this way requires participation in the life of the beloved. Participation means learning and taking on practices that draw us closer and closer to our beloved. As love grows and matures over time we become more and more like the one we love.

God provides the practices we need to obey Jesus and to grow in loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind. John Wesley named these practices “works of piety.” He also referred to them as the “ordinances of God.” He believed all Christians should habitually practice them because Christ commands us to do so in Scripture. They were part of Jesus’ life. He taught them to his disciples so they could learn his way and grow in loving God. The goal is to love God completely and unreservedly. Jesus commanded his disciples to love his way because he knew that humans become what we love.

Methodists are Christians who are training to love God with all their hearts, souls, and minds. Training implies discipline. Love requires discipline. Methodist discipline begins with the works of piety Wesley calls the “ordinances of God” in the Methodist rule of life known as “The General Rules”:

• 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

These practices are the disciplines for loving God. We practice them, first, because Christ commands we do. Secondly, they are how Christians participate in the way of Jesus and the life of God. They direct our daily life toward God, keep us with him, help us to learn Christ (his person and his way of life), and conform our thinking, wants, and motivation to that of Christ. They help us attain toward the goal as described by the Apostle Paul, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). As these practices become habits we become more and more like Jesus in our behavior, thinking, and purpose.

When an athlete or musician is training he or she spends hours each day practicing the basics of his or her discipline. A musician practices scales and chord progressions over and over and over and over again. The purpose is to build mental and muscle memory so that the scales and progressions become second nature. They come as natural as breathing or walking. In the same way, Christians practice the works of piety every day and week, over and over and over and over again until they become holy habits.

Upon closer examination you notice that the first three of the works of piety are social. They are practices that Christians do together in community. The other three are personal. They are practiced when we are alone or with a small group who “watch over one another in love.” Wesley provides a healthy balance between the social and personal dimensions of loving God and growing in holiness of heart and life. This is the same way athletes and musicians train. They put in countless hours of personal practice, balanced with equally long hours of team or ensemble practice. Both contribute to the formation of habits and character. We grow more and more into the persons God created us to be and contribute to the life and mission of the community centered in the life and mission of Jesus Christ.

“The bands of death are torn away, the yawning tomb gives back its prey.”

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Charles Wesley wrote several resurrection hymns. The one I have chosen here is from a 1746 collection. Wesley declares that that God’s power, which is love and life, is more powerful than death. The tomb cannot contain the Lord of life.

Christ crucified and risen has defeated sin and death. Our sins are forgiven. We are set free to live his life of love in and for the world that he loves and intends to save.

On this day of Resurrection, I pray that the Church of Jesus Christ will take to heart Wesley’s call to faithfully respond to the good news that the one who was crucified is risen:

Haste then, ye souls that first believe,
Who dare the gospel-word receive,
Your faith with joyful hearts confess,
Be bold, be Jesus’ witnesses.

A Resurrection Hymn 

All ye that seek the Lord who died,
Your God for sinners crucified,
Prevent the earliest dawn, and come
To worship at his sacred tomb.

While thus ye love your souls t’ employ,
Your sorrow shall be turned to joy:
Now, now let all your grief be o’er!
Believe; and ye shall weep no more

An earthquake hath the cavern shook,
And burst the door, and rent the rock,
The Lord hath sent his angel down,
And he hath rolled away the stone.

The third auspicious morn is come,
And calls your Saviour from the tomb,
The bands of death are torn away,
The yawning tomb gives back its prey.

Could neither seal nor stone secure,
Nor men, nor devils make it sure?
The seal is broke, the stone cast by,
And all the powers of darkness fly.

The body breaths, and lifts his head,
The keepers sink, and fall as dead;
The dead restored to life appear,
The living quake, and die for fear.

No power a band of soldiers have
To keep one body in its grave:
Surely it no dead body was
That could the Roman eagles chase.

The Lord of life is ris’n indeed,
To death delivered in your stead;
His rise proclaims your sins forgiven,
And shows the living way to heaven.

Haste then, ye souls that first believe,
Who dare the gospel-word receive,
Your faith with joyful hearts confess,
Be bold, be Jesus’ witnesses.

Go tell the followers of your Lord
Their Jesus is to life restored;
He lives, that they his life may find;
He lives, to quicken all mankind.

Charles Wesley, 1746

O Love Divine, What Hast Thou Done

Hymns have always been an important devotional resource for the people called Methodists. John and Charles Wesley published many collections of hymns. The hymns were sung in class, band, and society meetings and at Love Feasts. The people carried their hymns with them to the meetings and used them at home as part of daily prayer and devotional practices. In singing, praying, and meditating on the hymns the Methodist people learned and internalized the theology they heard in the preaching and teaching. The poetry of the hymns helped get the theology of Methodist preaching from the head into the heart.

Here is a powerful reflection on the meaning of Christ’s death on the cross:

O Love divine, what hast thou done!
The immortal God hath died for me!
The Father’s co-eternal Son
Bore all my sins upon the tree.
Th’immortal God for me hath died:
My Lord, my Love, is crucified!

Is crucified for me and you,
To bring us rebels back to God.
Believe, believe the record true,
Ye all are bought with Jesu’s blood.
Pardon for all flows from his side:
My Lord, my Love, is crucified!

Behold him, all ye that pass by,
The bleeding Prince of life and peace!
Come, sinners, see your Savior die,
And say, “Was ever grief like his?”
Come, feel with me his blood applied:
My Lord, my Love, is crucified!

Charles Wesley, 1742

What’s a Methodist? … continued …

In my previous post I attempted to answer the question, “What’s a Methodist?” My reply, given to a visitor to the United Methodist congregation with which I am affiliated, was:

“A Methodist is a Christian who is training to love God with all his or her heart, soul, and mind and love his or her neighbor as himself or herself.”

I believe this statement fairly reflects the teaching of John and Charles Wesley. That being said, I think it needs some to be fleshed out.

This is the first of three posts that are my attempt to go a little deeper into what I mean in the above statement. If the young woman who asked the question was willing to engage in further conversation, the following is what I would say to her.

The following is my attempt to explain the first part of the statement:

“A Methodist is a Christian…” 

A Methodist is a Christian first and foremost. We are initiated into Christ’s holy church and baptized in the Triune name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Methodists believe Jesus Christ is God incarnate. He is God with us. His life, death, and resurrection are the salvation and hope of the world.

Like all Christians, Methodists renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness and reject the evil powers of this world and repent of our sin. We believe that sin is a universal problem. It touches all of life: social and personal. Sin begins with alienation from God. It is a broken relationship with the one who created all that is and who seeks reconciliation with his creation, especially his beloved children. Suffering, injustice, and oppression are the symptoms of sin. God supplies the grace we need to awaken us to our sinful condition. His grace gives us the ability to turn away from the way that is slavery and death and turn towards the way that is freedom and life.

Like all Christians, Methodists accept the freedom and power God gives to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves. Grace is another word for the freedom and power God gives. Methodists believe grace sets us free from the powers of sin and death. Grace sets them free to love as God loves (John 8:31b-32; Galatians 5:13-14). When we accept the freedom to love we receive power to “become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of men, but of God” (John 1:12-13).

Like all Christians, Methodists confess Jesus Christ as Savior, put our whole trust in his grace, and promise to serve him as Lord, in union with the church. Methodists are witnesses to Jesus Christ in the world. We know his life, death, and resurrection save us from the death-dealing power of sin that twists, distorts, and destroys life and love. Jesus is God with us and God for us. His love heals our brokenness and makes us whole. As we obey his teachings and serve Jesus as Lord we become more and more fully the persons God created us to be, in the image of Christ. The more we serve with our Lord, the more we become like him. We become what we love.

Finally, like all Christians, Methodists confess and serve Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord in the community of church. The church is “the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:27-30; Ephesians 4:1-16). Being a Christian is deeply personal, but it is not private. God gives each person gifts and the responsibility to use our gifts for the good of the body. We are baptized to serve with Christ, not to be served. He calls us to “love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). One of the ways we love one another is to “watch over one another in love” in small groups that meet weekly for prayer and mutual accountability for practicing and growing discipleship. The purpose of the small groups is to obey Jesus’ command to love one another. The Apostle Paul believed that Christians grow in faith, hope, and love when they strive to build one another up in love. He described the process in Ephesians 4:15-17,

But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

Part 2 will deal with “A Methodist is … in training to love God with all her or his heart, soul, and mind …”

What’s a Methodist?

I occasionally go to church for dinner on Wednesday night. A few weeks ago I took my plate of food and sat down at an empty table. A young woman was alone at another table, saw me sitting by myself, and asked “Can I sit with you. I don’t like to eat alone.” “Yes, come on over. I don’t like to eat alone either.” She brought her plate and sat across the table from me. As she introduced herself to me I learned that she is a graduate student studying international relations with an emphasis on food policy. She also revealed that she is a Christian but did not identify with any denomination. She came to my church because she heard the food on Wednesday night was cooked with only local, organically grown ingredients and was very good.

In the course of our conversation, a couple more people sat down at the table. Everyone, except the young woman, was a member of this United Methodist congregation. When they learned that she was not affiliated with any church, they began to recruit her. The church members told the woman about the wonderful worship and preaching on Sunday morning, the many options for adult Sunday school, and other opportunities for involvement. At some point the young woman asked a question that stopped the conversation cold:

“What’s a Methodist?”

My fellow United Methodists at the table looked at one another and tried very hard to come up with an answer. One offered, “A Methodist is a person who tries to do good.” Another said, “A Methodist is a person who works for justice in the world.” As an ordained elder serving as Director of Wesleyan Leadership at GBOD I tried to think of how John Wesley would say and then I said: “A Methodist is a person who loves God with all his or her heart, soul, and mind and loves his or her neighbor as himself or herself.”

The source for my reply to this simple question is one of Wesley’s most popular tracts, “The Character of a Methodist.” He begins by saying that Methodists are not distinguished by doctrine or opinions. The mark of a Methodist is his or her love for God. Their devotion to God is complete. Methodists center their lives upon God who became one of us in Jesus of Nazareth. His life and teachings provide the way Methodists live their love for God in all aspects of life. No part of life is untouched by their devotion to God and the things of God. This means that the Methodist’s love for God compels him or her to love those whom God loves. Their daily life is shaped by obedience to the teachings of Jesus.

Some days later, as I thought more about my reply to the young woman’s question, I realized I was wrong. In Wesley’s brief introduction to “The Character of a Methodist” he explained why he was writing. He begins and ends with Philippians 3:12,

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Wesley acknowledges that he had not yet attained the goal of discipleship as practiced by the people called Methodists. It seems to me that he is saying that Methodists are people who are striving toward the goal of Christian maturity, also known as perfection in love and holiness of heart and life. What follows in “The Character of a Methodist” is Wesley’s description of a disciple of Jesus Christ who has “attained the goal”, who is an “altogether Christian.”

A more accurate response to the young woman at the dinner table who asked, “What’s a Methodist?” would be: A Methodist is a Christian who is in training to love God with all his or her heart, soul, and mind and to love his or her neighbor as himself or herself.

Methodism is a system for training people in the practice of loving God. Methodists learn to practice loving God by following and obeying the teachings of Jesus. This way of love is active. Charles Wesley expresses it in a few lines:

Active faith that lives within,

Conquers earth, and hell, and sin,

Sanctifies, and makes us whole,

Forms the Savior in the soul.

Methodism is designed to equip people to receive the gift of faith by practicing the discipline of love given in the person and teaching of Jesus Christ. The discipline of love sets them free to become fully the human beings God created them to be, in the image of Christ. The aim of Jesus’ life and teaching is equipping his disciples to participate in his mission in the world. As Christians practice the discipline of love shaped by Jesus’ teachings, they become the Methodists Wesley describes in “The Character of a Methodist.”

Covenant Discipleship is a contemporary adaptation of the method of Methodism. It is a process designed to help people to become leaders in discipleship the church needs. They are historically given the title, Class Leader. The class leaders are mature disciples of Jesus Christ who have gained the experience and maturity needed to disciple others. They are the coaches who help others to train and practice the discipline of love in the way of Jesus.

How does your congregation initiate members into the discipline of love? How are you forming the leaders in discipleship who can disciple others?

Witness to Jesus Christ in the World through Acts of Justice

How is your group doing with acts of justice? If you are in a typical Covenant Discipleship group, I suspect you find justice to be the most difficult part of the covenant to keep. This is why groups frequently place the acts of justice at the bottom of their covenant. I think this done because we like to put off things that are difficult to understand and to do. Is this true for your group?

In Scripture justice is rooted in the person of God who is always on the side of the poor, the hungry, the widow, the orphan, the oppressed, the troubled, and the afflicted. God loves justice because his desire is for the rights of all people to have all they need to live and to participate fully in the life of the community. When these rights are denied or violated, God’s judgment falls upon the persons and systems responsible. And God’s prophets call upon the covenant community to rise up to restore justice, to be the advocate for the poor and vulnerable who suffer as a result of unjust systems and laws.

Jesus is the incarnation of God and his love. Jesus reveals God’s option for the poor. He was born to Mary of Nazareth, betrothed to a poor carpenter in a remote town in a Galilee. Jesus lived and traveled among the poor, the sick, and the outcasts. As Galilean Jew he was one of and one with the oppressed living under occupation by the Roman Empire.

Jesus is the incarnation of God’s justice-love. Justice is the always the fruit of love. This justice-love is described by Jesus when he read his mission statement from the book of the prophet Isaiah in his home-town synagogue (Luke 4:18-19):

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’

Jesus calls his disciples and the church that bears his name to be a people who are with him in the homes of the poor, vulnerable, and oppressed people of the world.

Acts of justice are the actions Christians take with others to address the causes of injustice and suffering anywhere in the world. Acts of justice are the public dimension of the works of mercy. They are related to acts of compassion that relieve the suffering of individuals. Acts of justice address the systems, laws, and other causes that require us to engage in acts of compassion.

The internet and social media are great resources for participation in acts of justice. Here are a few organizations that help me to be aware of needs and prompt me to practice acts of justice:

• ONE (http://www.one.org) is an international organization fighting global poverty and AIDS

• CREDO Action (http://www.credoaction.com) is a network of activist organizations supported by Working Assets (http://www.workingassets.com).

• Sojourners (http://sojo.net) is an evangelical social justice organization founded by Rev. Jim Wallis. They provide opportunities to address poverty, war & peace, and economic justice.

• General Board of Church and Society (http://umc-gbcs.org/) is the lobbying agency of The United Methodist Church. Their headquarters are in the Methodist Building, the only non-government owned building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

These are the resources I use to help me practice acts of justice. I invite you to learn more about them, sign up to get their action alerts and get involved.

“Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24).

 

It’s Time to Register for the next Wesley Pilgrimage in England
April 15-25, 2013

Time is running out to be part of the next Wesley Pilgrimage in England that will gather at Sarum College in Salisbury, England on April 15, 2013. Leaders for the 2013 pilgrimage will be Dr. Paul W. Chilcote and Dr. Steve Manskar.

The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry is once again partnering with GBOD by providing $800 scholarships for the first 15 commissioned provisional elders and deacons who register for the pilgrimage. A few scholarship remain. Claim yours today! Don’t miss out on this great continuing education opportunity.

For details and registration go to: http://www.gbod.org/wesleypilgrimage.

If you have questions, please contact Steve Manskar at smanskar@gbod.org or call him toll free at 877-899-2780, ext. 1765.

 

Revising a Covenant Discipleship Groups’s Covenant

The start of a new year is a good time for Covenant Discipleship groups to evaluate and, perhaps, revise their covenant. The group covenant is not a static document. Its purpose is to center the group members in their daily witness to Jesus Christ in the world. As time passes and relationships develop within the group it’s natural and expected that the discipleship of members will change and grow. If the covenant is going to meet the needs of the group, it too needs to change and grow.

• Ÿ Do you have clauses that are routine for everyone in the group? By this I mean week after week everyone in the group reports doing that act of compassion, justice, worship or devotion.
• Ÿ Do you have a clause the group regularly neglects? Is there a clause you and other members of the group either cannot or will not do?
• Ÿ Does your covenant have a clause that is clumsy, out dated, unclear, or poorly written?
• Ÿ As you read the covenant preamble do you feel it no longer reflects the character or goals of the group?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then it’s time to revise your group’s covenant. A good place to begin is for the group to get copies of Covenant Discipleship: Christian Formation through Mutual Accountability by David Lowes Watson and read Chapter 7 (“Writing a Covenant). This provides a helpful refresher on the purpose, character, and structure of the covenant. It is essential that the group keep the covenant revision process centered in Jesus Christ and shaped by the General Rule of Discipleship:

To witness to Jesus Christ in the world and to follow his teachings through acts of compassion, justice, worship, and devotion under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Begin the process of revising your covenant by re-familiarizing the group with the General Rule. “Drawing on the early Methodist General Rules and on the theological principles of John Wesley, the General Rule is designed to provide faithful disciples with a simple and straightforward method for Christian living in the world” (David Lowes Watson, Covenant Discipleship, page 81). The General Rule and the group covenant are centered in Jesus and equipping his disciples to lead the church to participate in his mission for the world. They do this by helping disciples to form habits that lead to holiness of heart and life.

Holiness of heart and life is the ultimate goal of the covenant and the weekly group meeting. It is formed as disciples are encouraged through the weekly accountability and support for following Jesus’ teachings, summarized by him in Matthew 22:37-40. When asked to define holiness Wesley quoted these words of Jesus:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’”

Identify the clauses that need to be adjusted or replaced. Select a member of the group to serve as scribe for the revision process. All members must agree to the parts of the covenant to be revised. All members must agree to the changes before they become part of the revised covenant.

One way to do the work of revision is to agree that the weekly meetings during the first months of the year will include time to work out the changes that need to be made to fit the current and future development of the group. Keep in mind that the covenant’s purpose is to prompt growth in holiness of heart and life that leads to disciples who help the church to make disciples. Agree that the first 45 minutes of these meetings will be devoted to mutual accountability for discipleship. The remaining 15 minutes are devoted to working out the revisions to the covenant.

This process requires that group members do some homework. First, each member needs to pray daily for the leading of the Holy Spirit in the work of revising the group’s covenant. The entire process must be steeped in prayer and invoking the leading of the Holy Spirit. Second, members need to give prayerful thought to the changes they believe will best help themselves and the group to grow in holiness of heart and life. Take notes and bring the notes to the weekly meeting to be shared with the group.

Technology may be used to facilitate and speed the revision process. Social media like Facebook can used to enhance conversation and sharing of ideas between meetings. Google Docs and Dropbox are other helpful tools that enable the group to edit and add their ideas to the covenant revision.

After the desired changes are made to everyone’s satisfaction the revised covenant is then signed. Copies are made and distributed to the group members and to the pastor. You may want to invite the pastor to attend the meeting when the new covenant is signed and ask him or her to serve the Eucharist as a way of ratifying the covenant.

The covenant shared by a Covenant Discipleship group is a living document. As the group grows and matures in holiness of heart and life, the covenant needs to help the growth to continue. If your group has been living with a covenant for more than a year, it may be time for the group to evaluate and revise it. The beginning of a new year is an excellent time to recommit, renew or revise your group’s covenant.

 

Covenant Renewal

John Wesley introduced the annual covenant renewal service for use by the Methodist societies in 1755. Every year, on or near January 1, the Methodists gathered to renew their covenant with God. The service is adapted from a Puritan ritual. It is a powerful time of self-examination and confession that culminates in renewal of commitment to discipleship.

United Methodists may practice covenant renewal by using the contemporary adaptation of Wesley’s Covenant Renewal service found in The United Methodist Book of Worship. Or congregations may choose to use the simpler “Congregational Reaffirmation of the Baptismal Covenant” beginning at page 50 of The United Methodist Hymnal.

You will find versions of Wesley’s Covenant Service here.

These services are powerful means of grace that give members an opportunity to recommit themselves to living and practicing the baptismal covenant with God. They remind us of our commitment to be witnesses to Jesus Christ in the world by the way we live and love every day.

How is your congregation renewing the covenant with God in the new year?

Here is a hymn Charles Wesley wrote expressly for the Covenant Service. It is #606 in The United Methodist Hymnal:

Come, let us use the grace divine,
And all, with one accord,
In a perpetual covenant join
Ourselves to Christ the Lord.

Give up ourselves, through Jesu’s power,
His name to glorify;
And promise in this sacred hour
For God to live and die.

The covenant we this moment make
Be ever kept in mind!
We will no more our God forsake,
Or cast his words behind.

We never will throw off his fear
Who hears our solemn vow;
And if thou art well-pleased to hear,
Come down, and meet us now!

Thee, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Let all our hearts receive!
Present with the celestial host,
The peaceful answer give!

To each the covenant-blood apply
Which takes our sins away;
And register our names on high,
And keep us to that day!

Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition