CONCLUSION

The Scripture way of salvation is a process of growth, development, and maturation in faith, hope, and love. It is a way of living that draws us closer to Christ and conforms our lives to Christ’s life. A helpful way of visualizing this life comes from a sixth-century monk, Dorotheos of Gaza:

Suppose we were to take a compass and insert the point and draw the outline of a circle. The center point is the same distance from any point on the circumference. … Let us suppose that this circle is the world and that God himself is the center: the straight lines drawn from the circumference to the center are the lives of human beings. … Let us assume for the sake of analogy that to move toward God, then, human beings move from the circumference along the various radii of the circle to the center.

But at the same time, the closer they are to God, the closer they become to one another; and the closer they are to one another, the closer they become to God.
(Roberta C. Bondi. To Love as God Loves: Conversations with the Early Church. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987, 25.)

Discipleship, practicing the means of grace, is how we move from the circumference of the circle closer and closer to the center. In the process, we grow in love and are drawn closer and closer to our neighbor and to God. Living the General Rules within relationships of mutual accountability and support in small groups empowers and equips women, men, youth, and children to grow up and grow toward the One who is creating, redeeming, and sustaining them in love.

Small-group ministry must be at the heart of congregations that want to take their mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ seriously. To provide opportunities for adults, youth, and children to grow in holiness of heart and life, a system of small groups for mutual accountability and support for Christian formation must be available. The system should be organized to cooperate with the dynamic of grace as prevenient, justifying. and sanctifying.

Such a network of small groups needs to reflect a progression of groups developed by Wesley in the early Methodist societies. The goal of such a system is Christian formation, not member formation. Churches that are effective and growing today are those that focus on helping people live as disciples of Jesus Christ. They are not interested in turning visitors into good members to serve on committees and councils. Rather, their goal is to get every member into appropriate small groups that will help them encounter Christ and grow in faith, hope and love.

Regardless of size, location, or ethnicity, small groups are the most effective means of inviting people into a relationship with Jesus Christ, forming them as faithful disciples, and sending them into the world to share their faith and to serve.

Wesley was concerned that the Methodists would become societies having the form of godliness without the power. For him, the power of religion was the movement of grace that transforms and heals human hearts and relationships from self-centered existence to Christ-centered abundant, eternal life. He understood that Christian faith is incarnational. Genuine, life-giving faith is a relationship with the God who has come, is coming, and will come again in Jesus Christ.

When people gather in the name of Jesus, transforming power is released into the world. Lives are set free from slavery to addictions, violence, abuse, self-centeredness, hopelessness, and despair. He understood through his study of the Bible, the writings of the early church, and personal experience that divine grace flows from God through faithful disciples who regularly gather in the name of Jesus to pray, study, support, and “watch over one another in love.” He also understood that grace is blocked when Christians neglect these means that God has given them.

It is fair to say that most churches want to have the form and the power of godliness. Most have the form, which is all the outward and visible symbols, actions, and organizational structures that go with being a church. The power comes from the Holy Spirit that moves through the hearts, minds, and souls of the people in the church when they gather in Jesus’ name to pray, praise, proclaim, give, serve, and watch over one another in love.

Churches that have the power are engaged in mission and ministry that is centered on Christ and on witnessing to Christ in the world. Wesley teaches the church today, just as he taught the Methodist societies in eighteenth-century England, that organizing around small groups for Christian formation will go a long way to assure that the power of grace will flow through the church into the world.

Steven W. Manskar is Director of Accountable Discipleship at the GBOD.