Discipleship and the people called Methodists - BEH District

Christians, like those who sought out Wesley, have a desire to be disciples of
Jesus, to pray, to worship, to live out their faith. But that doesn’t mean they know
how. They must enter an environment which enables them to be taught how to be
disciples, given examples of what it means to follow Christ. For Methodists this
environment was society and class and provided the mutual support of others,
learners learning together how to be disciples of Jesus.
Read through the first six chapters of Mark’s Gospel. Notice the different
ways Jesus chose very ordinary friends, invested in them by sharing his life
with them, cared for their loved ones, taught and shared ideas and values
with them, trusted in them to share his ministry, listened to their experiences,
challenged and stretched them.
How far do our local church structures imitate the disciple forming pattern of
Jesus?
The whole people of God?
Without trying to implant twenty first century notions of equality into eighteenth
and nineteenth century heads, Methodist meetings were markedly inclusive for
their day. Both men and women belonged to Methodist societies and classes.
Female class leaders were appointed from early on and, though outnumbered by
men, the idea of ‘women in leadership’ has not been for British Methodism the
contentious issue it has for some other Christian Churches. There are also stories
told of how, at a time when British society was even more class-conscious than
today, ‘Bob’, a lowly worker in a pit or factory, was the class leader of ‘William’,
his boss at work, and for both of them, in the context of discipleship, this was
perfectly acceptable.
Perhaps most significantly though is the inclusive role of the laity – ‘normal
Christians’(!) – in Methodism. In spite of the fact that the Wesleys and a few
other ordained clergy exercised leadership in Methodism, the great majority of
preachers and society and class leaders were laypeople. It’s not without reason
that many refer to Methodism as a ‘lay movement’. There was certainly leadership
and authority, but of a kind that assumed that disciples could and should minister
to each other for the benefit of all. We’ve noted that what are now known as
Methodist ministers started off as ‘travelling preachers’; visiting the societies,