Discipleship and the people called Methodists - BEH District

has become ‘a Church’ its origins remain as a discipleship movement within the
whole Church of Christ. So if that deep purpose is discerned to be better served
today in a different way, then Methodism must take that very seriously, in order
to remain what, at its heart, it is. What is God saying to us, for example, through
the LEPs or United Areas, or about Covenants in England, Wales and Scotland we
have rightly entered with other Christians? The ‘ecumenical discipleship’ question
asks us sharply whether our own buildings are vital and must be hung on to at
all costs in order to be faithful; or whether the whole Christian Church’s witness
is more important than even beloved denominational traditions and chattels in a
given community.
What elements of Methodism would you not be willing to sacrifice for the sake
of greater visible unity of the Christian Church in your community? What might
be the Methodist contribution to other Christians in terms of discipleship?
Belonging to a world Methodist family
Koinonia reminds all denominations and traditions that they are ‘called together’
in Christ to be part of something bigger than themselves, and connexionalism
serves Methodism in the same way. This special sense of being ‘in connexion’
extends to a world Methodist Christian ‘family’ now some seventy plus million
strong, of which the British Methodist Church is but a small part. It may come as a
surprise – but a rather wonderful one I think – that every member of the Methodist
Church in Great Britain is by virtue of that membership also a member of the
Methodist Missionary Society (MMS). In a time when formal membership of most
things appears less appealing to more people, I consider this fact alone sufficient
reason to be a member of the Methodist Church. We should make more of it on
the membership ticket given out to those who commit themselves to this formal
belonging each year.
The origins of what became the MMS go back into the later eighteenth century
and the name Wesleyan-Methodist Missionary Society was adopted in 8 8,
suggesting that Methodism expressed itself as a mission society before it formally
identified itself as a ‘Church’ – a term only appearing on membership tickets
much later in the nineteenth century. Methodist disciples understood themselves
as ‘mission people’ both in their own neighbourhoods and around the world. In