WESLEY’S SYSTEM OF LAY LEADER DEVELOPMENT

Beyond the ministry of Jesus, John Wesley offers us one of the greatest evangelism, disciple-making and church planting models in the history of the Christian faith.  A study of the life of this practical theologian reveals Wesley spent his entire life building what became a Wesleyan, healthy, multiplying system of disciple-making leaders.  Built on the Great Commission of Jesus to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20), Wesley continually worked to build a process, teaching a multitude of leaders “to obey everything Jesus commanded them to do.”  The Great Commission of Jesus infers that our evangelism and disciple-making must be intentional, systematic and anchored in accountability.  In every church, we intend to increase our intentionality, broaden systematic instruction and strengthen accountability.

Spiritual Lessons from Wesley

What spiritual lessons can we learn from studying John Wesley?  One issue Wesley faced was the “parish system” of his day; this required believers to only attend and work within the geographic area assigned to them by the Church of England.  Wesley saw this as frustrating the development of a Great Commission vision, and he had the boldness to declare, “the world is my parish.”  We want local and district leaders who embrace the new global realities of the 21st century with a Wesleyan world view. God used John Wesley to transform 18th century England because he spent a lifetime fueling a spiritual movement. Not content to build an institution, his aim was always to build and perfect a healthy, multiplying system of leader development that was culturally relevant and effective in making Christ-like disciples in the nations for his time.

The 18th century found the Church of England out of touch with being able to connect with the common people of England, whose lives were filled with a multitude of spiritual and social problems. Many clergy were ill-equipped and unaware of the spiritual needs of the masses. The influence of rationalism and deism within the church was strong. John Wesley's greatest achievement was his ability to see the necessity of bringing religion to a wide and neglected audience. Wesley pragmatically realized no spiritual movement would never impact the masses of England and the world unless it built a system of leader development that was scaleable, healthy and multiplying. The Church of England had developed a high dependence and focus only on the use of ordained clergy. Many were trained at Oxford University. There is evidence training began as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world. Wesley entered Christ Church College as an undergraduate in June, 1720. It was the largest college at Oxford. He graduated in 1724 and on September 19, 1725 he was ordained deacon in Christ Church Cathedral. He was elected a Fellow of Lincoln College in March of 1726 and was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church in September of 1728. Wesley was invited back to Lincoln College at Oxford to teach in 1729, which he did. While believing in and participating in the higher education system of Oxford University Wesley came to believe there were not enough ordained clergy to launch and sustain the spiritual movement he envisioned.

With the world as his parish, Wesley’s vision included reaching “outsiders” to the church, something very new in his day. Over time, he angered the established church and educational system of Anglicanism by methodically developing a group of lay preachers.  He inspired their hearts, wrote their sermons (the 52 Standard Sermons) and sent them out.  The 52 Standard Sermons of John Wesley were so theologically solid that they became the doctrinal standard for Methodism for its first 150 years.  Through John Wesley’s influence, God raised up an army of over 650 lay pastors and preachers that revolutionized their world.  In history, it has become known as the Great Evangelical Awakening.

The Difference Between Wesley and Whitfield

The two most well-known preachers who led the Evangelical Awakening during this era were George Whitfield and John Wesley.  By most accounts, Whitfield was a much better preacher.  But when George Whitfield died, there were no discipled groups, no evangelism training and no leader development system that followed him to perpetuate his life’s work.  In contrast, in the few years after John Wesley died (1781), more people were saved, sanctified, trained, discipled and sent out into mission than John Wesley ever trained and sent out during his lifetime!  How could something like this happen?   Wesley understood the importance of building evangelism, disciple-making and leader development systems within a spiritual movement.  Churches and movements that are effective have learned to follow similar evangelism, disciple-making and leader development processes.  

The new vision of the global Nazarene movement (led by Dr. Scott Rainey) is a re-emphasis on building an effective disciple-making process in every Nazarene church. This emphasis to move away from programs and focus on a common framework and common language everywhere is a cause to rejoice.  One problem we face is that many Nazarene churches lack a healthy, multiplying system of leader development for evangelism and disciple-making like Wesley developed for his time and culture.  Across the last 112 years of our Nazarene movement, we have become well-schooled in Wesleyan theology but many pastors and churches have little understanding of how John Wesley used cohorts and small groups to build healthy systems for evangelism, disciple-making and leader development.  Thankfully, the systems thinking of Wesley still influences our church today.

Understanding Wesley’s Leader Development System

Over 275 years ago, John Wesley developed a healthy, multiplying system of leader development for evangelism and disciple-making. His system included three interlocking cohort/small groups within Methodism that he termed 1) the society, 2) the class and 3) the band.  A society was like a congregation, but you could not be a member of the society, unless you made a commitment to be a weekly participant in a class.  Made up of 10-12 people at the most, the class was designed by Wesley to train a believer in their development toward godliness, i.e. what to avoid, what to pursue, helpful practices which were a “means of grace” as Wesley called them.  Our Nazarene Manual Covenant of Christian Character was developed from this formative thinking of Wesley’s disciple-making to develop holiness.

Class leadership was the beginning step of Wesley’s leader development system for Methodism. This is very similar to the use of cohorts, small groups and leadership communities that are being used by many churches today.  The band for Wesley was a closed disciple-making group, very high commitment and high accountability.  Wesley believed it was impossible for a believer to pursue a life of holiness without regular involvement in a small group practicing spiritual accountability.  This is why we encourage pastors, lay pastors, church board members and others to be involved in an accountability group for the pursuit of holiness and spiritual growth. 

If we are to be truly Wesleyan in spirit and practice, we believe we should emulate Wesley’s thinking, not only in his theology but also his focus on evangelism, disciple-making and leader development.  Wesley was a pragmatist, as was his brother Charles.  They were willing to try anything that fueled the Methodist disciple-making movement.  Charles Wesley was a cultured musician with high church taste, but he shelved his preferences, condescending to write hymns to the tunes of low-browed drinking songs that were being sung in English pubs.  The Wesleyan hymn sung in many churches today, “And Can It Be,” was at one time the tune of an English drinking song.  The church “outsiders” Wesley powerfully impacted all recognized the tune and were drawn by it.  Wesley’s approach to music should be instructive for many churches caught in the emotional dialogue that comes with the debate over worship styles and preferences.  

Wesley did not like preaching outside church buildings — what became “field preaching” to him. But in his Journal he declares, “I see no other way to win the masses for Christ.” In line with his pragmatic disciple-making focus, Wesley told his lay preachers, “Preach in as many places as you can.  Start as many classes as you can.  But do not preach without starting new classes.”   To the degree that we learn how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in building today’s Wesleyan disciple-making system, will we see a long-term change in the habits and character of Nazarenes throughout the world.  Our ability as leaders to develop new thinking and new habits as a movement is a vital key to achieving our mission of “making Christ-like disciples in the nations.”