Class Leaders: Recovering a Tradition

by David Lowes Watson

In 1988, The General Conference of the United Methodist Church restored class leaders and class meetings to the Book of Discipline after an absence of fifty years. In this volume, David Lowes Watson explains what the recovery of this tradition can mean for congregations, and offers some guidelines for the revitalized office of class leader. Adapting the later Methodist class meeting as a pastoral subdivision of the congregation, Watson shows how class leaders, under the supervision of the pastor, can nurture the discipline of other church members in light of a "General Rule of Discipline" derived from the early Methodist "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" This volume is the second in a trilogy : Covenant Discipleship, Class Leaders, and Forming Christian Disciples.

161 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[L.L. Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a class that starts next week. It is specifically about the role of "class leaders" in the United Methodist Church but the discipleship ideas could be helpful for others too. The word "class" is not used in the typical sense, but is about a lay pastor role -- where a lay person provides spiritual guidance and direction for a group (of about 15) in their church, working with and checking in with each person individually to help them grow as a disciple of Jesus Christ. (They do not gather as a class.) The star rating for a book isn't always easy for me. It was an "easy read" (author writes well) as he presents history, rationale, and practical details about bringing back an old role from the early years of Methodism, adapting it to our day.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Class Leaders, Recovering a Tradition, David Lowes Watson demonstrates how the Methodist movement effectively fulfilled the Great Commission by developing a structured leadership to nurture accountable discipleship. Wesley’s adoption and promotion of the class system was essentially ecclesiolae in ecclesia, little churches within the big church. These small communities within the big community modeled what Watson describes as the “twofold ministry of Christ” - that Christ welcomed all people but made clear that his followers would have hard work to do. The small groups were a place that anyone could come, but to remain in good standing, people were required to do more than just show up on occasion.

Because this is Christ’s model for ministry, it should be ours as well. Unfortunately, the class meeting lost its value and purpose within the Methodist Episcopal Church as it transformed from movement to institution. Watson takes care to track the decline of the authority and significance of the class leader as the church began to shift from true pastoral itinerancy to more established, geographically local clergy. As the church invested more in its administration, it neglected the development of strong lay leaders. The class meeting and class leader system lost so much ground, that by 1939, Methodism’s most effective discipling method was stricken from its own Book of Discipline.

However Watson does not simply propose that we return to the Methodist class meeting. Rather, he outlines a “re-traditioning” of class meetings to ensure that we are not trying to fit old wine into new wineskins. Re-traditioning involves first understanding the Biblical basis for the ministry, next understanding the culture and context in which the ministry will occur, and then identifying and equipping leaders to serve. Watson’s companion books, Covenant Discipleship: Christian Formation Through Mutual Accountability and Forming Christian Disciples: The Role of Covenant Discipleship and Class Leaders in the Congregation provide insight into the spirituality and systems needed in the local church to accomplish those tasks.