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Another ‘good old way’ that has been reborn in the Church today is the ministry of small-group fellowship. John Wesley, the great Anglican evangelist and admirer of Little Gidding, is a favourite source of inspiration. A century after Nicholas’s death, Wesley was busy with his own experiment, but he shared a common vision with his predecessor: ‘I saw a family full as much devoted to God, full as regular in all their exercises of devotion, and at last as exemplary in every branch of Christian holiness’ (Wesley, 1872, p. 333). Wesley is famous for turning this vision of the family of God into reality through his Methodist Societies.

In 1739, the city of Bristol was a rapidly growing commercial centre with a large population of new urban immigrants. It was a crowded and confusing place to live, with many neglected social and economic needs and little or no active church presence. John Wesley arrived on 2 April to share the ‘glad tidings of salvation’, and for the first time he would preach in the open-air, attracting as many as 3,000 people to his first public event. To preach out of doors was a new thing, and the Anglican establishment viewed it as a seditious act. But Wesley felt that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him – ‘to preach the gospel to the poor’ – and nothing could stop him.

Wesley’s legacy has as much to do with small groups as large crowds, however. His characteristic emphasis on ‘deliverance, recovery, and liberty’ was most effectively realized in more intimate gatherings. He was something of a celebrity preacher and enjoyed having a large audience, but he learned quickly enough that most people came to faith through close relationships with caring people. In fact, probably more than anyone before him in the modern era, Wesley appreciated that Christianity was essentially social in nature.

In one of his sermons, he described the Christian as a mirror of God – an image that reflects the social nature or Trinity of God. We reflect what we receive: the capacity to love and be loved by others. Just as the divine persons enjoy a bond of fellowship, so do we, especially through the indwelling Holy Spirit. For Wesley, this is what our participation in the divine nature meant. So it made sense to him that Christians would come to faith through the active love of others – through the ‘channels of grace’ uniquely found in one-to-one relationships and in a community of faith that was mobilized to continually extend its fellowship to others (Wesley, 1951, p. 38).

Wesley was very practical about this. If anyone could make the Trinity and divine love into lived realities in the everyday experience of people, it was this energetic pragmatist. He first drew up a fourfold structure of small groups – each with its own level of spiritual intimacy that corresponded with a particular stage of growth and discipleship.12 In the ‘trial bands’ the participants, ideally no more than 12 in number, became more aware of how God had already been at work in their lives – of the grace that had been received even prior to their belief. With this deeper understanding came accountability. Over a period of, perhaps, several months they were expected to learn the basics of fellowship: practising transparency, confession, forgiveness, mutual support and encouragement to live as disciples in all areas of life. Once they learned this, lay leaders – trained by Wesley to serve as overseers – recommended (to his ministers) that band members progress to the next level in the ‘United Society’ – to larger class structures.

In the ‘classes’, the emphasis was on teaching the basics of the Christian faith – ‘mind work’, as Wesley sometimes called it. The combination of sharing previous life experiences in the trial bands, learning about the faith in the class, and developing stronger relationships day by day with other seekers, prepared the group members for the ‘converting grace’ of the ‘new birth’ in Jesus Christ. Wesley was fully prepared to stretch this journey to two years. It was an intricate process and, as always, deeply relational. The more one felt a sense of belonging to the group, the more one came to know at an experiential level what it meant to belong to God. The culmination of this spiritual awareness was a conscious acceptance of salvation and professed testimony of conversion to Jesus Christ.

Next, individuals were recommended by their mentors and overseers to the ‘bands’. Here they responded to their conversions with a new resolve to grow in grace, train the will towards God and continue in their support to one another in discipleship. The level of confidentiality increased sufficiently that Wesley thought it was sometimes helpful to break out into smaller and more homogeneous sub-groups based on sex and marital status. Accountability was a major factor here. Finally, in the ‘select bands’, individuals pursued ‘sanctifying grace’ – the glow of divine love and a self-denying responsiveness toward others. They practised deep spiritual formation and group fellowship, living out Galatians 3.28 – ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.’

These four types of group formed all over England and Wales in the mid eighteenth century, and they involved people from all classes of society. Women participated in their leadership as well as men – with everyone ‘obedient to their heavenly calling’. Ultimately, this activity led to the great ‘revival’ that would spill over from the Methodist Society structures into the life of other dissenting groups and also the Church of England. There was plenty of tension and conflict along the way, but over time it became clear that this ‘experimental religion’ was beneficial not only to the church, but to society as a whole.

Certainly Wesley was a ‘trailblazer’, and he was strategic, with the nation and, indeed, the world as his parish. No one challenged the parochial model more than this ‘methodistic’ Anglican. Though he intended each ‘society’ to link itself to the local Anglican church, the strength and support offered by the emerging Methodist ‘connection’ proved more effective in sustaining the work of forming disciples. Key to its success were the highly motivated lay leaders and stewards who were more excited by a church that engaged everyday life than a church defined exclusively by Sunday worship events. Here, in ‘free conversation’, they addressed the ‘true state of the soul’ as well as concerns regarding ‘temporal things’ at home and in the workplaces and marketplaces of the day. Wesley even insisted that the hymns, exhortations and prayers of the Methodist groups address these wider spheres of life.

John Wesley became the father of modern evangelicalism because, in part, he was a highly successful ‘networker’. He found ‘persons of peace’ in his lay leaders, ministers and stewards who could reach people where they lived, in all situations, classes and stages of life. He devised a system in which teams of two would fan out across a district or neighbourhood, visiting those who were reported to be in some sort of spiritual or physical need. Wesley selected those he judged to be ‘of the most tender, loving spirit’ for this ministry. When visiting the sick, in particular, these ‘visitors’ were, in Wesley’s words, to ‘inquire into the state of other souls’ and to advise them as occasion may require. To inquire into their disorders, and procure advice for them. To relieve them, if they are in want. To do any thing for them, which he (or she) can do’ Wesley, 1831, p. 186.

Ultimately, the success of this missional, contextual and formational ‘network’ would take on ecclesial intensions as well. It was never Wesley’s desire that Methodists separate from the Church of England, but soon after his death in 1791 this is precisely what happened. The energy and enthusiasm of the movement could no longer abide by the founder’s call to remain as ‘living witnesses’ within the established church.13 As leadership passed to a new generation, the elaborate – yet highly elastic – structure of small groups gradually turned into circuits of Methodist chapels.

While the history of this separation was marked by conflict and controversy, it offers many lessons and parallels for today’s mission-shaped church. Most especially, we recognize that when something ‘new or enlivened is happening’, it may exceed the capacities of existing structures. The resulting tensions can be healthy and energizing when all concerned remember that it is the church, as a whole, that is ‘called upon to proclaim [the gospel] afresh in each generation’ (Mission-shaped Church, 2004, p. 34). This implies an abiding connection between the historic church and the ongoing story of God’s mission to the world – a story that will always have its visionary founders and reinvigorated channels of grace.

John Wesley’s class system

Individuals progressed through

 trial bands – they learnt the basics of fellowship;

 classes – members learnt the basics of the Christian faith;

 bands – members grew in the faith, practising mutual accountability;

 select bands – individuals pursued ‘sanctifying grace’.