“Open your eyes and look at the fields”, Jesus said, “They are ripe for harvest” (John 4:35). I’m not sure why the disciples had their heads down, but this admonishment from our Lord is no less true today. In fact, for those caught in the ministry grind of Sunday to Sunday, trying to keep the machinery of the church chugging along in the midst of much uncertainty, the reminder is a good one. We need to look at the fields. Groundswell is a mobilization ministry, and we want to help you “mobilize a growing wave of disciple makers and pioneer leaders” for the harvest. Perhaps this quick snapshot of the Wesleyan revival and his methods will help.
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The Catalyst for Revival
John Wesley was born in 1703 during one of the darkest seasons in the spiritual history of Great Britain. One contemporary wrote, “Religion and morality had collapsed to a degree that was never before known in any Christian country”1. At the tender age of six, Wesley was the last child to be snatched from the flames of his burning home in an experience that made a deep impression on his life. He had been saved for a purpose and considered himself “a brand plucked from the fire”.
Almost 30 years later between 1738-1740, Wesley had three formative experiences that helped inaugurate the Wesleyan revival. The first was his famous “heart-warming” moment at Aldersgate where he received an assurance of salvation. Second, he experienced the power of the Holy Spirit at a Fetter Lane society prayer meeting that became his version of a Methodist Pentecost.
“Finally, it was his exposure to field preaching that put feet to these experiences, and paved the way for the Wesleyan revival.”
One author writes, “Movements may be impregnated in the heart of one strangely warmed, but the delivery room is in the fields.”2
Wesley’s Discipleship Pathway
Wesley’s discipleship pathway began in the fields, not in the church. I’ve summarized his pathway below in a brief snapshot of four primary “spaces” or interlocking groups that he constructed.
Field Preaching
The Anglican Church thought field preaching to be highly inappropriate, and Wesley would not disagree. He writes, “I could never reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields of which he (George Whitefield) set me an example...I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin, if it had not been done in a church.”3 Yet, the fruit of field preaching was evident and finally Wesley gave in,
“I submitted to be more vile and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation.”
Field preaching became the “vile” first step in Wesley’s discipleship pathway. If the “delivery room was in the fields”, the nursery for new believers was a gathering known simply as the society.
Societies
Society meetings would range in size from a few dozen participants to hundreds of people awakened by the gospel and ready to take the next step in spiritual growth. In fact, the only requirement to join a society was “a desire to flee the wrath to come, to be saved from their sins”. The society was a place for people to learn more about the faith and connect with other leaders of the movement. The most prominent of these societies was called The Foundery, the first in what would become a network of societies known simply as the United Societies.
Wesley continued to preach outdoors almost daily, and then added to his schedule the society meeting for those that showed evidence of sincere interest in the faith.
Classes
However, as the societies grew, it became prudent to subdivide them into smaller groups. Designed to provide weekly contributions for the poor, the class meeting quickly evolved as a structure for spiritual growth and behavioral change. The messages heard in a society would be worked out in class meetings of ten to twelve people with a leader who would simply ask, “How is it with your soul?”
Participants were called on to testify to how God was working in their life, and meetings would often take place in homes, attics, coal bins, shops, and schoolrooms. It was often in the class meeting where folks would finally surrender themselves to God. For an in depth look at the class meeting I would recommend you click here to pick up a copy of, John Wesley’s Class Meeting: A Model for Making Disciples by Michael Henderson.
Bands
Wesley’s discipleship pathway continued with the band meeting, (Kevin Watson has written an incredible book simply titled The Band Meeting click here ) an even smaller gathering designed for the purpose of mutual confession and growing in holiness. For Wesley, holiness consisted both of ethical morality and inward purity or perfect love. If the class meeting was the disciplinary cell of Methodism, the band meeting was the confessional. The process moved people from field preaching to society, from society to class meeting, and then from class meeting to band meeting. The society aimed for the head, the class meeting for the hands, and the band meeting for the heart. This pathway and process was crucial for spiritual formation and Wesley once wrote,
“Establish class meetings and form societies wherever you preach and have attentive hearers; for, wherever we have preached without doing so, the word has been like seed by the wayside”.
It Begins in the Fields
One of the core cohorts we offer pastors at Mobilize the Church is called Building a Discipleship Pathway, a six-session course that helps pastors and leaders determine their process for making disciples and mobilizing disciple makers. Similar to Wesley, we use a discipleship approach that begins with “spaces” or relational environments rather than scope and sequence. Our definition of disciple making is simple.
“Building a relationship with someone and helping them learn how to trust and follow Jesus”.
A discipleship pathway is the most important system in any church and always begins with a call to go. It starts in the field.
This is perhaps the biggest challenge for the 21st century church. Recently, I was speaking at an event in Kansas when one of my colleagues and founder of Dirt Roads Network said, “to use the analogy of a barn, the church is often filled with good seed that needs to get out into the field, but churches operate as if the soil is supposed to come to them”. The farmers in the crowd laughed.
What is the primary purpose of the church?
Some would say, “It is God’s will for your church to grow!” and build their philosophy and purpose of ministry around that statement. I fundamentally disagree. Growth is not the starting point. God’s will might be for your local church to give itself away. Perhaps you should sacrifice a few of your members for the greater mission of the kingdom. Perhaps the life cycle of your church is ending. The core purpose of the church is not to grow but to GO! Maybe we should focus more on going and less on growing. To put it another way,
“The church doesn’t have a mission. The mission has a church. The mission is to “go and make disciples”.
There was a time twenty, thirty, or forty years ago, when a flood of seekers came to the church interested in what was being offered. The flood has turned into a trickle and we need to hear Jesus’ words once again, “Open your eyes, the fields are white unto harvest”. Do you have a discipleship pathway at your church? Does it begin in the fields? Are you willing to “become more vile” in your methods? This is where disciple making must begin. It starts in the fields.
In a future post we will unpack 21st century “field preaching” and perhaps other ways of making disciples but for now, let’s take the advice of Jesus and “open our eyes” submitting ourselves like Wesley, to the fields.
Bevins, Winfield. Marks of a Movement. (Zondervan, 2019), p. 19.
Beck and Acevedo. A Field Guide to Fresh Expressions. (Abingdon Press, 2020), p.xv.
Henderson, Michael. John Wesley’s Class Meeting. (Evangel Publishing House, 1997), p.27.
Great article, Jon!