As our last sermon series was concluding, I had asked the ladies what they wanted to discuss next. Since there were so many questions raised about Wesleyan teaching as we were going through our last series, it made the most sense to do a study on John Wesley.
So that the discussions don't get completely dry and boring, we have been reading "John Wesley: The World His Parish" from the Christian Heroes series by Janet and Geoff Benge. It's written as a novel for young readers (intermediate/junior high age) so it's a very pleasant read for our small group. But what I've appreciated about the five chapters I've read so far is that it doesn't avoid getting into the deep theological terms just to keep it appropriate for young readers. Instead, the writers use those terms and go on to explain what they mean in language that is reader-friendly for its audience.
We had just gotten the books last week, so we read the first two chapters aloud during small group. Since we have been trying to tailor our children's ministry to be more family-focused (families doing Church together rather than parents do grown-up church stuff while the Kids' Church teachers babysit their kids), I was stoked that this book would be accessible for all age groups since it's an easy read-aloud book. Of course, it provides only the introductory material to John Wesley's life, but it works for our small group.
In addition to the book we're reading together, I also managed to borrow a few other books from the WMCNZ (Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand) library as my study resources.
An Introduction to Wesleyan Theology by William M. Greathouse and H. Ray DunningI know, this isn't a very conventional way to do small group. But I don't really know how to do "conventional," so I guess I should just be glad the ladies are happy to go with the flow.
Holiness for Ordinary People by Keith Drury
What a Time to be Wesleyan! by David L. McKenna
I'm excited about this study. And even more so because after our read-aloud session last week, we all wanted to keep going. But since the point of the study isn't to zip through John Wesley's life as much as to reflect on what we can learn today, we stopped after two chapters. I'm pretty eager to get back to our discussions tomorrow.
Hey, if you're interested in reading the book with us, I know they have it on Kindle and probably at your local Christian bookstore as well. And if you want to join in the discussion with us, feel free to jump in the conversation online. I'll post a brief reflection of our discussions each week, and you can join in the conversation.
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