Whatever Happened to the Good Old Class?
When John Wesley began the Methodist movement in 1740s, one of the cleverest things he did was organizing small groups. He called them “Classes”. Each Class consisted of 12 people, led by a leader who was required to visit each member at least once a week. They met weekly for the purpose of fellowship, support and discipleship. The attendance to the Class meeting was so emphasized that the members were issued a membership card every three months to verify their active participation, without which they could not participate in the weekly Class meeting and the quarterly Love Feast.
The success of the Methodist movement was credited to the structure of the Classes which organized tens of thousands Methodist into a system where the continual care and support were possible. The Class system existed for about 100 years in the Methodist Church and slowly died out around 1850s.
However, the Class meetings, called “Sok” in Korean, are alive and well in the Korean Methodist churches. Presently our KM is organized into 7 different “Sok”, which meet once a month, usually on the first weekend of the month. The Class is led by a class leader, called “Sok-Jang”, whose ministry is to care for his or her Class members, by calling them and visiting them. They attend the monthly Class leaders’ meeting on the last Saturday of the month and are asked to come to at least once a week to a morning prayer meeting to pray for their Class members.
Sometimes we also have a class teacher, who is gifted in teaching and assists the Class leader in the monthly Class by leading the Bible study portion of the meeting. The monthly gathering begins with a simple meal, after which they gather for a time of worship, which include Bible study. We use the inductive Bible study method, in order to encourage the members’ participation. The Class meeting also includes a time of intercessory prayer and offering. The offering collected during the Class is used for the mission project that the Class has decided to support. We are hoping to have more frequent Class meetings, at least every other week, but this hasn’t come true yet.
As you have heard many times, the small group meeting has become very prominent in today’s church ministry. It is because the small group meeting is the most effective setting for nurturing and life-changing transformation, If you look at the Methodist Class meeting, you’ll find that there are all five elements of the church’s ministry, namely worship, fellowship, discipleship (Bible study), mission (offering) and service (providing meal). Therefore, whatever that needs to and should happen at church can happen in the Class, only at a more intimate and personal level. Because they happen at the more personal and intimate level, its effectiveness is augmented.
I know that the EM has been trying to establish healthy small group ministries, yet has not seen that happen to our satisfaction. May it be that re-establishing the “good old” system of the Class might prove to be helpful for us?
TJ Kim, Pastor
