Manskar: Atonement and the Methodist Way Conclusion

I’ve been sharing links to Rev. Steven Manskar’s series on Atonement and the Methodist Way.  He concluded his series with a great description of modern groups in the Wesleyan tradition yesterday.  I want to share that post with my readers.  You can read the full post from Manskar by clicking on the hyperlink above.

He includes this material there:

Today we have a contemporary model of the class meeting in CovenantDiscipleship groups. A group consists of 5-7 people who are willing to be accountable for their discipleship. They agree to meet weekly for one hour. The group’s life is shaped by the General Rule of Discipleship:

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.

He concludes:

The Wesleyan way of Christian formation provides a simple and practical way to respond to God’s love revealed in the death of his Son. It provides the means to form relationships of mutual support and accountability people need to deny themselves, take up their cross daily and follow Jesus. The call to discipleship is a call to live with the cross. It is a call to relationship with the Triune God. The Wesleyan way helps us know and love God by joining with others like us. God comes to us and we grow in knowledge and love of God through relationships with others who seek to “deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Jesus” (Luke 9:23). This reality tells me that Christian faith and life is necessarily relational. Christ comes to me through the lives, witness and love of other people.

Jesus shows us that his way is the relational way. He shows us how to love:

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

As always, I recommend Manskar’s blog to my readers.