When is the time right?

God is working on me (again). It was less than two months after my wife's death, and I am getting new ideas for ministry. I am reading things that are stirring my soul. I spent Lent praying what we Methodists call the Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition. Basically, I gave up control on what I do to God. I've done that before this year and I will need to do it many times before I die. It's really a daily thing. Sometimes I need to do it more than once a day. I think we all have a desire for control, even if we say otherwise.

Where to begin? The Methodist movement was originally a small group revival within the Church of England. John Wesley got people to meet together and take discipleship and accountability seriously. It birthed a new branch on the Christian tree, even though Wesley never wanted to create a separate denomination. The "class meetings" were the backbone of the church. The foundation of a groundswell of growth in faith. Then somewhere along the line we decided that we had "made it" as a denomination and chose to look more like other branches of the tree. The classes fell out of use. Our church has declined in the US ever since. I feel the need to help show that it can work again. The vision I have been given is for house groups to form in neighborhoods to practice a modern, methodical gathering like the class meeting. The meeting in each participating neighborhood would come together to worship as an overall community. The "congregation" is the membership of the classes combined together. It would not be a typical congregation or a typical worship since the hope is to begin the groups with people who are unchurched or disaffected Christians. I keep thinking it may have a Unitarian feel to it with a target population that has little or no Christian background. Lots of questions to be asked. Few assumptions made. Faith from scratch.

The challenge is to work this while avoiding conflict with the congregation I currently serve. I have no interest in breeding dissent or schism in our congregation. There are many prayers and conversations to be had before this can go from hypothesis to theory. I have begun to have those conversations with trusted advisors. God is still painting the picture, so I'll just have to be patient.

I keep feeling that this is a good use for a deacon: doing what could be considered missional work with people who haven't made a decision for or against Christ. I would be working with exactly the people the Book of Discipline calls deacons to serve. The rub is that the work is usually considered an elder's role. This is radical. This is risk taking. I am thrilled to think that God might allow me to be a part of it. It will turn me upside down. With God's blessing, it might be an example of how we can turn the church right side up again. Not my doing, but God's. Not my will, but God's. Praise God.