Exploring A Methodist Way of Life as a church

You can use MWOL resources to explore discipleship in your church (in a service, meeting, small group, a one-to-one, or at a festival) and deepen relationships with Jesus. The following activities will also help you to think about mission planning. We also run events and webinars throughout the year for individuals and church leaders to explore what this means for them, including "Rural and Rooted", a series for rural churches. You may also be interested in our series of service outlines to help embed A Methodist Way of Life in your church and community. Filled with notes for a talk or sermon; creative activities and discussion questions for all ages; and all in editable Word documents so you can pick and choose the bits that work for you and make it your own.

Pocket Guide

Order copies of this free resource here.

• Give a copy to each person in the congregation for them to keep in a wallet or purse, as a reminder of a Methodist Way of Life, and as a conversation aid.
• Have plenty of spare copies available for visitors to the church. 
• Use the reflection questions in dedicated accountability groups, or in services.
• Give them away at events where you encounter unaffiliated people as a way of explaining what Methodists do. Ask them which station they feel most drawn to personally.

 

 

Badges to identify gifts and passions

You can order badges here. As a rough guide to how many of each design to order, count up the people in the congregation and divide by four.  

• Encourage people to pick a badge to represent their ‘home station’ – the practice they most strongly connect their faith growth/spirituality with.  
• Reflect on what the spread of chosen home stations says about your community and take the chance to celebrate this and bless people. How can you champion each other? How might this snapshot influence your mission planning?
• When someone has identified a home station, they can use the MWOL personal discipleship guidance to find tailored ideas for being a gift to the church, and suggestions about how to grow as disciples by exploring other stations. It is entirely likely that home stations will change over time.
• As a marker of their journey, give out badges whenever someone engages in one of the practices or has a new spiritual experience.

Posters and stickers to identify comfort and growth areas

You will need to download and print 12 A4 posters and buy some small stickers in three colours.

Stick the posters around the room, one for each station. Over a period of time (whether an evening, or a month) encourage people to place stickers on the stations that feel ‘like home’, that ‘scare’ them, and that they would like to ‘explore’. These classifications aren’t mutually exclusive!

After people have had time to choose, count the stickers. You can use this as a basis for a conversation about your mission planning.

“The congregation had trouble seeing beyond the immediate problems of building repairs and a numerical decline. Their District Mission Enabler introduced the steering group to A Methodist Way of Life as a discipleship framework, and the minister used this activity with the whole congregation in Sunday worship. Seeing each other’s answers excited them and discussions about discipleship came alive.” 

Congregation survey

This is a particularly good activity to run during the General Church Meeting.

Hand out survey sheets to everyone and have spare pens available. You may also need large-print versions. Encourage honesty and do stress that there is no judgement attached to this exercise. Make clear whether responses will be anonymous.

Describe the stations one-by-one, and ask people to score themselves:

• 0 (I don’t really do that)
• 1 (I sometimes do that)
• 2 (I often do that)

After the service, enter the data into a spreadsheet to calculate the mean score of all people and stations. 

You can repeat this exercise annually and track how this measure changes. You can also use the mean score for each station as part of your mission planning exploration - which stations are you strong in? Where do you need to build infrastructure?

Journalling using monthly postcards

Order copies of these postcards here.

Each month, choose a station to explore together in services and small groups. Give everyone a postcard to take away and encourage them to use it as a journal throughout that month: writing on it their thoughts relating to that station, any new practices they start, any they realise they already do, and any ways they encounter God through that practice.

At the end of the month, ask people to bring back their postcards and share their experiences. How has their faith developed? Consider using the accountability questions to help prompt conversation. 

Collect the postcards and use them as a basis for discussion in the church council, and as a springboard for pastoral conversations.