My current position within Eastern Hills Wesleyan church is under the umbrella of the Spiritual Formation Department. I started out as a ministry assistant and am now Director of the Caring Network. As Part of our Connect, Grow, Serve, model I serve and help oversee Membership, Bapstism, Discover God, Discover Eastern Hills, Divorce Care, Griefshare, Cancer Care, Marriage Ministry, Addiction/Recovery ministry, Caregivers Support, Discipleship, Prayer/Healing, and networking within the community. This is a highly structured system, perhaps even moreso than in the days of the early Methodist church. My ministry area is a combination of Spirtual Formation and spiritual/social services. By comparrison the approach was less complex in the early church. According to the writer Jo Lovino author of the article "The Wesley Pilgramage: The Method of early Mehodism," Wesley understood that the key to building up the church would come in the form of Bible studies/classes, worship and prayer gatherings, and one on one discipleship. Of course tithing and baptism was also put into practice. In those days discipleship was key is spreading the word. There were no tele-evanelistic churches back then, so preaching was more missional to spread the newtork. Although on could argue technology via TV, radio, youtube, facebook, and podcasts have replaced tent revivals. Though I do believe that is part of the danger of being so organized and technological in our approach today. Now you can do discipleship over zoom. But is it as impactful?
Paul Petit, author (of Foundations of Spiritual Formation) says, "Spiritual Formation is the ongoing process of the Triune God transforming the believer's life and character toward the life and character of Jesus Christ - accomplished by the ministry of the Spirit in the context of biblical community." To do this work well we must abide in Christ, obey God, and be lead by the Holy Spirit. There are one of two ways to accomplish this. Today some churches attempt to be a one stop shop for all your Spiritual Formation needs, while others live out a very specific calling of service to the community. Neither one is better than the other, however the one danger of both is getting too far ahead of the holy-spirit in being too strategic, or too far behind with having too narrow a focus. Another danger is timing. If you push people through Spiritual Formation steps ahead of them being ready to recieve it by God, you may build a house of cards that will come crashing down. You can't rush a lifetime process into one ministry year. You want to avoid influencing people into the sanctification process if the foundation has not yet set. We also want to avoid people following us instead of God as this too is danerous if we are too intergral in the Spiritual Formation steps as you want to build a network of support as you alone are not a savior. Wesley understood this as he poured into servant leaders to spread the word. Laslty, when you keep your disciplines simple: prayer, fasting, Bible Study, biblical meditation it's difficult for ministry creep and burn out to set in. It's a good reminder as to why how these core principles worked so well back then and still do today.