Covenant Discipleship Quarterly (Summer 2008)
	A rule of life is a pattern of spiritual disciplines that provides structure and direction for growth in holiness. … A rule of life is not meant to be restrictive, although it certainly asks for genuine commitment. It is meant to help us establish a rhythm of daily living, a basic order within which new freedoms can grow. A rule of life, like a trellis, curbs our tendency to wander and supports our frail efforts to grow spiritually.
The General Rules
	The General Rules are found in every edition of The Book of Discipline. They were developed by John Wesley in 1743 as guidelines for membership in the Methodist societies. The Rules are a simple and concise description of basic Christian practices, described by Wesley as "means of grace." The Rules are a guide to help the society and its individual members grow in holiness of heart and life.
A Vision for the Future from the 2008 General Conference
	Covenant Discipleship groups will help The United Methodist Church live into the four areas of focus and the seven vision pathways affirmed by the 2008 General Conference.
Praying for the Reign of God
	"We will envision a world caught by God's reign and seek to take steps that will realize it."
Sprouts: It May Be Simple, But It Ain't Easy
	Bishop Rueben Job has written a new book titled i>Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living. t doesn't take long to read, but it would take you a lifetime to live by the rules.
Diving Deeper in Faith
	Being honest about what specifically we are being called to do and expressing that in our own unique and diverse language is, in my opinion, discipleship at its best.
The Saints Among Us
	Watching for the living saints among us can help us in our own faith journeys. They know something in their souls that we are all trying to learn. Their gift to us is that, in reflecting the light of Jesus so clearly to others, they give us a chance to receive it for ourselves.
Wesleyan Pilgrimage in England for Probationers, May 2010
	Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the Wesleyan tradition that will equip them to live, teach, and invite others into the United Methodist Way of following and serving with Jesus Christ in the world.
Covenant Discipleship Quarterly (Spring 2008)
	What shapes the life of your church? When congregations practice and encourage accountable discipleship, they place Christ at the center of their life and mission.
Doing and Being -- Contemplation and Action
	Covenant Discipleship teaches us that God created us not only for a relationship with God, but also to care for and about our neighbor. Finding the balance between "roots and fruits" is not easy. We each feel the pull of being and doing in a different way. Covenant Discipleship helps us find the balance we need.
Covenant Discipleship: Transforming the Whole Person
	The call to follow Jesus goes deeper than our public work. How compassionate are we at home, or in the grocery store when we are in a hurry? Do we participate with our children in acts of justice? Do we pray with them? What are our private devotions?
A Life-Shaping Prayer: 52 Meditations in the Wesleyan Spirit
	Discover a richer life of enacted love through A Life-Shaping Prayer.
The Power of Prevenient Grace
	CD groups are not easy. Joining one requires a deep commitment. You will inevitably be led to examine your life in a new way. Giving an account of your walk with Christ to your CD group means reporting many joyful successes, but it also means confessing humbling failures as well.
Pastoral Reflections on the Charles Wesley Tercentennial Pilgrimage
	Even though over two-hundred years separate us from the Wesleys, the timelessness of the Word, liturgy, and sacraments along with the Spirit of God connect us in ways beyond my understanding.
Acts of Justice: The Mary Randall Center in Elkton, Maryland
	"We will speak out to others, especially against racism and prejudice and communicate regularly with our elected representatives on issues of moral concern."
The Continuing Journey of a Covenant Disciple
	For me, my Covenant Discipleship group is at least as important as attending Sunday worship. It drives me to want to better understand Jesus and his teachings and inspires me daily.
Covenant Discipleship Quarterly (Winter 2008)
Go and Do
Seeing in the Face of God
	In the foreword to Robert J. Miller’s Fire in the Deep: Lectio Divina Series, Cycle A, Graz Marcheschi cites a scientific study that shows that people who looked at photos of persons they loved experienced feelings of happiness.
Staying Open to New Avenues of Grace
One Church's Journey Into Covenant Discipleship
The Pastor's Perspective
Acts of Compassion
Covenant Discipleship Quarterly (Fall 2007)
Dragonflies
	I started Covenant Discipleship groups at my congregation because I wanted to help my parishioners grow in their spiritual lives in the most thorough and powerful way I could. I was delighted with how well that worked. But I hadn't anticipated how powerful it would be for me.
Opening Ourselves to Grace: Basic Christian Practices
	Video Presentation on the Means of Grace in the Wesleyan Traditio
Help Ensure Comprehensive Health Care
	Today growing numbers of Americans are living without health insurance or are living in fear of losing the insurance they have.
Would Jesus Play "Grand Theft Auto"?
	After we have committed ourselves to being disciples of Jesus Christ, how do we live? How do we make specific decisions in our daily life?
A Disciple's Journal, Year A Is Available
	A Disciple's Journal offers guidance for personal reflection and helps individuals connect works of mercy and works of piety, private acts of compassion and devotion with public acts of justice and worship. The book includes Scripture readings for each day of the year and space for notes and prayer concerns. In addition to this material, each week includes words from the vast expanse of hymns by Charles Wesley and a pertinent quotation from the works of John Wesley. This volume follows Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary and begins with the first Sunday of Advent.
Covenant Discipleship Quarterly (Summer 2007)
	Making disciples, like making musicians, does not happen by accident. It is done with intention born of love for God and love for those whom God calls into God's household in baptism.
"What is a Methodist?"
	In Methodism's early days, John Wesley had a hard time explaining to suspicious outsiders who the Methodists were. He was suspected of leading a radical, even dangerous, group of sectarians. Opponents called him an "enthusiast," which was not a compliment in eighteenth-century England.
Blogging as a Means of Grace
	So blogging is immensely public. But blogging is also much like journaling; it is still prayer. It may even be a spiritual discipline for me.
Children Will Be Children
	Sprouts are children, and they will act like children. Regardless of how smart they are, how computer savvy, how well they can program your new cell phone, or how much they want to be like Jesus, they will still act like children.
Acts of Justice
	Living Faith, Seeking Justice November 1-4, 2007 Fort Worth, TX
Covenant Discipleship Quarterly (Spring 2007)
	When we accept Christ's invitation to follow him, he doesn't remove us from the world. He invites us to follow him in the world. And ... the world is big and dangerous place with many places and ways to get off course and lost. That's why Christ invites us to follow him alongside fellow disciples. When we follow together, in small groups that provide mutual accountability and support, we are more likely to reach our destination (holiness of heart and life).
The Pursuit of Happiness
	Our consumer culture's number one job is to convince us of the ability of material things to bring happiness. This puts the culture squarely at odds with Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.
Holy Conversation
	In Covenant Discipleship we set aside normal conversation for holy conversation.
What My Covenant Discipleship Group Means to Me
	Comments from First United Methodist Church in Memphis, Texas
Religious Habit or Spiritual Discipline?
	In The United Methodist Church, children can participate in the Lord's Supper. Some Christian educators make the point that even though children may not understand the Lord's Supper, they can experience God's love and acceptance in the shared practice of the congregation.
Covenant Discipleship Quarterly (Winter 2007)
	Charles Wesley, John's younger brother, will be 300 years old in 2007. He was the poet of the Methodist movement. Whenever the early Methodists gathered in their societies, classes, and bands, they sang Charles' hymns.
How Covenant Discipleship Began in the Runcorn Circuit, United Kingdom
	In May 2005, several people from across the circuit responded to an invitation printed on church newsletters to be part of a pilot Covenant Discipleship group.
Taking Your Spiritual Pulse: A Daily Checklist
	Submitted by the Rev. Greg Douglass, Monrovia UMC, Monrovia, California.
"Nothing But Nets" Campaign
	Every 30 Seconds, a Child in Africa Dies of Malaria
The Poor as Jesus' Bosom-Friends
	The poor as Jesus' bosom-friends, The poor he makes his latest care . . .
Sprouts Confront Racism
	Racism and prejudice are a justice issues many children encounter every day. They are also sins that the church must regularly confront.
Covenant Discipleship Quarterly (Spring 2006)
	How does the church make disciples of Jesus Christ? We can glean from the ministry of John and Charles Wesley and the life of early Methodist societies some "building blocks" for disciple-making in the twenty-first century.
Quarterly Reflections: A Cosmic Miracle
	For the first time in our history, human beings have seen planet earth photographed from outer space. This has made the world a radically different place.
Sprouts: Growing Sprouts
	Because they care for and about children, women and mothers have a special affinity for acts of justice.
Hope UMC Covenant Discipleship Group, Duluth, MN
	We've discovered that everything we pray about affects us deeply.
Covenant Discipleship and My Journey into Ministry (Part II)
	The means of grace are those ordinary ways that God pours extraordinary grace into our lives. I have experienced Covenant Discipleship and other forms of mutual accountability as just such a means of grace. They offer strength, support, and sustenance for the graceful growth of daily discipleship.
The Journey of a Covenant Disciple
	Because of Covenant Discipleship, my spiritual growth has been tenfold.
Covenant Discipleship at Saron United Church of Christ, Sheboygan Falls, WI
	We have a deeper faith and greater understanding of how our faith is relevant in our daily lives.
Covenant Discipleship Quarterly (Winter 2006)
	Covenant Discipleship is designed to be part of the foundation of a congregation's ministry of making disciples of Jesus Christ.
Quarterly Reflections: The More Excellent Way
	Those of us entrusted with the leadership of the church, both clergy and laity, quickly find that there are two kinds of Christians in our congregations: those who evince a deepening maturity in their walk with Christ and those who seem to settle into routine Christianity.
Sprouts: Questions of Accountability
	In Covenant Discipleship, how far does accountability extend? How do we help children live their covenants?
Covenant Discipleship and My Journey into Ministry (Part I)
	Hindsight offers remarkable clarity. And it is often only through such clarity that we can see how seemingly chance occurrences are actually formative experiences of the means of grace in our lives. Such is the story of my experience with Covenant Discipleship.
Book Reviews: How Great a Flame and Changed from Glory into Glory
Quarterly Reflections Salvation and Discipleship: Not the Same Thing
	The push to gain members in the church of today is causing serious semantic slippage in how we view the Christian life. Words and phrases that should plumb the depths of the gospel have become little more than slogans for church growth, and they bear little resemblance to the message that cost the Son of God his life.
Try Us, O God
	From A Collection of Hymns, for the Use of The People Called Methodists, #489.
A Word From John Wesley
	In a Christian believer love sits upon the throne, which is erected in the inmost soul; namely, love of God and man, which fills the whole heart, and reigns without a rival.
Acts of Compassion: Assemble and Donate Health Kits
	Have each member of your Covenant Discipleship group assemble a health kit that will go to help a survivor of Hurricane Katrina. Collect $12 from each member and go shopping for the needed items. Have the group remain after its weekly meeting to assemble the Health Kits.
Acts of Justice A Note from the ONE: Make Poverty History Campaign
	We can help people who are victims fight corruption and make their own governments accountable and invest in a better future for everyone.
Acts of Worship and Devotion
	Recommended resources: This Holy Mystery: A United Methodist Understanding of Holy Communion and This Day: A Wesleyan Way of Prayer.
Where Is God?
	I am writing this article two days after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. I've watched the television coverage of the destruction, the flooding, and the human suffering caused by this monster storm. I've also seen the outpouring of compassion from thousands of volunteers from all around the U.S. and the world. My heart is filled with grief and hope. In times like these, people of faith are compelled to ask, "Where is God?"
Opening Ourselves to Grace: The Basics of Christian Discipleship (pdf document)
	by Steven W. Manskar Christian faith is more than agreeing with a set of doctrines or creeds. It is more than outward appearances, signs, and symbols. It's more than saying "I'm a Christian." Christian faith is ultimately about what is happening on the inside. It is a matter of the heart. It is a heart changed by an encounter with the living God who comes to us in Jesus Christ. The changed heart makes a difference in the way we live our lives in the world.
Quarterly Reflections: Beyond the Bicentennial
	Covenant Discipleship Groups have never been an end in themselves, but always a means of grace for walking with Christ in the world.
Ideas for Covenant Discipleship Groups
	A brief listing of ideas to use in your Covenant Discipleship group.
Excerpt from Sermon 89: The More Excellent Way
	But at present I would take a different view of the text (1 Corinthians 12:31), and point out a more excellent way in another sense.
Practice The Basics
	"An athlete who engages in the discipline of baseball becomes a baseball player. A person who commits his or her life to the discipline of following Jesus Christ in the world becomes a Christian disciple."
A Prayer for "Working Out Your Salvation"
	"I know, O Lord, that you have commanded me, and therefore it is my duty, to love you with all my heart . . .
A Word From Charles Wesley
	#507, A Collection of Hymns for the Use of The People Called Methodists, 1781
Promoting Covenant Discipleship
	The General Rule of Discipleship tells us "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." But how does one do this naturally?
Back to Basics
	(from Covenant Discipleship Quarterly: October 1985) The task of discipleship calls for the binding together of those with like mind and purpose to watch over one another in love. . . . This is plain Christian common sense. It is also the essence of Methodism.
The Call to Commitment
	(from Covenant Discipleship Quarterly: October 1985) In our churches today, there are those who, like the early Methodists, have been called to discipleship. Their task, no less than their eighteenth century forebears, is to feed Christ's flock — within the church and beyond it. The call cannot be answered lightly, because it is a call to obedience that takes precedence over all other concerns and objectives.
Covenant Discipleship Groups (brochure in pdf format)
	Please note that you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader (a free download from Adobe) to read pdf files.
Covenant Discipleship Quarterly Comprehensive Index
Small Groups & Accountability: The Wesleyan Way of Christian Formation
Good News for the Poor? The United Methodist Church and Ministry With the Poor (pdf)
	This article critiques the current United Methodist Church through a biblical and Wesleyan lens. It offers suggestions for a radical return to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Written by Steven W. Manskar, Director of Accountable Discipleship at The General Board of Discipleship. (The report is in a pdf format. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader [a free download] to open it.)
Class Leaders, Pastoral Care, and Christian Formation
	In short, what might be succinctly described as pastoral care to the poor and sick is essential to our Christian formation. Through such care, we offer grace; and in the same process, we receive grace.
Six Sisters Seeking the Savior
	Covenant Discipleship Groups exist solely for the purpose of watching over each member's spiritual growth and development. By establishing a covenant that makes members accountable to one another for their daily Christian walk, Covenant Discipleship Group members commit themselves to close scrutiny and responsibility for one another.
Christian Conference Is a Means of Grace
Love Feast for Covenant Discipleship Groups
	Our group's covenant calls for the sharing of Holy Communion or the Love Feast in the weekly meeting. Recognizing the equality we share in Christ as well as the requirement that an ordained person administer the sacrament of Holy Communion, we use an abbreviated form of the Love Feast when a layperson conducts our meetings.
Covenant Discipleship Groups
	A brief introduction to Covenant Discipleship Groups.
How Are We Accountable?
	The effectiveness of all small groups depends on how clearly they understand their purpose, then hold themselves accountable for that purpose.
Resources in a Time of War or Other National Crisis
Living The Acts of Justice
	Discipleship that is faithful and vital is lived out in the world as “good news to the poor” - those with whom Christ most directly identifies. Christians around the world have an opportunity to be and bring “good news to the poor.”