Drawing, Developing and Deploying Disciples through Wesley's Class Leader System

“… teaching converts how to not only become disciples of their faith, but to also produce disciples through their faith walk and Christian witness. ”

Team Members/Contributors

Valerie E. Cousin Bridge Street AME Church Contact Me

About this pastoral study project

The Wesleyan Class Leader System (CLS) is the foundation of the membership and assimilation process of our church. When new members join they are immediately assigned to a Class and mailed a letter introducing them to their Class Leader along with a description of the purpose of the CLS.

By introducing new members to Class Leaders on the front end of the intake process, the hope is that new members would connect sooner to members of the church, and become involved in the ministries of the church. While our Class Leader System was restructured six years ago into three teams and has been successful in organizing the activities of the membership and congregational care teams, more needs to be done to develop the nurture team, which is responsible for members’ faith and discipleship formation.

Through faith and discipleship formation members will learn how to share and live out their faith in all aspects of their life: home, church and work. Only then will the kingdom of God grow and expand exponentially and spiritually. In keeping with the words of Wesley, “The Church changes the world not by making converts but by making disciples.”