Channels of grace

My current column in the United Methodist Reporter is on spiritual disciplines as means of grace. This is the first column in a planned four-part series, which will examine the theology of spiritual disciplines from a Wesleyan perspective. A little personal background:

One of the most effective means of growing in grace that I have ever experienced is participation in a Covenant Discipleship Group. I was a member of a CD Group (or some similar type of accountability group) every year from my first year in divinity school until last year. Having that regular relationship of accountability with brothers and sisters in Christ is crucial in battling sin and growing towards Christian maturity. Once you get used to it, it is a real spiritual lifeline.

Then my wife and I moved to Durham so I could go back to graduate school, and I had to leave my CD Group in Searcy, Arkansas, behind. The first year we were here, I met with a friend each week to discuss issues in our faith and pray together. Those weekly meeting were crucial touchstones for my faith as I dove headlong back into the books. But it wasn't the same as a CD Group.

But that's changed in the past couple of months. A number of students at Duke Divinity School are interested in incorporating a Wesleyan spiritual discipline into their lives, and the result has been the formation of two CD Groups - a group of five men and a group of five women. I am helping to resource these groups, in addition to participating as a member myself. And I can't tell you how great it is to be back involved in Covenant Discipleship. I have encountered no better way to receive the grace that sanctifies.