A Blueprint for Discipleship

Jesus' call to us is to a whole new way of life. That new way of life is called sanctification, and by grace it can become a reality for each of us.

As Christian men and women in the Wesleyan tradition, if we aren't serious about sanctification we might as well find something else to do. John Wesley always believed that the peculiar Methodist understanding of justifying grace expressed through the new birth together with a lifelong pursuit of sanctification through the means of grace was the main reason God had raised up the Methodist movement in the first place.

All this is why I'm glad to see A Blueprint for Discipleship: Wesley's General Rules as a Guide for Christian Living, just out from Methodist pastor and blogger Kevin Watson.

Kevin takes Wesley's General Rules and presents them as the best way to understand God's call on our lives to be deeply committed followers of Jesus. This is a particularly good book for those in the church who would like to understand why the Wesleyan approach to faith is still the best way to open our hearts and lives to be transformed by God's grace. If you are a pastor or small group leader looking for a resource to use in your congregation, I highly recommend this book (available through either Cokesbury or Amazon).

In my review of the book in the United Methodist Reporter, I point out particular strengths of Kevin's approach. Some of these include his emphasis on the central role of grace in our ability to be transformed into holy people, his lucid explanation of the three rules as practical ways to embody the biblical command to love God and neighbor, and his later chapters on the way the rules help us balance our faith lives and call us into relationships of mutual accountability in our discipleship.

I've gotten to know Kevin over the past couple of years as we have both entered doctoral programs to pursue Wesley Studies. (He blogs over at Deeply Committed, by the way.) It's exciting to me to see an aspiring scholar who also cares about the church and wants to 'equip the saints for ministry.' That's why A Blueprint for Discipleship is an important book, and I commend it to you for reading and study.