Read the Introduction
The ministry of congregations is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Behind that simple and seemingly self-evident statement lies a problematic reality, however. While congregations know that disciple making is at the heart of their identity, they often have trouble understanding how to go about it. Apart from such traditional Christian education ministries as Sunday school, too little formal thinking or planning goes into the task of forming Christians in the faith.
In this book Sondra Matthaei casts a vision in which congregations open up their life of faith to others as an invitation to connect the universal longing for authentic relationships and deeper meaning with the church 's practice of faithful discipleship. As folks enter the church 's communion of grace, Matthaei challenges church leaders to utilize the gifts of every member and lays out a plan to help congregations grow in faith and communion with God and creation, including the context and goal of such ministry, deciding what to teach and who shall teach, and attendant relationships, structures, and practices.

How is it that we come to know ourselves as Christians? What were the elements of John Wesley s work that contributed to spiritual formation for a Christian life, and how did these elements interrelate? Focusing on matters of formation and transformation in faith, Sondra Matthaei answers such questions in light of early Methodist practices of formation. Through research and dialogue with Wesleyan scholarship and constructive proposals related to the life of the church, this insightful study encourages faithful and imaginative approaches to spiritual formation in churches today.

The focus of this book is on matters of formation and transformation in faith. The book answers the question "How do we come to know ourselves as Christian?" and analyzes this question in light of early Methodist practices of formation and an ecology of education within the Methodist movement. The reader will come to understand John Wesley's idea of character formation and moral transformation. The reader will understand how Christian and vocation are shaped through spiritual formation and will understand the role of structures and relationships (family, school, church, etc.) in spiritual formation. "