The United Methodist Church should seriously consider the place of the General Rules in forming its identity as the people of God in the world. More specifically, we should explore how these rules functioned in the Methodist movement not only as a form of discipline for individual piety, but as a warrant for broader ecclesiological claims. L. Gregory Jones and Michael Cartwright write, “One of the primary factors enabling the ‘people called Methodists’ to become the ‘people called Methodist’ in early Methodism was the practice of the ‘General Rules’ through the class meetings and gatherings of the societies.”
Formed by the rules, Methodists constituted a people “called out by God to embody an evangelical mission on behalf of the wider church.” Rather than pursue innovate ways to attract specific segments of the market, perhaps the United Methodist Church should draw upon Wesley’s account of formation and ecclesiology, as they do represent a tradition that gives shape to a holy people. In the face of the all-encompassing market, we must consider the church as a holy people before we consider the church as constituted by holy people. In other words, rather than capitulating to the individualizing forces of the market and rather than allowing this to shape our conversations about what the church should be in order to serve this “market,” we should continually ask, “What does it mean to be the people of God?” What difference would it make if we began our conversations about the church and its ministry in just this way?
One element within the Wesleyan/Methodist tradition that might clarify what it means to be the people of God is the practice or principle of connectionalism. In the early Methodist movement, connectionalism referred to a basic set of practices and structures that would insure the presence of unity. While this was true primarily among the preachers, Wesley intended for this unity to extend as well to all members of the Methodist societies in England. In his last letter to the American Methodists, Wesley urges them to declare clearly that "the Methodists are one people in all the world [and] that it is their full determination so to continue.” It is from this desire that Methodism developed structures and practices to insure this connectedness and unity: the structure of the Conference and the practices of Holy Conferencing.
Sadly, Methodism has since evolved from being a vibrant missionary “movement” to being an “institution.” The term connectionalism is now used primarily to describe the institutional structures of the United Methodist Church, rather than the interconnected nature of a missionary movement. This is tragic, if participation in the unity of the church means participation in the unity of the triune God. The “connection” should not merely be a description of our denominational structures. Rather, it is the means by which Methodists are a “People” in the world, connected to one another and to God who calls us together in worship and sends us out in mission.
