5 Means Of Grace Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)

John Wesley gave the Methodist movement (and all Christians in general) a discipleship pathway to follow. Wesley began with Three Simple Rules (or “General Rules”), and followed this instruction a year later with the Five Marks of a Methodist (or “Character of a Methodist”). Over the next decade, Wesley observed the need for continuous renewal of relationships with God and others, so he established a recurring annual process for God’s people to make One Faithful Promise: The Wesley Covenant for Renewal. Wesley confirmed the tendency in each of us for the love of God and others to grow cold, so that we drift away from the gift of God’s unmerited grace. So Wesley showed us ways to reorder our lives through the “means of grace.”
These means are the ordinary channels that God uses to draw us into a fruitful relationship. These five means or channels are:
1. Prayer
2. Searching Scripture
3. Receiving the Lord’s Supper
4. Fasting
5. Conferencing (worship together)

This six-week, video-based study will help Christians (new and seasoned) to re-order their lives by recognizing and affirming the outward signs, words, and actions of an invisible divine grace. Through these “means” we receive God’s gifts together, and we experience the power of a spiritual relationship with God.