The Methodist Way of Life

The after-session work in every session of this course is structured around the Methodist Way of Life (MWoL). Each week, the participant is offered four short reflections, one under each of the MWoL's four commitments, written to land the session's passage in the living of the week. This sidebar names what the MWoL is, why this course uses it, and how the reflections are designed to work.

What the MWoL is

The Methodist Way of Life is a framework, adopted by the Methodist Church in Britain in 2021, that names twelve commitments organised under three or four headings depending on the version. This course uses the streamlined four-commitment shape that has become the working frame in most Circuits:

Worship — practising prayer, scripture, and the means of grace personally and corporately.

Learning and Caring — growing in faith and caring for others.

Service — serving Christ in our daily lives and in the structures of the world.

Evangelism — speaking of and sharing Christ.

The MWoL is not a programme to complete; it is a pattern of life to take on, in small steps, week by week.

Why this course uses it

Three reasons.

First, the MWoL is a Methodist pattern, and this course is written for and from a Methodist Circuit. The course's pastoral and ecclesial register is Wesleyan; the MWoL is the frame the British Methodist Church is using right now to teach and live that register. Aligning the course to it means the after-session work fits naturally into the wider life of the Circuit.

Second, the MWoL holds personal piety and social action together. Wesleyan Methodism has always insisted that the two are not separable: there is no holiness but social holiness, Wesley wrote, but he also taught the means of grace, the bands and class meetings, the disciplined personal practice. The MWoL keeps both axes visible. Worship and Learning and Caring lean into personal piety; Service and Evangelism lean into the social. The course's political-pastoral reading of Mark works across both.

Third, the MWoL gives the after-session reflection a stable shape. The participant knows what is coming each week. The four reflections become a rhythm, not a surprise; the practice for the week sits inside the rhythm.

How the four reflections are designed

Each session's after-session pages carry four short reflections, one per commitment, rewired to the particular passage. The reflections are not bullet-point applications; they are prose, written to invite the participant into a question rather than to give them an answer. Each closes with one specific question that asks the participant to land the reflection in their actual week.

The four reflections are not all meant to be done. The participant is invited to pick the one that lands most sharply for them and to live with it through the week. The Practice for the Week (sidebar: see Decisions taken in Project State, and the bottom of every session's after-session pages) names three specific practices; the participant chooses one. Between the four MWoL reflections and the three practices, the after-session shape gives the participant a number of doors into the week without overwhelming them.

Where to read more about the MWoL

The Methodist Church in Britain's MWoL pages at methodist.org.uk/our-faith/our-calling/a-methodist-way-of-life/ are the official source. The commitments are listed there with short framing text and resources.

For a more reflective treatment, the MWoL companion booklets produced by the connexion are short and warm; ask your Circuit office.

A note for the facilitator

When the after-session work comes up in conversation in the next session's welcome-and-recap, the question to ask is not "did everyone do their MWoL reflections this week?" The question is "did one of them land?" The reflections are an invitation, not a homework assignment. The MWoL's discipline is to take small things seriously over a long time; the course's after-session work is shaped to honour that.