A VISION FOR SMALL GROUPS

©2003 by Gene Brooks. All Rights Reserved. Home 

 

NEW TESTAMENT MODEL  Acts 2:42-47  (Qualitative Growth)

• Fellowship Groups  (v. 42, 46) proskarterountes “busily engaged in, devoted to”
• Centered around Word, worship, prayer (v. 42)
• Miracles were common (v. 43)
• Giving was not a problem (v. 45)
• Regular meetings (v. 46) proskarterountes “busily engaged in, devoted to”
• Food! (v. 42, 46)
• Effective evangelism, multiplied (v. 47) Quantitative Growth

 

How did we get Small Groups?

These early believers were working off the halaka models provided by Rabbinical tradition.

 

Jesus used this model to make disciples (Mark 3:13-19). Notice the purpose of their small group: (1) to be with Him, (2) to prepare to be sent out to preach, and (3) to learn how to drive out demons.

 

Paul called these groups ekklesia, “the called out ones,” as any gathering in Jesus’ name. cognate: ecclesiastical.  Colossians 4:7-18 shows the impartation of Paul’s life of faithfulness to his small group team.  See how often he describes a team member as faithful.

 

Reformation: Martin Luther, John Calvin encouraged small groups. John Calvin: “Every family of the pious ought to be a church.”  Pietists and dissenters in Britain revived the home church meeting in opposition to the institutional church.

 

John Wesley gave us small groups as we understand them today. His small college campus ministry group led by the Moravians and attended by John, Charles Wesley, and George Whitefield was where they learned the “methods” of devotion to Christ – thus Methodists.  John Wesley encouraged everyone to meet in a small group but to continue attending the Anglican churches.

 

China: Today in China, the church is multiplying at a rate alarming to the government, which cannot stamp out the fertile, flexible fellowships of the underground house church movement.  And are they growing!  Our best estimate: 80,000 converts a day.

 

A HEALTHY SMALL GROUP MODEL

• Vision for Disciple-making
• Service structure (outward focus of some kind of ministry)
• Relationship building

 

 

Examples of Small Groups in which I’ve participated: 

            Bible Studies, Fellowship groups (enjoy others, worship, pray), Missions groups (disintegrated when everyone went to the mission field), Prayer teams (task group).

 

PRACTICALITIES of Small Groups

• Fellowship, building relationships are most important (Acts 2:42-47)
• Organize by specific areas of need
• Bible study, prayer, missions, children’s outreach, Romania, fishermen, seamstresses, mothers of preschoolers, equestrians, families with children with cancer, thespians, dog lovers, etc.
• Use as Evangelism tool to build relationships
• Multiply, divide, multiply, divide . . . Divide at 14-16 persons.
• Always be raising up a new assistant. Every group should have a leader and co-leader.  When time comes to divide, there’s a leader for both groups.
• Your small group needs a purpose, an outward focus. See Jesus’ small group had three purposes.
• Use the time to build relationships. Relationships will bring people back again and again. Real community/ relationships are what is lacking in our society today.
• BEWARE: The danger of becoming INGROWN. The group should not exist for its own sake.
• DANGER: Small groups draw two groups of people: (1) those with emotional/psychological problems who see your group as a crisis intervention center, and (2) offbeat theological nomads looking for a group to take over for their pet doctrine.
• There are healthy times for groups to dissolve. When a group has served its purpose in the Kingdom, move on to the next thing.
• PITFALL: Resist the urge and pressure to develop the liturgy, traditions, cliques, styles of the church. Remember, the purpose is to keep the door open to new people and unbelievers. If someone feels like an outsider, they’ll never come back.
• PITFALL: Resist the urge to think your group is NOT the church. IT IS!  The body and Presence of Christ is present when your cell group meets. Don’t confuse wineskin (church service, cell group) with the wine (presence of body and person of Christ).

 
Page created July 22, 2003
Updated November 29, 2003.