If you attend the church where I pastor for very long, you will hear me say, “Everyone needs to be in a small group.” I’ve been making that statement for over thirty years and I believe it as much now as I did the first time I said it. Here are a few reasons that convince me of this need.
First, a small group is an ideal place for care! Caring for people’s needs happens much better in a small group than in a large group. If you attend a worship service with a group of one hundred people, it will be very difficult for everyone to share their struggles and needs. If you attend a small group of eight to twelve people, it will be hard for someone to not know another person’s struggles and needs. The small group environment of six to twelve people is the perfect environment to provide quality care.
Secondly, a small group is an ideal place for growth! You can learn some things in a large group, but you really grow best in the context of a small group. In a small group, the teacher-pupil ratio is much smaller and it provides a much better learning environment.
Jesus used the small group environment to train his disciples because he wanted up close and personal interaction with them and quality time to train them. Jesus knew growth happens much better in a small group of twelve than it ever would in a large group of five thousand.
Third, the small group is the ideal place for character transformation! Jesus used the small group as a place to shape the character of his disciples. It was in the small group that his disciples learned love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control.
Living life in the context of close relationships is provides the opportunity for the Holy Spirit to change a person and help them become more like Christ.
Finally, a small group is the ideal place to drive the mission! The small group is a vital part of the mission of making disciples. When Jesus set out to make fully trained disciples he used the small group environment as a key part of the overall process. The small group was very strategic for Jesus’ method of disciple making.
The small group was never the “end” goal for Jesus. The small group was a means to the end. Jesus used the small group as a place to connect with his potential disciples, train them, and then send them out to start other small groups of disciples.
In the church where I pastor, we have a number of small groups. We have a group that is designed for outreach, one designed for care and growth, one designed for deeper discipleship, and one designed for recovery. We use a combination of these groups to help each person take their next step in their faith journey. It is the goal, however, that each person eventually participate in a discipleship group we call an Impact Group. The Impact Group is where we intentionally teach the character and conduct of Christ and is the place where we make fully trained disciples.
If we can help you learn more about how small groups work in a disciple-making church, feel free to connect with us and let us know how we can help. Impact Discipleship Ministries exists to inspire people and churches to be and build disciples of Jesus Christ. We can be reached at impactdisciples.com.
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