Small Groups: Essential or Optional?

This is going to be a very short and simple blog...I think. I just got back from our monthly young adult small group that we have. Man it is just so encouraging to get together with other believers from different denominations and different backgrounds and just different mindsets on certain things, but to all come together with one thing that should unite us all and that is the cross and our dependency on God for everything. So now I am not sure the direction that this blog entry will take. My original thoughts were to blog about how encouraging it is to just come together with other people and just talk about God together. But now as I began to write this, I am tempted to write about unity and how churches easily become disunified (is that a word? I am assuming not since it now has a red squiggly line under it) over music style or preaching style or denomination or whatever but we need to focus more on what unifies us and not the little things that divide us. Which shall I choose, I cannot tell...

Ok I am going with the former. Perhaps unity will be a blog saved for a later date.

I just love how small groups supplement meeting as an entire congregation on Sunday mornings. Sunday morning's are crucial to our spiritual development but I wonder if Sunday mornings are enough. I honestly question whether they are enough. Sure, Pastor's preaching on Sunday mornings should be central and we should never neglect meeting together as a church family. However, I think without the relationships and the accountability that you get from small groups and one-on-one discipleship, our Christian walk will have a tendency to be shallow and stagnant. Perhaps I will take a lot of flak for some of what I say here but this is all based on my experience. I know that from meeting with other guys one-on-one and participating in small groups such as the one we have started, I have grown quite a bit more than before. I think, rather I know that God uses others in our lives to help us in our walk, to come alongside us, to keep us accountable, to further deepen our knowledge and more importantly our application of God's word in our life.

I think the problem is church has become this place where we come to receive. It is the place where we hire a "professional" to do the work of the ministry. It is the place where we bring our unsaved family members to get saved by the message our pastor preaches. The problem with this mentality is that the Word then stops with us instead of being spread through us, which was God's plan from the beginning. We are all supposed to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all that (Jesus has) commanded (us)" Matthew 28:19-20. That is the job of the body, not just the job of the hired Pastor. And what better place to do this than in small groups and meeting one-on-one with others?

The other great thing about small groups is it is a comfortable environment in which we can invite non-believers. It can be very intimidating for a non-believer to come to a church service but if we invite them to a small group, it is a lot less intimidating and can be an avenue in which the gospel can be shared and hopefully, by the work of the Holy Spirit, their eyes will be opened to receive the Word.

Small groups can be essential to not only our own walk but can be essential to making disciples. Either way, I firmly believe that God's design is for us to do this Christian walk together and not just come in on Sunday mornings and never talk to each other again until the next Sunday. I pray that the church will grasp this concept and truly function as a healthy body and reflection of Christ.

The Wisdom of Linus

Isn't there anyone that knows what Christmas is all about? I find myself often asking that question in a mirror. I have spent the last two days Christmas shopping shoulder to shoulder with irate and irrational people, setting up Christmas lights and Christmas decorations with my beautiful wife and daughter and watching Christmas movies, but I can count on one hand how many times I really have thought about the real reason for Christmas.

I was talking to a Jehovah's witness the other day and he was explaining to me that they do not celebrate any holidays. I had heard this before but never had really talked to someone who held these beliefs. After, asking him some questions, he explained to me that they didn't celebrate holidays because they had all become polluted with pagan things and had gotten away from the real reason for the holidays. Our holidays have become so commercialized that we can barely recognize them as the holidays that they once were. I wonder if the Jehovah's witnesses are on to something here, however like anything you can have two extremes, you can completely forget about Jesus in Christmas or you can just not celebrate Christmas because Jesus is not a part of it anymore.

I can suggest a third and far better response to Christmas. How about we bring Jesus back into Christmas? I feel like I need this as much as anyone. I get so wrapped up in the shopping and cookies (oh how I love Christmas cookies, or any cookies for that matter) and the lights and presents that I find myself not even thinking about the fact that Jesus came here on earth, leaving his heavenly throne, to become human so that He could truly be our mediator with God and we could become the righteousness of God in Him. The fact that this holiday was meant to celebrate that fact, needs to be at the center of Christmas. Sure, presents aren't bad, cookies certainly are not bad, Christmas lights and decorations are not bad, but when they take the focus and spotlight from Christ, then they can become bad.

I pray that this holiday season will be different for me. I pray that I will lead my family well in remembering Christ in Christmas and remember that, as cliche as it is, Jesus is the reason for the season. If you have any suggestions as to how to best keep Jesus as the focus for Christmas, please let me know.

animals with british voiceovers

The teens showed this one time at Fuse. One of the funnier videos I have seen. Good stuff.

let this mind be in you

So I've been reading Philippians a lot lately as I have been taking this class on the prison epistles and attempting to memorize Philippians. And the verse that have really just kind of been stuck in my mind are 2:3-10 where Paul says:

"Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;"

Man if we would just embrace these verses and live these verses out and have "this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" can you imagine how much different our families would look? Can you imagine how different our churches would look? I am convinced that if we are truly want to have an impact on the world, if we truly want to be salt and light in this world of darkness, if we truly want the world to ask us about the hope that we have within us, we need to embrace these verses.

Think about it, if we truly esteemed others better than ourselves and we not only looked onto our own things but on the things of others. When would we ever gossip? When would we ever fight with someone? When would we ever be stingy of our money? When would we ever be selfish?

Jesus humbled himself by laying down his crown and his place in heaven seated next to the Father and became a man, suffering as we do, being tempted as we are and even humbled himself so much that he became obedient to death on a cross. He had every right to call down the angels of heaven to take him off of that cross but He put aside His power and died in the extreme example for us all of humility. Jesus, the Son of God with all the power and majesty and deity. The one by whom all things were made came not to be served which was definitely His rightful position, but the Bible says he came to serve. Why? To be an example for us all.

This seems so straight forward and obvious but how many of us live like this? We are all selfish for our time. We are all looking out for our own interests at the expense of others. But man, this is exactly what the world would be impressed by. This is exactly the type of radical lifestyle in which we will truly be lights in this dark world so that the world will "see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16)

This video is just amazing. Click on "Read More" to be able to view the video. I don't really think there is anything that I can say about this video except just watch it!

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only

So tonight we had our young adult small group and we are watching Francis Chan's Basics Series. Tonight he was talking about Following Jesus and he made this great illustration that really struck a chord within me. In talking about following Jesus and obeying His commands he said something to the effect of this. Imagine I told my daughter to clean her room. I would expect her to go clean her room. If she came back a little while later and said to me "Daddy, guess what. I memorized exactly what you told me to do. "Go clean your room"." Or maybe she'd come back and say "Daddy, guess what, not only did I memorize what you told me to do, I also learned how to say it in Greek." Or maybe she'd come back and say "Daddy, my friends and I are going to get together every week and really study and discuss what you meant by "Go clean your room" and really dissect the words that you used so we can really understand what you meant by that.

His point being, that sounds ridiculous, right? But how much different are we when it comes to what God has told us to do in His word. I mean He has some pretty clear commands and yet sometimes, in fact not only sometimes but quite often, we resort to memorizing, meditating and studying His words and reason within our minds that those things equate to actually doing what He says. I am as guilty of this as the next guy. I try to spend time memorizing verses and really studying them and thinking about them but I don't spend enough time actually doing them.

James 1:22 says "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." It is so easy to passively read the Bible or to even actively read the Bible and yet not do what God commands us to do.

The scary thing is when you look at the Bible and time and time again it says that the way that you know that you are a Christian is if you obey His commands. If we aren't obeying the commands of Christ, we need to question whether we are a true disciple of Christ. Doing what Christ commands us to do, doesn't make us a Christian because we cannot earn our salvation by works. However, doing what Christ commands us is a natural reaction of a heart that has been transformed by the Holy Spirit so that our greatest joy becomes obeying Christ and bringing God glory.