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.