Holding Each Other Accountable in Small Groups
--I Thessalonians 5:11 and James 5:16
In October I return to my alma mater Asbury Theological Seminary for our fifth of six sessions in the Spiritual Leaders’ Academy. The Lily Foundation has fully funded our participation in the Academy, and one of the chief goals for our training has been for each participating pastor to being small groups in our local Churches that are dedicated to the Spiritual Formation of individual Christians.
For nearly a year at Trinity we have conducted our local pilot Academy under the acronym of ACTS, “Academy for Christian Training and Service.” I call this our Pilot Group, because the Lily Foundation wants to see each pastor and Church multiply other groups that will eventually include many if not most of the people from each congregation, encouraging in each individual a deeper, daily walk with Jesus and effective outreach for His Kingdom in our neighborhoods, communities, nation, and world.
Our pilot group has totaled nine in all and also originally included Kris Underwood before the Lord called her home to be with Him. Every week our group has witnessed a deeper walk with Jesus and dynamic growth towards spiritual maturity in every person involved in this ministry.
Now let me make an affirmation. Every vital congregation which has a vibrant ministry for Jesus Christ in our twenty-first century is one that continually offers energizing, life-giving small group ministries to the Body of Christ. Any Christian who is not involved in a small group ministry on a regular, preferably weekly basis, will soon wither and die in their personal relationship with Jesus Christ, because every Christian needs the support and encouragement from a small group of brothers and sisters in Christ in order, as II Peter 3 :18 clearly testifies, to personally “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
For such spiritual growth to happen not only weekly cooperate worship as the Body of Christ on Sunday morning is paramount, but participation in a continuing small group ministry is fundamental as well. From the beginning of the Church on the day of Pentecost this has always been the case.
The Church in Acts worshiped cooperatively as a massive body in the Temple, but they also conducted small group ministries in their homes as well.
Luke closes his testimony of what happened on the Day of Pentecost to the Church in Jerusalem in Acts 2 with this persuasive testimony: “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Note the two basic, ongoing elements in the spiritual development of these first century Christians: (1.) they met together daily in the temple courts, and (2.) they broke bread in their homes. These are the equivalent for you and me of (1.) Sunday morning worship and (2.) participation in a small group ministry. Because they held onto the right priorities, “the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
The importance of small group ministries is affirmed several times throughout the New Testament. We read that such people as Priscilla and Aquila; Lydia; Philemon, Apphia, and Archippus; Mary, the Mother of John Mark; and Nympha at Laodicea had “Churches in their homes,” and Acts 20:20 also tells us that it was Paul’s custom to “teach both publicly and from house to house.”
Our texts today are among several in the New Testament that give excellent instruction in conducting small group ministries. Paul teaches us in I Thessalonians 5:11 that our purpose is to “encourage and build up each other.” Let’s break the word encourage into its separate parts “en” and “courage.” The prefix “en” means “to put into,” therefore, encourage literally means “to put into courage.” Small group ministries “put their members into courage” by “building them up.” The purpose of a small group is to give hope, confidence, support, and comfort to those in the group, to build up their relationship with Jesus, to strengthen their relationships with one another and with others in their lives.
Our text from James 5:16 commands us, “Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” In our ACTS group we “confess our sins to each other and pray for each other so that we may be healed.” True disciples of Jesus Christ have done this throughout the ages. We strengthen each other as disciples as we admit our sins, our mistakes, our wrongs to one another and pray for God’s forgiveness and the power of the Holy Spirit to “go and sin no more.”
When our Lord commands us to “confess our sins and pray for each other so that we may be healed,” He is promising us healing to the whole person—physically, spiritually, emotionally, and in our broken relationships with others. The Holy Spirit moves in small groups such as the Academy for Christian Training and Service to mold us “into the image of Jesus.” One of the first contemporary praise and worship choruses I learned back in the 1980s expresses it so powerfully:
To be like Jesus, to be like Jesus—
All I ask, to be like Him.
All through life’s journey from earth to glory,
All I ask, to be like Him.
This is what God does in our lives as we obey His Holy Spirit and let Him minister to us through our brothers and sisters in our small group each week.
Our purpose and goal in all of this is that each one of us in the group may “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” You see, as we encourage and build up one another, confess our sins to each other, and pray for each other, the Holy Spirit molds each of us to be more and more like Jesus.
Now, we can not get such a ministry by merely coming together in cooperate worship on Sunday morning. It is in the small group setting that the power of the Holy Spirit and the presence of Jesus becomes so close, powerful, present, and real that you almost can literally “reach out and touch Him.” However, I can almost hear many of you saying, “Well, Pastor Dave, that might be fine for you, the early Church, and a hand full of people in Trinity, but that’s not for me. I’m a private person, and I could never bear my soul to others no matter how small the group may be.”
Although I acknowledge your reluctance and hesitancy, that is the biggest lie Satan tells you this morning and wants you to accept and believe. Everyone in this sanctuary today needs this type of ministry. Why do I say so, because of the nature of the small group ministry and the very nature of the Christian faith itself?
We all are familiar with the advertisement for Las Vegas Tourism, “Whatever Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas!” The number one guideline for ACTS or any small group is “CONFIDENTIALITY”—“WHAT HAPPENS IN ACTS, STAYS IN ACTS!” Nothing is mentioned to anyone else that is shared by any one in our small group.
Now, let me reassure you at this point; yes, I know that a couple of weeks ago in a sermon I included a testimony that Liz had shared in our ACTS group. Last week I also used personal testimonies from my three Emmaus friends Carolyn Young, Pam Maurer, and Steve Demaree about their personal ministry as priests of Jesus Christ. In all of these cases, I had the explicit permission of Liz, Carolyn, Pam, and Steve to do so. I would never blab from the pulpit something that any of my congregation shared with me in confidence and neither would any member of a small group ministry. “Whatever happens in the small group stays in the small group.”
Psychiatrists, psychologists, and sociologists have for several decades led small groups called IPR or “Interpersonal Relations Groups” as a means of healing and therapy. We are also familiar with the Twelve Step Programs that use similar small group techniques. Such groups include AA, Alcoholics Anonymous; OA, Overeaters Anonymous; NA, Narcotics Anonymous; and Al-Anon and Alateen. These later two groups provide therapy and healing for friends and family of Alcoholics.
What you may not realize is that IPR and Twelve Step small groups can all trace their roots back to eighteenth century England, John Wesley, and the Wesleyan Revival. Modern day small groups did not originate with Sigmund Freud or the co-founders of AA Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith. They had their roots in the very first Methodist Classmeetings of John Wesley in 1742.
Wesley would draw huge crowds of up to 30,000 to hear him preach in the open fields. Hundreds would be converted. They would come to other local “Methodist meetings” for cooperate worship and to hear Wesley or other Methodist preachers preach or teach on principles for Christian living.
Wesley and his preachers did not desert them at that point. They were meticulous in getting all these new converts into small, accountability groups for their own personal spiritual growth. One overriding question formed the basis of the Classmeeting each week, and each class member was expected to give an honest testimony in response to it. That cardinal question was, “How is it with your soul?”
A Class would consist of no more than 20 people. Today an ideal size is between four and twelve. Wesley had three “General Rules of the Methodist Class Meetings” for which each class member was expected to give a verbal account as to their personal progress the past week. These three “General Rules” are:
I. DOING NO HARM
II. DOING GOOD . . . OF EVERY POSSIBLE SORT
III. ATTENDING UPON ALL THE ORDINANCES OF GOD INCLUDING:
A. THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD
B. THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD, EITHER READ OR EXPOUNDED
C. THE LORD’S SUPPER
D. SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES (Bible Study)
E. FASTING OR ABSTINENCE (Wednesday/Friday until Tea Time)
Thus early Methodists grew weekly “in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” The people “called Methodists continually became more and more like Jesus.”
Those who were not faithful in attending the Classmeeting regularly for a period of three months were automatically excommunicated from the Society. Although the doors of grace always remained open for their restoration, any “deadwood” was quickly eliminated from these early Methodist Societies. Thus the Revival fires continued burning brightly and were God’s means of grace in transforming eighteenth century British society and sparing England the horror of their own bloody French Revolution.
Today the Wesleyan Classmeeting is experiencing a new birth throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. Our own Academy for Christian Training and Service seeks to restore the vitality of the Wesleyan Classmeeting so that all of us who are part of it may become more like Jesus as we encourage and build up each other, confess our sins to each other, and pray for each other so that we may be healed.
We begin on time and end on time. We meet no longer than a total of 90 minutes at the most. As the facilitator of our current pilot group I set the example by beginning the session. I share my personal testimony of the moment this past week I felt closest to Christ. If I have caused harm to anyone, I confess my failure to the group.
We read a daily devotional book published by Upper Room books by Bishop Reuben P. Job and Norman Shawchuck entitled A GUIDE TO PRAYER FOR ALL WHO SEEK GOD. We have Scripture Readings from the book plus reflections from various Christian authors through the centuries that are included by Job and Shawchuck for our daily devotional. I share which of these readings really spoke to my heart, and I close by sharing my personal prayer requests for the week. These are first person prayer concerns for my own spiritual growth—not third person requests for traveling mercy for Uncle Charlie, or healing for my son, but personal requests for David’s own needs in my pilgrimage with Jesus.
Each person then follows the same course of personal sharing, and we close in prayer remembering the personal requests of the members of our group for their personal growth in Christ during the coming week. Almost without exception I can honestly share that Jesus shows up at our “Classmeeting” or “Accountability Group” each week. We have all grown to be more like Jesus this past year and closer to one another because of our small group THE ACADEMY FOR CHRISTIAN TRAINING AND SERVICE.
At age 83 on August 4, 1786, John Wesley wrote his pamphlet entitled “Thoughts on Methodism.” This contains one of my favorite quotations from Wesley but one that continues to haunt me as I reflect on the sad state of our United Methodist denomination in America and the spiritual condition of our local Church at Trinity.
Prayerfully and obediently consider this prophecy of John Wesley that the Holy Spirit inspired him to pen a little more than 221 years ago: “I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid least they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedy will be the case unless they hold fast both to the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.”
In absolute openness and honesty do we not all have to agree this is contemporary reality in our United Methodist denomination and our local Church at Trinity to an alarming degree? The Holy Spirit is calling every one of us as Disciples of Jesus Christ to get back to the basics of our Christian faith and to reclaim our Wesleyan Heritage and DNA!
The prayer and desire of Asbury Theological Seminary’s Spiritual Leaders’ Academy for all of us pastors who are part of that ministry is that the Holy Spirit will multiply the number of small, accountability groups in all our local Churches empowering our people to “be more like Jesus” and make a dynamic impact on our communities in the 21st century as did the early Methodists in England and the United States in the 17th and 18th centuries.
We are at the stage now at Trinity where it is time for the Academy for Christian Training and Service to multiply more small groups of Wesleyan style Classmeetings that will be a means of grace for the Holy Spirit to mold many of us “into the image of Jesus His Son.”
I do not believe God is through with our United Methodist denomination, the Illinois Great Rivers Conference, or Kankakee Trinity United Methodist Church, but today He is calling His people to obey His voice and get back to our basic spiritual DNA. I for one am tired of being part of a movement that shows alarming trends of “only existing as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power.” Do you not feel the same?
God is calling us at Trinity to “hold fast to the discipline with which we first set out.” That means He is calling many of us to obey Him by becoming a part of an ACTS accountability, small group. How many of you will obey His call by taking up the Holy Spirit’s invitation and joining us in the multiplication of our ACTS ministry in our Church family over the coming year?
Wherever United Methodist people and Churches are returning to their Wesleyan DNA and becoming a part of a Wesleyan style Classmeeting, God is reviving His local Church around our Country today. Wherever His people harden their hearts and turn a deaf ear to His voice, it is only a matter of time until those local congregations close their doors for good.
Obey the Holy Spirit this morning as He speaks to your heart; sign up to become part of an ACTS accountability group walking in the footsteps of the New Testament Church, John Wesley, and our Methodist fathers and mothers, and let’s see what God will do to turn our Church around in making disciples for Jesus Christ in 21st Century Kankakee County.
