THE W5 OF LIFE GROUPS
“Community Connection”
Philemon 1:2 – “to the church that meets in your home”
INTRODUCTION
In my teen years my brothers and I shared house chores. Both parents worked long hours so it was reasonable that we would help around the house and yard. We posted a plan, a strategy that helped us to share the workload and achieve the goals of our responsibilities. Every house functions best with some form of structure and order and families take responsibility for one another and are accountable. Our faith community is like any other family. We need strategies to focus on the essential while not neglecting the important. Failure to do so results in dysfunctional “family life” and relationships.
One of those strategies was the dream (maybe we should call it a vision) in 2010 of having every member at KCC in a small group. This vision actually goes back to 2008 when I came to our 13-Board-member-meeting and said I’d like to “Cell the Church”! Thirteen Board members gave consensus without argument or dissension. It was an obvious need for everyone around the table. Four years later we’re hear, ready to launch – and excited about the possibilities and life this direction will create!
With the help of the Holy Spirit we intend
- To demonstrate that Life Groups are significant aids that lead to health and wellness
- To emphasize the need for you to participate as a host, leader or member of a group
- To teach the W5 of Life Groups:
Why Life Groups (four main reasons today)
The weeks ahead 4 key elements (W’s) must characterize the life and function of our groups:
-- Word (central to faith and practice)
-- Welcome (all belong to the body – this is about fellowship having deeper connotations that just “getting together”)
-- Worship (captures the heart of breaking bread)
-- Works (deeds are the light of faith and our works are influenced by our understanding of God’s activity in the world and our place in it)
WHY LIFE GROUPS? It is a Biblically effective strategy for learning and growth. There are no fewer than 10 specific references to house-churches in the Epistles (Speaker’s Bible, page 224). Formal meeting places did not exist until the third century as in buildings or churches in our context. For more than 200 years the church met in homes. The obvious reasons were related to security and avoiding persecution.
This letter of Philemon was written and likely read in a house-church, in the home of Philemon, Apphia (AP fee uh) and Archippus (ahr-KIP-uhs).
There are several Bible references to the mix and mingle of organized temple worship and house-church activity. Anything we present in the next several weeks does not suggest we should replace our regular, corporate worship experiences. Our intent is to encourage Life Groups as an extension of corporate worship.
There are numerous biblical lessons that emphasize the value of small groups. For the most part we only have time today to provide references. You’ll have to take time to do a little digging and exploration.
For instance, we see several accounts of Jesus interacting and teaching in homes. We see him in the home of Simon the leper (Matt 26:6); Jesus and disciples in the home of Simon and Andrew (Mark 1:29); visits with Mary, Martha and Lazarus is always a personal favourite (Luke 20:38)! In Acts 2:46 we see followers of Jesus meeting in their homes; in chapter 18:24-26 we have the story of Priscilla and Aquila explaining the way to Apollos more effectively, though he was already well versed and informed. They did this from their home. One fascinating story is found in Acts 20:7-11, the story of Eutychus! I don’t know what was more alarming – Eutychus falling out of a third story window and killing himself (serves your right for falling asleep during the sermon!) or Paul started talking one day which led into the next morning! Now that’s a long sermon!
Author Dr. Warren Wiersbe in his book Be Dynamic writes, “The believers continued to use the temple for their place of assembly and ministry, but they also met in various homes. The 3,000 new converts needed instruction in the Word and fellowship with God’s people if they were to grow and become effective witnesses. They early church did more than make converts; they also made disciples.”
1. WHY LIFE GROUPS? It is where relationships are forged
Acts 2:1-4…
Pentecost was the feast that celebrated Moses receiving the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai. This feast occurred 7 weeks (50 days) after Easter Sunday.
Was there an element of fear still percolating in their spirits? Christ had only died and been resurrected seven weeks ago and the political hostilities were likely still steaming and recovering from the fallout. It’s possible although they were not gathered for reasons of fear but had come together for the feast.
“They were all together” is more than being in the same room. They were bound and forged with the same need, same fears and the same sense of desperation for direction. There was UNITY in their gathering. Then a greater relationship was forged with the filling of the Holy Spirit – their complete person was saturated with the divine! The significance of this event is captured in the powerful words of Gareth Icenogle, ordained Presbyterian ministry in the United States penned these words.
Small groups are microcosms of God’s creation community. Wherever two or more persons come together, they become an actual reflection of the image and likeness of God. Small groups are the basic arena for either imaging the redeeming presence of God or projecting destructive human systems. Every small or large gathering of humanity exists in this tension of manifesting an inhuman structure or embodying divinely redemptive relationships.”
Author, Richard Peace explains in Small Group Evangelism that witness is a community venture and while each Christian should aim at being an effective Christian conversationalist, the most effective witness usually springs from the community of believers. With this calling and responsibility he goes on to highlight that small groups achieve this responsibility more effectively than any other forum. Small groups he says, lead to informal, face-to-face interaction and engenders an atmosphere of love, fellowship and acceptance. These tend to be more active than not when small groups are formed. Peace helps us realize that there is a yearning in each of us to be in fellowship and small groups move us from being acquaintances to confidants. A confidant equivalent is being like brothers/sisters, brethren or – here’s a word for you – intimates.
Bill Donahue and Russ Robinson in Building a Church of Small Groups: a place where nobody stands alone make the point that “Spiritual growth cannot take place apart from community, and the fruit of such growth can only be expressed in community. Christlikeness is relational to the core. We must turn our souls toward one another and become what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls “bringers of the message of salvation” to one another.”
Priest, professor and author Henri Nouwen was credited with encouraging believers to become people “who know and are known, who care and are cared for, who forgive and are being forgiven, who love and are being loved.”
“Discipleship: Priority One” is the over-arching vision of KCC’s four thrusts of Celebration, Stewardship, Small Groups and Discipleship. There is the realization that we cannot effectively “make disciples” with one worship service and in fact we are stretched to do an effective job of it in many of our programs. Meaningful relationships are critical for any ‘family’ to live in healthy community. The problem we have with church programs is addressed by the Barna Group, a research organization when it notes that 68% of discipled-people came through small groups rather than church programs. We are completely cognizant of the fact that we must nurture beyond Sunday morning and Life Groups engender accountability and support that will help us do that for one another.
The Speaker’s Bible Commentary sounds the alarm but also offers a song of celebration in saying, “nothing is more persistent than the absence of fellowship {in the church}. The sin of the modern Church has been coldness, isolation, the lack of strong bonds of human feeling and interest. We have to recapture the spirit of the House-Church.”
2. WHY LIFE GROUPS? These are opportunities to focus on essentials
Sports can be quite frustrating especially when your team loses because they lost focus – drawing ridiculous penalties against the best penalty offensive teams and so on. FOCUS!
My wife is a very tolerate lady – full of grace and patience. She’d be saying something, I’m responding and then I ask a question and she’ll say, “I just told you that – FOCUS!”
Life Groups are opportunities to focus and are critical especially when we’re distracted with demands, needs and problems.
In Acts chapter 2 we find some key elements that are important for our consideration to this second defense of Life Groups. The focus is primarily verse 42 of Acts chapter 2 (read…)
- Bible learning (42) – “devoting themselves” literally means constantly desiring more and more of the apostles’ teaching. It has been suggested that this picture is one that means “they knew Jesus better than anyone else.” (The Speaker’s Bible).
- Fellowship (42) – living, breathing organism that pulsated with one singular focus and purpose of glorifying God and representing Jesus in the world.
- Breaking bread (42) – Commentator A.T. Robertson helps us by explaining that the same Greek verb klaw is used of breaking bread at the ordinary meal (Luke 24:30) as is used for the Lord's Supper (Luke 22:19). It is generally supposed that the early disciples attached so much significance to the breaking of bread at the ordinary meals, more than our saying grace, that they followed the meal with the Lord's Supper, a combination called agapai or love-feasts.
- Prayer (42) – Prayer is not meant to feed our egos or fill our wish list. We cannot use prayer in an effort to use God for our own advantage, to get what we want. That’s not real prayer. Prayer’s purpose is an opportunity respond to the mind of God for a given situation. Edward McKendree Bounds (1835-1913), Methodist minister and devotional writer spoke of a reality we face in the 21st century. “We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel…The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men [and women]…What the Church needs today…is [people] of prayer.”
Dr. Warren Wiersbe draws our attention to the fact that “the Christians you meet in the Book of Acts were not content to meet once a week for “services as usual”. They met daily (2:46), cared daily (6:1), won souls daily (2:47) searched the Scriptures daily (17:11), and increased in number daily (16:5). Their Christian faith was a day-to-day reality, not a once-a-week routine.” Should “daily” be literally understood as every single day? Maybe not, however, the point is made – it was a significant expression of their lives with very frequent attention and focus. They didn’t simply awaken the witness on Sunday morning.
-- Word (central to faith and practice)
-- Welcome (all belong to the body – this is about fellowship having deeper connotations that just “getting together”)
-- Worship (captures the heart of breaking bread)
-- Works (deeds are the light of faith and our works are influenced by our understanding of God’s activity in the world and our place in it)
We will search each of these themes in the weeks to come.
3. WHY LIFE GROUPS? They strengthen faith and witness
The author to the Hebrews makes the point well in chapter 10: verses 24-25. “24 Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” It is quite likely that the meetings they should not neglect are the house-churches, those tightly knit, personal communities that built them up.
Author Richard Peace captures the image well in saying, “The small group is a great place for Christians to learn how to talk easily and comfortably about their faith. If you have not yet verbalized your faith outside of Christian circles, it will be easier to say something in a small group discussion than to launch into a major conversation with your best friend.” These forums are means of encouraging one another to witness and living faith.
WRAP
- Proposal is biblically based
- The principles, not the form, is the emphasis
- Life Groups will enhance relationships, provide accountability / support and encourage growth and develop
- Small Group ministry works – proven track record, when intentionally focused … our four W’s are our proposal to succeed in this initiative
