Small groups are a great place to connect people to community. Here at West Side our goal isn’t to get people into small groups, our goal is to connect people to Christ, connect them to the Christ community, and grow them up as followers of Christ. But small groups create a great avenue for us to accomplish that. They are a great place for people to experience rich community as God intended. They’re a place for people to find encouragement, hope, friendship, accountability, grace, joy, and more. But if we’re not careful we’ll miss it.
I’ve often said that the community we find in a good small group helps us experience the kind of deep and rich community that the early church experienced, as recorded in Acts 2.42-47. Paul gives us some insight into how that community deals with the circumstances of life together. In 1 Corinthians 12.26 Paul writes that when one part of the body suffers, the entire body suffers with it. There is a dual meaning here. When someone is in sin, their sin causes suffering and negatively affects the other members of the believing community. But there’s more than that. When one member of the community experiences tragedy – the loss of a loved one, dealing with illness, losing a job – the rest of the community joins with them in mourning and sadness and feels the burden with them. This is when the community of believers comes together and they put their arms around each other.
Similarly, Paul writes that when one member rejoices, the rest of the community rejoices with them. Again, there is a dual meaning here. When a person experiences victory over sin and growth in Christlikeness the entire community shares in the blessing of that person’s Godly contribution to the community. Also, when a member of the Christ community experiences a tremendous joy – marriage, the birth of a child, recovery from illness – the entire community shares in the rejoicing and celebrates with them.
But sometimes we miss it. Sometimes we’re distracted. Sometimes we’re unaware. Sometimes we just don’t want to take the time. Sometimes we’re so focused on something else that we miss the teachable moments. It’s easy for group leaders to get so focused on getting through the curriculum that they neglect getting into one another’s lives. It’s easy for group leaders to get so focused on making sure that everyone is having a good time that they neglect dealing with the bad times that some members are experiencing. It’s imperative for us as group leaders to be concerned about hospitality, good experiences, and depth of study during small group time, but not at the expense of doing life together.
Sometimes we need to table our plans and deal with the hurt in our midst. Sometimes we need to scrap the lesson and just pray with one another. Sometimes we need to put the lesson on hold and let someone share the powerful testimony of what God is up to in their life. We must give thoughtful preparation to grouping, but we must also always be on the look-out for those moments when life is happening in our midst and we need to mourn together, or hold one another accountable, or encourage one another, or just yell Woo Hoo together. OK, maybe you can celebrate with a different phrase. But you get the idea. And be warned, it’s not easy – but it is worth it, so be careful not to miss it.
