Small Groups

I hear and read a lot of discussion these days about being balanced, but I prefer the term harmony over balance. Maybe it’s my music background. I’m pretty passionate about music, and one of the things I most enjoy is hearing the right notes blend together in a way that moves me. You’ve likely experienced a moment when you were listening to a song and the blend of sounds made your spine tingle. That’s harmony. The notes and instruments and voices gel together in such a way that it creates a powerful sound. But if everything were balanced it just wouldn’t have the same effect. In fact, I doubt we’d want to listen to a balanced band or orchestra. To be balanced means that everything is in equal proportion to the others. Imagine if the tympanis played the same number of notes as the flutes, or if the canon at the end of the 1812 Overture played as much as the trumpets. It would be overwhelming, and likely a bit annoying.

So here’s what this means for small groups. We need to work on bringing harmony to our small groups. Study, relationship building, and service are the three basic elements of every well-rounded small group.  We might refer to them with different terms at different times, but these are the three main areas that group activities fall under. We need to keep these three elements of grouping in harmony. We don’t need an equal measure of study with an equal measure of relationship building with an equal amount of service. This would be unnatural.

It’s natural for different groups to have different focuses. Some groups will lean more toward service, while others lean more toward relationship building or study. The danger comes when a group’s focus on one of the elements leads to an exclusion of one or both of the other elements. Imagine if a group is so focused on relationship building that they neglect study. They might become good friends, but it’s doubtful they’ll ever experience the freedom and joy of being transformed into the likeness of Christ. Or imagine if a group studies service without ever actually serving. This would disrupt harmony and create what musicians call “discord.” It’d be like that one kid in the grade school band who tries to outplay all the other instruments and throws it out of whack.

You see the problems with both balance and discord. Neither is healthy for a group. So, determine which of the three elements of study, relationship building, and service your group leans toward the most and continue to emphasize it. But be intentional about not neglecting the other two so that you can bring them all into harmony.