Radical Small Groups (eBook)

Chapter Two:

The Amazing Power of Groups: Some Big Things Small Groups Can Do

In chapter one we learned that small groups are more than some program that’s worth adding to your church’s already long roster of programs. Small groups are, in fact, a fundamental part of what a church should be about. They are as vital to your life together as worship times and Sunday school classes. So it’s not surprising that when churches discover what they’ve been missing and start a CareRings small group ministry they are amazed at the positive changes small groups bring about in their fellowships. They wonder, How did we ever get along without CareRings?

In this chapter we’ll highlight some of the specific benefits a CareRings small group ministry can bring to a church and to the individuals within a church. Want your Sunday school and your church to grow in numbers? Start CareRings. Want to hold on to your church’s close family atmosphere in the midst of your growth? Start CareRings. Want your people to experience life transformation through applying God’s Word in their lives? Start CareRings. Want your people to have a deep personal connection with the Lord through prayer? Start CareRings. Want each person in your church to live every day with a sense of closeness to God? Start CareRings.

Are you catching the theme here? Through CareRing small groups, your church can begin making changes that will make it more what you—and more importantly, God—desire it to be.

GROUPS CAN ENABLE GROWTH TO CONTINUE

When I was serving as associate pastor of First Church of the Nazarene in Nashville, the leaders of a young adult Sunday school class in the church came to me one day and told me their story. They explained that over a period of a few years their class had experienced steady growth and had even moved to a larger classroom. But then, when the class reached about 35 in number, the growth leveled off. They tried a number of approaches to get past this plateau, but to no avail. The class leaders’ question to me was: “How can we get the growth trend restarted?”

I probed for some more information about the class. One thing the leaders told me was that the class had begun to use the fourth Sunday of each month to meet in small groups of 10 or 12 around tables during the Sunday school class time. There they discussed the lesson and prayed for each other. This brought some personal attention back into the class, but I could see that it wasn’t enough. It was clear to me that the class needed to start real small groups, the kind that meet regularly in homes—CareRings.

We talked at length about the situation, and the leaders agreed to find out more about CareRings. Before long, many of the class’s existing small groups began meeting as CareRings in their homes each week (except for the weeks they met as a group in their Sunday school class). Through this approach, the sense of closeness was reborn and the class began to grow again.

That is a real-life example of how, by starting CareRings, a Sunday school class can keep on growing. Many classes have reached a plateau because people intuitively sense that growing larger would cause them to lose any real sense of closeness with one another. CareRings can restore the closeness and allow the class to keep on growing.

But on a larger scale, what about a church that has reached a plateau? There the solution is not quite as simple. But before we look at the situation, let’s assess the problem.

Many churches are not growing for some specific reason. Perhaps there are too few seats in the sanctuary, not enough parking spaces, strife or discord within the congregation or an unfriendly attitude among the congregation. These and a hundred other causes can keep a church from reaching its full potential.

External circumstances can also produce a barrier to growth. There could be dramatic ethnic shifts taking place in the local population. Or there could be radical changes in the local economic situation, such as a major plant or factory in a small town closing down. A church has no control over such circumstances, and yet, directly or indirectly, they can affect a church’s growth potential.

While we can and should fix the internal circumstances that have caused a church to plateau, there may be nothing we can do about the external causes. But then again, there may even be something we can do in response to external circumstances. In that regard, I’ll never forget the story of Pasadena First Church of the Nazarene.

In the mid-1970s a Christian college relocated from Pasadena to San Diego. This caused many of the people in churches around Pasadena to wring their hands in despair, because they had been relying heavily on students, staff and faculty from the college for their support. The prevailing attitude was panic. How would the churches recover from the loss of leadership and membership? Would they even survive?

Interestingly, there was no panic at Pasadena First, even though that church probably stood to lose the most. The pastor, Dr. Earl Lee, prayed and discussed the situation with the church board. They resolved to take action. One thing they chose to do was to hire a full-time pastor of personal evangelism, who trained hundreds of people to share their faith. Another thing they decided to do was to form small groups that would meet in members’ homes.

Within less than three years, the church had regained the ground lost by people leaving with the college—and had shown a gain to boot! Most of the other churches in town showed a membership loss for years, and a few of them closed their doors.

What made the difference at Pasadena First? Leadership and a resolve to do what the church should have been doing all along—training members for evangelism and connecting members in small groups.

If small groups can help overcome an external obstacle to growth like key members moving away, how much more can small groups overcome internal problems like discord or unfriendly attitudes? Whether you’re looking to get your Sunday school class or your whole church back into a growth mode, small groups can be where the necessary changes take place.

GROUPS CAN KEEP GROWING CHURCHES “SMALL”

A fellow church staff member and friend of mine, Jeffery Johnson, visited Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois for a leadership conference a few years ago. While there, he decided to conduct a personal survey of the Willow Creek laypeople he met. He asked specific questions about the church and its pastor, staff and congregation.

One of those questions was: “What is it you love most about Willow Creek?”

Jeff said the unanimous response he got was: “The most wonderful thing about this church is the closeness of the people. We all feel connected with each other.”

This intrigued my friend. You see, the average attendance at Willow Creek in worship is more than 17,000. That hardly sounds like a close, family-like church!

Jeff decided to follow up with another question: “Exactly what is it about the church that makes you feel that way?”

Again he got similar responses from everyone: “It’s the small groups. We are close because every week we sit with 10 to 12 people in someone’s living room, read the Word, share our joys and sorrows and pray together.”

The point is clear—groups keep growing churches “small”! They make the people feel connected with each other. Everyone knows there are a few people they can trust and with who they believe they can share everything. Groups do that. They put people in touch with one another in ways nothing else can.

Someone may ask, “Are churches growing because they have groups, or do they have groups because they are growing?” It’s a fair question. It might be that churches grow because they keep an atmosphere of smallness through their small groups. Or it might be that they start small groups to meet the needs of a congregation that is growing anyway.

Perhaps both scenarios play out. Or more likely, as churches begin to grow, they are wise enough to see that they cannot keep the same sense of intimacy and closeness they had when they were a smaller fellowship. They design ways of meeting the need for accountability and discipleship training. They discover that they have to develop lay leaders who see care for the spiritual and social aspects of life as part of their responsibility. So partway along a growth curve they start small groups. And, as a result, they grew more!

One church that decided from the start to grow and develop with small groups was New Hope Community Church in Portland, Oregon. Pastor Ray Cotton calls their small groups “TLC groups.” Not only do these groups supply their members with tender, loving care but they are also designed to be the setting for outreach and ministry as well as the training of lay pastors. As a result, this dynamic church has grown consistently for 29 years.

In whatever way and at whatever point a church puts small groups in place, the one indispensable element is passion. Passion is intense love for God. Passion is a deep and consistent concern for people, coupled with a clear and strong intent to influence them for Christ and lead them to salvation. Those with passion believe wholeheartedly that reaching others is urgent business and vitally important work. They are deeply broken for the lost and hurting. They focus on finding, caring for and loving everyone who is without God in their lives.

We are far too...