07.27.10
The Confused Group Movement... Sovereign Mayhem?
I just returned from the 4G Conference. The goal of the event was to draw church leaders from four group types together for open dialogue, networking with one another, to inspire them as they spearhead a group movement, and to offer training. Four group types were represented… Small Groups, Discipleship Groups, Missional Groups, and Sunday School. One of the big takeaways for me was that group types seem to have lost their own identities. When an individual would describe a small group a Sunday School person would say, "You've just described a good Sunday School class," and visa versa. When someone brought up a Discipleship Group, someone in the room who would ask the individuals in the conversation to consider that, when Christ followers gather together and are engaged in biblical community discipleship is taking place. When Missional Groups came into the conversation there ALWAYS seemed to be someone reminding the gathered group that all group types are suppose to be and must be Missional.
Not so long ago it was easy to determine what type of group a group was, simply find out what curriculum the group was using. Not so today. Group leaders are choosing what once was specifically designed for deep discipleship in community-driven small groups. Sunday School classes are using small group resources instead of quarterlies, the weekly Bible studies designed just for an ongoing Sunday School class. Discipleship Groups may not be using any curriculum as they believe that the Sticky Church method will accomplish life-change in the people they are hoping to turn into fully devoted followers of Jesus. It's obvious, there's pandemonium in our ranks.
I must confess… I am beginning to wonder if this mayhem is a God thing and that He is using these conversations to bring us back to the purity of biblical community life. Is it possible that…
- we church leaders found our identity in the group type we became known for so we differentiated some principles and practices, wrote the books and built a following, and have been protecting our own brand rather than blessing and honoring any group living out biblical first century community?
- if the leaders in all of these movements came together after spending serious time in God's Word finding out what a small biblical community does, we would all agree that we've missed the boat and that the entire book of Acts really is the guide for group life, not the latest book on the subject?
- if we set aside our own paradigms of group life and simply made a list of all that the early believers experienced, sacrificed, and practiced as we peered purposefully into the book of Acts we'd find out that all of our diagrams and lists and clever acronyms would be replaced with an ongoing, fresh, and chaotic movement of the Holy Spirit, a responsibility to call group members into Americanized martyrdom rather than church membership, and that group members actually need one another so they can survive a culture that sees them as radical, ridiculous, religionists who have bought into the Jesus thing.
- when we stand before God He may ask us why we didn't lead those involved in our small group ministries to be the church at all costs rather than simply requiring them to carry out the organizations (the local churches) request to attend a small group or Sunday School class, a group or class designed to involve them in church life, rather than engage them in the radical Christian life Jesus expected us to live?
These ponderings are haunting me this morning.
Thoughts similar to these haunted me five years ago and have led me to a radical transformation in how I live as part of a biblical community of Christ Followers. I remember two years ago thinking none existed. Now I have hope... I am seeing characteristics like those spoken of in Acts growing out of what Father is doing in the life of each person walking in relationship to one another. And most important... they know we are Christ Followers by our love for one another... not a "church imposed" layer of what looks like love but a genuine, I'm-involved-in-your-life-and-sometimes-it's-messy kind of love that's making the difference in lives. This is the life changing, transformational body we were meant to live as part of!