Wednesday, February 28, 2018

You Better Read This If You Don’t Want to Be a Part of a Small Group


Dear Friends,
I want to ask you a question today. What is a disciple? How would you define the word? You know the word Christian is rarely used in the New Testament to describe a believer. When the Bible talks about a believer it almost invariably refers to him/her as a disciple. Having said this, I wonder if maybe we should stop asking people if they are Christian, but instead ask if they are a disciple.
When I think of the word disciple, I think of a person who has accepted Christ as his/her personal Savior, is growing in faith,  sharing the gospel with others, and is involved in a nurturing community where people are regularly meeting together to love and encourage and build up one another.
It is this last characteristic which I would like to address this morning. A Christian is one who is involved in community. Acts 2:42-43 describes the characteristics of this community. “They devoted themselves to the apostle’ teaching, and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.”
The early disciples lived in community. They met in a groups. They shared their lives with one another.
Your leadership is sold on the importance of small groups, and because of this, we are slowly laying the foundation for the development of small group life at New Monmouth. Over the next six months, you will be hearing more and more about the importance and value of small groups, and you will be encouraged to become a part of one of the groups being offered.
In every church I have served, I have either led or been a part of a small group. From my perspective small groups are indispensable to the life blood of the church. If the church is to truly be the church God designed it to be, it will be a church fully committed to the ministry of small groups where people can get to know  one another,  laugh and cry with one another, and  serve and minister alongside of one another
I was reminded of just how important small groups can be when I recently attended an Andy Stanley Seminar in the Lancaster area. I had the good fortune of riding with Matt Agresti, one of the pastors at Park Church (formerly ORB Outreach Red Bank) and three of his leadership team. For most of the two and a half hour trip, I listened intently to one story after story of how God had been at work in their small groups, changing lives and making disciples. They call their groups community groups. They are totally committed to the building of a small group ministry, and today almost every one of their over 250 regular worshippers is committed to one of their geographically organized 14 groups. Weekly I personally experienced the enthusiasm and excitement that characterizes these groups, as I live in a home where my daughter and son in law, Park Church members, host a group every Wednesday night.
Why would I want to be in a group, you might ask? Well, for one reason it was the model of the New Testament Church. The early disciples were committed to being together. It’s what characterized their ministry. It was their spiritual incubator for making disciples.
I know some of you may be thinking, “You will never get me in a group. I hate groups.” Well let me give you a non-spiritual reason for joining a group. You will live longer if you do, and I think most of us would agree that that might be a good rationale for at least considering joining.
Let me close with a remarkable study on health and small groups. “Researchers found that the most isolated people were three times more likely to die than those with strong relational connections. People who had bad health habits (such as smoking, poor eating habits, obesity, or alcohol use) but strong social ties lived significantly longer than people who had great health habits but were isolated. In other words, it is better to eat Twinkies with good friends than to eat broccoli alone.” Everybody’s Normal Til You Get to Know Them, John Ortberg p 33
There you have it. Want to live longer? Join a group, and if you do you may not only add years to your life but life to your years, and even better than that, you begin to become a living example of what a disciple is called to be.
Yours in faith,
Pastor Tom


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