Friday, February 10, 2006
Thinking About Small Groups
Tod Bolsinger has been looking at George Barna's latest book, Revolution. In his latest post on the subject, Tod looks at the distinction Barna draws between "Church" and "church" and starts to discuss what makes a church a church.
There are a couple of trends in church that are a problem and I have mentioned them before. The first is that Sunday morning is for the non-believer, the seeker, not the company of the committed. The other is the question I keep asking - where does the mature Christian go for his/her sustenance and growth in the church?
The answer I always seem to get to both of these issues is "small group" ministry. - But it seems to me that small groups are not church in the sense that Tod is discussing it here. It seems to me that to punt the mature to a small group is to feed the beast that Tod seems to be fighting -- it feeds the trend Barna notes.
So, are small groups really good things after all? Or, are they the church abdicating its responsibility?
Related Tags: church, Barna, Revolution, small groups
In my last post, we looked at the New Testament understanding of "church" and saw that for the earliest Christians, "church" was a very specific gathering of people out to accomplish the work of the "Church". Like the old song about "Love and Marriage" says, "You can't have one without the other."Which raises an interesting question in my mind - where does a small group ministry fit into this?
But, the lingering question in this series of posts is what exactly makes a church a church? Is it just "where two or more are gathered" in Jesus' name? Or does it need to be affiliated, structured and institutionalized in some way? Could a family be rightly called a church? Or is there something beyond the family that is necessary? Is any gathering of Christians a church? or is "church" more than "fellowship"?
In Revolution, George Barna writes about "spiritual mini-movements" or what he considers "God-centered endeavors taking place beyond the congregation (p. 54)." And clearly indicates that he believes that these "spiritual mini-movements" are the latest manifestation of the Church today. No congregation necessary, just lots of affiliations of Christians all working together for the good of the Kingdom in any way that is beneficial to one's faith. That is attractive of course, but is it biblical? Is it even historically consistent with what past generations of Christians understood Jesus to be initiating when he told Peter, ?Upon this rock I will build my church???
There are a couple of trends in church that are a problem and I have mentioned them before. The first is that Sunday morning is for the non-believer, the seeker, not the company of the committed. The other is the question I keep asking - where does the mature Christian go for his/her sustenance and growth in the church?
The answer I always seem to get to both of these issues is "small group" ministry. - But it seems to me that small groups are not church in the sense that Tod is discussing it here. It seems to me that to punt the mature to a small group is to feed the beast that Tod seems to be fighting -- it feeds the trend Barna notes.
So, are small groups really good things after all? Or, are they the church abdicating its responsibility?
Related Tags: church, Barna, Revolution, small groups
