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Launching Community
The Early Church in the first 300 years did have a permanent home. Following the Day of Pentecost, they met in the temple courts and house to house (Acts 2:46). In modern-day American churches, we have given up on “house to house” (KJV) and have leaned primarily on temple courts or class to class. Nowhere does Scripture say “class to class.” It says “house to house,” and that implies in the community — not on the campus. Are you willing to take a fresh look at the biblical model in Acts and the other passages in the Bible that cannot be lived out in the context of the Sunday morning message?
If you believe that life change and spiritual formation happen best in small settings, you can easily launch a small-group ministry because systems are already in place. While it may seem overwhelming, not much labor is involved. Here is what you need to do:
- Preach on it and ask people during the service if they would be willing to host a small-group Bible study in their homes.
- Gather those people in your home the next week, and you now have a volunteer team. With an easy-to-use DVD curriculum any member can disciple another.
- Be willing to lead from weakness.
For example: John led a group. On the third night someone asked a question that John could not answer. He could not answer another question, and then another. Finally, he confessed that he had been busy that week and had not studied the lesson. He was embarrassed and sorry, and he could not fake it. He promised to do better the next week. Everyone was drawn to John because he was honest. John realized that a leader does not need to be perfect.
Small groups are the spiritual family system of the future. I know this because we see throughout Scripture that it was God’s idea first.
Brett Eastman, Rancho Santa Margarita, California
Excerpted from Three Steps To Making Your Small Group Dream Come True for Your Church by Brett Eastman. Copyright © 2007, Brett Eastman. Used by permission.
