Projects, Programs, People

Jesus is into people.
I mean really into people. So much so that he offers himself as a substitutionary sacrifice to save us in ways that we cannot save ourselves. This is the heart of the gospel of Jesus and it is an incredible and life transforming to be loved by God in this way.

I believe that this how we should be like Jesus: really into people. Jesus has a heart to save the lost and so should we. Jesus cares for the broken and so should we. We are to reflect Jesus in how we think and how we act. The challenge each generation of Christians faces is how to do this. Because the Bible tells us what to do, but allows us freedom in how to do it in our culture, context and time. 

Timeless truth. Timely methods. 

What others far more educated that me see in Western society is that the corporate ideas of events and outsourcing have found root in the church. It is summed up in a line from the Kevin Costner film Field of dreams where he says "If you build it they will come" and so we build ministries, events and programs in the hope that they will come.

Consumers are fickle

What large scale analysis has shown across the world is that whilst people might come in numbers they will not come in heart because what we are doing is using consumer models that perpetuate the consumer mindset instead of creating maturing disciples of Jesus. If someone else offers a program that is better...brighter...louder...funnier...cooler...they are gone and entire ministries disappear overnight because it's not about the programs or the projects. We saw this a number of years ago in Cape Town where a major international church planted in the city and almost overnight the church had 3000 people - almost all from other churches. I know of at least one congregation that lost half its band in one week.

Consumers are fickle.

So how do we change this? Listening to what others are saying and studying the scriptures leads one to the truth that the answer lies is not a program nor a project. Jesus cares about people and so should we. Jesus does not care much for projects or programs and I believe that the answer to this lies in building relationships where the truth of Jesus is passed on from one to the next. Not just bible knowledge but also the knowledge of how to serve, love and care for others. Knowledge about how to pray, discern and follow the call of the Holy Spirit. Programs and projects simply lack the power to do this.

Jesus leaves us two enduring images in Matthew 28 and Acts 1: We're to be disciple-makes and witnesses. And these are things we can all do because it does not require programs that cost money, it needs no flashing lights, Power Point and we don't need a theological degree to make disciples nor to be a witness.

Disciple-makers 

We make disciples by apprenticing people and showing them what we have learned to by God's grace.

I love DIY and I have a garage full of tools that I have learned to wield well to make all sorts of things as our family has need from pop-guns to bookshelves. Much of what I do I learned from my dad. He was always fixing something: cutting wood to size for cupboards in the house,repairing broken brickwork, fixing damaged wiring and building things he needed. I watched, and in time I helped, and then I did it myself. In many ways I have learned far beyond what my dad was able to do simply because I have had access to more tools and technology from a younger age. Importantly, I had someone to show me how.

In the scriptures we see people learning to follow God, not by reading their bible alone but learning from others what it looks like to serve the poor, teach scripture, pray for the sick and call people to follow Jesus. Paul writes to the dysfunctional church in Corinth and says  Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. 1 Corinthians 11:1

A disciple-maker imitates Christ and calls others to do the same

Witnesses

To be a witness is to tell others about what you have seen and John writes it like this:  That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.1 John 1:1–4

Do you see the tangible words he uses? Heard, seen, looked at, touched...All the early church did was tell others about what Jesus had done for them and this does not need a title nor an education. You simply tell others how Jesus gave you hope when you had none. How Jesus saved you from your self absorbed life. You tell them how Jesus has made you joyful, hopeful, helpful, grateful and free! 

We're all called to be disciple makers and witnesses

What if each of us who love Jesus walked alongside others with whom we share our lives; friends, family, co-workers and colleagues and what if we discipled them to Jesus, then discipled them in Jesus starting by telling our stories? What if as we live out gospel centred lives we drew others in to walk that journey with us? 

Is your group going to serve at a home for abused women? Take someone with you. Are you going to the hospital to pray for someone who is ill? Take someone with you. Joining with others to gather under Christ to eat and gather round the bible? Take someone with you. Show someone what it looks like to follow Jesus who is Lord of all.

I have a simple faith (some might argue naive) that if we're faithful in following these biblical instructions, Jesus will grow his church. Not a church willed with passive consumers but with passionate disciples who will also disciple others by passing on the good news of what Jesus has done for them.

Home groups must be about gospel mission or else they fail at fulfilling Jesus mission

We've been encouraging our HomeGroups to move from internal self focused ministry to Gospel mission for some time now and we're seeing great fruit of this. This is a journey that we're on and we're learning each day what it means to get the gospel out there.One of our groups has adopted St Mary's home, a refuge for abused women as Jesus calls us to identify with and bless those who are the underdogs, the oppressed, the hurting and the broken. We're trying to take this seriously as a church and each group is seeking God's guidance as they minister into the community into which we have been called. This is a radical change from inward focused home groups ministry that we've been operating with in the past.

Jesus reminds us that what we do for the least we actually do for him Matthew 25:35–40  For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

It is great that to see families doing this together. The best thing that we can teach our kids is to serve as Jesus serves us. Knowledge of the Bible is important as is the basic spiritual disciplines of study, prayer and giving, but what our kids need to see is faith in action. As they watch mum and dad serve, love and care for those who need help they will learn what it means to really follow Jesus. Because Jesus is God in action. We see it as he seeks justice, opposes the rich and the proud and lifts up those oppressed, hurting, demonized and far from God. We're called to be like him and we too are a sent people - sent by God to make a real difference in the world. Making a difference always starts with building relationships because we need to earn the right to be heard and so as this is what this group is doing as this new shelter launches. In time they will learn to care for those oppressed by domestic violence, they will learn to give counsel and minister the Gospel of Jesus to those who will come here to find refuge and shelter. And it will all be for Jesus glory.

Psalm 5:11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.

What is the Care Team?

When I was tasked to head up the PVFC Care team  I was totally unprepared and did not consider it to be my particular gifting. However, after some serious prayer and trying to find reasons for not getting involved in such a difficult ministry, I understood that God was telling me to be obedient, and to trust him. This was almost a year ago and I must confess that although we have gone through some rough patches, it has been a very worthwhile experience and a wonderful blessing; more to us than the people being cared for.

My initial thoughts were that this ministry should belong to the whole church, as Jesus’ clear command was that we love one another (John 13:34-35; Matt 12:48-50) and that we care for our neighbours (Luke 10:25-37; Matt 25: 35-40) and now that the Vision is moving us towards Gospel centred Worship, Discipleship, Community and Mission I’m more convinced that it should be so. After all, we are part of God’s family here on earth and are meant to live in community with one another, caring for and looking out for each other.

One of the families who has been prayed, counselled and cared for wrote:

We want to thank the PVFC Care team for their ongoing love and care, for opening up their hearts to us as they have done in our time of desperate need. As we have been fed spiritually, the Care team has  also fed us physically by providing for our basic needs like food. May God bless this ministry as it goes from strength to strength, as you do the work of the Ministry of the Kingdom of God faithfully according to God’s call, by being His hand extended here on earth. We pray that God will use you more and more as you show yourself faithful to him and his calling as you work among those in need - spiritually, emotionally and physically. Most of all, thank you Father God, Lord Jesus Christ and and Holy Spirit for being faithful to your promises of never leaving us, nor forsaking us and for being with us always. May your name be Glorified! 

We as a family have experienced first hand , the love, caring and practical Christianity from the Care team at PVFC. After assessing our needs in relation to the challenging financial situation we as a family are presently in, the Care team stepped up and have helped us with groceries and other items. that in the true sense of the word have kept us alive, sane and helped us maintain our dignity. It is so overwhelming to experience such love and practical Christian faith in our lives at this time, we feel so blessed. Just saying thank you seems so inadequate. The Sunday notices read 'Care Ministry - call our help line and someone will come to your aid'. What a fantastic statement that we have experienced  first hand. Thank you Care Team.

We realised from the outset that, with limited knowledge and experience in counselling, it was going to be a low key affair and that it would consist mostly of being a good listener, holding someone’s hand through a difficult time, helping with practical needs, where needed, and generally just being available. As one member of our team notes:

Reflecting on my role in this team, I realized that I often wait for big tragedies to hit to be able to care. Pastoral care is however less about counselling and fixing the problems of the world, than it is about intentionally seeking out every possible opportunity to walk with someone along their path – whether that path is something as devastating as death, divorce, losing a house or something as ‘trivial’ as loneliness, feeling unworthy or hurting relationships. We all as God's ambassadors need to use every opportunity to genuinely bring Jesus love into each person’s life and guide them to a deeper relationship with Jesus. 


Maybe people in our community and congregation never ask for help, because maybe they also expect that their problems need to be catastrophic before they have the “vrymoedigheid” to approach us. But we should be serving in the simplest of ways – praying with someone through a tough decision, talking about fears and hurts and doubts, being a friend to the lonely.  Isaiah 61 sums up pastoral care well: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

This about sums up what we have been doing this past year and although we are not qualified as psychologists, we have managed to cope with most things that have come our way. We have also managed to identify a number of suitable Christian professional people to back up the ministry in case of need. It is really a matter of serving Jesus by being available, using your common sense and doing a lot of praying, before engaging an issue. Caring is not confined to the poor community only, there are many wealthy people in our neighbourhood that are in dire straits, but for various reasons, prefer to carry their own burdens. How sad is this! It is the responsibility of every one of us to intentionally seek and save the lost.

The Care team is currently a small but dedicated team, but it is important to expand the Care ministry to the HomeGroups, because it is there where most of the caring should take place. To this end we have arranged an evening with Grant Hopkins, from Durbanville Methodist Church, to give us a coaching workshop and we are asking all HomeGroup leaders and everyone else that is interested to come and get equipped so that you too can be part of caring for the community that is PVFC. I am therefore making an earnest appeal to all of the Home Groups to seriously consider coming to this meeting on Monday, 16th April at 19h00, please contact Paula to RSVP for this training.

Grace and peace

Leon     

5 Community Killers

In talking with some of the members of our congregation I was reminded of how easy it is to kill Christian community. We can easily create a shallow form of Christian fellowship, but genuine, gospel-centred community is something that can be fragile and needs to be worked at to be strong. Over the years that I have been part of God's family I have been part of groups that had very little community and then had the privilege of other groups that were very close. 


There are a number of things we can do that can easily kill community and the books of Proverbs and it's modern counterpart James (often called the proverbs of the New Testament) have some helpful reminders about dealing with the deep relationships of faith:


Loose lips - Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler. Prov 20:19
Christian community is often about dealing with the gritty mess of life: hurting marriages, tough to overcome sin and the results of past hurts. We need to create the environment where we know that whatever we say will go no further than the group. Confidentiality is a key characteristic of healthy community and it creates the environment where we can share our struggles and find comfort, prayer and hope through those that Jesus has put around us. Loose lips make people withdraw and it makes them internalise their pain rather than find restoration through the ministry of others. If there are those in your group who find it hard to keep confidence the leader needs to walk closely with them and disciple them, to ignore such issues will be to the detriment of the group. 

Stinginess - Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honours him - Prov 14:31

Acts 2 reminds us that in the early church they gave to each other as there was need. And we too need to learn to imitate that behaviour. It is part of the work of the Spirit in our hearts that makes us hold loosely to our possessions, our time and our gifts that God has given us. We serve God by being generous to each other and genuine community is about opening up our homes and our hearts to those who follow Jesus with us. It is easy to talk the talk, but much harder to walk the walk and genuine community is prepared to walk the extra mile to make a difference.

Pride - One’s pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honour - Prov 29:23
When we're proud and self righteous it makes us unapproachable and it makes it tough to live out faith together. We're reminded in James to "confess our sins to each other" and it takes genuine community to allow people to open up, and we need to put our pride aside and be vulnerable. This is important for leaders to be able to acknowledge our weakness and need of Jesus. It becomes a powerful reminder to others that they are in need of Jesus too. There is no place in the heart of a follower of Jesus for pride, and yet it is the one area where we all will struggle at some time or another. Pray that God would give you the humility we need to become the people he calls us to be.

No Accountability - Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy - Prov 28:13

We have to hold each other accountable before God. Cain asked the question 'Am I my brothers keeper' and the answer is that we are. We need to hold each other accountable for following Jesus and being obedient to all that he has commanded (Matt 28) Like any normal family we have a way of living together that can create life or destroy it. I recall a group where we had a guy who was immensely cynical and sarcastic. It was horrible to listen to and hurtful to us all in various ways. We tried to help him be accountable for his behaviour and he refused and eventually left. It was a great sadness but helpful for genuine community to be maintained. Unconfessed sin will quickly consume a community.

No Prayer - The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous. - Prov 15:29
Prayer is a necessity for genuine community. Praying together draws us into God's presence and it draws us into the unity of the Spirit, putting us onto God's agenda rather than our own. Praying for others in your group, especially those who are hard to work with or who annoy you is the surest way to allow God to soften your heart. God hears our prayer and we should take him seriously at his reminder. Someone in your group straying from Jesus? Pray. Someone struggling to understand biblical truth? Pray. Someone in need of healing? Pray. Prayer is a powerful tool in the hands of a community to keep us close to Jesus and close to each other.


Community is part of God's great witness to the world and we do it best when it is real, spirit-filled, gospel-centred community. It's worth getting this community thing right.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” - John 13:35

Growing community is God's work, not ours

Our congregation has more than a dozen groups totalling around 150 people that meet midweek to encourage each other, to worship Jesus, to share life and to mobilise for mission. One of our group leaders writes about growing their community over the last season and some of her insights may encourage you.


Acts 2:47 ...and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.


When starting a home group last year our dream was to grow quickly, as I am sure it is with all home group leaders. We started with 6 people in our group and a long list of people attached to our group but not attending. We faithfully contacted them every quarter to try and motivate and persuade them to be in community. After numerous calls, texts and emails I got despondent and frustrated and couldn't understand why people didn’t want to join. It was then that the Lord reminded me of what is written in Acts 2:47 “...the Lord added to their number day by day....”. We realised that it was not up to us to persuade people to be in community but that the Lord will add people to our group. Our instruction from the Lord was to love them like Jesus loves them and to care for them and to keep reminding them that we are there for them. In addition to this our group prayed for them every week and we included them in our communication as if they were part of our group.


Almost a year later our group has doubled in numbers and we are a group of committed followers of Christ. People were added to our group by the Lord. Of the non-attending people we were able to assist some of them to slot in with other home groups and four of them are now regularly attending our home group.


We believe that this is because of faithfully praying for and loving and caring for non-attending members. It is our responsibility to love those outside back onto the flock so that they do not go missing. I now understand and truly believe that all home groups should have a non-attending list. It is the responsibility of the home group leader and the group to care for and love those non-attending members, but we should not forget to pray earnestly for them as it is the Spirit that gives life (John 6:63) and it is God who puts the desire in our hearts to worship Him (Jeremiah 33:40).


We must constantly remind ourselves to trust Jesus and not our abilities - it is after all His church!

Rod and Reel, or Net? | Leadership Journal

After Sunday's sermon on community I think this is helpful:

What it means to catch in community.

Robert Crosby

When you think of fishing, what image comes to mind: a solitary figure with a rod and tackle box, patiently choosing a lure, casting, and reeling? Or a commercial shrimp boat with nets spread wide?

When Jesus said, "I will make you fishers of men" (Mt. 4:19), what kind of fishing did he have in mind? When he called out that first ministry team, was he picturing them as net-fishers or anglers? The question is one worth considering, since we, too, are called to that same task.

Jesus used the fishing metaphor to describe evangelism and disciple-making, and today's assumption is often that it's an individualized task. We tend to think of a fisherman as an angler, which is defined as (1) a person who fishes with a hook and line, or (2) a person who gets or tries to get something through scheming.

The individualized terms personal salvation, personal evangelism, and personal discipleship are actually relatively new within Christendom. Even the phrase personal Savior is a 20th-century expression attributable at least in part to Charles E. Fuller, the popular host of The Old-Fashioned Revival Hour radio program (1937-1968).

Certainly vast numbers of people have come to faith in Christ through individualized strategies and approaches to evangelism, but many along the way have also managed to "fall off the line." Unfortunately too often some have approached evangelism more as an individual "sales pitch" instead of a collaborative, compassionate, and gospel-modeling community.

Personal Fishing?

The New Testament metaphor of "fishing" for people with the call of Christ was never meant to imply the mere work of an individual with a pole; rather, it was referring to net fishing. The picture he uses is not that of the sole angler seeking to hook "the big one," but rather a community of fishermen casting a broad and weighted net and drawing it in together. The idea is "throwing nets into the sea" cast by a capable and caring community (Mt. 4:18-22).

Notice: "throwing nets into the sea" (v. 18) and "they left their nets" (v. 20) and "repairing their nets" (v. 21).

Fishing with a hook is not the context of Christ's call to his followers.

While the Bible does refer at least once to fishing with a hook (Mt. 17:24-27), that's not the context of Christ's call to his followers.

The net commonly used at this time was circular, having heavy weights around its perimeter. Typically, fishermen would cast these weighted nets from the shoreline and sometimes from the sides of their boat. It was a particularly labor-intensive task to cast and draw these nets in.

So what does "net evangelism" look like today?

Caught in Community

Access Church in Lakeland, Florida, recently decided to throw out a fresh "net" into their community.

"What if we took a whole month of our tithe income and just gave back to our community?" asked Jason Burns, the pastor of Access. "What if we did so with no strings attached?" Access Gives Back was a week-long effort to reach out to the community and to unleash Spirit-inspired creativity in the minds and actions of the church's members.

So one Sunday everyone at the church received anywhere from $5 to $100 in an envelope with simple instructions: "Just take the money and use it for some good purpose. Simply find a way to bless someone with no strings attached, no hidden agendas, and no ulterior motives."

One husband, Ian Vibbert, a 27-year-old employee at Publix, a local grocery store, was stunned by this approach: "I was speechless. I'd never heard of anything like that. But, I felt blessed to be part of a place that would trust the congregation and be willing to give a big part of the budget to do that."

Access is a four-year-old church. It is primarily comprised of members in their 20s and 30s and has no permanent building. The 500 or so worshipers meet in a local high school. Burns describes it as "a traditional church trying untraditional things to reach an unreached generation."

The Gives Back effort was intended to be both an act of simple compassion toward the community and a way to prompt the members to live out their faith in the community.

"The amounts we gave are not going to do a lot," says Jay Graffam, 32, Access's executive pastor. "It would take millions of dollars to make a big difference. But, we want to create people who will be generous for the rest of their lives. We said to the church, 'Go out and be generous on us.'"

Nothing But Net

Mother Teresa once said, "God hasn't called us to do great things; but to do small things with great love." When Give Back Sunday arrived at Access, there was $9 in Ian Vibbert's envelope and $100 in his wife Heather's. They pooled their money, added some of their own, and asked God what they should do. They finally called the Lakeland Regional Medical Center's neonatal clinic and found out how many infants were there.

"I bought stuffed animals," Heather said, "and get-well cards, and just wrote 'Jesus loves you' on them. Hopefully, it had an impact. It was worth it if even one person was touched."

"The idea is to bring God's kingdom down here," says Burns. "That's what we are working on at Access. We often say, 'Up there, down here.' It's not about how big we can grow the church. It's really more about how well we can cast the net. While church facilities may be something people build, the Kingdom is something we spread. And, when the kingdom is spread, souls are reached for Christ and the world becomes a better place."

So often in the Bible, outreach is a together activity. When Jesus sent his disciples out to the towns and villages, he sent them two by two. When he sent them to wait on the coming of the Holy Spirit, he sent 120 of them to a place of prayer in Jerusalem. Even when the first missionaries were commissioned, there were two leaders and one protégé sent out. If outreach was anything, it was together.

Outreach requires bold witness and sharing our faith. We do need to be instant in season and out to give people "a reason for our faith" (1 Peter 3:15). There are certainly many times when our witness will be one on one. But, we must not forget that Jesus said "they will know you are my disciples by the love you have one for another." That's not something anyone can do alone. The gospel is primarily a net (i.e., a culture) of grace and truth that we boldly and broadly cast … together

reposted from: Rod and Reel, or Net? | Leadership Journal

Conversations for discipleship 5

Conversation 5 is about community.

Many people think that community is an optional extra to the faith and for most of us it was for a long time. Without Christian community there is no maturity of faith. It is in community that we learn from others, use our spiritual gifts and where we are sent out into the world to be Jesus' witnesses.

As image bearers of God (Genesis 1:26), we are made to be in community just as God is in community. Note the "us" in Genesis 1:26. Even in the perfect world Adam was created in, the one thing that was not good was for man to be alone. (Genesis 2:18)

Our sin had separated us from God and one another (Isaiah 59:1-2). But in Christ we are given a new identity individually and given a new identity communally. We are adopted into a new family: the Church. (John 1:12, Ephesians 4)

Conversation 5: walking in community
When we become Christians we get a new identity individually, as children of God, and we get a new identity corporately, as we are brought into God's family—the church. The Bible uses the illustration of a body where each part is interdependent on the others, this is what Jesus envisaged when he called us to follow him.

Task:

Read and discuss Acts 2:37-47.
Read and discuss 1 Corinthians 12:12-26. (There are no “lone ranger” Christians. We are all part of the body and when one part is missing the whole body suffers.)
Explain how our Home Groups seek to embody these texts.

Questions to ask:

• What does it look like for you to be in community?
• Can I help you get into a Home Group? (If they aren’t in one already.)

Good and Angry

Great article by Paul Tripp about being angry for the things that God gets angry about

Good and Angry

Why do we do what we do?

One of the things that the Vision Team is noting is that as a church we've got to get out more. We're seeing some growth towards an outward focus, but we believe that one of the real marks of the early Church was getting out of it's comfort zones and taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. Twelve spirit-filled men changed human history because they trusted what Jesus called them to do could be accomplished.

Most modern Christians don't take the gospel anywhere at all - let alone to the ends of the earth. And each year millions die outside of faith in Jesus.

Sure there are things we might need to learn on the way, but we have the Spirit in us who will teach us everything we need to know, and we need to learn to trust him more.

Sure we might not all be cut out to speak to groups of people, but we're all called to witness. I sure don't recall Jesus saying anything about only those with the gift of the gab must witness - it is something we all must do, just like all of us must be tithing our 10% and not just the rich.

Where we as a church need to grow is in our understanding of the why we need to do these things. I think we understand the what, and that we have a grasp on the how. But if we can get the why right a lot of things fall in place automatically.

Our vision team is prayerfully looking at these kinds of questions. It seems that often the why of modern Christian faith is about what we get out of Jesus much more than about what we get to do for Jesus. And one of the great privileges we have is to proclaim the riches of God's kindness shown through Jesus.

I believe that God really does call us to speak to the world on his behalf. Wow! that the creator of all things would entrust us with that task is astounding indeed. Some of this happens on Sundays and in a good church a gifted, anointed person will preach faithfully from the scriptures. But most non-Christians will never land up in a church...so what about the them, how do they hear the gospel?

The reality is that it should be every Christian's goal to witness to Jesus. Jesus calls us, Jesus equips us, Jesus goes before us. Groups in the church are part of the bigger purpose of God in taking the gospel into the world. Often a group can become self focused around what the members can get out of it. But that is a very small vision indeed and the bible paints a much bigger and audacious goal.

In a recent book called Community:getting your groups off life support dealing with home groups, Brad House makes some helpful points in this regard. The following is from a recent article based on the book he wrote:

You should join a home group because ________.

That is very important blank. How you fill it in will have a profound effect on the health of your group ministry. You can do a lot of things right and still be torpedoed by that question.

If you are not convinced the question of why is that important, tell your wife that you're planning a date night because Mark Driscollsays it’s a good idea. While she may appreciate the insight of Pastor Mark I would venture that she would be more moved if your motivation were her beauty and your desire for her company.

The answers to the why in community are similarly not all equal.

Good Fruit ≠ Purpose

Growth, retention, belonging, and health are important byproducts of community, but they are just that: byproducts. We cannot take good fruit of healthy, gospel-saturated community and make it the purpose.

“

Apart from Jesus’ death and resurrection, community is not possible.

”

Our foundational reason for why we have groups in our church is to image God and proclaim the good news of what Jesus has accomplished on the cross.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. - 2 Cor. 5:17-20

The Ministry of Reconciliation

We have been reconciled to God and one another for the purpose of making an appeal to the world to be likewise reconciled. As image bearers of God we were created for community. What sin has broken, Jesus has reconciled. Apart from Jesus’ death and resurrection, community is not possible. The existence of a loving, gospel-saturated community is a testimony to the truth of the gospel.

In a broken world that intrinsically longs for authentic community, this is a profoundly different motivation. People aren’t interested in church growth. They are desperate for hope. They can find belonging in a pub, but they need a community transformed by the love of Jesus. We have exactly what they need when we root our groups in what Jesus has accomplished.

“

Our foundational reason for why we have groups in our church is to image God and proclaim the good news of what Jesus has accomplished on the cross.

”

The Why Before the How

If you want to inspire people to be a part of community help them see the bigger purpose. Show your church how to image God in community and help your leaders understand that they are an integral part of the advancement of the gospel.

As for those byproducts, when we get the foundation of groups rooted in Christ, we can trust there will be fruit that is good and glorifying to God.

So before you ask how to do healthy community groups, make sure you know why.