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!

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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.