When we talk about the purpose for small groups, we’re asking the question, Why do we have groups in the first place? What are we after? What's the mission?
Surely you’ve had the experience of being taught a board game. Sometimes when teaching a board game, the person will start with the details of how to play—which is important—but they’ll leave out the most important thing: the objective. If you really want to understand how to play a game, you need to have the objective in mind as you learn the details of how to play. The objective helps you make sense of all the details.
When it comes to small groups, there are a lot of how-to details that are really important. And there are certainly resources to help with the how-tos. But if we don’t get clear on what the objective is, if we don’t have a clear picture of what we’re aiming at, all the details will be of little value.
In order to really grasp the purpose for small groups, we need to step back and get the ****big picture of what we’re going for as a church.
One of the most important things about any organization is its mission. Without a mission, you really don’t have an organization. You have a dis-organization because everyone’s doing their own thing!
A clear mission is what keeps everyone on track and on the same team.
So, what’s the mission for Christ Church? Jesus established the mission for us some 2,000 years ago. It’s not ours to come up with. Our mission isn’t clever, catchy, or trendy—but it is biblical.
Here it is. We exist to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment.
In short, we're all about the Great Commission.
The Great Commission is outlined for us in Matthew 28:19–20, where Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” At the heart of The Great Commission is the call to “make disciples.”
What is a disciple? A disciple is someone who…
When we say we're all about making disciples, what we mean is that we're all about making worshippers of Christ, people who abide in Christ, serve Christ, learn from Christ, and make other disciples of Christ.
Now, how do we make disciples at Christ Church? Primarily through what we call our rhythms of life, or discipleship rhythms. There are four of them: worship in services, serve on teams, learn in studies, and live groups.
Of course, our focus here is on groups.
Groups exist is to make disciples by building community around God’s word.
As you see in that purpose statement, there are two key ingredients to small group ministry: (1) Build community (2) around God's word. You see these two key ingredients clearly in the life of the early church in Acts 2:42–47.
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”