Small Groups

Small groups abound in our daily lives. They are variously described as teams, regular coffee klatches, task forces, study groups, committees, working units, support groups and families. Life would be empty without them. They function as the glue that helps to bond us with others in meaningful ways. Everybody knows that riding up to the seventh floor together in an elevator does not make the people therein a group. A group is characterized by intentionality in meeting on a regular basis over a period of time. Groups involve some commitment. They give us a sense of belonging.

The Need for Groups

Because they are so common, we often take groups for granted—as though they are part of our rights, a heritage (sometimes an albatross) of simply being alive. Actually the need for community is God’s way of marking us with the divine imprint. We were made to dwell in relatedness to others and to him.

Few, however, are prepared for the dynamics of maximizing experience in groups. Being in them is one of life’s expectancies—because you exist you will spend a lot of time in groups. Recent studies indicate that around 40 percent of Americans meet weekly in small groups of one kind or another. Think of the number you have been involved in just this year. While we are immersed in groups as naturally as we are immersed in air, we seldom stop to think of the wisdom and uniqueness of being in such a relational network. And our responses are often set on automatic pilot, so we fail to change or grow but instead continue to repeat the conditioned responses to groups developed long ago.

But groups are meant to sustain and renew, to repair and bring new life. The challenge of differing opinions and dynamic interactions keep us stretching and adapting. Some groups become stuck because they try to nullify difference of opinion and refuse to risk openness to new ways of operating or thinking. The most helpful groups rock the boat, not just stick to the comfort zone. Just as the functioning cells cause our body to maintain life, so these people networks have been designed by our Creator to sustain and enhance life in our earthly existence.

The Benefits of Group Life

Relational networks make being an individual better. Sociologists tell us that three major needs are met through group involvement. (1) Groups give a person a sense of belonging, of inclusion, as reflected in, “I’m important; there is a place for me. I am needed.” (2) Groups provide for our affection needs. Being a member yields an attitude of “I am lovable and valuable.” Groups give us a place to love and care for others, enabling us to give. (3) Groups provide spheres for influence, thus enabling members to communicate the idea that “I have something significant to pass on.” And groups provide safe places to be influenced so members can be helped to think and act differently. All of the above (inclusion, affection and influence) are vital requirements for being a holistic person.

For the Christian, groups provide a healthy exchange between what a person experiences and does in life and what he or she believes. Groups give us permission to examine our faith as it relates to dilemmas of workplace, daily schedule, personal encounters, decisions, attitudes and so on. In sharing responses to these lifestyle circumstances, participants can find out what they believe, for we tend to reveal what we believe in the way we act every day. Thus small groups help us bridge from faith to life operations and back again.

Groups become forums for idea development, for they unconsciously mold and form convictions and understandings. In expressing yourself in a small group, you are cementing what you think. The feedback received helps reform that formational idea. Accountability is desired and feared, but progress demands it. A caring unit of persons comprising a group can help a person achieve desired outcomes simply by checking up and holding him or her accountable for commitments made.

Shared existence is richer. Good news is for sharing; burdens are lightened by others coming alongside; joy is enhanced by sharing it with another. Thankfulness, relief, achievements, disappointments and grief are greatly affected when a group is involved.

Christians in Groups

As the old hymn states about the perspective of the reborn on the natural world,

Skies above are softer blue,
Earth around is sweeter green,
Something lives in every hue
Christless eyes have never seen.

Likewise, the perspective on the world of small-group relatedness has a distinctively Christian dimension. As believers we approach groups differently from those in the world.

First, the Christian knows he or she is called to community. It is not an optional choice for those who make up the body of Christ. Each person is valuable. The composite of the many together makes possible the body. One alone cannot represent Christ effectively or adequately. As believers we have been designed for community, not solo sufficiency. We reflect the Godhead, each of whom carried out the ministry of the other and magnified the person of the other.

Though Christians are separated by many definitive factors, allegiance to our Head causes believers to find togetherness. That oneness comes from focused priority on God. It is sin that causes us to withdraw from relatedness. Dietrich Bonhoeffer states: “Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is the more destructive will be the power of sin over him and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation” (p. 112).

Second, the Christian knows that fulfillment comes from both giving to and receiving from others. A characteristic of groups from a worldly point of view is that people come to get something and leave when they get what they need. Our self-centeredness tempts us to believe that groups exist for us, and our consumerism leads us to believe that if a group does not give us what we want, we will go to another group: “In general, Americans do not join groups for what they can contribute, but for what they can get out of them” (Dyrness, pp. 98-99). In contrast, Scripture calls disciples to ministry. There is no discipleship fulfillment without spending what is yours on the body for building it up. Persons are not to be used and then discarded. We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. We do not mature alone. The apostle Paul states that we are to build up the body “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God . . . attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephes. 4:12-13). Groups provide forums for Christians to build up faith and knowledge stores so all have as much as the most mature.

The Christian in groups finds ample opportunity to grow in response to persons and to reveal the dimensions of Christlike relatedness to other members. In small-group settings the reality of dying to yourself is evident. You have opportunity to give up your rights, to listen and to empower another. Groups provide arenas for putting to death passions to be right, to have the only answer, to fix everybody else’s problems, to have everybody measure up to your expectations. They are laboratories for crucifixions. Perhaps that is one reason why Jesus selected the small-group format for equipping the team he would leave behind to fulfill their mission of reaching the world with the gospel.

It is in groups that the reality of Christians loving and caring for one another can take place naturally. Of the early Christians who spent time in house churches and shared love in tangible ways, Tertullian said, “Behold how they love each other.” The distinctions of Christianity are displayed in groups. Group evangelism is very biblical and probably one of the most natural ways of passing on the faith. Not only is it observable amid the community, but in groups persons are more likely to change beliefs because of openness to combined peer influence.

Everyday Implications

A Christian will view relational needs as reflective of who he or she is—a child of God, made to be relational by the Creator. Loneliness is therefore a gift that sensitizes us and drives us to God and to others so we become more holistic in our being. Small groups also have evangelistic implications (see Evangelism): work teams with unbelievers become stages to live out the lifestyle of the gospel in distinctively Christian responses.

We must do everything possible to resist the self-made, self-sustained image of secular humanism that promotes taking what we individually need to make us more sufficient individuals. Instead let us celebrate our uniqueness in what we have to contribute to the body of Christ. Let us exult over our need for others today by becoming involved in a group to give support and to hold us accountable or in a group where we can share and receive faith insights leading to the whole group’s progressing in maturity.

Groups are sites for enrichment and health. Pause to recall the benefits, achievements and growth points that have occurred in your pilgrimage through groups. Remember occasions when you have been able to connect the faith you profess with specific situations that have arisen in your life. How have groups helped you clarify your understanding and application of principles to life issues? Who are persons who have become like family to you, helping you to survive? Finally, rejoice that God has placed you among a select group called the body of Christ. What is your contribution toward its upbuilding and health?

» See also: Church

» See also: Church in the Home

» See also: Committees

» See also: Community

» See also: Family

» See also: Fellowship

References and Resources

D. Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1954); W. Dyrness, How Does America Hear the Gospel? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989); J. Gorman, Community That Is Christian (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1993); C. N. Kraus, The Authentic Witness (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979); M. S. Peck, The Different Drum (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987); K. Smith and D. Berg, Paradoxes of Group Life: Understanding Conflict, Paralysis and Movement in Group Dynamics (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1987); R. Wuthnow, Sharing the Journey (New York: Free Press, 1994).

—Julie Gorman