Patric Brasher, the author of this series of blog posts, is a senior at UAB and has led a college disciple-making small group through Brook Hills for the past 2+yrs. He and his crew have, in many ways, led an exemplary small group that is both inwardly focused (growing in the gospel together) as well as outwardly focused (extending the gospel to others). This is the second post in a series entitled, “Multiply Small Groups.”
So I have a confession to make. The hypothetical situation I laid out in the last post was actually not so hypothetical. As a small group leader I was actually thrust into an eerily similar situation. So I, along with 5 other influencers/ leaders from the small group, decided that the best option was for us to multiply from one massive 25 person co-ed community group into 3 gender specific small groups of 6-10 people. But why?
Well I think 3 big reasons come to mind, the first of which I will divulge in this post.
Reason number 1:
We want people to know and be known.
With massive amounts of people coming in and out of a gathering its so easy for them to come in, participate in some worship, hear a bible study, and leave without ever showing their hearts or seeking out people to help bear their burdens. They could be going through the most unbelievable struggle of their life but because the group is so big they may never be put in a situation where they would be comfortable with sharing such intimate information.
Unfortunately, in big groups it’s very easy to be and remain virtually anonymous.
This hit me hard during a particular night when the Lord brought 30 people together for one of our “small” group gatherings. It hit me so hard because I realized that in the midst of this huge gathering that there were some guys who had been coming for 2 or 3 weeks now and I didn’t really know who they were. Because there were so many people, I hadn’t had an opportunity to talk to them about their lives and what led to this moment. Even though these people were apart of our group they were still, as I like to call it, functionally alone. They were falling through the cracks and that had to stop.
A text that helped us form this conviction was in Hebrews 10:24-25. It says:
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Basically, this text is not encouraging us to show up somewhere so that we can hear worship and a guy talk. But instead it is to encourage and to stir up individuals to love and good works. And it is my belief that it’s hard to stir someone up if you have a hard time remembering their name.
Even within the Gospel, personal acknowledgement is a major theme. The God of the universe doesn’t just have us on a corporate payroll but instead He calls us by our names, and these names are written in His Kingdom. And for this fact Jesus tells us to rejoice.
Luke 10:20 “Rejoice not that the demons are under your authority but instead rejoice that your names are written in Heaven”
How beautiful the reality that we worship a God who cares for individuals with real problems, real cares, and real names. We worship one who took on complete loneliness on the Cross so that we may never have to be truly lonely.
Therefore we should model this beautiful reality by setting up life-giving small groups of people that meet with one another for the purposes of encouragement and spurring on in the mission of the Church. This vision of knowing and being known must be set because that is what it truly means to be the body to one another.
(If you still need some convincing, reason number 2 for the why of small group multiplication is needed will follow shortly.)
