On yet another very snowy day, I’m working from home.  I’m prepping for our March 7th Group Leader training and recognition event, working on the upcoming group proposals for our spring catalog and trying to catch up on reading some books that have been on my “to read” list for a couple months.  “Building a Church of Small Groups” by Bill Donahue and Russ Robinson is where I find myself this morning.  It’s a great reminder of the many foundational reasons for the importance of Group Life in every church and for every person.  It’s so important that I wanted to share.

THEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR GROUP LIFE:

God Exists in Community:

•   The Trinity

“God has forever existed as and will into eternity remain three persons in One.”

“The entire  Bible proclaims that God (expressed singularly) exists from all time and for all time in community as the Trinity (plurality).”

“God is, in every sense of the word, a group.”

•  We are Created in God’s Community-Bearing Image

“God created us all with a ‘community gene,’ an inborn, intentional, inescapable part of what it means to be human.”

“We are created in God’s image; therefore, we are created for community.  It’s part of being an image bearer of God himself.”

All of us, Christian and non-christian, regardless of age, gender, race, temperament, or past history, realize that part of being human means having an insatiable hunger for community.

 God was incarnate Christ Jesus, who had transformational relationships

•   God became flesh to “be with us.”
• “Jesus’ entire public ministry models what it mean to live in community.  His pattern shows us why community experienced through small group relationships is a necessity, not an option.”
• In Mark, we see Jesus drawing crowds.  But, “Jesus did not equate plenty of people with true community.” Instead of leveraging or working the crowd, Jesus invited 12 men to join him in a 3 year, life-transforming, ministry-embedding journey. 
• While Jesus knew the masses had deep needs, he spent most of his public ministry doing life with his little community.  Why?  “Jesus followed the divine pattern of  gathering a few so that he would transform many lives.”

 Jesus dreams for Oneness for all Christians

• In Jesus’ final hours, his deepest wishes while with his closest friends are revealed. Jesus prays in John 17:11, “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.  Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name – the name you gave me – so that they may be one as we are on.”
• Jesus is basically saying, “I want human beings to find the kind of oneness we experience in the Trinity.”
• “Jesus actually prayed that real people – this little band of real, live flawed followers – would find an amazing kind of oneness.”
• Jesus not only prays for this kind of oneness for his disciples, but John 17:20 – 21 shows us Jesus praying, “My prayer is not for them alone.  I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”

 The question is what we’ll do with this theological evidence?   Sociological Evidence to come in the next blog.