I love questions like this, because they help me to think through why we do what we do. And it is good to know that people in the congregation also want to know why we do what we do. After studying the book for four months, I feel much better equipped to answer this question than I did when we started our study.If I were to say it in a sentence, I think I'd put it this way:
Small Groups exist to provide a context for the "one another's" of Scripture to be practiced, for the glory of God and the growth, edification and care of His people.
Of course, assumed in this summary sentence is that one is familiar with the "one another's" of Scripture (for a non-exhaustive list, check under the heading, Ways that the New Testament tells us to care for one another, in the sermon here).
So what do you think: do small groups matter? And if so, why?
You bet, they matter.
ReplyDeleteListen to another way of saying what you said in your post, a few lines from a poem by Manley Hopkins:
"Christ plays in ten thousand places
lovely in limbs and lovely in eyes not His
to the Father through the features
of men's faces."
i.e., we need to show Christ to one another, and where better to do that in a community that displays true BIBLICAL fellowship (that means, not coffe and cookies-type fellowship, but loving/ministering gifts/accountability/praying and challenging-type fellowship.
Jim W