Why SMALL Groups are a BIG Deal, Part 1

Three years ago, when Leslie and I were envisioning life at Crossroads, she made it very clear to me that without small groups we would never be a church where people experienced true and lasting life-change.  Not being raised in a church that valued small groups, I didn't really get it.  Why would I want to go to someone's house and sit around and talk about life and God and the Bible, and maybe pray and spend time hanging out with people?  We can do that at church on Sunday!  

Clearly, what she didn't understand was the slippery slope that small groups represented.  Why, given time, the people in a small group might becomes so comfortable with one another, they share things deep in their hearts.  They might talk about wounds.  They might actually have relationships that transcended the Sunday morning worship service.  They might become closer to one another than they are with the rest of the people in the church...including the pastor! In fact, given time, the small group might become the place where people sought deep connection and ultimately the pastoral care the "church" is supposed to provide.  Sounded like decentralization. Sounded dangerous.

Well, of course I'm exaggerating my response.  I knew we should HAVE small groups, I just didn't know why.  Through  intense study and excellent coaching I learned the value of small groups.  And I understood that if we were to be successful servant-leaders, Crossroads could not be a church that offered small groups as a program.  Crossroads had to be a church comprised of small groups. Big, big  difference.  

So my next step in the thought process was, "Okay, we'll have small groups.  But do I have to be in one?  Do I have to lead one?"  Andy Stanley, who pastors Northpoint - a church that serves over 20,000 people - answered that question for me in his book 'Creating Community'.  He said, "I believe I will have more Kingdom impact with the 10 people that meet in my home on Monday night, than I will on the thousands whom I preach before on Sundays".  That's a pretty strong statement from a pretty smart guy.  He also said (and I'm paraphrasing here), "If you're the pastor and you're not participating in a small group, you're just plain sorry".  'Nuff said, Andy.  I get it.

So I got it.  And we began walking it out a year ago.  We started this church as a small group of a half-dozen or so that wound up as a small group of 33 or so meeting at our house, that turned into a bigger small group of 65 that became a church when we launched in August of 2008.  Since then we've had two small group semesters. Next month we will launch the most significant semester of small groups since we opened the doors of the church.  Here's a few irreducible minimums to think about over the next few weeks, as I share more about Why SMALL Groups are a BIG Deal: 

• We are committed to helping people experience lasting life-change.
• We believe the small group is the best place for lasting life-change to occur.
• Our success at Crossroads will be defined by how effectively our ministries move people from our large environment (Sunday mornings), into small groups.