Thursday, January 21, 2010

Why SMALL Groups are a BIG Deal, Part 2


Yesterday I began a series of posts about small groups and why we believe in them at Crossroads.  Our stated purpose at is to love God, love others and serve the world.  To facilitate that we have focused on connections; connecting people to God, to each other and to the world around us.  While the connections we all make on Sunday morning are powerful, small groups are where we bring it all home.


See, if we just show up on Sunday morning, have a donut, sing a couple songs, hear a message and head for lunch we may well have connected...but we haven't really connected well.  Sunday morning is about going W-I-D-E, not about going deep.  We need to leverage our time on this planet to reach as many people as possible with the Gospel.  So our Sunday service is designed to do exactly that, with messages that are topical, concise, and practical.  But that's only the beginning.


We say that church is not what we do on Sunday morning, but it's what we do and who we are when we leave on Sunday morning. Small groups during the week reinforce the importance of Sunday's message, give us all an opportunity to dig deeper into God's purpose and plan for our lives, and allow us to connect with one another on a personal level that is not possible on Sunday morning in a fast-growing, evangelically-focused church like Crossroads.  Semester-based, message oriented small groups are a short-term commitment with long term benefits.  Here's just three more reasons why SMALL groups are a BIG idea:
  1. Small groups deepen our connection with God.
  2. Small groups deepen our connection with insiders (other believers).
  3. Small groups deepen our connection with outsiders (those we're called to reach).




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