Is Small Group Ministry Biblical?

the short answer is yes and by the way the Pentecostal Resources Group Pentecostal Publishing House has just come out with two good books on small groups one by the editorinchief robin Johnston and the other by the associate editor and chief Leanne Alexander so I would certainly recommend both of those resources for the theology the concept the practical application various models and also interviews with various ministers whose churches are doing this so go going back to your main question is it biblical well absolutely yes so if we go back historically in the beginning in the New Testament Church and for two or three centuries there were no physical Church buildings so what we think of as going to church a public building or building owned by that church is actually several centuries removed from the origin that's not to say it's wrong because I think buildings are tools that can be very effective tools especially in our culture and Society so I think they're they they serve a very valuable purpose but if you want to be biblical you have to say the church is the people not a building and going to church in the first century meant going to someone's house and having Church in a home and the people of the city it's interesting when you read the Epistles to the Church of God at Corinth well it's talking about all the Christians in Corinth or the Church of God at Rome all the Christians in Rome but when you broke it down they met in different house churches they couldn't all meet in one house now they could have a special venue probably Outdoors where they could all meet for special occasions but what we think of as the Church of God in Corinth would have been multiple churches uh or for example when Paul wrote the letter to the Romans in Romans 16 you he identifies and gives greetings to five different house groups five different house churches but they are all considered part of the same church which which does indicate there should be a Unity even if we do have what we consider different churches or congregations with different Pastors in the same area there should still be an overarching Unity where we work together we consider ourselves the same body and we we work toward unity and ministerial ethics and what we call in the UPC a section and then we have different sections in a district so there should be probably a strong feeling we're all part of the same church but going back then the Church of God at Rome or the Church of God at Corinth they consisted of many small house churches which again a large church today might have small groups and to give you scriptural justification if you go back to acts 2:46 it says they continueed the temple which would be the large venue Outdoors where everybody could come together at least as long as the the uh Jewish religious authorities didn't block the know but then it says specifically and from house to house if you read Acts 5:42 which I think might be worth just taking a look at so let me go back in Acts 2:46 new King James so continuing daily with one Accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart praising God and having favor with all the people so obviously they had um a house minister Ministry or small group Ministry and then if you go forward to uh Acts chapter 5 and uh verse 42 and daily in the temple and in every house they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ it says in every house maybe that goes beyond the idea of churches meeting in a house but but even people that were able to meet together they would have some activities a Bible study or a prayer meeting they looked like they brought it to every house of every Christian and then the Apostle Paul says something to the Ephesian Elders when he's summarizing his ministry among them shortly before his departure how I he says how I kept acts 20:20 how I kept back nothing that was helpful but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house so it seems that he would have a meeting where everybody could meet together he would preach to them but then he as the founding pastor would go from house to house now so I think the concept is biblical I think the application is left up to us the Bible doesn't go into detail and by not going in detail I think it gives flexibility you know because different cultures different times different situations we we can have the flexibility to adjust our methods but the principle of meeting in small groups is biblical so some churches will actually have a weekly small group meeting either in addition to their traditional midweek Bible study or as a replacement if you do it as a replacement then you have to find other ways to make sure the teaching of the ministry of the church goes forward uh which could be Sunday school hour it could be special series of meetings uh but then other small groups so when I was a pastor we had a very strong midweek Bible study which seemed to be very effective in discipleship and the various and fellowship and the various ministries of the church and uh but sometimes we' break them into different groups and then we developed our Sunday morning we would have morning worship but an hour before that we would have Sunday school for all ages including adults and once we had the facilities we broke those down into probably seven or eight adult groups the College and Career or what we call hyphen singles one the young singles but then you have older singles so we actually had a singles two we had a young families which would be for young marrieds and and families or even single adults with children we we had um de Ministry Filipino Ministry we would have the discipleship class at different times we have different classes Korean class so so in effect our Sunday school hour became like small groups uh and then as we grew we had various specialized Ministries grief recovery class Financial training class um I've already mentioned discipleship class uh abuse recovery class so uh the uh alcohol chemical treatment Series so alcohol and drug recovery class so in in essence we broke down so we did not have a weekly traditional cell meeting in addition to midweek service but we used the midweek slot we use the Sunday School slot and we use other slots to have a variety of small groups and of course think about it Sunday School for Children and Youth effectively becomes small group for all those different age groups so there are many ways to do small groups and the books I reference give you several ways to do that I actually think not only is it biblical but for a church to grow Beyond a small cell that one Pastor can fully administrate which means if you're going to grow Beyond like maybe 75 you really need to have some form of small group Ministry another thing we did when I was a pastor it wasn't the weekly cell but what we call care groups where the whole church was divided geographically with leaders could be a lay leader or a minister or minister in training and they were responsible to provide first level care communication prayer followup uh meetings specific needs referring to the pastor as needed maybe organizing things like baby Char's housew warmings food for people when they're sick Transportation just a variety of practical ministerial or pastoral type services but broken down into small groups so that every person in the church was part of a small network of people who live close by and they could interact and minister with one another so it's the body ministering to the body and that's one of the advantages of small groups there's several advantages one is you're getting everybody involved on a personal way you're getting everybody connected to people in a more personal way at least with a small group within the large group you're providing many more opportunities for Ministry for leadership and for minist Ministry of the body people who are not leaders but yet they contribute help communicate and minister to one another and then the basic fellowship and prayer so I think there are many advantages I don't think there's one right way I don't think there's one model a small Church May in essence be its own small group and that's not bad a church of 20 30 40 it may effectively be a small group but if their church is going to grow in some way you have to think about how to uh have some type of small group connection because even a church of a 100 it's surprising the pastor knows everybody but many people in the church don't really know each other or don't each other know each other well and so if you're going to keep growing you have to somehow duplicate the feeling of a small church as you continue to grow into big church and that's that's what we did in Austin my motto was we grew to right about a thousand on our attendants role right under that plus the 16 daughter works that we started during my time as pastor but I my I always stated I want us as we grow into a larger church I don't want to artificially cap the growth the people are coming they're receiving the Holy Ghost they're being discipled they're being ministered to and they want to be here I don't want to limit them and say we don't want you anymore go somewhere else but on the other hand I want to maintain a small group feeling small Church feeling where they still feel connected accountable involved not lost in the CL crowd but have opportunities for Ministry service and relationship so as we grow into a big church we've got to maintain the connections of a small Church