Community

I have my small group meeting tonight. We'll gather at a house less than a mile from my house, enjoy an informal meal and dessert, share what is going on in our lives, and spend some time studying 1 Corinthians 15. I've grown to the point where I really enjoy having these meetings, although there are many Thursdays when I don't feel like doing it. Sometimes it feels like just one more thing to do when I could be studying, resting, playing, etc. I'm finally learning that God was serious when He established the local body of believers. Just about every week I leave with something of a rush from connecting with these guys.

What's really cool is when we see someone being changed by the Word. I'm a big one for talking about how the Word shapes us, but it's really powerful when we see it in action. We have a variety of crises going on in the group at any one time and it is wonderful to see men helping each other deal with life in a biblical way.

One of the problems of attending what I call a "Big Ten Church" is that it is easy to remain anonymous. You can slip in the back on Sunday and slip out again with only the greeters noticing your presence. This is not the ideal for a church, so we encourage the small groups. Fortunately, we also train the small group leaders and ask them to report on their groups after each meeting so that the leaders have some sense of what is going on.

I cannot recommend small groups highly enough. My life is just better because of my small group. Unfortunately, it looks like I'm going to have a conundrum this fall as I will have a class on Thursday nights.