I have come to understand
and I believe the scripture clearly teaches
that my walk with God is a community project.
I think the reason small groups are important is that,
although corporate worship is terribly important,
it doesn't provide for me everything I need
as a child of God on my pilgrimage,
that journey between the already of my conversion
and the not yet of my homegoing.
That journey is through a deeply fallen world
that does not operate the way God intended
and that journey is me still struggling
with the remaining presence of sin.
Here's the function of the small group.
I have come to understand
and I believe that scripture clearly teaches
that my walk with God is a community project.
I need hands on me.
And one of the clear reasons I need that
is the dynamic of spiritual blindness.
Sin blinds.
And guess who it blinds first?
I have no trouble seeing the sin
of my wife, my kids, and my children,
but I can be surprised when mine is pointed out.
And so, as long as sin lives inside of me,
there will be pockets of spiritual blindness.
I would like to think
that no one knows me better than I know myself,
but that's a delusion.
Because there are inaccuracies in the way I view myself
so I need a company of people that I hang with regularly
that get to know me.
They get to know my strengths and weaknesses.
They get to know the themes of my struggle,
that hear things about my marriage
and my parenting or whatever,
where the application of the word of God,
the ministry of the word of God,
becomes even more personal, more intimate.
I love Colossians 3:12-17.
It talks about the body of Christ.
And it says, "Let the peace of Christ rule your hearts."
That's people are getting their identity vertically,
not horizontally.
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly."
That means you're a student of the word of God.
Now, listen to this.
"So that you can teach and admonish one another."
This is not written to pastors.
This is written to the whole body of Christ.
Teaching means I need people
who will help me think about life biblically
in places where I'm not.
Admonishment means
I need people help me to see myself
with biblical accuracy so change would take place.
And so the purpose of the small group
is that that more personal teaching and admonishing
that is meant to be the function of the body of Christ
would take place.
I have those people in my life
that have been near me
and have heard me and seen me operate,
who can now speak with greater wisdom into me.
That's a gift. That's a blessing.
That deeper intimacy,
you will not find
in the larger gathering of the church.
I think that gathering is terribly important
and I've said that already,
but I think you could go there and be virtually unknown.
The small group is where the church has shrunk
and continues to do,
in a more personal intimate way,
the things that the church is meant to do,
because every one of us, for all of us,
our walk with God is a community project.