Why Do Small Groups? [excerpt]

Brad House, Mars Hill Church (Seattle); Shawn Wood (Seacoast Church, SC)

Brad House, Community Pastor from Mars Hill Church, and Shawn Wood, Experiences Pastor from Seacoast, discus the “Whys?” of doing small groups within churches.

“When we understand the “Why?” then we can put some structure behind it and once we have a little bit of structure then the expression can be very unique.” ~ Brad House, Community Pastor, Mars Hill Church

Conversation Transcript:

Eric:  Brad, one of the things that you had mentioned earlier when we were talking is that a lot of folks come to the idea of small groups or community groups and say how are we going to do this in our church? You made the comment that it is more important to begin with the question of “Why?” Do you want to speak a little bit about that?

Brad:  Yeah. I have seen there are a lot of books out there and a lot of different models out there on how to do small groups. What I see a lot of times is churches grasping for…they have a need and they realize that if the church is going to grow and be healthy there needs to be community. But they grab for a model in hopes that if we implement this model that will be the Holy Grail and fix it.

I think what we need to do first is we need to slow down and ask the question of, why do we have small groups? Why do we have community groups and life groups in our church? It is part of who we are. We are image bearers of God and we’ve been created in the image of God to exist in community.

So community becomes a proclamation of who God is and not just a way to keep people in the church. More than that it is a proclamation of what Jesus has done on the cross through the atonement that he’s reconciled us to one another and he’s reconciled us to God. And apart from that work community doesn’t happen. So when we see the community, like a small community group, is actually a proclamation of the Gospel, then all those other things and the way people feel more comfortable in the church and connected to the church it makes the church a sticky place is all fruit from that, but it’s not the reason. The reason is that we get to proclaim the goodness of Christ.

Shawn:  As you’re looking at small groups throughout the country and I think you’re writing a book that is coming out in September, is that right?

Brad:  Yes.

Shawn:  On community groups, do you see then how they might even look different? If people understand the why, then your sense of different expressions of the how a lot or does it tend to fit the same model? Where do you see it?

Brad:  I think that’s exactly it. When we understand the “Why?” then we can put some structure behind it and once we have a little bit of structure then the expression can be very unique. That is the goal that I see with community is to give enough structure and background and foundation so that what it looks like in like downtown Seattle versus what it will look like in rural Kansas is going to be 2 different expressions of community. But the foundation is the same and the structure can be similar. But what it looks like can be an expression of that actual context.