BrianJones.com

Why Christians Need A Stage Name

2008-07-25T07:28:00.006-04:00

Friday, July 25, 2008

The word “Christian,” despite its wide use in our culture, is not a real popular term in the Bible. In fact, it only occurs three times in the entire New Testament. It never crossed Jesus’ lips. Paul never used it. In fact, every time it does occur the biblical author seems to be quoting a non-believer who used it to describe followers of Jesus. Acts 11:26 tells us, “The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.” By whom? The unbelievers in Antioch. “Christian” comes from the Greek word “Christianos” which means “belonging to Christ.” Not a bad word. But it was a nickname non-believers gave us, and for some reason it stuck.

Another difficulty with the word “Christian” is our market-driven culture has taken it hostage. Rather than evoking hostility and persecution, as Jesus said might happen to his followers, “Christian” has become a corporate marketing niche. “Christian” offends no-one. In America we have “Christian” paraphernalia galore. We have Christian bookstores, Christian television stations, and Christian websites. Those who are curious can flip through a Christian bestseller, thumb through one of hundreds of Christian magazines, or sit back and enjoy a blockbuster Christian motion picture. One can quickly find Christian solutions for any and every problem a bewildered American faces. There are Christian exercise videos, Christian weight-loss programs, and now, much to our relief, Christian vitamins.

But the biggest problem with the word “Christian” is it doesn’t capture what a Christ follower does. Great titles are behaviorally descriptive. A baseball player plays baseball. A stockbroker buys and sells company stock. A “Christian” tells us to whom we belong but not what we do. It isn’t an action word. It doesn’t carry an inherent job description or implied set of behavioral expectations. It communicates that we “belong to Christ,” a solid idea in and of itself, but one that has lost its edge in our culture.

I would like to suggest that we dust off an old, seemingly out of date and often misunderstood word: disciple. In my mind, replacing the word “Christian” with this word would go a long way to redefining our understanding of what it means to be a Christ follower.

In fact, from now on, I want to challenge you to use the word “disciple” every time you are about to use the word “Christian.” Say both of them out loud. “I’m glad I’m a Christian.” Now try, “I’m glad I am a disciple.” At first it is going to seem a little awkward. Your neighbors might think you’ve joined some strange chicken sacrificing cult. But that’s precisely the point. Jim Jones and Charles Manson stole this word from us. We’re stealing it back.

“Disciple” occurs not three times, but over two hundred and sixty times throughout the pages of the New Testament. As one popular author wrote, “The New Testament is a book about disciples, by disciples, and for disciples of Jesus.” Derived from the original Greek word “mathetes,” which means a “learner or student,” a disciple is someone that learns from a teacher. But according to Matthew 28:18-20, our mission on earth is not just to create Christ followers that learn his teachings, but ones that obey his teachings.

So why use the word disciple instead of the word Christian?

1. When we use the word “Christian,” we mistakenly give the impression that obeying Jesus’ teachings is something that can be put off until later, like dieting or changing the oil in the car.

We tend to communicate, “First you become a Christian, and after that you can work at becoming a disciple.” Discipleship is treated sort of like honors courses in high school. They’re not essential for graduation but a good thing to do if you so choose. According to Jesus, discipleship begins at conversion. Trusting Christ to forgive your sins and getting baptized are simply the first steps of a lifetime of “discipleship.” With the word disciple, life change is expected. Transformation is assumed from the beginning of one’s spiritual journey.

2. The most important reason we need to re-engage the word “disciple” is for our skeptical friends. In my experience when “Christians” begin to view themselves as disciples, regardless of where they are on the spiritual growth continuum, they sense a greater responsibility to become the “salt and light” Jesus exhorted us to become.

A few years ago I was driving in center city Philadelphia and got lost, which is a common occurrence for me. Without knowing it, I pulled onto a narrow one way road. Cars started barreling towards me. Horns were blaring. Cars were pulling out of my way. People motioned for me to go back the other way and said things I can’t repeat. It reminded me of that bumper sticker, “If you don’t like the way I drive, stay off the sidewalk.” Say what you want about my navigational ability, there wasn’t a person on that street that (A) didn’t know I was there and (B) which direction I was headed. That’s what happens when Christians become disciples.

People notice disciples. Disciples do not blend in very easily. Disciples do not just believe differently, they behave differently. They stick out. They provoke. They cause people to think. They jar people to evaluate their lives, even without uttering a word. Disciples point people to the kingdom of God simply by their behavior alone.

The result is people want what we have.

Wouldn't you agree that that’s certainly not something that can be said about “Christians?”

How Spiritual Growth Really Happens (at least for me!)

2008-07-24T08:20:00.008-04:00

Thursday, July 24, 2008

A Christian taking credit for growing closer to God is like a rooster taking credit for the sun coming up in the morning.

Bible study, worship, prayer, etc., are all vital parts of the Christian journey and powerfully aid in creating the context in which God can draw near to us. However, in the vast majority of instances God makes himself known to us in spite of what we try to do, not because of it.

The illusion the spiritual disciplines gurus are under is that our personal spiritual growth is something that we ultimately have complete control over. They’re convinced it’s something we initiate, structure, and maintain.

The reality is if you talk to 100 Christians about where they were spiritually 5 years ago and where they are today, the vast majority will tell you that their “spiritual growth” had more to do with what God did to them than all their feeble attempts to practice the “spiritual disciplines” combined.

Looking back over my last 5 years on this planet, here were the major culprits in my spiritual advancement…

Suffering
I grew because God allowed painful things to happen in my life.

God nudged me to get away and listen
God nudged, prompted, or corralled me into leaving whatever I had on my agenda for that day to get away and listen to him. I look back in wonder at how many times I went to a set prayer time I initiated and heard nothing, but then at utterly unexpected times sensed the risen Jesus pulling me away to come into his presence.

A friend’s rebuke
Someone I trusted saw something in my life that needed to change and had the gumption to call me on it. Having friends who obeyed James 5:19-20 and Galatians 6:1-2 profoundly impacted me over the last 5 years.

God caused hurting people to cross my path
I didn’t plan it. I didn’t want it. I wasn’t looking for it. Yet God allowed, caused or nudged some hurting person to cross my path. And in the process of helping them I grew as a disciple of Jesus.

God’s silence
Looking back I’m surprised at how much God’s silence, not his speech, produced remarkable levels of spiritual maturity in me. In his book Advice to Sufferers, John Bunyan observed, “It is said that in some countries trees will grow, but will bear no fruit, because there is no winter there.” I've come believe that life in the spirit is the same way.

The corporate worship gathering
It’s become quite the fad nowadays to slight the corporate worship service as an impotent spiritual experience. I couldn’t disagree more. I can look back on countless times over the last five years when God showed up in a message, the Lord’s Supper, a song, or while some part of someone’s pilgrimage was being shared.

What do all of these situations have in common?

I didn’t initiate any of them.

Does this discount the practice of the spiritual disciplines?

Of course not.

But it does, in my mind at least, put their perceived importance within the evangelical subculture into a more realistic perspective.

And in the words of the great American theologian, Forrest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that."

Read all the posts in this series:
The Misguided Spiritual Disciplines
We Pray Too Much, Not Too Little
Stop Trying To Get Christians To Worship
Your Prayer Time Is Too Small
Christians Spend Too Much Time Studying The Bible
Excessive Bible Study Produces Arrogant Christians
How Spiritual Growth Really Happens

Excessive Bible Study Produces Arrogant Christians

2008-07-23T08:07:00.011-04:00

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Years ago there was a lady in the church I served who was really into John MacArthur.

(If you’re not familiar with John MacArthur, he’s like the Bill O’Reilly of modern-day pastors).

It seemed that every time she saw me in the hallway she was sticking…

…a John MacArthur sermon cassette tape

…or a John MacArthur book

…or a John MacArthur study guide

…or a John MacArthur pamphlet in my hand.

“Pastor Brian, this teaching is so powerful. You MUST listen to/read this.”

I could tolerate all the MacArthur paraphernalia and the not-so-subtle hints about how shallow my sermons were, but the one thing I couldn’t stomach was the condescending way she used to talk about the new people who were coming to faith in our church.

“Pastor Brian, the baby Christians here aren’t quite where they need to be…”

“Pastor Brian, we need to get these baby Christians in The Word…”

“Pastor Brian, have you seen those…”

I wanted to hurl every time I talked with her.

Here’s a simple fact: most Bible consuming Christians I’ve met over the years have been painfully arrogant.

No-one is as spiritual as they are.

They confuse Bible knowledge with spiritual maturity.

They’ve turned the study of scripture into a recreational hobby, as if the act of studying the Bible itself is what pleases God.

And worst of all, they’ve committed the most subtle form of idolatry of all – they’ve replaced the centrality of the risen Jesus in their life with a book that talks about the risen Jesus.

And then they look askance at anyone who dares to differ with them.

Who pleases Jesus more? A "baby Christian" who has never read Jesus' command to be humble, yet is radically self-effacing? Or the person who has memorized every verse in the Bible that talks about humility yet remains painfully arrogant?

Read all the posts in this series:
The Misguided Spiritual Disciplines
We Pray Too Much, Not Too Little
Stop Trying To Get Christians To Worship
Your Prayer Time Is Too Small
Christians Spend Too Much Time Studying The Bible
Excessive Bible Study Produces Arrogant Christians
How Spiritual Growth Really Happens

959 Kids Attend Kids' Camp Big Top!

2008-07-22T06:00:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Last week's camp was just amazing as 959 kids from around the area attended our Kids’ Camp Big Top.

I can’t tell you how proud I am of the volunteers and staff who worked night and day to make this 3 day experience happen.

Here’s the highlights video…

Christians Spend Too Much Time Studying The Bible

2008-07-21T07:53:00.010-04:00

Monday, July 21, 2008

Most Christians assume that immediately after Jesus died, rose from the dead and went back to heaven that a leather-bound copy of the Bible descended from the sky. Complete with the 27 finalized books of the New Testament and Jesus’ words etched in red, this Bible was delivered to the church and has been studied in perpetuity by Christians around the world.

The reality is we didn’t have the New Testament in its complete form until 367 a.d. when Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria listed all 27 books of the New Testament for the first time.

That’s three centuries. 334 years to be exact.

Comparatively, that’s like Jesus showing up in the Jamestown colony when it had only 75 people in it, teaching, dying, raising from the dead, and then the Bible coming together in its final form this Thursday right before we head out to Applebees for lunch.

It’s hard to imagine what it must have been like to be a Christian without a Bible.

150 years after Jesus left it appears that some churches had copies of the collected letters of Paul and a gospel or two, but that’s it. Many had collections with books of debated authenticity that were later ferreted out. No-one had a final New Testament like we have today. Whatever copies existed remained in the possession of the local church leadership. No-one, it appears, owned their own copy of the Bible for personal “Bible study” unless they were wealthy enough to pay the substantial cost to have it transcribed (see Luke 1:3-4).

Besides, with the high rate of illiteracy among the social groups represented among the rank and file of second and third century churches, having a personal copy of the Bible would have been useless anyway. Most Christians wouldn’t have been able to read it.

I bring all this up to make one simple point: the modern-day church places a ridiculous amount of emphasis on studying the Bible.

It’s obvious, from historical observation alone, that one can be a sold-out, fully devout, willing to die a martyr’s death follower of Jesus and spend next to no time practicing the spiritual discipline of Bible study.

Do we think it’s any coincidence that the period of the church’s greatest growth and expansion (33 - mid 300’s ad) occurred during the time when there wasn’t (1) a Bible in every Christian’s hand and (2) an obsessive preoccupation with Christians clustering to study it word by word, line by line, and page by page?

Most Christians today assume that to be a Christian means to have a personal relationship with the Bible instead of the risen Jesus.

To be consumed with it.

To obsess over its details.

To memorize curiously meaningless trivia about it.

To study its root words and the historical data underpinning every sentence, every chapter and every book.

But what if we’re totally missing the point?

What if one of the reasons we’re so spiritually dead and the church is abysmally failing at its mission is not because we study the Bible too little, but too much?

Instead of being out and about extending the works of the kingdom, Christians are wasting precious time excessively “studying the Bible” in groups and feeling quite content that if they’re practicing the “spiritual disciplines” at home that they’ve done their duty and can call it a day.

Who gives a crap if I never open my mouth and share my faith today? Or forgive those who mess me over? Or share my money with those in need? Or my house with the homeless?

All is good.

I read my Bible today.

Read all the posts in this series:
The Misguided Spiritual Disciplines
We Pray Too Much, Not Too Little
Stop Trying To Get Christians To Worship
Your Prayer Time Is Too Small
Christians Spend Too Much Time Studying The Bible
Excessive Bible Study Produces Arrogant Christians
How Spiritual Growth Really Happens

Your Prayer Time Is Too Small

2008-07-18T08:00:00.006-04:00

Friday, July 18, 2008

Christians are a strange crowd.

Given permission by their deity to speak freely about any topic without fear of being instantly killed, they’ve chosen the oddest times to consistently exercise that freedom.

Christians will tell you they pray during some well-oiled daily time of devotion, but in 23 years of following Christ and serving him in ministry, I’ve learned that that spiel is a huge lie.

The only time Christians consistently pray is before meals.

I find this strange.

What I find so odd about this preoccupation with praying before meals is that there are so many other important, life-sustaining activities and actions that deserve our prayers and thankfulness, why pick just food? Why draw the line there? Why die on that hill?

Why not pray before receiving a vaccination?

Or before getting your driver’s license?

Or while opening your paycheck?

In a personal unpublished notebook that contained random thoughts and scribbling, G.K. Chesterton profoundly observed,

You say grace before meals,
All right.
But I say grace before the play and the opera,
And grace before the concert and the pantomime,
And grace before I open a book,
And grace before sketching, painting,
Swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing;
And grace before I dip the pen in the ink.

Read all the posts in this series:
The Misguided Spiritual Disciplines
We Pray Too Much, Not Too Little
Stop Trying To Get Christians To Worship
Your Prayer Time Is Too Small
Christians Spend Too Much Time Studying The Bible
Excessive Bible Study Produces Arrogant Christians
How Spiritual Growth Really Happens

Stop Trying To Get Christians To Worship

2008-07-17T07:14:00.009-04:00

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Years ago I used to frequent a Vineyard Christian Fellowship’s Saturday night service. I was pretty burned out at the time, and I really liked the pastor of the church, so I’d sneak over there once every three months or so to get a spiritual shot in the arm.

I’ll never forget one Saturday the Worship Pastor standing up and telling the congregation,

“In my prayer time this week God told me that we are supposed to begin taking our worship to the streets. So what we’re going to do is rent a huge flatbed truck, put our entire worship team on it, hook our speakers up to a generator and drive it through the streets playing worship music and lifting our hands to Jesus!”

That’s just wonderful, I thought.

Because…

I don’t know…

People don’t already think Christians are freaky enough.

What would really help a skeptic’s perception of Christianity, I thought, is putting 10 kooky hand-waving Christians on a flatbed truck and encouraging them to sing love songs to Jesus while pulling them through the parking lot of a local mall.

The problem, in my mind, wasn’t the goal. As stupid as I thought the idea was at the time, I appreciated their desire to “get out in the streets.”

And the problem wasn’t the method. While I’m not sure cutting 10 artsy people loose on a flatbed truck with microphones was the smartest thing to do, at least they were trying something.

The problem was with their definition of worship.

Worship = singing songs accompanied by music.

What the Worship Pastor didn’t understand was that his people already “hit the streets” and worshipped every day of their lives.

Through their work.

And their attitudes.

By the way they washed and waxed their cars. And hugged their wives. And cut their lawns.

But more importantly, the bigger problem with the Worship Pastor’s suggestion was it belied the fact that he had let his American, utilitarian worldview seep into his understanding of what it means to ascribe worth (worth-ship) to God.

Worship can’t be “turned on.” People can’t be “led into” worship.

Christians are continuously worshipping. 24/7. All the time. Through everything they do, say, feel and give.

Read all the posts in this series:
The Misguided Spiritual Disciplines
We Pray Too Much, Not Too Little
Stop Trying To Get Christians To Worship
Your Prayer Time Is Too Small
Christians Spend Too Much Time Studying The Bible
Excessive Bible Study Produces Arrogant Christians
How Spiritual Growth Really Happens

We Pray Too Much, Not Too Little

2008-07-16T06:00:00.003-04:00

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

The first church internship I ever did was with a guy who was into a “get everyone to the church at 5am to pray for exactly one hour” kick.

I heard through the grapevine that some well-meaning person slipped him a book on prayer (I think it was TV evangelist Larry Lea’s Could You Not Tarry With Me One Hour?) and that was all she wrote.

For 13 weeks straight I would get up at 3:45am, take a shower, get dressed, and then make the 55 minute commute to the church building just in time to hit my knees and join the faithful.

For 60 minutes of prayer.

On my knees.

Every flippin’ morning.

For 13 weeks.

I kid you not.

“The Koreans are doing it and their churches are growing like wildfire,” I remember him telling me.

“That’s great, but can’t God hear us just the same at 9am? And does it need to be a whole hour? My knees start killing me after 20 minutes. After 30 minutes I’m getting butt cramps. And after 45 minutes into it, honestly, I’m contemplating converting to Zoroastrianism.”

“Trust me on this,” he said. “It’s going to change our church.”

And it did. No-one ever felt like their conversations with God measured up.

After 23 years of spending time with spiritual directors, listening to sermons, reading books on spiritual disciplines, and experimenting with just about every single approach to prayer, I’ve come to one simple conclusion: if I pray a couple times a week, that’s enough.

“You mean you’re a pastor and you don’t have a DAILY time of prayer, worship and Bible reading?”

Nope.

About two times a week.

Maybe three.

That’s it.

On top of that I get away to a monastery or a state park once a month for an entire day of prayer and fasting, but that’s it.

And I’m absolutely certain God is just fine with that.

You want to know where I came up with the idea?

I stole it from a quirky Jewish guy.

Basically, his deal was that he spent so much time with people trying to help them, that all he had time for was stealing a couple moments a week to head off to the mountains or the desert to catch a big gulp of the Spirit before heading back out again.

I would have loved to have seen his face if he had a chance to get quizzed by some modern-day spiritual disciplines guru.

“What? Are you telling me you don’t have a set prayer time, every day, for long periods of time?”

“That’s right. Why?”

“How else are you going to grow in your faith?”

“Grow in my faith? I guess I’ve never really been interested in that. But I am interested in listening to God. Occasionally I’ll get a chance to say a few words, but that’s rare.”

Read all the posts in this series:
The Misguided Spiritual Disciplines
We Pray Too Much, Not Too Little
Stop Trying To Get Christians To Worship
Your Prayer Time Is Too Small
Christians Spend Too Much Time Studying The Bible
Excessive Bible Study Produces Arrogant Christians
How Spiritual Growth Really Happens

Highlights From "Stretch"

2008-07-15T14:29:00.005-04:00

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

“Stretch” (our summer camp for middle schoolers) was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G last week! 225 Junior Highers were challenged to live “full circle” in their faith. Hats off to our amazing staff, interns, and volunteers for their hard work over the last few months in making this event a reality. You guys rock! Here’s the highlights video if you weren’t there…

P.S. I'm still looking for a Youth Pastor. Shoot me an email if you are a guy or gal that loves the East...willing to make a minimum 5-7 year commitment...can lead at a high level...on board with our beliefs...creative...can build teams...great from the stage...and walking the talk! brian@moviechurch.com.

The Misguided Spiritual Disciplines

2008-07-15T08:41:00.013-04:00

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

One of my favorite authors over the years has been Richard Foster. He writes well, but he only publishes when he has something important to say.

Twenty years ago Foster released a perennially best-selling book called The Celebration of Discipline. In it he outlines 12 "disciplines" Christians have engaged in over the last two thousand years to help them live more spiritually abundant lives – meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance and celebration.

The church should be profoundly grateful for that book.

And profoundly ticked off.

Someone once said that a person’s greatest weakness is his or her greatest strength pushed to an extreme.

That’s pretty much how I feel about that book, and all the other “spiritual disciplines” books that have followed it.

Good information.

Great information in fact.

But because of the way the subject of spiritual disciplines is taken, digested, and pushed in an extreme way – the concept adds more guilt and pressure than anything.

No-one I’ve ever met who has read the book or others like it feels like they pray enough.

Or read their Bible enough.

Or share their faith enough.

Or give enough.

Or worship enough.

And on and on and on.

Am I the only one that thinks this is slightly disturbing?

Today I’m starting a series of posts I’m calling “The Misguided Spiritual Disciplines.” I’m going to reflect upon this “never enough” phenomenon in churches and the way I've wrestled with it in my own life.

Hopefully it’s helpful.

Read all the posts in this series:
The Misguided Spiritual Disciplines
We Pray Too Much, Not Too Little
Stop Trying To Get Christians To Worship
Your Prayer Time Is Too Small
Christians Spend Too Much Time Studying The Bible
Excessive Bible Study Produces Arrogant Christians
How Spiritual Growth Really Happens

Lost Is A Place Too

2008-07-14T08:50:00.009-04:00

Monday, July 14, 2008

Last week I snapped a picture of a license plate I thought was interesting…

Not coincidently…

Lost is one of my favorite TV shows.

Lost is where I usually end up when I sit behind the wheel of a car too.

For much of 2006 I Lost the remote to the TV.

When I was 4 years old I got Lost in a Sears store and hid in a clothing rack.

In fact, Lost is a pretty good description of how I’ve spent a good part of my life – both before coming to Christ and after.

In her book Survivor, Christina Crawford wrote, "Lost is a place, too."

I like that.

In the evangelical world there’s this chiseled-chin resoluteness with which we describe people outside the faith – spiritually dead, far from God, pagan, non-Christian, unchurched, and yes, Lost.

I’ll never forget a mayor’s breakfast I attended that challenged me to re-evaluate that kind of pompous Christian verbosity.

For some reason I got seated at the “table of honor” with the mayor, the county prosecutor, and some squirrelly guy who keep telling knock-knock jokes. Halfway through our time together we were directed to pray for the Lost people in our city. The mayor, without hesitation, cleared her throat and prayed a prayer I’ll never forget,

“God, help us never forget that we’re all Lost.”

What do you think about the way Christians talk about those outside the faith? If you're not bought into Christianity, what do you think about the way Christians talk about you?

Taking a Blogging Break

2008-06-27T09:39:00.009-04:00

Friday, June 27, 2008

The next few weeks are going to be pretty hectic around here as we prepare for three amazing summer camps, so I’ve decided to take a break from blogging until Monday, July 14. I’ll start back then. I could blog, but I’d rather focus on writing well and taking quality time to think through each post.

In the meantime, I’d like to ask you a favor.

Shoot me an email and let me know what’s happening in your world and some things you’d like to discuss. brian@moviechurch.com

It's been really cool interacting with all of you recently. Whether we've agreed, disagreed, or have met somewhere in the middle, my faith has been deeply enriched by the conversations we've been having. I've always been intrigued by the way Martin Luther could go out with a bunch of folks to a local tavern and talk about life, theology, and God over a stein of ale. Even though I don't drink, in some way I sort of envision that happening here -- fun, lively and substantive dicussion about things that matter -- with friends from widely divergent backgrounds -- ales in hand (For my conservative Baptist friends, just imagine a stein of rootbeer in hand).

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know how much I've enjoyed you taking the time to share your insights at this blog.

Brian

P.S. I turned on the comment moderation and will post all comments when I return. Also, below is a recent video we put together for our upcoming Kids' Camp:

Should We Start A Mid-Week “Believer’s Service"?

2008-06-27T08:00:00.003-04:00

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Yesterday I received an email from a good friend of mine who is a church planter in Pittsburgh. He asked…

Brian,

Have you guys ever tossed around the idea of doing a mid-week “believers” type of service. If yes… can you give me a brief reason why you decided to do it. If no… is there a specific reason you haven’t visited that idea?

In the spring we were running 700’s and we are shifting into a new paradigm as a church. I am struggling with just Sunday AM services and small groups as the only vehicles to connecting with the congregation.

I would love to hear the fruit of your labor.

T O N E Y

I've gotten that question a lot over the years (and have asked it a zillion times myself), so I thought I'd share with you my response...

Hi Toney,

We never plan to start a midweek "Believer's service" unless it is a duplicate of the weekend service.

Don't get trapped into thinking (I know did at 700-800) that your people aren't "deep enough" and that one big honking midweek service that offers deep teaching and deep worship is going to solve that.

That logic is kinda like thinking that...

1. Our people aren't healthy because they aren't eating proportionately and getting enough exercise.

2. We need to fix that ASAP.

3. Let’s offer a meal in the middle of the week for people to "get fed." In fact, we'll sort of make it a blowout Thanksgiving meal extravaganza where people get so stuffed they're loosening their belt buckles and crashing on the couch for the rest of the week.

4. Once that happens we'll know that we've done everything we can to make these people healthy by providing them one big meal a week for the rest of their life that makes people walk away saying, "I'm stuffed."

That doesn't make people healthy.

“I’m not being fed” is a term invented by lazy, spiritually obese, self-centered pastors and church-hopping religious consumers. Never, ever, under any circumstances let these kinds of people steer your church off course.

Your goal is to help your people become disciples, and you know and I know that disciples aren’t made through “services,” they’re made skin on skin over long periods of time, in the presence of other disciples out and about spreading the kingdom of God.

My advice: teach your Christians to feed themselves, during your weekend services, but make it interesting enough that you still capture the imagination of people far from God.

Can you imagine Jesus thinking to himself, Hmmm. These disciples aren't deep enough. I think I'll start a service for them at the synagogue!?

Keep up the awesome work,

Brian

Alternative To The American Small Group?

2008-06-26T07:36:00.010-04:00

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Yesterday my friend Vince from Virginia Beach emailed me, and in his naturally warm and sensitive way he asked,

Hey,

I'm enjoying your series on small groups on your blog. I am very interested and pretty much agree with everything you're saying.

BUT:

Are you going to eventually offer some solutions, or just whine and complain forever?

You are saying some of the same things I've been saying for years about Small Groups, but unless there's a better alternative we have to keep doing them - because they do accomplish some important things (even if it's not THE most important thing). So give me an alternative!

V

Well, I was planning to end my series with my last post, but since Vince threw down the challenge, I had to add one more.

Here goes. Let me know what you think…

Here’s my suggested alternative to the American small group “program” and how to implement it in the local church. I’ll approach this from the perspective of an existing church that already has some sort of small group ministry in place.

1. I’d leave existing small groups in place in tact. I wouldn’t change anything about them, but would begin teaching and encouraging the value of discipleship to get the leaders intrigued. As everyone has noted in this discussion, there are good things that happen in them that you wouldn’t want to disturb, at least for now.

2. I would pull together the most dedicated disciples in the church (staff and volunteers) to go out into the community with me for prayer, fasting, feeding the poor, working in prisons, scripture memorization, evangelism, etc.

3. After a while (6 months? 1 year?) I would pick the ones whom the others naturally gravitate towards and ask them to work closely with me for at least another 6 months or more. During that time I would pour myself into them on a regular basis, meeting with them out in the community to continue feeding the poor, evangelizing, praying, debriefing afterwards, following up on scripture memorization, etc. (of course, all of this could and should happen independently of me...I'm just sharing how I would personally approach it).

4. One by one, as I sensed that each one was ready, I would encourage them to begin replicating what I had done with other people outside and inside the church. I would encourage them to invite people to join them in what they were already doing.

5. The key would be that each “discipleship connection” would live or die, or begin and end, “out there” in the wild, not inside some home, in a circle, with people from the church. I would envision that these groups might actually be hard for Christians to break into since most of the people joining these discipleship colloquiums would come from relationships disciples would initiate “out there.”

6. Since most scholars believe that the Gospel of Matthew was fashioned as a discipleship tool, my goal would be to have each person I was pouring myself into memorize the five main teaching blocks of that entire gospel: Matthew 5-7; 10; 13; 18; and 23-25. I would quiz them, talk to them about what they were learning, and help them as they struggled to obey what they memorized. I would begin doing this the first time someone showed up to “follow me” as I followed Christ out into the world.

7. More than likely, because I’m naturally more structured, I would create a “checklist” or sketch of things I wanted to see replicated in a person’s life before they were “sent out” to go gather new people to repeat the process. In addition to scripture memorization and a sense from them that they’ve learned how to obey the Jesus teachings that they’ve memorized, that list would include behaviors like 1. Ministering to the broken like Jesus 2. Praying like Jesus 3. Evangelizing like Jesus 4. Teaching like Jesus and 5. Leading like Jesus.

8. From a church leadership perspective, this process would be utterly difficult to manage, which is a good thing. We wouldn’t want to screw it up. It could only be guided, and that by those living the life of discipleship and actually engaged in the process. The only thing that could be guided would be the leaders themselves.

9. At some point there would be so much action, talk, and incredible stuff happening that many of the people who were in a “regular” small group would naturally gravitate over to the lifestyle of a disciple and join the emerging movement. Over a few years time there would be very few of the Americanized types of small groups left, and at some point they would simply run their course (though Christians would be free of course to start any kind of group they felt nurtured their walk with Christ). Those who simply wanted to “fellowship” would still have a long list of groups, teams, events, etc. to pick from, which would still serve an important function in the church community.

10. Within a few years a church would have a small growing army of people who…

…had experience regularly doing what Jesus did on a week in week out basis
…memorized every teaching block in the Gospel of Matthew
…learned how to obey, point by point, each teaching they had memorized
…had practiced and gained proficiency ministering, praying, evangelizing, teaching and leading like Jesus
…were naturally replicating themselves in the lives of others outside and inside the church
…and it all would happen “out there” instead of inside the hairball of the church’s infrastructure

Thoughts?

Read all the posts in this series:
Why Churches Should Euthanize Their Small Groups (and what we should replace them with)
Discipleship Happens Everywhere
Church-Initiated “Small Groups” Begin From A Flawed Starting Point
Small Groups Are Springboards For Discipleship
The Small Group Movement’s Achilles Heel
How Small Groups Succeed
Would Jesus Join A Small Group In Your Church?
Form Follows Function
Alternative To The American Small Group?

Jesus Handing Out Gold Teeth?

2008-06-25T06:00:00.005-04:00

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Well, the same guy who was Jackie Chan-ing People For Jesus a while ago recently held an “Anointing of Favor” service.

Two people who attended the service went to bed that night, and while they slept God caused gold teeth to miraculously appear in their mouths.

Both the husband and wife got a gold tooth.

Dude, that's what I'm talking about.

Form Follows Function

2008-06-24T07:28:00.010-04:00

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

“Form follows function” is the rallying-cry of architects. It’s the belief that the shape of a building should be based upon its intended purpose.

Why design a building that, once it is built, doesn’t serve its purpose?

Ceilings are too low.

Not enough bathrooms.

Hallways are too narrow.

It would be ludicrous, modern-day architects would say, to spend millions designing and building something that doesn’t work once it is up and running.

It’s the same thing with small groups. The “form” of the group must help it accomplish “the purpose” of the group.

Form follows function, both in architecture world, and in the small group world.

But despite the few exceptions that people have noted in this conversation in the comments, here’s what the “form” of modern-day small groups are great at producing:

-Christians sitting in circles, talking to one another inside a building
-Reading and commenting on the Bible
-Ranting about how they long to “get out there” and do something that matters
-Awkwardly ending their time by praying for “prayer requests”
-Going home unchallenged and unchanged

You would think that there’s a Small Groups Revised Version of the New Testament somewhere. In it Matthew 28:18-20 reads,

(18) Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (19) Therefore stay where you are and make Christians of the people you already know, baptizing them in the name of American Christianity, (20) and teaching them to sit in rooms with one another, read the Bible and pray for one another. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

If the Groups Revised Version of Matthew 28:18-20 is the stated purpose, then most American small groups are nailing it.

But what if it’s not?

What if Christians are supposed to GO and make learners of every pagan they meet instead of staying where they are and making better Christians out of the people they already know and are comfortable being around?

And what if the “form” of that group became a reflection of the stated mission of that group?

Here, finally, after much rambling, is my best guess at the kind of entity that should replace the typical Americanized small group:

Once the Holy Spirit had instigated a genuine calling together of a group of people...

1. The people in that group would learn “how to” become disciples of Jesus the way the first followers of Jesus learned how to become disciples – by watching their leader do, not listening to him/her talk about doing.

2. It wouldn’t meet once a week (or every other week) for 1.5 hours. It would meet as often as possible, sometimes every day (Acts 2:46). You might actually say the people in the group would “follow” their leader around.

3. The leader of the group would actually know Jesus and obey his teachings, because he or she had spent a vast amount of time being shaped by someone who knows and obeys Jesus’ teachings.

4. 80% of “group time” would be spent reaching out to the lost, the poor, and the broken.

5. Discussion, questions and reflection would occur afterwards; it wouldn’t be the main focus of meeting together.

6. Like the first disciples, people in that group would expend vast amounts of personal time memorizing, verbatim, the exact teachings of Jesus (That’s how we ended up with our “gospels” isn’t it?).

7. Inevitably people in the group would start complaining: “This group isn’t deep enough for me. I’m not being fed. It doesn’t meet my needs anymore.” But the leader would have a ready-made answer: “Who told you this was about your needs and your happiness anyway? If you want to be “fed,” turn on Oprah. If you want to change the world, pick up your cross and stop whining.”

8. Every aspect of the group’s energy would be focused outward, on people in need, and not on the group of people itself. Why? Because that’s why the group exists - to unite people around fulfilling Matthew 28:18-20, and in the process teaching them to love God and one another deeply.

In my humble opinion, the Americanized small group is a remnant of an impotent religious institution that can't transition effectively into a post-Christian, postmodern world.

Thank God they worked in some instances, and in some contexts!

But for every story of success about a small group creating an authentic disciple, there are three times as many failures (and that just takes into account the 10-30% of church attendees who actually participated in them).

If we had time to waste this wouldn’t be an urgent problem.

But we don’t.

What's your best idea for changing/replacing/morphing small groups into something more effective?

Read all the posts in this series:
Why Churches Should Euthanize Their Small Groups (and what we should replace them with)
Discipleship Happens Everywhere
Church-Initiated “Small Groups” Begin From A Flawed Starting Point
Small Groups Are Springboards For Discipleship
The Small Group Movement’s Achilles Heel
How Small Groups Succeed
Would Jesus Join A Small Group In Your Church?
Form Follows Function
Alternative To The American Small Group?

George Carlin, Were You Right?

2008-06-23T16:03:00.002-04:00

Monday, June 23, 2008

Yesterday George Carlin died at the age of 71.

For most of his career Carlin was like the Richard Dawkins of comedy, seeking to caustically expunge American culture of what he considered the asinine influence of religion, particularly Christianity.

Carlin once said,

“When it comes to bullsh_ _, big-time, major-league bullsh_ _, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims – religion.

George, you’re now one day on the other side.

Were you right?

Would Jesus Join A Small Group In Your Church?

2008-06-23T07:36:00.011-04:00

Monday, June 23, 2008

Would Jesus join a small group in your church?

Think about that for a moment. Forget about your goals. Forget about your motivations for offering them. Forget about all the supposed benefits of participating in one. Do you honestly think Jesus would join, lead, or start a small group within the existing structure of your small group’s ministry at your church?

Of course not.

Not a chance.

Not in a million years.

Why?

Because while your people are stuck in the “hairball” of your church’s ministry (to steal Gordon Mackenzie’s great line), Jesus would be out rubbing shoulders with people in your community, helping them to find their way back to God and teaching them to obey his teachings.

Jesus would be actually doing what small groups say they want/should/need to be doing, but they can’t, because they’re too busy being a “small group” inside the confines of your small group’s ministry infrastructure.

It’s like a jogging class at a community college where the instructor, instead of taking his or her class jogging and commenting on technique while they’re actually jogging, stuffs everyone into a classroom and lectures to them three days a week and then gives them a final exam.

Disciples are created “out there.”

Small groups, if not by their definition, definitely by their practice, all occur “in here.”

In a letter to a friend of hers, a Catholic priest, Simone Weil described why she considered herself a faithful Christ follower but refused to join the church of her day. In a letter entitled Hesitations Concerning Baptism, Simone wrote,

I cannot help still wondering whether in these days when so large a proportion of humanity is submerged in materialism, God does not want there to be some men and women who have given themselves to him and to Christ and who yet remain outside the church. In any case, when I think of the act by which I should enter the Church as something concrete, which might happen quite soon, nothing gives me more pain than the idea of separating myself from the immense and unfortunate multitude of unbelievers.

I have the essential need, and I think I can say vocation, to move among men of every class and complexion, mixing with them and sharing their life and outlook, so far that it is to say as conscience allows, merging into the crowd and disappearing among them, so that they show themselves as they are, putting off all disguises with me…

I know quite well that Christ said, “Whoever shall deny [i.e., disown] me before men, him will I also deny before my father which is in Heaven.” But disowning Christ does not perhaps mean for everyone and in all cases not belonging to the Church. (Waiting For God, 1951, 47-49).

Would Jesus join a small group in your church?

Honestly, probably not, for the very reason Weil touched on.

With that being said, then, what if the last great hope for a fresh expression of the Jesus movement in our generation lies with those who are willing to buck the immense pressure in evangelical circles to join a small group?

Read all the posts in this series:
Why Churches Should Euthanize Their Small Groups (and what we should replace them with)
Discipleship Happens Everywhere
Church-Initiated “Small Groups” Begin From A Flawed Starting Point
Small Groups Are Springboards For Discipleship
The Small Group Movement’s Achilles Heel
How Small Groups Succeed
Would Jesus Join A Small Group In Your Church?
Form Follows Function
Alternative To The American Small Group?

Jones 7 Mumper 3

2008-06-23T06:00:00.002-04:00

Monday, June 23, 2008

On Friday I spent the day fishing with my good friend Steve Mumper in the Poconos. Steve became my bass-fishing yoda when we moved to Philly 8 years ago. Along the way we’ve become great friends, so much so that Steve allowed me the privilege of baptizing him off the shore of Scott’s Run Lake a few years ago.

We’ve been trying to get out all spring, but with his hectic schedule as one of Philly’s finest custom home builders and mine as a pastor, we’ve been finding it hard to throw a line in the water. But we finally got a date on the calendar and went.

I told Steve I wanted to hit a place where we couldn’t hear airplanes, so he took me to picturesque Shohola Lake (top left), home to PA’s state record largemouth, and then on to Peck’s Pond. Both are close to Bushkill Falls.

The final count? The teacher was trumped by the student.

Jones – 6 pickerel, 1 largemouth bass

Mumper – 2 largemouth, 1 pickerel

The best part of our trip, as has always been the case on all our excursions, had nothing to do with fishing. I wish every pastor out there had a friend like Steve.

How Small Groups Succeed

2008-06-20T08:00:00.003-04:00

Friday, June 20, 2008

by Frank Chiapperino, Guest Blogger

Brian, every ministry model has it's weaknesses. Small groups are no different. They have their weaknesses and I wont pretend to hide behind them, but there are some benefits to small groups that cannot be ignored.

If you can read, you can lead. If a Christian can read the questions in our study guide, they can lead a small group at our church. That’s easy, I thought. Too easy in fact. And ridiculous.

Not necessarily, if your goal is to foster community in a church. The power of a healthy community cannot be ignored. We have already established that small groups provide discipleship opportunities for intentional leaders, but there are lots of other benefits that churches experience from a healthy small group community.

Help the big feel small - It is no secret that there is one major fear people have in going to a large church: no one knows them! Small groups change that experience. Every Sunday my wife and I sit with a couple from our small group and I see over 100 others that do the same each week (and that's just the people I know).

Pastoral care - group ministry is the front line of pastoral care in the church. Group leaders and members are the first responders to crisis in a large congregation. There are many emergencies that occur in our church that I am the last to hear about because our small groups have jumped in and handled the situation before word of it even made it to me.

Evangelism - We have to stop thinking of small groups as "Bible Studies." We have groups at CCV that facilitate relationships that result in evangelism and one of the groups you said in jest - "your knitting circle" - we've actually had! New people have been attending CCV as a direct result of the following affinity groups: softball, kids play group, volleyball, dog walking, tennis, scrap booking, etc.

High priority communication - Do you need to get the word out fast about something important in the church? Leverage the small group ministry network. On numerous occasions we have done this about an important change in the church or even aiding with communication for a capital campaign.

Volunteer network - I can't count how many times we have utilized our small ministry to rally the troops to get a job done. Just this week I was in a staff meeting where we were discussing our big Kids' Camp this year and our prop person was happy that one of our small groups showed up to help out with building props last week. We would not have been able to staff our kids program when we experimented with our Saturday night service if it weren't for entire small groups volunteering to serve on Saturday nights together.

Do you have a group ministry in your church? How have you seen it benefit your congregation and community?

Frank Chiapperino is the Director of Adult Ministries at Christ's Church of the Valley and the founder of SmallGroupHelp.com, a website dedicated to developing and aiding leaders in small group ministry.

The Small Group Movement’s Achilles Heel

2008-06-19T07:54:00.017-04:00

Thursday, June 19, 2008

When I attended my very first church growth conference in 1992 a nationally known small group “expert” stood up and said, “The way we say it at our church is, ‘If you can read, you can lead.’ If a Christian can read the questions in our study guide, they can lead a small group at our church.”

That’s easy, I thought.

Too easy in fact.

And ridiculous.

“If you can read, you can lead” is a great slogan for people who organize…

…a rugby team from your church

…or your knitting circle

…or the Saturday morning llama-riding group

But not for someone who has been recognized by the community of faith as someone who can lead others to become a disciple of Jesus and is in turn promoted (through the website, printed material, brochures, etc.) as such.

The Achilles heel of the modern-day small group movement is simple: Small groups don’t create disciples, disciples create disciples. And modern-day small groups are led, for the most part, by people who have attended the church, had a conversion experience, lead a reasonably moral life, and can read the study-guide questions, but in many situations are not disciples themselves.

American churches have lowered the bar of small group leadership so low that it’s simply ridiculous.

In fact, it’s so ridiculous that most churches would be better off not even having small groups than to offer them with disciple-less leaders.

Here’s just about all we really know about creating disciples…

1. It takes time.
Not in the commonly promoted annual “small group” life-cycle time-frame, but years. 5 years. 10 years sometimes. Just about every person that has commented so far has talked about a group where they grew to become a disciple, years ago. And that’s a key issue – discipleship takes YEARS. Where small group leaders miss the mark is in thinking, “It took Jesus 3 years to make disciples, so that’s a good bench mark.” Really?

2. 99.99999999% of the time it takes separating men and women.
I don’t know what it is, but I can lead a group of men to serious levels of intimacy and sharing, but sprinkle a little estrogen in the room and its right back to talking about football and work. Women tell me it’s the same way. Discipleship can occur with mixed groups, but it’s rare. Actually, I take that back. I have never seen an instance where guys open up and talk about their deep personal struggles to obey Jesus’ teachings with women in the room.

3. It takes a very, very small group.
Small group practitioners make the mistake of “modeling” their small group leader-to-attendee ratios on a flawed model – Jesus. Jesus had 12 disciples, not because that’s the ideal ratio for disciple-making, but because, as most scholars believe, he was making a statement about the apostles, the twelve tribes, and a new Israel. If you’re looking for a more realistic model, the inner circle of Peter, James and John is as good as any.

4. It takes a genuine disciple.
According to Matthew 28:18-20, discipleship is not about teaching people Jesus’ teachings, but teaching people how to obey Jesus’ teachings. In fact, that’s probably the simplest definition of a disciple I can give – a disciple is someone who knows and obeys Jesus and his teachings. Who cares if someone can lead a small group discussion on worry? People become disciples in the presence of someone who can teach them how to stop worrying, from experience, in the power of Jesus. (In my previous post I misspoke. Jeff Snyder, 8 years our senior, and much farther along in the faith, was in fact our rag-tag group’s “leader.”)

The argument most people make against small groups is flawed.

The problem with small groups isn’t that they pool the group’s collective ignorance; it’s that they pool the group’s collective disobedience.

And it’s not the small group leaders fault.

It’s the fault of the people who installed the leader and convinced him or her that they could lead their group to a place where they themselves have not gone.

Read all the posts in this series:
Why Churches Should Euthanize Their Small Groups (and what we should replace them with)
Discipleship Happens Everywhere
Church-Initiated “Small Groups” Begin From A Flawed Starting Point
Small Groups Are Springboards For Discipleship
The Small Group Movement’s Achilles Heel
How Small Groups Succeed
Would Jesus Join A Small Group In Your Church?
Form Follows Function
Alternative To The American Small Group?

Small Groups Are Springboards For Discipleship

2008-06-18T11:40:00.013-04:00

by Frank Chiapperino, Guest Blogger

Brian, I think you hit the nail on the head. Your discipleship experience grew out of a largely unplanned and very dynamic relationship with another believer.

...it was through these friends that I made incredible strides towards becoming a holistic disciple of Jesus.

I think there is an important difference between planning and being intentional. Discipleship can happen without a plan but not without intention. Having said that, I would argue that there is no difference between a disciple and a holistic disciple. All disciples are holistic and all disciples are charged to be intentional by the very fact we are required by God to disciple others.

Most of all I wasn’t participating in some stupid church-wide small group sign-up initiative the Senior Pastor dreamed up to jack up small group attendance.

I don't know about other places in the country but I can speak of our experience at CCV. People in the Northeast are pretty skeptical and won't stick around if it doesn't meet a need or work for them. I have been at baptism services at our church where someone is in the water and looks at their small group (standing at the water's edge) and says, "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my group." However, the measure of success probably shouldn't be how many people go to the group, but instead how many people are becoming disciples.

We preached powerful sermons. We cast vision. We contorted Acts 2 into saying what we needed it to say. We blathered on and on about all the “one another’s” in the Bible and about how if we met 1 time a week for 1.5 hours and followed a well-conceived discussion regime we could experience Acts 2 in all of its splendor and glory.

If all our discipleship efforts are expected to happen in the small group environment we are fooling ourselves and you are 100% right. However, the group environment does provide opportunities for new relationships to form where discipleship can happen in and outside of the group.

In numerous experiences I have had, and observed, the small group was the vehicle for the relationship that resulted in a person's discipleship process.

Is it flawed? Yes, but so are we.

Frank Chiapperino is the Director of Adult Ministries at Christ's Church of the Valley and the founder of SmallGroupHelp.com, a website dedicated to developing and aiding leaders in small group ministry.

Read all the posts in this series:
Why Churches Should Euthanize Their Small Groups (and what we should replace them with)
Discipleship Happens Everywhere
Church-Initiated “Small Groups” Begin From A Flawed Starting Point
Small Groups Are Springboards For Discipleship
The Small Group Movement’s Achilles Heel
How Small Groups Succeed
Would Jesus Join A Small Group In Your Church?
Form Follows Function
Alternative To The American Small Group?

Church-Initiated “Small Groups” Begin From A Flawed Starting Point

2008-06-18T07:29:00.012-04:00

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

For reasons that still escape me, soon after becoming a Christian at age eighteen, Deron Brickey, Dave Polonia, Jeff Snyder and I started hanging out with one another.

Soon that group grew to 10-12 friends. We laughed together, prayed together, studied the Bible together, ate together, evangelized together, and served the poor together. Even though we had no leader, no real set meeting time, no agenda, and no plan or focus, it was through these friends that I made incredible strides towards becoming a holistic disciple of Jesus.

And it all happened by accident.

Looking back on my 23 years of following Christ, here’s what I’ve noticed: every “small group” I’ve ever been in that helped me grow as a disciple started by what appeared to be an accident.

I wasn’t looking for it.

I wasn’t interested in joining a “small group” in the least.

And in many respects I didn’t even feel a “need” to grow spiritually.

Most of all I wasn’t participating in some stupid church-wide small group sign-up initiative the Senior Pastor dreamed up to jack up small group attendance because he heard church analysts say you should always maintain a certain ratio of worship attendees to small group participants.

It just happened, naturally and spontaneously.

Those experiences couldn’t have been planned, even if I tried.

And for the most part that’s exactly how it’s been happening in the Christian community for, say, I don’t know, the last 1,960 years.

That is until we westerners, particularly Americans, starting screwing it up.

Well intentioned Christians, armed with the latest insights in organizational theory, let their pragmatic and utilitarian hearts delude themselves into thinking they could organize, measure, and control the mystical working of the Holy Spirit in community in order to consistently reproduce disciples in other contexts.

Then these people starting writing books and hosting seminars.

And then church leaders like you and me bought into what they were saying because we didn’t recognize that the same faulty worldview that produced a mechanized approach to Christian community fostered a ready-made market in our hearts to consume their quick-fix solutions.

So we came home, armed with our “101 Sure-Fire Discussion Starter” books and binders full of slick recruitment techniques, and started “small group ministries” at our churches.

We preached powerful sermons. We cast vision. We contorted Acts 2 into saying what we needed it to say. We blathered on and on about all the “one another’s” in the Bible and about how if we met 1 time a week for 1.5 hours and followed a well-conceived discussion regime we could experience Acts 2 in all of its splendor and glory.

And what happened?

You know what happened.

They blew.

Like big-time time.

And meanwhile, while our people were constrained by their obligation to the church and their sense of loyalty to us as leaders, their hearts searched for real community and an opportunity to grow as a disciple.

And it’s because we screwed it up from the start, like we Americans do with just about everything that is supposed to be a genuine work of the Holy Spirit.

What would happen if we euthanized all of our small groups, taught the value of discipleship and community, and then simply let the Holy Spirit do its work?

Read all the posts in this series:
Why Churches Should Euthanize Their Small Groups (and what we should replace them with)
Discipleship Happens Everywhere
Church-Initiated “Small Groups” Begin From A Flawed Starting Point
Small Groups Are Springboards For Discipleship
The Small Group Movement’s Achilles Heel
How Small Groups Succeed
Would Jesus Join A Small Group In Your Church?
Form Follows Function
Alternative To The American Small Group?