Small groups

Small groups. We all know they are important to church life, but often wonder how they fit in with what we do. We know that a measure of the health of our churches is the percentage of people in small groups. But how should they function as part of our life together?

There seems to be no end of books on this topic.

Sarie King has been working on small groups and has suggested the following three ways of classifying small groups.

•For some of us our small groups fill the gaps left from what our Sunday meetings are unable to do. On Sundays we can’t really get to know each other well or ‘chew the fat’ on what the Scriptures say and their implications for me now, or care for each other in the situations and circumstances through which we are going. And so this is what small groups are for.

•Others see us being a church of small groups. The lifeblood of our lives together are these groups. It means this is where we will put resources, and as we gather in larger groups, we do so to fill the gaps that our small groups cannot meet.

•Still others see the church as small groups. This is seen the cell church movement. There really is no place for what we would call the Sunday gathering.

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