Now we are beginning to understand that cliquing is a natural and desirable gregarious trait that unites a congregation and forms the basis for home ministries. Most of us have preached or heard preaching against church cliques as far back as we can remember. This raises the question of cliques in the church. At the heart of the small-group phenomenon is an interdependence among friends. These common bonds would not suffice in themselves to form a particular small group without some additional core of commonality that draws people to one another. Yet, many people share those interests without bonding together in clusters. True, home fellowships are brought together by a common interest in the Bible, love for Christ, and dependence on interpersonal support. People form small groups around centers of common interest they cluster socioeconomically, not geographically. After that, people went wherever their friends attended. Obedient as our congregations sometimes are, the plan worked … for about two weeks. Then we asked the church people to attend the home fellowship group nearest them. Like many churches starting home programs with little advance knowledge, we began by studying the territory and recruiting host homes throughout the community. Myth 2: Small Groups Unite the Christians in a Neighborhood.Īnother lesson I learned was about the locations of home groups. Still, they often come to the church before attending the home group that prayed for them. Much as wheat is harvested at the critical point of its ripeness, so people brought into the church through the home meetings are reached at some moment of personal crisis. People brought to Christ through the home meetings usually are drawn to the church by answered prayer. Then finally it dawned on me: Home Bible studies are a withdrawal from the community into an intimate Christian circle for fellowship and nurture. Churches that are successful with home ministries, I concluded, must do so for their developmental and conservational value, not solely for evangelism. Home ministries conserve the results of other evangelistic methods." Most churches that start new programs have outreach in mind, but they soon become disappointed with the evangelistic results. Several years and much experience later, I said, "The evangelistic results of home Bible studies are indirect, for the groups draw from the congregation rather than the neighborhood. At first I said, "Home groups are our outreach to the city."īut a couple of years later I said, "Home Bible studies contribute to the total outreach of the church. One of my early misconceptions was about the very purpose of home Bible studies. Here are five theories I've had to revise along the way: Myth 1: Small Groups Are a Wonderful Evangelistic Tool. The equilibrium of congregational life is finely balanced, and few pastors will risk disaster by adding untested and partially understood programs that operate largely outside their direct supervision. We approached the subject without understanding the complicated sociological terrain onto which we had so glibly ventured. The writers and speakers, myself included, were onto a good idea but were simplistic, idealistic, and premature. The question is how.Īfter seven years of experience with thousands of home meetings in dozens of churches as a denominational administrator, I think I know why more churches do not have home programs. Yet we cannot escape the reality that many lay Christians want a small-group experience and can benefit greatly if the group functions properly. If we want to give direction to the teaching, we must adapt materials created for other purposes-and that's too much work. Pastors who decide in favor of home ministries become discouraged when they cannot find specifically prepared Bible study materials.Our American style of church leadership does not often encourage lay ministries to develop outside the walls of the sanctuary, beyond the immediate supervision of the pastor.The American concept of home privacy causes such ministries to develop more slowly here than in some countries.
The literature on the subject has promoted the idea without offering practical methods.We have few role models, at least in our own culture.After more than two decades of promotion in books, magazines, seminars, and classes, the fact about small groups is that few churches can testify to success.
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