Think Big - Act Small PART 6
Small Groups; Environments for Spiritual Transformation
by Allen Ratta

This series has been about the necessary balance in church health between thinking big and acting small. There is no greater expression of acting small for the church than the development of healthy small groups. Many churches fail in the implementation of small groups because they get caught in the trap of thinking too big when it comes to small group ministries. Consider the strategic approach that Jesus used.

Acting Small

When Jesus decided to start a transformational revolution on planet earth He did not deem it best to do it through mass evangelism. He did not start off with a high profile advertising campaign. He did the opposite and shunned media attention. Jesus’ strategy was team building. He “called” together a small, band of twelve individuals that were largely uneducated and considered miserably unsophisticated by the religious leaders of the day. In other words, He started with raw unreligious material that was not pre-programmed and could be shaped and molded to hold the “new wine” of His Kingdom.

Spiritual Growth

Christ’s strategy of starting small teaches us an important principle in spiritual formation. The focus must always be on quality not quantity. A solitary small group of individuals who are grown into spiritual maturity can transform a church, a city and a world. The opposite approach is often used today. Congregations are commonly broken up into fellowship-team-sized pieces with the objective to start as many small groups as possible in the fastest amount of time. In this way they can make the claim to be a “small group” church. The pattern of Christ is instructive. The original twelve were “called” together by Christ with the two simple words, “Follow Me.” Spiritual formation is optimized on a Fellowship Team when the participants actually are “called” to be a part of a particular group. This “called” aspect of group formation must be taught and cannot be ignored for it is an essential component to the spiritually transforming power of small groups. People need to be given the freedom and encouraged to try a number of small groups until they find the “right” one that is a fit for their spiritual needs.

The Biblical Pattern

We learn about the dynamics of a small group from both the life and example of Jesus and the practice of the early church. Jesus recruited twelve disciples and poured Himself into them for three years, seven days a week, night and day. The results speak for themselves. Each one of them, excepting Judas according to God’s plan, was transformed into the kind of man who had the character to turn his world upside down for Christ. The Biblical record of the early church also reveals the widespread practice of gathering believers together in small accountable fellowship groups or house churches. The spiritual effectiveness of being held closely accountable in these small communities is a proven fact of early church history. Because participants were known in community, they grew.

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