Acts
2:37-47
“Small
Group Ministry 2:
“What
should we do now?” they ask Peter and the other apostles. It’s every preacher’s dream: to preach a sermon, and have people not yawn,
not say “Nice sermon, Pastor,” but to ask, “What should we do now?”
So the apostles reply, “Repent and be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ!” And so
they do, and in that one day—Pentecost—3000 people are saved.
That is amazing and wonderful. But of course the real question, or at least the harder
question, is “And now what should
they do?” There is the high of glorious
preaching (when, of course, it is
glorious preaching). There is the
excitement of newfound faith in Christ.
There is the release of sins being forgiven and guilt lifting away.
But sooner or later, even after those holy and life-changing
experiences, you have to get up, put your coat on, and go home. And then what do you do? Then it’s not a matter of getting saved, but
of living a saved life. Then it’s not
about how you feel, but how you live day by day. All the glory of Easter, all the power of
Pentecost comes down to how you treat your family, whether or not you drink
today, whether you take a stand for justice and for peace, how frivolous or
generous you are with your money. In
other words, all the glory of Easter and all the power of Pentecost come down
to how you live your life. And for that,
we need some help. We need one another.
So what they did in the book of Acts, with 3000 new
believers, was to put them immediately into house churches—in other words, into
small groups. They still spent time all
of them together at the temple. But they
ate and shared together, it says, “at home” or “from house to house.” Oh they had worship together, they went to
church, so to speak. But they didn’t
assume that alone was enough to help them live a Christ-like life. For that, they needed to eat and be and pray
together at home, from house to house--for that, they needed a small group.
So there are a couple of “Then what?” questions. When you’ve heard the good news and are cut
to the heart: Then what? Then repent and be baptized in the name of
Jesus Christ. But then what? Well, then find a
few other people in the same boat and meet with them, pray with them, help one
another be your best selves in Christ.
So here’s the short version from Acts 2: Being cut to the heart by the gospel leads to
repentance and baptism in Jesus’ name, and baptism leads to watching over one
another in small groups.
Acts 2 even goes so far as to give content to what these
small groups should do. Acts
1) They devoted
themselves to the apostles’ teaching. We are planning some
groups here at Maynard that are primarily about fellowship and building
relationships with other people. And
that’s fine, so long as the group does something to relate people to God and to
reach out and invite others. But #1 on
the list for house groups in the Book of Acts is the apostles’ teaching. Though it can take other forms, our main way
of doing that is Bible study. That’s why
the most life-changing small group experience I know of is Disciple Bible
Study--because it forms a community centered on the apostles’ teaching, on
God’s Word.
I hope we don’t assume that when we first became a Christian
or first joined a church that we had all the knowledge and all the wisdom we
would ever need, that we had arrived and didn’t need to grow any further. Most careers require some form of continuing
education if you want to remain licensed or certified in your field. Why should the most important part of our
life, our Christian faith, require any less?
Through small groups we devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching, to
the scriptures, to growing in our understanding and relationship with God.
2. They devoted
themselves to fellowship. Let me just put it bluntly: we need each other. There is no picture in the New Testament of a
solitary Christian. Jesus promised,
“Wherever two or three of you are gathered together in my name, there I
am.” The Book of Hebrews teaches, “And
let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not
neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one
another all the more.”
Fellowship is all about human relationships, but through those
human relationships, we are also experiencing something of God’s. One of my favorite theologians, Stanley
Hauerwas of Duke University, wrote: “It
is a wonderful thing indeed to be claimed by God’s people; for otherwise it
would be hard to know what it would mean to be claimed by God.” Another one of my favorite theologians,
Joanne Thickstun of
Small groups are for loving and being loved--by other people
and through them by God.
3) They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread. Now partly that means Holy Communion, when
Christ is most fully present with us, as bread is taken and blessed and broken
and given. But it also means that houses
churches, or small groups, are wise to eat together. There is something special and sacred about eating
together. When two people go on a date,
they often eat together. When extended
families get together for holidays, they eat together.
I have learned the importance of eating together from many
people. When I was a boy my church had
an annual “Birthday Banquet.” I think it
was a fundraiser for the youth group.
But you’d sit at a table with others who were born in the same month,
and there was a jar in the middle of the table where you put a penny for every
year old you were. (They didn’t get much
out of me back then!) But the thing is,
because we were grouped by birth month, you always sat with the people every
year. For some of them, that was really
the only time all year I spent significant time with them--Harve, a very old
man; Paul, the dad of some of my friends; a boy named Evan whom otherwise I
never liked much. But because we ate
together once a year, sang some hymns, put our pennies in the jar--we were a
community of sorts. I can still picture
them all in my mind--the November group.
When Larry Knisley called the first meeting of the Outreach
Team that he would chair, he asked people to come a half hour early and make it
a potluck. Inside my head, I grumbled a
little--a little more time taken, one more thing to do. I worried that people might not be able to
come that early. And here’s how it
turned out: everyone came, everyone
brought something yummy to eat, and it was a delightful experience of
community. Because Larry knew how
important it is to eat together.
At their best, small groups eat together. It’s holy stuff.
4) They devoted themselves to the prayers. This is one I’m going to insist on. Every Maynard group of any kind will always
take time to share what on their hearts and to pray for one another.
Over the years I believe we have become increasingly and
more deeply a church of prayer. I
attribute much of that to Natalie Snarr’s influence--our “Prayer Lady”--and to
Claudia’s hard work to distribute our prayer needs. So we pray at aerobics, and we pray at Summer
Youth Program (we pray for lots of grandparents and lots of pets), and we pray
at every committee meeting.
Pastor-Parish committee has put together a calendar so that someone is
designated to pray for the pastor every day of the month. Whenever we do a special project—like the
capital campaign, Summer Youth Program, an Invitation Campaign—we appoint some
people’s whose whole job is to pray for this ministry. Prayer is that important. And the very best place of all to pray for
one another is in small groups.
Teaching, talking, eating and praying. It’s really that simple. That’s what small groups are for.
There is a gospel song I heard at annual conference last
year that speaks to my heart about what small groups are for. Here are the words, but in a minute you’ll
hear the music too:
I pray for you, You pray for me.
I love you, I need you to survive.
I won’t harm you with words from my mouth,
I love you, I need you to survive.
All the glory of Easter, all the power of Pentecost comes
down to how you live your life day by day.
And for that we need help, we need small groups. We need one another to survive.
The words to the song are in your bulletin. When you begin to know it, join in. We’ll sing it together, to survive.