A Foundation of Small Groups

This month I'm going to be posting a bit about Care Groups. This first article was actually part one in a series of three articles I did after a teaching trip to Brazil, where I'm quite sure I gained more than I shared. The church in Brazil is growing rapidly, and in this article I share the secret to their success...

A small group

Just before going to the cross, Jesus left His disciples a wonderful promise: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come" (). The story of His death, burial, and resurrection will go "to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people" and then immediately after, we will see the "son of man" coming on a cloud (). A great promise, but a great task as well. To reach an entire planet, it will take every available worker. In fact, that is our greatest need: "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few." (). We must find a way to rally believers to the cause.

Mobilizing workers, of course, is not easy. Various training programs exist in many churches, but they generally fail to produce effective, consistent soul-winners. These programs may help people learn how to study, grow in prayer, and manage their time, but unless we can find a way to also equip them to become actively engaged in evangelism--our training is incomplete. That is, we need a strategy every believer can implement. Fortunately, the Bible encourages just such an approach.

A careful study of the book of Acts reveals soul-winning in the early church happened largely in the homes of believers. Public meetings and personal Bible studies certainly took place, but small groups were the foundation.

Consider the day of Pentecost: 3000 souls were baptized and the Christian church was born. The apostles then faced the difficult question of how to care for the flood of new believers. Their solution was to organize them into small groups, meeting "from house to house" (, ). These groups generously met one another's needs, and enjoyed sweet fellowship. In fact, they experienced such "gladness and singleness of heart" everyone around looked on them with "favour" and the Lord was able to add "to the church daily such as should be saved" (). And evangelism continued to take place in these homes. "In every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ" ().

Paul too, built his ministry on the foundation of small groups. Speaking to the elders at Ephesus, Paul reminded them how he had taught them "from house to house" (). Elsewhere Paul refers to groups meeting in the homes of various people: Narcissus, Stephanus, Aquila and Priscilla, Jason, Philemon, Onesiphorus, Gaius, Lydia, Jason, Justus and Crispus, and Philip to name a few. This ministry of small groups continued from the beginning at Pentecost, down to Paul's day and beyond. It was central to the explosive growth of the New Testament church.

Actually, Jesus himself taught this plan. In His training of the twelve (), and later of the seventy (), He clearly taught them to find one home, and focus their efforts there. Then He added specifically, "go not from house to house". Jesus also modeled it, frequently using homes for ministry--including the homes of Peter, Matthew, Simon, Zacchaeus, and Lazarus. Plus, there are references to homes He used in Capernaum, Jerusalem, and elsewhere. The apostles simply followed the method they had been taught by Jesus, and baked it right into the very DNA of the early church.

As I visited members and talked with pastors in Brazil, I was impressed with the priority they gave to small groups. They clearly saw small groups as foundational to evangelism. And it was not uncommon to have as many as 60-70% of the members of a church involved in this ministry. And even with that, the goal was still to increase the percentage.

And these small groups often developed into new churches. Just a few days before returning to America, I had a chance to meet a 95 year old woman who had a group of 40-50 people in her home every week for Bible study. At times, she said, as many as 100 people would come! It had been continuing non-stop for years.

In time, that small group had become the core of an exciting new church right in the heart of the downtown area. I'll tell you more about what makes this church special next time. But in just a year and a half the number of groups had grown to 5 or 6, and attendance had tripled from around 70 to 200. The members I spoke to attribute the growth of their church primarily to small groups.

I believe one of the key reasons for the strong growth of the Brazilian church is their widespread understanding that using homes for ministry is biblical. They teach it as something every believer can and should participate in. And it is producing consistent, significant results. I believe the church in Brazil will continue to grow as long as they maintain their focus on small groups.

Small groups are no magic bullet. There are important keys to leading a small group successfully, and there are definitely ways to sabotage success! But past failures do not invalidate the principle--only the specific methodology used. With just a few tweaks and changes, your next small group could end up a terrific success.

The New Testament model of evangelism through small groups is often overlooked or neglected today. But it is easy to implement—and has the potential for dramatic results. Just as it worked in biblical times, it is working in Brazil today. And small groups can work in your church too!

Comments

How important is it to follow the New Testament method of doing evangelism through small groups? Why do you think small groups are so central to the strategy outlined of the Bible?

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	Posted by Dan Vis on 04/04/23 - Coach
	Right, we can start small, and grow from there. Good observation Rebecca. And actually even if there are several seekers in our group, by a Care Groups nature, we end up still giving individual attention to each one. Powerful! I think that's maybe the key point Christine to all of this. Jesus taught that the key to evangelistic success was showing love and care to others. This approach is designed to optimize that exact thing...

	Posted by Christine Fong on 04/03/23
	Amen this’ll important for care and love follow Jesus from bible teaching.

	Posted by Rebecca Gottfried on 04/03/23
	It’s the power of one we see. Some of Jesus’s greatest revelations of His divinity and mission was at times with one person (Nicodemus and the woman at the well). Care groups are a great introduction because it starts with one person at a time. We don’t have to feel pressured to start some large monstrous church. We just start with who is around us. Like our families.

	Posted by Dan Vis on 06/10/21 - Coach
	:)

	Posted by Smart Mudzingwa on 06/09/21
	Amen.

	Posted by Nicole Walker on 08/29/17
	Small group are built on trust and a personal relationship. It emulates Christt

	Posted by Barbara Davis on 08/18/17
	Thank you for the link Qing. Many things are coming together on effective Biblical ministry-evangelism. The zones make good sense. Looking forward to getting started very soon!

	Posted by Dan Vis on 08/18/17 - Coach
	Great Musa Sibisi. Consistency is always the hardest part! All the best...

	Posted by Musa Sibisi on 08/18/17
	Dan this is powerful. By God's grace I will start. My prayer is consistency

	Posted by Dan Vis on 08/16/17 - Coach
	Thanks for the link Qing! The folks at rightly trained are doing a great job. :)

	Posted by Qing Ling on 08/16/17 - Coach
	Clarris I fully support that Zone thing. I have read somewhere before that churches should focus on ministering to their local areas... it just makes sense, nevermind all the other reasons! Sometimes though, I have known people WILL travel a great distance (consistently for years) just to attend a group with people that they connect very closely with, even if there is another group that they could potentially join much closer to their home. I guess on the flipside that kind of shows how committed they are?? Dan - a msg above from Andrew Andrew - your tag for Pr Dan should have been "@ fast4god" (without the space after the @). A sure way to get the tagging thing correct every time is to just click/tap on the picture of the person that you want to tag - try it, it works great! :) about the food thing - that aspect may possibly be covered in this series of training videos that discuss the practical side of running Care Groups - check out this link - it's delivered by some people who have been running and training in Care Group ministries for many years - I was part of some of their care groups some years back, and it was one of the highlights of my walk as a Christian :)

	Posted by Onyebuchi on 08/15/17
	@Dan, thanks a lot. It helped.

	Posted by Dan Vis on 08/15/17 - Coach
	Joy hope you are able to have some great experiences using this approach in Madagascar! Clarris, thank you so much for sharing what your church did when you were a child. It illustrates exactly how powerful small groups can be! We did the same thing with our prayer meeting at North Aurora. I don't have the perfect answer Andrew, but if you you can figure out how to include a meal in your small groups, they will probably grow more quickly. In our small groups we have each group member bring something to share. We try to keep the meals simple and inexpensive so the focus is on the fellowship, not the food. Hope this helps.

	Posted by Onyebuchi on 08/15/17
	Thank you for this Memo Pastor Dan I agree 100% that small groups is the TRUE biblical way of bringing spiritual growth amongst members, multiplying disciples, preparing workers and growing churches. Dan, I understand that serving foods is a very important aspect of running successful small groups because the Bible mentioned the early disciples were 'BREAKING BREAD'. When you live in a community where most people cannot afford one square meal, what are some ways, suggestions or advice on how to take care of this aspect of running successful small groups? Thank you and many blessings! Andrew

	Posted by Clarris Magadza on 08/14/17
	This has reminded me of my childhood. We used to have prayer meetings every Wednesday and verpers on Fridays. Church members were divided into zones based on where they lived and in those zones the meetings would rotate amongst the members houses. It was so much easier then to invite our neighbours when the venue was our house and with time those neighbours would even attend prayer meeting at the other houses within the zone. Relationships were formed both by adults and children. Being in the same zone meant children probably attended the same school and so their friendships grew. When relationships had been formed at the zonal prayer meetings, the next step was invitations to evangelism meetings at the church, guest days, camp meetings and even pathfinders. Many people came to the church this way.

	Posted by Joy Hank on 08/14/17
	Thank you, Dan. I'm a firm believer in the effectiveness of and need for small groups in spreading the Gospel. I have not yet experienced a successful small group but have not yet given up hope of using this tool for evangelism. I pray that the time will soon come, hopefully in our next volunteer assignment to Madagascar. Please pray for us.

	Posted by Dan Vis on 08/14/17 - Coach
	Christine, agreed the group there is a bit large, but it seems to be extremely popular, so it's working! But you are right--the reason small groups are so powerful is the fellowship. Jesus said the two greatest keys to evangelism are the love and unity believers have for and with each other (John 13:35By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another., John 17:21That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.). These become most visible in the community of a small group. And yes, these small groups are in addition to corporate worship at church. Thanks for emphasizing that! Thank you Marcelo! It was a blessing to become friends, and I look forward to sharing about the amazing work you are doing in your church next week! Glad you were encouraged Valerie! Small groups are important, but it is vital that the leaders be well trained and the members united in purpose. Our Team Tactics program may be a help to your leaders to build a shared vision for evangelism through small groups. Carole, that's exactly what I like about small groups. How close you can become. Thank you so much for your prayers during my time in Brazil. It was one of the nicest trips I've taken.

	Posted by Carole Bliss on 08/14/17
	I believe in small groups. They become like family. People feel comfortable, and you can share more with them. I have a Moms and Grandma group, we only meet once a month, but, we pray daily for each other, and we are encouraged to know, we have a family group to turn to. We need to expand it and share Bible verses, along with the prayer requests we share , when we meet together. I will pray about this. Thank-you for sharing. I just prayed the morning about your ministry in Brazil. Glad your home, all went well. Blessings, Carole

	Posted by Valerie Wise Burrell on 08/14/17 - Coach
	This is a motivating and inspiring Monday Memo. I am now studying in a small group but I have some major concerns about it. Not every one is in one accord. There is not yet a singleness of purpose or vision. I solicit your prayers.

	Posted by Marcelo A Coelho on 08/14/17
	It was a great privilege for us to receive you in our church. Thanks for your wonderful work! We've learned a lot with you too. May God bless you and your family.

	Posted by Christine Godfrey on 08/14/17
	Wow that is a wonderful testimony of the power of God. (Although I didn't think 40-50 people would be classes as a small group.) I think small groups are very important because they are more personal and meet the human need of fellowship thus giving the individual better support as they grow in Christ. They are conducive to sharing and encouraging each other in the Lord. Meeting once a week in a formal church setting is not really enough, although I believe meeting in a church for divine service and Sabbath school classes should not be done away with. I assume the small groups are an addition to the weekly church services is that correct Dan ? In Acts we see they prayed and were in one accord, and received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Do the Brazilians also pray continually for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Is the baptism of the Holy Spirit and small groups combined the secret to their success.

	Posted by Aaron Wilson on 08/14/17
	Powerful! To God be the glory!

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