Are Small Groups and Biblical Fellowship the Same?
It is commonly assumed by church leaders and church members alike that small groups and biblical fellowship are the same. They are not.
When the church started promoting small groups instead of biblical fellowship, that allowed a seismic shift in thinking that has hurt the church.
Politicians do this kind of thinking, too, when they give good names to bad policies. For example, instead of kill-the-baby-in the-womb, they call it Pro-Choice.
Definitions do matter. Knowing that, God gave us the “one another statements” in Scripture to define in detail what biblical fellowship is.
The small group movement paid little attention to this.
Cherry-picking Bible verses and blending those with alternative thinking is a disastrous way to design fellowship. But this is exactly what has happened!
Catchy phrases like connect, share, be in a community, and do life together furthered the cause. But at work was a slight-of-hand deception. Let me explain.
By sleight-of-hand, the magician wants to change your focus and get you to look in the wrong direction. If the biblical vision for fellowship gets swapped out for “small groups,” the format won’t matter much, and therefore all kind of groups will qualify: affinity groups, addiction groups, ministry groups, mission groups, special needs groups. Just pick one; a group is a group!
The relationship of small groups to fellowship can be likened to the relationship of a zoo with animals. The logic here is this: If you want to see an animal, go to the zoo. And if you want to see fellowship, go to a small group. Of course, the zoo has a lot of animals, just as a church has a lot of small groups.
But here’s the critical point: A zoo doesn’t contain every animal. In fact, there are very popular animals not found in any zoo; and this may really be the animal you want—a playful dog, for example, or a cuddly cat.
Now, if I likened fellowship to one of these pets, the theological problem about small groups becomes a little clearer. Yes, a pet is an animal, and, yes, the zoo hosts a great number of animals. But that doesn’t mean I’ll find the pet I’m looking for by going to a zoo. I won’t.
Similarly, the church has a lot of small groups, but will I find a fellowship that follows all the “one another principles”? I won't.
Does this shock you? It should. Church leadership has paid no attention to this switch allowing biblical fellowship to be excluded, sidelined, and, in effect, rendered a non-option in the church.
Fellowship is a major area of church life, so allowing this to happen is a big deal.
The small group movement assumes we already know what fellowship is. We just need to jump in there and do it. This assumption is simply astounding!
Why would the church bypass God's comprehensive teaching on fellowship? These “one another” statements, after all, instruct, command, convey vision, and are of such importance that every one of them is further explained by other passages of Scripture. So shouldn’t definitive statements like these be examined?
If one were to ask pastors—did you ever study these “one another” statements, checking out what Scripture has to say about each one? —most pastors would acknowledge they never did this.
The seminaries they graduated from didn’t offer a course that did this, either. Now, when one considers the fact that fellowship is a major area of church life, this lack of study is beyond baffling.
If a survey constructed from the “one another” statements in the Bible were administered in churches today, respondents would indicate that not too much of what the Bible tells us to do with one another is actually happening.
One reason it isn’t happening is because we never intended it would. We never seriously purposed that certain scriptural objectives would become a part of our experience.
Extending this neglect further, we never created the opportunities, never set forth the strategies, whereby these fellowship objectives could be pursued.
Before a group even becomes a group, the foundation for its purpose should be laid well by prospective members carefully studying all the “one another” statements together. Fidelity to Scripture mandates this.
Church leaders need to evaluate what's going on. Most leaders haven't done this. They just go along with what they have in place. Que sera sera!
One church that do this is the Willow Creek Church in Chicago. This megachurch was famous for their small groups! Indeed, many books and many conferences were used to export their model to other churches.
But then they did a multiyear qualitative study of their ministry and discovered that even with high participation in these groups, they didn’t work. Pastor Bill Hybels confessed, “We made a mistake.” He called the findings of this study “earth shaking,” “groundbreaking,” and “mind blowing.”
A prominent Willow Creek spokesman acknowledged that high participation in church activities (of which their small groups were most prominent) “does NOT predict whether someone’s becoming more of a disciple of Christ. It does NOT predict whether they love God more or they love people more.”
As Willow Creek discovered, wrong small group formats based on wrong assumptions do have consequences. These consequences are avoidable, however, if we follow the maxim: If it’s worth doing, the Bible will tell us how to do it.
And it does.
Dr. J.W. Phillips is the author of Pursuing Fellowship, volumes 1 and 2, subtitled: By Activating All The One Another Statements. These books are accompanied by a Fellowship Facilitator's Guide that provides guidance to group leaders for every chapter in both books.
Dr. Jay Adams, who wrote more than one hundred books on pastoral care, endorsed this work, stating: Nowhere else is there a work that so fully considers the “one another” passages in the New Testament. Here Dr. Phillips systematically examines, illumines, and applies pertinent verses concerning Christians’ relationship with one another. What could be more appropriate than members studying together and mutually implementing the biblical truths that are highlighted in such a clear and concrete way?
