Small groups and propaganda
By Elizabeth Prata
Josh Daws, @JoshDaws, wrote on Twitter/X on 7:30 AM · Oct 2, 2024 the following-
🤯 Jacques Ellul on the role of the small group in spreading propaganda. The church has yet to fully reckon with how small groups, without strong pastoral oversight, can and have become vehicles for spreading woke ideology within congregations.
The dynamics of small groups often favor conformity over true discipleship. The most assertive individual usually sets the tone, and the group’s consensus follows. This makes it easy for ideology, rather than genuine biblical teaching, to take root.
I thought this made sense. I’ve written before about the danger of para-church ministries that are loosely or not-at-all attached to a local church. I’ve also warned about Sunday School classes led by laymen, and Women’s ministries where false doctrine can be and often is introduced in any of these extensions of the main service of a solid church.
Small groups are another area of concern. In one church I know of, they have family groups at homes of different people after the service to discuss the points in the service. But the elders insist an elder or a deacon to lead each of these where they occur. So, there is either pastoral oversight or delegated elder oversight at each group.
In my church, Bible study on alternating Wednesday nights for both men and the woman are led by the teaching elder.
Women have written to me in concern that in their small group, when false doctrine is spoken or taught it is so hard to rebut it. The close-intimacy dynamics of the group often makes it intimidating to say anything ‘negative’ or to counter a statement with a contradiction even if the lady has scripture at the tip of her tongue. Too many women just respond “Well, that’s MY truth”, and the woman who lovingly raised the concern is at a loss as to how to continue rebutting.
Father Timothy Rossow, a Lutheran priest, wrote about conventicles/small groups here. I’ve excerpted the part about small groups. He defined conventicles: “Conventicles are groups of instruction and prayer that are held apart from the supervision of the office of the ministry.”
Concern 2: Conventicles lead to division.
Your small group may have sound doctrine and may not be divisive but many have seen and testify to how they often become divisive and do tolerate false doctrine. The temptation is great to use the small group to complain about the church or about the pastor or to gossip about others. The church is a body with Christ as the head and the pastor as the under shepherd of Christ. It is also hard for church members to recognize false doctrine and then even when it is spotted it is hard for one member to criticize another member’s doctrine. What usually happens is that false doctrines are just left unchecked in small groups, if recognized at all. I do not always know exactly what is wrong with me when I am sick but I do not go to a neighborhood small group discussion on medicine to find out. My doctor is trained in medicine and so I go to her to find out what is wrong with me. My pastor is trained in doctrine and so I go to him for knowledge about religious truth.
Famous dissenter, feminist, and divisive personality Puritan Anne Hutchinson led a conventicle in her home. That was the ground zero location from where the tension in the Puritan colony built. The resulting religious tension erupted into what is known to historians as the Antinomian Controversy. The roiling controversy disrupted the entire colony, and Hutchinson was eventually exiled to Rhode Island.
Fr. Rossow answers the following question:
Can There Be Small Groups for Things Other than Bible Study?
“Yes there should be. That helps to bring the church together so that we can know when one is rejoicing and when one is hurting (I Corinthians 12). Small groups can and should be arranged for fun and fellowship (cards groups, dinner parties, etc.)“
Fellowship is important, and should be encouraged and celebrated among the congregation’s members. But for doctrine, the pastor or elders are responsible for that. We remember Paul’s admonition in Acts 20:28-30,
Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. 29I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them.
How to raise a concern if a false doctrine was brought to your small group:
1. Be decisive and act fast. False doctrine spreads like gangrene. Pray. Raise a concern, gently but don’t be combative or dogmatic. G tot he leader after for further discussion.
2. When you go to the leader parse out if they just misguidedly or badly explained a biblical doctrine. Was it just a garbled delivery, a sincere mistake, or something deeper? Or does she beleive what she had taught? Don’t immediately assume your small group leader is nefarious.
3. When you meet privately bring scripture that pertains to your concern. If during the conversation it turns out the leader admits the mistake or you learn it’s a simple fix, great. if not, then you have scripture ready to gently contradict the error espoused in the small group. if it’s a male leader, bring your husband or ask your husband to meet.
4. Pray again. If the issue continues, do not attend the group any longer. If the pastor asks, tell him why. If he doesn’t ask, share why anyway. Kindly. Often times pastors are busy and leave the responsibility of leading a small group delegated to someone else to take the load off.
We must always be on guard, vigilant, and mildly suspicious of groups that meet outside the purview of the elder. This is becuase church is the biggest battlefield on earth. Many verses and passages deal with ng to be wary, and many passages list what to do if false doctrine enters the church. This is because satan hates holiness, he hates Jesus, and he wants to impact your walk as much as possible.
Paul said to test everything (1 Thessalonians 5:21), to check against the written word (Acts 17:11), and Peter said to be vigilant (1 Peter 5:8). It’s sad that we have to be, but we often forget that we are in a battle and the battle is on earth against ideas (2 Corinthians 10:5). Those ideas come in the form of false doctrine, among other ways.
We can relax our vigilance into an eternal peace when we get to heaven. Until then, oppose those philosophies that oppose Jesus.
