Why ABC?
Our church went through the 40 Days of Purpose Campaign in November 2002. We laid the foundation of the five purposes of life- Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry, and Evangelism. We knew that it was only the beginning—it takes a lifetime to learn to cultivate these purposes in full. In 2003, we saw the need to develop the platform to encourage our people to continue to live a life of purpose. It is a platform where people can support one another and learn to practice these spiritual disciplines together. It is not that we do not have the platform—we have our small groups and mid groups (gatherings where small groups are assembled together)—it is the need to bring it to the next level.
Authentic Biblical Community is our next level. It is the new standard we set for all our groups. It is a breakthrough (both in mindset and in action) from our modes of creating pseudo-communities. Bill Hybels, in his Bible Study series "Transparency," writes that in pseudo-communal relationships, feelings beg to be shared that never are. Misunderstandings arise that aren't dealt with. Doubts creep in about the integrity of the other person, but it seems safer just to let go. 1
When we think of the Bible's call to community, we know that we cannot let our groups get stuck at the superficial level—where all we talk about is the weather, the kid's homework, or the boss's dog. When I think of all the time we spend amongst our groups, it pains me to see that after so many years, relationships remain shallow, and gossips are just part of the norm. It hurts me that Christians accept the fact that groups gathered together in the name of Jesus are often no different than the groups at the golf club or the Board of Trade. As I read again and again the Bible passages that describe the early Christian community, I am convinced that building "Authentic Biblical Community" is the way to go.
What Is ABC?
Authentic Biblical Community is moving our people from biblically informed to life transformed. It is the place where truth meets life. People gather together not just to "talk" about things and accumulate more Bible knowledge. It is a serious submission to the authority of God's Word by obeying what He commands. Within the ABC, we invite people to experience God in a personal way within a community setting, no matter what their relationship with God is at the moment. People are connected to meaning rather than mere activities. At the end, Authentic Biblical Community is life transformation to the extent that saints are reproduced. It is both church health and church growth!
Communicating ABC To Our People:
Once the vision was set, we laid plans to share it with our church, level by level. We started with our Executive church board, then went to our Point leaders, and then to our community committees, Small Group Coaches, Small Group leaders, and finally to the mass congregation. We seized every opportunity we could, sharing the vision over and over again, whenever we were given the opportunity.
Throughout the process, we adapted Gareth Morgan's philosophy of the "Strategic Termites:" We operate out of a strong sense of vision, while letting the detailed course of implementation emerge from the evolving situations being faced. We build on ideas, actions and events that we create, or spontaneously come our way. We are strategic in the sense that, while our activity is open to the influence of random opportunity, decisions and actions are always informed and guided by a strong sense of what we are ultimately trying to achieve. We have "plans," but don't just implement plans for the sake of implementation and are not constrained by plans. We are people who know where we would like to go, but at the same time, we give room for the Spirit to do His work and lead us step by step. 2
Core Values Of ABC:
Values are rules for living. They are deeply held beliefs that a certain way of being or a certain outcome is preferable to another. Values are externally demonstrated through behavior. An organization's values make an open declaration about how it expects everyone in the organization to behave. 3 In order to build a culture of ABC, we have stressed the following core values:
1. Humility & Trust
It takes humility and trust to share our weaknesses and struggles with others, to reveal doubts and fear and show how vulnerable we are, and to accept our differences and consider others better than us. It takes humility to put other's needs ahead of our own. Humility is the KEY to authentic community building.
2. Submissiveness To God's Word
In this pluralistic, postmodern society, every one has his/her own opinion. It does not matter what your opinion is as long as I am allowed to keep mine. This kind of mentality has quietly crept into our small groups. We have seen Bible studies in which people quickly skim over the passage and hurriedly jump into expressions of their own opinions. As the study ends, each person brings home their own belief based on their own experiences. As we build ABCs, the message that we send is: what you and I think is not most crucial. The most important point here is what GOD thinks. If this is what the Lord commands, then instead of trying to find a way out, we support one another to obey. Therefore, our members are encouraged to express their opinions based on the Bible passage, and not by simply drawing conclusions from our own life experiences. They are guided to read the Bible passage a few times, slowly, and to let the Word of God speak to them, rather than letting themselves dictate what they want the passage to mean.
3. Accountability
Accountability reminds people that we are serious about following God's Word. It demonstrates the willingness and desire to be changed by God. Within our Bible studies/group discussions, we ask application questions that invite people to respond to God's Word. They are questions that tend to make them think a little deeper and to shake them away from the "model answers" they have stored in their minds. We teach our people not to treat these responses lightly, for their group members will pray for them as they make these commitments to change. They are asked to follow up with one another about these commitments during the meetings to come. The attitude is not to pressure or control, but to model the importance of standing on guard for one another.
Creating ABC In Small Steps
Building ABC is a very broad vision, and not everyone will be able to grasp it immediately. We need to give people small steps to follow. In one of our communities, the mandate is to have all prayer partners (we encourage everyone to find a prayer partner within their group) learn to share about their devotional life (honestly) within three months. To some, this may seem like an obvious thing to do, but you will be amazed at the number of people that never share truthfully about their spiritual life with others. In another community, the goal is to be on time to all meetings (this community has new-born babies and toddlers, you know how hard it is to get out of the house with youngsters). Another community's challenge is to bring the Bible along with them to every meeting. Just bringing the Bible with them does not make them any closer to God, but it signifies their emphasis on God's Word as the first step. Still, another community in our church will be showing the video " Super Christian II" in February—it is an excellent video about dropping our masks and not being afraid to share our needs and struggles with others. Since this video was made in the eighties, we built on the theme and called it "Retro Night" (where people have to dress like the eighties that evening). Community building takes time. We prefer our communities build on three to four disciplines throughout the year, rather than setting a long and demanding list, only to be disappointed at the end of the year.
One thing we need to be careful about is instant expectations. You will always find group leaders that are totally motivated and excited about the ABC vision and expect everyone to share their hearts in the next meeting. We cannot expect lives to be transformed overnight; nor can we push growth. Paul said in I Corinthians 3:6 "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow." After all, we are partnering together with the Spirit. We have had group leaders that expected his/her group to grow in a certain way, and when the results were not seen after a certain period, the leader got discouraged and blamed him/herself to the point of quitting. As our coach prayed together with the leader, they discovered that, although the group has not grown according to the leader's expectation, it did grow in ways that the leader did not anticipate. At the end, we need to give room for the Spirit to "surprise" us.
Another important aspect is that we teach our leaders to accept the reality that NOT everyone within our group is going to be a life-long best friend. We need to understand that being authentic does not mean I have to tell you everything about myself. Just because I do not tell you my darkest sins, does not mean I am not authentic—I may be dealing with that with God already. We need to acknowledge that we may not need to tell EVERYONE everything at the same time. Our goal is to gradually move towards being honest and transparent, but that takes time to be developed. Deep sharing at immature timing can cause hurts—hurt to the sharer (because the leader/member does not know how to react to it) and hurt to the members (because the sharer accuses them for mishandling the information and taking inappropriate actions).
As we fight this spiritual battle of building ABCs, we are reminded of Philippians 1:6, "…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." So, we invite our leaders to look for small victories. We celebrate them and give our praises to God. We are confident that, as we partner together with the Spirit and, by faith, keep doing what the Bible tells us to do, years down the road, as we look back, we will see that our community has been transformed according to His grace and riches! Amen!
1 Hybels, Bill. (1996). InterActions Small Group Series: Transparency (P.30). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House.
2 Gareth Morgan. Imaginization: New Mindsets for Seeing, Organizing and Managing, (new management edition) San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1997
3 Barrett, Richard (1998). Liberating The Corporate Soul.(P.109) Boston, Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.
