Jesus was the ultimate storyteller. He did more than communicate with words; He communicated His heart. He used stories like The Prodigal Son to express God's love for people and to invite them into relationship with Himself. Jesus used storytelling to create a meeting space between God and people. Small groups recreate such meeting spaces. They form the relational intersections of the life of God with our lives. We experience more of this life if we understand the small group gathering as being sacramental in nature.
A "sacrament" is commonly understood to be an outward representation of inward grace received. Two primary examples of sacraments are baptism and communion. A sacramental event results from the Presence of God intersecting with humanity in a spiritually empowering way because of someone's faithfulness to act on what He has called him/her to do. To say something is sacramental means God is present; His power is available; and His purpose is being accomplished in and through the whole of a person's life and the gathering in which they are a part.
Small group leaders and participants should not think they need to create or seek out experiences of transforming (holy) moments within a gathering. Instead, they should view the whole of a small group's gathering as holy and transformational.
Jesus promises to be in the midst of two or three who come together in His Name (Matthew 18:20). When Jesus inhabits the space that believers occupy together in His Name, the space changes and so do we. In fact, our experience of the space changes as our spirit connects with God's Spirit who transforms the primary nature of the gathering from social to sacramental.
The presence of God transforms! When believers gather in Jesus' Name, they are placing themselves at the mouth of the river of God's grace. The Lord conveys His grace to people in a special and powerful way because of their faithfulness to come together in His Name (Acts 4:31, 33). Hence, group life as sacramental! The experience of Him in our hearts can be magnified in the company of others within whom He dwells.
When the woman with the issue of blood reached out to touch the fringe of Jesus' garment, the transforming power of God was readily available (Mark 5:25-34). The person of the Holy Spirit expresses this same power through those who gather in His Name.
Recently, a lump showed up on the mammogram of a woman in our small group, and a CT scan verified it. She asked our group to have a special meeting to pray for her. When we gathered, we thanked God for being with her and for being present with us in that moment. We thanked Him for the stories of how He healed so many in the Gospels and for His unfailing love for His children. We acknowledged that He was not unaware of our group member's issue and humbly asked for His healing power to be released on her condition. Several of us sensed God had answered our prayers, and a week later, the doctors performed a special biopsy and were pleasantly surprised to find nothing at all.
A month prior to this story, another woman in our group had been dealing with a bladder infection for months. It was beginning to trigger other health concerns, making it difficult to carry on from day to day. She, too, had asked us to have a special gathering where we would lay hands on her and pray. Toward the beginning of our prayer time, while we were thanking God for being with us and asking for healing, a couple of us felt the Lord touched the woman we were praying for and answered the prayers we had not even put words to yet. A few days later, she shared how she had felt whole since the time of our gathering. The infection and all the symptoms were gone.
One of the people who were present praying for the woman with the infection was the woman with the lump. When the lump appeared a month after being a part of the story of healing for the woman who had the infection, she immediately thought to ask our small group to gather around her in prayer. The Lord honored the faith of both of these women, and the healing both desired came through the sacramental event of us gathering together in Jesus' Name.
There are two stories of healing because both women were there for each other. One entered the story of the other, and as a result, God used one gathering to beget another. These are the stories of 2006. There are many more from prior years - stories of people experiencing physical, relational, emotional, and spiritual healing, stories of people overcoming personal hardships and growing in their relationship with Jesus Christ, and stories of people feeling more a part of our church community and engaging in ministry that has been empowering for them and for the people the Lord is using them to impact.
God uses gatherings to generate stories. The book of Acts gives us a litany of such gatherings. However, it is not the gathering itself that brings transforming power, but the presence of the One who dwells with those who gather in His Name. Like the woman with the issue of blood, these women knew that God's transforming power would be readily available if other believers gathered and together offered up a symphony of prayer for healing (Matthew 18:19).
The time and space of a group's gathering is consecrated by virtue of the faithful obedience of believers to come together for the purpose of carrying out God's will. Viewing the entire experience together as sacramental infuses group participants with faith to expect life transformation as a result of gathering, instead of looking to experience or even create holy moments within the gathering. Fresh power is brought to a group's life together when participants gather in anticipation that God is going to show up and touch lives as a result of their obedience.
Gathering together in Jesus' Name is itself a sacramental act that is inherently powerful. Realizing this simple, yet profound, truth can bring new meaning and purpose to small group gatherings.
Church leaders can acknowledge this truth while casting vision for a small group ministry. Small group leaders can do the same by opening their group time in prayer and conveying the following thoughts:
Where two or more come together in Jesus' Name…
- Christ's Presence makes the gathering a transforming environment
- Believers are awakened to God's leading and purpose
- The gathering becomes a springhead for spiritual renewal
- God's Word engages us in fresh ways
- The light of God's grace reaches into the unwanted dark areas where sin wants to keep isolated
- People see more of God and experience Him more personally
- Oneness with Christ is experienced more fully through unity with one another (and this unity expressed, strengthens the evangelistic impact of your church)
- All the vital purposes of the church can be fulfilled
- Believers are released in ministry and empowered to reach out with the transforming love of Christ
- Lives are changed forever!
Communicating these effects of gathering in Jesus' Name can actually alter the atmosphere of a small group! It never hurts to remind people that God is with us. Small groups can be transformation-focused because God is in the midst of those gathered. This is one of the reasons I say small group leaders are those who take the lead in creating the environment where biblical community can grow. They cannot MAKE it grow. However, just by calling people together in Jesus' Name, they can create conditions that are favorable for growing the kind of life-giving dynamic we see in Acts 2.
Small group leaders are gardeners. They till the soil, plant seeds, and supply extra nutrients and water so growth can occur. This is different from being the one who makes it grow. That is God's job as Paul makes clear (1 Corinthians 3:5-9). The leadership of a small group leader is mostly performed behind-the-scenes. Their leadership mainly takes on the shape of being a facilitator as they engage with the group. They are facilitating what God wants to do in the lives of those in the group by bringing truth to bear on their lives. For example, during my group's bible study discussion time, I am not really looking for answers to prefabricated questions. I want to find out what the Holy Spirit is doing in people. I want to know what impacted them from the Scriptures, what feelings were evoked in them, and how they believe they can apply what was new or challenging for them to their lives today.
There may be transforming moments we experience in a group, but we do not really create them. Moments come as a result of shaping the environment where all participants recognize God is with us and tapping into that fact. The more aware we are of the presence and power of God at work in our midst, the more receptive we will be to the growth He wants to bring. Small group leaders can help group participants better understand how their stories intersect with God's story by continually pointing them to the reality of the person of Jesus Christ sitting in their midst. Consequently, the story telling is intermingled with the sacramental event of gathering and fuels the growth of biblical community!
