Part 2
the home group
The Home Group is the most strategic disciple making setting in the church. It is the setting Jesus used to shape his disciples. It was likely the primary gathering place of the early church as it spread from Jerusalem. And as we will see, it is the optimal setting for the dual purposes of mission and spiritual formation.
In our discussion of FOLLOWING Jesus, we observed that Jesus used meals to create a safe space for people to experience a taste of the Kingdom. Those meals take place in the homes of your Small Group.
Your small group is your Missional community.
By entering one another’s homes, you enter one another’s mission field and you work together to make wholehearted followers of Jesus Christ from the people in your everyday lives.
In our discussion of DISCERNING, we said that your Small Group is your discerning community, the people with whom you pray for God’s direction. It is also the place you study the scriptures together and make yourselves accountable to do what the scripture says.
Your small group is your Formation community.
By entering one another’s homes, you become accountable to one another to grow in the practices of wholehearted followers of Jesus Christ.
The Inner circle (Confession Community) and the Congregation (Sabbath Community) both play important roles in the church, but it is the Home group that purposefully engages the community with the Great Commission (make disciples), and the Great Commandment (love your neighbour). It is the one setting of the church community that is directly connected to our neighbourhoods, and whose reason to exist extends beyond those who are already in the group.
The Inner circle (Confession Community) and the Congregation (Sabbath Community) both play important roles in the church, but it is the Home group that purposefully engages the community with the Great Commission (make disciples), and the Great Commandment (love your neighbour). It is the one setting of the church community that is directly connected to our neighbourhoods, and whose reason to exist extends beyond those who are already in the group.
That is not to suggest that the members of the Home group do not also benefit from this community. They most certainly do. By FOLLOWING Jesus together, and DISCERNING together, they will be formed into a missional community. The Home group is about formation for the sake of mission.
In John 13:34-35, as one of his last instructions before his death, knowing he would soon depart, Jesus gave a new command to his small group of disciples.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””
This new command has two implications for how a discipling community is to behave in Jesus absence. First, Jesus new command gave this small group the foundation of community: loving one another.
The new testament church discovered many practical ways this love could to be expressed. Among them are the commands to “forgive one another”, “encourage one another”, and “serve one another”. The discipling community recorded over 20 “one another” commands, and they all reflect Jesus new command: “love one another, just as I have loved you.”
The second implication is that this community would love one another in public places so that “all people will know” that they are Jesus disciples. Their neighbours would be drawn to Jesus by the way they love one another.
So our formational love for one another becomes a catalyst for our missional love for our neighbour. Our Home groups becomes a safe space for our neighbours to get a taste of kingdom community. In doing this, we are fulfilling the greatest commands of all scripture, that we love God will all our heart, and “love our neighbour as ourselves.” Matthew 22:39
