Learning from each other.

I love my Truth Project group that meets on Sunday night. There is nothing like time to make the relationships in a small group richer. As the group gets more comfortable with each other, interaction seems more natural and easy. One of the great things is being able to learn from each other.

During our discussion someone brought up John the Baptist. Here is what he said. He discussed how at the end of John's life he was sitting in prison. John must have been in some kind of a faithless fog. It all started out so wonderfully. He was the Holy Spirit filled introducer of the Christ. He had heard the voice from heaven after baptizing Jesus say, "this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased". But John was not included in the twelve. His calling as a prophet kept him separate from Jesus and his disciples for some reason. John knew that he had to decrease while Jesus increased. But to disappear, to be forgotten, to end up in jail and ultimately beheaded at the whim of a dancing girl and her mother. Where was God in that cell? Where was the power of Jesus for him? And so John sends someone to ask "the question". Are you the one who was to come or should we look for someone else. It is almost like the painful circumstances of his life had squeezed out his faith. It seems that he had forgotten the powerful effect of his ministry that was a result of the power of God and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. It seems like he no longer could remember with confidence that he, himself, had heard the voice of God identify His Son. Circumstances have power to squeeze us in a way that diminishes our faith.

Jesus responds this way,

“Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”

John already knew about the miracles of Jesus. It seems that Jesus simply reminds him.

John is a lot like us. Our faith gets squeezed out of us when life gets hard. That is why we need to hold on to each other. Hebrews tells us to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. We need to sit in church and be reminded of what we already know is true but sometimes find hard to hold on to. We need sit around living rooms in our small groups and borrow each other’s faith from time to time. God shows up in a very subtle but real way when we get together. I love my Truth Project group.

It Happened...My Truth Project Group Got Canceled

Last night the Truth Project group I host did not meet. Some had to miss because of other obligations. Others needed to tend to family members that did not feel well (we were one of those in that category, nursing Coco who was post-wisdom teeth removal and not well at all). When I did the math more would miss than be present and so we canceled. At first, I felt very defeated. The power of the small group concept is meeting, pure and simple. If you don't meet, it is not good. And then something dawned on me.

Even though we did not meet as a group, there had been a lot of communication and life sharing conversations on the phone. We did not meet, but we had stayed connected. Accountability often sounds like a scary supervisory word. What I experienced was more like phone calls among friends.

Becoming friends is something that happens in small groups. When people increase friendships in church, they feel more connected and the church gets stronger. The following quote comes from Rick Warren's writings.

"Lyle Schaller has done extensive research that shows the more friendships a person has in a congregation, the less likely he is to become inactive or leave. In contrast, I once read about a survey of four hundred church drop-outs who were asked why they left their churches. Over 75% of the respondents said, "I didn't feel anyone cared whether I was there or not."

It is a myth that you must know everyone in the church in order to feel like a part of a church. The average church member knows 67 people in the congregation, whether the church has 200 or 2,000 attending. A member does not have to know everyone in the church in order to feel like it's "my church" but he does have to know some people!

While some relationships will spontaneously develop by chance, the friendship factor in assimilation is too crucial to leave to chance. You can't just hope members will make friends in the church. You must encourage it, plan for it, structure for it, and facilitate it."

So, our group did not meet. But the fact that we have the group and are getting to know each other, some of whom are new to High Street, is doing something very good.

Truth Project Groups

The Truth Project has captured the attention of High Street in a very exciting way. Over the last few weeks on an average we have had well over 500 people meeting in 45 small groups. There have been more than 618 adults attend one or more meetings. This is well over the 300 something that had been attending our regular Sunday evening services. Clearly God is at work here. I want to point out some important observations:

• We have gone from the Sunday Evening routine to a Sunday evening with purpose.
• The Truth Project teaching is well done, thought provoking and many of us are becoming better equipped for ministry.
• One thing that must not be overlooked is that we have tried a new group dynamic and that is the small groups in homes. For those who prefer to meet in small groups at the church, we have 5 groups meeting there. There are 45 facilitators serving.
  
• This paradigm is giving opportunity for more people to be involved in ministry. Each group has been active to take care of their people. We take attendance instantly because as a group leader, I can visualize my living room and I know who was there and who was not. It is easy for me and other leaders to make calls to care for those who are absent.
  
• This plan has allowed us to get to know people who are new to High Street. We are doing a better job of getting to know them and them us. This assimilation of those who are new is very important to growth.
  

Now this new plan is not perfect. There are things that are less convenient for some. We have had to find creative ways to care for the children in the groups. It is not automatic but the exercise has been good for us. I am getting used to the noise coming from the basement and the needed parent trips to check on the kids. There is something good about being with other families and getting to know other people's children.

While discussing this with someone over email he sent me an article that pointed our some very important observations.

• The early church included this house to house format.

Acts 2:46, "So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, ^ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved."

• While church buildings are very suited for corporate worship and teaching, they are not designed to encourage fellowship.
  

"Nowhere in the New Testament do we find the terms church (ekklesia), temple, or house of God used to refer to a building.

The church building is far less warm, personal, and friendly than someone’s home – the organic meeting place of early Christians. The church building is not designed for intimacy nor fellowship. In most church buildings, the seating consists of wooden pews bolted to the floor. The pews (another man-made tradition) or chairs are arranged in rows, all facing the pulpit (yet another man-made tradition).

This arrangement makes it nearly impossible for one worshipper to look into the face of another. Instead, it creates a sit-and-soak form of worship that turns functioning Christians into “pew potatoes.” Quote copied from Kit Pharo, Sunday Morning Inspirations

There is much more to for us to learn about this. God is doing something good and we must not ignore this.<sup>


If you are in a Truth Project group and have some stories or comments, I would love to hear from you.</sup>