Initiating AND Sustaining Life Change...

I had a conversation with the Small Groups Pastor of a very large church recently. In our conversation he said that there are two basic approaches to structuring your small groups ministry, "You can either structure it for growth or control." From a systems standpoint he is absolutely correct and at Elevation we are structured for growth. We always have been and we always will be. That means there are certain controls we will never be able to put in place. They will limit the number of people who can be plugged in and will, therefore, be scrapped before they ever get to the table!

The tension is, however, how do we continue to add more people AND ensure that the appropriate structure is in place for life change? Maybe it's because I'm young and stupid, but I believe that we can structure a ministry that is both dynamically growing and changing and achieveing spiritual growth for individuals at the deepest levels. Here's why I'm so convinced of this truth:

I believe that real Spiritual Growth happens while we're in motion. Pastor Furtick referenced Luke 17:11-19 this Sunday and in a passing comment emphasized the fact that the lepers were "Healed as they were going...". I believe this is true! Healing doesn't come to the person that is not seeking it. In fact, how many times did Jesus say things like, "Your faith has healed you", "stretch out your hand", "bring me the fish and loaves", "go wash off the mud and you will see", and on and on they go. I cannot think of an example where there was not a clear and decisive action taken by the recipient of the miracle prior to receiving it. A lot of what God does is a mystery, but in this it seems to be pretty clear; if we want Him to move in our lives we've got to build up some momentum first.

I mentioned in a previous post that I was working on a new purpose statement for the small groups ministry that would encapsulate both aspects of our church's mission - People far from God, and, filled with life in Christ! Well, here it is:

"Initiating and Sustaining life change through community"

I'm not willing to settle until we have a model that initiates AND sustains life change. I don't know exactly how it will look in 20 years, and I'm sure that we will make hundreds of mistakes on our way, but let's not be guilty of aspiring for too little.

I said to a group leader the other day, that when we shoot at the moon God gives us the stars, but when all we can see to aim at is a tree, we usually hit a squirrel. Group Leaders, let's not settle for what we can achieve in our lives, in our groups and in the Small Group ministry, let's aim for the moon and believe that God will reorient the galaxy on our behalf.