LH Disaster relief from Chase Gardner on Vimeo.

Intro Clip from Chase Gardner on Vimeo.

I just had the opportunity to talk with a guy I’ve been seeing roam the halls of our church with a mop or broom in hand the past few weeks. His name is John. At first I thought he, and the man that was always with him, were simply fulfilling some community service hours. This is a common enough occurrence. But I noticed that John’s friend had a few social and mental challenges. A few minutes ago I went and introduced myself and asked what led him to the church. I love what John told me.

John recently received a degree in Microbiology (or something very smart like that). He had plans of going to med school soon. He’s been involved in one of our men’s bible studies. Over the past few years he had realized some things. He realized that if he wanted to follow Jesus, and excel in his medical career, he needed to get intentional. His heart towards the mentally or socially challenged wasn’t warm enough in his mind. He knew that he would have patients like this and knew for a fact that God wanted to use him to help people, challenged or not.

Now, for the majority of us, the process would stop there. We might pick up a book or casually mention this “struggle” during prayer time. But John’s not like the majority of us. Through a friend he hooked up with an organization that partners handicapped adults with a partner in order to train them in job and social skills. John’s been working with his partner for the past few months. And that’s why I’ve seen him every other day or so mopping, vacuuming, and doing other odd jobs around the church.

John got intentional. He didn’t waste time over thinking or over reading. He took some steps and the change has begun the happen. John knows that he gets as much out of his service as his partner does. His heart has been softened. And his life has been changed because he began to simply take Jesus at his word and act.

You’ll be seeing a video of John soon. May this little story encourage all of us, especially those involved in Small Groups. It’s not enough to desire to change. It’s not enough to study a few books and pray together.  We have to act on it. I love how George MacDonald puts it:

Faith in Jesus Christ is to learn his ways by going and doing them, not trying to understand them first, or doing anything else whatever with them first than obeying them.

Luke 17:7-10
“Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

These four verses have kept me up for the past few nights. Can you believe Jesus actually said this?

Imagine saying this to your small group or congregation. “Listen guys…I know I’m asking a lot of you. I’m asking you to love God with your whole heart, to love each other the same way Christ loved you, and to radically change the communities in which you live. I’m asking you to give up on the American Dream, drain your bank accounts, give all of your time and resources to the Kingdom, and to live as pilgrims on their way to their true home. But, in reality, this is the status quo. This is mediocrity in the Christian life. This is simply what God expects. So you won’t be getting any thanks from me…just the occasional pat on the back.”

This is not a good way to build a church or establish a volunteer base. But it’s true.

For years the American church has been content with building large churches, organizing programs with a lot of involvement, and helping raise up comfortable and knowledgeable Christians who don’t do bad stuff.
But what Jesus is saying here is that God is not comfortable with these goals. They simply aren’t big enough. They aren’t large or massive enough. They are, in a word, NORMAL.

And this is what I’ll be trying to get across to my Life Group leaders. And this is what gets me excited. Jesus understood that each man and woman who is a follower of Jesus has the capacity to completely turn the world upside down. From Moses to Abraham; Paul to Peter…scripture consistently paints an amazing picture of the power of a committed and intentional life.

Each and every leader has the gifts, passions, and vision to turn the Triangle upside down. And what I see in the eyes of every leader I meet with is a hunger to do just that. They just need a little encouragement- someone to come along side of them and say, “You can do this! I promise you…you can. You have the very Spirit of God dwelling inside you for crying out loud!”

Many will say “But this was in Bible times. Things are different now. If we can just get people to read their Bibles and pray a little we’ve done our job.” But I refuse to believe this. Didn’t Jesus say something along the lines of “You will do greater things than me”?

So what are we waiting for?

We’re waiting for 1, 2, or 3 individuals to stand up and reject goals and visions that aren’t worthy of their attention. We’re waiting for people to rise up and do what’s expected of them. We’re waiting for a generation of people to finally live as they were created to live. And, God willing, I and a few others will be those people.

I love what Mike said this weekend. It’s time to act on what we know. There’s no point in learning if the knowledge simply sits inside our heads and hearts. It must be used for the good of our communities and the glory of God.

I went with my friend Byron McMillan today to “drop off a check” to an inner city ministry in Raleigh. I put that in quotes because we ended up hauling dry wall for a good hour. The ministry was Ship of Zion. It was…well…to be honest, not what I expected.

I had heard much about this ministry during the weekend services at our Church. I expected a large building filled with people doing a few things pretty well. What I found was a small, tattered building with people coming and going doing a lot of things with excellence and love.

Its in the part of the city that will cause most of us to lock our car doors promptly and try not to make eye contact. In the course of an hour we saw a few drug deals go down, a few working girls, about 13 cop cars, and a swat team doing a sweep of a house. We heard about the poverty, the crooked cops and politicians. We heard about the gangs and life on the street. But, drowning out all this noise was the voice of one single pastor ushering in the Kingdom of God.

The dry wall will be nailed in place tomorrow to make in a two-room house used for “re-entry”. The residents will be folks recently out of prison or off the streets. They will take classes at the church, receive valuable job training, and re-enter society afresh with hope in their hearts.

And this type of action is slowly becoming more common than the drug deals and swat raids in the area. The community has embraced Pastor Chris and his ministry. So have the local Police and Politicians. One man, ten years, and a whole lot of prayer are slowly paying off..

And that’s the thought I came away with. Before Ship of Zion, nothing was being done. It’s simply not enough to write a few checks and give away our extra stuff. If the Kingdom of God is to replace the shadowy places, it won’t be due to politicians, government programs, of national organizations. The Kingdom will follow ordinary radicals who take Jesus at His word. Pieces of heaven will appear among normal individuals living extra-ordinary lives.

And what gets me so excited is the 1,500 people in our small groups whom God wants desperately to use in this way. In all honesty, I think we’ve learned as much as we need from our book discussions and socials. If we truly long to see the Word of God come to life…it just makes sense to start actually living it out.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to hop in the shower. Dropping off checks is hard work.

Interesting article by Brian Jones and why all churches should kill their small groups ministry. It seems as if this idea is in vogue right now. It sounds radical and cutting edge. But in reality it’s one mans brave announcement that he doesn’t have the time or energy to Re-Think small groups. I would agree with some of the article, but not the conclusion. It’s time to resuscitate, not give up. Here’s an excerpt. You can read the whole thing here.

A few years ago I brought in a nationally recognized pastor to do some consulting for our church. One of the things I remember most about my time with him was a side conversation we had about small groups.

“I haven’t really figured out the small group thing,” I confessed to him.

“Well, Brian, that’s because they don’t work. Small groups are things that trick us into believing we’re serious about making disciples. The problem is 90 percent of small groups never produce one single disciple. Ever. They help Christians make shallow friendships, for sure. They’re great at helping Christians feel a tenuous connection to their local church, and they do a bang-up job of teaching Christians how to act like other Christians in the Evangelical Christian subculture. But when it comes to creating the kind of holistic disciples Jesus envisioned, the jury’s decision came back a long time ago—small groups just aren’t working.”

“Finally,” I said, “I’ve met someone who’s got the guts to euthanize this small group sacred cow.”

I have been leading, participating in, championing, and applauding the efforts of small groups for the last 20 years of my ministry.

But now I’m done. In my opinion, they just don’t work. Let me share why.

Easy…life changing…who can’t do this?
(Disregard the Max Lucado promotion)

Holy Huddles…That’s what I tend to think of when I think of Small Groups. I picture in my mind a few suburbanites eating some scones and trying to figure out what the Bible means to them. Week after week they pile into a living room, some excited, some not so excited. And when they leave, not much has changed.  It’s what we do as part of Mega-Church America. Its a part of life.
But, and hear me out on this, I have the creeping suspicion that Small Groups could be so much more. Sure they provide us with needed Biblical truth. Sure, they give us a few good meals when we get sick and some good laughs once a week. And, yes, they even provide a way for people to connect to each other and live in the midst of community.
But is that all? If it is…I can get most of that from a book club or knitting society. I feel like the great leaders of the “Small Group” movement have stiffed me. They have sold me a bill of goods that they simply can’t deliver.
I think its time to Re-Think Small Groups. I don’t mean re-think the ways we promote them, or organize them, or train their leaders. I don’t mean re-think the leadership structure, the content of the curriculum, or their place in the church.
I mean Re-think their potential, their power, their influence. Re-Think the crazy amount of skills, passions, gifts, and love that exists in every group. Re-Think the dramatic and incredible potential each group has to alter forever the communities in which they live.
You don’t put a Sheep dog indoors, teach him to sit and roll over, and pride yourself in the fact that you have a well trained companion at your heels. No!!! You set that sucker free in a field and watch him work. He was created to run, bark, herd, and wrangle. If you do anything less than this, you’re limiting him. You’re treating him unnaturally. You’re doing him a great disservice.
And so it is with our small groups. Our leaders are passionate, talented, diligent, and worthy of respect. You don’t take those types of people and bring them indoors to teach a 30 minute lesson. No! You set those suckers free. Show them needs and let them meet them. Fill their hearts with passion and watch them work. They were meant for adventure, for world-changing acts, for ushering in the Kingdom of God. Don’t hand them a new Andy Stanley book and make sure they schedule in their social for the month. Give them a vision, a dream, and a broken down community…and watch them work.