The number one passage in the Bible that has been a substratum for my vision of ministry has been Acts 2:42-47. Here is how Eugene Peterson renders it in The Message):
They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. Everyone was in awe – all these wonders and signs done through the apostles! And the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person's need was met.
They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added to those who were saved.
There is something about the life of the early church – its commitment to God in Christ, to Christian truth and to each other that takes one's breath away.
Leonard Sweet calls the Acts 2:42-47 church “an MRI church.” A Magnetic Resonating Image machine sees inside the human body in a deeper and more detailed way than an X-ray or even a CAT-scan machine can do. In the same way this passage lets us see most deeply into the nature and the power of the Christian church. This church is missional – what happens in this church has a natural outreaching, missional quality about it. It does not exist for itself. It exists for the community and for the world in which it finds itself. This church is relational – people really care for one another. They show this care in all sorts of practical ways. And this church is incarnational – it embodies the life of our Lord. I guess that's why people wanted to belong to this church.
One way I've discovered something of the warmth and love and contagious Christian power of the early church is in small groups. Wherever I've ministered I've tried to encourage the formation of a number of small groups within the congregation: whether they be neighbourhood Bible study groups, women's or men's Bible studies, home fellowship groups, growth groups or care groups. It doesn't matter what one calls them. But there is a decided focus, usually to study the Bible, although there can also be other purposes for such groups such as marriage enrichment, book club or community justice issues. Someone is passionate about starting such a group and begins to recruit people individually, personally. The group commits itself to meet weekly or biweekly and arrange other details of meeting and life together. A small group is best comprised of no more than a dozen people.
I've found there must be four basic elements to any successful holistic small group: There will be some time for worship. Perhaps it will only be an opening prayer, or some prayer for each other at the end of the time of meeting. There will be some time for study – of the Bible, or of the other issue the group wishes to engage. There ought to be some ice-breaking questions that give people permission to share before you dig down deeper into the passage you are studying. And everybody ought to be able to participate. There will be some time for community-building. Hospitality and getting to know and care for one another is an essential element of the group. The beauty of a small group is that it is truly a place where everybody knows your name. As a result genuine pastoral care can take place within the group. And there will be some focus on evangelism or outreach. There must be a sense that this group is not just an 'in' group; it does not just exist for itself.
Participants, especially the leader, must wish to draw others in and so the group will be ready to reproduce when the opportunity presents itself.
All kinds of resources are available for this kind of group. Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and Shaw Publishers, as well as a number of churches that specialize in small groups, like Willow Creek, publish the kind of material that can help you get started. Roberta Hestenes who taught me everything I know about small groups has an excellent resource Using the Bible in Groups.
The bottom line is this: once you have enjoyed the down-to-earth input, laughter, tears, togetherness and the power of such a small group you will even want to begin making committees into communities!
