monday night, we wrapped up our summitlife leader training with a double-header on being a missional small group and dynamics and dilemmas in small groups. today i’ll talk about being a missional small group.
What does “Missional” mean?
To be missional is to act according to a mission, or a mission statement. In our case, the church has defined a very simple, succinct mission statement: “Love God, Love Each Other, Love the World.” We’ve already covered two ways a SummitLife group loves God in the first two posts on studying the Bible and Prayer. But, in being a missional small group, we also want to love each other (that is, those in our group and our church) and the world (everybody else).
Loving Each Other.
“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.” John 13:34-35
From this verse, we can take two very clear statements about loving one another:
- It’s a command! Christ clearly calls us here to love each other the way He has loved us.
- Our love is our testimony. The watching world should know us as followers of Christ primarily by our love for each other. See also Galations 5:13.
The small group should be a place where the love of Christ is on display. You’re in the best position to “be there” in times of need for the people in your group, because week in and week out, you’re in their lives. But this extends beyond the bounds of the small group. Your group needs to be involved with the church and its ministries. Challenge those in your group to be committed to a service ministry, and hold each other accountable for it.
The love of Christ is meant for more than just those people who are already in church, which leads to part three of our mission statement:
Love the World.
This is about showing the love of Christ to those who don’t already know it. In Acts 16, we find basically three types of people in the world represented:
- Lydia (aka, the God-fearer). She was a worshipper of God. Though she hadn’t heard the gospel of Christ, she knew God, and what she knew of God, she obeyed. She represents people who have a Christian background and are familiar with church, but haven’t ever made a personal commitment to follow Christ.
- Slave girl (aka, the disadvantaged). What appears to be a demon-possessed mockingbird that stalked Paul for several days actually represents more than that. Note that she was a slave to her masters, who sought nothing higher than financial gain. She represents those poor, homeless, or incarcerated (and otherwise disadvantaged) people in our city who need the love of Christ in a very tangible way.
- The Jailer (aka, the skeptic). The jailer here represents the watching world – those who don’t believe or follow God. They need to see us display the love of Christ for our testimony to be effective. Can you see that the love of Christ displayed here by Paul changes his heart? Notice that this was before they preached the Word to him.
All three of these people were witnessed to in different ways. Lydia came to Christ in what was basically a Bible study. The Slave girl was saved by the power of the Spirit (and even though it’s not recorded that she came to saving faith, in the New Testament, exorcisms are almost always accompanied by conversions). The Jailer was shown an act of love in a time of desperation. We have to be flexible with how we carry the gospel to the world, because people have different needs.
Our Mission Field.
In Acts 1:8, we are called by Christ to be his witnesses “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Well, we don’t live in Jerusalem… but we can apply the same model.
- Jerusalem – The Triangle (RDU area). This is our back yard – our city. In our SummitLife groups, we can reach people here through our church services, our evangelism, and our Hope For Durham projects and partner ministries.
- Judea and Samaria – Our Country (USA). We are partnered with church plants all over the country. SummitLife groups need to adopt a Church planter with whom you can be in constant communication and prayer for the things that are going on where they are. Small groups can also partner with these churches by sending people to go and spend time with those church plants to help meet their needs and encourage them.
- The end of the earth – International Missions. Again, the Summit is partnered with international church plants all over the place. The application is much like that for our North America church plants – Pray, Send, and Go.
Why SummitLife groups?
Simply put, SummitLife groups are the absolute core of our church – it’s where relationships are formed, and discipleship happens in relationships. These groups are the feet of the church – the means by which mission statements and ideals and beliefs become actions.
