Growing Authentic Community

Friends, you will agree with me that when one of your body cell is sick, the entire body feel the same pain and most likely end up been sick if proper care is not given to that one cell that is in pain. The same way the body of Christ- the church is sick because we often ignore the significant role the small/cell group play to the overall development and growth of the larger body.

The health life of any church is not limited to its numerical or financial strength alone. As good as these might be, the health life of any church is a measure of its quality and quantity growth. The former has to do with the spiritual dimension while the latter is all the physical dimensions- numerical, financial & material strength.

 It is unfortunate, however, that just few ministers of God are conscious of the spiritual dimension i.e. the quality aspect of church growth. Many are just too impatient; they want the quantity side of church, just to arrive at all cost into limelight. Friends, the church of Jesus is never built that way. Not even with the Master Himself. The spiritual dimension will always give birth to the physical or else it will never be the healthy church that Christ promised to build; where the fullness of God will be experienced by His people.

Therefore, to restore health- quality & quantity growth dimensions to the body of Christ, we must return to the basic. And the cell/small group is essentially our fundamental i.e. the unit building block of church life.

Let’s consider the essential components of a small/cell group ministry. These components make a small group different from any other group activities in the church. 

These components are:

1.     Community

2.     Evangelism

3.     Discipline, and

4.     Multiplication

The proper harmonization of the above essential component will inspire healthy growth to the entire church body. We shall look at these factors one after the other.

1.     COMMUNITY:  this must be at the core interest of any cell leader. This is the glue that holds and brings other factors to play. Community can be defined as living in ‘oneness’ with God, and with each other (regardless of our many differences). In the praise of brotherly love, David said: “How wonderful it is, how pleasant, when brothers live together in harmony! For harmony is as precious as the fragrant anointing oil that was poured over Aaron's head, that ran down his beard and onto the border of his robe. Harmony is as refreshing as the dew from Mount Hermon that falls on the mountains of Zion. And the LORD has pronounced his blessing, even life forevermore”. Ps 133:1-7 (NLT)

 Jesus as our final authority did emphasis this oneness in His last prayer for the church: “My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father — that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me”. John17:21 (NLT).

Friends, it takes both God’s power and our willingness, through choices and commitments, to build community. Community doesn't just happen! It is simply living in unity with God and each other. We cannot do ministry without this subject of oneness. It will amount to waste of time and giving the devil the room to laugh us to scorn. The body of Christ must be united with God in spirit, soul & body. The same way with each other for us to really occupy and continue the ministry of Christ here on earth. The church is sick without authentic community in place. Jesus, when asked what the greatest commandment is, He summed it up as this: 

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”. Matt 22: 37-40 (KJV).

Unity often leads to bonding. And we all know there is a big difference between the quality of life in a crowd i.e. large church celebration service and the quality of life in small group meetings. Gathering in smaller groups offers more intimacy than the typical Sunday morning service allows. And even in small groups, bonding can take efforts BUT not impossible. However, when intimacy/bonding is first established in our small/cell groups in the home atmosphere, it will ultimately impact positively on the larger congregational service.

Please, my dear friend can you sleep over and meditate on this scripture: “And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech”. Gen 11:1 (KJV). Beloved, one language and one speech is what community is trying to achieve. And that is also our Master’s prayers for His church. And there is no limit to what we can achieve with community. Evangelism, discipline and multiplication of leaders become the easiest with authentic community rightly in place. The people of Babel with wrong motives almost achieved their objective except for the quick intervention of God Himself. All because, they were of one language and one speech!

There is no ending to the message on community but I like to leave you with this last scripture: “You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. James 3:18 (Message Version). Friend, this scripture is possible with home cell or small groups anywhere.

Growing a healthy Church...

One of our small group meetings

The church of our Lord Jesus Christ often begins as a little tiny seed. When properly sown and nurtured in the right atmosphere of love and power of the Holy Spirit, grows and become the greatest tree on planet earth, due to its inherent life giving power.

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like a tiny mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds but becomes the largest of plants, and grows into a tree where birds can come and find shelter."  Matt 13: 31 (TLB)

Every minister of the gospel commissioned to plant or pioneer a new church for God must first appreciate the nature of seeds and their stored up potentials that enables them to transform from seeds into plants and finally into trees. To grow a healthy church, is to understand these stored up potentials residing in any seed. Ignorance of this might lead into frustration and failure as one attempts to do ministry for God. This will help you to remain focused and not comparing yourself with neighboring church/ministry.

And church like our biological cell is a living thing with all the characteristics of any known living things; such as growth and reproduction. A church of God could start as small as a living cell or as a tiny mustard seed (i.e. small number of members) but with unlimited growth and reproductive capacity when properly sown and cultivated in righteousness.

Running a small group-base church has been proven in several places and culture to be the best way to steadily grow the church of God from a micro state to a mega church.  See again the progression: “…It is the smallest of all seeds but becomes the largest of plants, and grows into a tree…”

Small group ministries, when properly sown like the mustard seed into the soil of any church and well cultivated will inspire the entire body to healthy growth and the life of reproducing leaders or disciples will be at its best.

Friends, whatsoever state “your church” may be, you need the benefits derived from small group ministry. Whether the church is in micro state or mega state, you cannot ignore the potentials of small group activities. Dominion Impact church, where I serve is a small group based church and we are grateful to God for equipping us with this tool to grow His church. We have evolved from a seed into "plant" and we will continue to grow thereby. 

In my next write up, I will share with you some of the major components of any small groups that will impact positively on the life and health of any church, be it small or mega church. Till then keep enjoying your ministry with fresh oil!

Impacting our Community with the Love of Christ

Several kids from Iju-Ishaga Community (New Oko-Oba area) of Lagos state, Nigeria on Sunday 27^th January 2013 gathered in our home to celebrate the New Year with thanksgiving to the almighty God. The thanksgiving service was anchored by my wife, Pastor Blessing. She gave thanks on behalf of these kids to the almighty God and in turn exhorted the kids to be of good moral conduct to God and to their parents throughout the year 2013. Food and drinks were served to relish the occasion. And gift items also shared with the kids.

After the party, the kids joyfully returned home to share their experience with the family and friends. While they also encouraged and invited other friends to attend the normal weekly fellowship that comes up every Sunday. Positive feedbacks revealing the hunger of some of their parents for God also reached us and we trust God to turn them in for God. What a good opportunity to bless our community with Christ love through these kids.

Worship session

Opening prayers

Food & Gift items shared

A kid doing the dance for God

Exhortation time

Refreshment time

Refreshment time

Group photo

What is Small group? Part 2

Small groups, practically speaking is different from our early morning Sunday school classes; from a bible study groups or prayer warrior groups. Except this groups are saddled with the purpose of community, evangelism, discipline and multiplication ONLY then would they fix into the definition of a small group. 

Like the example of our Lord Jesus’ ministry while on earth,His initial objective to choose twelve men was to train twelve men who could bear witness to His life and carry on with the work after He has gone. Unlike many ministries today, there was no proof that Jesus was in a haste to deliver the mandate attached to His ministry. The delivering of His mandate is attached to the success of these twelve selected men in a small group setting. The Lord therefore, spend quality time modelling His life and ministry to the twelve selected disciples. This is not to say that Jesus didn't have time to minister to other people outside this small group of twelve men- Jesus was indeed a crusader as well as small group lover.

i understood from Jesus’ strategy for successfully growing a church/ministry, is to start from small group and grow it upward to become a mega church. And I think you will agree with me, everything great in life started small. With determination and conscious efforts could become great, multiplying everywhere. This is simply Christ strategy for His church and we present day ministers of the gospel ought to follow suit.

Beloved, do you want to see growth in your church/ministry? I encourage you to embrace the small group. Organize your leadership and member into small groups of believer with the goal of community, evangelism, discipline and multiplication. As you and your team begin to work at it, you will start to experience quality and quantity growth in your church. These quality and quantity growth is what makes your church/ministry full of life and healthy.

What is Small Groups

Small Groups by definition is a group of four to twelve people meeting weekly outside a church building for the purpose of Community, Evangelism, Discipline and Multiplication of leaders. This is a wonder working tool in the hand of any serious minded pastor that is hungry for all round growth and development of the church and God's people.

Jesus our perfect example in the work of ministry couldn't do without it. He employed this simple tools as He attempted to reconcile the entire world for God. He has all the power & anointing to win the entire world for God but He rather chose the best option- Small group of twelve disciples. which after training, latter took their city by storm and subsequently making the gospel available to us all.

Small groups, when embraced and entrenched into the core activities of a church's life will ultimately help the Church to promote quality and quantitative growth. Love; soul winning and discipline are common features of a true small group based church/ministry.

We shall look at this in greater details latter.

Many blessings of God be upon His church

Pastor Elijah Samuel