Missional Communities

Missional Communities Small Group Leader Training, September 13, 2008 A Theological Foundation for Missional Communities Home Groups Value According to a survey done by Barna Research Group says that 70% of Americans say the church is not meeting their needs. When asked what those needs were they responded with 6 major things: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

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believe life is meaningful and have purpose have a sense of community and deeper relationships be appreciated and respected be listened and heard grow in faith receive practical help in developing a mature faith

These needs can be met in a variety of forums, but none more comprehensibly than Home Groups. The purpose of Providence Church is to glorify God through lives changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. If that is really what we are about, the changing of lives, that will primarily happen in your homes, under your leadership. Our dream is to saturate every neighborhood in Frisco/Little Elm with these Missional communities that can serve as a light to that neighborhood. City within a City, Neighborhood within a Neighborhood, Family within a Family The primary obstacle is going to be changing our mindset from building “small groups” for us to planting “home groups” or “Missional communities” for Jesus. Over the past 30 years in church life a new emphasis has really dominated the ministry landscape. It is the emphasis on “community.” Emphasizing community is not bad at all, and seeking and building community is Biblical for sure, but have we taken it too far. Have our longings for community replaced our passion for our mission? And, do our longings for community come from deep-seated conviction from the Scriptures or an increasingly isolated and transient society? So what should we be accomplishing in Home Groups? Before we answer the question personally or culturally we should figure out what the answer should be. Does the Bible value mission

over community or community over mission? Or does it value either over the other? The best way to answer this question is to look at the purpose of church in general and home groups in particular. The reason we come to church and join home groups is primarily to be “sanctified.” Our goal in life is to, by his grace, become more and more like Christ. Everything in the Christian life is to help us accomplish that. Sanctification is best defined as “a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.” (Grudem, Systematic Theology, pg. 746) We are supposed to put sin to death in our lives. “But you were washed, you were sanctified” (1 Cor. 6:11) The text we use most often is 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” Home Groups are primarily to assist us in this work. “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins” (Hebrews 10:24-26) With that understood, what is the best emphasis to get us there? Should we then be all about confession? Should we do sin inventories every week? Should we get closer and more authentic with our group? This is the issue we will face in leaving a “small group” model and entering this home group, Missional community model. When we speak of putting sin to death we automatically go to a place of inward concentration. How many times have you heard or been made to read through Acts 2:42-47 since you have been involved in Small Groups? It is the model for community right? Let’s look at it: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their

homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:4247) This has been used as the passage to encourage us to build deep and meaningful relationships with other Christians, but I want you to notice how these relationships are being built. Look at what is going on in this “Home Group”: They are: • And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching (Truth) • Fellowship, And all who believed were together and had all things in common (Community) • to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles (Christian Spirituality) • and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need (Foot-Washing) • God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Missional Living) In this Home Group they are abiding in all the same “core values” that we do as a church. So we see that Home Groups aren’t supposed to be the “community” value exclusively, but rather have expressions of every value. Every Home Group should be growing in truth, developing meaningful relationships, expressing love to God, considering one another more important than ourselves and living to rescue the perishing. So, at least we must move away from a view of groups that is so narrow. So how can Home Groups accomplish all of this? Every pastor I have ever met talks about becoming an “Acts 2 Church.” But I have never heard a pastor dream of being an “Acts 1 Church.” In order to be Acts 2 you have to get Acts 1. In Acts 1 we see what causes this whole expression of life in community and on mission. Work though Acts 1:1-5, then read: So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come

upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight." (Acts 1:6-9) So they are scared out of their minds, and they have just been through a whirlwind of emotions together. They went from a week and a half ago the triumphal entry to Jesus being arrested, beaten and then publicly humiliated and murdered. They thought it was over. And then Jesus comes back, raised from the dead and again they believe, like during the triumphal entry that their time has come. They ask, “"Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus responds not with an answer, but with a mission. And the great commission is born. Read On “Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” (Acts 1:13-14) We see this community birthed out of great desperation and being bound together by a love for Jesus and a desperate loyalty to his mission!