I am seventy-three years old, grew up in churches, was baptized before becoming a teenager, and have been around churches and Christians all of my life. But looking back on my past, for me the real life of the church has not been in services and sermons. In seventy-three years, I have heard a LOT of sermons; but the sermons that have had a real impact on my life? I wouldn’t need all ten fingers to count them.
I love music. I have played guitar since I was 15 years old. I started leading the singing in church services while still in high school. And I love both the old hymns and the newer praise music. (Aside: both genres have some great songs, some good songs, and some duds that need to be forgotten.) But the music is still not the real life of the church.
For me, the real life of the church has always been the smaller gatherings of Christians outside the official meetings, whether an official “small group” meeting or informal get-togethers.
This goes back to the first church I was part of as an adult. While I was in Bible college, I became part of a group of students and former students from the old Cincinnati Bible College that operated a store-front mission church in a slum downhill from the school. We didn’t have a pastor; we were studying for ministry, so we just shared the duties among us. But a couple of times a month, we got together informally at a home and just spent time together. And those gatherings were what really kept the operation going.
Later I was part of a startup church that was small-group focused. And the group I was part of was the best I have ever been in. And the reason for that was that we did not just sit in a living room doing Bible study. If someone had a birthday, we went out to eat as a group to celebrate. If someone was moving to another residence, we switched our weekly meeting to the weekend and pitched in. (Some of us had been stuck moving without any help in the past; we didn’t let that happen for any of our group!) And one night, we started the Bible study, but just weren’t getting into it. Someone, I never knew who, said “Aaah, let’s go bowling!” So we did! And we learned more about each other that evening than we had in months of studies.
From that small group, over forty years ago, I learned that the real life of the church is not in sermons and services; it is in sharing life together: sharing each other’s burdens and joys, eating together, playing together…sharing life, not just studying the Bible. Over the years I have been in a lot of church small groups. The worst groups were the ones that had a preacher or professor as group leader—the skill sets needed for their jobs were not what was needed to lead a small group effectively. And the best, invariably, did more than just study the Bible.
The largest church—and the only “mega-church” I have been part of had tons of small groups—hundreds of them. At any given time they had a couple of hundred twelve-step groups helping people deal with addictions and other issues, but also hundreds of fellowship groups meeting in homes during the week.
The last church I was part of had small groups part of the time. But one quirk of that church was that their people seemed to want their small groups to meet at the church building! In two and a half years, I was only in gatherings three times at someone’s house! About the time I left, they were finally starting a group that was going to meet at a McDonald’s—about a block away from the church building! I guess for them that is a step in the right direction, but….
If you go through the New Testament, the church shown there is not a building. It is not a seminary-trained pastor. It is people—ordinary people, getting together to share their life in Christ. Now I have seen too many pastors who regard small groups as just another program, something they can make use of, or not, according to what they think is convenient for them.
So what is the church? Is it a lecture hall? Is it a denominational structure? Is it a building? Is it a hierarchy of popes, archbishops, bishops, and other people with titles?
Or is it people? People who have chosen to follow Christ in their daily lives, and should help each other to live that out.