Small Group Ministry

(under construction)

 

Up Gilbert Mesa Scottsdale Youth South 2 Children Tempe area Chandler Men's Group Women's Group
WHY SMALL GROUPS?   Hardly a week goes by that someone doesn't ask me, "Why a does your church focus on genuine relationships so much?" A good answer is found in THE GLADIATOR. There is a key scene in this popular movie where gladiators in the Coliseum armed only with shields and spears are set up to lose—and they are bound to, since their opponents have all the advantages of weapons (archery) and mobility (chariots). However the Russell Crowe character is a trained legionnaire. 
To be effective, Roman Legions of that era organized into smaller units for defense. When attacked, or when moving right on to the gate of the enemy, soldiers locked shields together on each side and above, into a 27 man testudo formation (literally, "turtle", a bit like an armed tank.  In the Coliseum, these gladiators  remember their training. Suddenly the tide was turned. Arrows bounded off. Chariots were overturned. Soon they were on the offensive. They worked as one body, & an unexpected victory was won!

 

We too are in a battle! Those who don't form together in genuine community with Christ will find themselves overmatched in the daily crisis, and God won't be able to use them effectively to minister to others in His Body. During War Years in Germany, the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, working underground, gathered disciples into small groups. He taught them that every Christian needed another believer to pray over him, bless, break inner vows, hear confessions, speak God's Word. "He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged...he needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother's sure." [LIFE TOGETHER, page 23].  

Why is the Christian Church in our day so INEFFECTIVE?  Why are so many repeating some OLD SCRIP, experiencing defeat after defeat? Why are we frying to bandage our own FESTERING WOUNDS, which prevent us from building trust, and receiving love? Why are so many missing God's Destiny for their lives, AFRAID TO WALK the path God has plainly set before them?
 There's an OLD NATURE tendency in all of us to NOT ask for help—to always try to prove our self-sufficiency. We joke that men would rather go home than ask for directions while driving. We think it is somehow an especially worthy feat to be utterly independent. In fact, we would rather fail (and often do) than ask for help! Do women have a problem like this? Satan loves to encourage the "/ can do if by myself" stance—the desire to be like God, fully in control, needing no one! Then you are left ALL ALONE, and easily defeated! We need to get back to the basics—believers who need Jesus, and who need one another; believers who will settle for nothing less than what God intended!  

What would "God's testudo" look like? I hope it's like your small group—with brothers and sisters caring for one another and working together to defeat the enemy, while reaching out to the lost!