5 Purposes of Life Groups
The purposes of life groups are fivefold.
Life Groups provide: our social interaction needs, an outlet for worshiping together, a basis for learning the Bible where others' thinking aids our own thought processes, a place where we can support each other, and finally, life groups are an agency through which we may serve God together by serving others.
1.
SOCIAL INTERACTION Whether we like it or not we were made for fellowship, and our wellbeing depends on it.
If I think back to the times I've struggled most emotionally and spiritually they have been times when I been most isolated, yet there are been times when I dealt with significant pain through the support of good men and women all around me and managed surprisingly well.
Perhaps the most enjoyable part of the life group experience for many is this meeting of social interaction needs, where we just meet and relax together.
The truth is we were not meant to be alone, whether individually or alone just with our marriage partners or in our families.
We need to fellowship of those around us to protect us from becoming isolated.
2.
WORSHIP GOD TOGETHER Worship is the most essential purpose for life.
We all worship, and that is why it is important to worship God; to take off the pedestal all those idols we would otherwise worship.
We may worship God alone, but there is something about communal worship that may intensify our experience.
Something of God's Spirit moves between us and within each of us as we worship together.
Each life group meeting should have some aspect of worship, whether it is singing, meditating, praying, or silence, etc.
Worship is directed thought toward God alone.
It's practicing being present with God.
It is the engagement of our heart with the one and only one Source of Life.
3.
LEARN THE BIBLE TOGETHER Central to our faith is our belief in the Bible as God's Word to a fallen and now restored people.
There is a direct correlation between our studying the Bible and the status quo of our spirituality.
The Bible provides for the mind and heart what the physical body seeks to find in homoeostasis - maintenance and growth.
The Bible and other biblical teaching inspires thought, challenges us, encourages us, and it heals us.
We learn biblical content during Sunday sermons, but if we leave it at that our spirituality may be close to barren.
It would be like eating only on Sundays - soon we are hungry, and the rest of the week we would definitely starve.
Life groups are the spark for further enquiry and they are the bridge between Sunday's sermon and our own private study of the Word.
We need all three: learning publicly on Sundays, learning within the life group community, and learning privately.
God speaks to us in and through all these.
4.
SUPPORT EACH OTHER Pastoral care is what underpins community, because we can demonstrate our love by practical works of support.
Through supporting each other we have the basis for growing together, because we rely on each other and have opportunities to bless each other.
The best pastoral care comes from those who know and love us.
As a pastor of pastoral care I know your general needs and I can meet them, but I will flounder without unique information about you - what you appreciate from what you don't like.
Your life group leaders and fellow members know how to reach you better than others do, as you know how to reach them better than others do.
The life group should be an environment intimate enough that we may know instinctively what one member or what one family requires regarding support.
As a life group we will know what to pray for and how to pray, because many times prayer is all we practically can do - in and of itself, prayer is sufficient.
5.
SERVE TOGETHER We are saved to serve.
Jesus wants to redeem us back to the Father because he knows how important it is for every human being to be reconciled to God.
The extension of that relationship is the exercise of love.
As God loves us and we grow in our love for God, God gives us opportunities to grow in our love for all the others around us.
Serving is the means to that end.
Serving is a loving pursuit.
If there is no selfless love in serving it's not serving.
Life group intimacy and trust is built on experiences of serving together, with and for each other.
As we serve others, by serving with our fellow life group members, we must cooperate with them and them with us to be effective.
To love others in our serving as a life group, we must first love those in our life group we are working with.
It is how we treat those in our life group that other people notice.
Our actions speak like a megaphone.
God teaches us a great deal about ourselves and about others, and how to deal relationally, when we serve others through serving as a life group.
© 2014 S.
J.
Wickham.
Life Groups provide: our social interaction needs, an outlet for worshiping together, a basis for learning the Bible where others' thinking aids our own thought processes, a place where we can support each other, and finally, life groups are an agency through which we may serve God together by serving others.
1.
SOCIAL INTERACTION Whether we like it or not we were made for fellowship, and our wellbeing depends on it.
If I think back to the times I've struggled most emotionally and spiritually they have been times when I been most isolated, yet there are been times when I dealt with significant pain through the support of good men and women all around me and managed surprisingly well.
Perhaps the most enjoyable part of the life group experience for many is this meeting of social interaction needs, where we just meet and relax together.
The truth is we were not meant to be alone, whether individually or alone just with our marriage partners or in our families.
We need to fellowship of those around us to protect us from becoming isolated.
2.
WORSHIP GOD TOGETHER Worship is the most essential purpose for life.
We all worship, and that is why it is important to worship God; to take off the pedestal all those idols we would otherwise worship.
We may worship God alone, but there is something about communal worship that may intensify our experience.
Something of God's Spirit moves between us and within each of us as we worship together.
Each life group meeting should have some aspect of worship, whether it is singing, meditating, praying, or silence, etc.
Worship is directed thought toward God alone.
It's practicing being present with God.
It is the engagement of our heart with the one and only one Source of Life.
3.
LEARN THE BIBLE TOGETHER Central to our faith is our belief in the Bible as God's Word to a fallen and now restored people.
There is a direct correlation between our studying the Bible and the status quo of our spirituality.
The Bible provides for the mind and heart what the physical body seeks to find in homoeostasis - maintenance and growth.
The Bible and other biblical teaching inspires thought, challenges us, encourages us, and it heals us.
We learn biblical content during Sunday sermons, but if we leave it at that our spirituality may be close to barren.
It would be like eating only on Sundays - soon we are hungry, and the rest of the week we would definitely starve.
Life groups are the spark for further enquiry and they are the bridge between Sunday's sermon and our own private study of the Word.
We need all three: learning publicly on Sundays, learning within the life group community, and learning privately.
God speaks to us in and through all these.
4.
SUPPORT EACH OTHER Pastoral care is what underpins community, because we can demonstrate our love by practical works of support.
Through supporting each other we have the basis for growing together, because we rely on each other and have opportunities to bless each other.
The best pastoral care comes from those who know and love us.
As a pastor of pastoral care I know your general needs and I can meet them, but I will flounder without unique information about you - what you appreciate from what you don't like.
Your life group leaders and fellow members know how to reach you better than others do, as you know how to reach them better than others do.
The life group should be an environment intimate enough that we may know instinctively what one member or what one family requires regarding support.
As a life group we will know what to pray for and how to pray, because many times prayer is all we practically can do - in and of itself, prayer is sufficient.
5.
SERVE TOGETHER We are saved to serve.
Jesus wants to redeem us back to the Father because he knows how important it is for every human being to be reconciled to God.
The extension of that relationship is the exercise of love.
As God loves us and we grow in our love for God, God gives us opportunities to grow in our love for all the others around us.
Serving is the means to that end.
Serving is a loving pursuit.
If there is no selfless love in serving it's not serving.
Life group intimacy and trust is built on experiences of serving together, with and for each other.
As we serve others, by serving with our fellow life group members, we must cooperate with them and them with us to be effective.
To love others in our serving as a life group, we must first love those in our life group we are working with.
It is how we treat those in our life group that other people notice.
Our actions speak like a megaphone.
God teaches us a great deal about ourselves and about others, and how to deal relationally, when we serve others through serving as a life group.
© 2014 S.
J.
Wickham.
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