Every Tuesday morning at ten o’clock my Dad meets with some friends from church for a late breakfast. They politely take over one corner of their local Bob Evans restaurant and spend the next two hours talking together. There are a lot of smiles and a lot of laughter. Sometimes, there are even some quiet tears. The food is important, but it is definitely secondary to the conversation and interactions these Christian friends have together.
Sometimes I am priveleged to join them. I go with my Dad and he always buys my breakfast, no matter how many times I offer to buy his. They usually have me sit next to or across from a wonderful retired pastor who is part of their group. His name is Glen Lockwood. He is the former pastor of Grey Road Baptist Church in Indianapolis, where this entire group attends. Pastor Lockwood has for many years been something of a mentor to me, and talking with him is like getting a personal pastoral seminar along with my breakfast.
But I spend a lot of time just listening to these good friends talk to each other. They sit at a round table, or two tables shoved together, look each other in the eyes, and talk about anything. The topics can include Bible questions (answered expertly by Pastor Lockwood), “a funny thing happened to me this week” stories, childhood memories, and even how you met your spouse and what your first date was like. Sometimes, they share how much they miss a husband or wife who is now with the Lord. And whether they realize it or not, they are obeying Scripture and doing exactly what the Lord told us to do.
The New Testament is full of “one another” commands: bear with one another (Eph. 4:2), speak the truth with one another (Eph. 4:25), be kind one to another (Eph. 4:32), sing to one another (Eph. 5:19), submit to one another (Eph. 5:21), forgive one another (Col. 3:13), encourage one another (1 Thess. 4:18), build one another up (1 Thess. 5:11), do good to one another (1 Thess. 5:15), exhort one another (Heb. 3:13), stir one another up to love and good works (Heb. 10:24), pray for one another (James 5:16), and love one another (1 John 4:7). And an awful lot of those things were taking place around that breakfast table in Bob Evans. (That isn’t a plug for Bob Evans. I’m pretty sure it would work in Cracker Barrel, too.)
I always leave those breakfast meetings encouraged, and with a lifted heart (and a full belly.) Maybe it was some advice Pastor Lockwood gave me. Maybe it was just hearing the laughter and seeing the obvious love these people have for each other. Maybe it is seeing how their faith in Christ is acted out in practical ways as they face various circumstances in life. Maybe it’s all of the above. But I always leave feeling built up, at least a little. And I know my Dad does, too.
This illustrates the importance of small groups.
Every Christian needs to be part of a weekly large group worship experience, where you come together with many other Christians and focus on worshipping God. We do this by singing together to God, praying together to Him, listening together to His Word, and responding together in prayer, praise and sometimes repentance. In gatherings like this, it is entirely proper to all face more-or-less in the same direction, symbolically looking toward, not the pastor, but the Bible, the tangible Word of the invisible God we worship. Even the preacher is facing the Word of God. The focus is to be on God.
But you can come to worship meetings like that and never really connect with other Christians in any meaningful way, other than to shake hands and say hello. That’s where small groups come in.
We love God, whom we can’t see, by loving others, whom we can see (1 John 3:17, 4:12). And a small group, whether a Sunday School class, a home Bible study, or a weekly gathering of Christian friends for a shared meal, is the perfect context for the “one another” stuff to take place.
I can’t tell by shaking your hand or looking at the back of your head if something is wrong with you or if you are burdened by something. But if I sit across from you week after week, and see your face and look in your eyes, then it’s easier to tell if you’re going through a hard time. And then it’s easier to help you bear your burden, if I can (another “one another” thing the Apostle Paul told us to do: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” – Gal. 5:2). Or, maybe you can help me bear my burden.
We need to worship God together. And we need to love God by loving each other. That happens best in a small group of Christians who meet together on a regular basis, to talk, laugh, cry, and look at Scripture together.
And let me tell you, throwing some pecan pancakes and bacon into the mix doesn’t hurt a thing!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor David