Children grow up fast.
Faster than most parents are ready for.
One moment they are little kids running through the house, and before you know it they are driving cars, making plans, and starting families of their own. As parents, we joke about wanting them out of the house, but the truth is, most of us are not really ready when the time comes. Sometimes I want my 32-, 29- and 26-year-old ‘children’ to be 13, 10, and 7 again. Still, growth is healthy. It is good that children grow up. It is good that they mature. Healthy things are meant to grow.
The same is true of the church. However, the church was never meant to simply grow into crowds. It was meant to live in community.
When Jesus began His ministry, He chose twelve men to follow Him closely. Along the way others joined them. After His resurrection there were up to 500 of believers. Then Pentecost came, and after Peter preached his first public sermon, three thousand people were added to the church in a single day.
That kind of growth sounds exciting until you begin asking practical questions: Who is going to disciple all these people? Who is going to care for them? Who is going to help them mature in Christ?
It had been easier when there were only 120 believers gathered together in a room praying. They knew everybody. Life felt manageable. But healthy churches, like healthy families, are meant to grow.
The early church quickly realized that in order to grow big, they had to stay small.
Acts 2 tells us they gathered together in the temple courts, but they also met from house to house. (Acts 20:20) They worshiped publicly, but they lived relationally. They built a culture of deep community.
Scripture says, “They devoted themselves to the fellowship.”
That word “devoted” means to cling faithfully to something, giving it consistent attention and priority. Fellowship—koinonia—is more than casual friendship. Fellowship is the churchy word for community. It is shared life. Shared burdens. Shared growth. Doing life together in community!
The world pushes us toward isolation. We build privacy fences around our lives. We learn how to smile in crowds while hiding the pain that is really happening in our hearts. It is easy to wear a mask on Sunday morning for ninety minutes. It is much harder to wear that mask when a small group of people truly knows you.
But that is where transformation happens in the midst of community.
The early believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching because they wanted their lives shaped by truth. Jesus never intended for people to simply attend church gatherings; He intended for them to become like Him. Real spiritual growth happens when a few committed believers walk together, encourage one another, and help each other obey Christ.
Who is helping you grow spiritually? I am writing this right after spending a couple hours with 10 other people that I have been doing life with for a couple years now. That picture are those people bringing real life stuff before a sovereign God who loves us!
Who knows your struggles well enough to pray specifically for you? Who is helping you become more like Jesus? Who lets you rant, complain, cry and then picks you up and walks with you through the pain?
The early church also valued compassion and service. They cared for one another deeply, met practical needs, and shared generously. Their compassion became visible action. Because of that, there were no needy people among them, and the surrounding community saw something beautiful in the people of God. Something they didn’t have but knew they wanted.
And as they lived this way, the Lord continued adding to their number daily. They valued multiplication, not addition.
Healthy disciples make disciples. Healthy groups multiply more groups. Healthy churches prepare themselves to care for the people God sends.
Community, Transformation, Compassion, Service, and Multiplication. That was a new way of life. Life lived together in close community with other believers.
Growth without community creates crowds. But growth with authentic fellowship creates mature followers of Jesus. God still desires to add to His church today. The question is whether we are willing to move beyond comfort, beyond isolation, and into authentic biblical community.
3,000 in one day. My math says that is 300 small groups! Who are your people?
Sometimes the way God grows something big is by teaching it to stay small.
Ted Harris
Associate Pastor