Since Enrique and I are in Costa Rica as missionaries, family and friends commonly ask us how church is going. Enrique’s specific role at our church is the small groups director. North Point Community Church (our home church) has a goal of having 80% of their congregants in groups. As a new church, our goal is 60%. So far, people have been meeting in homes for short-term 6-10 week studies. This month, we are introducing long-term 18-24 month groups.
At the end of January, Julio gave a talk (that’s contemporary code for “our pastor gave a sermon”) about the importance of small groups. While you may be very familiar with this concept and welcome it, a lot of people have not heard of small groups. After the sermon, people were asked to fill out a card if they were interested in joining a group. Enrique was hoping that about 30% of our average attendance would sign up. Would you believe that over half of the congregation expressed interest in “doing life together”?!?
Now we have the exciting challenge of placing people in groups according to their spiritual maturity, age range, marital status, and area of town where they live. Enrique’s had smoke coming out of his ears for the past few weeks trying to figure all of this out. On top of that, additional people continue to visit our church’s website to register for small groups.
Some people are hesitant about making such a long-term commitment with strangers. The good thing is that the first eight weeks are just about getting to know each other (a dating period, if you will), so if someone doesn’t like the group for whatever reason, they can regroup.
Many of the singles don’t like the idea of separating men and women. After all, they’re single and want to be around the opposite sex! While there will be plenty of opportunities for singles to mix and mingle, it is a fact that long-term groups are more effective when single (never been married, separated, divorced, widowed) men meet with other single men and single women meet with other single women. There is a greater sense of openness and trust.
On February 29, everyone who signed up will be meeting at a restaurant to form groups. Please join us in praying for the people who have signed up. We want for their experience in small groups (Círculos is what we’re calling them here) to be great. Enrique is teaching people that the term small group isn’t just a code word for Bible study. It encompasses two other elements which are deep bonds with the other people in your group and reaching out to others in the community. He likes to say that it isn’t about the transference of information, but about life transformation.
The video says it all. Enjoy!
