Building On the Foundations:
You Can’t Fly With Broken Wings
God organised the NT church is a specific way. The people met together in the main gathering and small groups.
Acts 2:42-47: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
God organised the NT church is a specific way. The people met together in the main gathering place, the temple courts, eventually they were scattered and met in Catacombs, fields, by rivers, and so on. They also met in each others homes, where they celebrated communion.
God organised His church with two meeting places, two wings. William Beckham, in his book, The Second Reformation, writes: “The Creator once created a Church with two wings: one wing was for large group celebration, the other was for small group community. Using both wings, the Church could soar into the heavens, entering into His presence and to do His will over the earth. After a few hundred years of flying across the earth, the Two-Winged church began to question the need for the small group wing… The two-winged church that had soared into the heavens was now for all practical purposes one-winged…. From time to time, the Church dreamed of flying into the presence of the Creator, and doing His will over the earth… In compassion the Creator divinely stretched out His hand and reshaped His church so it could use both wings. Once again the Creator possessed a Church that could fly into is presence and soar over the all the earth, fulfilling His purposes and plans.”
Our Lifegroups exist to fulfil the SERVE mandate but they do this through three basic premises: to nurture growth, to run together, to be missional.
If you’re already part of Lifegroup, you’ll already understand this, but here’s some reasons to join a small group:
1. An Opportunity to Show Love.
People often say to me, “Life Church is too big, we don’t know anyone or smaller churches are better.” The truth is Life Church is not too big. The two wings of God’s Church include big meetings.
We need the second wing of the small group to be able to fly.
Smaller churches are not better, all people mean is that they feel loved because they know more people in the nucleus of the church.
Life Groups are a fantastic way to may a larger church feel smaller.
Romans 15:7: Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God
Isn’t this a beautiful verse? It reminds us if you’re looking for a perfect church, you’re never going to find it. Instead of trying to find a church that’s perfect, why don’t we just obey this command? Why don’t we accept one another, and begin to love each other, and watch the improvement that happens when we truly love each other?
Psalms 133:1: How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!
2. An Opportunity to Give Help.
Galatians 5:13: You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
When we serve one another, we put their interests before our own. Jesus showed us how when he washed the feet of the disciples as we saw last week. We also saw that serving others brings the blessing of internal happiness to our souls.
The way that the church is made a fellowship is that no one stands alone.
That means that Lifegroups become a place of support, by running the race together. Being alongside one another.
Sometimes things do not turn out the way we expected. When they don’t we need others, even spiritual parents, to come alongside us.
Show Derek Redmond video. Derek was a media favourite in the 400 metres at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He finished last. But He finished.
3. An Opportunity to Give Guidance.
Colossians 3:16: Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
We’ve all heard that two heads are better than one. We know that
Proverbs 27:17: As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
Notice that the Bible told says how to develop our ability to give good advice: Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly. . . you need to know the Word before you can share it in advice. Lifegroups are a pace of learning too.
You know more than you think you know. God has given you revelation, insight through experiences and also plain common sense. Not all the reaching happens from the platform in any church, we are constantly teaching one another how to do things.
4. An Opportunity to Give Friendship
Proverbs 17:17: A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity
Most people will think their church is friendly, once they are in it, because their friends are here. We miss so many opportunities for friendliness to welcome others because we are in our individual friendship groups.
I’ve heard people berate cliques in churches for years, but cliques are actually a sign of a church’s strength too; they demonstrate people have found a home.
On a Sunday, in our large gatherings, we are ALL part of two teams. We are all part of the worship team. We are all part of the welcome team. That means each of us should come prepared to worship. Each of us should come prepared to welcome someone we don’t recognise.
Therefore, as many as possible should have a welcome booklet and when we see someone we don’t know (because we will all generally sit in the same area of church each week) invite them to sit with you.
But friendships are developed at another place, in the small groups or Lifegroups.
Years ago there was a TV series called Cheers. it was set in a Boston bar and featured characters who all shared the bar in common. The theme song’s refrain could have described the reason for Lifegroups:
“Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.”
Or another hit show was Friends, and it’s refrain went like this:
“But, I'll be there for you, when the rain starts to pour.
I'll be there for you, like I've been there before.
I'll be there for you, cause you're there for me too.”
Friendships are reciprocal.
It was more than comedy that kept people watching, it was the friendships.
Friendships in Lifegroups are so powerful.
Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12: Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: 10 If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. 11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? 12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. One final thought before we wrap this up with some discussion time.
I spoke at the beginning about the two-winged church. Let me put this another way for you. A jet aeroplane is flying along and one of it's engines cuts out. Will it go around in circles? No. It will fly slower though. And flying slower means it may lose altitude. it may even hit stalling speed if it’s flight angle is not adjusted, or the weight it is carrying slows it more, or it just puts too much strain on the remaining engine.
Going through church life with no Lifegroup involvement means we put a strain on our spiritual lives, we do not grow as fast, do not fly as high as we should and are in danger of stalling.
Wrapping this up:
For the next five minutes I would love you to spend time chatting with the person next to you discussing the three statements/question on the screens:
I belong to a LifeGroup and I love….
I don't belong go to a Lifegroup because…
Should we host a Lifegroup?
We are always looking for opportunities to expand the network of Lifegroups. If you’d like to host one, let me know. If you work in the city and would like a Lifegroup near Liverpool Street Station, definitely let me know!
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