Oct 19

Written by: Rev. Ed Boon
10/19/2011 12:04 PM 

A woman was once taken to the hospital emergency room where she had a near-death experience while on the operating table. She sees God and asks Him if this is her time to die, and He assures her that she has another 40 years six months and 21 days to live. She remembers God’s revelation after coming out of the anaesthesia, and decides to make the most of her newfound longevity, so she orders a whole series of cosmetic surgeries. She gets the works—liposuction, face-lift, tummy-tuck, all of that. She even had professionals come in to change her hair color, an optometrist for contacts, and a clothing consultant for a new wardrobe. After the last operation she walked out of the hospital all dressed up and turning every head she passed. She was so impressed with her own appearance that she stepped off the curb in front of a speeding ambulance and was killed. When she got up to heaven she went to God and asked, “What happened, You told me I had another 40 years to live?” God replied, “I didn’t recognize you.” Have you ever wondered if God recognizes you, when he sees you? That maybe your life is not as consistent or as godly as it used to be? Have you ever done something and when it was over thought “that’s not me” or “I don’t know why I did that.” Do you feel like you are the exact person God wants you to be? What can you do about it?

A few years ago at a small groups conference the story was told of a church that looked as though it were really thriving: they had about 500 people attending, and had many outreach ministries reaching their community, and many people were coming to Christ and to church through their ministry. The problem was that the church was not growing in numbers – people were leaving as quickly as they were coming in. They began to do some research on the people who were leaving and they found that the majority who left were not attending another church, they just stopped going to church all together. They realized that although the church was great at evangelism, because of its inability to hold people, it was actually de-evangelizing their neighborhood. Those who were leaving were almost impossible to bring back into any community of faith. The senior pastor realized that something had to be done, so he called up that last 12 people who had been baptized and invited them to supper at his house. These were all new Christians and very excited to be invited to the Pastor’s house. After supper he sat them down and asked if they wanted to know the future. They all said “yes!” So he said, statistically speaking in the next 2-3 years… two of your marriages will have broken up and the shame will cause you to leave the church, three of you will have a conflict with someone in the church and you will leave the church, one will have a tragedy and lose faith and leave, two will have a moral failing and leave, and two will lose interest and drift away. In two to three years, out of this group only two of you will be attending church, and only one of you at this church. There was dead silence in the room. All these wide-eyed Christians were about to say “surely not I, Lord.” Then one of them spoke up and said: “What can we do to change the statistics?” The pastor said, you can get together and as a group decide that you are not going to let anyone go. That is exactly what they did – these strangers formed a small group and supported each other through the tragedies, divorces, conflicts and failings and in four years, only one had left the church never to come back. The church went from losing 10 out of every 12 converts to losing only one.

There is absolutely nothing unusual about the preceding illustration. It happens all the time in many if not most churches. We may think that we are in no danger of falling away, yet the apostle Paul says in I Cor. 10:12 “If you think you are standing strong, be careful, for you, too, may fall into the same sin.” (NLT) The long slide is not necessarily quick. It may be insidious. We go from attending church once a week to once every other week to once a month, then to only attending spasmodically. Finally we drop out. What can be done about this? Small groups are the answer.

Small groups will enable us to form relationships that will strengthen and encourage us. They will keep us accountable. The deep, personal, supportive relationships of a small group will enable us to grow in the Christian faith. Since I have come here to Bridgton many calls have gone out for help in moving from one place to another. This is normal. I don’t know anyone who is capable of moving himself all by himself. If this is true in changing from one physical address to another, why would if be any different with our spiritual house. Scripture always talks about the importance of the fellowship of the community. This intimate fellowship is not found in a Sunday morning service. The Sunday morning service is a time of celebration and that is important, but it is not designed to be a time of intimate fellowship. That sort of fellowship is found in the small group. While for some the small group may seem threatening at first I am sure that once involved you would find the group a real blessing. It is the place where we can be open and share our experiences, the place where we can be heard, the place where we are led by the Holy Spirit to minister to one another and to work together serving others.

Are you a member of a small group? If not, I would encourage you to join one. It will help renew your energy. It will spiritually restore your enthusiasm. We already have a number of small groups functioning in our church and others are presently in the process of forming. If you are not yet a member of a group but would like to join, contact the church office or speak to Debbie or me or Jamie Basil our small group coordinator and we will find the right group for you.