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Teaching podcast from the Eagle Community Church of Christ in Mont Belvieu, TX.
Hey friends. This is John Guenter at the Eagle Community Church of Christ. You're listening to sermon number 3 in our I Will series. This one's about growing together with others. So, that's our challenge.
John Gunter:I hope this sermon helps and I hope it encourages you to grow together with your brothers and sisters at church. Get committed. Grow some roots. We'll see you. By Tom Rayner, and the scripture we will read is Acts 2 again, from verses 42 through 47.
John Gunter:And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers, and awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. Apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
John Gunter:How many of you want this church to grow? Yeah. What if I told you, I know how to help it grow. What if I told you not only could I help that, but I could help us all as individuals grow closer to each other and closer to God? Would you sign up for that?
John Gunter:Would you change your schedule for that? Would you do things differently than you are doing now to make that happen, would you? Well, that is the I will statement from this chapter because the way we can do that is by saying, I will grow together with others. That is a statement of commitment. That I am choosing to grow, not alone as some kind of solo Christian, but I am wanting to grow together with others.
John Gunter:Last week, we talked about how out of Acts 2, that's what we see, right? We see a difference than probably what you see and experience each week here. Yes, we come together as a collective, but what we see in Acts 2 is they were often together. Right? They were often together so much so that they knew each other's needs and they knew what I needed to sell to make sure you got what you needed in your life.
John Gunter:They fellowship together. It said they broke bread together, and that's what we see as the church begins and often what I get or have gotten when we talk about growing together with others, and we are going to talk about small groups and making the church smaller than the bigger collective, is well, I don't see that, you know, pushed in the New Testament. I don't see that. Well, we read last week, both from Philemon and from Romans chapter 16, where they didn't meet in a building like this, did they? They met in homes.
John Gunter:That's all they had. They either met in homes or common spaces where they could all meet up like we've done before at the park, right? Let's meet at the pavilion. And so, why doesn't the Bible talk specifically about small groups like this? Well, I think it does.
John Gunter:Larry Osborne, says it this way, when the New Testament was written, the typical church was so small that it was in essence a small group. Almost all of the New Testament churches met in a home, all of the values and benefits that a small group brings, they already had in place. And that is by a, that is by Larry Osborne again, and and what you see there is he wrote the book Sticky Church. That kind of sounds weird, but what he means is we want people to stick when they come. And to be able to stick, you have to be involved and you have to commit.
John Gunter:And part of that commitment is getting into a smaller group. Why? Well, I'm gonna tell you why. Tom Rayner says this. He says, he did a study for a book or a research project he was doing.
John Gunter:He said, those church members who became involved in some type of group in the churches were 5 times more likely to be active in the church 5 years later compared to the worship only attenders. We did not include those who moved to another community, became incapacitated, or died in the dropout category. So you're saying, okay. Those we know had other reasons. Alright.
John Gunter:We didn't include those. But the people that were there and didn't have those reasons, they were 5 times more likely to stay after 5 years than people who only came to worship. Now, he defines small group as small groups as we define them. He talks about being in Sunday school, and when he talks about his Sunday school in the chapter, he talks about a Sunday school that not only met at, you know, 9 AM on Sunday, but also we do stuff together. And that was his version of Sunday school, so that's the way he talks about this.
John Gunter:So 5 times more likely. So he said, I had to check the results a second time. They were astounding. More than 83% of those who joined and were involved in a small group were still active in the churches, but only 16% of those who attended worship services only remained in the churches 5 years later. And so what do you get from that?
John Gunter:Well, would you like to be in church 5 years from now? Because often what we we get in church is we get all the problems, but I don't want to change to be able to fix the problem. That's why I asked you the question, you know, you you had to answer before I brought all this up. Right? Like the example I've told you, you know, I just I don't feel like I fit in.
John Gunter:I'm not making any friends. Well, why do you get here late and leave early? I'm willing to gripe about it and complain and bring all of that to you, but I'm not willing to change so that I can fix it. And so that's what you should get out of something like this as well. Okay.
John Gunter:Well, do I want to be a part of this church? Some of you may be sitting here right now saying, I don't feel like I fit in. I don't have a lot of friends. Well, who are you spending time around? Right?
John Gunter:Are you spending time? Are you choosing to make time for people in this church? It can be awkward sometimes. One thing I do Katie and I try to do is when new people come, we try to go out to eat with them because so much more can happen around a table than anything else, right? Our service today is not built for you to come in here and just really gain traction in your relationship with someone, right?
John Gunter:We didn't even open it up to meet and greet, right? We've got some introverts in here, they freak out. And so it's different, right? It's different. That is not what this is for.
John Gunter:You know, you do have some relationship with people that you just see, but you are not ever going to grow a deep relationship just by coming and sitting in a room with other people. That makes sense. So let's start with this. Why are small groups so powerful? Number 1, the relationship factor, what we are just talking about now.
John Gunter:Do you want a relationship with other people? This is how to do it. You take time out of your day. You take time out of your week. You decide I'm going to spend put myself out there.
John Gunter:That's dangerous, I know. But I'm going to put myself out there and grow that relationship. Do relationships take work, folks? Gentlemen, how many flowers did you buy before you felt like you had a lockdown and didn't have to buy them anymore, right? Finally got it.
John Gunter:It takes work, right? I've got a plan. I want, I care about this person, I care about this thing, and so I'm going to put out effort for this relationship, right? You wouldn't say it was a healthy relationship otherwise if you weren't putting out effort. Right?
John Gunter:Let me just go ahead and warn you, put your steel toes on. Because Rayner says this, he says, if you are not in a group, Rayner says this, you if you are not in a group, you are not really committed to your church. If you are not in a group, you are at best a marginal church member. If you are not in a group, the likelihood of your dropping out from your church is high. Because guess what?
John Gunter:If I'm not committed, if I haven't got roots, if I don't have a relationship with many people in the church, it's not hard to leave. Is it? You go visit a church later on today or next week, You don't you don't feel like you have roots and that, like, a reason to stay. Right? You can leave.
John Gunter:You don't feel bad about that. Right? I just visited. That's it. I don't have roots.
John Gunter:I don't have a connection, and and that's what it's like. Right? But when you put down roots, you have put down effort, right? And it feels harder to leave, it feels harder to just be negative all the time because I care about this thing, I have put effort into this thing, right? Well, if you didn't like that, you won't like this.
John Gunter:If you are not in a group, you could be a Christian slugger. That means that you may be an incredibly lazy and uncommitted Christian. And again what he is saying is oftentimes what we do is we gripe or maybe we don't care even to do that. It's because we are lazy and we don't want to put in the time and our calendar is already full, right? This week flew by for me.
John Gunter:I'm still trying to figure out how it's already Sunday. But our calendars are full and we don't leave room, and the only way that is going to change is if we put it down, right? If we prioritize what we see here, and hopefully that is the case. Number 2, the ministry factor. You can do much more ministry in a small group than you can just out of here.
John Gunter:You know why? Just like the people in Acts 2. I know what you need. You know what I need. You know what I'm going through.
John Gunter:I know what you're going through, and we minister to one another. We take care of one another. That's a way I'll tell you elders have it rough sometimes because they look out and they're like, how am I supposed to shepherd and know anything about a lot of these people. Right? Because we've got so many people as a whole.
John Gunter:But when we're able to break that down into smaller groups within the church, well, then that's manageable. Right? The first person, the first people that should know what you're going through are the people in your small group. People that you're around that you've committed to. Like, we are going to meet, as he said, maybe every Wednesday.
John Gunter:I'm not sure which day Mickey meets, but Mickie has another group who meets other days. But that's the one I am committed to. That's what's going on, right? And then from there, we can, okay, we need to be praying for this person. And real ministry happens.
John Gunter:You ever felt like you didn't know how to get involved in ministry? I think we've all felt that. I want to help, I get that a lot. I want to help, but I just don't know how. Get involved in a small group and learn what's going on in people's lives, and the ministry is right on your doorstep.
John Gunter:It is right there. All you have to do is be willing to say yes, and I will help with that. You want to feel like I am involved in ministry? Do this. Number 3, the teaching factor.
John Gunter:What we do, what we have done in our small groups is we have done sermon based small groups. So every time I preach, like over a subject like this, we will we will have in our small groups questions again about the lesson. Not everybody does it that way. Sometimes we've even we're even talking about maybe doing videos this this semester. Just to get us more in the word.
John Gunter:Anybody ever felt like, man, I don't read my Bible enough. If I ask all of us right now how many of us were a daily Bible reader or when the last time you read your Bible, we might be real embarrassed, wouldn't we? But we're willing to say that or we're willing to know that I don't read my Bible enough, but I'm not willing to change that habit and fix it. Right? And so part of our small group time is what we say is we are growing closer to God, we are building those deep relationships with each other, we are also growing closer to God.
John Gunter:Closer to God and closer to each other. That's my prayer every time I pray with my boys, that's what we want to do, is grow closer to both. We read this a lot, men especially, we like to put this on t shirts. I don't know if it's because we are made out of iron, I don't know, we'll figure that out. From Proverbs 27:17, Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
John Gunter:When we are able to get in these smaller groups, we are able to encourage one another in Scripture. Right? We are able to hold each other accountable. Now accountability may be something you don't want. I like being out here not feeling like I'm tied to anything.
John Gunter:You can blend into the wall if you want. You understand that, right? When Katie and I moved from a church of 120 to a church of 450, we had the option to just blend in like wallflowers, right? Nobody would know we were there. That's an option you have even in a church our size.
John Gunter:But if you want to grow in in your relationships with your brothers and sisters, if you want to grow closer to God, Scripture is telling you iron sharpens iron and one man sharpens another. Get involved, have that ministry connection, have that teaching connection, be with each other. Number 4, the evangelism factor. And he talked about it earlier when he talked about small groups. That is an option you have.
John Gunter:That is an opportunity you have to reach people that you might not ever thought would have anything to do with church. I'm throwing a birthday party. I'm inviting some folks from small group because we've built these relationships. We love one another. And guess what?
John Gunter:The neighbors, they like food too. Y'all know that? I think I told you, but I I worked in finance at a motorcycle shop when I was in college. And one thing you find out really quickly is if you offer food, everybody from every part of the county is going to show up and want a hot dog. Cheap old hot dog or hamburger, frozen hamburger, and everybody and their mama is going to show up for food.
John Gunter:You have opportunities to open up your home to your neighbors. You ever felt like that? Well, I don't know people that I can share the gospel with. I don't know how to do that. We feel that way sometimes, don't we?
John Gunter:Feel inadequate, I don't know how to do it. I wouldn't even know how to start. Start here. To put yourself in a position where, again, okay, we have built this group, we built this relationship, and we are inviting other people in. They might not have come here, but they might come to your house, walk across the yard.
John Gunter:Why groups matter? Number 1. The health of the church is tied to the health of the groups in the church. Let me say that again, so that kind of gets in your brain. The health of the church, the health of our church is tied to the health of the groups in the church.
John Gunter:So, obviously, there are two options there. We're either healthy or we're unhealthy. So, do you want to form healthy groups or unhealthy groups? Because that's what we have in churches, right? If we're healthy, people are desiring to meet with one another, to grow in our relationships, to learn from Scripture, to do all of these things, and if we are unhealthy you ever see an unhealthy group in church?
John Gunter:If we are unhealthy, what we do is we form cliques, and we start griping, and we start texting, and we start calling, right? And then all of a sudden everybody is mad and negative, and everybody loves to go to that church, don't you? You walk in and the air feels tense and you're like, what has happened here? Because those are the options. The the health of the church is tied to the health of the groups in the church.
John Gunter:What do those groups desire? Is it I want my way or the highway? Or is it I wanna grow deep relationships with my brothers and sisters? Right? Number 2, groups in the church help close the back door.
John Gunter:Rayner talks about this, Larry Osborne talks about that again in Sticky Church. That's the idea that when people come to us, we want to make sure they're not slipping out the back door. It's interesting to to work in a church where a lot of people are on shift work. Right? You may not see Tyler for for a while.
John Gunter:You know, he gets put on a, some kind of shutdown or turnaround and, you know, see you in 3 months. Right? And so, especially in a church like ours, where people are on those types of schedules, it is easy for someone, oh, he's working, and then you realize it's been, like, 8 months. Right? You realize they have slipped out the back door.
John Gunter:Well, groups in the church help that. Right? Because ideally, if someone is out, you still have their family as a part of the group. Right? You know what's going on.
John Gunter:You understand that, and okay. We close the back door on that. Rainer says this, Think of the implications of the statistic that he brought up earlier, 5 times more likely. That person in a small group is 5 times more likely to be in ministry. So if they've stayed, right?
John Gunter:If they're more likely because they joined a small group, they are 5 times more likely to be in ministry because they're here. Right? 5 times more likely to share their faith, 5 times more likely to have a deeper knowledge of the bible because that's what we've been doing this whole time, and 5 times more likely to hear the gospel because they said yes and they got involved versus sitting back, not growing roots, not committing, and then you have no tithes and all of a sudden, well, I could stay or go. I don't really care. So the issue is not simply about closing the back door.
John Gunter:It is it's about believers having a deeper walk with Christ. Amen? We're not one to just keep people, so we tout, hey, we've got a 100. Right? Or we've got 300, and we we kind of rest on that.
John Gunter:And I've talked about that before. Churches love to gather and count and count that as some kind of victory. What really matters is believers having a deeper walk with Christ. Period. Right?
John Gunter:It's about churches becoming healthier as a result. It's about the power of groups. And number 3, groups allow you to commit to your church. I changed this up a little bit from his, his and his chapter here. This allows you an avenue.
John Gunter:Again, I I I had so many people in so many situations like, I want to do this in church, but I don't know how. Well, if you want to get involved, again, start here. Commit to something. Commit to the people in your group. And, Heath mentioned earlier that, we would take more small group leaders.
John Gunter:I know we we at least have one person that said they would be happy to lead it if we can find somebody to just open their homes for it. Okay? That can happen too. Some of you may look at the list next week and think, I don't like any of those people. Well, if that's the case, let me just ask you first, pray on that, please.
John Gunter:We will read some Scripture together. But if you don't like the time or the, like, I don't get along with them or whatever, form your own group. This is not about our church exercising power over you. I've been involved in churches and thought, We will just assign everybody to a group and every single time that fails because they didn't realize sister so and so does not get along with sister so and so, right? Or brother.
John Gunter:It's always the man doing that, too. It is not about a power, it's that we want to open our eyes to the power of other Christians living life together, encountering scripture together. And you might think right now, I don't need all that. Well, try it and tell me later. Actually commit, do the work, and then let's talk about it.
John Gunter:Don't sit here skeptically. We're skeptical about everything, aren't we nowadays? Don't sit here skeptically and think, Ah, that won't work. Again, what we do oftentimes, we just think about ourselves and not the power of god. Not the power of god working through us, not the power of god working through our brothers and sisters.
John Gunter:And so we sit skeptically and think, well, that will never work, And so we don't commit because we have chosen not to. Sorry. He says it though. Let me be clear, Rayner says. If you're not in a small group or Sunday school class, you are not fully committed to your church.
John Gunter:You are a marginal or peripheral member. You may be in the larger gathering of corporate worship, but you are not in the community. And don't forget, you're not in a group in your church, you are more likely to become disenchanted with your church. You're more likely to become a critic instead of an encourager. You're more likely to drop out of your church.
John Gunter:That may be hard to hear this morning. But what are the reasons why I'm not involved in something else? What are the reasons why I've chosen to say no to forming those relationships? Deepening the relationships I already have? Do you really feel it's not worth it?
John Gunter:Do you really feel you don't have time? I think a lot of times it's like those days or evenings where we think, well, I don't need to go to church, I'm too tired. And then you go to church and you realize that's the only thing I needed. That's exactly what I needed. Yes, it was tough and I had to get through my mind to get there because I was so tired and then you think, well, how would I have done it without it?
John Gunter:And that's what I think we ought to think about. Again, from Acts 2:42, And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, apostle. And all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and, you catch that, and breaking their bread in the and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
John Gunter:One of the a popular study that we do in scripture is to look at the one another passages. You ever done that? I put together 11, but there are a ton of them. Love one another, build up one another, admonish one another, serve one another, forgive one another, submit to one another, bear with one another, teach one another, comfort one another, encourage one another, stir up one another. And I'll tell you this this morning, we cannot practice the one another's if we are not around one another.
John Gunter:Let me say it again so we can take that home with us. We cannot practice the one anothers if we are not around one another. So, stop thinking you can. Stop thinking that because I came to worship that I have done all that I need to do. Because we are called to be the body of Christ.
John Gunter:We are not called to just sit back and watch. We are called to be a functioning part of the body, each and every one of us, no matter what your gift is. So what are you gonna do? I think he should have had that sign up this morning, I'll be honest with you. We are going to have an invitation and we are also going to have a small group signed up at the same time.
John Gunter:Let's do that. You have the option this morning. I don't even want to limit it to, like I said, the day we meet or the groups that we have already. I'd love for you to get involved in one of those if they have openings. But again, don't let anything like that be a hindrance to you.
John Gunter:If you have a group in mind that, man, we would be good together, we would text all the time, we'd email, we'd joke together, form that group. Get together, don't make it a click, right, have it an open thing, but do it. Put effort, commit to your brothers and sisters right here. Do you want to be in church in 5 years? Kids often, though when they get to college age, we wonder what's going to happen with them, don't we?
John Gunter:The kids often, once they leave the house, and especially once they start forming their family, what they often do is come back to what was shown them by mom and dad. So now that I've got a family, now I know I need to start going back to church, and I want my kids to grow up learning about the Bible. So what is it that you're showing your kids and grandkids? What is it that they're going to try and emulate? Is it a deep rooted Christian faith, grounded in scripture and surrounded by brothers and sisters?
John Gunter:Or is it a shallow understanding of we just come to a place at a certain time and go home and feel better about it? So which is it for you this morning? Will we commit right now that I will grow together with others. I always got a song of invitation picked out. If there's anything we can do for you this morning, would you come as we stand?