"One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans.”
Screwtape, a senior devil, instructing a junior devil on how to tempt and trap humans. C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
“I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity."
C. S. Lewis
Small groups are about relationships, growth, family, rest, encouragement, accountability . . . you might say it is one main place to do what a family does, or better, what a family should do.
We currently have 4 small groups, three in Poolesville and one in Frederick. People are free to choose where they will go, but we do ask that everyone commits to one of these groups. There are some guidelines that are followed for each group, but there is great flexibility in how they are organized and what takes place on every given Sunday night.
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One member of our congregation and small group leader says it like this:
Our vision has been to host a regular gathering of believers (whatever their ages) to come together and do what a family does (or better, should do). We eat, talk, and play to be sure. But we also pray, share, and disciple. We've tasked ourselves with focusing on keeping the gatherings authentically Christian AND organically relational. Our experience with "paint-by-number" small groups has consistently been dissatisfying because such groups have never felt "real". We want people when they leave the small group, to know that they are loved.... that they just experienced being loved.... and that they were able to demonstrate love. We'll all know these things if we all work to build each other up through support & encouragement, through fun & learning, and through prayer & even sometimes gentle rebuke.
We haven't yet formalized any structure, at least not like would be very typical of other small groups. That's partly because we don't want to position it as a Bible study; there are other groups for doing that. We also don't want to position it as "fellowship" because too many interpret that word as simply "come eat, then leave when you're full". Our motivation for doing this was a desire to break away from the same old tired molds, and actually start living as the church. It's possible more structure will evolve over time, but if so I hope that it always springs up from the gifts of those who attend and never sacrifices the genuine for the artificial.
At its best, people will see in our group what it's like to live regular lives as Christians. We don't want people to feel that gathering for devotions, or Bible study, or "fellowship" is Christian, while everything else is not. We want people to recognize that all of our life is Christian, and our faith is to permeate all aspects of our life. This means a "Christian" barbeque is someone different (better) than a "normal" barbeque. A "Christian" discussion over finger foods is different (better) than a non-Christian discussion. Our relationships with brothers/sisters in Christ are different (better) than our worldly relationships. And so on.
