Small Group
Today’s fast-paced lifestyle hinders many of us from forming meaningful relationships with other Christians. Although our worship assemblies and bible study groups have an important place in the life of the church, often they do not foster the close personal interaction that many desire and need. One way that we have found to cultivate this basic need is the formation of the small group fellowship ministry.
The primary purpose of small groups is to build close relationships and foster a deep sense of community. At the Davis Park church of Christ small groups from six to sixteen adults meet together in member’s homes at various times of the week. The topics discussed are based on the previous Sunday’s sermon and the format is discussion based, not speaker based. These small groups help keep members from feeling “lost in the crowd” and give every member a place where he or she can belong and minister to, as well as be ministered by, the body of believers.
Meeting in small groups is nothing new in the church. Jesus traveled with the twelve disciples and shared his most personal moments with his friends Peter, James, and John. The first Lord’s Supper was held with Jesus and the twelve in the upper room of a house (Luke 22:10-12). After Jesus was taken back into heaven, the disciples continued to meet in the upper room (Acts 1:13). Even after Pentecost, when church membership had grown into the thousands, members met not only as a large group at the temple, they gathered together in homes where smaller groups of disciples broke bread and praised God together (Acts 2:46). In fact, the New Testament often mentions small groups of Christians meeting in houses (Acts 12, Acts 16:40, Romans 16:3-5, 1 Corinthians 16:19).
Davis Park church of Christ strives to be a church where all members experience deep interpersonal relationships and share in the community of fellowship that Christ himself calls us to.