OK … I just watched an online video of a guy explaining the difference between House Churches and Small Groups. His church is a church using the term “House Church” for groups that meet in homes. For five minutes he laid out what differentiates Small Groups from House Churches. Not one thing he said wasn’t being done in some churches who call their groups Small Groups, Life Groups, Community Groups, Family Groups, Huddles, Missional Groups, etc… ect… etc… He chose the stereotype of a small group he has embraced (dto his comments, I’d be nearly certain he hasn’t researched the amazing diversity that exists in the groups movement), then looked at the philosophy of his own church, then went on to differentiate between the two models. … One model he truly understands, his own. The other … he only knows what he has imagined those groups to be, not what is the reality.
For those of you who find it necessary to differentiate between what your church is doing (or the way the movement your church is connected to does groups) and other group approaches, you might want to keep in mind there are already groups that …
1. Meet together as families with kids as equals in the group.
2. Eat a full meal with the group gathers.
3. Are Gospel-centered.
4. Are on mission together to reach the subdivision they meet in.
5. Have leader who are considered elders.
6. Invite those far from Christ to be part of the group.
7. Baptize those who find Christ through the group in a group member’s swimming pool, and a group member baptizes them.
8. Believe the Bible is the primary curriculum.
9. Go on mission together.
10. Pray for, expect God to and have seen Him work miracles.
11. etc…
12. etc…
13. etc…
Creating a new term and a tweaked ideology may get you a book deal, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing something that has never been done before. After all, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecc. 1:9).
Perhaps the most dangerous groups pastor is the one who wants to do something that has never been done before, so he leaves behind tried and tested approaches. That pastor may be setting aside those actions and activities that have made a group a healthy, transformational, biblical group since the three years Jesus had oversight of His own.
