What’s the deal with Growth Groups?

If you’ve been about Richhill Presbyterian Church for any length of time, you’ve probably heard us talk about Growth Groups. Perhaps you’ve heard them called different things in the past - Small Groups, Community Groups, Home Groups, Discipleship Groups. Whatever you call it, the rose still smells sweet. But maybe you’ve never really been sure about what actually goes on in a Growth Group or what the point of it is.

At the most basic level, Growth Groups are the opportunity to gather with other people from the Church, get to know each other better, and open God’s Word together.

How that plays out over the years is a fruitful and beautiful thing. Each Sunday we come together as God’s people for worship and we have the privilege of entering into His presence and sitting under the teaching of His Word. It’s an incredible gift to have the local church with whom to gather and be taught. But often it can feel like an independent or individual event. It shouldn’t - we are gathering with our brothers and sisters after all! - but it can feel like something we simply consume with no effort on our part.

Growth Groups give us a unique space to engage with the text that has been taught. It’s a space to chat through the text, answering questions that you’ve been given in advance, and being able to ask any further questions you have. It’s not that others will have all the answers, but it’s a safe place to open discussion and point one another to Christ as we open His Word.

It’s a place to get to know others beyond that brief catch up after church each Sunday; it’s a place to be known by others. It’s a space to chat about your families and interests, yes, but it’s also a space to share the everyday struggles of life over a cup of tea or coffee as you chat with those around you. It’s an opportunity to share our lives, not just our answers on the page - it’s so much more than an academic exercise of a study. We can (and should!) study the Bible on our own, but when we come together in Growth Groups, we benefit from the richness of togetherness as we discuss God’s Word with our church family.

It’s an opportunity to care for one another, and also to be cared for. To mutually encourage one another, knowing that sometimes we go through seasons of giving more of ourselves to others, and that sometimes we need the space to be fed and served too. The mix of people, experiences, ages and stages within our groups is a beautiful reflection of the church at large and how God graciously calls all different people to Himself in salvation. It’s okay (and good!) if you don’t all share the same interests or experiences, because the gospel is our common ground. But all those wonderful benefits aside, why should you think about being part of a Growth Group? Here are three reasons to consider.

1. We’re saved into community

One of the many incredible things that happen at the exact moment of salvation is that we are saved into a people. We are not just graciously saved in isolation and left to figure it all out on our own, rather we are saved into a family. This was always God’s plan - we’ve been seeing that in our studies in Abraham. God promises to make Abraham a great nation in Genesis 12, and He begins to do so throughout Abraham’s life. But this nation, this family of God, goes far beyond Abraham’s life. In Christ - because of His righteous life, and His death in our place - we are brought into that very same family.

Perhaps your experience of nuclear family is something akin to the Brady Bunch, or maybe it’s more similar to Onslow & co. Whatever our human experience is and has been, God has graciously chosen to include us in His family as His children. His family is one of acceptance, love, grace and forgiveness. Fellow Christians become our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, aunts and uncles.

In an increasingly individualistic culture, being part of something bigger than and outside of ourselves is like a breath of fresh air. Growth Groups are one of the ways the church family gets to function as community on a regular basis.

2. We can engage more fully with the Bible

It’s right that we sit under the teaching of God’s Word each Sunday morning and evening - God has called and equipped men to put in the hard work of handling God’s Word rightly in order to teach the gathered church in worship services (Eph. 4:11-13; 2 Tim. 2:15, 4:1-2 etc.). But it would be wrong of us to think that the responsibility for us knowing and living out God’s Word lies solely with the minister at the front.

God has graciously given us His complete, perfect, sufficient Word - His very words breathed out by His Spirit and written down. We in the West have the freedom and ability to read it for ourselves, yet quite often we just don’t bother. We assume it’s too difficult for us to understand, or we fill our time with other good but lesser things. We have God’s very words recorded, and have the Spirit-author indwelling us as believers, but we can struggle to engage with it for ourselves.

Growth Groups are really great for getting us out of our struggle with Bible reading. Going beyond hearing the Word preached, we get to engage with it for ourselves, asking questions of the text and of one another. It’s a brilliant opportunity to ground the Word in our real lives and to discuss how we might practically respond to the text, while also having the group to hold us accountable to that.

As we read and discuss the text together, its rich truths are massaged into our hearts as God graciously transforms us by His Spirit.

3. We need one another

Even though we’ve been saved into a family, it would theoretically be possible to continue to function in a very individualistic way. But one of the beautiful realities for the Christian is that we’re all part of one body, the Church. The body is made up of many members, all of who are necessary for the health and function of the body itself (1 Cor. 12:12-26). What Paul is saying is that we’re all needed, and by extension, we all need one another.

As brothers and sisters in Christ, we are called to come alongside one another, encouraging and building up in view of eternity (1 Thess. 5:11), bearing one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2), and speaking truth in love (Eph. 4:15) amongst many other things. We are to mutually encourage one another in the faith (Rom. 1:12), something that we have the opportunity to do as we see that we are both needed and needy within the body of Christ.

RPC is a relatively big church, and so it can feel daunting to even begin trying to get to know others. It’s unlikely that we’ll know everyone in a big church, but we can know some people well. And if we’re each getting to know some people well, then everyone will end up being known. This often calls for vulnerability on our part and for the willingness to be known, but as we get to know other people in our Growth Groups better, and as we learn to love and trust them, we reap the reward (so to speak) of relationship, knowing that any perceived risk is worth it as we receive the blessing of belonging, and are pointed back to Christ.

Life is full and seems to be getting increasingly busy, so the idea of committing to another thing during the week might seem off- putting.

But as we choose to prioritise our church family and the Word of God, we will find blessing of community and spiritual growth. We will have a place to feel included and welcome. We will have a space to be cared for and known. We will have relationships with others that also want to grow in their love and knowledge of God. We will have the opportunity to learn and be challenged. We will laugh and share the highs and lows of everyday life.

However, maybe you’re in a season of life where it’s just not possible to commit to a group. That’s okay - you are no less part of the family of God just because you can’t meet with others at this time. Thankfully our salvation is not based on our church involvement! There will be days ahead when you’re able to get back involved. Or maybe you’ve not had a particularly positive experience of Growth Groups in the past and you’ve taken a step back in recent years; or you’ve just come out of a particularly busy season. Now would be a really great time to get back involved and we would love to chat to you about finding a group that would work well.

Growth Groups aren’t perfect, we all know that.

They’re made up of us imperfect people with imperfect motives and expectations. But God in His grace uses our imperfect efforts to bless us and bless others. May our Growth Groups bring glory to Him this year and beyond.