WE ARE BETTER IN CIRCLES THAN IN ROWS

Sermon Summary (7/30/17) “How God Changes Us: We Are Better in Circles than in Rows” (Acts 2:42; 46-47)

In 1992, I joined a Disciple Bible Study, my first real small group.  Life happened.  I once heard a Rabbi say of Bible Study, “When we gather we make this text sacred, but we share not just the words of the narrative, we share our very lives together.”  We are better in circles that we are in rows.

And that has always been true.  Jesus gathered his disciples in circles.  The first century church gathered in homes around the table.  In subsequent centuries, the church of small groups transformed Western Civilization.  William Wilberforce took advantage of Wesleyan Small groups in England to change the manners, the civility, the morals of a Nation.  John Wesley used small groups to “reform the nation, especially the church, and to spread scriptural holiness across the land.”  By the way, in the Methodist Episcopal Church, small group membership was mandatory.  To be Methodist was to be part of a small group.  We were better in rows.

Any student of Methodism will tell you that small groups were the heart and soul of the movement.  By 1850, 34 percent of all Americans were Methodists.  What happened?  By 1850, Sunday Schools became prevalent and Class Meetings, as small groups were called, were no longer mandatory.  Our amazing growth slowed and by 1950 we were declining.  Today, we loose the equivalent of all the Methodists in Kansas every year.  We need to be in rows again.  We are better in rows.  If we want to make a difference in our society, we need to be in rows again.

John Wesley believed that “Christian Conference,” what happened in small groups was a means of grace.  That when we gathered and asked of one another “How is your relationship with God?” When we witnessed the example of others and voluntarily submitted to be held accountable, amazing transformation was possible.  Discipleship is best learned in circles, a means of grace, a means by which God can change us.

Wesley so believed in his Class Meetings that he chose not “to strike one stroke unless he could follow the blow.”  He thought that preaching without providing the opportunity to gather into small groups was “begetting them for the murderer.”  And he would later see evidence of that.  He feared if we left our core practices that “we would become a dead sect having the form of  religion with none of the power.”  We are better in rows.

Tom Albin, Dean of the Upper Room, was featured at School of Lay Ministry.  There he talked about transformation which he insisted required three things, understanding, experience, and community.  He said the best transforming institution is not the church but Alcoholics Anonymous.  The 12 step program is great but not sufficient.  Participants also need the experience of a sponsor who has walked the path.  But without the meetings, without the community to love them even when they falter, they would fail.  We are better in rows.