The Relational Mission

(This is the first of a series of posts on Leading Missional Small Groups) There are so many plans and programs for leading groups today in the church, that the opinions of what works and what doesn't is confusing to sort out. One of the central group questions is about the ministry of the group beyond the confines of the weekly meeting. The range of opinion about this ranges from have closed groups that only focus on building community to open groups that try to personal evangelism and multiply groups through growth to groups that are 20-50 in size so that they can work together to target a specific need, neighborhood or people group and ministry with the specific group of people. Opinions, opinions, opinions. And writers seem to proclaim them with such authority as if there way comes directly from the pages of Scripture, as if the 11th commandment is Thou shalt do mission through groups this way. But there is something more fundamental than finding the right group strategy ...

I am teaching a 13-week class on Spiritual Practices. I think I am doing it for myself as much as anyone else. But I'm also doing it for the normal people in our church who are not mystics or don't care to learn about spiritual disciplines by reading a book that uses Latin and is over 200 pages long. I don't understand why something so simple as developing consistent rhythms of connecting to God has to be so difficult. Tonight's session is about how our personality type affects the disciplines that we practice. I grew up thinking that there was a one-size-fits all approach to how I practiced my relationship with God. It was called a Quiet Time and it was supposed to happen when you first get up in the morning. After all, this is what the spiritual giants of history have done. In college I heard about the radical prayer life of Luther and then I later learned about how Pastor Cho in Korea prays three hours per day. In the late 1990s a popular book came out encouraging pe...