NCD tells us that Small Groups - healthy ones - are the most crucial factor in the quality of churches. But how to keep them these effective?
I've been wondering whether the name "group" doesn't convey a hidden, counter-productive message that undercuts "holistic". Reading Roland Allen recently ("The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church and the Reasons that Hinder it") has crystallised this issue for me.
Are our small groups a "church" experience? Many of us are wary of calling them "house churches" because that has been a separatist idea, but what happens in these groups? In our church, they tend to suffer from koinitis or intellectualism or whatever, but still fail to be a real experience of "Church". The DNA of a church is not necessarily there - witness the absence of praise and adoration , as well as lack of mission.
Let me suggest an alternative name, which I will try out here at Coorparoo - a new kind of SGroup, Minichurch - a smallscale church. Names matter! My formative experiences as a young adult Christian were in such a kind of minichurch - we copied in our homes and meetings the kind of church we saw on Sunday (only more interactive). We need to get this again; it has the power to grow ALL BY ITSELF.