City Evangelism & Small Groups

I am in my tenth year of pastorate here in London, and one project that is very important, yet has not been fully developed is the Small Groups.

Number of small groups had sprung up, some have closed after few months.  This week Thursday we ended one youth small group as the schedules of participants demanded a different approach.  Those who are involved in weekly regular small groups of spiritual growth know by experience how beneficial and efficient such meetings are for personal spiritual growth.  We were created to be a part of community that is more involved, intimate, engaged than the church worship gathering on Sabbath.  If you are a part of regular house Bible Study, youth Book Club, Sabbath School class, a Choir group, weekly prayer meeting – you are in a small group!

Ideally Small group experience should be at least 90 minutes, and involve more than pursuing a task (learning to sing, practicing new songs, studying a book, serving community, feeding homeless, praying).  It has to include sharing time – sharing a meal together, sharing personal joys and blessings, sharing prayer requests, sharing life experiences.  Groups are not permanent, they go through cycles, take breaks, multiply by spinning off new groups, change directions and curriculums, and respond to life situations.  Groups is the method which Jesus left us as a legacy for the Gospel message to work.

This past week as leaders of Adventist church met for bi-annual meeting, the emphasis on reaching the cities was at the forefront, and the experience of successful city evangelism all highlight the work of small groups.   Lusaka, Zambia is the bright spot in large cities evangelism as it has the best population-to-member ratio of any large city worldwide—one Adventist per 19 people.  In a city of about 1.7 million people there are about 90,000 Adventists!  The success is linked with the work of small groups in the city.  The similar dynamics are working in the South American Region, where church endeavors to plant a new congregation in every neighbourhood of each large city.  From 7,000 neighbourhoods identified without church presence, 2,000 had been planted since 2010!

As I read these statistics, I am thinking of our city.  We are currently 15^th largest in Canada, or 6^th largest in Ontario.  With our population of about 370,000 and 42 neighbourhoods, we got work to do J.  Coming together in neighbourhoods with other Adventists to pray would be the first step toward small groups’ grass roots development.  Currently we have only 3 fully functional groups in 3 neighbourhoods.  Please consider what it would take for you to open your home and host a few fellow members who live nearby for prayer.