Saturday, May 30, 2009

Home TEAMs

About a year ago, I started working with the small group ministry at our church. We call them Home TEAMs, you may call them small groups, cell groups, Sunday school... As it continues to grow, I am amazed at how each group has its own dynamic. While all are accomplishing the two primary goals of Home TEAMs which are to help people build relationships with God and with each other, I find that each group interacts in different ways. It is, on a microcosm level, a great example of how churches are all different, but should be all working together toward the same goal of reaching people for Jesus Christ and then discipling them to help them grow in their walk with the Lord. Some of our Home TEAMs seem to grow by leaps and bounds, so I am constantly working to find new leaders and hosts so that we can divide the group up into smaller Home TEAMs. Other groups seem to go for months and months without gaining or losing members. That second group isn't a failure! Those people are growing in the Lord, they are serving God in many ways both inside and outside the church! Just the Home TEAM itself doesn't see its primary mission as evangelistic. The people in the group are, but they invite new believers or non believers to our church, not to their Home TEAM. Other Home TEAMs invite people off the street who aren't a part of our church at all. Each is serving as a different part of the body of Christ, just as each church and each member is serving doing their part of the work of the Body. Keep doing what God has called YOU to do!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Burl, great insights on the body of Christ in general... as the small group ministry leader... do you visit the various groups? Or do you meet with the individual leaders on some regular basis instead... just curious about how the administration of such a thing is accomplished.

Burl Walker said...

The Place, I visit some of them, others I meet with the leaders. We also have leadership meetings...which reminds me, I need to plan the summer meeting! Those are really great times when all the leaders get together and share triumphs and failures and I can attempt to inspire them with the vision of what our Home TEAMs are heading towards.