CG Leaders Training

Faith Presbyterian Church, 8/07

Creating a Culture of the Gospel in Your Community Group

Why community groups?
What purpose do they serve in the life of a church?

The goal of community groups: discipleship or evangelism or both?

The claim is sometimes made that small groups can either be used for evangelism or
for discipleship, but that they cannot do both at the same time…It is true that if you
aim at edification you will probably lose the attention of the non-believers in your
midst. It is also true that if you aim at evangelism, you will eventually bore the
believers in your midst. But those are not our only options. If we aim at experiencing
Christ in our midst, we will find that we are both building up believers and
challenging non-believers.1

Our desire is for community groups to be grace-based communities characterized

by a transforming connection to Christ, a nurturing connecting to one another,
and a welcoming connection with the outsider.

Transforming connection to Christ

• Experience the risen Christ in His power
• Get the gospel deep down into our hearts

The remarkable thing is that when the spiritual and personal growth of Christians is high
on the agenda of a church, it also begins to be more effective evangelistically.2

Nurturing connection to one another

• We were made by Community for community
• Community is the lab where we live out the gospel

Welcoming connection with the outsider

• God has shown us hospitality by welcoming us into His family
• Small groups are not just for ourselves, but for our friends, neighbors, and co-
workers who do not yet know Christ!

Evangelism is not simply 1 department of ministry, but something that permeates

everything we do
- we expect non-Christians to be present at every event we hold

1
Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Fellowship Group Handbook.
2
Graham Tomlin, The Provocative Church.
Most unbelievers become Christians through a process (a serious of mini-decisions
rather than one “big” decision made on the spot).

• Conversion to community often precedes conversion to Christ

• Creation of space & freedom to be in process, to try on the gospel, to observe
• Not seeker sensitive, but seeker comprehensible

Not just one way of doing small group, or even just a better way. It is the biblical way.
• Acts 2:42-47
• 1 Corinthians 14:24-26

How do we create this kind of environment in our community groups?

What does this mean for me as a community group leader/ministry leader?

Yet I am increasingly convinced that when it comes to evangelism, the real issue in
our churches is not so much motivation as leadership.3

Gospel Centrality is the key

The third way of the gospel
The gospel is neither:
- religion
- irreligion

Not just the “A-B-C” but the “A-Z” of the Christian life
- not just the way to enter the Kingdom
- but the way to grow at every step

The gospel is not so much about behavioral modification as it is about identity

transformation. It is the only way to experience real change. Therefore, we must
work to create a culture of the gospel where it is central to everything we do.

3
Ibid