>-----Original Message-----
>From: ic24403 [mailto:ic2@...]
>Sent: Sunday, 11 April 2004 3:11 AM
>To: soundofgrace@...
>Subject: Re: [soundofgrace] Small Groups..... Community
>
>
>Brethren,
>
>   After 14 years pastoring in the old Sunday morning, Wed prayer/study
>combo tradition, I must say Care Groups, or cell groups have given the
>saints in my corner of the kingdom a refreshingly new approach to
>edifying one another. Getting to know one another through Care Groups
>has proven positive for all concerned. In our experience this does not
>happen at the expense of any one gift. Of course Care Groups or Cell
>Groups may mean different things to different folks. To me it means
>simply modeling, though imperfectly, the early church experience. They
>gathered in homes as well as the Temple. More than likely both places
>were frequented throughout the week.
>
>I hope I never have to return to the stale one man says everything
>ministry where everything starts and ends the same way meeting after
>meeting. I just don't see any biblical support for a preacher only
>ministry yet that's what most Christians in our culture are familiar
>with. It's nothing more than a spectator sport. Sadly there's only one
>player on the field.
>


Was there ever a time when ministers in our type of churches said, 'Hey
guys I am going to do every thing - all the teaching, all the preaching,
all the visitation. I am going to start every thing the same and end
every thing the same in his church!'

I suspect that there was always work for laymen to do and I suspect that
there would have been few ministers who would have wanted to discourage
such work.

I worry when someone says they have discovered something new that we did
not know about before or ignored. C.S.Lewis says that one mistake that
humans always make is that they always put down their immediate
predecessors.

I worry also that people begin to put their faith in techniques of
'ministry' rather than in the ministry of the word, though I fairly sure
that no one here would be guilty of that.

Did Spurgeon encourage small groups like we discussing here? I would not
have a clue but I know that he was a successful preacher and minister.

Yes I have been in small groups and yes I believe they can be effective.
In a society where there is so much break down and disintegration they
may well be the way to go and a place where gifted teachers of the word
can make a real difference. 

But let us remember that it is the ministry of the word that provides us
with the dynamic and not the technique.

God bless,
Jeff